A/N: Rated M for language and sexual content. Standard disclaimer applies.

Updated 9/7/2020: Edits throughout. New scenes added with Marle as well as some more angsty thoughts from Tifa.

Chapter 17:

Sunday

Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap.

The rain was still falling pretty heavily outside when Tifa's eyes begrudgingly fluttered open. Her eyes felt strained and puffy, as if her eyelids were telling her to just close them again. The sky outside cast a cool gray light over her bedroom – enough to see, but not enough to lift her spirits. At least today was her day off.

She opened the bar on Sundays only during soccer season to lure patrons in to watch the games, taking Tuesday off instead (Monday: Monday, Wednesday: Hump day, Thursday: Almost Friday). It was the only day she could spend cleaning her home, which wasn't very messy due to her ongoing regimen of tidiness. She'd use her day off to catch up on taking stock of supplies, running errands, and, if she were lucky, taking a few minutes to herself.

Thankfully, it was not soccer season.

Her body ached from being pressed into a hardwood floor, and she could still taste a faint hint of cigarettes.

Reno…

What the hell had she allowed him to do to her? She felt as though she had been drunk and made a bad decision – she certainly felt hungover, but it was not from alcohol. It was from guilt, shame, and the loneliness that had cropped back up into her heart. Being near Reno these days always seemed to create a whirlwind of emotions in her, both good and bad. She found herself missing him, wishing he were lying next to her. No, that wasn't it, she just missed not being alone.

Reno had not only been the first man to kiss her in about year, but he had also simply been there. In a strange, unexplainable way, Tifa's guilt over moving on even the slightest from Cloud made it feel like he was in the room with her. Not in a literal sense, but as though he were omnipresent, like a God, just enveloping the entire bar. It made her feel less alone than she had felt in a long time, as if she were with both Cloud and Reno at the same time. Not like that, it was merely the feeling that they were both in the room and they both cared for her.

Except she didn't think either of them really cared for her.

And now she felt more alone than ever. They were both gone. Reno had only been gone a few hours, but she had this overwhelming urge to see him again and to have him hold her.

She turned to her right, to look at the side of the bed where Cloud used to sleep. Despite the size, she only ever slept on one side of the bed anyway and hadn't wanted to cover up Cloud's… essence (again, not like that) that emanated from his side. If she were to sleep there, it would be like this was just her bed and not their bed. It would mean he was truly gone.

She needed to work through the emotions swirling inside her brain. What did last night's kiss with Reno mean? Did he like her? Did she want that? What did he want from her? And why was she even wondering all this?

She lifted her head slightly to reach behind and remove the pillow from underneath her (she wouldn't dare take Cloud's) and brought it to her face to muffle a scream. She didn't want to be having these thoughts about Reno, or to feel that little bit of heat below her belt when he was around – especially when he was on top of her the night before.

She sat up and rubbed her forehead, feeling a matted chunk of hair that had been hanging down over her face. She had gone to bed with her hair wet and unbrushed, and she would pay for it today.

She also at that moment realized that she forgot to brush her teeth the night before, even after her desperate trip to the general store for toothpaste. Perhaps if she hadn't run her errand and gotten soaked in the rain, things wouldn't have happened the way they did. No, that wasn't likely, since Reno would have been waiting for her whether she was dry or wet. He had clearly come to her home with an agenda that night and she didn't think a dry top would have changed things.

She got out of bed and stretched her arms up over her head and then rotated them forward and back behind her, clasping her fingers and arching her back. She showered, again trying to scrub the guilt from her skin. She finally gave up and exited the shower to look at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were less red and puffy, but her eyelids were heavy and her expression was haunted. She decided to lay back down. Maybe the next time she woke up she'd feel better.

No sooner had her head hit the pillow did her phone vibrate. At first she thought that maybe it was a text, possibly another from Reno. Either way, she didn't want to read it right now. But when it buzzed again, she realized it was a phone call, and lazily grabbed it off her bedside table and brought it to her ear that wasn't sunken into the pillow.

