~Half Forgotten Memories~
By:GoldenSilence
CH.1-Cloud
----
A/N=This fic could be called an alternate universe fic, I think. I hope you enjoy!This will be quite a long story with several chapters. A bit of mystery, a bit of romance, angst... a bit of well, everything really.
-----
Wind howled fiercly in the turbulent sky as dense clouds rolled overhead, threatening to send down a hell of a downpour at any moment. You would think the rain was poisonous from the way a variety of umbrellas popped out almost the instant it hit. They may have thought of it as interference, but Tifa, unlike them, welcomed it.
The sky mirrored her own emotions. Emotions that no matter how hard she tried to bury them, kept bobbing back up to the surface like a cork.
An accident they had called it. Something tragic and horrible, sure, but still just an accident. Accidents could be forgotten..so why couldn't she forget?She could remember everything in complete clarity. His hand reaching out and grabbing hers in a surprise grip of comfort when she faultered for just a second before they entered the center of the planet. A thousand little things.
Tifa thought it was ironic that the self described(and not at all) "loner" had died millions of miles away, lost in space after the defeat of Sephiroth, in solitude at last.
She started observing the comers and goers. It took her mind off the event at hand, plus it was intresting to see the varying looks on people's faces. Some looked genuinely mournful, while more than a few were just eyeing the chocolate cake under a tent, provided as refreshment.
Barret had to be by far the one of the crowd who stuck out the most. Her usual "down with it" friend was dressed in a suit obviously borrowed, from the way he had rolled up his sleeves and and had to keep hiking up his pants so they wouldn't touch the ground. Vincent, on the other hand, seemed to blend right in. But then Vincent always had blended better with sadness and pathos then happiness, thought Tifa.
Tifa caught his glance and ventured him the tiniest of smiles. He gave her one in return, and their smiles stayed stiffly frozen in place. Once Tifa smiled, she simply didn't have the energy to go back to looking grim and neither, she suspected, did Vincent.
Tifa had been the optimism that kept hope alive. No matter how bad things were, they could always get worse...but she hadn't exactly been her old cheerful, sprightly self lately, which was understandable, but Vincent still missed her happy go lucky old disposition anyway.
Vincent wished she would give him one of her ear to ear smiles and tell him that everything was going to be okay; that things could only get better from here. Tifa had always been the one to comfort and reassure others..funny how the roles had been reversed after Cloud had presumably died.
Vincent was not a man of many words, but the dead look on Tifa's face haunted him. He could almost see himself in her place with that same identical expression years ago when he had learned Lucrecia had died.
"You gonna be alright?"
Ugh. Tifa had lost count of how many people had asked that over the course of the day. She had started off in a calm frame of mind, feeling as if she could get through this whole funeral thing and still maintain her sanity, but after being questioned by everyone from Cat Sith to Yuffie, she felt exactly the opposite. Honestly, what did they expect her to do? Stand on her head while screaming at them that she was slowly going absolutely nuts?
"I'll be alright..eventually." Her voice sounded strange even in Tifa's own ears. After learning that Cloud was lost and most likely dead, it seemed those had been the only words she had repeated over and over; to herself and everyone else.
She had loved him , Vincent could see it in her strawberry colored eyes. And because of that, he was more worried about the effect of Cloud's death on her then on anyone else in the gang.
"You've got friends that are worried about you,you know?"
Tifa tried to hide her surprise at Vincent. "You've got friends that are worried about you, you know" had to be the second most popular statement of the day, right up there with "are you alright?", but the way Vincent said it made all the difference in the world.
He wasn't exactly known for getting all touchy feely, but when he did, at least it was sincere unlike the fake symphathies Tifa had been offered by at least half a dozen people.
"I know" was Tifa's automatic reponse. Vincent gave her a strange look she couldn't quite decipher.
"No, I don't think you really do. You're too focused on your own pain. I was too..when.."
He put his metal claw on Tifa's shoulder, the cold feeling transferring to her through the layers of fabric that made up her dress. "Excuse me..I.."
Vincent's face was turned away from her, shadowed. The rest of him was as well as Vincent strode off, his figure vanishing among the people who had come to mourn for the loss of Cloud Strife. Tifa bit her lip, thinking on what he had said. He understood how she felt..and why wouldn't he?Vincent must have gone through something similiar when Lucrecia died.
But it couldn't have been the same, the self pitying part of herself argued. At least he knew for sure that his loved one was dead..with Cloud, he could still be alive..or dead. At least he admitted he loved her before she died. Tifa felt a sudden pain in her heart.
