This links to the 'Fooled' in 'Buried in Snow'. I hope this was worth waiting for.
Disclaimer: SquareEnix owns the recognisable bits.
Tifa.
Sensation: the operation or function of the senses; perception or awareness of stimuli through the senses; the faculty to feel or perceive; physical sensibility.
She'd felt the wind on her skin before… but now it was real… not just the memory of a sensation.
She savoured the feel of the stone steps beneath her feet…
…her clothes against her skin…
…the smell of… sea salt?
It took a moment to recognise where she was.
She'd been here before.
Cloud had liked to stand, back against the wall, near here.
When she'd asked him why, he'd just shrugged.
But she'd known.
He'd liked to watch people arrive…
…like he was waiting for someone.
He wasn't here now though.
Just to make sure, she made a lazy turn, taking in every nuance of the market square.
"…Tifa…?"
She turned around, surprised to hear her name… only to break into a smile.
"Yuffie!"
The girl had grown, a little at least. She held out her arms and Yuffie rushed into the hug.
She closed her eyes, to better appreciate the feeling.
"We thought you were dead!" The young's exclamation made Tifa freeze, though Yuffie squeezed her tight.
Dead? They thought she had died? What did that make her? A ghost?
"…did …did Cloud tell you that…?"
She was almost afraid to ask. Reality was what you make it, Rinoa had said. She'd though that her friends' reality had made her whole again, but…
"Not exactly… he said he'd 'lost' you." Such a typical Cloud response, it made her laugh.
It didn't matter, she decided.
It didn't matter how she'd got here, only that she was here.
"That Cloud. He's a royal pain in the ass!"