I Need You
By: Jenna Mogavero

"No, Barett, it can't be true!" I exclaimed as my eyes went from the TV screen to Barett Wallace's sad chocolate eyes. I was sitting in Barett's living room in his house in Corel. The nightly news had just been on. Vincent Valentine was sitting beside me staring off into space with a blank look in his eyes.

Until now, I've been living in Nibelheim with Cloud and Vincent. Then Cloud left. He didn't leave anything telling of where he was going besides a small note telling me how sorry he was and that he needed time to himself.

"I'm sorry, Tifa. Cloud's dead," Barett said, trying to comfort me.

Barett rewound the show to where he started recording it.

"In recent news," a lady news reporter said. "Cloud Strife, leader of AVALANCHE, was found dead earlier today. Two mountain climbers found his body in the Northern Crater. Why he was there when he died, we do not know. Cloud Strife has no immediate family. He is survived by childhood friend and companion, Tifa Lockhart, Mayor of Corel, Barett Wallace, Protector of Cosmo Canyon, Nanaki, Mistress of Wutai, Yuffie Kisaragi, friend, Vincent Valentine and, robotic fortune teller, Cait Sith and his programmer, Reeve. Cloud Strife's body will be cremated and all surviving members of AVALANCHE will receive a small urn containing his ashes."

Barett stopped the video and looked at me. Watching that all over again didn't make me feel any better. Suddenly, as if something had flicked the wrong switch inside me brain, my eyes filled with hate as I looked at Barett.

"No!" I screamed. "I won't believe it! That wasn't Cloud!"

I turned around and dashed out of Barett's house. I ran until I was no longer inside the town, but still I kept running. I didn't care. Cloud was dead; I might as well be too. My strength left me when I reached the quicksand of the Golden Saucer. I collapsed in the cool grass and began crying again.

What happened to you, Cloud? How did you die? Why did you die? Why did you leave me? I don't want to be alone anymore!

My mind was reeling. I was compelled to join Cloud yet something told me to go on living. That I shouldn't waste my life on one man.

Gritting my teeth, I slammed my fist down on the ground and got up on my knees.

"What am I supposed to do now, Cloud?!" I screamed to the heavens. "You're the reason I go on living everyday! Now that you're dead, what use am I?! You just had to leave didn't you?! Aeris isn't the only one who cared about you!!"

I started crying again. I loved him so much yet he didn't even see it. He was blinded by Aeris. Whenever she entered a room it was like she was a magnet. Every single man, young and old, in the vicinity would run toward her like she was the last woman on earth. I used to get so jealous of her, but I thought of her as my sister, didn't I?

Feeling cold metal on my shoulder I jumped up and swirled around. Vincent was standing a few feet away from me. His brow was furrowed and I could see a slight sparkle in his blood red eyes.

"What?!" I said, almost wishing he would go away.

"Barett told me to chase after you and make sure you didn't do anything stupid," he replied in his usual monotone.

My arms relaxed and fell from the defensive position they had been in. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. I looked at Vincent for some sign of sympathy, but I found none in his cold, dark eyes.

"Why, Vincent? Why did he have to die?" I said, more tears coming to my eyes.

"Maybe it was his time."

I grunted as tears rolled down my face. Caring on conversation with Vincent was like talking to a brick wall.

Without thinking, I ran toward Vincent and wrapped my arms around his neck and began to cry again. I felt him stiffen up but I didn't really give a hoot. I needed someone to hug and he was the only other one out here with me. After many long moments, his good wrapped around my shoulders as he ran his metal fingers through my hair.

"There's no need for tears. You'll see him again someday," Vincent whispered.

"I know. It hurts though," I said, burrowing my face farther into his neck.

"It's supposed to. I wouldn't expect anyone to put a deaf ear to someone dieing, especially you. You of all people need to be strong in this dark hour."

"But what about you?" I choked, looking up at him. "I bet you've never cried."

"I may be emotionless now, but I could cry just like you are right now. I could laugh, smile, even."

"Why don't you now?" I asked him.

"I've forgotten what it's like. My experience with you and everyone else has surfaced the little bit of human left in me. Especially my experience with you," he said looking down into my eyes. One corner of his mouth curved into a curt smirk.

I looked away from him for a moment as I smile came to my lips.

"You know," I said, looking back in his direction. "I could go to Aeris and talk to her about anything. Well, expect things that had the name 'Cloud' in the subject. Now sometimes I find myself waking up in the middle of the night wanting to go find Aeris and talk to her. Now that she's not here, I don't have anyone to talk to."

"Well, you could talk to me," Vincent said. "I won't bite."

