connected hearts
chapter V: proposal

It was a quiet night in Edge. Cloud suspected it would be the same for the rest of the week. Most of Edge's residents and their families were either visiting friends and relatives or vacationing out of town in the leadup to Christmas. Cloud himself had just finished the last of his deliveries for the holiday today and returned to 7th Heaven in time for dinner, which is where he found himself at just a little after nine in the evening, sitting in the bar with Marlene and Denzel.

"Are we going to go on a holiday, Cloud?" Marlene briefly stopped scribbling in her notebook to cast hopeful eyes at her second adopted father. (She'd earlier informed Cloud that she was writing some kind of story, but when he'd asked to read it Marlene had recoiled faster than a bandersnatch and declared that it was private.)

"We went to Cosmo Canyon last year," he reminded her while trying to sneak another glance at her notebook.

She braced an arm across the table to block his view. "I know, but that was last year. We should go somewhere else this year."

Cloud looked across the room to where Tifa was standing in the doorway, saying goodnight to the last of her patrons as they left 7th Heaven. When she noticed his eyes on her, she smiled automatically and came over to the booth where her family was seated.

"We could go to Fort Condor," Denzel suggested, not looking up from the comic he was reading. (He'd been engrossed in it for the last couple of days. Cloud had already approved of Denzel's choice when he'd seen it was some kind of action story with a lot of blood and swordfighting.)

"Or we could just stay here in Edge," Tifa interjected. She slid onto the seat beside Cloud and tucked herself against his side, his arm winding around her waist.

Marlene sighed heavily. "Boooring," she complained. "I wanna go somewhere we haven't been before!"

"For now it looks like the only place you'll be going is to bed," Cloud answered. Tifa hummed her agreement. The children stood and headed for the stairs — Denzel without a complaint and Marlene with her usual noises of protest — and Cloud followed them while Tifa went to clean and lock up the bar for the night. A chorus of goodnights were exchanged.

"We could go to Wutai," Marlene murmured when she and Cloud were at the top of the stairwell. Denzel had gone on ahead to brush his teeth.

"Honestly, I wouldn't mind that," Cloud whispered back, "but I'm thinking of saving up the money for something else."

Her eyes twinkled, picking up on his meaning immediately. "Something with a lot of diamonds?"

He chuckled low in his throat. "Maybe one or two."

"Okay. Let's not go anywhere this year then," Marlene said, and Cloud only chuckled again and ushered her towards the bathroom.

.

When Cloud came downstairs after seeing the children to bed, he found Tifa sitting in the booth again with her legs tucked underneath her and a paperback in her hands. She was already deeply engaged in the story and nearing the end, judging by the few pages she had left to read.

"I'm going to take a shower," Cloud told her, a soft smile quirking his lips when she only nodded absently, not even sparing a glance in his direction. He left her to it and went upstairs to the bathroom they shared, thinking of nothing except silver and diamonds and the rings on display at the jeweller in Kalm as he undressed, showered, and dried himself. He had just pulled on a pair of shorts when his ears picked up a sudden noise from downstairs, like a whimper, as well as the sound of frantic breathing that followed.

Tifa was… crying?

The next small sob that he heard sent his heart leaping up into his throat. Cloud threw on his shirt and was out of the bathroom and down the stairs in seconds, calling Tifa's name as he went. She was still sitting in the booth, the book discarded, but curled in on herself as if she was in pain. The mere sight tightened his chest in terror.

"Tifa?" he said, crossing the floor and dropping to crouch on one knee in front of her. Her arms were raised to her face, palms pressed over her eyes, but that did nothing to stop the steady stream of tears rolling down her cheeks and off her chin. His hands came up and grasped her wrists, turning her towards him. "Tifa, what's wrong? What happened? Are you hurt?"

She shook her head quickly, but couldn't manage a response further than another distressed noise. Cloud was at a complete loss. His fingers moved to circle her upper arms, the knot between his brows only tightening as her shoulders continued to tremble.

"Tifa," he said again, pleadingly, hands now moving to cup her face.

She lowered her own hands, waving them around frantically in some form of communication, but he couldn't understand her meaning. Finally Tifa tried to calm herself, her chest heaving as she sucked in deep, shaking breaths. Cloud watched, confused, as she reached for the paperback behind her, holding it towards him with unsteady hands.

"He didn't get to tell her he loved her," she said, voice quivering. "He didn't get to tell her he loved her and then he died and now she'll never know that he loved her."

Cloud blinked at Tifa.

His first though was: A book?

His second was: Gaia, I love her.

He knew it then, had never been more sure of it — Tifa was the one and only person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. So, because he was on one knee anyway and before he could change his mind, Cloud took her hands in his and said, "Marry me."

Tifa's crying stopped at once. She raised her head to look at him, the expression on her face frozen somewhere between astonishment and confusion and disbelief. "What?"

"Marry me," he repeated, this time unable to stop the grin that spread across his face.

In his head Cloud had expected a glittering smile or a light laugh from her, hopefully even a kiss. What he didn't expect was for Tifa to take another look at him, inhale, and then promptly burst into another bout of crying. His smile was helpless as he tightened his fingers around hers.

"Please tell me you're crying because you're happy," Cloud said, "and not because you don't want to marry me."

She made a noise that could have been either a sob or a laugh and shook her head emphatically, her chin lowered to her chest. Once again, she had to force herself to breathe deeply and evenly.

"Tifa," he said after a long moment, exhaling a slight chuckle. "You haven't really answered me yet."

"Oh," she laughed tearfully, wiping at her eyes. She blinked a few times to clear her vision and finally looked at him with a smile. "Yes," Tifa answered, "yes, of course I'll marry you."

Her smile widened against his lips when he pulled her in for a kiss, but Cloud abruptly broke off as a thought struck him. "I haven't bought a ring yet," he said suddenly. "I didn't really mean for that to happen the way it did."

"Well, I've already said yes, Cloud Strife," she answered, not missing a beat as her hands reached out and brought her lips against his again, "so just shut up and kiss me."

He couldn't object to that.

A/N: [crawls back from the dead] so, I'm alive! mostly. I totally misjudged how much of my life my final year of school would take up and that plus my general laziness is my excuse for disappearing once again... but fingers crossed that since I'm starting at uni this year I'll be able to update this regularly! I really missed writing about my strife family babies so here, have a proposal chapter. :) I didn't really have any particular book in mind for Tifa's emotional breakdown although most things by John Green and Ernest Hemingway make me cry like a baby. this was a totally random idea but I hope you enjoyed it!

once more, thank you if you're still sticking around and putting up with me. much love to my readers and Boohbear19, Chocolatelilac101, , AnimeAddict1059 (thanks for that bathtime madness suggestion, that sounds like so much fun to write so look out for it!), Hanae Hana, and ChildishStrife for reviewing since the last chapter. — ridia