Chapter Text
The Mako reactor was blown sky high. Smithereens. Ashes to plague their already polluted lungs. A miscalculation on Jessie's part, perhaps; that the explosion had been one of such virulence and power.
Cloud tried not to think about the unintended collateral. It was just a job, after all. And he was a mercenary, a killer for hire. What business did his conscience have being plagued by a little blood spilled? It was on AVALANCHE's hands, not his. He was nothing more than a tool that they had used, an implement of the destruction they had wrought.
Still, his hands shook with unreleased tension as he sat at Tifa's bar, nursing a cheap brandy, occasionally glancing over his shoulder to check for pursuers; but none came.
Marlene, Barret and the others had all retreated to their rooms for the night; somehow able to sleep despite the terror they had wrought upon Midgar. It was for the planet; Barret claimed. But how much life needed to be sacrificed in order for the planet to be satiated? Cloud wondered. Perhaps all of Shinra? A fair comp, maybe.
He had been Shinra, once. He shivered at the thought.
Tifa was drinking with him. Seventh Heaven long since having closed its doors. It was well past two in the morning now, and Wedge's snores could be heard rattling up through the floorboards from below.
Cloud sipped his third glass of brandy; feeling its effects as his brain began to cloud.
"All those people," Tifa said, shakily. Finally moving to turn off the television in the corner. Camera crews were already on the scene of the attack, documenting the destruction and loss of life.
She knocked back a shot of something dark and red. Cloud, pent up on adrenaline and piqued with bloodlust, couldn't help but notice a drop of it slide down her chin, over the fine column of her throat and down into the swell of her breasts, woefully hidden beneath her tank top. Cloud's insides clenched, and he realized he was craving something more than the alcohol. He craved physical release, an outlet for the tension which ran through him like a live wire.
Perhaps Tifa was just a convenient outlet; a bystander caught up in the radius of the Cloud Strife time bomb. But he still remembered what she had said earlier, the reminder of their promise lingered in the forefront of his booze addled brain. A memory of a star painted sky and a water tower long after dark. It was the only thing that held him back from pinning her to the bar and making her his that very moment.
"Do you think you guys did the right thing?" Cloud managed over the rim of his glass, taking another bitter sip. His voice was strained.
Tifa shook her head, walking around the bar and coming to sit beside him. She was close enough for him to feel the heat emanating from her lithe body. He couldn’t help but notice the swell of her chest, the curve of her hips, "I honestly don't know. I didn't realize it would be this bad."
"Hmm," Cloud hummed, lowering his glass to the bar. For a long moment they sat in silence, Tifa worrying her gloved fingers in front of her; Cloud shifting uncomfortably to hide his (entirely inappropriate and unbidden) erection. Both were well and drunk.
But the predator in him was wide awake, fed on collateral damage and hungry for more action. A drop of sweat ran down his temple as she struggled to control himself.
"Cloud."
"Tifa."
They spoke one another's names at the same moment, turning their heads to face each other. Tifa's vermillion gaze was deeply sad and hazey from the liquor. Cloud's were wide, wild and hungry. His expression must have shocked her, because she was stunned into silence.
" Tifa ," he said again, with a tinge of desperation on his tongue. And he leaned forward to kiss her, lightly at first, and then more demanding as his desire mounted.
Initially she did not move beneath his touch. Her hands remained flat on the bar and her eyes remained wide. But when Cloud's tongue shifted to part her full lips she burst into action, falling into him and into his kiss. Kissing him back ferociously; like all of her pain and sadness were culminating in this act of pure physicality.
Cloud pulled her into his lap, grinding her center down onto his clothed erection roughly. Tifa moaned into his mouth, fingers gathering in and pulling at his hair.
Pulling away he mouthed his way over her jaw and down her throat; sucking at the delicate skin there until be left a mark that would be visible for days.
