Title: Eleven Fifty
Fandoms: Final Fantasy VII
Rating: A bit NSFW at first
Length: 1667 words
Characters: Aerith Gainsborough, Cloud Strife
Relationship: Aerith/Cloud
Summary: Midnight fascinates Aerith.
Notes: Set somewhere in an AU scenario where Aerith survives past disc 1 - possibly somewhere after the end of Modern Love but not relying on it.


Aeris gasped as she climaxed. Her skin was slick with sweat, her hands braced against Cloud's chest. His hands were on her thighs; they stroked up across her body to caress her breasts as she shivered. She rocked against him as he gently squeezed, felt him move against her, inside her. So good. Cloud had climaxed a moment after her and he too was trying to catch his breath. The effort of keeping his hands on her seemed too much; he let them flop down onto the mattress. Aeris opened her eyes and looked down at him. She always liked how he looked in this moment afterwards. Content, open, honest. A different Cloud to the day-time version, more intimate than the SOLDIER. She kissed him and he responded in kind, his arms coming up to encircle her, each touch of lips interrupted by the need to gasp another breath. For a moment Aeris wondered if she could stay like this, keep kissing until he was hard again, make love once more. But the moment was over; she needed to move. Her knees felt stiff, her posture a little awkward. With the vestige of a wince, Aeris slipped off of Cloud, flopping onto her back beside him, trying to slow her breathing further. Cloud's hand fumbled for her own and laced their fingers together. She glanced at him, smiled, and rolled onto her side, Cloud moving to spoon her after a moment. Aeris wriggled back against him as he shoved the blankets further away.

Mideel was still warm long into the night; the cooling breeze from the fan wonderful against her skin. Her attention drifted in the pleasing fuzzy afterglow, Cloud kissing her neck, his arms around her. The only illumination in the room was from the lamp beside the bed; it cast looming shadows on the wooden walls. Deep pools of dark hung between each rafter and the floor was invisible under the shadows. Through the open window, the chirps and calls from the nearby jungle were just about audible. A movement caught her eye; the digital clock had ticked over another minute.

"Eleven fifty," Aeris murmured, reading the illuminated display.

"Hmmm?" Cloud asked, raising his head. She stared at the clock, only faintly aware that Cloud glanced at her before following her gaze to the source. "Oh, the time," he said. He kissed her shoulder. "Earlier than I thought," he murmured against her skin. "Not tomorrow yet."

She smiled. "No. Not yet. It never feels like tomorrow until after I sleep. But..." Aeris hesitated; it would be an odd thing to admit, but why not? These moments were when they were both the most honest. "When I was younger... midnight always seemed... mythical somehow."

Cloud shifted behind her. "Mythical?" he asked.

"Yeah," she replied and fell silent. Cloud said nothing, a nervous tension running through his body. He did not understand and was thus worried. She tried to explain. "At first I didn't know what time was. When Shinra..." She bit her lip, forcing herself on. "When they had us locked up I never knew how long it was between things. I mean; I counted it in terms of going to sleep. Blood test, sleep, another blood test, injection. But I didn't know about time. There were no clocks to read and no windows to see out of. First time I saw day or night was when I got to Mom's house. She's the one who taught me how to tell the time. And that midnight was when the day changed."

Cloud's arm flexed against her, squeezing her tighter. "You thought there was more to it?"

Aeris frowned. "I think so. It was a hard line between two things; like the plate was between the slums and the rest of Midgar. Or like the sector divisions. There were others but this one - midnight I mean; that was the important one. And I always thought of it as this part of the day I would never see. The point where the day changed from today into tomorrow. I mean; when I was eight, I was always fast asleep well before midnight. And for years afterwards I never got close to that late. It was just... It was a time I never saw. I knew people liked to stay up at New Year's to see the bigger change; when this year became next year. Mom even let me try and stay up when I was ten. I was asleep hours before."

"I can't remember the first time I stayed up that late," Cloud said, his cheek resting against her shoulder, the sensation a little scratchy. His stubble was just long enough to irritate. She fidgeted her shoulder away from the sandpaper-like feel.

