I need to say I love BOTH CloudxAeris and CloudxTifa so Tifa fans don't take the Tifa comments seriously, I'm sticking with the game and even though I love them together in AC, Tifa WAS a bitch to Cloud. I'm a CloTi admitting that so don't flame!

I'll Never Cry

For a long time, probably a good few years, I have never cried about anything, not even when I was little and believe me, I have had good reasons to cry.

For example, I had good reason to cry when Tifa snubbed me and looked at me like I was dirt stuck to her high-heeled boots. I had a bad crush on her, the kind when you can't stop thinking about them no matter how much they ridicule you. What made it worse was the fact that every other boy in Nibelheim had a crush on her too. I didn't stand a chance. After all, they were all her friends, rich like her and as handsome as she was beautiful. I was just the runt of the year, with no special features and from a family with no father and earning little money per week. My mum and I were outcasts but still, I never cried about being rejected, no matter how hard it was to watch Tifa flirt with all her admirers and just ignore me. I never cried.

I decided that I had to prove that I was worthy of her love so I signed up for Soldier and asked her to meet me at the well, even though I knew that it was unlikely she would even read my letter let alone turn up.

She surprised me when she came, though but I knew that she only acted interested because I was the last boy to leave. She asked me to make a promise to her, saying that whenever she was in trouble I had to come and rescue her. I wanted nothing more than to ask why I should since she had not done anything for me but I could not be bothered arguing. Instead, I just agreed and that was the last time I saw her for almost two years.

I didn't cry when I failed my Soldier entrance exam and I didn't cry when I saw Sephiroth burn Nibelheim to the ground. I did feel like crying when I saw my mum's body, trapped beneath a pillar but that was close as I got to crying since I was about…six, maybe.

I didn't cry when Hojo forced needles into my body after kidnapping Zack and I following the confrontation with Sephiroth in Nibelheim. I didn't cry when the Mako stung my wounds when I was suspended in that damn test tube.

I almost cried with relief when Zack broke free and helped me out too. I didn't cry, but I was close. I couldn't walk; talk or do anything but Zack was there to help me. Zack was the first person except my mum to ever accept me for who I was. He was first friend and my best friend.

He was shot outside Midgar, the place where we were going to start up a business together and find girlfriends. I did not cry when I looked at his cold eyes staring up at me. I really thought at that moment, I would never cry again. I had become a shell of a person, cold and uncaring towards everyone.

But then, I met her and she smiled warmly at me as I lay on her flowers in her Church. She healed me and it was the beginning of the best few months of my life. I really thought that my life was beginning to turn around.

Then it all changed so suddenly and I was holding her in my arms, feeling her blood soak through my shirt her lips loosely closed and her beautiful eyes hidden behind heavy lids. Sephiroth was behind us, revelling in my misery. It was there, in front of my enemy, that I did what I had to do.

I cried.

But the tears were not just meant for her, they were meant for every time that I had suffered in my life but I was crying here and now because she had freed my heart, taught me to feel again.

I vowed to avenge her as I watched her fragile body drift to the bottom of the crystal lake that surrounded the City, the image forever imprinted in my tearful mind.