AN. Okay. So. Like. Yeah. This is a really really random short sappy dramaticish thing that came to mind and was typed before my other, better ideas because it's shorter. It's not in my little story line thingy, cause it's just in a random context. I think I'm going to assemble a little collection of fics like this. Yknow… short crappy ones XD

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"I need something cheerful," she confessed. He couldn't blame her. "Tell me a joke."

"A joke?"

"Any joke," she insisted. "Please, I could use a laugh." Her tears certainly proved that.

"All right," A joke, a joke… he would have suggested something more profound as a cure for the blues, but if that was what she wanted, then that's what he was going to give her. But he had to think for a moment. "I've got one."

She scooted closer so she could listen, sniffling.

"A man is in love with a woman, and he has been since he was a little kid," He paused but continued when she nodded. "But he never told her, y'know? He just waited and waited, hoping that eventually she'd figure it out and come running to him, and they'd live happily ever after. So he waited. And I mean waited. His friends told him to move on but he said he didn't want anyone else. He became an old man, and he was still all alone, until he got really sick. His neighbor found him collapsed in his house, and he was taken to the hospital."

He stopped for a moment to see if she was listening. She watched him with wide eyes, clutching a tissue in her hand tightly. He wondered if he was getting through to her. "So he's in his hospital bed, right? Yeah, the doctors just barely saved his life. And then he sees her. You know, his dream girl. She stares at him, comes up to him like she's been dying to tell him something.

"So she does. She says, 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry you wasted your life waiting for me. And…' She kinda stops cause someone calls her name from the other side of the room. 'I'm sorry, but I have to go to my husband now.' The old man was crushed. She didn't love him. She never did. It was too late for his happily ever after. The woman had said it herself—he wasted his life waiting for her. ….Suddenly he didn't feel much like recovering anymore. She didn't even come to his funeral."

He waited while she registered that he was finished. "That's not funny," she frowned, eyes even wider. "That's not even happy," he could see fresh tears gathering in her eyes. "Why did you tell me that story Reno? I wanted to hear a joke." She was very quiet when she finished her sentence, hiding her face among his shirt buttons, once again shaking slightly from emotion.

Maybe he hadn't gotten through to her with his story. Tseng had been good at that kind of thing, but somehow Reno never managed to pick it up. Sometimes he didn't even know what Tseng was talking about. "I can't cure that kind of hurt for you with a joke Tifa." He rubbed her back slowly while she calmed down.

She raised her head to look at him. He could see tearstains on his shirt. "Then what can you do?"

He hesitated, wondering what he was risking by going with the direct approach. "I…" He looked at her—she pleaded to him with her eyes, hoping he'd take her pain away. She'd abandoned the tissue in favor of the fabric of his shirt. "I can love you."

There were the tears again. "Can you? Can you really?" And the shaking.

It didn't matter if he could. He already did. He let her know by pulling her close, refusing to let go.

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Sappy. Shut up, I don't care. I think you can probably figure out what Tifa's crying is related to. (It's Cloud, duh.) Hope that wasn't too painful. Review please!