A smile came to my lips as I put my head back on Vincent's shoulder. Vincent shook his head absentmindedly and sent his long, black hair flying into my face. I grabbed onto a small section of it and twirled it around my fingers. For a guy his hair actually smelt pretty nice.

"Your hair smells nice," I said, putting the strand of hair I was playing with back behind his shoulder.

"Thank you, I think."

"Well, you're welcome," I paused and thought about something to say. Gosh, what do you talk with Vincent about anyway? Taking a deep breath, I pulled something out of the air. "So, Vincent, not that I could really see, but what was your reaction to Cloud . . . . dieing?"

He didn't say anything for long moments.

"I guess I could have been a little more, how do you say it . . . . emotional, maybe. Yes, I was very surprised to hear that he died. I thought Cloud was one of those men that no matter how hard you tried you couldn't kill them."

"That's exactly what I thought," I said, looking up at Vincent. "I think after getting stabbed through the chest, being experimented on by a madman and taking on a Sephiroth clone that he'd be practically invincible. I guess whatever killed him got the best of him. Cloud was an excellent fighter. Hardly ever would he let his guard down and when he did, I was right there."

"Why were you?" Vincent inquired.

"Well, I. . . .I loved him and I wanted to get rid of Sephiroth just as much as he did so we sort of agreed on being there for each other," I said, looking up at him.

My brow furrowed at what I saw.

Vincent's eyes were turned away from mine and if I looked close enough into his hollow eyes I thought I saw . . . . .regret, maybe? Or maybe it was. . . . .jealousy? I don't know, but in all the time that I had spent with Vincent I've never seen him look quite like this. Either I said something or. . . .I don't know. Bringing my hand up I put it on his left cheek and pushed his head back over so he was looking at me again.

"Vincent, what's wrong?" I asked, trying to look for it in his eyes.

Suddenly, his grip on my sides tightened. Pain shot up my right side and I jerked causing me more pain. "Vincent, stop!" I exclaimed, trying to look for some hint of why he was doing this to me. "Vincent, please! You're hurting me!" I said, grabbing onto his left hand.

Like that one sentence had some special meaning to him, he let go of me and quickly turned around. Twisting so I could see my side better, all I saw were five little red dots. I think I'll live. I looked back at Vincent, who still had his back turned to me. I walked toward him and put my hand on his shoulder.

"Vincent? What's wrong?" I asked, sympathetically.

He didn't answer me. I felt like I said something that might have offended him, but what did I say?

"Vincent, please. Tell me what's wrong."

I heard him sigh and stepped back as he turned around. I looked into his eyes and for the first time I actually could sense emotion coming from him. I started to wring my hands thinking that I had done something wrong.

"Vincent, please, tell me if I said anything to offend you, because . . . ." I started to say before he walked toward me and put a finger on my lips.

He remained quiet for a little while longer before he looked at me and spoke.

"Has there ever been someone in your life that you feel you can never have?" Vincent asked, staring into my eyes taking his finger off my mouth.

"Yes, of course, I felt that way about Cloud."

"I also felt that way about Lucrecia." He paused. "I also feel that way about you, Tifa."

For the first time in a long time, I was at a loss for words. I looked up at Vincent and actually saw a smile come to his lips.

My jaw dropped. Vincent Valentine was smiling . . . .at me. I never thought Vincent felt that way about me. He seemed so out of focus with everything around him I thought that he didn't want anything to do with us. I lowered my head and laid it on his chest again.

"I don't know what to say," I said, laughing a bit.

"You don't have to say anything," he said, raising my head so I was looking at him again. "Seeing you happy is all I need and seeing you in this weakened state upsets me."

He looked away from me then like he regretted saying that. He looked back over at me.

"I never thought that you thought that about me," I tried. "I thought that you didn't give a care that me or Cloud were living in Nibelheim with you."

His blood red eyes softened as he lowered his head and kissed me. I was so surprised I didn't know what to do. Before I knew it was leaning into the kiss with my arms around his neck. He broke away from me and looked into my eyes and saw that his sparkled slightly. Then he turned around and began walking away from me.

"Now you know," he said loud enough for me to hear.

I stood, fixed in that spot before I ran after Vincent. When I reached him, I grabbed onto his right arm and held onto it. He looked over at me and looked surprised for a bit before he maneuvered his arm so he clasped my hand in his.

We walked back to Corel together and for the first time in about three hours I had a genuine smile on my face. I'll probably never get over Cloud's death and I'll probably never find out why he died, but now that I have someone that will shoulder the burden with me, I think I'll do just fine.