Dream of the Phoenix

Costa Del Sol

Title: Dream of the Phoenix
Rating: K+
Series: Final Fantasy VII
Pairing: Cloud/Aerith
Summary: Follows the romance between Aeris (Aerith in America) and Cloud as it progresses to the end of the adventure. As I've not beaten the game yet (had my memory card with a save on disk 3 stolen along with the game), this will be my version of the ending, how I feel it should end.

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy VII, and all characters contained therein are the property of Square-EnixUSA, and they reserve all rights entitled to them by law.

.o.0.o.

Chapter 1: Costa Del Sol

He awoke with a start, sweat on his forehead, unshed tears in his glowing green eyes. The remains of the nightmare still clinging to him like last breath. He looked around the room, the moonlight flooding in the window told him it must be midnight.

Looking towards the bed next to his, he saw her, a pool of moonlight on her face giving her an ethereal beauty, her long honey-brown hair glowing silver in the gentle rays of light. She had a smile on her face, whatever she was dreaming must have been pleasant, unlike his own tortured dreams.

He looked at the other occupants of the room, Barrett, Tifa, Red XIII, all still asleep in their own beds. He noticed that Tifa was snoring, he gave a small smile, she always woke herself up and tried to blame it on someone else. How can you snore so loud that you wake yourself up? He asked himself as he moved through the room.

Moving silently so as not to wake anyone, he moved to her bedside and knelt there, just watching her sleep. He slowly moved his hand to her face, gently stroking it as he brushed some hair behind her ear. He leaned forward and whispered in her ear, "Aerith, I love you." He then placed a light kiss on her forehead; leaving the room he was unaware of a pair of eyes following his progress.

He left the Villa and moved towards the beach. The beach in front of Costa Del Sol was a protected beach, so there were no monsters to be found, yet he still wore his sword, just in case.

He sighed as he walked the beach in front of his Villa, recently acquired for some hundreds of thousands of gil, but it was worth it for the view of the sea. He moved along the shore towards a rocky outcropping. Some would call this protrusion a jetty, but he called it a sanctuary, a place to meditate and focus his thoughts. He sat on the edge, near the water, the gentle waves lapping at the rocks beneath his feet.

He sat in silence, his thoughts moving a mile a minute; every one of them was of her. Every night since their journey had begun he'd have the same dream. Every night, when every one else was asleep, he got out of bed and knelt beside Aerith, kiss her forehead, brush stray hair from her perfect face, whisper 'I love you' in her ear, then he'd leave the room and walk for an hour. Normally he just wandered around the inn or the village, but in Costa Del Sol, he went to the beach and let his mind drift on the waves, soothed by their hypnotic sounds. As far as his companions knew, he slept the entire night, not one had any idea about his midnight walks and confessions, until tonight. Tonight everything would change.

He had been sitting, watching the dark ocean, listening to the waves that still crashed along portions of the shore, when he became aware of a presence behind him. He wasn't surprised by who it was.

"You should be asleep, you need your rest, the fight with Jenova took a lot out of you," he said as the person silently sat beside him.

"So do you, you fought pretty hard yourself," they replied with a smile, Cloud smiled back.

"One of the things about having been in SOLDIER is that I can go for days on small amounts of sleep, you have to when you're in battle," Cloud said while watching the moon reflect on the water.