Drabble #69: Belief
Summary: So many people believed in him but he only cared about one person's opinion
Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Characters and places belong to SquareEnix
He didn't understand how or why so many people believed in him. Tifa always believed that he would come back, even when he wasn't so sure he would. Marlene and Denzel would smile up at him, almost knowingly because they believed he would be there.
He didn't want them to rely on him. It meant they believed he would protect them from harm and he couldn't promise them that. If he couldn't protect the woman he loved, how was he expected to protect anyone else? How could they believe that he could do it?
But he knew why. It was because she believed in him. It was as though her belief and trust was the only one that mattered and, deep down inside, Cloud knew it was true. If he had to choose somebody, just one person he wanted to believe in him, it would have been Aerith. He knew that he didn't deserve her love or her trust but still, she kept believing in him.
She believed he would defeat Sephiroth. She believed he would overcome Geostigma. She believed he would be the hero of the Planet. She believed he could have a family with Tifa, Marlene and Denzel. That was what mattered most to him. It was because of her belief that he carried on. It was because of her faith in him that he was able to see why everyone else could believe in him too. Aerith was his strength, his guidance. It was impossible not to think about her.
She was the one who held him together. She never judged him or expected too much of him. She only believed of him what she knew he could achieve. She didn't want him to overdo himself. She didn't want him to have a breakdown.
She cared so much about him but he never got the chance to tell her how strongly he felt. But she believed in him, that was good enough. For now, anyway.