"Hello?" she asked groggily.

"Yo, girl! How ya been?" she heard Barret's booming voice through the phone.

She was glad to hear her friend's voice, but that first word he said – "yo" – was definitely not a word she wanted to hear right now.

"Good," she lied in response.

"Glad to hear it! Listen, I was thinking of coming to Edge in a couple a weeks. Marlene's been beggin' to see her Aunt Tifa," Barret said.

Tifa sat up, her wet mass of hair falling over her shoulder as she cradled the phone to her ear.

"Really?" she asked. Seeing her old friend and his wonderful little girl might be just the thing to perk her up. Besides, it would definitely give her something to look forward to.

"Yeah! The monsters are getting worse in Corel and Kalm. Marlene was hoping you could teach her some fighin' moves."

"I'd love to," Tifa agreed.

"Great! We'll be in town next Friday night. See ya then!"

Tifa closed her PHS and set it back on the nightstand. She hadn't seen Barret in a while. He had visited back when Cloud's headaches were first starting, but Cloud was still in a pretty good mood back then and took Barret's teasing in stride.

Tifa stared off into space, thoughtfully. Marlene was six now; precocious and inquisitive. Tifa worried about the questions the little girl would ask when she realized Cloud was no longer around. She dreaded that conversation. For adults, she would just repeat the answers she had given Vincent when he came to ask her to accompany him to Nibelheim, but a child like Marlene wouldn't accept those responses. How many "whys" would it take to make Tifa cry?

Flashback…

Cloud and Tifa were sitting on the floor of the bar drinking the night before the furniture was supposed to arrive. They were already several drinks in each and laughing over the old days.

"Hey, let me ask you something," Cloud said, using his drink to motion toward Tifa.

"Shoot," she responded, still laughing from their last discussion.

"Remember back when we were young…"

"We're still young, Cloud."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Remember way back when, when you came with us to blow up the reactor?"

Tifa didn't like where she thought this conversation was going. The old days were one thing, but anything relating to the time around Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie's deaths was another.

"Yeah…" she said, timidly.

"Okay, so like," Cloud was just a bit drunk, "we all left, right? Wedge was takin' care of Jessie, and we just… we just left Marlene in charge of the bar!"

Tifa had always kicked herself for that. What on earth was she thinking?

"I know!" she exclaimed, too drunk to really feel the guilt. "Who leaves a four-year-old in charge of a bar?"

"And she accepted it," Cloud said, ending his sentence with a burp. "She was back there slinging drinks as soon as you asked her to watch the place!"

"I know!" Tifa was laughing uncontrollably at this point.

She never had this conversation with anyone, and certainly never expected it to be in a lighthearted sort of way. Yet here she was with Cloud, laughing about the time they flagrantly and stupidly ignored child labor laws.

"Did the slums have any rules about children working?" Cloud asked.

"There are no rules in the slums, Cloud," Tifa said in a seductive tone, leaning back on her elbows and letting her chest rise a bit.

"We would be such terrible parents," Cloud responded, getting on his hands and knees to crawl toward her.

"We'd be terrible," Tifa said, still in that low and sensual tone.

Cloud now had an arm on either side of Tifa's chest and was closing the gap between their lips.

"So terrible," he practically whispered before he kissed her.

They made love on the floor of the bar that night. Drunk, sloppy love.

Present day…

Tifa sighed at the memory. Marlene was surely better at "slinging drinks" now, she joked to herself. She left her bed once again and picked up a framed photo from her dresser. It was one of her most prized possessions, a photo from years ago of her, Cloud, Barret, Marlene, Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie. Cloud clearly didn't want his picture taken ("This just seems like evidence, to me" he sulked at the time), Barret had Marlene propped up on his shoulder, and Tifa and the others had their arms around each other's' waists and were smiling.

She sighed. Everything seemed so possible back then. They were taking on the world without really considering the consequences. She ran her fingers over the image, closing her eyes tight and wishing that they would all be standing in front of her when she opened them. It never worked.

