Cloud x Tifa - The Comeback Kid (FFVII)

Chapter Three - Sorry, You're Not a Winner

The Comeback Kid

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Chapter Three

Sorry, You're Not a Winner

[ ν ] - εγλ - 2022 | December 8th

The day of Marle's funeral was also the first snowfall of the season, and it fell in fat, puffy flakes, the kind of cottony snow that stuck and accumulated quickly, piling high on the sides of the street in Midgar's Topside Sectors. Tifa normally loved the snow. Winter was her favorite season, and she'd always enjoyed watching the flakes descend from the skies and build into thick, fluffy hills outside of her window where she would watch it fall from the heavens. Even so, she couldn't bring herself to enjoy the snowfall that afternoon, considering the circumstances.

Tifa had been devastated by Marle's sudden passing, unable to tear her thoughts away from the last time they'd spoken, which was far too inexcusably long ago. The woman was close to eighty years old, and despite her natural spryness, it should not have come as a surprise to anyone that her time on the Planet might not be much longer. Yet Tifa had not given the possibility much thought at all, had not really considered that Marle, who was one of the few remaining elders in her life still alive, might not live much longer. They spoke infrequently and without much urgency over the years, and in the bustle of Tifa's day to day life, she had not given their relationship as much consideration as she should have.

It was so close to the Yule season that Denzel and Marlene returned home for the funeral with their suitcases, planning to stay home for the holiday break. Denzel, who'd grown to be almost six feet tall, his hair shaggy around his shoulders, sat in the back seat of Tifa's sedan, Aster wedged between him and Marlene, who had cut her hair just above her shoulders and dyed the tips of it with a hot pink ombre. Denzel was mostly silent during the trip to Midgar, staring down at his PHS, while Marlene chatted quietly with Aster in the backseat.

Tifa drove through the streets of Midgar, Cloud beside her in the front seat. The funeral was being held that morning in Sector7, where Marle had continued to live in the years after Meteorfall, committing much of the rest of her life to help Midgar rebuild, sustaining the WRO's efforts at reintegration, and to clear the slums and move surviving residents to the reconstructed Topside plates. Tifa parked her sedan on a long, windy road outside of Rosedale Cathedral, an ornate and refurbished place of worship that was adjacent to a local gravesite where many in the Sector buried their loved ones once their spirits migrated to the Lifestream.

Climbing out of the car, Tifa, pulled the hood of her wool peacoat over her head to repel the steady stream of snow that fell gently from the steel gray sky. A flake kissed the tip of her nose and melted instantly; Tifa flicked the wetness away with her thumb. She heard the car doors around her slam shut as Cloud and the kids ambled out of the vehicle. A little ways up the road, Tifa could already see Barret's truck parked against the curb.

The kids entered the church ahead of her, Marlene and Aster at each other's sides, Denzel a few paces behind them, his hands deep in the pocket of his coat. Cloud had been at their heels, but sensing Tifa lingering behind the group of them, he stopped to turn and wait for her, and Tifa watched as the snowflakes crested in white icicles on the tips of his golden wisps of hair before they melted and drizzled into his scalp.

"You okay?"

His hand was suddenly outstretched, and Tifa accepted it, hearing her boots crunch softly in the accumulation of snow beneath her feet. She offered him a tiny smile, warmth infiltrating the building coldness and dread that was stacking inside of her, both from the weather and from facing the finality of Marle's death that lay somewhere ahead in a casket. She nodded at him, and he placed his open palm at the small of her back, letting her step ahead of him as he followed her inside of the church.