Disclaimer: Same as last chapter!

A/N: As usual, thankees to readers and reviewers!

(Tifa's POV)

Last night's events were horrible. I don't understand at all why Vincent is acting this way. Doesn't he understand that I'm not some foolish little girl who isn't going to go running back to someone who, though I loved them deeply, hurt me so much? I love him, and only him. I won't lie that just seeing Cloud once again makes my heart soar. But it's just the fact that I know he's alive and well. Just the fact that I know he's not half-mangled on some other continent, sick and emaciated, that makes me feel alright again. This isn't love anymore, it's just...friendship right?

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The morning dawned on what was going to be another bright and sunny day. The smell of eggs and roses was missing today, as no one was really in the mood to try and prepare a decent meal after last night's events. Vincent was still apprehensive about the presence of Tifa's ex-obsession sharing the same household as them, and he vaguely wondered for how long this arrangement would be upheld. Tifa also was still mulling bitterly over the raging sentiments that all seemed to be flying in her direction from both males. Unbeknownst to them, Cloud was seething over what he imagined he had to endure listening to last night.

"I'm really sorry about all the noise we made last night...I hope we didn't give you any trouble sleeping." Tifa apologized while a slight coloration crept into her cheeks.

Cloud's face burned in embarrassment. He never figured the woman for a mind reader.

"It's alright...it's just what grown-up couples do, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but I still feel bad, knowing you were there, having to listen to all of it."

An akward silence fell between all parties. Vincent was still glaring icily out of the window toward the direction of his Estate.

"I have some affairs I think I need to take care of this afternoon. You two don't mind if I leave you here alone do you?" The crimson-eyed brunette directed the question towards Cloud, but looked directly at Tifa to gauge her reaction. She had cast her bright eyes downward and her lips seemed to twitch as though she were on the verge of protesting.

"Of course not, do what you gotta do, right? I'll stay here and make sure Tifa stays out of trouble. After all, wouldn't want anything happening to your bride-to-be." There was a bitter edge to his voice that he tried hard to conceal, but judging by the look on the other man's face, knew that he had done so poorly.

Without any further conversation, Vincent grabbed his coat from the rack by the door and stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind him. A behemoth would have made less noise. The other two inhabitants looked at one another, unsure of what they could say.

"I'm really sorry that you had to be an audial witness to another one of our domestics...it's not fair that we put you through it too."

"What are you talking about? That little squabble just now?"

"No, last night. All that pounding and shouting. We lost our tempers...we'll try not to make such a ruckus tonight...that is if you're staying again." Tifa's voice gained a hopeful lilt to the ending of her sentence.

"So wait, are you telling me that last night, all that noise that was coming from your room, was a fight?"

"Yeah? We had a little bit of a heated discussion and he started punching the wall. I was screaming at him to stop and...yeah." She let the sentence hang, not wanting to tell him the full reason the whole thing had come about. "Why? What did you think it was?"

Cloud's face turned beet red as he cast his eyes downward. He stuttered a few phrases and finally settled on a weakly muttered 'nothing', rather than further embarrassing himself because of his highly overactive imagination. A part of him soared joyously. "So they AREN'T sleeping together!" Was the first thought that radiated through his mind. On the other hand, he did tell himself that he wasn't so sure this whole 'fight' thing wasn't some cover up to make what might have happened look more inocuous.

"Did he hurt you? If he did..." He managed a recovery from his jumbled thoughts.

She shook her head rapidy and feverently denied that he had, or ever would do such a thing to her. "He's no monster." She added timidly. 'Unless you count a green-eyed one...'

Once more, a blanket of silence settled across the two. They gazed into their mugs of coffee uneasily. There was so much to say, but it seemed as though there was no longer a reason to say any of it. Tifa's mind swirled with questions. She wanted to ask him if he had found what he had searched for. Why he came back. If he thought he was going to accomplish anything. If he loved her even. Likewise Cloud wanted all the details over what had happened in his absence over the past year, and how things wound up like this. He didn't think that it was fate at all that his whole life should fall apart in less than two years.

"Tifa...what happened here? I mean, I know it's none of my business now, and you seem happy enough in this set up...but how...what...y'know...?"

She kept her eyes cast down as she replied, not wanting to let him see the tears that were slowly welling up.

"Because I was so miserable without you! Don't you know how much I wanted you? How much I l-loved you! And then you went and tore my whole world apart by confessing all those awful things to me! I had hoped you died! I wanted you out of my life and away forever! And the only way I could forget you was by trying to love again! And he was there for me. He was to me, what I was to you. A filler! Someone just to nullify that burning emptiness inside caused by longing for someone we could never have for so, so long. For too long..."

Cloud let his own tormented tears fall as the next words spilled out of his mouth. He lunged across the table sending his chair and the two mugs of coffee clattering to the floor. He pressed her face to his chest and cried out. "So tell me! Do you love me still! Tell me you love me still!" He buried his face in her hair and massaged her neck as he whimpered and cooed, praying for the answer that he needed to keep going.

"Don't you see I can't love you now? I worked very hard for the past year to undo all the chains that you had so cleverly wrapped around my heart. I worked so hard! I need to love Vincent!"

"But do you? DO YOU!"

"N--Ye-No! Yes! I don't know...why Cloud! WHY NOW! I was s-so close to rebuilding my world without you, and now, now you come back, distorting everything I feel! GODDAMN YOU!"

He grabbed her tightly by the upper arms and thrust her apart from his body. With a simple motion he covered her mouth with his and tried to convey with this single gesture all the love he had learned he needed to invest in her.

They didn't notice a certain man had slipped in during the commotion, who was now standing dumbfounded in the foyer, looking in at what he knew was his whole future falling to pieces in front of he very eyes.

If anything was going to work out, God help him, destiny had better be on his side after this.