They were dead.

And Reno helped kill them.

She put the picture back down and choked back some tears. She needed to remind herself why she hated that flame-haired Turk, even if he didn't seem like he was still the type of person to kill a large portion of a major city. Coeurls never changed their spots, after all.

She put on some clothes and cinched her raincoat tightly around her waist before grabbing an umbrella and heading to the orphanage. She couldn't give the children their usual lesson outdoors, but she wanted to see them, nonetheless. Working with the kids always lifted her spirits, as did Marle.

"You gonna tell me what's troubling you?" Marle asked after Tifa finished giving the children a modified lesson indoors.

Marle always knew – and Tifa really thought she was hiding it this time. Marle apparently was better at hiding that she was on to Tifa than Tifa was at pretending nothing was on her mind.

"How do you always know?" the younger brunette asked, almost sternly.

Marle laughed and poured herself another cup of tea as the children played in the next room. Oates was gone, happily living with his new family as if they had been together all along.

Tifa hadn't planned on going to Marle's orphanage today, but after the events of last night she needed to get out of the house for a little bit.

"I kissed someone who wasn't Cloud," she said after a pause capped with an extended sigh to prepare.

"One of those Turks?" Marle asked in response, not seeming all that surprised.

"…yes." Tifa couldn't look Marle in the eye, so afraid of the older woman's judgment. But Marle was kind and supportive. Tifa knew deep down she was not being judged.

"Which one?" Marle asked.

She had seen the Turks before. They occasionally prowled Sector 7 over the years that AVALANCHE was active. She saw the bald one most, since he had dated a member of AVALANCHE before Tifa was brought into her care. She'd also seen one with bright red hair, long black hair, and a woman she couldn't recall.

"Reno…" Tifa sounded like a child admitting to making a mess.

"Is that the bald one?"

"No. That's Rude."

"I'm sorry?"

"His name is Rude."

"Oh," Marle chuckled. She never knew their names.

"Reno is his partner, the redhead."

"That scrawny bean pole?" The words escaped Marle's lips before she considered how they would sound. She never pictured someone as strong and fit as Tifa with a man that looked like a light breeze could blow him over. Then again, Cloud was pretty pathetic looking when Tifa first found him at the train station.

"You know him?"

"The first time I saw him was before Zangan brought you to me," Marle reminisced. "You don't forget hair like that."

"No, I guess you don't," Tifa chuckled.

"He came around looking for his partner, the bald one, who used to date a girl who worked with AVALANCHE before you came around. Part of the old guard."

"Rude used to date someone in AVALANCHE?"

"Her name was Chelsea. Broke her heart to hurt him."

Tifa pondered this new information. Rude never told her about Chelsea. Tifa knew the names of some of the old members of AVALANCHE from before Barret took over the Midgar cell, like Elfe and Fuhito, but she had never met them. She was too young to be a part of their wars.

"Interesting…" Tifa said, unsure if she should – or could – ask additional questions.

"So, tell me what happened with you and the Turk," Marle prodded. Tifa cursed herself, thinking she had been freed from further interrogation.

"I went on a date with Rude," Tifa began.

"Wait, wait, back up," Marle interrupted. "You what?"

"I… I agreed to go on a date with Rude," Tifa confessed. "He asked me out a while back and Reno convinced me to go out with him. I also thought I needed to try moving on from Cloud…"

"Reno? As in the redhead you kissed? He set you up with his friend?"

It all seemed so scandalous when Marle said it out loud. Tifa's cheeks turned red; she had never acted so selfishly before; it didn't suit her.

"Yes…" she finally admitted.

"Tifa, why haven't you told me all this before?"

"I didn't want to be one of those pathetic girls who only talks about her love life."

Marle leaned back and laughed before reaching across the table to cover Tifa's free hand with her own.

"I don't care what anyone may think, I want to know what's going on in your life – and right now this seems to be important."

"I guess I was embarrassed, too. I feel like I'm betraying Cloud."

