Perspective - Chapter Three
[TITLE] Perspective
[PAIRING] Cloud Strife/Riku
[RATING] PG-13
[DISCLAIMER] I wish, okay? It’s all lies. I don’t own Kingdom Hearts, I don’t know anyone who owns Kingdom Hearts, and I am not affiliated with anyone who is affiliated with anyone who owns Kingdom Hearts. I think that about covers it.
Chapter Three: Tifa
We’ve been through hell and back, Cloud Strife and I.
We grew up in the same orphanage, and I have to admit that I didn’t always notice him-the small, quiet blond boy that ran around with Zack Fair and Squall Leonheart. Zack was the outgoing, personable one. Squall was the untouchable, good-looking one. Cloud, whether because of his stature or introverted nature, always blended in.
I know that when we were young he pursued me doggedly for several years before I took notice. I’m still unsure of when I started to pay attention. It might have been when he courageously volunteered to fight the Heartless in Midgar. It could have been when he stumbled off the train in the sector seven slums and back into my life. More likely than not, it was right before he left that night by the water.
I only vaguely knew him at the time. My friend Aerith was dating Zack so we saw each other frequently and I’d seen him around the orphanage since we were small. He was the sweet one with a crush on me that I’d never consider dating but enjoyed the attention. I never meant to be cold about his feelings; it was a kid thing standardized by social circles. I had my own group of friends that welcomed Zack but had no room for a shy, nice kid like Cloud. We might as well have lived on different worlds that mingled by association.
Down the hill behind the orphanage there ran a small river. When we had our monthly summer campouts or on special occasions the matron took us down there for a bonfire. We’d roast marshmallows and Aerith made flower chains that we wore in our hair. If there wasn’t a special occasion, we ran around there to play during free time. In the summer, Aerith, Yuffie, and I put on our swimsuits and splashed around in the water or swung off the tire swing hanging from a tree overhead perfecting the ultimate cannonball. When the Heartless came it was a brooding spot. There wasn’t a person you could find there more often than Cloud.
I should have expected his company that night. The Turks just arrived in Hollow Bastion with a wealth of information about the Heartless and other worlds. The full capabilities of Gummi ships. Keyblades and an ultimate savior called the Keyblade master. Zack already decided to go to Midgar with them in exchange for Shinra’s services with the problems on our world. The sky was clear, and the stars looked like ethereal pinpricks in the night sky. Light reflected off the water in a beautiful sort of way, casting shadows across my face.
I was crying-upset over a trivial teenage thing (probably a boy) I can no longer remember. One of those things that gets put into perspective with age and maturity, or when real disaster strikes. The sound of rubber soles slick against dew-stained grass cut through my tears. I turned, startled, and there he was, seemingly smaller in the dark.
“Tifa?” he said. “What’s wrong?”
I broke down. I told him everything as he sat beside me and stroked the small of my back. We went on to conversations about the Heartless and Midgar. He promised to protect me if I were ever in trouble. I looked upon Cloud Strife with new eyes.
Yuffie hardly had to try when she decided we had to go to Midgar several years later. Everyone was worried-you could read the anxiety in Squall’s eyes. Aerith became solemn and though she repeatedly assured us that Zack and Cloud would be all right, I wondered if she was trying to reassure herself more than anything. The Turks were long gone with our friends. The Heartless problem became so out of control that the survivors were moved from Hollow Bastion to Traverse Town-a place for the refugees of broken worlds. Not even Squall heard from Zack or Cloud in ages. Despite the tension, Squall and Aerith decided to stay behind. I suspected hostility and regret molded Squall’s reasons; Aerith backed out at the last minute claiming that Squall needed her there with him. I hardly thought twice about Yuffie’s proposition, and didn’t reevaluate at all when we snuck off in the middle of the night. I didn’t try to dissuade her when she hijacked that Gummi ship. I thought only of Cloud.
