A/n: I love to torture...I wonder if Dark Dragon 00 will be there to review when I post this. He used to be my number 1 reviewer.
Part one
Chapter nine
Broken Man Walking
"Good finally we're done." Cloud said setting down the freshly sharpened obsidian blade.
"I vote we give ourselves a nice long vacation." Tifa said leaning back in her chair.
"Ok then grab yourself a handful of blades, I should get these over there before that guy comes to kill me." Cloud said, carefully wrapping his arms around some of the blades. A tall young man wearing a white lab coat and glasses answered the door of the ShinRa mansion.
"May I help you?" He asked adjusting his coke bottle glassed up to his nose.
"Yeah you ordered these obsidian blades." Cloud said shoving the blades in his hands.
"Oh happy day! You finished these just in time, here is your gil kids." The scientist said as he threw a bag of gil to Cloud. He shut the door and Cloud threw the bag of gil to Tifa.
"Well I am ready to go home." Cloud said closing the ShinRa gate behind him. The thick growl of a old truck was heard riding into town.
"Hey I know that sound…That's my father's truck!" Tifa said looking in the direction of the truck. Sure as shit is was him driving sloppily into town. That ominous aura returned and so did the slight sickness in Cloud's stomach.
"HE-EY! Where's my little girl?" Mr. Lockhart said stepping out of his truck with his arms open wide. Tifa ran to him and was engulfed in a big hug. Cloud frowned at this sight. The familar words of what Mr. Lockhart had said about her filled his head.
"What's a matter Cloudy, not happy to see me?" He said with a evil glint in his tired, bloodshot eyes. Cloud gave him the dirtiest look he had with in him.
"I missed you papa." Tifa said burring her face in his shirt. Cloud could see how she could do that. He could smell Mr. Lockhart from over there and he was sickened.
"Aww I missed you too baby" He said squeezing her tighter. Eventually her father let go.
"Well Cloud I thank you for taking care of my daughter, but I think I can take it from here." He said putting his hands on Cloud's shoulders.
"So Tifa you go fetch your things from wherever you was staying, and I'll go take a bath then we can go spent some time together." He suggested.
"Alright!' She exclaimed happily watching him walk off towards their house.
"Isn't this great Cloud now thing can go back to how they used to be." She exclaimed happily doing a small dance.
"Tifa…I know it's not really my place, but I think your father changed for the worst did you even manage to get a whiff of him." Cloud said quietly as he wrinkled his nose.
"So he's been drinking a little, what man in his right mind doesn't after he's suffered a lose." She said as Cloud's words took her mood down a notch. With that she took off to get her stuff from Cloud's house.
"Whatever you say Tifa." Cloud said with a sigh that sounded more similar to a snort.
Amero thinks Cloud is a little to much like herself
Cloud opened the door to his house. It was time for him to got to work. He still wasn't sure if he was an apprentice or not, but it gave him an excuse to check on Tifa. Normally her father was at work and she was around the house doing random things. Tifa never really said much to him anymore, but he didn't mind as long as she was safe. Cloud opened the door to Tifa's house and looked around. Her father was sitting in a chair with his head on the table. Of course near him was his ever watchful bottle of booze. Cloud cautiously walked in when her father's head perked up.
"Hey! What you doing in here?" Mr. Lockhart growled at him, not even raising his head.
"I came to do some work..." Cloud muttered to him. Mr. Lockhart mumbled and set his head back down. Cloud walked right past him and light a fire in the smith. He stuck as piece of steel in and waited for it to heat up. After about ten minutes Cloud took it out and set it on the anvil with a slight clink. Cloud picked up the thick hammer and pounded it onto the steel. The sharp ringing echoed throughout the kitchen. Cloud raised his hammer and beat it twice more before Mr. Lockhart got up.
"What the bloody hell are you doing boy?" Mr. Lockhart yelled viciously. Cloud set his hammer down calmly and walked up to him. Cloud took a deep breath and proudly stuck his chest out. Mr. Lockhart had been there well over a week and each night when Cloud was sitting on his porch he saw Mr. Lockhart wobble over to the bar. It was time to let his feelings about this be known.
"I'm doing the job your supposed to do if you weren't such a useless drunk!" Cloud growled at Mr. Lockhart. Cloud made himself as tall as possible and glared up at the older man. Mr. Lockhart grabbed Cloud by the neck and threw him down against the cold brick wall. Cloud cringed as he felt the skin rip off his arm as he slide down the wall. In a fit of rage, Mr. Lockhart threw a glass half full of liquor at the wall above him. Cloud felt the glass shards fall down and scratch him, then the liquor that followed burned the wounds. Mr. Lockhart opened the cabinet to grab another glass while Cloud sat in a somewhat stupor daze.
As Tifa dragged a bag of groceries into the house she found her father pouring a drink for himself. She saw Cloud on the floor rubbing his face. He was surrounded by broken glass shards.
"Hey what took you so long." He said taking a long drink out of a booze bottle.
"What happened?" Tifa nearly yelled at him as she heard Cloud groan as he lifted himself off the floor.
"Nothing, I was just giving that wuss a life lesson." He said angrily throwing the bottle on the ground, making Cloud jump back slightly. Tifa didn't say anything. She looked away from both of them and concentrated on the floor.
"Yeah, Yeah did you get the bourbon I asked for?" He said in a lighter tone of voice.
"Yes Papa." She said. The sat at the table and stared at he blankly for several minutes while he drank his drink. Tifa could feel his eyes burning a whole into her back. Cloud was right he had changed. Cloud was glaring at Mr. Lockhart, he wanted to jump him and rip his throat out like a wild beast.
"I'm going to the bar have dinner ready when I get back." He said forcefully heading outside into the rain. Tifa had started to prepare dinner when Cloud slipped next to her.
"I think...I'm not going to be coming back for awhile. If he asked, I quit." Cloud said looking out the window at the broken man stumbling towards the bar.
"Cloud..." She sighed as she put the bottles of liquor in a cabinet."You were right Cloud." She said after awhile in a defeated voice.
"About what?" He queried as he wiped the small cuts on his face with a dish towel.
"You know about him having changed for the worst. I wonder if that robber knows how much damage he caused our family." She asked turning her back to Cloud and went back to the stove as she shed a couple tears.
"It's going to be alright Tifa wounds always heal with time, right?" He said putting a comforting hand on her shoulder as he heard her sob.
"I suppose your right. Everything heals with time no matter how bad." She said wiping her face free of the tears grip.
"We should get this glass swept up" Cloud said as he grabbed a broom and dustpan and gracefully swept up the shards near Tifa's feet. He strongly tried to keep his attention on the glass and not to trying to look up Tifa's shirt as he bent down to sweep the shards into the dustpan with her hand.
