A/N: You were 51, Zenbon!

Little Black Book
For: Tifa Lockheart Strife
Prompt: Cloud finds Tifa's diary/drawings
Summary: He was just doing laundry...

Cloud rarely found himself cleaning any part of the house. He did his usual duties; taking out the trash, possibly putting away dishes, carting laundry into the laundry room but not actually doing it. Today however it was different.

Tifa had been out of town for a week visiting Yuffie in Wutai so that left all of her duties, cleaning and cooking included, up to him.

Thank God for take out.

Cloud sighed; Marlene and Denzel were running out of clothes. He should really attempt some laundry, but a part of him knew that doing that could turn out disastrous. Tifa's return had yet to be determined, so he couldn't put it off any longer and it probably wouldn't be a very nice welcome home if the first thing she needed to do was laundry. It couldn't be that hard...all he had to do was follow the directions, right?

Cloud moved into the children's bathroom, picking up the overflowing hamper with little effort, remembering to stop in his room for his own hamper. He didn't pick up Tifa's clothes in fear of messing something up. His and the children's clothes were relatively cheap.

Moving into the back, Cloud maneuvered the mammoth amount of clothing into the laundry room, depositing it on the floor with a soft grunt. He sighed, remembering that sorting colors and whites was always a good idea. When Cloud and Zack had been in the locker rooms of SOLDIER he had only asked Zack once about his pink boxers.

Cloud sighed, moving to sift through the piles of clothes. By the time he had finished there were two piles sitting on the floor, each up to his knees. Cloud swallowed; one pile on its own was easily two loads.

Cloud shifted to look at the washing machine, noting all the dials, numbers, and labels.

So maybe this would be a little harder than he thought...

He decided to start something easy, reaching for the detergent sitting on the counter top.

Which of course was practically empty.

Cloud sighed, reaching up and opening the cabinet above the washer and dryer. If memory served correctly Tifa kept extra detergent up in this cabinet. Cloud reached up blindly, shoving his hand around in the cabinets before finding a solid object. He gave a triumphant smirk, pulling on the detergent bottle and sliding it out of the cabinet.

A black object fell out of the cabinet, bouncing off the dryer and onto the floor, leaving a wake of papers in its path. Cloud flinched, nearly dropping the bottle of detergent before setting it down on the washer lid. He moved slowly, picking up a little black book, papers sticking out of it at odd ends.

Cloud frowned as he examined the blank cover and spine, before slowly flipping the book open.

What was written in the center of the blank page in neat letters was Cloud's first clue that this was private and he should just shut it now.

Tifa Lockhart had written her name in this book at age fourteen, as it so dictated with the date. He momentarily wondered how the book survived Nibelhiem, but it was so small it could've fit in a pocket or bag, or knowing Tifa it might have never even been in her house to hide it from her father.

Cloud swallowed; he shouldn't look through it. Tifa had obviously put it in a place where he wouldn't find it and certainly wouldn't be looking around for it.

But he had found it.

Cloud sighed, trying to be good as he bent to pick up the papers that had spilled from the book. His eyes skimmed over them, trying to resist but failing so when he saw what they were. They were drawings. Cloud picked up the few papers, laying them out on the washer so he could look at them. He leaned down, looking at a portrait of every one of their friends, even Denzel and Marlene. Cloud swallowed; there wasn't one of him...or there was and it just hadn't fallen out.

He cursed softly before looking around, and flipping the first page over.

May 4th 7:02 PM

Dad got me this stupid diary for my birthday... as if I haven't gotten plenty of them before. Honestly, why is it anytime that a teenage girl has a birthday the first gift that comes to mind is a diary? I mean, I don't go through them that fast. I just ... 'lose' them.

But...at least I have something to put my drawings in now.

I can't stop drawing his eyes...not that I'm doing them any justice.

Hopefully I'll eventually get better.

Cloud frowned, flipping the page. There was a folded up paper with eyes dotting its surface, crudely shaded.

It went on like this, tiny excerpts and drawings following them up. Cloud swallowed, watching as the dates went on...watching as she drew the people in her life at that time, of the mountains and flowers. She did get better, too.

September 19th 9:07 PM

I haven't touched this in so long...it's painful to look back on these memories...on my father, and my town...

All gone.

Sometimes it's comforting to look at...but sometimes it hurts so much.

I drew him once...that monster, and then I ripped the picture to shreds. I haven't picked up a pencil since...well, not to draw anyways.

But I have new friends...new people to draw, new faces.