"On the bar," Tifa urged him, clambering backwards and out of his lap. He lifted her up, seating her. And she gave her hips a little wiggle as he reached between their bodies to fish his hard cock out of his trousers.
He couldn't quite recall the last time he had done this; but he didn't want to call her attention to his potential virginity. So he followed his instincts in shoving the crotch of her panties to the side and dragging the thick, pulsing head of himself through her wetness.
"Oh," Tifa exhaled, eyelids fluttering, head falling onto his shoulder at the hot sensation between her thighs, "Oh, Cloud."
They were both a little drunk, a fact that must've eased his passage as he gripped the bar edge and began to press into the tight, wet heat of Tifa's waiting cunt. Rocking in and out a few times, he finally bottomed out. Lips parted, stunned by how sublime the sensation of being enveloped in a pussy was. And it was Tifa Lockhart's pussy, at that. It was enough to drive him half mad with lust.
Nostrils flaring, he didn't allow time for her to adjust before he began to roughly snap his hips, desperate for that hot, wet friction all around length.
Tifa whined high and needy, gripping his shoulders and rolling her hips back into him with as much strength as she could muster. But it was very much Cloud who took the lead, pounding her into the bar with a series of hard wet slaps that echoed off of the walls.
Their drinks jolted across the counter from the force of Cloud's fucking.
He growled low in his chest, gripping Tifa's hips with bruising force as he railed into her with everything he had. It was the fast, animal release that he had so desperately needed after the bombing of the Mako Reactor. All of the tension in his body was narrowed to a fine focus in the snap of his narrow hips and the slide of his cock into the woman under his hands.
"You're so b-big," Tifa praised through clenched teeth. "You're st-stretching me so much."
Cloud's dick twitched at her hushed words, wanting more than anything to make her scream his name. He didn't care who heard, or what they thought, so long as they knew Tifa was his . This was his woman at that moment. His cunt to fuck until he'd had his fill.
“Fuckin’ tight,” he snapped, and he delivered a few harsh thrusts as though he meant to punish her for what she did to him; for the animal he became when he was with her.
“Cloud,” Tifa whispered his name like a prayer between hiccuping gasps. She was tightening up around him like a vice, insides pulsing and drawing seemingly endless pleasure out of him. “Cloud, Cloud, Cloud .”
His balls began to tighten up against his body, dick pulsing in her as he thrust deep, angling his tip against a spot that was making her thighs quiver around his hips.
“‘M gonna come,” he warned, kissing her fiercely. Teeth scraping, tongues lancing. She locked her knees at the small of his back, forcing him to remain inside of her as her whole body tensed, her back arched, and she came with a wordless cry.
The satisfaction of making her shout was enough to send Cloud careening over the edge as well. With a few, hasty penultimate thrusts he seated himself before he came with a low groan, pumping himself lightly into her depths as he filled her up.
Tifa whimpered, wriggling her ass against the counter as Cloud slowly pulled out in a rush of their commingled fluids.
They remained silent for a moment, panting softly against each other’s lips.
Then there came a sharp rap from below, followed by Barret’s irate voice, “Keep it down up there!”
At that Tifa burst into laughter, and Cloud couldn’t help but grin as he tucked his softening cock back into his fly. Tifa adjusted her panties back into place and slipped off of the bar, gathering their half-empty glasses into her hands.
“You’d better get some sleep,” she said, and the air took on an awkward tone, neither of them sober enough to address what had just transpired between them. She turned her back to him, washing the glasses in the sink. Conversation over, it seemed.
“Alright,” Cloud shrugged, and he slunk off to bed feeling more relaxed than he had in days.
“Did you sleep alright last night?” Tifa asked the following morning. There were deep bags under her eyes, but somehow she was still chipper.
“Next to you, who wouldn’t?” Cloud replied, coolly.
Tifa flushed to her ears, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Cloud’s responding smirk was enough to earn a groan from Barret.
“We don’t have time for that, you two.”
And Cloud supposed he was right, for the moment.