Chapter 17

Squall

Squall was feeling restless to the point of starting to wreck the whole place into pieces. He paced around the flat and mumbled to himself. Luckily no one was home to witness his moment of insanity. Though it would've made no difference as to how the twins already were thinking about him. No, it was actually Clouds opinion that mattered at all. And the idiot wasn't here to give it to him. And that was the problem and the cause for his restless afternoon.

Cloud had vanished into thin air and had left only a piece of paper after him. Squall took out the crumbled paper out of his pocket and read the few words again.

"I'm going away for a while. Don't worry about me. I'll be back. -C"

Like, what the fuck? 'Don't worry about me' was exactly NOT the thing to say to people who were left behind to do the not-worrying. Of course he was going to worry since he didn't have a clue where Cloud was. Not to mention Cloud's cell phone was shut off and neither Reno nor Cid knew anything about the Clouds whereabouts.

Squall yanked his overgrown hair and growled. It just made him frustrated, not knowing where Cloud was and more importantly; who he was with! Ok, so it wasn't like Cloud didn't know how to defend himself or anything, it was just a matter of telling Squall everything the man did! Yes, that's right. He had the divine right to know everything Cloud was doing and who he was doing it with.

Sweet sounds of his mobile reached his ears and he yanked the phone out of his pocket, nearly dropped it, fumbled with the damn thing for a while and finally managed to slap it to his ear.

"Where the fuck have you been, asshole?!" Squall snarled without waiting to hear who was calling.

"Nice. I didn't know you missed me that much." Tifa's rather disapproving voice came out of the phone and Squall felt his face turning white.

"Oh shi... I mean, I'm sorry Tifa. I thought you were someone else." Squall muttered, embarrassed.

"Cloud has disappeared again, huh? Well, welcome to the club darling. Now you know how I've felt in the past." Her words reminded Squall about the current situation and he wondered why he hadn't asked Tifa about Cloud yet. How stupid can you get? Incredibly stupid, it seemed.

"So, you don't happen to know where he is at the moment, would you." Squall hoped he didn't sound too desperate. Ok, so maybe he was a little desperate and anxious, but he was entitled to be, definitely. Cloud had been gone now for three days and still there was nothing.

"No. And believe me, when he wants to disappear, you won't find him until he wants you to." Tifa sounded tired, like she'd gone thru this sort of conversation over before. Most likely had, just by herself. "Anyway, I had something I wanted to talk with you." Didn't sound too promising in Squall's ears but he remained quiet. "Could you come over to 7th Heaven so we could talk face to face? I don't want to talk this over on the phone."

"Sure. Whatever." Alarming and disturbing. Squall pondered how he could sneak out of the promise but in the end, what could she tell him that would make his life any more complicated than it already was inside his head? "I'll get there in an hour."

7th Heaven

The bar was full of people when Squall reached it and opened the doors. Tifa was nowhere to be seen, naturally. He sighed, wishing he could be home, worrying over Cloud, no matter how hopeless and useless that was. Pushing his way towards the other end of the room he saw a glimpse of flashing red hair and heard a laughing that could only belong to one man he knew.

"Fancy meeting you here, Reno." Squall had sneaked behind the smaller man and was giving him anything but a warm greeting. Squall had his suspicions about whether or not did Reno have something to do with Clouds disappearance. Reno twitched and turned his head to face him.

"Good grief dude, don't gimme willies like that! Nearly pissed my pants." Reno smiled widely, like nothing in the world could bother him. Nothing new there, Reno always looked like he was missing one or two brain cells less than an average person did.

"My bad." Squall shrugged not really meaning it. He had meant to scare the living shit out of Reno. "No word from Cloud?" He raised one eyebrow staring down at the cat like face, taking in all the subtle movements that might occur when Cloud was mentioned.

"Uh, no. Haven't heard from Spiky since the last time I saw him." Reno blinked then turning his attention back to his beer and shrugged too. "U know he'd call you first, not me." Squall was damn sure Reno had turned his head off because he didn't want to give away his thoughts. He wanted to throttle the thin man so bad right now.

