Final Fantasy VII - Barret/Tifa

[lirillith]

Title: Blue Skies Ahead
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Characters: Tifa/Barret
Word count: ~600
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Summary: After leaving Midgar, Barret and Tifa appreciate the little things about nature more than ever.
Notes: Rarepair Fest treat for Wallwalker

****

"Jeez," Barret mumbled. "Will you look at that."

A few steps ahead of him, Tifa turned back to see what he meant. He was looking up, shading his eyes with his gun-arm, so she looked up, too.

The sky. He meant the sky. Bright, bright blue... and just bright, hurting her eyes a bit, making her squint. No matter how much you lit up a room in the slums, it still wasn't sunlight, and you usually couldn't light them up that brightly to begin with. She turned her back on the sun, looking more at the color of the sky. Almost purple, away from the sun. No clouds anywhere.

It wasn't like they were barred from going up on the plate. It was just that, if you were the wrong kind of person, there was nowhere you could go once you were up there. You could see the sky, if it wasn't too smoggy, but no grass to speak of, and certainly no trees or flowers.

Nothing like this. Not even close. There was a carpet of grass all around them, as far as the eye could see. Scattered trees. And the sky, so clear it was hard to believe it was on the same planet as Midgar.

Barret lowered his arm and sighed, and Tifa moved to take his good arm, wrapping both of hers around it in a hug. "Marlene's gonna see all of this someday," she said. "We'll make sure of it."

"I know," he said, smiling down at her. "So let go of my arm, okay?"

She pouted at him a little, but complied, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders instead. "See, ain't this better?"

Tifa snuggled into his side.  "Well, I like it, but you don't get your elbow shoved in my cleavage anymore."

"That's a good point..."

She smiled, and looked out over the grass. "I never used to think of dandelions as that big a deal, you know? I mean, I liked blowing dandelion puffs when I was a kid—"

"Dandelion puffs?"

"The seeds. You know how they are."

"Just never heard them called that." He let go of her to bend over and pick a few of the bright yellow flowers. "I know what you mean, though. Just a weed, but that's a real pretty yellow, and you never got those in the city."

"It just brightens up the grass, you know?" They were strolling along, now, without any thought to keeping up with the other half of their group, now long out of sight. "I saw some clover earlier... there's some more." She dropped to her knees. "Want to help me look for a four-leafed clover?"

"I thought you were wantin' to keep up with Spike and them."

She shrugged. "I changed my mind?"

He grinned, and lowered himself to the ground, grumbling a little.  He was in good shape, but he complained about his knees and back like he was an arthritic grandfather.  Maybe it was just that his bulk put a lot of weight on his joints.  "Not sure you want my help."

"Cause you're an old man with bad joints?"

"Cause finding four-leaf clovers is supposed to call for good luck, right? I mostly have the other kind." He extracted the barrel of his gun-arm from the soft dirt, and brushed some mud off the barrel. "And I'm an old man with bad joints."

"I'll help you clean it," she said. "Your luck's not all bad, right? You met me. And it's a beautiful day."

He smiled at her. "You got a point there."