Disclaimer: I own no rights to Final Fantasy 7 or it's characters.

'Thoughts'

"Speech"

Savior's Sorrow

She always had no luck with men, despite being around them all her life. Unlike most women, Elena had become more of a tomboy over all the years of being around them, and was basically considered one among a certain group of men.

She, however, while being considered a man, was not a lesbian. She knew that for a fact as she liked a particular man. He was blonde, relatively tall (or at least taller then her), strong, and has saved the world from Sephiroth a few times. And, they even had a relationship from before, but she doubted that he remembered it at all; otherwise he would have come back to her like he said he would.

He is, or rather was, considered her enemy, and she couldn't care less. The point is, she loves him, and she was free to at least try to tell him so (yet again). However, that was part of her problem. She was currently watching him sleep, as it was nighttime and she was on the roof of Aeris' Chapel, watching her ex-lover.

Who she was watching must be obvious by now, for it is none other than Cloud Strife, ex-SOLDIER, and savior of the planet. However, despite being the savior of the planet, he was a very lonely guy, for he stayed in a broken down chapel that used to be frequented by his love, Aeris, who died some years ago. He had never quite gotten over her death though.

He always decided to live alone, and Elena had always wondered why. She never really had a chance to ask him why, but he probably wouldn't have answered her anyway. Tifa had always tried to win his heart, but had always failed. Now, she would have her chance, but could never take it, as she never exactly knew how he would react, having been separated from him for so long.

But, she still wanted to tell him, but she wasn't sure if she should just tell him or beat around the bush for a while.

As she was debating what she should do, Cloud appeared on the roof next to her, but she hadn't really noticed, as she was currently lost in her thoughts.

'What should I do? Should I tell him? Should I just try to be his friend first? Do I even stand a chance?'

Before she could think any further on the matter, Cloud interrupted her.

"What are you doing here?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, Cloud…"

"I'll ask you only once more, what are you doing here?"

"Me? I just wanted to talk to you."

"Then why didn't you just enter the chapel instead peer in on me from above?"

"Well, I needed some time to gather my thoughts properly."

"Hmm…well, in any case, I can't allow you to spy on me." She thought that he was going to draw his sword and kill her, so she closed her eyes, but nothing happened. She opened her eyes to find Cloud holding his hand out to her. She took it and he helped her stand up, and then he jumped down inside the chapel through the hole in the roof. She followed suit.

After a while, she knew she had to start talking about the reason why she was here. Of course, it was difficult trying to talk about it, so she tried beating around the bush.

"You said earlier that you came here to talk to me. So, what is it you wish to talk about?" he asked.

"I wanted to ask you, do you remember your SOLDIER training?"

"Not really."

'Damn, I guess he wouldn't remember 'us' then' she thought, trying to gather her thoughts again.

"Why did you ask that?" he asked a few minutes later.

"Well…"she let her voice trail off for a minute before she continued. "Because I wanted to know if you remembered…'us'."

"'Us'?"

She nodded her head. "As in you and I, as in, we had a relationship and I was wondering if…" she let her voice trail off as the memory of their last day together before he went to Nibelheim and disappeared flooded her vision.

[Flashback

It was a warm and sunny day, and it was their day off, and they had it off at the same time, so they spent it together. Cloud was laying under a tree, waiting for her to show up, and when she did, she lay down next to him (though it was more of practically on him), and put her arms around him and they basically lay there, holding each other for some time until the sun started going down.

Elena and Cloud then got up and Cloud walked her back to her appointed place of residence. She invited him in and they did a certain something that both of them decided to never regret.

[End Flashback

Though, now she was clearly regretting what they did because he didn't remember any of it. She was brought out of her musings (yet again) by Cloud.

"Elena, is there something wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh, no, I was just thinking of the last day we spent together" she gave him a sad smile after she said that, and it felt like her heart was breaking, like when she found out he was missing after the mission.

"I see" was all he said on the matter.

"No you don't, you don't even remember it, and I do. Though I'm wishing that I didn't remember it now."

She said the last part somewhat quietly, but he still heard it.

"Why's that?" he asked stupidly.

"Because, I doubt you feel the same about me now, and you don't even remember me at all from training, let alone when we started going out." By the time she said the last part of her little ramble at him, she was in tears. He hadn't meant to do it, but he made her cry.

She then turned away from him, and started to walk away from him. That is, until her way was blocked by him.

"Elena" he said, reaching out to her. She slapped his hand away and started to cry harder, which made her fall to her knees, or it would have if Cloud hadn't rushed forward and caught her.

He put his arms around her in an embrace, and she did nothing but cry on his chest for a while.

After quite a while, she finally started to quiet down, and asked him a question.

"Why did you catch me? Why didn't you let me hit the ground?" she asked, still sniffling somewhat from the crying she had just done.

"I don't know" he answered. "Something inside of me told me to grab onto you and never let go."

"Does that mean…"

"Sort of, it's still rather hazy, but it's there now."

At that, she put her arms around him and hugged him hard, and put her head on his shoulder.

"I know I should have remembered sooner, but-"

"It's alright, I understand. Your memories were quite jumbled for a long time and only recently got them mostly sorted out."

"Yeah, something like that. You probably already know, but, I've changed from the young man you used to know."

"Yeah, I know, but I don't care. At least, not right now." She was beginning to wonder if they could be together again. It seemed that was possible, though he claimed to have a very poor memory of 'them', but the memories were there, even if it was just barely.

Just when she thought she felt more tears welling up inside of her he did something she hadn't quite expected; he put his hand underneath her chin and raised her head to make her look at him. Then he leaned down and kissed her softly, but passionately.

She could suddenly no longer care about anything else and just kissed him back before they were forced to part for much needed air, and sat there, in each others arms, panting before she lunged forward and started crying on his shoulder (quite literally), and he knew why: she hadn't been able to shed tears over him as SHINRA had kept her quite busy, and they were just now catching up to her, even after all those years. But they were tears of old grief mixed with tears of joy at finding her old lover, who just happened to still love her.

When she started to quiet down, Cloud whispered in her ear, "I love you, Elena."

She whispered back, "I love you too, Cloud. And I always will."