Aeris stared at the clock. "I can," she said. "I thought it would be more special. I'd seen the early morning hours - like the times I had nightmares." Aeris bit her lip. Now did not seem the best time to elaborate on the horrific visions that had her calling for a mother who would never come and instead summoned an adopted mother who was still so new at her role. "Three o'clock, five, o'clock; those kinds of times. They were times I could see if I could wake up in early enough. But I couldn't hope to get to midnight."

"Until?" Cloud prompted.

Aeris sighed. "Until the day Mom didn't come home." She glanced at Cloud who was staring at her with wide eyes. "Oh, in the end it was just a problem with the train system, but Mom didn't have a phone at home or her own PHS so there was no way for her to even let me know. I was twelve and just sat waiting, hour after hour for Mom to come home. And it got later and later. I went past my bedtime. I got ready for bed like normal, certain she would be back like always in time to at least say goodnight. But she didn't. But I couldn't just go to sleep knowing she was out there somewhere. But for some reason I couldn't get it into my head to get dressed again and go look for her. So I waited. And I read."

"When did Elmyra get back?" Cloud asked.

Aeris laughed. "Something like two in the morning! We were both wrecks the next day." She smiled. "Mom was not pleased I stayed up, but she wasn't that mad, not really. But I can't forget watching the clock. Not like this one - it was one with hands and it ticked. So I kept looking at it as it ticked the seconds away. Eventually it ticked past ten o'clock. That was the time I had to be asleep by every day. Then it got to eleven. And I only ever stayed up until eleven o'clock for special occasions. But there I was; still awake and still reading. When it got to half-eleven, I stopped reading and just stared at the clock. I wanted to watch it move for that last half an hour."

"I... think I tried that once," Cloud said.

"Doesn't work does it?" Aeris replied.

"No."

Blink. Eleven fify-six. "So, I got bored of that super-quick. But it was hard to concentrate on the book, knowing Mom was somewhere else. And the end of the day was coming. I... I was worried what would happen if she didn't get back before the day changed. I know it sounds silly, but I thought she needed to be safe at home when midnight came. That something bad might happen if she wasn't there. I was more worried about that than if something had happened to her." Cloud stayed silent. "But I couldn't just watch the clock. So I tried to read to pass the time. And I kept checking that damned clock. I'd look up and see it barely move. Then I'd read some more and ten minutes had passed. I wanted to watch the last few minutes. Just to watch midnight arrive for it to become tomorrow." Aeris fell silent.

"Did... did something happen?" Cloud asked. "At midnight?"

Aeris smiled. "No. Nothing happened. But... Actually I missed it." Cloud muffled a chuckle behind her. "My book got really good! And so, I got distracted and when I looked up again, it was five past twelve. So; after all that I missed actually seeing midnight."

"You saw it later, right?"

Aeris frowned. "You know, I don't think I ever did. The whole incident demystified it. So even when I wound up staying up past midnight without really meaning to - like when I sold flowers on the upper plate - I always missed the actual moment the clock changed. And I know that it's all arbitrary, but I've still never seen it."

Cloud raised his head. "It's eleven fifty-nine now," he observed.

"And this time I'm going to see it," Aeris said. She stared at the display, waiting, imagining the numbers changing, the display flicking over. In her mind's eye she changed the shape of the numbers, changing the two, the three, the five and the nine to zeros. Pre-empting the change. Aeris blinked. It was midnight. Her body tensed, waiting for something to happen. Nothing. The room remained around her. There was no flicker of change as the new day replaced the old day. No momentary oddness of being between times. The day changed and everything around her stayed the same; so mundane.

Cloud squeezed her again. "Happy midnight," he said after a pause.

"Happy midnight," Aeris replied with a laugh, and a new thought struck her. She ground her hips back against him. "Well. Now I've watched the day change, how about we try and have a good start to the day?" she asked.

Cloud made a pleased sound in his throat and Aeris rolled onto her back, pulling him down on top of her. A very good start to the new day.