DISCLAIMER: Final Fantasy VII and its characters are wholly the properties of Square Enix. This story is written purely for entertainment and not profit.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: The first portion of the story is complete. In this next portion, each chapter will be divided between Cloud's and Tifa's perspectives instead of focusing only on one character's point of view at a time.

I want to take this time to thank everyone here and on the Final Heaven Discord server again for inspiring, reading, and providing feedback. I know I say it a lot, but your support truly does mean everything.

Okay, onward to the next chapter!

Healing of the Heart

Written by daBOSSz

Chapter 7

While the Junon inn was always a comfortable place to rest, it still felt strange for Cloud to be away from Seventh Heaven for the evening. He knew he should not be experiencing such eccentricity in spending the night away from home, considering he had already done so for an extended period of time when he had abandoned his family and settled in the Sector 5 church, but his first night away after his return made him feel as though he was leaving Nibelheim again for the first time. There were similar mixed emotions coursing through his mind as that night: unease at the environment, questions over what exactly he was doing, uncertainty about whether or not it was the right time, etc.

"Get a hold of yourself," his mind spoke to him during a moment of clarity. "You're only away for one evening. By this time tomorrow, you'll be back with Tifa and the kids."

Without a doubt, he realized that, but he still could not shake off some of the emotions despite them making absolutely no sense. He left to deliver some packages, not chase a career for years just to impress his crush or to live the rest of his life in solitude, so why were these feelings bothering him at all?

He tried to think back to what exactly could be nagging at him. Had he said or done something that left himself confused in any way? The previous evening with Tifa had gone as well as he could have hoped for with them even sharing a meaningful kiss at the end of their date, and there was no indication that anything had gone wrong this morning. Did he miss something, or was his mind simply so used to plans going awry that it automatically started questioning everything even when there was nothing to question?

Cloud began recollecting the details of his evening with Tifa. He could remember the exuberance coursing through him after she revealed that she had actually composed a song and named it after him. He could remember the hesitation at her bedroom door before she placed her hand over his heart and led him down to kiss her. During their kiss, he could remember feeling the desire well up in him to push himself deeper into her embrace and escalate his actions, and he could remember choosing not to give into this desire out of respect for her. They were still healing, and it would have been absolutely wrong to become intimate with her before their emotional scars had been fully patched up.

Of course, this did not mean it was easy to make the right decision. From the moment he walked down the stairs and saw Tifa wearing that purple dress, self-control would be a challenge. Throughout their entire evening, she had unintentionally been tempting every one of his five senses: the sight of her all dolled up had him mentally shaking his head on more than one occasion, the sound of her playing the piano took him back to one of the most blissful memories from his childhood, the smell and taste of her natural vanilla scent beckoned him nonstop like a blooming spring garden, and the feel of her body against his tapped nerves that were desperate for the contact of intimacy. Cloud was more thankful than ever that he had the ability to remain disciplined, since he knew he would never be able to forgive himself if he had made any impulsive moves that caused even a remote semblance of discomfort for Tifa.

Yes, after reflecting on the evening more thoroughly, Cloud was undeniably convinced that nothing had gone wrong for once. He even kept himself within his own boundaries in the morning, speaking with Tifa lightheartedly and parting from her with a smile to give her the space she likely needed after he had been so close to her the night before. Tifa was simply too precious and too important for him to offer everything he had at once without pulling back.

Once he had gathered his feelings in order, Cloud closed his eyes and allowed sleep to overtake him. His last thoughts before he lost consciousness for the evening were on his next plans for Tifa and him to continue mending their relationship.

Barret left soon after he had dropped Marlene and Denzel off back at Seventh Heaven, and the two children spent time over dinner regaling Tifa with their stories about exploring Edge alongside the gun-armed man. It was not a particularly busy evening, so Tifa had more time to listen to their harrowing tales of dragging him around to browse their favorite places. Luckily for her, they did not turn on their childlike charms and beg him to make purchases for them that she did not approve of.

She took a brief moment to give herself a mental pat on the back for effectively teaching them proper manners, and she certainly had to give Cloud credit for also playing a part in integrating such a lesson into the two of them. For all the troubles that had plagued her relationship with Cloud, Tifa was glad that the two of them were remarkably consistent in their parenting duties. While it was true that Marlene and Denzel were not troublemakers who gave adults a hard time, neither Tifa nor Cloud ever opened up any opportunities for the two youngsters to play one adult off the other. Lessons that one adult passed on to the two children were always reinforced by the approval of the other, and even when she and Cloud were at their lowest points, they still made sure to impart strong values in the children. Certainly, this did not mean that their troubles had no effect on the little ones, but Tifa knew it was this parental consistency that helped give both Marlene and Denzel enough fortitude to remain emotionally strong throughout the Geostigma turmoil and even allow them to help bring her and Cloud back together.

