Of Clouds and Flowers
One thing none of the members of Avalanche would forget was the day of darkness that had shattered their leader like a glass brakes when hit with a bomb; it disintegrates.
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Cloud Strife sat on the ground, his face stony and distant as he looked out over the pure waters of the Life Stream. He was in such a state of shock that his mind went completely numb. Though people tried to talk to him, tried to pull him out of his depression, Cloud fell deeper and deeper into a void that no one could fix. This void was the thing that plagued him daily, leaving him feeling like a lifeless husk, a broken vase that once held a beautiful flower in it, but now without the vase, the flower had withered and dried.
He would most likely never forgive himself for the desiccation of said flower, for he thought that he could have saved the flower from its premature death. But now, the world has reclaimed the flower, absorbing the carbon and releasing all the nutrients into the soil around it. But Cloud did not see it that way. He only saw the broken ceramic pieces, that he never bothered to pick up, and the wilted husk of what the ceramic had at one time held. He didn't see the field of flowers that had sprung up from the loss of the original flower.
There was one flower that was different than the others; one that was stunning in its magnificence, but that had a slowly shriveling stem. It needed water, but there was no cloud to send its rain to the earth below, and so the flower continued to die, unnoticed by Cloud, untouched by the rain. It was a black rose, a majestic flower, its scent a delight to the nose. But the black rose had a secret; its thorns that pushed away all who tried to pick it. The flower wanted only one person to pick it, but that person never even saw the rose, let alone for what it was... a symbol of love. So the rose continued to die, its feelings selfless, yet entirely selfish. All it wanted was the sun's light, and the cloud's rain, and it would grow, and live happily. But all it had was the merciless sun; its rays like fire now, burning inside the flower's green-brown leaves. It was what one would call love, but this love was not good... It was unreciprocated love, the rose giving and giving until it could not give any longer, and it got no rain in return. So the rose almost gave up, but at the last moment it was saved.
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Tonight, four years after Cloud's vase broke, the woman he loved dead; leaving a broken scar, a void that could never be filled, would be different; he would see the black rose for what it was, a symbol of love.
Tonight, Cloud would once again see the light, but not in the Cetra that lay at the bottom of the Life Stream, his broken flower, but Tifa, the black rose.
That night, the rose would get the rain it wanted, the cloud would open and send its water for the rose. It would let the rose absorb its water and the rose would die no longer. It would lose its thorns and be plucked from the sodden earth and planted in its own vase. Tifa would get what she needed from Cloud... His love.
This is about the awakening of the cloud, and how it saw for once, the rose that was in desperate need of its water. Cloud would finally know what love really is.
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The sky was clad in a dark cloak of clouds that rumbled with ferocious booms, and slashed the sky with blades of lightning. The heavens cried pouring their tears in torrents of water down upon a solitary figure that was riding a motorcycle.
The figure was soaked to the bone, his skin slick with the deluge of water from the sky. The cold wind blew, raising goose bumps on his pale flesh, in a useless attempt to keep itself warm. His goggles where so splattered with mud and rain that he could hardly see through them, so he took the edge of his jacket and wiped them off. But in about two minutes, the goggles looked as if no one had cleaned them.
Cloud grimaced at the fact that they dirtied so quickly, as he squinted though them in an attempt to actually see through them. He revved Fenrir's motor, and sped through the rain, his mind set on getting back to the bar so that he could rest.
"This is miserable weather to be riding in." He thought, as he pulled back a blonde strand of hair from his goggles, in hopes to make his vision better, but it barely helped.
After another fifteen minutes of so, he finally reached his destination. He climbed off the bike, and pulled his goggles from his eyes, instantly clearing his sight.
He walked up to the door, and gave a loud knock, waiting for it to be answered.
As he stood there, he could hear Denzel's shouts of excitement, and Marline's cries of joy.
"HE'S HOME TIFA! CLOUD'S BACK!" Denzel ran to the door and flung it open to see a very dirty Cloud standing there.
Marline came running in from the other room, and jumped into Cloud's arms.
"You're back! You're really back!" she said, but in her mind, she knew he'd be leaving again soon.
"Why can't he stay? Tifa needs him... She cries in her sleep, and he doesn't even know." She thought sadly, but kept the smile on her face to hide her distressing thoughts.
Then Cloud stepped into the building, and saw Tifa standing in the room, her eyes puffy from tears.
He walked up to her and put an ungloved hand on her shoulder.
"What's wrong Tif? You look like you've been crying." He said with concern in his voice.
Tifa stiffened at his touch because he hands where like ice, and looked up at him.
"Nothing... I'm just... Tired." She replied, her shoulders slumping against his hand.
He looked down at her for a moment longer, and then let go of her.
She looked him up and down, and saw that he was drenched.
"You should go take a shower. You're clothes are sopping wet... And you're hands are cold." She said in a monotone, not looking him in the eyes.
Cloud gave a nod, and headed to the bathroom, and shut the door.
As he was undressing, a knock sounded at the door.
"Yeah?" He said.
"When you've taken off your clothes, hand them out to me, and I'll wash and dry them... Your other clothes are at the church, so no one can go and get them." Tifa answered.
He said nothing and finished undressing, and then he collected his clothes and passed them though the door to her.
"Thanks." He said dryly, as he watched her leave to the laundry room.
He got into the shower and let the hot water soak over him, grateful for its heat.
After ten minutes or so, Cloud came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped tightly around his slim frame.
"Hey Tifa? Are my clothes done?" He asked her, through the open door of her room.
"No... It'll be another twenty or so... You could borrow one of my tops, and wear the towel like a skirt." She laughed, but the laugh wasn't her usual merry laugh, but one that carried undertones of sorrow.
He felt an odd knot in his stomach, one that had a weight of guilt to it. He didn't understand why, but it was there.