Yuffie and I lost track of each other several months after we arrived on Gaea. I ended up in the slums beneath Midgar-got taken in by a man named Barrett who worked with a Shinra resistance group called AVALANCHE. Barrett explained the slums to me. How Shinra wasn’t trying to exterminate the Heartless; they were trying to control them. He explained the planet’s energy-the Lifestream-and how Shinra was killing their world. I was angry-angry that my friends were taken away from home, and being used for these horrible things. I started to help AVALANCHE, and since we were in need of Gil, I used my experience as a bartender in Traverse Town to open a bar of my own: Seventh Heaven located above AVALANCHE’s headquarters.
Besides armor and weapons, alcohol was the strongest industry in the slums. With all the problems with Shinra and the constant deaths, there were plenty of depressed men in need of a good, stiff drink. They were happy to pay; I was happy to oblige.
I worried for Cloud every day. It was dangerous here-friends turned on each other. Everyone was suspicious. The Heartless were everywhere, even more out of control than on Hollow Bastion. Shinra continued to steal from the planet’s life force (bringing us all closer to our deaths) and failed to notice they were no where closer to controlling the Heartless than they’d been seven years ago. Security measures were implemented once a week. A lot of people I’d come to know in the slums died. AVALANCHE was on Shinra’s hit list, and I figured it was only a matter of time before I died, too.
That was when I walked to the train station, waiting for a few AVALANCHE members to return from a mission. The train pulled in and I looked for my comrades through the people filtering through the doors. A familiar head of blond, spiky hair came into view. Before I could process any registration or emotions, Cloud stumbled off the train and collapsed at my feet.
I knew something was wrong that very second. I learned it was worse than I imagined when he couldn’t remember Zack.
Cloud was working his way around Midgar as a mercenary at the time. After much persuasion and a lot of Gil, I got him to take a few jobs to aid in AVALANCHE’s efforts. It took a lot of begging, a few deaths, and a reunion with Yuffie until Cloud became an official, unpaid member.
I knew I shouldn’t have been thinking the way I was-not when there was something so clearly wrong with him. His speech, attitude, confidence were so different, but if I was upset or even stepped before him, he placed his hand on the small of my back and it was like we were home again by the river. The momentum was too strong to stop by the time I realized I was falling in love with him.
Stopping Sephiroth before he destroyed Gaea was our number one priority. As we chased him, Cloud’s memories returned, rearranged. I stayed by his side through all the times he helped Sephiroth, through the mako poisoning. I let him take his time as he muddled through the holes in his memory.
He almost didn’t make Soldier-was only a guard for several years. I learned that Cloud opened his heart to darkness to advance into Soldier. He was in Nibelheim when Sephiroth destroyed it. Zack tried to stop Sephiroth, failed, and almost died. Cloud tried to stop him, almost died, but critically injured him. Shinra scientist, Hojo, used Cloud’s darkness to make Sephiroth more powerful than ever since they still thought they could control it-and by extension, Sephiroth. I learned that Cloud was injected with the Jenova cells, that Zack broke them out of the laboratory, and that now outgoing, personable Zack Fair was dead.
Through the whole ordeal I imagined once Sephiroth was gone, Cloud would confess that he loved me, too. He’d had that crush on me all those years. He still looked at me with the same tender glance and touched me with a gentle yet firm, almost protective, touch. We could finally be together, but when Sephiroth died, Cloud turned to me.
“He’ll be back.”
I didn’t understand at the time. I was frustrated and hurt when Cloud started to pull away, when he started to mourn Zack’s loss. We lived together, but we weren’t together. When Barrett had to go away he left Marlene with Cloud and I. The little girl took an instant liking to Cloud, constantly attached to him. Denzel, an orphan from the Sephiroth fiasco, came to live with us a few months later.
Still, Cloud and I weren’t together. I waited, hoping that as we lived as a family, he would open up. We opened a delivery service together; we raised two children together. How couldn’t he see what was right in front of him? He continued to pull away, and then he started to date again. Reno. Reno of the Turks with his flaming red hair, arrogant bravado, and his penis. I was incensed. Enraged. Heartbroken and shocked, because I had no idea Cloud was interested in men, and I felt so stupid for how obvious I’d made my devotion to him.