As she finished her nightly routine, thoughts about the children had Tifa climbing into bed in a much clearer state of mind than she had been in the morning. In fact, it seemed rather silly to her at the moment that she would even have such confused feelings toward Cloud after he had given her such an enjoyable evening together. He was home now, he had promised he would stay for good—he certainly was not someone who intentionally broke his promises—and he was proving through every one of his plans and actions so far that he genuinely meant to fully reintegrate himself into his family again. It almost seemed selfish of her to anticipate that he should be giving her so much more so soon after his return and then be bothered if he did not deliver on her own expectations; surely, Tifa was not someone who would give in to selfishness.

Confident that whatever she felt that morning would eventually get sorted out, Tifa found herself falling asleep rather quickly.

"I want to see Mom!" Tifa's mind kept repeating. "I have to see Mom!"

The path up Mt. Nibel had gotten more difficult to traverse. The weather condition was getting foggier. As she looked up, she saw the rest of her path shrouded in a mist so thick that even her nine-year-old self knew would keep her blind throughout every step she would take. Still, she continued up the mountain, more determined than ever to find her mother.

"Tifa!" a voice screamed from behind her. She recognized it as one of her friends, but at the moment, she was too focused on the task at hand to care which one. "Tifa, come back! You'll get lost!"

She kept going. A few minutes later, the voice was gone. By now, she had reached the altitude where all she could see around her was fog. She pushed forward, carefully winding her way through the rocky path, watching her footing with every step until the image of the bridge started to visualize in front of her eyes.

She took a step onto the bridge and felt no movement. She took another step, then another, then another. As she approached the center of the bridge, it started swaying more noticeably. Still, she refused to worry. She had to make it to the other side. She simply had to see her mother.

"Tifa!" another faint voice of a child was calling from behind, but this one did not sound like one of her three main friends. Given her surroundings and the condition she found herself in, Tifa could not pinpoint exactly whose voice it was. It startled her a bit that anyone else would follow her this far up, especially someone around her age, but Tifa was too set on her goal right now to think too much about it.

One step, two steps, three steps…Tifa continued carefully crossing the bridge. Four, five…

It happened so quickly that, even as overtly cautious as she had been, she was caught completely off guard. Her foot had slipped, and the bridge's sway instantly became more violent. In the blink of an eye, she had lost her grip on the rope and was falling, and the last sound she heard was the same voice from moments ago screaming alongside hers.

A sharp pain bore itself into her body, and then she knew no more.

Tifa snapped up from her bed but immediately realized that it was just a nightmare. Relief washed over her instantly, but surprise also met her just as quickly. She had not been having any nightmares in recent weeks, and it was strange for her to suddenly experience this one seemingly out of the blue, especially since her memory of the incident remained hazy at best.

She took a quick glance at the clock and saw that it was only 3:15 AM. Unable to find sleep so shortly after her first nightmare in quite some time, Tifa's reclusive emotional habits started to drown her in her own thoughts.

Although this particular nightmare was not frequent, it was one that she had experienced before. Each time, however, something specific would play out differently. Sometimes, there would be nobody calling for her. Other times, she would actually see Cloud's hand reaching out toward her before he fell down with her. This time, despite consciously knowing that Cloud was the one nearby when she took her tumble, it felt as though Tifa's subconscious refused to acknowledge his presence.

Tifa did not know exactly what, if anything, this meant. Normally, in all of her dreams—including the most torturous nightmares—Cloud was instantly identifiable if he was present. This was especially true if the dream was a retelling of a past event; the small details may change from time to time as she reflected, but if Cloud was there, he would make an appearance that her subconscious always recognized. Why did it seem to miss—or dismiss—him this time?

Not tired enough to fall back asleep but still too exhausted to process the possible answers to such a question, Tifa could only sigh to herself. It seemed as though, despite all of the much-longed-for positivity that had occurred since Cloud's return and the gradual shift toward normalcy, there remained no running from their past. As long as such memories were trapped in her subconscious, there would be opportunities for them to remind her of events that haunted her. Moving forward in her life with Cloud was going to take far more than a few heartfelt gestures, regardless of their sincerity and genuineness.

Tifa had no idea how long her thoughts had been running through her mind when she fell back asleep.

