Chapter 22: A Girl Alone

July 9, 1997

Tifa spent the entire day in the fetal position on her bed. She could not believe it; Cloud had been adopted. This, in turn, meant that she would never see him again.

Her best friend.

The love of her life.

Gone forever.

The feeling was sickening.

The worst of it came when she noticed Cloud's cell phone in her night stand; she deduced that he had left it there before he was taken away.

So she could remember him.

Upon opening the pictures, she found the picture of her teenage self with Zack and Sephiroth. Wondering what she would see beyond, she swiped the picture.

This time, it was not a picture; it was a video. She remembered it from her former life; this was the video she had made when she had proposed to Cloud. She saw how she was wearing a purple dress, and got down on one knee with a ring.

Unable to bear the memory any longer, she swiped the phone, stumbling on a picture again.

It was again the twenty-year-old Tifa. Only this time, she was in a wedding dress. She was, of course, with a tuxedoed Cloud. The twenty-five-year-old Cissnei was there, also in a wedding gown, and with her arm locked with Tobin's.

She had nearly forgotten it had been a double wedding.

More tears came; this was the man she had committed to spending the rest of her life with. Even though they were turned into children, she was well aware that they would grow eventually.

Now, he was ripped away.

Despite the fact her instinct was telling her not to, she swiped the picture once again, revealing the one that stung the most.

It was the twenty-one year old Tifa, wrapped in a robe, and holding her two-hour-old daughter.

Those events would still happen.

But they would now be painful memories.

She buried her head into her pillow.

By the end of the day, her throat had hurt from crying.

LATER...

July 10, 1997

"Please," Tifa pleaded as she stood in Mrs. Yaint's office across from her desk. "You have to tell me who adopted him."

"I'm sorry, Tara," Mrs. Yaint apologized. "I couldn't release that information if I wanted to."

"But he was my best friend!" Tifa protested. "I would explain everything we've been through, but you wouldn't believe me."

Mrs. Yaint gave the ten-year-old girl a look of empathy.

"Tara," she began, "I know it's often hard to part with friends. But he's been adopted by a loving couple. Take comfort in the fact that he'll be spending the rest of his childhood in a safe home."

She did not get it, though Tifa did not expect her to do so.

"But he's an important part of my life!" she insisted. "Is there any way I could ever visit or keep in touch with him?"

"I'm afraid not," Mrs. Yaint replied. "This was a closed adoption."

"Please!" Tifa protested.

At this point, she was contemplating telling the truth.

"Tara," Mrs. Yaint continued, "please understand that I'm being very lenient as it is. You broke quite a few rules yesterday. First, you know girls are not permitted in a boy's room. Second, swimsuits are for the pool only. I'll forgive you this time, but don't go destroying yourself over a lost cause."

Resigned to her fate, Tifa returned to her room, climbed into her bed, and began to sob.

And then, someone else noticed.

"You really need to put on your big girl panties and accept he's gone for good," Lynn finally blurted out.

"Mind your own business," Tifa sobbed.

"Jesus H. Christ!" sighed Lynn. "Why are you so upset over him? Were you in looooooooove?"

"Go to fucking hell!" Tifa shouted.

Lynn said nothing after that.

LATER...

July 11, 1997

Tifa spent most of the third day in bed again. She did not dare to look at the pictures again; they would only upset her more. She did everything she could to avoid having Lynn notice her; otherwise, she would just intimidate her again.

"You know what I'd really like to burn down?" Lynn randomly blurted out.

"No," Tifa replied. "What?"

"This stupid orphanage," she replied. "I know I wouldn't get caught."

Tifa sighed and ignored her; if this was a joke, she was not laughing.

Finally, at night, she decided to go to the pool. It was eight, and the pool was deserted, but she could not care less. She was allowed in at any time of the day, so long as she wore the required pink one-piece.

She made her way to the deep end and jumped in, immersing herself in the water. She then began swimming laps from side to side. Being ten years old again, she knew she would be too small for any workout equipment; swimming would be her best option to stay in shape.

Plus, a workout might help her emotionally. That said, the hurt continued to sting badly.

