KH Fic
Title: Case of Tifa: What do you mean, gone?
Author(s): aenigmadarai
Rating: PG-13 for language
Dateline: Three months after the fall of Radiant Garden
Traverse Town was about as much a home to the dispossessed refugees of Radiant Garden as a freezer was home to a waffle. It was a cold, unforgiving place where people were thrown to keep them from expiring, but it was not comfortable, was not kind, and it certainly wasn't home. Tifa hated it, and she really couldn't blame Aerith for going back to try and save their world.
She'd been gone quite a while, though, and they were all starting to get worried. She was only seventeen, after all, and sweet as she was--wise as she was, really; Cid had commented after she'd taken the gummi ship and left that there was something almost eerily spiritual about the girl, and Tifa was pretty sure everyone agreed--she was still only human. It'd been a week since she'd departed, bright and cheerful and confident that she could save Radiant Garden with the power of her heart.
If anyone could do it, Tifa figured Aerith could. She was so down to earth, so into nature and everything; Cloud had the hugest crush on her, a fact which Tifa loved to tease him over--at least, she had, before their town had been obliterated and Aerith had gone off alone. "...She's fine, okay?" she assured the blond, trying hard to be strong for him. Cloud had lost no less than she had three months ago, when Heartless had overrun their entire world and sent them on some tragic diaspora to whatever hodgepodge darkness-vomit world they were in.
Cloud's house had been destroyed, burnt to cinders by the Heartless onslaught. His mom had gone up in smoke inside...and Cloud had confided in her that he was glad he hadn't actually seen it happen. He'd been with Tifa at the time, hanging out in her backyard, sparring like usual--he'd been there when the darkness had taken over her house, been standing right beside her as they'd watched her father's heart twist from his body and swirl into some ugly shadow of a thing; it'd been Cloud to grab her by the arms and drag her away...
He'd saved her life that day. Tifa would have thrown herself into that blackness, clawing and screaming and grasping for the monster her father had become; he and another boy with a bleeding face had held her back as she'd fought to leave the ship again, and...really, Cloud was the only shoulder she'd had to cry on once it'd finally sunk in that her father was gone and they were never going home.
"She might need help." It was less that Cloud was fretting over the older girl, and more that it was a legitimate concern--at least, Cloud liked to think so. "Why's it taken so long? It took us half an hour to warp here; it's not travel time, so what is it?"
Turning her mug of hot cocoa in her hands, Tifa shook her head and looked around the square from where they sat on the plaza's main stairs. First District was so...brown; it was strange. The other districts at least felt more like home, with the grey stones and the nicer architecture. "Maybe she's making progress," she pointed out; "Aerith's pretty deep like that. If her heart is saving Radiant Garden...maybe it's just taking a while." The stairs between her knees blurred and she blinked her tears away. "I mean, if she's restoring all the...people, who lost their hearts--"
"...Tifa," he broke in, frowning a little bit. "Don't." He knew she missed her father; Cloud missed his mother too, missed his home, missed everything about life before the Heartless. But he was trying not to get his hopes up. He didn't want to be even more disappointed when it turned out that whatever Aerith was trying didn't work. Really, he'd rather she'd never have gone at all. "It's probably...not gonna happen." The sooner Tifa stopped hoping she could magically get her dad back, the sooner she could really move on, right?
"Show a little faith, Cloud," she scolded, her voice overly bright; Tifa cleared her throat and shook back her hair, taking a long drag on her hot cocoa. "I mean, this is your girlfriend we're talking about! You gotta believe in her--!"
"She's not my girlfriend!" yowled Cloud, looking torn between affronted and flustered.
Tifa smirked. "Yet," she qualified, "but I bet when she gets back you could get her to go out with you."
Her best friend turned that mortified shade of red that really brightened her day. "Tifa!" he hissed, glancing around as if the moogles were going to overhear them and scuttle off to tell Aerith.
"What?" she demanded petulantly, turning her face to frown at him. "You don't even think she's coming back, do you?" Watching his face falter, she scoffed. "She's fine, Cloud. Can't you feel her, out there somewhere?" She looked distant a moment and found her eyes shining; sniffling quickly, Tifa rubbed the back of her arm and shook her head again. "Look, we'll talk to Cid, okay? He's got that spare, that little ship--we can send someone out to look for her, yeah?"
