"Cloud?" Tifa called.

She stood at the base of the stairs. He had returned from his delivery service work while she had been tending to the bar. He hadn't even stopped to say hi, just walked right up the stairs into his room.

Tifa still stood at the bottom step, unsure whether to go up or not. Eventually, she turned back to the kitchen; sure there was something else in there that she could clean.

Marlene sat at the table, reading. It had become her new hobby and she read everything that she could find. She had even gotten her hands on one of Tifa's romance paperback novels…Tifa was just glad she had found her with that before Marlene had come upon a scene where she would have started asking some 'questions'.

"Marlene, where is Denzel?" Tifa asked.

It took Marlene a moment to reply due to an exciting scene. "Aerith's church."

Denzel went there occasionally nowadays. Tifa wasn't sure if it was for comfort, or because he still felt the need to feel the pain of that time before Cloud had found him.

Because he had lived on the street for nearly two years, she wasn't too worried about him when he went out on his own. It would be dark in an hour, though, and she didn't even like being out at night in Edge. Much less her own adopted child.

Tifa left Marlene to her book, instead she scrubbed the pans that she had left in the sink earlier.

After that, there really wasn't too much more she could do.

And now she stood at the base of the stairs again.

Even after all the things I've done in my life, she thought, I still can't find that courage to talk to him.

Slowly, she made her way up the stairs. So slowly, that the creaky stair board didn't even creak.

After she mastered the stairs, she kept her hand on the railing and steadied herself with some deep breaths.

The light shined from underneath Cloud's office door. The soft yellow glow touched her feet.

She walked to his door and fixed her hair and smoothed her clothes out.

And she stood there.

She let out another deep breath and took the plunge—knocking while simultaneously opening the door.

"Knock, knock." She said, peeking her head through the doorframe.

Cloud sat hunched over his desk, not acknowledging her.

Right, she had planned a conversation. What was it again? "Um, Cloud?" She said, "Denzel is still at Aerith's church and it's getting dark, he probably needs to be picked up."

Tifa had seen his shoulders tense at the mention of Aerith's name. She berated herself for saying the name at one of Cloud's obvious low points. She shouldn't have said Aerith; she should have said 'her'. 'Her church'…

Tifa sighed. She wasn't sure what to do. She didn't know what else she could do. She was there for him, she always was, but she wasn't sure if he noticed.

Finally, she brought herself closer to him, looking over his shoulder. She saw delivery confirmations and some small parcels, maps and some blank paper.

There was the little 'family' portrait of the four of them. And a picture she hadn't seen in a long time. The picture looked old and worn, and she wasn't sure where he had gotten a hold of it.

It showed Zack, Sephiroth, and her. The photo that had been taken in Nibelheim.

So soon before that disaster had happened. The day her father had died, the day the village had burned. Tifa couldn't help the hot tears that suddenly blurred her vision.

She took a couple of shaky steps back, the picture disappearing from her sight. She covered her mouth and nose with her hand. She could almost smell the smoke. She could almost taste the sulfur in the back of her throat…

Then she felt the warmth of arms encircling her. She cried harder onto his shoulder. Silent, burning tears that she had thought she had shed.

That she knew she had shed.

When she pulled her face away from his shoulder, she noticed she had left a dark, damp spot on his turtleneck.

"Sorry." She said. She tried to chuckle, but it sounded more like a sob.

He looked her in the eye and gave her a smile. "Thank you Tifa…Thank you for being here." He pulled back from her and started out the door. "I'm going to go get Denzel."

She heard his foot steps descend the stairs, heard the door slam with his departure, and heard Fenir roar to life as he left.

She touched the tears stains on her cheeks. The wet glistened on her fingertips.

A thought drifted to the front of her conscious, so softly, she almost missed it.

She had never seen Cloud cry.

She couldn't remember any point in time having seen it, not even in their childhood.

Maybe these tears aren't mine, she thought, maybe I'm crying the tears that he never did.

Tifa caught sight of that picture on his desk again, but no swell of emotion overtook her this time.

She could only stare at it.

She had never seen Cloud cry.

She had a feeling she never would.

Title: Never Seen You Cry

Word Count: 876