"You told me what happened up north. I don't think any of this counts as betrayal after what he said."

"I… guess you're right."

"So, tell me about the date – and how you ended up kissing the other one."

Tifa propped her head on her fist and set down her cup of tea, taking a deep breath.

"I went out with Rude. It was nice. No sparks or anything. When I got home, Reno was waiting."

Marle nodded her head along as Tifa spoke but was unable to contain her questions.

"He said he just wanted to know how the date went, but it didn't make sense that he wouldn't just ask Rude. He got real close to me and we kind of… fell into the bar."

"And you kissed him?"

"No, I… started thinking about Cloud. I gave him a towel to dry off and before he left he kissed me."

"Well?" Marle asked.

"Well, what?"

"How did it feel?"

Tifa's cheeks again turned pink. "I… don't know," she said.

Marle gave her a knowing smile and nodded her head.

"I think it's good you're trying to move on," the older woman said.

Tifa left the orphanage more confused than ever. Marle seemed to be on board with this relationship and she didn't know why. Marle had lost everything in Sector 7, too, yet she had seemingly gotten past Reno's deeds.

The brunette returned home and spent time getting the guest room ready for Barret and Marlene's visit, though it didn't need much work. No one had used it in nearly six months – since Cloud moved into it before he left – so all it really needed was some dusting.

She then moved downstairs to clean the bar. The wood floors had absorbed the water she and Reno had brought in with them last night, but she hadn't gotten a chance to clean up after she closed the bar early for her date with Rude. Closing early on a Saturday night definitely wasn't good for business, but Tifa didn't really need the money. She and Cloud had sold a few Magnify materias after Cid left them in Nibelheim in order to buy some property. They ended up using it for Marle's orphanage and to pay the people who helped build the bar and apartment in Edge with enough left over to live off of for the rest of their days if they wanted to. But Tifa couldn't just sit still the rest of her life. She wanted a home and a… family… but she also wanted something that was her own. The bar in the slums brought in decent business, and she believed she could do even better if she could design a bar herself in a good location.

And Seventh Heaven was doing well. Better than she ever expected, although a good chunk of it was thanks to the Turks' expensive drinking habits and generous tips (well, Rude's generous tips).

She placed the chairs on top of the tables and polished the bar after running the dishwasher. She dusted and polished the liquor bottles and made sure they were all facing forward. She would go over everything again tomorrow before opening, but she felt a need to do it now as well.

Whenever she would take trash out to the dumpsters now, she would still be cautious, just in case Reno was hanging around. She definitely did not want to see him today.

Once her chores were done, she curled up on the couch with a novel until it was time to go back to bed. This night, she spent quite a while untangling her hair before crawling into bed.

Monday

Tifa woke up in a better mood today. The sun was finally out and she was one day closer to seeing Barret and Marlene. She was already starting to think about what they could do that didn't require a lot of time outside walking since the streets were too dangerous and so many businesses had to close. Of course, battling monsters would be much easier with Barret around, but she didn't want to take the chance of Marlene getting hurt.

They wouldn't be able to stay cooped up inside all weekend, but there were a few places nearby – like the ice cream shop – that were still open and that they could get to relatively easy.

She hopped out of bed and performed her stretches before stepping into the shower and letting the warm water wake her up. She ran her fingers through her hair (as best she could) while washing, the way shampoo models did. She finally felt clean after this shower and wrapped a towel around her body as she stepped out onto her bathroom rug. She took a second towel and wrapped it around her head, with some hair hanging out the back due to its length. She strolled over to her mirror to see that she was looking much more like herself today. Her eyes were open and brighter and the dark circles under her eyes were gone.

She didn't even dread seeing Reno later when the bar would be open. She assumed he would be there with Rude to tease her and gloat. She just hoped Rude wouldn't find out about her little tryst – no, let's not call it a tryst – with Reno. It would hurt him no matter when it happened, but having it happen right after their date had to be extra cruel.

How could she have done that?