At least Reno got a kick out of it.
That was around the time of the Geostigma. The time Sephiroth returned for the Jenova reunion and I understood what Cloud meant at the end of the last battle. The darkness used to keep Sephiroth alive tied them together. As long as the darkness that remained in Cloud’s heart held power over him, he couldn’t defeat Sephiroth. No matter how many times he was killed. Not now, not ever.
I wanted to reach out-do something, anything to help him. I wanted him to find comfort and solace with me, but he ran to Reno. I knew it couldn’t be serious; Cloud didn’t touch him in the same fond way he touched me. There were no gentle brushes of his hand against Reno. All physical contact was brusque, rough-the forceful slam of hips and lips. It was no more than lust. I had to take comfort in that. I had to wait a little longer until it fizzled out, Cloud had his foray, and he was ready to pick himself up to settle down.
One night a man came into the bar and overhead me talking to Cloud and Reno about Sephiroth. He said that he’d heard of Sephiroth during his travels around Gaea. Didn’t know what the fuss was about. When he met Sephiroth in Hollow Bastion, he was positively charming.
It was all Cloud needed to hear before taking off without a word, leaving me and Reno behind. I tried to console him, and I admit I must have done a horrible job for what it was worth. I did feel sorry that he’d lost Cloud without a word or a goodbye, especially when he insisted that he was fine. I didn’t feel as sorry as I thought I should have, however, but we spent a lot of time together. I started to see why Cloud enjoyed time with him, because although Reno was a little over the top at times, he was fun with an ability to uplift my most depressing moods.
I grew restless. Yuffie returned to Traverse Town ages ago with Cid, leaving me as the last former-Hollow Bastion resident in Midgar. I made sure to say goodbye to Reno before I left and headed out to look for my friends and Cloud. When I arrived in Traverse Town, however, everyone was gone. It felt like my first trip to Midgar all over again; I was alone praying for Cloud’s safety and well-being. With my options limited, I set out again for the only world I could think to find them. Hesitation pushed aside, I returned to Hollow Bastion for the first time since I was fifteen years old.
I found Aerith first, down in the marketplace talking to a few residents about a restoration. Yuffie was next. There were a lot of tearful reunions. A lot had changed in the past year since Cloud left Midgar on his Sephiroth hunt. There was a lot of catching up to do. A lot to be filled in on.
Squall and Cloud were friends again. Squall was going by Leon these days. Everyone worked diligently to restore Hollow Bastion to its former glory, and the Restoration tasks ranged from Heartless control to new plumbing to commerce. Cloud was in and out, off looking for Sephiroth again, but he’d been around Hollow Bastion for awhile. He kept them updated on his missions. Aerith called him more determined than she’d ever seen him. The legendary Keyblade master was a regular around our world these days and had struck up a friendship with my friends.
Oh, yes, and Cloud had a new boyfriend. The legendary Keyblade master’s best friend. But said best friend looked like the bad guy’s Heartless right now, so it was a secret. Don’t tell Sora.
I wanted to murder Cloud for being so stupid. How could he fall for a teenager (this Riku was only sixteen) lost in the darkness? Especially when he needed to find his light and eradicate Sephiroth’s existence. Even worse, how could he not see what was right in front of him?
I saw Cloud eventually after I’d met the Keyblade master and his traveling companions. He talked about Sephiroth, about exploring the worlds, but more than anything he talked about Riku. Riku gave him hope. Riku was his light when he couldn’t see through the darkness. Made him feel that he could do anything, because if Riku kept trying, Cloud shouldn’t give up, either.
Against my better judgment, I continued to hold on. They hardly saw each other because Riku was busy helping Sora against Organization XIII (not that Sora knew this, of course). Cloud was busy with the Restoration and Sephiroth. This long distance relationship couldn’t last; there was too much hanging over their heads, too many odds stacked against them. Maybe it was happening for a reason, though. Maybe they just needed each other right now to get through this mess, and once it was finished, Cloud would come back to me.