She had always been too cowardly to tell Cloud how she really felt..and now it was too late.
Brooding, Tifa felt a light tap on her shoulder and turned around to look into the symphathetic face of Shera.
"Tifa?Can I talk to you for a second?"
Tifa nodded and Shera pulled her off to the side to talk.
"Cloud..we found something of his at the cove yesterday, washed up on the shore."
Tifa felt relief wash over her. "Something of his?" She could hardly keep the excitement out of her voice. "Then maybe he's still alive after all!" Then all the guessing; the anguish of not knowing for sure if Cloud was really dead or simply exsisting in the cosmos somewhere, would be over.
Shera put a hand on Tifa's shoulder to calm her down, bringing her back to reality.
"That is..errm..a slight possibility, one that we will look into of course, but still just a slight possibilty. You understand?"
Tifa's face fell in dissapointment. Then even Shera did not think he could be found..that he was still alive. Was she the only one left with hope?
"I understand."
Shera pressed something cold and metal into Tifa's hand. "We found this. Stuck in the bottom of his boot."
Tifa opened her palm to look at the object and felt her heart plummet even more. A ring. An engagement ring. Beautiful, made of silver with a small cluster of pearls in the center.
So he had meant to?Cloud had kept Tifa guessing and unsure. Of course, he could never have loved the same way he had loved Aeris, Tifa knew that..but sometimes, just sometimes
Tifa dared to think he might have loved her. He had flirted with her once or twice...but Tifa figured that he was just flirting with her to take his mind off the events at hand;the incredibly risky mission they were undergoing and the slim chance of any of them making it out alive. But he had meant to..propose?
No, she said to herself harshly. Stop living in your little dream world-If the ring had ever been for anyone, it would have been for Aeris.
Tifa was about to give it back to Shera when she happened to get look at the little scrawled picture on the side. A small bird spreading it's wings. Just as quickly as her heart had plummeted, it rose again. That bird was the sign the jewelry maker in Mideel used. She knew because when she had been browsing in the shop what seemed ages ago, she had been curious about the little bird carved on the back of a wooden bracelet and had asked the craftsman about it. They hadn't gone to Mideel until after Aeris's spirit became one with the planet, which meant...
Shera summed up Tifa's own thoughts. "I figured that it must have been for you."
She couldn't keep her voice steady anymore and it wavered. "You poor children." Tifa hardly thought after what had happened that any of them were still children in any way, shape, or form, but she didn't say anything.
Shera gave her a quick hug before she went over to join Cid, who had a somber look ill placed on his usually sarcastic mug . Tifa slipped the ring on her finger. It fit perfectly. With the trinket came all the doubt from when she had first heard Cloud was most likely never coming back. What if he was still out there somewhere?Stuck in between time and space all alone?
Millions of what ifs crowded her mind. What if he had come back?Would they be engaged now? Tifa shook her head. Enough what ifs. Cloud had been gone, lost, dead..whatever you wanted to call it, for two months. She had to put the past behind her. Cloud had been one of her closest friends..possibly something more if he would have let her. She still couldn't accept his death because to do that she would have to turn her back to the small ray of hope that she had desperately clung to. The small chance he might still be alive somewhere.
Tifa slowly slid off Cloud's ring and walked away from the one empty grave, knowing exactly what she had to do. Vincent saw her walking off toward the cliff above the whole mourning ceremony and a slight crease came out on his forehead, the only sign to show he was worried. Vincent wasn't usually the one to worry about people, but for once, he didn't go with the usual and intercepted her path.
"Tifa?Where you going?"
Tifa smiled at him to reassure him, somehow knowing that was what he wanted..even though he showed no need of reassurance on his face.
"I just have to take care of something. I'll be right back. It'll help me..accept what happened."
Vincent looked like he wanted to say something but he didn't, he simply nodded in understanding and stepped to one side. Sometimes you have to let people work things out for themselves. Still, Vinent was worried..
Tifa walked up to the edge of the cliff. The rain had stopped and a sort of silent peace and tranquility hung in the slight breeze, two things Tifa definitely wanted right now.
Before she could change her mind, she took out the ring and threw it as hard as she could. For a split minute, she saw faint glimmer of silver in the air before the ring sailed down and hit the ocean below with a final resolute plop.
---
little,really short I promise A/N=Don't ask about the chocolate cake..just don't ask. I blame it on that time of the month..chocolate just always seems to show up in the stuff I write around then..
