Attitude
It had been years since Tifa had seen Cloud. Years. And now that she had found him again, he was nothing like she had expected. She didn't know why she thought he should have been different, but somehow this attitude--the cockiness, the indifference--wasn't Cloud. How could it be? How could the quiet, insecure boy from Nibelheim have turned into this dispassionate mercenary?
People change, she told herself firmly, watching him sit in the corner of the bar while she reorganized her bottles of alcohol. The other members of Avalanche were down in the basement, probably wondering why she wasn't joining them, but all she could do was fiddle with bottles that didn't even need to be rearranged while she watched the man in the corner. She puzzled over him, over the state he had been when she found him at the train station, over why she felt like there was something missing.
Who are you? Do you know how much I've wondered about you over the years? Do you know what you took with you when you left Nibelheim? Tifa squeezed her eyes shut, fingers resting on the cool glass of a bottle for a brief moment before she opened her eyes and moved it to another shelf.
The sound of the lift brought her attention to the other side of the bar, but it wasn't Barret or Jessie or any of the other Avalanche members who came up from the basement. It was Marlene, her short hair tangled, rubbing her eyes and yawning. In one arm, she was clutching a pad of paper and her old crayons.
"Finally awake, hm?" Tifa asked her with a smile. "Have a nice nap?"
"Mmm. I'm hungry," Marlene replied, padding across the bar floor with bare feet.
"Marlene, haven't I told you that you shouldn't walk around up here without shoes? This is an old place and the wood is splintering."
Marlene's face sank. "I remember, Tifa, but my shoes hurt my feet."
Tifa frowned. "They're probably getting too small. All right. Be careful--go sit down and I'll get you something to eat."
Marlene immediately began to tiptoe across the floor. Instead of choosing one of the empty tables, she crawled onto the seat across from Cloud and peered at him over the table. "Hi."
Cloud looked back at her, his face expressionless. "Hi."
Tifa pulled out the leftover soup she had saved for Marlene and began to heat it up over the small stove. She glanced over to see Marlene beginning to color on the paper. Marlene picked out a crayon and held it out to Cloud. "Want to color with me?"
Cloud stared at her, and Tifa clenched her hands into fists, waiting to see if Cloud would crush the hopeful expression on Marlene's face. He was such a stranger now; she had no idea if he would care about playing with one little girl when he didn't seem to care about much of anything.
She relaxed when Cloud reached out and took the crayon from Marlene, and Tifa watched with a faint smile as they bent their heads over the drawing pad and began to color. Marlene was chatting cheerfully, and Cloud wasn't saying much at all, but she didn't seem to mind.
By the time Tifa carried the bowl of soup over to the table, Marlene declared, "There! I finished!"
Tifa peered at the picture. "Is that…Cloud?"
"Yup!" Marlene set her yellow crayon down and pulled her soup over to her. "Thank you, Tifa!"
Cloud looked from Marlene's drawing of a person with huge yellow hair to Marlene, then looked up at Tifa. She smiled at him and shrugged a little and went back to organizing her bottles. Though she was still puzzling over Cloud and his attitude, it was so good to see that he wasn't above drawing with Marlene.
"I'm going out," Cloud said, and Tifa straightened to see him opening the door. He barely gave her a glance as he added, "I'll be back later." He walked out of the bar, and Tifa let out a long breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
"I like him," Marlene declared, and she slurped a spoonful of soup.
Tifa swallowed. "I do, too." I just wish I knew who he was now.
After Marlene finished her soup, she tiptoed carefully across the floor back to the lift and went down. Tifa wasn't alone in the bar for very long, though; Cloud came back faster than she had expected he would. He glanced around the bar before approaching her at the counter and handing her a parcel. "For Marlene," was all he said.
Eyebrows raised, Tifa opened the parcel. Her eyes widened when she saw the slippers inside. "These…" They were made like socks, sewn with stretchy fabric. The bottoms were leather--tough, but bendable, so that it didn't matter that they were a little too long. Marlene could fit into them and still keep wearing them for a while even as her feet grew. "I grew up wearing slippers like this."
"My mom always kept a pair or two around for winter. Look, just tell Barret you got them. I don't want any hassle from him over doing something for his kid."
Tifa bit back a laugh. Barret would make a scene about it, probably demanding to know if Cloud thought he couldn't clothe his own daughter. "Thank you, Cloud."
Cloud shrugged as he went back to his corner table. Beneath Tifa's uncertainty and questions, beneath Cloud's attitude of nonchalance, she felt like she'd just had a real glimpse of Cloud. It gave her hope that maybe she would be able to unlock some of the mysteries surrounding his return, and she went back to her task with a smile on her face.
