Disclaimer: I do not own any of the FFVII characters. Don't even try sueing me because I have about as much money as Bush has brains. That is all.
Sakura-Angel: Okay, despite my Reno/Tifa one-shot [the pairing is so unloved T-T], I got more into the FFVII fandom. I was reading more fiction, so it was no surprise when a plot bunny popped into my head at about 1:30 in the morning. So naturally, I penned a [short,] sappy little one-shot and here it is.
"She loves you, you know."
"I believe that she feels for you."
"GAWD! How can you not SEE it? Are you STUPID?!"
Oh, he saw it alright. Despite what people thought of him, he saw it as clear as a shot glass in her clean, well-lit bar.
He sat on a rock in the mountains, worn and weathered from storms past, and found himself comparing what must've been the rock's past to his own.
He had been beaten on as a child, admonished and the recipient of many a deppreciative glare for having big dreams and no father.
But he didn't care either way. All that really mattered was her.
Her. The girl he set out to impress every day of the week, every week of the month, every month of the year, so much that it almost became an obssession.
So when she proposed that promise, he could only stutter in amazement and agree. She did care. That thought drove him for a long while. Maybe... just maybe... she could love him. He knew he loved her, that was for sure.
And then she happened. Someone so holy, someone so pure, like she was spun out of light and hope and dreams. Someone who left not only for the good of humankind, but also a wall of guilt.
She should've meant more to him than just a friend, she was a martyr, a saint. But... she didn't. And that left him feeling dirty, guilty, for wanting someone else.
Yes, it was true. Nothing had changed. He had even told the very object of his affections so one night, barely realizing that he was saying he still loved her after all those years. And then that wall of guilt came back, sliding into place between the pair, even as he held her in his arms.
He tore down the wall eventually though. He did it with her help, unknown to her. When she helped him find himself, when she fought beside him, even when she did so simple a thing as smile at him, it helped him realize that it was not wrong to love her over someone else.
So now he tore down the mountainside, knowing what he had to do. He ran through the new terrain, well-paved streets, through crowds and towards the person he longed to see.
"Cloud?" her voice quiet and concerned, told him that she stood behind him.
He spun around.
Their eyes locked. Red, red, red was all he saw. The rest of the world simply fell away as he thought of what the colour of her eyes was most commonly associated with - love, lifeforce, passion.
"Tifa," he whispered before taking the steps that brought him closer to her.
It was then that he kissed her for the first time, on the street, in broad daylight, telling the whole world what he felt about her.
And as he held her, he knew that there would be many more kisses to come.