Chapter 12
"How long is Cloud going to stay here?" Denzel asked.
"Until he's healed," Tifa said. "Then I'm going to kick his ass out." She said it jokingly, but Denzel seemed to catch the dark undertone in it. "Pretend I didn't say that."
"What? That you're going to kick him out or 'ass'?"
Tifa winced. "Both. You're not supposed to be cussing, young man."
Denzel laughed as they both remembered when Tifa had been knocked out by Bahamut SIN while shielding Denzel.
Tifa ruffled his hair, then resumed cleaning.
This routine repeated for two days, until Cloud could walk again. Tifa was glad he was a fast healer. He would be out of here in no time. Cloud seemed to follow wherever Tifa went, who was avoiding him. He was being better than ever (Tifa felt the strange urge to say "Good dog" whenever he did something nice). He would start conversations with Marlene and endure her little-girl talk and take Denzel with him to work on Fenrir. One night, he decided to join them with dinner.
"Smells good," he told Tifa. She nodded curtly, and swept her hair over her right shoulder, so that her right side towards him was covered by hair instead of left. She set the food on the table and purposely only set the table for three. Cloud looked at the table, then walked into the kitchen and grabbed a plate for himself.
"Tifa, could you get me a fork and knife?" Tifa pretended she didn't hear him and walked on with only utensils for her, Denzel and Marlene.
"Mm? What was that?"
"…Never mind."
They all sat down.
"Enjoy, Denzel. Enjoy, Marlene." Tifa started eating.
"Enjoy Marlene, Tifa, Cloud," Denzel murmured.
"Enjoy Cloud, Denzel, Tifa," Marlene muttered.
"What?" Cloud said blankly.
"We do that before every meal," Denzel said. "Because Tifa said we never know which meal will be our last with each other."
"Yeah." Tifa stabbed her meat a bit harder than she should have. "I learned that lesson well from experience, hmm?"
"…I guess so." Cloud started eating. Tifa hated the way how noisily she, Denzel and Marlene ate their vegetables, while Cloud chewed so softly and noiselessly. She should have made soup. Maybe he was a slurper. Then she could have loudly cleared her throat. No, she couldn't have. She was a slurper herself.
"… salt?"
Cloud was looking at her expectantly, like he had just asked her a question.
"What?!" she snapped.
"Tifa, could you pass the salt?"
His eyes were really, really blue.
Tifa pushed the saltshaker with her index finger only so far that Cloud could barely reach it by himself.
"Thank you." He set the salt back down, unused. The little --
"Why don't we go somewhere tomorrow?" Cloud asked them.
"Somewhere as in away?" Denzel asked uncertainly.
"Yeah." Cloud nodded. "Why don't we go to town?" Tifa stopped chewing. "You two might need some new clothes before you go back to school." Not fair. Cloud knew she loved going to town and buying stuff for the kids.
"We don't have the money," Denzel said nervously.
"Yeah, we do." Cloud frowned. "I did a bunch of odd jobs while I was gone. I didn't really buy all that much." Tifa's anger flared. So he thought he was going to stay, did he?
"Denzel can't sleep on the couch forever," she said as politely as she could. Cloud nodded.
"Yeah. You can have your room back, Tifa. I'll sleep on the couch."
Not
good.
"The couch isn't comfortable," Tifa hinted.
"Neither is the floor of Aerith's church," Cloud said.
Ouch! That one hurt.
Tifa slammed down her fork so hard it probably left a dent in the table.
"Tifa?" Marlene said. Cloud was glaring at her. He had tried to be nice, but apparently he had had enough. Tifa forced a smile and swept away everyone's plates even though they weren't finished.
I can't hold this out forever, Tifa thought. She was going to explode sooner or later. Cloud was going to confront her sooner or later.
She didn't know which was worse.
