Finally Part 2 up of the knowing series. This is from Tifa's POV this time and is 'mirror' image really with some added stuff to Cloud's part.
What he doesn't know
I remembered the day he returned home, it was the day that Geostigma was cured once and for all. I had stayed behind with him at the church needing to know if he would follow and come home to us, his family. With all the courage I could muster, I stepped into the water, slowing wading my way to stand in front of him. Slowly I reached out my hand, it was slightly shaky as I placed it against his cheek. I could feel my heart hammering in my chest at the contact and made a silent player that I would be able to say what I needed to say.
"Cloud are you coming home now?" I asked my voice barely a whisper due to my nerves.
"If you'll have me" he answered a small smile gracing his lips, I don't exactly know why but I punched him, albeit softly on his arm, it was just something about it his answer that made me had to punch him. What made him think we wouldn't want him?
"Of course you idiot" I smiled before I turned to leave the church. I just had to get out of there why well I'm not all that sure but I had to do it, otherwise something that for now needed to be kept secret would be let out into the open and that could ruin everything right now.
I remembered just a few days after he came home and the Geostigma was gone. He had come down into the bar where I was currently washing some of the left over dishes from the night before.
"Hey" I smile as he enters the bar.
"I need to talk to you about something" came his reply
"Sure what about?" I reply curious to what he needed to tell me.
"I've just had a call, there is a company in Wutai that needs me to deliver some goods from the WRO, I need to pick them up in the next hour and set off early tomorrow morning, I'll be gone for about a week" He explains
"Okay that's fine" I respond hoping the sadness in my voice doesn't register to him.
That night I remembered asking him if he had everything ready for his trip and he had responded with a simple yeah before telling me he was going to bed. I soon followed, the bar remaining closed tonight. I changed and climbed into bed, hoping that I would soon fall into a deep dreamless sleep. However my mind and body had other plans. I spent the night tossing and turning my mind ticking over. I had no idea what time it was but in the early hours of the morning I heard Cloud getting up and moving around just a few doors down the hall. Some time past and then I heard him right outside my door. He seemed to of paused before I heard the door creak open. However as soon as I heard him outside I had shut my eyes and pulled the covers tighter around me to give the impression I was fast asleep. I could hear him approach me and then it took all my energy to not gasp, open my eyes or let my body tense when I felt him brush some hair from my face.
"You don't know this but Teef, I really do love you" he had whispered again it took all my strength not to react in anyway. When I heard the door close behind him and his footsteps fade away I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. Gingerly I touch the spot where his lips touch my skin and feel the smile creep across my forehead.
Slowly I noticed a change in Cloud, on the deliveries that took him further and lasted more than a day, he seemed to always come by my door, sometimes I would hear him come in a repeat almost exactly the same words as the first night he went away. As for the days that he made deliveries closer to home, he always made sure he had breakfast with me and the kids. He even began taking a genuine interest in our lives, even helping the kids with homework and sometimes taking them to school. For me it was starting to feel like we were a real family however there was still one thing he didn't know and that one thing I was dying to tell him but just like the coward I was I couldn't.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter please R&R