Beach Bum [Cloud Strife One-shot]

The [color] haired girl was unaware of piercing blue eyes watching her as she ran back and forth through the warm sand, playing beach volleyball with Sora and the rest of their friends. It was a miracle, he mused, that they had been able to convince him to come here in the first place. Cloud wasn’t a ‘go out and do things with your friends’ type of guy. He preferred to stay to himself and not be bothered with any of it. The same could almost be said of Squall, who was sitting there next to him.

Cloud’s gaze was intense as he watched [Name] playing the sport. They’d gotten to this beach via Atlantica, getting King Triton’s permission to be here. Cloud hadn’t been expecting to pop up on a beach; they’d just asked him to come to Atlantica with them for some fun.

Sighing, he laid back and rested his muscular arms under his head, sand getting in his blonde hair and sun getting in his blue eyes. Scowling, she squeezed his eyes shut and tried to imagine that he was somewhere else; somewhere less sunny and cheerful, perhaps. As the time continued to slowly drag on, Cloud was unaware that the game of volleyball that everyone else had been playing had already ended and now [Name] was walking in his direction with a smile on her face.

A shadow fell over the blonde, causing a shift in the light behind his eyelids, and so he pried them open to see who it was standing over him. When he saw [Name], he felt a jolt run through his body as he sat up. “What are you doing [Name]?” he asked, feigning annoyance as if she’d ruined his nap.

“You beach bum! Get up and do something with us! We’re all going swimming,” she stated, reaching down and grabbing Cloud’s hand in hers, pulling at his body even though he was easily more than twice her size.

“Why would I want to go swimming?” Cloud mumbled, not moving with or against [Name]’s incessant pulling.

“You want to go swimming because I asked you too! Pretty please Cloud!” [Name] begged with a pleading look on her face and in her [color] eyes. Cloud looked at her before sighing, reaching up and running a hand through his spiky hair.

“Alright, fine. I’ll go swimming with you but only for a little while,” he relented, finally standing up next to her. [Name] cheered and kept her grip on Cloud’s hand, pulling him towards the ocean. Cloud had to admit that the water was considerably cooler than the heat from the sun and it instantly soothed the slight burn that had found its way to the blonde’s skin. He would never let anyone else know that he was actually having a bit of fun though; then they would just expect more and more from him and they were lucky that they were getting this.

Cloud ended up staying in the water longer than he had originally intended and [Name] had since found her way out of it, going to lie down on the beach with Yuffie, apparently to ‘sunbathe and relax.’ Cloud looked over in their direction every so often and at one point, he noticed that [Name] had appeared to have dozed off while she was sunbathing.

Raising an eyebrow, Cloud waded through the water before padding across the sand, the tiny granules sticking to his wet feet and getting in between his toes. It was an irritating feeling; he hated the feeling of sand. It was gritty and dry; he liked things to be soft, smooth. Simple.

When he got to [Name], he stood next to her and looked down at her sleeping form.

“She’s been asleep ever since we came over her to sunbathe,” Yuffie said, looking up at the tall male. Cloud spared the short hair girl a glance before looking at the reddening skin on [Name]’s body. “Why have you not woke her up yet? She’s going to get burned,” he stated.

Yuffie shrugged, sitting up and looking over at her sleeping friend. “I just didn’t want to wake her, is all. She looks peaceful when she’s sleeping,” she stated, turning expectant eyes towards Cloud.

“She does,” he said simply, continuing to gaze down at the girl before lifting one of his feet, moving it towards her ear with a slight smile gracing his lips. [Name] shifted in her sleep, reaching up to swat his foot away and Cloud actually chuckled a bit.

“Hey, get up you beach bum,” he stated, this time moving his foot between her shoulder blades and rubbing wet sand there. [Name] pried open her eyes and when she saw that Cloud had his foot on her, she glared at him.

“Cloud Strife I’m going to kill you!” she stated. The blonde male simply turned and headed back towards the water, leaving [Name] to try and wipe the sand off of her back.

“You’re the worst boyfriend ever!” she yelled after him. Cloud turned and looked over his shoulder at her, giving her a playful wink before slipping back into the ocean.

Maybe Cloud was having more fun than he realized; he would definitely come with [Name] to the beach again if she ever asked him to, even if it was only to annoy her with wet sand. He’d even put up with her calling him a beach bum over and over again so long as she was having fun.