When I started writing this story, I hadn't seen Advent Children for about a year. Due to that, I had forgotten that the room that Cloud and Tifa woke up in during Advent Children was Denzel and Marlene's room, so Cloud and Tifa sleep in the same room in my story. I apologize for my mistake, but the story has progressed far enough that eliminating all traces of my errors would be nearly impossible without re-writing the story. Please forgive my ignorance! Thank you!
Back to Life
After Seventh Heaven finally closed its doors for the night, everyone scattered to different parts of the building to sleep. Tifa, Cloud, Denzel, and Marlene already had beds there, but everyone else ended up using what they could snatch for themselves. Yuffie, being the fastest, was able to nab the sofa before anybody else and subsequently sprawl across the entire thing, leaving Cid to find and claim the big squashy armchair ignored by Vincent and Nanaki, who respectively went into a closet and next to a heater. Cait Sith found a corner and shut down while Barret was left staring at all of his resting and snoring companions before he went to find a spot of his own.
Cloud went up to his and Tifa's room and looked at his neatly made bed. Tifa walked in after her shower and was about to crawl into her own bed when she caught sight of him.
She laughed tiredly, "You still have smoke all over your face."
"No thanks to Cid."
Tifa left and came back with a damp cloth, "C'mere," she said with a smile.
"Deja'vu," Cloud said as he walked over and sat across from Tifa.
"Hm, well just stay still, alright?"
"Mmhm."
Tifa wiped off Cloud's face, "So, you've never been able to clean you face?"
"What?"
"You said this was deja'vu."
"Oh. On my first mission for AVALANCE, I almost missed the train back to the slums and ended up with soot all over my face. Jessie wiped it off."
"Haha, did you jump on the train or something?" Tifa teased.
"Well, I had to get on somehow," Cloud shrugged.
"Alright. You're soot free. On your face at least. Now go get an actual shower, you know where spare clothes are."
"Right."
By the time Cloud had gotten back from his shower, Tifa was lying upside down in her bed with her feet up on the pillow, while her head and body were totally encumbered by tightly tucked blankets. Cloud couldn't help but smile.
He climbed into his own bed and would have been asleep immediately were it not for someone coming into the room. Cloud looked over to see Vincent standing in the room next to Tifa's bed.
"Vincent?" Cloud mumbled, "What're you doing?"
Without saying a word, Vincent reached down and stroked Tifa's head gently.
"Ah-!" Cloud started, then rose and glared at Vincent.
"Cloud?" a barely audible voice murmured from under the blankets.
At this, Vincent quickly lifted his hand from Tifa's head as if startled, audibly walked from her bed to Cloud's, then left the room as silently and as quickly as death while Cloud stood in shock. Before Tifa had time to think she might want to talk to him about what just happened, Cloud had jumped back into bed, flipped onto his side, and curled up into a pseudo sleep.
"What is it you cherish most? Give me the pleasure of taking it away." Sephiroth taunted with a smile.
Cloud glanced nervously at the airship. Sephiroth followed the blond's gaze and laughed, "I should have known."
With that and the beat of a wing, the silver-haired demon was flying towards the airship.
"No!" Cloud chased after Sephiroth, desperate to save his friends, but was unable to reach the Shera before Sephiroth had boarded.
Cloud fought savagely against his restraints as Sephiroth held a badly wounded Tifa by the hair. If he didn't help her, her corpse would join those of the rest of his friends.
"This is your fault," Tifa glared all of her hatred at Cloud for not stopping the massacre as Sephiroth drew back his sword and, with a smile-
"No! Tifa!"
Cloud woke covered in a cold sweat. He jumped out of bed to check of Tifa; she was sleeping peacefully right side up and whole. He sighed, then walked over to her and stroked her hair, relief calming him down. He gripped his shirt over his heart and left the room to make sure the rest of his family was okay. Though there was really no way to check on Reeve, seeing Cait Sith shut down in the corner instead of raising an alarm was a good sign. He checked Yuffie, still sprawled on the couch but covered in goosebumps, then found Vincent as he was getting a blanket for her. Nanaki was warm next to the heater, Cid was snoring in the huge armchair, as expected, and Marlene and Denzel were in Denzel's bed. Marlene must have been more scared from the day's events than she let on. He picked up one of her dolls and put it under the blanket with the children, then moved on to find Barret.
After scouring the whole house, Cloud was left with only the bathroom and the roof to check. Doubting the big oaf was even in the building at this point, Cloud walked into the bathroom and would have left were it not for the snort that came from the bathtub behind the shower curtain.
He can't honestly be that stupid?
Incredulous, Cloud pulled back the curtain enough to see a massive dark form with a metal hand and a gaping mouth in the bathtub. Cloud let out a small snicker before he covered his mouth and left.
The next day, Tifa woke to an angry bellow from the bathroom, followed by Cloud walking into their room hurriedly.
"What happened-?"
"Sh, when he comes in I'm sleeping, okay?" Cloud quickly climbed into bed and covered his head.
Tifa snorted and winced, "What'd you do?"
"You'll see, now sh."
A bruised and soaked Barret busted through the door, "CLOUD! WHAT DA F*** DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!"
"Ah! Barret be quiet!" Tifa warned, pointing upstairs to the children's bedroom.
Cloud bolted upright in bed, then winced, feigning having just woken up but not feigning pain, "What are you doing screaming so early in the morning?!" he muttered aggravatedly, sitting still to avoid waking his wounds further.
"Sorry, Tifa. But you know exactly what da hell you did, Spikey!"
"Barret. I can barely move. Do you really think I would make a special trip out of a warm bed to dump a bucket of water on you?" he gingerly lay back down onto his pillow and turned over.
"He has a point," Tifa added. But obviously he would do exactly that, Tifa thought with an inside laugh.
