Yeah, I should have explained they are not necessarily in order, Leanne and I just choose 40 of the words randomly.

Drabble #2: Love

Summary: The greatest thing he would ever learn was just to love, and be loved in return.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything but the plot. Characters and places belong to SquareEnix

Tifa.

He had once thought himself to be in love with her but if he thought back, he could only remember was the gang she used to hang around with, and the way they treated him as an inferior.

It wasn't love.

And even if he were to say that he had loved her once, it was not the kind of love that he wanted. He did not want to be in love when all he could do was stare at the window where she would brush her hair. He did not want to watch from the distance. He wanted to experience everything about love; kisses and caresses, someone who would listen to him and would never judge him.

Tifa could not provide that. Not then.

Nowadays, she went around doing everything she could for him, hardly giving him a moment to breathe.

If he had the chance to go back and have that affection now, would he take it? Cloud had often thought it through but in all honesty, he could say no. No, he did not want to go back and have Tifa requite his feelings. And there was one reason for that.

Aeris.

If someone had told him on the day he had first met the flower girl that he would fall in love with her, he would have laughed. She was nothing like any girl he had ever met before but, looking back, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Aeris had always showed her complete trust in him, had always believed he would find a way even in the most difficult situations. She had always been open about her feelings and yet, she was mysterious too. That was one of the many of attractive traits about her but there were thousands more he could count. Such as the way her eyes sparkled in happiness, how her smile would stretch across her face, her compassion for everyone and everything around her. She was not perfect, he knew that because he knew nobody ever was, but, in his opinion, she was the closest anyone would ever get.

If he could choose anyone to spend his life with, it would have been Aeris. He would never get bored of her laugh or her comforting words. She would have been there to listen when he needed advice and she would never judge him, no matter how bad a thing he may have done.

But she wasn't here. Sephiroth had killed her in cold blood, right in front of his eyes and now, her smile only appeared in his memories or in his dreams. It would never be seen on this Planet again.

But, Cloud still gave a small smile everyday as a dedication to her. For thanking her for the greatest gift he ever had, the ability to learn the greatest thing he would ever learn: to love, and be loved in return.

Then, he would shed tears unknowingly at night as he realised the greatest thing he would ever have to do:

To live without that love.