She was trapped between feeling guilty and exhilarated. She hadn't thought that she missed a man's touch, but now that she had a taste, she couldn't believe it had been so long.

But it was Reno!

She got dressed and tidied up her home before traveling down to the bar.

Thump, thump, thump.

Tifa knew what that sound meant. She grabbed her gloves and headed out her front door to find some grashtrikes slithering through the streets, hitting buildings with their tails. Tifa kicked the one that had just been thumping against her bar, sending the creature flying into the air and down the street. Its screech grabbed the attention of the others, which turned toward Tifa and began advancing on her.

She psyched herself up and charted her path. She ran up to the closest creature and jumped up, bouncing off of its head to reach the next creature and doing the same. She continued this staggered "walk" over one more grashtrike before performing a somersault kick on the last remaining one – the queen. By the time she landed back on the ground, they were all dead.

She soon arrived at the orphanage to give the children a proper lesson. Some of the kids were really taking to martial arts. Tifa still hoped that Zangan was traveling the world and teaching and that, if he ever met the children, he'd be proud of her teaching skills.

Marle didn't ask any more questions about Reno, but Tifa caught her making wry smiles every now and again. It was just as embarrassing. She made a hasty getaway to avoid a longer conversation with the older woman in order to return to the theater to help put in some flooring before fighting her way back to her bar to prepare for opening.

The bar was already clean, but she had her opening ritual anyway: Mop the floors, polish the bar, dust and straighten the liquor bottles, re-rack any stray glasses, place the chairs, and clean the tabletops. In that order. Every night.

It was just about time to turn on the "Open" sign.

She smiled when Rude came in that night but couldn't help but be a little confused that Reno wasn't with him. She had prepared herself to act casual around the sharp-tongued Turk and ignore any barbs he might throw her way regarding Saturday night. She shook it off and smiled at Rude.

"Welcome back," she said as cheerfully as possible before placing his usual drink in front of him.

"Thanks," Rude replied.

So, that's how it was going to be. She actually took comfort in the fact that things had gone back to normal between them. She had worried the night would be weird, but Rude was his usual quiet self. Of course, Tifa didn't know what was going on in his head.

She assumed Reno was either waiting for her out back or trying to toy with her by making some grand entrance later. She was even prepared for him to bring another woman just to be a dick. But when she went to take out the trash he wasn't there. Elena and Tseng eventually joined Rude, but Reno never came.

After she closed up the bar, she sat down at a table to count her gil for the night. Rude had left a large tip, just like always, and Tseng drank more than usual, giving her a pretty nice profit for the day. She put some of the gil in her petty cash box and prepared the rest for the bank in the morning. It was her usual morning errand, finding that mid-morning was usually the quietest time for monster attacks. Even better, it was on the way to Marle's orphanage.

When she finished up, she climbed the stairs to her apartment above and gently fell onto her bed, closing her eyes and drifting peacefully to sleep.

Tuesday

Tifa woke up easily and went through her usual morning regimen: Stretch, shower, deal with hair, go to bank, give the children a lesson, run additional errands, help build the theater, return to the bar early to get ready for opening and deal with any monsters.

As she was returning home from the theater, a small herd of elfadunks could be heard wreaking havoc nearby. Tifa ran over and grabbed one by the horn, turning her back to it as she did so, and then hunched over and threw the creature up over her back and to the ground at her feet. She thought back to her fight with an elfadunk in the city several weeks earlier, when Reno had helped her out. It was the first time he showed any hint of humanity toward her. The memory also got her thinking about how he used his mag rod... on the monster, that day.

The beasts turned and ran in the opposite direction. Tifa would have chased after them, but she was blindsided by the creatures they were actually running from: A pack of Kalm fangs. One lunged at her from behind, knocking her to the ground and clawing at her back. She screamed out in pain and twisted around so she could grab it by the chest. She placed a foot on its gut and pushed off to fling it behind her. It yelped as she got back to her feet. Two more jumped toward her, baring their teeth. She leapt into the air and kicked out to both sides, taking them both down. She expected more to attack, but instead their ears perked up in another direction and ran off. Tifa assumed the police were nearby.

