A/N: A short Tifa-centric fic focussing on how she gets overlooked by Cloud. I know it might be a little (or a lot) OOC for Tifa, but I think that every once in a while, she did have such thoughts. Because she did help save the world after all. Set after the game but before AC.

Also, I apologize if it isn't nice or something. It was written quite hastily, when I was going through a similar thing. I might edit it or something later.
Reviews much appreciated :D

Disclaimer: FFVII and all its characters belong to Square Enix. I own nothing (sadly).

She just wanted him to acknowledge her.

For once.

She knew she was being too demanding. But she gave too much. She cared too much. She was so fixated on making sure everyone else got what they needed or wanted that she forgot that she too had certain things she needed for herself. Things which weren't her priorities, but should have been. So maybe, just maybe, she deserved to ask that much of him.

However, as soon as the thought came into her mind, she mentally punched herself for thinking so. Tifa Lockheart was a strong woman, and she could do well enough on her own. She didn't want to waste time on thinking about herself when she knew others could use her help. Others were more important than her. In her eyes, it was wrong to think of herself as someone who was worth some praise.

So then why did she expect something like that from Cloud? She didn't show it, but every single time she saw him enter the bar, she wished that he would say something to her other than ordering a drink and then going up to his room wordlessly. Something, even a "hi" or a "thank you". But it was always nothing. It was almost like she wasn't even there, when she was actually standing right across him.

There were times when she had thoughts about herself. Mostly when was she up late cleaning and locking up the bar, in the dead silence of the night. She didn't want it in the desperate sense, and neither did she want in the needy sense, but lately, all she had wanted was to acknowledged for once. To be thanked for once. She knew that Barret was thankful for her. She knew that even Yuffie was glad she was here. She knew that Denzel and Marlene, of course, gave her gratitude for the smallest things. But it wasn't their thanks she wanted.

Again, she mentally punched herself. She was again starting to go far in her head and was being picky. That wasn't going to work, she told herself. You can't just expect whatever you want and get it. You had to do with what life threw at you. That's how she'd been living all along anyway.

But still, despite all her objections within, it wasn't wrong to just hope that Cloud would notice her, right? She'd been there all along for him, anyway.

As she looked up from the countertop to the bar door and saw Cloud coming in, again, that small spark of hope that wanted him to acknowledge her flared up again, but it was gone as soon it came, for today was just the same as any other day.

She knew she was asking too much, anyway.