SO THE DEAD MAY SMILE

Note: Well here it is! CHAPTER 1! I hope you enjoy, a few recognisable characters in this one. Sorry to throw you all into a world of many unrecognisable people :P

Next chapter will be a Vincent one  I've already written it, just a matter of uploading. ENJOY THIS ONE! PLEASE REVIEW!

Tifa sighed as she continued to wash up glasses and mugs. The day had been long, but eventually, 7th Heaven's closing time had come. Marlene and Denzel had been sent to bed four hours ago, and so were probably fast asleep, and she would be done cleaning up soon. Tonight would be a perfect opportunity to spend some alone time with Cloud. Except she couldn't, because he was out.

Again.

In fact, Cloud was out more than in these days.

Tifa had begun to think that Cloud had got better, because after healing Denzel there had been a moment where he had smiled for the first time in ages. And he hadn't really stopped smiling since then. But he still seemed to be avoiding her, and this made Tifa extremely irritated. She tried to think back and see if there had been a moment that she had upset Cloud in anyway within the last few days, after the whole Sephiroth thing. But she could think of none in particular.

What made it worse was it was just her. Cloud was still fine around everyone else, even the children nowadays. It was just her.

Tifa just couldn't work it out. Had she truly done something wrong? Or maybe she was driving him away somehow.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the entrance door burst open, and Cloud strode in.

"We're closed- Oh Cloud!" She cried dropping the glass she was cleaning and flinging her arms around him as it smashed into a thousand pieces.

Not responding to the hug, Cloud asked "Has something happened?"

"No, I'm just pleased to see you." Tifa beamed up at him. Cloud seemed uncomfortable and coughed.

"Oh. Well you broke a glass. You should pick it up."

Tifa's face fell slightly, and she turned slowly to deal with the shattered pieces. Cloud shifted in position slightly and then spoke again. "I have some news."

"Oh yes?" Tifa asked, still not looking up at him.

"The bodies. Of Yazoo, Kadaj and Loz. They've...gone."

"Gone?" Tifa asked, finally turning, a hint of hysteria in her voice, of which Cloud got the opinion was not entirely because of the disappearance of the remnants. "What do you mean gone?"

"I mean they were there and now they're not." He said, trying to take a gentle approach. He knew he had upset Tifa. But since he had seen Aerith that last time, he had come to realise that by seeming to go along with Tifa in their 'relationship', he was doing nothing but stringing her along. He thought that by acting off with her she would perhaps get the message, as he could not bring himself to outright tell her that he did not love her. He loved Aerith, it had always been her and always would be her, even if she was no longer alive, she had never truly left him. And she never would, not even for the sake of Marlene and Denzel. Not even for the sake of Tifa's feelings.

Oh there was no denying that he cared for Tifa. He had grown up with her, and although she used to bully him, they had turned out in the end to become best friends. But now Cloud realised he had never wanted it to go any further than that. And he knew actually telling Tifa would go one of two ways.

She would either hate him, which of course Cloud didn't want. She would refuse to see him, or let him see the kids anymore, whom lately Cloud had made time for and had been making real progress with. And there'd be no more free drinks from 7th Heaven that was for sure. Maybe he'd even be barred. But the important thing was Cloud did not intend for Tifa to hate him, for he still did see her as one of his best friends.

But then again, she may not hate him.

The other of the two ways that Tifa could take the news was that she would obsess over him. Really obsess. Obsessively. You see, Tifa was quite headstrong, and once she wanted something (namely Cloud) she would have it. Except she wouldn't. She couldn't. But she'd give it a damned good go. Which is why Cloud couldn't face option B either. It would pain him to see Tifa embarrass herself in such a way, especially when in truth, they both knew really that there was no chance between them.

So Cloud went for option C. He'd have to tell her without actually telling her. Use body language to tell her to back off, without outright shouting 'I DON'T LOVE YOU' at her. Tifa was a smart woman, she would pick up the signs. In fact she probably already had done. Cloud looked over to where Tifa was piling the pieces of broken glass into the bin. She clearly thought he wasn't looking because a small tear streaked its way down her cheek. Yeah, she had definitely been picking up signs. Cloud sighed sadly. This was still as tough as telling her directly. He didn't want to hurt her.

He had been planning to act only friendly around her, only how they used to act around each other. But friends hugged. They joked, and smiled, and went out together. Acting like this around Tifa would only give her hope. Which he couldn't do. So until they had both made it clear their relationship was strictly 'friends only' material, he had to act indifferent around her. Which hurt.

But right now, this was the least of Cloud's worries. The bodies of Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo had indeed disappeared. The spaces in the morgue, where they had been waiting to be incinerated were empty. True they had at first disappeared to the life stream, like most bodies. But the life stream's process was long. It took the dead, used the energy of the soul, and then returned their shells back to the very spot where they had died. The body of Kadaj had been recovered a few hours after the life stream took him, shorter than most bodies took, but Cloud had put this down to the huge amount of Jenova cells that had manifested inside Kadaj. Maybe there was less soul energy for the life stream to collect or something. Cloud didn't really know whether his theory was correct, all he had cared about was making sure Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz were incinerated quickly, so that they could be forgotten quickly. The bodies of Yazoo and Loz returned about fifteen minutes later.

Out of respect for the dead, it had been agreed that the three brothers would be incinerated together. And they were due to be incinerated tomorrow. Except now they couldn't, because they were gone.

Quite where Cloud didn't know. And that was what had concerned him. You see, Cloud had found the three to be so strong, he had never quite accepted they were dead. He had always thought that his 'little brothers' could not possibly have succumbed to death. So when he had found them gone, Cloud had begun to have horrible images that the three may have just got up and walked off. That they really were indestructible. But trying to stay positive, he pushed these thoughts away and replaced them with thoughts of finding the lost bodies. Dead or alive.

He would have to go and see Vincent. He had been meaning to go and visit his friend for a while, as he was beginning to get quite concerned about him. Lately, since Cloud had told Vincent about Aerith and Zack's last goodbye, Vincent had been withdrawn. He had been going to see Lucrecia a lot more, sometimes sitting amongst the crystals for many hours at a time. Cloud and Vincent had been friends for a long while, and indeed, Cloud was the only one who knew about Lucrecia's whereabouts. Cloud hated to think that he may have upset Vincent in any way. So he had resolved to go and see his friend to put things right, or at least try and sort out what was upsetting him. Now he had an excuse to visit.

Vincent was much more intelligent than the average man, as he had many years of experience and knowledge stored in his mind. He knew Vincent would be much more likely to be able to tell him why Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo took so little time for the life stream to finish with them. He would probably be able to reassure him about the small likeliness that Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo were roaming the streets once more. And maybe he'd be able to help with one more thing that Cloud wondered about. The actual reason why Cloud had been visiting the bodies every night for the past couple of days. He had no idea whether anyone else had noticed, as they had been collecting the bodies up (if they had noticed they'd been keeping bloody quiet about it), but there had been one other strange thing about the three. It had taken Cloud quite a while to realise.

That all three remnants had died...with a smile on their face.