Rude and Elena came to the bar shortly after it opened that night. Where was Reno? She knew he had to be playing some kind of game, it's what he was best at, but she was starting to wonder. Maybe he got enough from her Saturday night and was bored. Maybe it was all an act. Maybe she was a bad kisser… She started asking herself too many questions, and she soon found herself just wishing he would walk in the door and put her fears to rest.

Tseng joined them a little later, but again Reno didn't show. Tifa continued to act as if she didn't even notice he was gone, but inside she wanted to ask them about their red-headed partner, or at least overhear something about him.

After another long night, she closed up and counted her gil. She slowly walked up stairs and into her bathroom. She removed her shirt and bra and looked at herself in the mirror. What was wrong with her? Why did Cloud leave? And now Reno? Was she just not exciting enough or good enough?

She put on a nightie and fought back tears when she crawled into bed. She would not cry over Reno. She may have cried after their encounter, but that had more to do with Cloud.

Wednesday

"Same old, same old," Tifa thought when her alarm went off. Still no texts from Reno. She was again getting tempted to send him a message, something simple like a "?" and leaving it at that, but she had more self-control than that.

She stepped out of bed and performed her morning stretches. She then undressed and slipped into the shower. She turned the temperature up and stood under the hot water, examining her body for imperfections. She flexed her muscles and considered the possibility that she was too muscular. Did she look mannish? Was her hair too long? Her butt too big? Her boobs too saggy?

No, she couldn't start thinking about that. Even if her problem was physical, she didn't know what needed to be fixed. If the problem was her personality, well, there was little she could do to change that. And if that were the case, it was time for her to find someone who liked her for who she was.

She couldn't let these boys lower her self-esteem. Just because they didn't want her didn't mean no one wanted her. And she still wasn't convinced that they had both completely rejected her.

She had already gone over her relationship with Cloud – all the times he told her he loved her, all the times they had sex, all the times they laughed, all the things they did together, and all the future plans they made.

Now she found herself going over her experiences with Reno. He was pursuing her. He was the one that kept showing up out of nowhere and texting her. Maybe he was waiting for her to come to him? Maybe she hadn't given him enough to keep him wanting more? That couldn't be true, he saw her partially nude a few days ago, his face was gleaming. And their kiss, while sensual, definitely ended too soon – at least she thought.

She just couldn't understand why the redheaded bastard had gone dark.

Tifa turned the water off and wrapped a towel around her head. She grabbed her red satin mini-robe and put it on before approaching the mirror. Today would be the day she stopped letting boys make her doubt herself. She finished getting ready and went about her day as usual: She went to the bank, taught the children, ran additional errands, helped build the theater, and then returned to the bar early to get ready for opening and dealing with any monsters that came by.

Another stampede of levrikons appeared before it was time to open. Tifa groaned and put on her gloves to run outside and start the fight. She dove shoulder-first into the first one she saw and they both tumbled to the ground. Tifa got to her feet first and crushed the bird's neck before swinging her other leg out to kick the next bird square in the chest, dropping it to the ground.

Another bird pecked at her arm as it passed, causing Tifa to wince as another creature knocked her to the ground. Angered, she began running in the opposite direction of the stampede, punching one bird, kicking the next and somersaulting back to the ground. She crouched low to the pavement to sweep another bird off its feet. The bird slowed to a near stop and started limping as it tried to escape, quickly falling behind the rest of the herd. Tifa picked the next bird up and slammed it down to the ground. The flock was thinning out now, and she needed to finish prepping, so she dodged a couple birds to cross the street back to her bar.

She had barely returned to the bar after flicking on the "open" sign when the landline started to ring. She answered the phone, silently praying it wasn't one of her vendors saying they would be late with a delivery.

"Hello Miss Lockhart," a familiar, grating voice said on the other end. "Just calling – again – to see if Mr. Strife—" Tifa hung up before he could finish.

