who tifa & cloud what reconnecting at home where seventh heaven when evening of their release warnings some PTSD for Cloud
With the children tucked warm in their beds upstairs, Tifa watched the pair sleeping soundly side by side before quietly closing the door. It had been a long two days. The last thing she had expected was to see an unfamiliar house house their home on the inside. It didn’t really make any sense. Hands pressed at the back of her waist, she stared a veritable hole into the reassuring flooring. Some familiarity would help Cloud adjust, she hoped.
Speak of the chocobo.
Her head perked up at the sound of the front door opening. Snapping back to the present, she darted down the stairs to catch him entering right as the door shut behind him. With a sigh of relief, she rushed to him and hesitated only for a moment before flinging her arms around his neck. More than anything else, he needed someone to ground him throughout the madness going on.
It couldn’t have been easy for him to wake up feeling like an experiment all over again. “Marlene and Denzel are down for the count,” she said quietly into his ear. Then, she withdrew part of the way from him, her hands lingering on his shoulders.
“How are you feeling, Cloud?” She asked, concerned for him. Just like always.
While Tifa had seen the children home, Cloud had taken a detour through town to familiarize himself with their surroundings. The walk had served a dual purpose, allowing Cloud to burn off some of his nervous energy. He didn’t deny that he had taken their unexpected situation badly. The instant the local military had insisted on detaining him for medical tests, Cloud had reached for his sword, fully prepared to do whatever damage was necessary to remain free. He’d gotten as far as drawing it before someone had hit him with something, the needle sliding easily through skin to deliver a sedative.
The next two days had followed one of the best (and most unnervingly deep) sleeps Cloud had experienced in years. He’d paced the boundaries of the quarantine room, refused nearly every attempt of their hosts to make him feel more comfortable, and generally worried about the safety of Tifa and the children while he fought back his own feelings of anxiety and claustrophobia.
Cloud was relieved to finally be out of the quarantine facility. He smiled when Tifa greeted him, and returned her embrace with his usual care. He pressed his face against her shoulder and breathed in the scent of her. Tifa was more home to him than the familiar rooms around them.
“Better now.” Though Tifa had pulled back, Cloud was reluctant to break contact. His hands rested lightly at Tifa’s waist. “The kids must be tired.”
Knowing him as well as she did came with its own price of constant anxiety. Not that she faulted him for it, far from it. Tifa wouldn’t change a thing about the way they were. She worried because she cared, and because she wanted to be right there with him in the room to see him through the worst of whatever it might dredge up. He was her hero, and Tifa would always be the same to Cloud.
Though they were parted far from their friends, she was grateful to have him and the children. Marlene would have questions about Barret eventually, she suspected. Then again, that little girl had always been too bright for her own good.
Resting her hands comfortably against his chest, she could feel every tense bone in her body finally relax. He was home.
“Good,” she responded, smile warm. Sparing a glance upstairs, she nodded. “They’re out like a light. They wanted to stay up and wait for you, but I told them sleeping would bring you home faster. Did you get a good look at the town?”
Cloud laughed softy. His hands came up to circle Tifa’s, fingers tangling with hers. “I can’t decide if they actually believed you, or if they’ve just figured out there’s no use arguing.” He’d hoped to be back in time to help tuck the kids in. Being thorough had won out. With Denzel and Marlene here, Cloud had an extra interest in ensuring the town was safe.
“There’s a lot of town,” he told Tifa. “Not as much as Edge, but more than a lot of places back home. There’s a lot that’s familiar, and just as much that’s strange. It looks safe enough, at least. Stable. They have schools, stores, a library, and it’s all been here for a while.”
His laughter always served as a means to brighten not only her spirits, but her smile as well. The connection between them since the days of Sephiroth, Meteor, and even the Remnants had grown into something indefinite, but profound. No matter what might be written on the pages of their story, Tifa would always be happy just to stand there with him just like this.
“They’re both wise enough to listen, I’d like to think,” she responded with a laugh.
What little she had glimpsed on the way to Seventh Heaven had suggested as much, but she was curious to see more of it. Until they knew the exact lay of the land and what to expect from the people, however, she wasn’t keen on letting Marlene and Denzel out into the world at large. Then again, those children wouldn’t stay behind closed doors willingly for long.
“So, the real mystery is still just… why in the world did we end up here,” reasoned Tifa aloud, visibly stumped. By the sound of it, they wouldn’t be receiving any real answers about that any time soon either. “Do you think we could take the kids out tomorrow to have another look around?”
