Disclaimer: Not mine. All characters and locations belong to Squaresoft-Enix.
Author's note: First of all,a big fat "Thank you!" to all those who reviewed my first fic, "Setting The Record Straight" (shameless plug, I know ;-p) You guys gave me the courage to continue writing. As for this fic, characters may seem OOC, and there are probably lots of plot holes (I'm absolutely hopeless when it comes to details) but I think I covered enough to make this story work. Also, in this fic, the bit in "Reminiscence" where Cloud calls Tifa and asks her to close the bar doesn't happen.
Love To Leave You
Chapter 1: A Heartbreaking Smile
Tifa Lockheart blew at her bangs which were partly obscuring her vision. She had been sitting at her desk for nearly an hour, doing paperwork and accounts for her bar, 7th Heaven. Normally, she would have left it for the weekend, but she wouldn't be around this weekend. Or the next. Or the one after that. Or any other weekend in the near future for that matter.
She looked at the picture sitting on her desk. It was taken in Aerith Gainsborough's church on the day Geostigma was cured. Ninja-girl Yuffie Kisaragi had somehow managed to produce a camera and had covertly taken pictures of everyone. The photo showed Marlene hand-in-hand with Denzel, with Tifa holding the little girl's other hand while Denzel was holding onto a blonde-haired man's hand. What she liked most about the picture was that she and the man were looking at each other over the children's heads, smiles apparent on both faces.
Tracing a finger over the man's face, Tifa was reminded of the conversation she had had with said man, none other than Cloud Strife.
On that fateful day…
As everyone slowly filtered out of the church, Tifa lingered on inside, silently gazing at the back of the man she hadn't seen for months. Cloud stood at the water's edge, seemingly lost in thought.
When he finally turned and saw her standing there, she smiled at him. "Ready to go home?" After a beat, he nodded and together, they walked towards the church entrance.
His deep voice penetrated the stillness. "I saw her." Tifa knew straightaway who he was talking about and didn't interrupt. "She looked just the way I remember her. All this time, I've felt her with me, talking in that gentle voice of hers. But I've never seen her. Until today," he continued. She noted how his voice sounded gentle as he spoke of the lovely but nevertheless dead maiden. "There was always a special glow in her, and the way she seemed to float when she walked."
Tifa nodded silently, trying to ignore the pang in her chest. It was true; she had noticed and perhaps even envied those traits in the late flower girl. And yet hearing the usually taciturn young man speak so highly of a woman she had at one point considered her rival for his affections was more than a little disquieting.
Tifa suddenly felt guilty. Not more than an hour ago, she had been thanking Aerith for watching over them, and now she was feeling jealous of her. She stopped in her tracks, trying to shake off feelings that seemed like a betrayal to the memory of their friend who had long since passed on. She willed herself to concentrate on the now, on Cloud's words.
"And I told her I'm not alone," the blonde-haired young man was saying. Noticing that she wasn't beside him, he turned around and faced her. And then with a smile on his face, he said, "She'll always be with us."
Tifa felt an irrational stab of fear in her heart. Was it just her or did the evening air suddenly seem so much colder?
"Ready to go home?" he asked. Trust Cloud not to notice the almost imperceptible change of emotion in people.
Vaguely, Tifa's mind registered that it was the same question she had asked him just moments ago. She nodded mutely in reply, and they both proceeded to walk out of the church, both quiet and lost in their own thoughts. Tifa felt a mixture of emotions coursing through her. A while ago, that smile would have brought joy and comfort to her. But after everything that had happened, it brought forth instead nothing but a mixture of dread, anxiety, and fear, and worse, a feeling of hopeless despair.
Perhaps it was the combination of his words and his smile. Or perhaps it was just his smile. After all, it was a smile that had been forever burned into her memory.
It was the same smile Cloud had on his face right before he left her and the children all those months ago.
Back to the present…
Tifa was startled out of her reverie by the ringing of the telephone. Picking it up, she made a mental note to herself to have that much needed talk with Cloud. The sooner she did it, the easier it would be. But somehow Tifa just couldn't shake the feeling that no matter when or how she did it, it wouldn't make any of it any easier. Not one bit.
To be continued...
Author's note 2: End of chapter 1. The smile i'm referring to in the last sentence is of course the one that Cloud had on in "Case of Tifa: On the Way to a Smile", which all Cloti 'shippers should read.