The instant his fist connected with Wel's jaw, Cloud felt a surge of adrenaline that he had never experienced. Before he could even wrap his mind around what he was doing, he had landed another punch squarely against his opponent's temple. As Wel put his hands up to defend himself, Cloud saw his chance and kneed the older boy in the stomach. With his target hunched over and unable to emit even a whimper due to the direct shot to the gut, Cloud went for the final blow by bringing his elbow straight down onto Wel's back, knocking the boy down to the Nibelheim dirt.

As he backed away from Wel, Dan and Mayday rushed up to help their friend.

"What the hell is wrong with you, asshole?" Mayday screamed at him, equally as shocked as anyone else over what had just happened.

Cloud knew he should have felt guilty when what he had just done finally dawned on him, but to his own surprise, he was much more relieved that he actually worked up the strength to knock another boy senseless. The three of them had been hounding him routinely for days, blasting him with insults about pushing Tifa off the mountain and making her father irate. When Cloud heard that Tifa had awakened from her coma and tried to check up on her, Tifa's father made it perfectly clear that he meant what he had said, sternly and vehemently warning Cloud to stay away or suffer severe consequences.

Already on unfavorable terms with Tifa's friends, Mr. Lockhart's warning had served as the ultimate piece of ammunition they needed to isolate him from Tifa for good. Their name-calling had grown more vicious, and their taunts had escalated into outright provocation attempts. His mother urged him to ignore them, but when they started insulting her directly, Cloud finally snapped.

He decided then and there that he would never again allow them to see him as an easy target to pick on. He decided that he had to start proving that he was strong enough to fight back against anyone who dared to provoke him. He would no longer tolerate those who were bold enough to dishonor his own mother; regardless of what they thought of him, he had to defend the only person who still cared about him.

The fight lasted only a few seconds, but the message had been sent: Cloud Strife the weakling was no more.

"You really are a psycho!" Dan accused. "Tifa'll never want to see you again after she finds out!"

Later that evening, when he was back at home, the weight of those words would start to sink in. However, at the moment, Cloud could not care less about what Dan said. In fact, had he not already started walking away, he would have decked Dan out right next to Wel to show him who was more powerful now.

Cloud had finally found the strength to prove to those who attacked his dignity that he would not be trifled with anymore, and now he planned to use this strength to toughen himself up so he would never fail those he cared about—especially Tifa—again.

As his eyes opened, Cloud was greeted by "3:45 AM" in large, red numbers staring back at him from the alarm clock beside his bed. The recollection of his first fight in Nibelheim was an odd dream to have, and something in his head continued to nag at him about the significance of it all, but he was not in a clear enough state of mind to process such information at the moment.

Still though, Cloud always recognized that the fight had launched him into a period of his life that he was not particularly fond of. Having already carried around a belief that he was superior to the other boys, easily dispatching the older Wel only reinforced this pre-existing bias, and he would soon find himself getting into scuffles with almost every other boy in town in pointless attempts to defend his superiority. Looking back, he found it preposterous that there were moments during those years when he actually thought fighting anyone who tried to cross him would somehow prove his strength to Tifa; not only did they hardly ever talk for the next four years, but his fighting wound up repeatedly disappointed his mother to a degree that he would not fully realize until he made his decision to join SOLDIER.

During the sporadic moments he did have with Tifa, they never said much to each other. He never told her about his fights, and she never brought them up with him, but he was certain that she had heard about his newfound aggressiveness from the others around town and likely resented him for becoming such an uncontrollable havoc. Although she has since reassured him that she never hated him, it did little to dispel his own regrets.

To this day, he still found it ironic that, despite seeing himself as more mature than the others, he was really the one acting the most immature. In so many ways, this period of his life was another example of him failing to be the man she deserved and another guilty weight he carried on his shoulders when Geostigma drove him away from her.

Such negative thoughts were not what he wanted during the middle of his first night away from Seventh Heaven since he was cured of Geostigma. He was still pondering over why these thoughts resurfaced out of nowhere when he drifted back to sleep, not even noticing that he had been lying awake for nearly one hour.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: It took some time to put this chapter together, since I'm sort of outlining the story backwards (as in I have the ending planned and am backpedaling to figure out how I want the story to lead up to the ending). This, plus lack of time to write at the moment compared with before, is why chapters will take longer to come out.

For those who are still reading and enjoying, thank you. While I have no timetable for when each chapter will be released or when this story will conclude, rest assured that I'll continue working on it. Your feedback, as always, is greatly appreciated.

See you next chapter!