I finished these drawings the other night...

A few minutes later I started drawing his eyes again.

I guess time doesn't change some things.

This time it was drawings of a younger Barret and Marlene...Biggs, Wedge, and Jesse were there as well.

The blurbs began to get longer, explaining more things as ShinRa truly came into the picture, and AVALANCHE.

And then suddenly it was him.

Cloud's eyes widened as he stared down at the picture. It was of him, a him he hadn't been like in a very long time. A cold, cocky bastard sitting at the end of the bar with a glass in his hands.

The blurb said nearly nothing.

It's him.

He's back.

There wasn't even a date.

The drawings changed again, the blurbs barely existent in her apparent confusion and turmoil as he saw more pictures of himself, and then new additions.

Red...and Aerith.

The others start making appearances; Cid, Vincent, Yuffie, Cait... the places they traveled to, stayed at.

The drawings stopped, the writing stopped at a time without a date, but one he knew well.

The drawings didn't start up again until after Meteor. She even drew that, ominous as it was.

There were drawings of the church, and her writing started to span out again, increasing intensely in the time that Cloud had become distant. Her worries of him, the children, their friends and the world in general.

Then it was Geostigma, highlighted with a picture...his portrait as he smiled at his friends around him in his epiphany.

Cloud swallowed, slowly falling out of the past and back into reality, back into the overflowing laundry room.

Cloud sighed, finally flipping the page. He was overwhelmed with emotions, feelings roused by reading his past, reading Tifa's feelings.

Feelings that had been secret until now.

Still, he stuck with finishing it, seeing it through. He was nearly to the end of the book, two drawings sticking out haphazardly.

The first was of himself, Denzel, and Marlene hunched over a map at a table. He had thought she had been spending more time on the inventory that night...and she had never smiled before while doing it.

He flipped to the last page.

Denzel and Marlene saw me drawing today...I showed them some of the drawings, told them some of the stories. They were disappointed that none were of me–

Cloud frowned; they had been right.

– so this one is for them, the last page in my book.

Cloud flipped the page, catching sight of a portrait of Tifa. Her eyes were raised, her head slightly bowed as if she'd been looking into a mirror as she drew it. Even though she didn't smile in the drawing, the warmth spilled through her eyes and slight tilt to her mouth, amusement undoubtedly at drawing herself.

Cloud swallowed, staring at the drawing for a long time, musing over his discoveries...over her love for him.

xxx

She had expected the house to be quiet when she arrived home in the middle of the day. The kids were at school, and she knew Cloud would be out doing deliveries. She hoped to surprise them with a big meal when they got home. Cloud had never been known for his cooking skills.

Tifa sighed, carting her bag into the laundry room to dump out the dirty clothes. She straightened, rubbing her shoulder; she should probably get the laundry that had undoubtedly piled up in her absence.

Tifa made her way upstairs, heading into Cloud's room first.

She was shocked.

Lying in the bed passed out was Cloud. He was surrounded by a mountainous amount of clothing, some folded, some in haphazard piles.

Tifa stifled a giggle with her hand, moving slowly over to peer at Cloud. Something caught her eye, though. On his wall hung a new, framed picture, a frighteningly familiar picture...

It was the portrait she had drawn of herself.

Tifa felt her heart stop, and the color raced up to kiss her cheeks. She swallowed, suddenly uncomfortable.

Her eyes found something more surprising though. Tifa moved slowly, walking over to Cloud's desk to lift up the black book. It was almost identical to her other book, but bigger and a bright red ribbon wrapped around it. There was also a case of expensive drawing pencils.

Tifa felt herself flush further. Either he didn't read what she wrote, or he was fine with it.

She lifted up the book, moving back towards the still form of Cloud. She smiled down at his sleeping form, before leaning over softly and kissing his cheek.

A small smile spread over his lips but she missed it, concentrating on something she hadn't realized before.

Tifa felt her heart stop again, but in a different way this time.

On the bottom right corner of the book's cover, embossed in gold, was Tifa Lockhart Strife.

Strife...

Tifa threw the book at his chest, making Cloud jump up in surprise to stare wildly at her.

"You couldn't even ask me?!"

A/N: That was fun...I feel that if Cloud were to propose sometimes...he'd just do it in a way where it'd take Tifa a minute to realize he was proposing...like, just do something like tacking his last name onto her name... yeah. Tifa is upset because he didn't ask...he just assumed...not wrongly though :D Oh Strife, learn to be a little romantic, would ya?

Thanks for reviews, loves.