Cloud sighed, fumbling around in his mind for the words to tell Tifa what was going on. If Tifa felt anything for him he was gonna lose that soon if he didn't explain well.
"Well...you know when Aeris and I first met, we agreed to a payment of one date..." Cloud decided that lying would be his best bet in this case.
"...well, she was paying me..." Cloud, unfortunately, had just found the flaw in his plan. He never actually did protect her, and he didn't really think he should get any payment whatsoever.
"...that date in the Gold Saucer...that was just a regular date then." Tifa concluded quietly. She just couldn't win. She'd walked in on one of her dates, and knew they had at least one other. She lost her chance, Aeris won.
"How do you know about that!?" Cloud asked, frantically.
"Aeris told me. We were friends, ya know. We didn't have many secrets." She said simply, like Cloud should have already known that the two were so close, and had spilled to eachother most everything. Aeris had even told Tifa, when she saw how sad she was after her date with Cloud, that she wouldn't go out with him again untill Tifa and he had straightened out their feelings.
"Tif! Please, I know what you think, but..." Cloud shook his head. Tifa was doing her best do mask the feelings that she never meant to show.
"Don't worry about it, Cloud. You're free to kiss whoever you want." Tifa said, standing up. Cloud was confused by her actions. One minute she's on the ground crying, now she's telling him that he can kiss whoever he wanted to.
"Tifa...come on. It's obviously bothering you..."
"No. I obviously don't care!" Tifa shot back. She didn't mean to be so mean about it. She wanted to sound indifferent, but she came off harsh and angry.
Cloud didn't quite believe her, but decided not to say anything. He figured she needed time to herself, whatever the reason may be.
"Okay, Tif...but if you wanna talk..." Cloud said, looking back towards the Highwind.
"I don't." She said simply, taking off towards the Highwind, not taking a look back. Cloud sighed, walking slowly behind her. He headed onto the airship behind her, but Aeris held him back.
"Cloud..." She said quietly, putting a gentle hand on his arm. Cloud kept walking, brushing off her hand.
"Leave me alone." He growled in a raspy voice. Aeris stood watching him walk up into the Highwind. She sighed, and sat down, looking out at the spacious plains that her and Cloud were sitting in no more than half an hour before.
No more than 30 minutes had passed, and Aeris felt the carefully built relationship she'd worked to attain with Cloud was broken in a single second.
'Because Tifa's here now...' She said to herself quietly. She thought for a few moments, then made up her mind.
"Good-bye, Cloud..." She whispered, and walked off quickly away from the Highwind, away from Tifa and Cloud, away from all of her friends.
***
"Oh, come on, Tif..." Shera sat down on the bed in the room Tifa, Yuffie, and she shared.
"You don't understand, Shera..." Tifa looked her bare feet. The whole time she was gone, all she thought about was Cloud, and he hadn't thought of her once. She closed her eyes tight, in efforts to stop her tears, but to no avail. A tear trailed down as she closed her eyes, and she broke down into silent sobs.
"Tifa, come on. I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding..." Shera said, trying to comfort the girl. Tifa shook her head, and looked up at Shera, her eyes pink and swolen with tears.
"There's nothing to misunderstand.-he loves her." Tifa said quietly, turning and laying down on the bed. Shera sighed, remaining on the edge of her bed.
"But he still tried to talk to you, right? So maybe there's still a chance?" Shera offered, not sure how to respond. She wasn't exactally one to be stuck in a love triangle. Sure, she had feelings for the captain, but there was no other girl for her to think of.
"There isn't any chance. He doesn't care..." Tifa didn't bother to try and apply Shera's logic. She'd had enough of all this. She didn't care if something made sense or not, because to her at the moment, nothing made sense.
Before she and Aeris had switched places she was sure that Cloud had some feelings for her. He'd saved her when she almost fell into the liftstream back in the northern crater. He held her in his arms when she got back on the Highwind.
'but only for a second...' Tifa thought to herself. She was torn; Did Cloud love her or Aeris. One minute the answer would be Aeris...he had dated her back before she first died, and he was kissing her when she returned. The next minute she'd be the holder of Cloud's heart. He'd saved her again and again, even after Aeris.
"TIFA! SHERA!!!" Cloud ran into the room gasping for breath. Tifa sat up, and Shera stood.
"Cloud, what is it!?" Shera asked, putting her hands on his shoulders in attempt to calm him.
"It's Aeris! She's missing...." He panted, looking down at the floor. Tifa clutched her fists. The answer was crystal clear to her now. It was Aeris. She was the one Cloud loved.
Tifa bolted off, and dashed off, away from Cloud.
((A/N: Sorry that this was such a short chapter! I'm getting over a bout of writer's block. I just posted a KH fic which I wasn't planning on putting up, and I found new inspiration! Thanks, demonleader! I'd probably still be trying to think up a direction for this story if you hadn't made me post that other fic!))