A Well-Deserved Love
Part I
The wet cloth swept the table and gracefully moved along, removing each speck of dust. The hand manipulating that cloth then reached down and grabbed two ice cold mugs from the lower freezer and handed them to two gruff men sitting at the bar table. The hand belonged to a rather attractive young woman. She had long dark hair that was reflecting a series of red colored light caused by the halogen lights hanging overhead. In a dark corner of the bar in which the rather attractive young woman was working sat her best friend, working as a guard for the bar. He always sat in the corner, watching over the young woman, known as Tifa Lockheart, owner of the Seventh Heaven bar. His job was to make sure no drunken bastard went crazy without having his ass severely kicked and thrown out. But tonight his mind was not on kicking a drunkard's ass, as it usually was. For the past 2 years…all he could think about was the beautiful young woman in which he failed to save. The memory flashed through his head over and over of the perfect figure of the angel of his love being penetrated by a long, silvery katana; and how even her blood, as it poured forth from her heart, was as beautiful as bright red roses on a cloudy day.
Aerith Gainsborough was indeed a very attractive young woman. She had eyes that possessed the color of green only manifested in the hardiest of grasses and herbs. Her various colors of brown hair twirled and wound like the pattern in which sakura falls from its limbs. The back of her hair was long and always braided gracefully, entwined like the elegance of vines growing perfectly on a tree. Her lips were as pink as a cherry blossom falling to its ever lasting death, in which in its trail left a beautiful pattern, never to be forgotten, much like her own life. To Cloud, the bouncer in which was spoken of earlier, she was a paragon, never to be in the lack of his love.
Tifa had been noticing the look in his eyes for the past 2 whole years his mind had been helplessly wandering the maze of love that he was in with a person 2 years past. She just couldn't take it anymore. All her life she had loved him so much, she had given him so many hints, she had done so much for him. But it seemed as if nothing worked. Nothing could satisfy Cloud's hunger except for Aerith, the angel that Tifa felt as though she could never compete with. She loved Aerith as a sister and as a friend, but she couldn't quiet the jealousy that was in her heart. Aerith…was dead…gone…she wasn't coming back…she must have meant a whole lot to Cloud…for him to still not have forgotten her. Tifa just wished that he felt that way about her. But today was the final day that Tifa was going to suffer in this misery; she had decided recently that after her whole life of waiting for him, she was done with it. She had waited for him when he left their hometown, she waited for him after he joined AVALANCHE, she had waited for him after they had met Aerith, and she had even waited for him 2 years after her death. She was heartbroken, and thought of what happened as a completely lost cause. She had decided to move on. She had planned a date for the coming Saturday of the week, hoping that maybe a night out with another man would ease her pain.
The bar began to close and Cloud went to the back room and unraveled the bandage on his arm hidden by a cape-like cloth that always dangled over it, hiding it from Tifa, Barret, Marlene, Denzel, Vincent, and Yuffie. The bandage unraveled and fell to the floor, blood began to ooze forth from Cloud's arm, it was dyed a black color, and a wave of weakness washed over him. He grunted, sighed, let out a very low moan, and stood back up. He re-applied the bloody bandage and left the bar, without saying a word to Tifa. He mounted his bike, and headed to the church, where Aerith had tended flowers since she was 7, and where he always washed out his wound, still believing in the miraculous healing power of Aerith's presence. He arrived at the church and unraveled the bandage again. He laid it on a chest of his old materia and set his arm in a rather large puddle of clear water and washed out his wound.
Tifa had been wondering with great amounts of worry where Cloud always ran off to in the evenings. "He shouldn't go out like that…geostigma is everywhere," she would think to herself, "if he keeps going out like that he's bound to get it." She sighed. "Tifa!!" called a light cute voice with great anxiety cried from the bedroom. "Hurry!" Tifa glided up the stairs with a speedy, cheetah-like grace. She entered a room with Marlene, the young girl that had called her, and also the daughter of Barret, and a young boy that lived with them, Denzel. He was a young homeless boy that they had recently taken in and come to love as family. He lied in the bed, and black blood was gushing forth from his forehead and oozing down his face. His body compulsively throbbed and tossed and turned. "Oh my God!!" cried Tifa, she reached in her pocket and took a cloth from her pocket. She then covered his head with it and pressed in. "Marlene…keep it there!!" she cried. "Yes ma'am!" Marlene responded and used her entire body weight to hold Denzel down and keep him from bleeding. Tifa glided back down he stairs with the same beautiful grace in which she had risen with a sense of urgency. She reached in the cabinets of liquor and grabbed a strong alcohol. She fled from the bar and back up the stairs, and she saturated Denzel's wound with the liquor. He passed out and the bleeding slowly subsided. Marlene sat there in shock as Tifa said… "Marlene, watch him…and tell me if anything happens…it's the stigma. "Y---ye---yes ma'am," said Marlene anxiously. Tifa…in worry for Denzel's life…and what Cloud was hiding…retreated to her room and cried.