Her stupid best friend and his big heart and timid hopes. Cracking a weak grin, she sniffled definitively one last time, and then nodded at him, jerking her head to indicate it was time to head back to the Hotel for the night. Their rooms were right next to each other, fortunately; Cid did this little attempt-at-guardianship thing where he made sure everyone was home safe every night. Tifa supposed it was good of him, considering what they'd all been through, but it was sort of annoying since he busted up any fun she and Cloud might have managed to scrape up together, and he imposed this stupid lights-out curfew which she suspected was less about conserving electricity (which is what he claimed) and was more about preventing co-ed sleepovers, platonic though they might have been.
Sure enough, there came the surly rocket scientist to break up their card game and tell them lights out. Waving a little to Cloud, she grinned; they had this little code, where she would knock on the wall to ask if things were all clear and then he'd knock back, and she'd unlock her balcony door and he'd hop over to hang out with her some more. She didn't know what she'd do without him. Even if Cloud was kinda broody these days and didn't talk much, he was there for her and he listened, and that was really what she needed.
It wasn't until she was alone in the dark that her dad's face went dark and took on those eerie glowing eyes.
After Cid shooed Cloud from the room and closed her door, Tifa crawled over to the wall and listened to the low voices on the other side of it. Were they talking about sending a ship after Aerith? She couldn't really imagine what else Cloud would bother discussing for more than two minutes... Finally, the voices went quiet, and she heard the door open and Cid's footsteps heading down the hall to knock on another door and check in on the rest of them. Knock, door open, some chatting, door close, footfalls, knock--gods, it seemed to go on forever.
She waited, tapping her fingertips impatiently on her calves as she crouched by the wall, until she heard Cid's footsteps leave the Hotel and head off towards Third District, where he'd set up a house for himself. Eagerly, Tifa rapped on the wall--...but Cloud didn't respond. Hesitating a moment, she rapped a little louder, then paused; still nothing.
"...Cloud?" she called, frowning; he couldn't possibly have fallen asleep already! "Lazybones," she accused him, getting up and heading to her balcony, slipping outside with a frown and vaulting rather easily onto the balcony beside her own. Trying the door, she found it locked, and rattled it insistently. If Cloud wanted to sleep so early, that was fine, but he should have at least told her that! "Cloud," chided Tifa sullenly, squinting through the tiny diamond-shaped window and not making anything out in the dark, "c'mon, this isn't funny. You're not mad at me, are you?"
Well, she had made fun of him pretty soundly earlier. "...Look, if that's what this is, I'm sorry, okay? Cloud? ...Cloud!" Banging a fist on the door, she cursed under her breath. "Quit being a jerk and just talk to me! Cloud! Dammit Cloud--are you even in there?"
Maybe he'd snuck out or something? Or...maybe he'd gone the other way around, and was waiting outside her door; she skittered around and yanked her door open--nope, no Cloud. Glancing around to make sure no one was going to catch her out after curfew (not that there had ever been any repercussions so far, if only because Cid hadn't caught anyone yet), she slipped into the hallway and darted down to Cloud's room, trying the door and finding it unlocked.
"Man," she chuckled, "you're really bad at sulking--"
He was gone.
Stirring, Tifa slowly awakened, blinking as she looked around Cloud's room, disoriented for a long moment before remembering what'd happened. She'd sat down to wait for him to come back, alone in the dark of his room, hugging one of his pillows to her chest--where the hell was he, anyway? Had the darkness gotten him? No, that made no sense; there was no Heartless, and Cid had been there not too long ago...
Tifa was absolutely, positively, one-hundred-percent certainly not scared of the dark, by the way. She hadn't gone looking for Cloud not because the town was dark and she was alone, but because the town was...well, big, and she didn't want to get caught out after curfew, and...and because also if Cloud came back while she was out then maybe he'd worry and go looking for her, and then they'd both be out running around in the totally not-scary darkness that could swallow them up at any time.
It wasn't that it was dark.
She didn't remember falling asleep, but it was fairly obvious as she sat upright on Cloud's vacant bed and rubbed her bleary eyes that she had, and really late at that. It had to be past one o'clock already--and Cloud still wasn't back; she scrabbled rather clumsily to her feet and darted out into the early afternoon sunlight, something anxious and cold gnawing at the back of her stomach. He wasn't anywhere they liked to hang out, not on top of that huge church in Second, not on the little overpass in Third, not on the balcony in First--maybe Cid knew where he was. He was the last one to have seen him.