Every week now. Every week, the same reporter from the Daily Buzz – which had been rebuilt after the fall of Midgar – would call and ask her for any updates on Cloud. At first, she asked him to stop calling her, but that resulted in negative stories that she was lashing out at her friends and family. They didn't even bother to call any of her friends. In hindsight, she was thankful for the shoddy journalism, since it kept the other members of AVALANCHE from knowing about Cloud's absence.

Now she just hung up on them. Reporters weren't hanging around the bar as much as they were shortly after Meteorfall and after Cloud left, so the stories about Tifa and her friends weren't as numerous, yet still this reporter called. And every time he did, she was reminded of how alone she was in the world.

Rude and Elena were later than usual. For a moment Tifa thought maybe all the Turks were on assignment and unable to come to her bar. That got her thinking that maybe Reno was on a special assignment and that was why he hadn't come into the bar all week. It was a little comforting, at least.

Tseng joined them again that night. Tifa overheard him scolding Elena about something, but she couldn't tell what about. Again, Reno never made an appearance. At this point, Tifa was pretty sure she had done something wrong and driven him away.

She ended up becoming pretty depressed about the whole thing by the time she closed the bar. As she worked to clean up, however, she started getting angry. Angry at Cloud. Angry at Reno. Especially Reno.

She would not let some murderer make her feel bad about herself. She would not sit around sulking and waiting around for him – or Cloud.

Barret and Marlene were coming in a week. She just had to make it to then before she wouldn't be alone.

She wanted to see the stars. When she was traveling with AVALANCHE around the world, she was able to see the sky most nights while camping on the open road. And other than Junon and Rocket Town, the villages around the world weren't big enough or well-lit enough to block out the stars, so she'd be able to watch them while everyone else was sleeping.

The stars in Nibelheim were her favorite, even if they did bring back some painful memories. The good memories outweighed the bad, like promises made; promises kept. Even now, she felt comfort under the night sky, and so she climbed outside her bedroom window and stood up so that she was facing the building. A simple hop allowed her to grab onto the edge of the roof and pull herself up.

She didn't come up here regularly, only when her urge to see the stars became overwhelming. There was too much light pollution in Edge to see more than a few stars, and even they could only be seen if one concentrated on one place for a few seconds. Still, it's what she had, and the skies had cleared from the recent storms.

She sat with her back against the parapet and stretched her left leg in front of her, bringing her right knee under her chin. She found one star and concentrated on it for a few seconds as the musty brown night sky came into focus. She started to see a few dimmer stars around the one she first saw and sighed.

She couldn't will them to appear.

Thursday

Tifa woke up with more determination than she had all week. Barret and Marlene would be here in a week, and she was done wondering what happened to Cloud or Reno. She hopped out of bed and gracefully performed her morning stretches.

Today she would be her old, strong self. She showered and combed her hair, trying to think about anything other than those damn boys. She decided to wear her new – well, now not so new – outfit in order to feel good about herself. As she was rolling up her second thigh-high, her phone buzzed.

"See you next week!" followed by another text: "That was from Marlene."

Tifa smiled as she walked down the stairs into the bar. She picked up the envelope of gil from the night before (kept in a hidden safe in the back room) and headed out to the bank.

She had no other errands to run today, so she went to the orphanage right after, followed by the theater.

The walk home included a swarm of gorgers skittering toward her. Tifa had always hated fighting any type of insect-like creature. Their carapaces broke pretty easily under her blows and she always ended up covered in their guts. She didn't want to ruin her favorite outfit, so she tried to avoid as many as she could and only hit the ones that came after her. She managed to get back home with sludge just on one arm, on her skin. She considered herself lucky.

She strolled into her bar and practically danced through her preparations. She was determined to get her life back on track now, especially since she didn't want Barret to ask too many questions about her mood.

She flicked on the "open" sign and took her place behind the bar, smiling for what new possibilities awaited her now.