The first of two possible endings!

My world

When I woke up I was still lying on my bed. Light poured in through the open window while the curtains fluttered in the light breeze of the morning air.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," Cloud said as he walked up into our room. I smiled at him as I noticed it was my Cloud, the one who was quiet and withdrawn but at the same time he cared. I didn't really mind that he looked a little down as I got up and ran over to hug him. He seemed surprised at first but he hugged me back with a small soft smile after he got his bearings on the situation.

"How long was I asleep?" I asked as I pulled away and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. Cloud looked up at the sky -or ceiling, I guess- for a minute in thought.

"Three days? Give or take," he said "Marlene was worried and Denzel wanted to call an ambulance when he saw you had been asleep for three days," I smiled happily at the thought of the children being so worried while I wondered what Cloud had been like. I expected some kind of panic from a man with no expirence with children who suddenly had to singlehandedly take care of two. I rocked back and forth on my heels for a second with my hands clasped behind my back.

"I'm fine now… I'm just sorry I missed Zack's death anniversary… I didn't mean to," I couldn't see any emotion in Cloud's face but I knew he wouldn't really be that mad at me. In the end he made a small shrugging motion.

"S'fine Tifa. Nothing really happened. It rained too much for us to go out and when you didn't wake up the kids didn't want to leave your side," he explained. I smiled at the thought of Cloud being at the mercy of the two kids. Two kids that were clever and while they didn't know my bank details or where I hid the money, they knew Cloud had money for food 'and necessities'

"Did they take you shopping?" I asked suspiciously as I remembered what happened last time I had gotten ill. Cloud nodded "did they tell you ice cream would wake me up?" another nod "did they eat all the ice cream and get super hyper?" yet another nod. I sighed. "It a good thing you don't take them shopping all the time, or we would have no money and two fat children," I said with a small giggle. Cloud gave me a small smile.

"They spent almost two hundred gil on treats," he told me. I could hear the two running around downstairs. This was how I knew Cloud was telling the truth.

"Just think: eight o'clock tonight they're both going to crash so we can run the bar in peace," I said. Cloud smiled again before he moved over to hug me.

"I'm glad you're back, Teef," he said I let out another small laugh as I hugged him back.

Hi, Zack, I'm sorry I couldn't save you well enough in the end. I guess in truth the lifestream needed you, but you have Aerith, don't you?

Say hi to her for us.

Cloud's fine. He's being as emotional as a teaspoon as always but he misses you guys lots. Tell Angeal I said hi as well!

I know I chose my original version of the world, but there wasn't much else I wanted from life and I guess that is evident. I wanted to make you alive and I wanted Aerith alive but that didn't always turn out for the best. You have the urge to fight as always but a peaceful world wouldn't need fighters. That and, we all knew the Mako in your blood could cause us more problems than it solved.

Anyway, in short, I guess I just wanted to say thank you for the opportunity and that I'm sorry I wasted it.

See you in the lifestream!

Love Tifa.

I wedged the note I had written under the rock next to the buster sword. I hoped Zack would read it. At the same time Cloud lay down a few flowers from Zack's hometown and tied a blue ribbon next to the seven other blue ribbons he had started tying once a year around four years ago.

After he did that he stepped back to admire the memorial.

"I'm trying to keep my promise," was all he said before he took my hand. We stared for a minute before Cloud looked over to signal it was time to go. I nodded as we turned and walked out of the ruined church.

Neither of us looked back at the place where the sword was, but I was sure I could feel a presence as we walked away. I smiled as I felt Cloud's hand in mine tighten as we made our way to the bike that was going to take us back to the bar we both lived at.

Ahhh I love my keyboard. So much better than the school ones. 3