The stupid rocket scientist wasn't at home. Kicking his door with an angry curse on her lips, Tifa jumped as she heard a man clear his throat behind her. She whirled, expecting to see Cid standing there, or maybe Cloud, but instead it was...that one guy, Squall. The guy who'd helped Cloud hold her back in the gummi ship--he was the oldest of the refugees, aside from Cid. And maybe Aerith. Tifa wasn't quite sure when Squall's birthday was, but she figured Aerith couldn't have been more than a few months older than him, tops.
The cut on his face had scarred over, but it wasn't really off-putting like some scars were. She was glad for him; if he'd been disfigured or something by the Heartless... Gods, it was bad enough they were all scarred for life. Poor Squall just had to bear it literally. "Uh...hey," greeted Tifa awkwardly, folding her arms and shifting her weight a little nervously. She never really knew how to act around Squall--seriously, how were you supposed to behave around a near-complete stranger who'd helped restrain you as you shrieked in disconsolate grief? Awkward.
He waved slightly in reply; that was one nice thing about Squall, she figured. He didn't talk any more than he had to. "...Where's Cid?" she inquired then, pretending to watch his face intently as she took the opportunity to scrutinize his scar; he was really lucky it didn't cross either of his eyes, really. He was probably well aware just how close to going blind he'd been that night.
Squall shrugged, regarding her levelly through his bangs, and Tifa found herself getting impatient. "Well, what are you doing here? Are you looking for Cid?"
He shrugged again and Tifa scowled sharply; the expression startled him into a verbal response. "Yeah."
Oh. How fucking informative. "Well, do you know where Cloud is? I can't find him anywhere; he's been gone since last--"
"Last night, yeah," interjected the man, and Tifa boggled at him.
"Wait, you know? Where is he? What happened; he's okay, right?!"
Squall sort of took a step back, totally unprepared for the onslaught of questions from some distraught woman. Seriously, was this girl ever calm or collected? It seemed like every time he saw her, she was shrieking away about something or other. "He went after Aerith."
The result was instantaneous and rather alarming; all the color drained from her face and Tifa just sort of boggled at him in a way that made Squall feel somehow responsible. "...What?"
Gruffly, Squall folded his arms and glanced away, rather resenting the way she was making him feel like a jackass. "You heard me."
Tifa wasn't even in the mood to get offended; her hand shot out, resting on Squall's upper arm, and it was enough to drag his gaze back over to her from the oh-so-exciting pavement off to his left. "Last night? He just...left? Without...even telling me...?"
Shrugging mostly in an effort to let the subject slide off his shoulders, Squall succeeded in dislodging her hand; she stepped back, some kind of hurt in her eyes, and he felt another twinge of that guilt as he realized she must have thought he was shrugging her off. "...Apparently." He didn't really know either of them; all he knew was that Cid had shown up with that guy Cloud last night around curfew, suggesting they send someone after Aerith, and once Squall had agreed it'd be a good idea then Cloud had volunteered, and Cid had taken him off from there, presumably to get ready to leave.
If he hadn't taken the time to go say goodbye to his friends, well...that was his own prerogative, right? Still, the look on her face made him feel like maybe he should have done something--he was the oldest, after all; maybe he should have gone after Aerith instead of Cloud. Squall was just as fond of her as anyone else was.
"How come you know?" came her next question, Tifa's voice tight and shaking as she demanded to know why Squall knew where Cloud had gone, but she'd been left in the dark. Literally.
He just shrugged, glancing away again and hoping Cid would come back soon. "I was there."
"Where? What happened?"
Shrugging again, Squall blew out a sigh. "Cid showed up with Cloud and asked what I thought about a rescue mission. I said it sounded fine and Cloud said he'd go. And he went." It was pretty cut-and-dry; what did this girl want from him?
Tifa was gnawing her lower lip, nursing a ripping hollowness torn open in her chest, and she shook her head then. "Yeah, thanks Squall." He was such an insensitive bastard; he had no idea how horrible this was--what if something happened to Cloud? Aerith would be just fine out there, but Cloud was a big idiot with no sense of self-preservation; he'd die before coming back without Aerith, even if he got overrun by Heartless or swallowed by the darkness himself.
Frowning a little, Squall just shrugged again, as if trying to dislodge the blame that she'd somehow settled over his shoulders. "...Whatever." Cid would be around later; the few things he needed to discuss with the man weren't worth hanging around with Tifa there. With a final shrug he was pretty sure she didn't even see, Squall turned and walked through the gate to First District, leaving the surly brunette standing alone outside Cid's house to contemplate the meaning of the universe, or...whatever it was she was doing.