I knew I was starting to get pathetic about it all. I traveled between Hollow Bastion and Midgar, occasionally stopping at the Underdrome in Olympus Coliseum to partake in a match or two. Whenever Reno dropped into the bar, I talked his ear off about what Cloud was up to. Marlene begged to see him, and I called Cloud often, asking him to visit. He promised that he would eventually, but Sephiroth was more important now. I told him I understood. I knew I had to be patient.
Three months later and I was tending bar one night, trying to ignore Reno staring at my anatomy, when Cloud walked in. I instantly recognized Squall and Sora at his side, but there was another guy with them I’d never seen before. From the silver hair and green-blue eyes, I knew it had to be Riku. They took seats at the bar and my heart beat a little faster as Cloud smiled and told me Sephiroth was finished. My hope rose only to crash minutes later.
I introduced myself to Riku. He said he’d heard a lot about me, and I felt pride in noting how nervous he seemed. Nervous to be meeting me, and Cloud had talked about me a lot. He shifted in his seat, and that was when it happened; I knew it was over. Cloud smiled at him in that adoring way he hadn’t bestowed upon me in years. His hand fell to the small of Riku’s back and patted it a few times before he returned his eyes to me. The hand lingered several seconds longer before it dropped away. Some of Riku’s confidence seemed to return.
That was the night I decided to move on. For possibly the first time ever, Cloud was truly happy. He wasn’t pushing people away to protect them. He accepted help with grace. Even his sense of humor returned. He and I remained friends, and the relationship that never was faded from my expectations for the future.
Reno was affected, too, by the changes in Cloud. He came into the bar several months after the incident and talked in circles for almost an hour about humility and self-reflection. Things really changed after that night. Reno started drinking less, and we started dating. It would figure that in the end it would be Reno and I, brought together by Cloud without any effort on his part.
So we’ve been through hell and back, Cloud Strife and I, but it was time to step aside. It was Riku’s turn.
Chapter Two
Chapter One
[PAIRING] Cloud Strife/Riku
[RATING] PG-13
[DISCLAIMER] I wish, okay? It’s all lies. I don’t own Kingdom Hearts, I don’t know anyone who owns Kingdom Hearts, and I am not affiliated with anyone who is affiliated with anyone who owns Kingdom Hearts. I think that about covers it.
Chapter Three: Tifa
We’ve been through hell and back, Cloud Strife and I.
We grew up in the same orphanage, and I have to admit that I didn’t always notice him-the small, quiet blond boy that ran around with Zack Fair and Squall Leonheart. Zack was the outgoing, personable one. Squall was the untouchable, good-looking one. Cloud, whether because of his stature or introverted nature, always blended in.
I know that when we were young he pursued me doggedly for several years before I took notice. I’m still unsure of when I started to pay attention. It might have been when he courageously volunteered to fight the Heartless in Midgar. It could have been when he stumbled off the train in the sector seven slums and back into my life. More likely than not, it was right before he left that night by the water.
I only vaguely knew him at the time. My friend Aerith was dating Zack so we saw each other frequently and I’d seen him around the orphanage since we were small. He was the sweet one with a crush on me that I’d never consider dating but enjoyed the attention. I never meant to be cold about his feelings; it was a kid thing standardized by social circles. I had my own group of friends that welcomed Zack but had no room for a shy, nice kid like Cloud. We might as well have lived on different worlds that mingled by association.
Down the hill behind the orphanage there ran a small river. When we had our monthly summer campouts or on special occasions the matron took us down there for a bonfire. We’d roast marshmallows and Aerith made flower chains that we wore in our hair. If there wasn’t a special occasion, we ran around there to play during free time. In the summer, Aerith, Yuffie, and I put on our swimsuits and splashed around in the water or swung off the tire swing hanging from a tree overhead perfecting the ultimate cannonball. When the Heartless came it was a brooding spot. There wasn’t a person you could find there more often than Cloud.
