Disclaimer: Final Fantasy Seven has been produced by Square Enix. I disclaim all intent to profit or other wise benefit from this fan fic.
"I promised…" His words trailed off as he starred at her, dressed in a long white gown, shining in the dipping sunlight.
"To live out both your lives." Tifa finished for him, her garnet colored eyes swelling with tears as they faced on another. There was little Cloud could possibly say to her after revealing depths of the secrets his mind had developed since Nibelheim.
Like wise, the girl in her found it to be completely romantic. In one of those distant, unbelievable ways she could only find in a romance novel's text. Love it seemed played against and for them. Was it really so odd that Tifa now found a way to welcome that third… no, forth player into their life? After all, for her, Aerith had been the third wheel and Cloud had embodied Zack.
Most would find it creepy that they were so willing to share their lives with the dead. Memories were the foundation of their existence. Binding and chaining them to some of the most powerful beings in their world. Gratitude for their sacrifice. Guilt for being unable to save them. Quite possibly they had known another truth.
For Tifa… it had been Zack.
For Cloud… it was Aerith.
Both were dead, leaving them with the one they started with. First love was bitter to taste after true love. Still that first love held a potential promise of something just as great. True, they didn't know each other well enough to really say it was love. They knew that the other was a survivor and for the ones who sacrificed themselves to save them, they found a way to survive with the other.
A part of them continued to live on in Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockheart. Welcome parts that seemed to have an unparalleled level of understanding that could only be described as love.
Heart brother and heart sister, their true loves had given them back to each other and rightfully they could claim the title… Soul Mate.