“It should be safe enough between the two of us,” Cloud agreed. He released Tifa with a gentle squeeze of hands before parting, and started to divest himself of his gear. He’d stopped at the house just long enough to drop off his swords after they’d been released from the facility, not wanting to attract the wrong kind of attention. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to explore a strange world without some form of weapon on his person. He’d kept his materia with him, and a few pieces of easy-to-miss armor.
“I’m not sure if there’s any rhyme or reason to it,” he confided in Tifa as he secured the small orbs of magic where troublemaking hands wouldn’t find them. “Looking at the talk in the community, there doesn’t seem to be much of a common thread. All I know for sure is that I was out on a delivery one minute, getting pulled through some sort of vortex the next. You?” They hadn’t spoken much about their experiences, having been in separate rooms, and Cloud having spent more time than he’d like sleeping through it to deal with his anxiety about being locked in a box. A comfortable box, but still a place he couldn’t leave of his own free will.
Attracting the wrong attention was last on her list, too. They both had their priorities well in place, priorities that had been rooted in the days since Geostigma. Grateful they had the physical ability to do so now that they were out of quarantine, Tifa was worried about what their presence in this world would mean. Not for her or Cloud, but for the locals and their attitudes.
She didn’t Denzel and Marlene to experience any ill will for circumstances out of their control.
Trailing along with Cloud as he tied up, she made sure to lock the door before joining him by his side again. She slid her hands against the back of her hips, considering his question. With everything that had gone on, she hadn’t given much thought to her own situation prior to being ripped out of Edge. Retracing the moments in between the journey, ultimately Tifa shook her head with what seemed like mild disbelief.
“I had been with Denzel and Marlene, waiting for you to come home. They’d helped me tidy up the bar for the night already. Next thing I knew, the three of us were surrounded by those men,” recounted Tifa. It had been a blur of events, but she’d managed to maintain enough calm to prevent them from feeling the need to drug her.
She wasn’t about to risk getting separated from the children.
“Just when I thought things would be calm again…” She sighed, though smiled in spite of her words. “Another day, another nonsensical journey, huh?”
Cloud laughed softly, trying to focus on how ridiculous their situation was, not on how he’d felt when he’d arrived. He was glad that children hadn’t been there to see him react so badly to the circumstances. Most days, Cloud did just fine. He didn’t lean on Zack’s personality, or allow his own memories to hold him back. Every now and then, though, something would come along that upset his balance.
“Let’s hope this one doesn’t come with another materia thief.” Their whole group loved Yuffie, but no one would deny that she’d been exhausting in the early days of their association. Cloud didn’t think he could manage an extra.
“You and the kids must have gotten here after I did, but I feel like you’ve probably had more time to figure this out than I have. What do you think we do next?”
The reference to their Wutai friend earned a laugh. She did miss her dearly--Tifa missed everyone, in fact--but she was grateful to have Cloud and the others with them. She would count her lucky stars everyday.
“One Yuffie is enough,” agreed Tifa with a hint of fondness in her voice.
Talk of the children had her her immediately looking toward the stairs, half-expecting one of them to have heard Cloud by now and come rushing down. Fortunately, they were afforded a quiet moment together. Before Geostigma, chances of getting a conversation like with him had been rare as the materia they had boxed up for safekeeping.
“We settle in, for now,” she offered, refocusing attention back on Cloud. “I’ll try to talk to more people, see what other information I can get that isn’t from that tablet introduction. Most of the people on that network have gone through what we did just now, so… Hopefully, we can find someone to trust and learn more from them.”
“I suppose that’s as good a plan as any.” Cloud stretched and listened to the tiny crack of vertebra going back into line. Now that the anxiety had mostly faded, his body was letting him know that it didn’t appreciate the constant physical tension from his waking hours. Even super soldiers wore out eventually.
“Should I wake the kids up to let them know I’m home? Or is that going to lead to all four of us staying up so late that we fall asleep on the couch and you and I wake up feeling older than Vincent? I think I might head to bed myself, soon.” Cloud was hungry, actually, but he didn’t want to keep Tifa up just for him if she was planning to get some sleep. He could put a slice of cheese between two slices of bread without breaking her kitchen.
“They can wait until the morning,” Tifa assured. “I’ll get you something light to eat and we can both turn in, no problem.” The look she gave him suggested that he forgo arguing with her. She was already busy quietly foraging through the kitchen for something simple to put together for him. This way, he could fill his stomach, get some rest, and together they could both face the morning and the prying questions of Marlene and Denzel together.