I should have expected his company that night. The Turks just arrived in Hollow Bastion with a wealth of information about the Heartless and other worlds. The full capabilities of Gummi ships. Keyblades and an ultimate savior called the Keyblade master. Zack already decided to go to Midgar with them in exchange for Shinra’s services with the problems on our world. The sky was clear, and the stars looked like ethereal pinpricks in the night sky. Light reflected off the water in a beautiful sort of way, casting shadows across my face.
I was crying-upset over a trivial teenage thing (probably a boy) I can no longer remember. One of those things that gets put into perspective with age and maturity, or when real disaster strikes. The sound of rubber soles slick against dew-stained grass cut through my tears. I turned, startled, and there he was, seemingly smaller in the dark.
“Tifa?” he said. “What’s wrong?”
I broke down. I told him everything as he sat beside me and stroked the small of my back. We went on to conversations about the Heartless and Midgar. He promised to protect me if I were ever in trouble. I looked upon Cloud Strife with new eyes.
Yuffie hardly had to try when she decided we had to go to Midgar several years later. Everyone was worried-you could read the anxiety in Squall’s eyes. Aerith became solemn and though she repeatedly assured us that Zack and Cloud would be all right, I wondered if she was trying to reassure herself more than anything. The Turks were long gone with our friends. The Heartless problem became so out of control that the survivors were moved from Hollow Bastion to Traverse Town-a place for the refugees of broken worlds. Not even Squall heard from Zack or Cloud in ages. Despite the tension, Squall and Aerith decided to stay behind. I suspected hostility and regret molded Squall’s reasons; Aerith backed out at the last minute claiming that Squall needed her there with him. I hardly thought twice about Yuffie’s proposition, and didn’t reevaluate at all when we snuck off in the middle of the night. I didn’t try to dissuade her when she hijacked that Gummi ship. I thought only of Cloud.
Yuffie and I lost track of each other several months after we arrived on Gaea. I ended up in the slums beneath Midgar-got taken in by a man named Barrett who worked with a Shinra resistance group called AVALANCHE. Barrett explained the slums to me. How Shinra wasn’t trying to exterminate the Heartless; they were trying to control them. He explained the planet’s energy-the Lifestream-and how Shinra was killing their world. I was angry-angry that my friends were taken away from home, and being used for these horrible things. I started to help AVALANCHE, and since we were in need of Gil, I used my experience as a bartender in Traverse Town to open a bar of my own: Seventh Heaven located above AVALANCHE’s headquarters.
Besides armor and weapons, alcohol was the strongest industry in the slums. With all the problems with Shinra and the constant deaths, there were plenty of depressed men in need of a good, stiff drink. They were happy to pay; I was happy to oblige.
I worried for Cloud every day. It was dangerous here-friends turned on each other. Everyone was suspicious. The Heartless were everywhere, even more out of control than on Hollow Bastion. Shinra continued to steal from the planet’s life force (bringing us all closer to our deaths) and failed to notice they were no where closer to controlling the Heartless than they’d been seven years ago. Security measures were implemented once a week. A lot of people I’d come to know in the slums died. AVALANCHE was on Shinra’s hit list, and I figured it was only a matter of time before I died, too.
That was when I walked to the train station, waiting for a few AVALANCHE members to return from a mission. The train pulled in and I looked for my comrades through the people filtering through the doors. A familiar head of blond, spiky hair came into view. Before I could process any registration or emotions, Cloud stumbled off the train and collapsed at my feet.
I knew something was wrong that very second. I learned it was worse than I imagined when he couldn’t remember Zack.
Cloud was working his way around Midgar as a mercenary at the time. After much persuasion and a lot of Gil, I got him to take a few jobs to aid in AVALANCHE’s efforts. It took a lot of begging, a few deaths, and a reunion with Yuffie until Cloud became an official, unpaid member.
I knew I shouldn’t have been thinking the way I was-not when there was something so clearly wrong with him. His speech, attitude, confidence were so different, but if I was upset or even stepped before him, he placed his hand on the small of my back and it was like we were home again by the river. The momentum was too strong to stop by the time I realized I was falling in love with him.
