A.N : This fic is made to celebrate New Year of 2011! 2010 may be lots of fun but I expected more from 2011! Inspiration from Nickelback - Faraway (I just got around in Youtube searching for some old MV and I came across Nickelback!)

Happy New Year, sexy readers and reviewers!

My quote for this fic - Read and Weep -

Disclaimers : I do not own anything (I wished) from Final Fantasy VII.

Path To Come Back Home

How long has it been since that day? Months? Years? Or perhaps, decades?
Nobody quite seem to remember how long has it been since Cloud's dissapearence, everyone seem to let memories of the infamous Cloud Strife to slip off their mind. Nowadays, he is referred as a legend or a fairytale of a hero who save the world from crisis.
Everyone, except someone, Cloud's best friends, Barret, Yuffie, Vincent, Cid, Red, Marlene, Denzel and even Cait Sith. They are the only ones refuse to let Cloud escape their memories and imprison the images of Cloud Stirfe forever in their heart. Especially one person who holds them the dearest.

Tifa Lockhart.

Tifa is probably the only person in in the world who counts every second since Cloud is announced as 'Missing'. 3 years, 1 month, 7days and 3 hours since that day.

Flashback

"I am sorry, Tifa." Barret murmurs.

"For what?"

It was then when Marlene in Barret's arm burst out in tears.

"Spikey...he's...He's gone. He's leaving us for real..."

Flashback end

The visit from Barret that day has changed Tifa's life drastically. First, she became even more depressive and self-centered. Second, she develops a new hobby to shut herself in her room whenever possible. Third, her business suffered. And finally, her health became worse.

She remembers the incident clearly told by Barret about that fateful day.
Cloud's Fenrir was found on the bottom of the cliff where Zack's Buster Sword is intact. Fenrir wass completely wrecked and almost all Cloud's swords shared the same fate. But, Cloud was not there, only a pool of blood lied there and it was confirmed that they belonged to Cloud. Many interpretion has been made for Cloud's incident, some said that he commited suicide by lunging himself off the cliff, some said that he was trying to escape from monsters and accidentally launch himself down.

And for Cloud's final fate, some believed that Cloud's corpse was dragged away by monsters, some said that perhaps some people nearby found him and buried him earlier, some says that maybe Cloud managed to survive the fall and perhaps escapes to a nearby village to recover himself.

Solely believed in the final conclusion, Tifa has spend her fortune only in finding him. But for the three years, her efforts were in vain.

Cloud is never found.

It's New Year Eve again, the third one without Cloud. Instead of being lit with happiness, the atmosphere remains gloomy in the party.
Everyone try their best to cheer Tifa up. The typical Tifa, as she is, insists that she is perfectly fine and smiles throughout the party but everyone knows, she is not.

As Tifa's companions, they too had contributed some efforts to search for Cloud (Vincent had been forced by Yuffie to smell out for Cloud at one time). But, as usual, nothing.

During the celebration, there are a lot of words for Tifa, "I believe even Cloud doesn't want you to be like this." "Be strong, just like Cloud always did." "Spikey sure is watching over ya'!" .

Instead of consoling her, these words hurts her even more. But she smiles through it.

And the party ends. To which Tifa decides to left Marlene and Denzel with Barret so that she could be alone (Ever since Cloud's dissappearence, almost every single second there is someone with her).
They reluctantly agrees when Tifa promises them 'nothing stupid'. Back at home, the first thing she do is to run back to her room. She doesn't switch on any lights and let darkness envelopes her. There, she sits on her bed hugging on her knees. But she doesn't cry. Her tears had long dry for crying too much.

Memories of Cloud taunts her again as they always did. With the darkness, Tifa remembers even more without any distraction.

"I miss you, Cloud." She whispers silently. She talks for an hour to the darkness, pretending that Cloud is there.

But then, there is a soft knock on her door. Very soft one.

Tifa thought, that it must be Yuffie or maybe Marlene or Denzel. Maybe they decides to visit her to check on her.

"I am fine. It's okay. Just leave me alone." She echoes softly to indicates them.

But the door opens slowly, ignoring her words. Tifa doesn't bother to look at the direction. But she hears very soft creaks of footsteps approaching her. And softly, a pair of strong arms begin to wrap around Tifa. But those arms doesn't belong to a young woman, a girl or a boy. It belongs to a man.

"I am home."

And the voice only belongs to one person. Tifa looks up almost immediately to the face of the figure. Even in the darkness, she recognises who it is.

It's no other than him, Cloud Strife.

Tifa doesn't bother about anything anymore and she proceeds crying her heart out to the chest of Cloud, to which Cloud comforts her all the time by rubbing her back.. They remains in each others arm for a very long time, before Tifa pulls herself away to see the face she misses the most again. In her ragged voice, she asks, "How did you...*sobs* How did you are still...*sobs*alive?"

"Because I want to come home."

"Home?"

"This is my home, with you, and the kids. This is my family."

Cloud then in turn buries Tifa's head on his chest, "In fact, that day... I accidentally fell off the cliff when Fenrir skidded... I really died."

Tifa gasps in horror, so Cloud is really dead! But who is the man now?

"But, because of my determination to come back to you... 'They' give me my second chance."

"Zack and Aeris?"

"Yes, and they brought me to the Lifestream where I hide all along to recover."

Cloud kisses Tifa's forehead, "It might sound unreal, but I woke up in the living room just now."

"This is just like a dream." Tifa whispers.

"No, it is not. I am back. And to prove that this isn't a dream..." Cloud then pulls Tifa face closer to his and traps her in a kiss. His force is so strong that Tifa fell backwards on the bed and Cloud continues the kiss. He parts away for a while only to murmurs "Happy New Year." before they continue their duel.

(A.N : I am not gonna describe any further of anything happen here, or else I have to rate it as a 'M' fic. ;) )

And the next morning when Tifa wakes up, she finally believes that last night was the final night without Cloud on her side.

A.N : Did anyone weep? Actually, I did when I was writing this fic. XD Maybe I should stop buying too much drama novels and goes on to sad movies! (I watched Titanic again on Youtube)

Leave some reviews and Happy New Year!