By:GoldenSilence
CH.1-Cloud
----
A/N=This fic could be called an alternate universe fic, I think. I hope you enjoy!This will be quite a long story with several chapters. A bit of mystery, a bit of romance, angst... a bit of well, everything really.
-----
Wind howled fiercly in the turbulent sky as dense clouds rolled overhead, threatening to send down a hell of a downpour at any moment. You would think the rain was poisonous from the way a variety of umbrellas popped out almost the instant it hit. They may have thought of it as interference, but Tifa, unlike them, welcomed it.
The sky mirrored her own emotions. Emotions that no matter how hard she tried to bury them, kept bobbing back up to the surface like a cork.
An accident they had called it. Something tragic and horrible, sure, but still just an accident. Accidents could be forgotten..so why couldn't she forget?She could remember everything in complete clarity. His hand reaching out and grabbing hers in a surprise grip of comfort when she faultered for just a second before they entered the center of the planet. A thousand little things.
Tifa thought it was ironic that the self described(and not at all) "loner" had died millions of miles away, lost in space after the defeat of Sephiroth, in solitude at last.
She started observing the comers and goers. It took her mind off the event at hand, plus it was intresting to see the varying looks on people's faces. Some looked genuinely mournful, while more than a few were just eyeing the chocolate cake under a tent, provided as refreshment.
Barret had to be by far the one of the crowd who stuck out the most. Her usual "down with it" friend was dressed in a suit obviously borrowed, from the way he had rolled up his sleeves and and had to keep hiking up his pants so they wouldn't touch the ground. Vincent, on the other hand, seemed to blend right in. But then Vincent always had blended better with sadness and pathos then happiness, thought Tifa.
Tifa caught his glance and ventured him the tiniest of smiles. He gave her one in return, and their smiles stayed stiffly frozen in place. Once Tifa smiled, she simply didn't have the energy to go back to looking grim and neither, she suspected, did Vincent.
Tifa had been the optimism that kept hope alive. No matter how bad things were, they could always get worse...but she hadn't exactly been her old cheerful, sprightly self lately, which was understandable, but Vincent still missed her happy go lucky old disposition anyway.
Vincent wished she would give him one of her ear to ear smiles and tell him that everything was going to be okay; that things could only get better from here. Tifa had always been the one to comfort and reassure others..funny how the roles had been reversed after Cloud had presumably died.
Vincent was not a man of many words, but the dead look on Tifa's face haunted him. He could almost see himself in her place with that same identical expression years ago when he had learned Lucrecia had died.
"You gonna be alright?"
Ugh. Tifa had lost count of how many people had asked that over the course of the day. She had started off in a calm frame of mind, feeling as if she could get through this whole funeral thing and still maintain her sanity, but after being questioned by everyone from Cat Sith to Yuffie, she felt exactly the opposite. Honestly, what did they expect her to do? Stand on her head while screaming at them that she was slowly going absolutely nuts?
"I'll be alright..eventually." Her voice sounded strange even in Tifa's own ears. After learning that Cloud was lost and most likely dead, it seemed those had been the only words she had repeated over and over; to herself and everyone else.
She had loved him , Vincent could see it in her strawberry colored eyes. And because of that, he was more worried about the effect of Cloud's death on her then on anyone else in the gang.
"You've got friends that are worried about you,you know?"
Tifa tried to hide her surprise at Vincent. "You've got friends that are worried about you, you know" had to be the second most popular statement of the day, right up there with "are you alright?", but the way Vincent said it made all the difference in the world.
He wasn't exactly known for getting all touchy feely, but when he did, at least it was sincere unlike the fake symphathies Tifa had been offered by at least half a dozen people.
"I know" was Tifa's automatic reponse. Vincent gave her a strange look she couldn't quite decipher.
"No, I don't think you really do. You're too focused on your own pain. I was too..when.."
He put his metal claw on Tifa's shoulder, the cold feeling transferring to her through the layers of fabric that made up her dress. "Excuse me..I.."
Vincent's face was turned away from her, shadowed. The rest of him was as well as Vincent strode off, his figure vanishing among the people who had come to mourn for the loss of Cloud Strife. Tifa bit her lip, thinking on what he had said. He understood how she felt..and why wouldn't he?Vincent must have gone through something similiar when Lucrecia died.
But it couldn't have been the same, the self pitying part of herself argued. At least he knew for sure that his loved one was dead..with Cloud, he could still be alive..or dead. At least he admitted he loved her before she died. Tifa felt a sudden pain in her heart.