Stopping Sephiroth before he destroyed Gaea was our number one priority. As we chased him, Cloud’s memories returned, rearranged. I stayed by his side through all the times he helped Sephiroth, through the mako poisoning. I let him take his time as he muddled through the holes in his memory.
He almost didn’t make Soldier-was only a guard for several years. I learned that Cloud opened his heart to darkness to advance into Soldier. He was in Nibelheim when Sephiroth destroyed it. Zack tried to stop Sephiroth, failed, and almost died. Cloud tried to stop him, almost died, but critically injured him. Shinra scientist, Hojo, used Cloud’s darkness to make Sephiroth more powerful than ever since they still thought they could control it-and by extension, Sephiroth. I learned that Cloud was injected with the Jenova cells, that Zack broke them out of the laboratory, and that now outgoing, personable Zack Fair was dead.
Through the whole ordeal I imagined once Sephiroth was gone, Cloud would confess that he loved me, too. He’d had that crush on me all those years. He still looked at me with the same tender glance and touched me with a gentle yet firm, almost protective, touch. We could finally be together, but when Sephiroth died, Cloud turned to me.
“He’ll be back.”
I didn’t understand at the time. I was frustrated and hurt when Cloud started to pull away, when he started to mourn Zack’s loss. We lived together, but we weren’t together. When Barrett had to go away he left Marlene with Cloud and I. The little girl took an instant liking to Cloud, constantly attached to him. Denzel, an orphan from the Sephiroth fiasco, came to live with us a few months later.
Still, Cloud and I weren’t together. I waited, hoping that as we lived as a family, he would open up. We opened a delivery service together; we raised two children together. How couldn’t he see what was right in front of him? He continued to pull away, and then he started to date again. Reno. Reno of the Turks with his flaming red hair, arrogant bravado, and his penis. I was incensed. Enraged. Heartbroken and shocked, because I had no idea Cloud was interested in men, and I felt so stupid for how obvious I’d made my devotion to him.
At least Reno got a kick out of it.
That was around the time of the Geostigma. The time Sephiroth returned for the Jenova reunion and I understood what Cloud meant at the end of the last battle. The darkness used to keep Sephiroth alive tied them together. As long as the darkness that remained in Cloud’s heart held power over him, he couldn’t defeat Sephiroth. No matter how many times he was killed. Not now, not ever.
I wanted to reach out-do something, anything to help him. I wanted him to find comfort and solace with me, but he ran to Reno. I knew it couldn’t be serious; Cloud didn’t touch him in the same fond way he touched me. There were no gentle brushes of his hand against Reno. All physical contact was brusque, rough-the forceful slam of hips and lips. It was no more than lust. I had to take comfort in that. I had to wait a little longer until it fizzled out, Cloud had his foray, and he was ready to pick himself up to settle down.
One night a man came into the bar and overhead me talking to Cloud and Reno about Sephiroth. He said that he’d heard of Sephiroth during his travels around Gaea. Didn’t know what the fuss was about. When he met Sephiroth in Hollow Bastion, he was positively charming.
It was all Cloud needed to hear before taking off without a word, leaving me and Reno behind. I tried to console him, and I admit I must have done a horrible job for what it was worth. I did feel sorry that he’d lost Cloud without a word or a goodbye, especially when he insisted that he was fine. I didn’t feel as sorry as I thought I should have, however, but we spent a lot of time together. I started to see why Cloud enjoyed time with him, because although Reno was a little over the top at times, he was fun with an ability to uplift my most depressing moods.
I grew restless. Yuffie returned to Traverse Town ages ago with Cid, leaving me as the last former-Hollow Bastion resident in Midgar. I made sure to say goodbye to Reno before I left and headed out to look for my friends and Cloud. When I arrived in Traverse Town, however, everyone was gone. It felt like my first trip to Midgar all over again; I was alone praying for Cloud’s safety and well-being. With my options limited, I set out again for the only world I could think to find them. Hesitation pushed aside, I returned to Hollow Bastion for the first time since I was fifteen years old.
