A/N: Another day, another revision! Oh thank god these chapters keep getting shorter. Oh how I thank my lazy self!
Part One
Chapter Five
Leaving you
Tifa felt her mind being torn from the blackness of a dreamless sleep as she realized she was waking up. Opening her sore tear stung eyes and stared at the wooden ceiling. For the mere minute she had forgotten yesterday's events and her mind was blissful and content. Then her mind roused itself and the memories hit her like a sledgehammer. She felt hot stinging her coming to her eyes as she let a single tear roll down her cheek. She turned her head to the side and let several more lone tears caress her face. She stopped thinking for a moment and realized this wasn't her house. Propping herself up on her elbows she looked around and saw a lady with long slightly spiky hair standing in front of a stove.
"Ummm…" Tifa said quietly with that oh so familiar question we all know going through her head.
"Oh your up earlier than I expected…" Mrs. Strife said slightly startled. She set a pan back on the stove and walked over to sit on the edge of her son's bed that she was using. She had found her son curled in a little ball by the furnace this morning and found Tifa in his bed. She didn't really have to think long about what happened. Cloud got up silently several minutes later and left without a single word to her.
"Where am I?" She asked feeling as if her brain was dry and empty.
"Oh you should know this is Cloud's house. I don't blame you he never let's anyone in here." She said patting Tifa's blanket covered shin with a little cheer in her voice.
"Ohh…. And Cloud is…Where?" She said slowly and weakly. She was still in a moment of stupor. She didn't really remember how she got there, in Cloud's house.
"Ahh yes he went…over to your house with the headman, yes that's it, that boy never really tells me where he goes." Mrs. Strife said slowly at first as she cooked some food. Tifa undid the covers and hurriedly went out the door.
"Ahh one in the same those two are…kids these days" Mrs. Strife said closing the door. Tifa walked across the rain soaked grass to her house. The sky was cloudy and threatened to storm at any second.
"I guess the sky cries for me too." Tifa said as she opened the door and being greeted by the scent of lilacs. The contents of the house were still askew but the blood was gone. In the kitchen was Cloud on his hands and knee vigorously scrubbing the kitchen floor in his back pocket was a can of scented air spray. If the situation had been different she would've found this funny, but it wasn't.
"Uhhhh…" Tifa said slightly confused. Cloud heard the door open and then a confused voice. He looked up and stared at a tired looking Tifa. The vibrant chocolate-covered cherry eyes that he had fell in love with were dull and weary she worn a expression of a forlorn blankness.
"Hey, are you ok?" He asked trying best not to show his sadness.
"I am…Ok I guess." Tifa said noticing his stare. She could tell he was trying to cover some emotion up and she knew why. The way her looked at her was a bit unnerving it was one of those gazes that would make you squirm if exposed to it for long amounts of time.
"What are you doing?" She asked, interrupting the long silence that went between them.
"Headman assigned me to cleaning so you and your father can live here again." Cloud said smiling for a brief second.
"My father…where is he?" She asked as her eyes widen realizing that she had left him alone yesterday. Cloud mentally cringed and lowered his head now realizing that he was still on his hands and knees.
"What is it?" Her voice full of concern. Cloud got up and nervously tried to explain things.
"He…Left shortly after you did with his truck…And he didn't come back…Well he did but only to put this on my door." Cloud uncrummpled a piece of paper from his pants and handed it to Tifa. It read:
Tifa and Cloud,
Please Tifa take care of yourself. I apologize that I cannot be with you at this time. I would just be so hard you're so much like your mother I don't know if I can control myself. I might come back some day, but if I don't rememberI just wanted to say that I love you very much. Cloud take care of Tifa be her father for me. Take care of the shop too whatever you make is yours. For I have no use for anything, not anymore.
With as much love as I posses right now,
Your
father and boss Andrew Lockhart
Tifa blinked at the note and
read it over and over again.
"When did this get here?" She asked Cloud who had been wiping the floor with a cloth that was under his foot.
"This morning when I went to the headman it was tacked to my door." Cloud said still concentrating hard on the floor. Tifa stifled a sob with a sigh and threw the note away.
"He...Left because I looked…Like my mother." Tifa said feeling like she could collapse on the floor. Her left eye twitched a little, but she didn't notice it.
"Are you ok, Tifa?" Cloud said hurriedly once he saw her eye twitch. He sensed something wasn't right, and walked cautiously over to her.
"No, no Cloud I don't think I am." She said with a small cruel laugh in her voice. Tifa felt her chin hit her chest with a small thud' she started to laugh a little.
"He..Hahaha…Left…Hahaha…Because I looked…Hahahahaha…Like my mother Hahahahahaha." Tifa said quietly. Cloud was starting to get a little perturbed. He slowly stepped over to her and grabbed her arms.
"Tifa snap out of it." He said a bit forcefully as he shook her a little. Tifa's limbs started to violently thrash at him. He wrapped his arms around her arms and kept them securely at her sides. Her back was leaned against his chest. He wrestled her to the ground so the she would stop kicking him. Eventually her screaming ceased and she cried into his tight fitting black shirt.
"Cloud…. He left because of me…" She cried into his shirt. Cloud wanted to say that it wasn't her fault but it kind of was. He wanted to comfort her, but her didn't now how. He just lowered his head into her messy long brown hair and inhaled. Her hair smelled like the rainforest. He wonder who would want to put her though so much. The Headman had said that it was a robber. He wondered if that person knew that they would be splitting up a family. Why did he have to kill her and cause so much pain? What gave him that right? His mother had said once that no one had the right to take the life of another. She was right no one does. Cloud furrowed his eyebrows he wanted to cry too, but he remembered Mr. Lockhart's note. It had said to be like a father for Tifa. He had to be strong for her. Besides crying made him feel childish. Tifa fell silent it seemed she had passed out. Cloud carried her to his house and laid her in his bed. His mother gave him a look, but he left and continued to straighten her house.
