Chapter 3: "The Reunion"
Thanks to kel-gi and tifaXKadaj for their reviews! I hope you'll like the rest of the story too!
Almost a month had passed since this incident. Tifa had made Cloud find a new secret hideout, because she was afraid that Kadaj would come to arrest him. However, Kadaj hadn't made any moves. Yet. He had put his best spies to watch Cloud. Everyday he found one of them killed.
Tifa, on the other side, had her own problems. She continued to work at the bar, although she knew that they could arrest her at any time for escaping from jail. Fortunately for her, Kadaj seemed to have forgotten the event. He hadn't bothered her since.
It was 22:00 sharp. Tifa was, as usual, working at the bar. It was almost empty. The only customer was a man wearing a black cloak and a hood, which hid his face. Over the past month, he had become the only customer who came here every night. At first, Tifa wondered who he was, but since she always was a discreet person, she never asked, and now she had gotten use to him.
Everything was quiet. Suddenly, the door opened and a man stepped inside. He was tall and he had long silver hair. His clothes were dirty and he looked really tired. He sat at a table.
"Hey, you! Get me some whisky!" he said to Tifa.
Tifa didn't like the way he talked, but, unfortunately, the customer is always right.
She brought him a glass of whisky and left it on the table. As she walked away, he grabbed her hand.
"You are a pretty little thing, you know…"
His eyes glowed in the dark. He stood up, put his hand around her waist and squeezed her. She struggled. Suddenly, a hand grabbed him by the shoulder, turned him around and punched him in the face. He stumbled backwards. The hand belonged to the man with the black cloak. But now, his hood had fallen off and revealed his face. It was Kadaj. Tifa stared at him with surprise.
"Kadaj! Is that you?" said the man with the long silver hair. " Didn't you recognize me? I'm Yazoo!"
Kadaj's face lightened up. He ran and hugged Yazoo.
"I can't believe it! I thought I'd lost you in that battle! Where have you been?"
"Oh, just wandering around…"
At that exact moment, the door opened and Cloud walked in. When he saw Kadaj, he instinctively reached for his gun.
"YOU! My worst enemy in my own house!"
He started shooting. Kadaj managed to hide beneath a table. However, Yazoo was hit. He collapsed to the ground, blood filling his chest. Some soldiers that were nearby heard the shooting and came running. Cloud ran away. They followed him.
Once Cloud was gone, Kadaj ran to Yazoo. He bent over him.
" Yazoo! Stay with me, buddy! I just found you! I can't lose you again!"
"Kadaj… I'm happy I saw you… Take care of yourself…"
And those were Yazoo's last words. A tear ran down Kadaj's cheek. He looked up and saw Tifa standing, dumbstruck, a few meters away. His heart filled with anger. He was determined to revenge Cloud.
"And YOU! You are on his side! He just killed my best friend!"
Tifa was surprised by this attack.
"I'm sorry for your friend, but a battle always has losses! Cloud wouldn't fight you if you didn't act so cruelly!"
"I wish he had killed me instead…"
"If he had killed you, I would have killed myself…" thought Tifa, but she didn't say it aloud.
Kadaj stood up and stormed out of the bar, into the pouring rain that had just started.
"Kadaj! Wait!" Tifa called after him. But he didn't stop. Letting out a sigh, Tifa took her coat and went after him.
Once she got out of the bar, she looked around, but he was gone. She started searching for him. She searched for hours, in all the streets and alleys of the town, but with no result. Finally, overwhelmed by despair, she fell on her knees in the middle of the empty street and burst into tears. Her tears mixed with the rain that fell on her face. Between her sobs, she heard someone cough, almost next to her. She looked around and there he was. He was sitting in the corner of the street, rolled up, like a baby. He was shivering. She ran and put her hands around him. He looked up and she smiled at him. His face was stained with tears. She helped him stand up and walk back to the bar. She took off his wet clothes and put him in bed. He let her take care of him without saying a word. When he was warmly in bed, under the sheets, he looked at her and smiled.
"I'm so sorry…I shouldn't have yelled at you…" his voice was coming out with difficulty and he couldn't stop coughing. She stroke his hair.
"Shhhhhhh…It's ok. Now all you have to do is rest. I'll make something hot for you to drink.
Kadaj drank the tea Tifa made for him. She sat next to him on a chair and watched him. After a while, she fell asleep.
"She must be exhausted." Thought Kadaj. As he looked at her, his heart filled with warmth he had never felt before.
"This is what they call happiness" he thought, and fell asleep.
Note: I think I deserve a place in the Guinness book of records! I put a character in the story (Yazoo) and took him out of it, all in just one chapter! Anyway, I hoped you liked this chapter, cause there's more to come:-)