[In Luca, Open to all]

[heartofheaven]

Characters: Tifa, Cloud, Yuna, OPEN
Progress: Ongoing
Summary: Tifa helps Yuna out with the flower shop Aerith used to run. Cloud arrives in Luca some time and Tifa goes to meet him. And possibly some other stuff. Let's have a party post? Multiple threads and threadjacking is very welcome! KIDS, ZACK, XIII PEOPLE, heck Tidus why don't you come

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ZACK'S HOUSE - AKA BFF BACHELOR PAD

[heartofheaven]

[heartofheaven]

Tifa headed over as soon as she heard that Zack and Cloud had arrived. She was on her own because - well, she didn't want to overwhelm Cloud so soon. They needed to figure out their own history first, then she would tell him about the rest of the family.

She knocked on the door and waited, feeling oddly nervous.

[mirroredecho]

It was going to take time but he was slowly starting to settle in. Zack's place was nice, warm and cozy, and although he was still getting used to the idea of his best friend suddenly being back from the dead, it had been nice, both traveling back to Luca with him and getting settled in at his place. Once they had cleaned it, of course.

So when the knock on the door came, he automatically figured it was someone to see Zack. Even if everyone seemed to know him, he doubted they would just show up unannounced.

But what he got when he opened the door was certainly a surprise. A rather good one, but still, a surprise. Not that that stopped him from smiling softly, leaning up against the door lightly as he spoke.

"Couldn't wait, huh?"

[heartofheaven]

Tifa smiled back. Actually seeing him - seeing Cloud, alive and warm, hair just as spiky as ever, made all her doubts vanish.

"I missed you." She'd probably look a little different to the way he remembered. Her hair was shorter, for one, only falling to the middle of her back. But she was also wearing Gaian style clothes, or rather Gaian mixed with Luca fashion, which meant less black and more fabric.

She glanced behind him to see if Zack was there before looking back at Cloud. "Can I come in?"

[mirroredecho]

She did look different, but in the end it didn't matter. She was still Tifa, no matter what she did to her hair or which style of clothes she wore. Which was what had him stepping back, pulling the door open more widely so that she could slip in around him.

"Yeah. Come in." The house was empty, at least for now, so with any luck they would have time to themselves. Time to discuss what needed to be let out into the open.

"Want anything? I think Zack said there was some tea somewhere."

[heartofheaven]

Tifa walked in without hesitation. She'd been in Zack's house before; she knew the layout. She probably knew where to find the tea better than Cloud did, actually.

"Sure, tea would be great." She'd wait to follow Cloud into the kitchen, looking around the place as she did so. "You guys have cleaned up. I'm impressed."

[mirroredecho]

"Hey, I pick up after myself." And besides, there was no way he was going to live in the mess Zack had created with no one there to watch over him. At least he had cleaned up quietly, keeping the complaining to a minimum.

"Take a seat. I'll get it ready." And then we can talk was left unsaid as he gestured towards the sofa located in the living room. No one ever said he was the best host.

[heartofheaven]

Tifa's instinct was to help him, but she figured that he would rather do it himself, so she nodded and headed for the living room without any complaint. They really had cleaned up well. Zack had been so... lost on his own. Cloud being here was definitely good for him, she could tell that.

She drummed her fingers on her knees while she waited, trying to decide where to start.

[mirroredecho]

It didn't take him long. Boiling water was easy enough, but as it turned out, finding the tea bags wasn't. It took him a couple of minutes, searching through the various cabinets before he finally found a box of green tea bags.

From there preparing the tea was easy enough, and a few minutes later he was carrying two, thick steaming mugs out to her, carefully setting them both on the coffee table. One in front of her, and one near the other end where he would be sitting.

Which he did, instantly bringing one leg up, knee bending and foot resting on the cushion. This? Has gotten awkward fast.

"So..."

[heartofheaven]

Cloud and Tifa, having tea. Yep. Awkward. Still, the time he'd taken to make it had given Tifa the chance to think about what she wanted to say and that meant she could keep the awkward silence to a minimum.

She thanked him quietly when he set down the mug, then leaned forward, tucking her hair back behind her ears.

"I know how overwhelming this is. You arrive and suddenly Zack's here and you find you have friends and family you didn't even know, people who missed you while you were gone. I've changed too; I think I'm older than you remember. I said there was a lot to tell and there is, so... What do you want to know?"

[mirroredecho]

Well. He really hadn't been expecting her to just jump into it the way she had, but he supposed it was better than leading into it, getting distracted and side tracked. There was a lot he wanted to know, and Tifa was the best person to tell him. One of the only people he truly trusted to tell him.

"I guess... I want to know about us. We had a family, right?"

[heartofheaven]

Tifa was used to the whole explain the deal in Gaia thing. She'd done it many times before, even though it was different this time with Cloud. The first thing he asked about was the thing that she wanted to talk about the most, but also the thing she was most nervous about

[mirroredecho]

Starting all over. It was something he had done too many times in the past. And he knew better than anyone that you never truly 'started over'. There was always some lingering sentiment of the past that would cloud over future choices and decisions and the way you looked at situations and the worlds.

This wasn't exactly what he had meant when he decided to stay by Tifa's side and make a life with her after Meteor's fall.

And so he let silence fall between them. What could you say to someone who had missed you so much and you had no memory of them? There was no way for him to pretend, to force himself to remember. They just weren't there, and nothing he could do was going to bring them back.

"Tifa I..." Don't know what to do. I don't know how to make you and them happy. But he couldn't force the words out. Instead his bright blue eyes had fallen away from her, coming to rest instead on the cushion of the sofa

[heartofheaven]

Tifa nodded, sipping her drink while she waited for him to finish. She couldn't expect any more from him, really.

"I know," she said softly. "They already know that you don't remember them, and they've seen this kind of thing happen before. They'll understand. I want you to come and meet them too."

She stopped short of nudging him to specify when. He probably had at least a couple more questions before he was ready to leave.

[mirroredecho]

"Then I will." He was thankful when she didn't push him into choosing a time and date to meet the rest of her make shift family. He would, sooner rather than later, but there was a lot he wanted to work out before he moved on to that step.

"Is that all that happened between us?"

[heartofheaven]

This was the most difficult question. Tifa had just talked about a fresh start. She didn't want to burden him with all the baggage from her past. But she didn't want to lie to him either. If there was one thing she had learned through all the extra time she had on Cloud, it was that they needed to be honest with each other.

"No," she admitted. "There's more. You and I were... more." She paused. This was really painfully awkward to say. It was like breaking up with someone pre-get-together. It didn't make any sense. "That's my past," she added. "Not yours. I don't expect everything to be suddenly like it was. I just... want to go home."

To her own surprise, she found she had tears in her eyes. She sniffed and quickly looked away under the pretence of sipping more tea. She didn't just mean her world, she meant the home she shared with the friends and family who were from her time. It was a terribly selfish thing to think and she couldn't help but feel ashamed that she'd voiced it. But it was how she felt.