Clerith

Clerith is the het ship between Cloud Strife and Aerith Gainsborough from the Final Fantasy fandom.

Final Fantasy VII
Cloud first met Aerith shortly after he arrives in Shinra, where he had bout some flowers from her. Their paths later crossed with each other again when Cloud falls into the Sector 5 Church and wakes up to find Aerith standing over him, after she wakes him up. After they both told each other's names Aerith asks Cloud to be Her Bodyguard, Cloud agrees for a date as a reward, to which both happily agree to, as they have it at the Golden saucer (one of the options in the game). Aerith opens up to Cloud a lot before she asks him if he enjoys her company, Cloud tells her yes and Aerith is very happy of the answer and says that she hopes that they can do it again. Cloud also has a dream of his Mother, where she tells Cloud to find a older woman that would take care of him (referring to Aerith as she is one year older than him), Cloud says he’s not interested in a relationship at the moment and the dream ends.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
As a spiritual avatar of the Lifestream, Aerith's possible presence in the Sector 5 Church could have been what healed both Cloud and Tifa as they lay in its flowers. Aerith later visits Cloud as he rides to the Forgotten City to rescue the children. He tells her of his refusal to move on from her death, along with his failed attempt to rescue the children, as well as her own life as he wants to be forgiven, it had gotten Aerith to ask him, "By who?", but when Cloud turns to see her, the vision ends. Aerith did, however, leave a reassuring message to which says that she never blamed him for her death on Cloud's phone, as it descends into a pool of water. During the battle against Bahamut SIN, Cloud is consumed in its attack, and amid the fireball where he has another vision of Aerith, who takes his outstretched hand and transfers enough energy to him to cut through Bahamut's attack and destroy it.

After Cloud defeated Kadaj and had ended up in a white void where he hears Aerith's voice, but mistakes it for his mother's voice, to which she and Zack joke about it before sending Cloud's spirit back to the living world, as it wasn't his time yet. As Cloud uses the church's floated water to cure the reused children of Geostigma, he sees Aerith's spirit, along with Zack's, she spoke with one of the children next to the entrance before walking to the light-filled doorway where Zack waits, but not before she turns to give Cloud a warm smile before she leaves. Aerith's spirit continues to watch over Cloud, as she stands in among the fields of flowers while he got on his motorcycle as he rides through the countryside.

Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
 * Aerith's spirit touch Cloud's forehead, before he takes her hand in the white void.

Kingdom Hearts (series)
Kingdom Hearts
 * Aerith greats Cloud, when he joins her and the others in Hollow Bastion's library.

Fanon
Cloud/Aerith has been extremely popular since 1997. It is a popular Final Fantasy VII ship and one of the most popular ships in the entire series. It is considered a "rival ship" to Cloud/Tifa. Both ships have had evidence and materials to support them, although the fandom ship wars are ongoing.

On AO3, the ship has over 252 fanfics.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Cloud/Aerith tag on FanFiction.net
 * Cloud/Aerith tag on FanFiction.net

DEVIANTART

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WIKIS

Trivia

 * A few Clerith-like moments were seen in the Kingdom Hearts series.

Variations

 * Clerifa refers to the ship between Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart and Aerith Gainsborough