She had always been too cowardly to tell Cloud how she really felt..and now it was too late.
Brooding, Tifa felt a light tap on her shoulder and turned around to look into the symphathetic face of Shera.
"Tifa?Can I talk to you for a second?"
Tifa nodded and Shera pulled her off to the side to talk.
"Cloud..we found something of his at the cove yesterday, washed up on the shore."
Tifa felt relief wash over her. "Something of his?" She could hardly keep the excitement out of her voice. "Then maybe he's still alive after all!" Then all the guessing; the anguish of not knowing for sure if Cloud was really dead or simply exsisting in the cosmos somewhere, would be over.
Shera put a hand on Tifa's shoulder to calm her down, bringing her back to reality.
"That is..errm..a slight possibility, one that we will look into of course, but still just a slight possibilty. You understand?"
Tifa's face fell in dissapointment. Then even Shera did not think he could be found..that he was still alive. Was she the only one left with hope?
"I understand."
Shera pressed something cold and metal into Tifa's hand. "We found this. Stuck in the bottom of his boot."
Tifa opened her palm to look at the object and felt her heart plummet even more. A ring. An engagement ring. Beautiful, made of silver with a small cluster of pearls in the center.
So he had meant to?Cloud had kept Tifa guessing and unsure. Of course, he could never have loved the same way he had loved Aeris, Tifa knew that..but sometimes, just sometimes
Tifa dared to think he might have loved her. He had flirted with her once or twice...but Tifa figured that he was just flirting with her to take his mind off the events at hand;the incredibly risky mission they were undergoing and the slim chance of any of them making it out alive. But he had meant to..propose?
No, she said to herself harshly. Stop living in your little dream world-If the ring had ever been for anyone, it would have been for Aeris.
Tifa was about to give it back to Shera when she happened to get look at the little scrawled picture on the side. A small bird spreading it's wings. Just as quickly as her heart had plummeted, it rose again. That bird was the sign the jewelry maker in Mideel used. She knew because when she had been browsing in the shop what seemed ages ago, she had been curious about the little bird carved on the back of a wooden bracelet and had asked the craftsman about it. They hadn't gone to Mideel until after Aeris's spirit became one with the planet, which meant...
Shera summed up Tifa's own thoughts. "I figured that it must have been for you."
She couldn't keep her voice steady anymore and it wavered. "You poor children." Tifa hardly thought after what had happened that any of them were still children in any way, shape, or form, but she didn't say anything.
Shera gave her a quick hug before she went over to join Cid, who had a somber look ill placed on his usually sarcastic mug . Tifa slipped the ring on her finger. It fit perfectly. With the trinket came all the doubt from when she had first heard Cloud was most likely never coming back. What if he was still out there somewhere?Stuck in between time and space all alone?
Millions of what ifs crowded her mind. What if he had come back?Would they be engaged now? Tifa shook her head. Enough what ifs. Cloud had been gone, lost, dead..whatever you wanted to call it, for two months. She had to put the past behind her. Cloud had been one of her closest friends..possibly something more if he would have let her. She still couldn't accept his death because to do that she would have to turn her back to the small ray of hope that she had desperately clung to. The small chance he might still be alive somewhere.
Tifa slowly slid off Cloud's ring and walked away from the one empty grave, knowing exactly what she had to do. Vincent saw her walking off toward the cliff above the whole mourning ceremony and a slight crease came out on his forehead, the only sign to show he was worried. Vincent wasn't usually the one to worry about people, but for once, he didn't go with the usual and intercepted her path.
"Tifa?Where you going?"
Tifa smiled at him to reassure him, somehow knowing that was what he wanted..even though he showed no need of reassurance on his face.
"I just have to take care of something. I'll be right back. It'll help me..accept what happened."
Vincent looked like he wanted to say something but he didn't, he simply nodded in understanding and stepped to one side. Sometimes you have to let people work things out for themselves. Still, Vinent was worried..
Tifa walked up to the edge of the cliff. The rain had stopped and a sort of silent peace and tranquility hung in the slight breeze, two things Tifa definitely wanted right now.
Before she could change her mind, she took out the ring and threw it as hard as she could. For a split minute, she saw faint glimmer of silver in the air before the ring sailed down and hit the ocean below with a final resolute plop.
---
little,really short I promise A/N=Don't ask about the chocolate cake..just don't ask. I blame it on that time of the month..chocolate just always seems to show up in the stuff I write around then..