"I sure hope so. You do know that I'd kick your ass so bad if I find out you were keeping information from me about this, or any other matter." He smiled viciously, knowing Reno didn't see it, but probably knew well enough Squall was trying to drill a hole in the back of his head.

"Threatening your friends again, are you Squall? What a lovely gesture of trust." Tifa's voice interrupted Squalls little fun.

"I'm not threatening anyone. Just stating the mere facts."

"Uhhuh, yeah. I'm sure." Tifa cocked her eyebrow to the man and turned then to ruffle Reno's already messy hair. "You don't mind if I take this big bully out your hair?" She was probably the only person, right after Cloud, who was never intimidated by his snarling or sarcastic threats.

"He's all yours!" Reno grinned, looking suspiciously relieved and waved happily after them as the girl was pulling Squall with her towards the more private area of the house. They walked upstairs and reached a room which seemed to be some sort of study or a place to do paper works. Or had used to be. The table was empty of things, the shelves empty, the walls bare and the window had no curtains. He didn't say anything, just noted the pile of boxes close to the door, all taped and ready to be moved out.

"I just told Cloud a little while ago, that I have sold the place and am moving out of here. And that the garage will be sold to the new owner too so the firm needs to be moved out too. And that I'm going to have nothing to do with that." Tifa had sat on the table and had crossed her arms before her. "These things I told him about a week ago when we accidentally met here while I was packing." She looked sad and uncomfortable. "I shouldn't have pushed the responsibility on him like that. It probably upset him even more." She looked up at Squall who remained quiet. "And I didn't know he had disappeared on you before you snapped at me on the phone."

"Right.." Squall had very little to add to this actually. What could he say? That these news came as shock to him and made Squall even more upset and that he wanted to say something really bad because she had made a mistake and was the reason why Cloud had most likely went missing in the first place? No, it was better he remained quiet. Tifa was looking at him, probably trying to figure his thoughts.

"Squall.. Do you have any siblings?" She asked quietly looking straight at him. The question took him off balance and his guard lowered and he blinked at the girl, obviously confused.

"What? No." Squall hadn't really told anyone about his family. Nothing to share when your only sibling had died when he had been very young and his father was a total ass. So basically he grew up defending himself and learning early to not trust just anyone. He was suspicious now. Why had Tifa asked him such a question and so simply out of blue?

"I've gotten the idea that your father was.. is, not a very pleasant man?"

"Why, have you had the pleasure of meeting him?" Squall sneered.

"No, but I've heard some stories."

"Stories lie. They could never capture the true form of idiocy of a human being my father claims to be." He didn't particularly want to think about the one person he was persistent to keep out of mind and life. "Why do you bring this stuff up?"

"I've found your sister." There was silence between them for a long time. He didn't really think, not really. The words just pounded the insides of his skull, not knowing whether or not to feel a thing. He had not told anyone about his sister, ever! How could she know about her? But in the end, it wouldn't matter. She was dead. Had been a long time now. Squall narrowed his eyes and weighed his options. Maybe Tifa was trying to get something out of him by making him believe some cock and bull story about his sister being alive still.

"Is this some kind of a joke?" He shot a sharp glance at Tifa, but the girl shook her head slowly. "Because I'm not laughing."

"No, not a joke." She stood up and walked right before Squall, took his hands and squeezed them tight. "Your sister is very much alive and wants to meet you." He was.. to put it simply, not very coherent at the moment. So very.. stupefied. Just what had she blurted out?

"Wha.. What the hell? How's that even possible? The old git told me she died and to this day there has been no other reason to believe other. There are police records to prove it Tifa! So why now and exactly how did you find this.. person?"

"A friend of mine came across someone who knew someone who knew someone.. etc.." Tifa wasn't telling the whole truth, he could see that clearly but didn't really even want to.

"I.." Squall was at loss here. His mind was swimming with sudden, all very vague, but still real, memories of the dark haired girl that had made the life with their father bearable. But she had been gone so long he didn't even know what he should feel if what Tifa said was true.

"Squall..? Are you ok?"

"It's not possible. She's.. dead." Squall whispered with suddenly dry lips.