Barret growled, "Well it better not happen again or your hair gel's coming out!"
"I don't use hair gel," Cloud murmured before falling back asleep.
"I call bullshit. Oh, sorry for waking you up, Tifa," Barret made a face at Cloud's sleeping form before leaving.
"Cloud? Are you awake?" Tifa turned and looked at Cloud.
"Not really…"
"Let me check your shoulder and chest before you go back to sleep."
"A'right," Cloud sat up and winced when he moved to take off his shirt.
"Here."
"I got it," he dodged, awkwardly avoiding help.
"Don't be embarrassed, it'll just make things difficult. You should probably wear button up shirts for a while after this," she slipped the shirt over his head, "There you go."
Some of the others came into the room while Tifa was unwrapping Cloud's old bandages, all of the newcomers were bruised extensively.
Cloud hissed and gripped the bed sheets when Tifa brushed the gunshot wound in his abdomen.
"How you holdin' up?" Yuffie inquired.
"I've been better," he grunted.
"You're kidding!" she gasped.
"..."
Cid whistled, "You took quite a beating."
"..."
"Guys, come on, give a man a break! I didn't see any of you take down Kadaj and Sephiroth before getting shot and blown up!" Cait Sith piped in.
"We took a beatin' from Bahamut, though," Cid scoffed.
"And from yourselves," Tifa interrupted, "Yuffie, can you get me some new bandages?"
"Fine," Yuffie walked stiffly out of the room.
"I'll be right back with some water to clean your wounds," Tifa stood gingerly. Cloud hated being wounded. He was suddenly reverted back into a baby-like state in Tifa's mind.
"What about your injuries, Tifa? You can't be fully healed from your fight with Loz?" he asked.
"Oh, um. I'm fine. Well, no. I mean, I do need to change my bandages. But I need to do them myself. I also got a lot of wounds to the torso, so, um…and they're more bruises and scratches than cuts," Tifa explained.
"Oh uh, yeah...sorry," Cloud ducked his head in apology.
How come she gets to downplay having several ribs broken, but I can't get my own water?
Tifa left to get the water and Marlene came in with a package of bandages.
"Hi, Marlene. Are you helping everyone again?" Cloud started a small conversation with the young girl, figuring Yuffie had shoved her work onto her.
"Yeah, I want Papa and everyone else to get better soon!" she replied cheerfully.
"Heh, you sure have a lot of energy. Is Denzel helping you?"
"Uh huh!"
"You can put the bandages on the bed next to me."
"Okay!" Marlene placed the new wraps on the bed next to Cloud, avoiding looking at his injuries.
The next few days were spent in healing and light repairs around the establishment, but as everyone began feeling better, the Seventh Heaven was made into good condition once again.
Much to Cloud's embarrassment, every one of his friends seemed to have made it their own personal mission to get Tifa and himself into a relationship, although Yuffie was easily the worst. Nothing is worse than an 18-year-old girl who thinks she's directing a romance novel.
There was one moment in particular that made even looking at Tifa for the next two days a nightmare. Amidst the construction of Edge going on all around the Seventh Heaven, Cloud had been repairing and replacing some boards in a closet that had been damaged at some point. I'm sure you can see where this was going. Yuffie sent Tifa in to "get some paint", and had obviously gotten help from the others, for before Cloud was able to get out of the closet to let Tifa in, Tifa was shoved inside, the door was closed, and a heavy body leaned on the door to keep it shut.
GODDAMMIT BARRET!
"Barret!" Tifa hollered in surprise.
"What was that for, you cretin?" Cloud punched the door awkwardly. There wasn't much wiggle room with both him and Tifa in the dark closet.
"Sorry, guys," Barret called tauntingly from the outside, "Yuffie told me to help you two to get 'closer' to one another."
"Barret! You really are going to listen to Yuffie's dumb ideas?!"
"You're just being senseless!" Tifa chastised the massive man.
"Hey, I'm doing you guys a favor!" Barret laughed.
"And what favor is that?" Tifa asked, blushing. Cloud didn't have to see her face to know that. Minutes passed with no improvement.
Outside, the sounds of construction seemed to grow in volume in Cloud's head until there was little else to listen to.
KA-KLUNK KA-KLUNK
BRRRRRRRRRR
CRASH BANG BOOM BOOM BOOM
Cloud held his head and attempted to block out the noise and the creeping feeling that the room was getting smaller. More minutes ticked by with constant attempts to get the big lout off of the door. Eventually, Cloud quit talking and leaned against the wall. He pushed at the opposite wall to keep it off of him. He was covered in sweat. Don't throw up. Don't throw up.
"Cloud, are you alright?" Tifa's hands searched for his face, "Oh, Cloud!" he could hear the worry in her voice once her soft hands touched his skin.
No, don't pity me, Cloud's stomach sank in humiliation. He shuddered. Don't throw up.
He was feeling worse and worse…How long had they been stuck in here? Tifa rubbed his shoulder, probably trying to calm him down. His stomach sank further. He couldn't look at her for a week after this.
"BARRET!" Cloud's voice was tainted with panic, "OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!"
"Why?"
"JUST OPEN IT!"
"Oh, whoops," Barret opened the door, remembering Cloud's hatred of small, loud places, "Sorry, Spike, I forgot."
Cloud shoved past the brute and went outside to sit and breathe.
A few seconds later, Tifa joined him outside, "Are you okay, Cloud?"
The claustrophobic blond rubbed his temples, "Yeah…"
"Do you want me to get anything to help you calm down?"
"Um, tea?"
"Sure, I'll have it right out," Tifa left. Inside, the radio continued crackling away information regarding the repairs being made to Edge.
Barret should know better than to compromise a man's pride. He's going to catch hell later.