Thus, she decided to keep up with her laps. She heard the door open, and groaned inside. That would have to be Mrs. Yaint, here to inform her that she was breaking curfew and would spend the next day in the detention room. She decided to finish her lap first; stopping now would not change her fate.

Nor would it be able to fix the unbearable ache in her heart.

But as she turned to face Mrs. Yaint, she immediately saw that it was not Mrs. Yaint at all; it was somebody else.

"Cloud!" she exclaimed. "You're back!"

"Yep," he replied as he stood near the edge of the pool. "I'm back."

The next few moments wrote themselves.

Tifa immediately climbed out of the pool, darted toward her friend, threw her arms around him, and clutched him to her as hard as she could.

Of course, Cloud was fully clothed, and wound up completely drenched.

"I'm sorry!" Tifa apologized, once she realized what she had done. "I just thought I'd never see you again."

"Me too," Cloud replied as he wrung his now-drenched clothes.

"What happened?" she asked.

"It's a long story," he replied, seeming to not object to Tifa drenching him.

"Why don't you join me on the pool?" she invited with a smile. "You kind of owe me."

"Sounds good," he replied. "I'll be back."

Cloud went to his room, changed into his trunks, returned, and jumped into the pool with Tifa, who was practically on cloud nine.

He rested on the pool wall, where Tifa swam up to him, stopping mere inches beside him.

"How did you get back here?" she asked. "You didn't run away, did you?"

Cloud laughed.

"They practically ran away from me!" he replied. "Technically, they returned me, but it was because I made their lives a living hell."

Tifa gave him a suspicious look.

"What did you do?" she asked.

"Day one, I mashed my welcome home cake into their carpet," he replied. "It took my short-loved mom four hours to get out."

"And they sent you back over that?" she asked.

Cloud shook his head.

"Day two, I sprayed a fire extinguisher on both of their cars."

"That doesn't sound too bad," she observed as she wrung her hair.

"It ruined their paint jobs," he added.

"And that's why they sent you back?" asked Tifa.

Cloud, at this point, was cracking up hard.

"No," he laughed as he almost struggled for breath. "Day three was what made them send me back."

Tifa placed her hands on her hips.

"What on earth did you do?" she inquired. "Or should I even ask?"

"An orgy of destruction," he replied.

"An orgy of destruction?!" she asked him.

"Yep," he answered. "I put sawdust all over their bed, knocked over their book cases, and flushed a cherry bomb down each and every toilet."

"You blew up all their toilets?!" Tifa exclaimed.

"And," Cloud continued, "after that, I went outside and created another orgy of destruction, climaxing with one of their cars at the bottom of their backyard pool."

Tifa gasped and put her hands over her mouth.

"I know," he said. "I was just going to drive it down the street and leave it there. So I put it in reverse. But I hadn't driven in over a year, so I turned the wheel the wrong way, went through the fence, and into the pool."

"Cloud!" Tifa exclaimed. "You could have drowned!"

"It was a risk," he admitted. "I knew I had to wait until the pressure was the same before I opened the door. It's funny what I remember from Shinra boot camp."

Tifa folded her arms; she was not impressed with the comment.

"Why'd you do it?" she asked. "You might have died!"

"It was worth it," he insisted. "I needed to get back here. I couldn't leave you."

That made her heart happy, despite the circumstances.

Cloud and Tifa remained in the pool for another hour. Finally, they decided to get out, dry off, and return to their rooms.

Tifa walked Cloud back to his room. She did not care how much trouble she would potentially get into.

She wanted to be with him every moment, considering she had thought she would never see them again.

Eventually, they arrived at Cloud's door.

"You could have gotten killed," she repeated. "But I forgive you."

"Why so soon?" he asked.

"Because you're my best friend," she replied with a smile. "But you really did all that just for me?"

"I need you," he admitted. "You're all I have."

"Ditto," Tifa said in a choked voice.

She then wrapped her arms around him. Tears of happiness escaped her eyes.

And, this time, the hug felt right.

Both Cloud and Tifa were able to sleep soundly that night; while they had been demoted to friends as they were children again, their mutual love for each other had indeed remained intact.