I found Aerith first, down in the marketplace talking to a few residents about a restoration. Yuffie was next. There were a lot of tearful reunions. A lot had changed in the past year since Cloud left Midgar on his Sephiroth hunt. There was a lot of catching up to do. A lot to be filled in on.
Squall and Cloud were friends again. Squall was going by Leon these days. Everyone worked diligently to restore Hollow Bastion to its former glory, and the Restoration tasks ranged from Heartless control to new plumbing to commerce. Cloud was in and out, off looking for Sephiroth again, but he’d been around Hollow Bastion for awhile. He kept them updated on his missions. Aerith called him more determined than she’d ever seen him. The legendary Keyblade master was a regular around our world these days and had struck up a friendship with my friends.
Oh, yes, and Cloud had a new boyfriend. The legendary Keyblade master’s best friend. But said best friend looked like the bad guy’s Heartless right now, so it was a secret. Don’t tell Sora.
I wanted to murder Cloud for being so stupid. How could he fall for a teenager (this Riku was only sixteen) lost in the darkness? Especially when he needed to find his light and eradicate Sephiroth’s existence. Even worse, how could he not see what was right in front of him?
I saw Cloud eventually after I’d met the Keyblade master and his traveling companions. He talked about Sephiroth, about exploring the worlds, but more than anything he talked about Riku. Riku gave him hope. Riku was his light when he couldn’t see through the darkness. Made him feel that he could do anything, because if Riku kept trying, Cloud shouldn’t give up, either.
Against my better judgment, I continued to hold on. They hardly saw each other because Riku was busy helping Sora against Organization XIII (not that Sora knew this, of course). Cloud was busy with the Restoration and Sephiroth. This long distance relationship couldn’t last; there was too much hanging over their heads, too many odds stacked against them. Maybe it was happening for a reason, though. Maybe they just needed each other right now to get through this mess, and once it was finished, Cloud would come back to me.
I knew I was starting to get pathetic about it all. I traveled between Hollow Bastion and Midgar, occasionally stopping at the Underdrome in Olympus Coliseum to partake in a match or two. Whenever Reno dropped into the bar, I talked his ear off about what Cloud was up to. Marlene begged to see him, and I called Cloud often, asking him to visit. He promised that he would eventually, but Sephiroth was more important now. I told him I understood. I knew I had to be patient.
Three months later and I was tending bar one night, trying to ignore Reno staring at my anatomy, when Cloud walked in. I instantly recognized Squall and Sora at his side, but there was another guy with them I’d never seen before. From the silver hair and green-blue eyes, I knew it had to be Riku. They took seats at the bar and my heart beat a little faster as Cloud smiled and told me Sephiroth was finished. My hope rose only to crash minutes later.
I introduced myself to Riku. He said he’d heard a lot about me, and I felt pride in noting how nervous he seemed. Nervous to be meeting me, and Cloud had talked about me a lot. He shifted in his seat, and that was when it happened; I knew it was over. Cloud smiled at him in that adoring way he hadn’t bestowed upon me in years. His hand fell to the small of Riku’s back and patted it a few times before he returned his eyes to me. The hand lingered several seconds longer before it dropped away. Some of Riku’s confidence seemed to return.
That was the night I decided to move on. For possibly the first time ever, Cloud was truly happy. He wasn’t pushing people away to protect them. He accepted help with grace. Even his sense of humor returned. He and I remained friends, and the relationship that never was faded from my expectations for the future.
Reno was affected, too, by the changes in Cloud. He came into the bar several months after the incident and talked in circles for almost an hour about humility and self-reflection. Things really changed after that night. Reno started drinking less, and we started dating. It would figure that in the end it would be Reno and I, brought together by Cloud without any effort on his part.
So we’ve been through hell and back, Cloud Strife and I, but it was time to step aside. It was Riku’s turn.
Chapter Two
Chapter One