He came into her room, and sat down next to her.
"Are you okay Tif? Is something bothering you?" He asked, putting a hand on her knee in a gesture of comfort.
She looked at him, and caught the smell his lithe, wet body, and smelled the scent of his freshly washed hair. These smells made her want to cry, because she hadn't smelled them for a while, and when Cloud was away, she would use his pillow, and breath in his scents to help her drift to sleep.
Tears started to leak slowly from the corners of her eyes, and dribbled purposefully down her cheeks.
Cloud felt a pang of sadness wash over him; it was so profound, so huge, that he could not have missed it.
"Tifa... Talk to me... I'm here." He said, taking the hand that was on her knee, and gently draping it over her shoulders and pulling her close to him, something Cloud would not have done before.
Tifa looked a little startled at the care that Cloud had just emanated, but she let it go, and buried her face into his chest, crying like a little girl.
Cloud watched as she broke down entirely, sobbing into his chest, and shaking like a leaf in the autumn's wind.
He felt another twinge, and he wrapped his other arm around her in a soft hug, rubbing her back in small even circles.
"I... I... I need you... Cloud!" She said between great sobs of misery, her tears flowing down into his stomach in little rivers of despair.
He froze for a moment, her words catching him off guard. He recovered quickly, and replied, "I'm here... What's causing you this grief?"
Tifa cried for a few moments, and then answered.
"You are... I'm... sad that you... keep leaving me."
Cloud froze longer this time, Tifa's words hitting him like bullets.
"I... am?" He asked her quietly.
Tifa sniffled, and nodded into his chest, her sobs ebbing slightly, as she pulled out of the hug to look him in the face.
"I... don't know what to... say." He continued, looking at her and seeing the pain he caused her written so plainly in her eyes.
"You left me here... all alone... with no response. I've... I've... I've tried so hard to... to get you to notice me. But you never did... Cloud... I've loved you for so long, and I just couldn't watch you fall apart. I was worried. So worried that you might... fall into the darkness... Without light, I thought you would... leave me forever... I wanted to be your light... And I wanted you to be mine as well... But you never saw me, you only saw Aeris. Its nearly killed me Cloud. The way that you loved her, the way you cherished her... And when she had gone, I saw you break... I watched you fall into depression, and you wouldn't forgive yourself. You just got worse and worse, and... I saw it all. Do you know how much it pained me... how much it killed me... to watch you fall like that?" She said quietly, as she looked at him.
Cloud felt like he had just killed a baby deer with his own hands, because it was there. He felt like he should have seen this, seen that she was trying to reach out to him... But he couldn't have. Before it was too soon, to close to when his heart had broken that fitful day. But something was different about tonight.
"Tifa... I'm sorry, I know that 'sorry' is only a bandage to cover an axe wound, but I mean it. I couldn't see because I was blind. Blinded by my loss, and the darkness that I let into me... I was deaf. Deafened by the sounds of the screams in my head, as I watched her die. I can't love, because my heart has been torn out, and eaten while it was still beating... I'm sorry that in all of this, you got hurt as well. I never intended to bring anyone else down." Cloud said his tone full of utmost regret.
Tifa looked at him, her mouth hanging slightly open in shock.
"Cloud? Did you just admit feelings? That's the first time..." She looked away, and thought about it a moment.
"Yes... I just a few moments ago figured this out. So I decided to tell you, because I thought you might understand."
Tifa wiped the tears from her eyes, and looked at him again.
"I have something to say Cloud... I've said it already, but I don't think that you heard it. Cloud... I love you... I want to be the light that guides you. Please Cloud; let me share my light with you." Tifa said, putting a hand on his face.
Cloud saw something odd, a faint glow that was giving the now dark room some light.
"Do you see the light?" Cloud asked, as he tried to find where it was coming from.
Tifa looked down, and saw that she was the source of the light.
"Cloud, I do see the light... I'm the light!" She said quietly, and then Cloud saw that she was the light, and he shook his head.
But when they both looked back, the light had faded, as if it was just a figment of their imaginations.
Cloud then found that he was starting to understand what was happening, and he looked at Tifa.
"You said that you... love me? Are you sure that's what you feel?"
Tifa gave Cloud a soft look and nodded.
"I'm more sure of it than I've ever been."
"What does love feel like?" Cloud asked, for he really did not know, and he wanted to find out.
Tifa chuckled slightly, and then she removed her hand from his face.
"Shall I show you?" She answered with hope.
"Yes..." Cloud said.
Tifa leaned in and kissed him, encircling his neck with her arms.
Cloud was shocked at first, and he pulled back slightly.
"I'm naked, let me get my clothes first." He said, unsure of what the feeling that was rushing around inside of him was.
Tifa frowned slightly, and released him from the hug.
"Is there something wrong with you being naked?" She asked him.
"Well... I guess not." He said, as the feeling inside of him welled up again.
He suddenly looked back at Tifa and sat back down on the bed.
"Show me again." He asked, his mind racing with unfamiliar thoughts.
He leaned in close, and this time he kissed her, and it was her turn to be shocked.
The shock died quickly, because she began to enjoy the kiss, and kissed back.
Cloud became overwhelmed by this new feeling, and soon the two where kissing passionately, despite Cloud's nakedness.
And by the time they had finished, the towel lay on the ground, next to a bunch of clothes that had been flung off in a hurry, and Cloud had forgotten about his entirely.
It ended with the two of them cuddled up on Tifa's bed, asleep from the love they had found.
And so, the cloud realized that the rose was its to water, and the flower returned to its former beauty, for the rain came often and sprinkled its sweet nectar upon it when its soil was dry. And the old vase was glued together, and the rose was placed in it, with loving care by Cloud, who had finally found his light in the beauty of the rose's delicate petals.
The End!