Promise by Aridea Moons

|The truth|

Years ago
A raven sores through the night sky hopping on a tree branch with its red eye it sees flames burning houses.
C: "Tifa!"
The town citizens were crying and screaming as the spikey blonde came outside his broken house to see the female cowgirl speaking to her master Zangan only to find her running towards the mansion. The blonde follows her but is interrupted by Zangan who bumped into him carrying an injured man.
Z: "Please can you help?"
The spikey blonde looks towards the direction Tifa went then helps him carrying the injured man on their shoulders.
Z: "We need to get them out of here, there is a van not far from here if we can carry the ones we find that are alive then we can make it"
C: "I can help find the girl who ran off earlier"
Z: "heh you dont fool me, Cloud"
The blonde gasps under his breathe
Z: "Tifa mentioned you, I supposed you should go find her now before she gets into real trouble. She went after her father, please find her"
The blonde sets the man down in the van as he sets out to find the brunette, he walked inside the mansion that was burning down.
C: "ZACK! TIFA!"
There was no sign of life then he runs ahead towards the forest panting running as fast as he can to catch up only to find that he was too late. He saw her father was laying there unconscious bleeding, the blonde narrows his eyebrows at the sight looking away then he proceeds to run inside the reactor only to find that he was too late. Clouds eyes widened to see Tifa was laying on the floor unconscious with her hair dangled around her, he rushed over.
C: "Tifa, can you hear me?"
The blonde worries then he looks up to hear yelling
C: "Zack?", the blonde takes Tifa in his arms moving her hair from her face as he widens his eyes to see her chest bleeding, his eyes began to tear up as he hugs her tightly. The brunettes body against his chest felt lifeless and weak that it made him even more anxious as he silently cried to himself, tears rolled down his cheek. Tifas finger twitches which caused him to gasp as he looks closely cupping her face with his fingers in her hair.
C: "Tifa?"
The brunette slowly opens her eyes to see the blonde smiling at her
T: "Cloud?"
C: "Im here, everything's okay"
T: "Are..you crying?"
C: "No"
The blonde picks up the brunette bridal style as she rests her head on his chest gently, he sets her down gently somewhere safe and hidden. Cloud cups her face as the brunette weakly grabs his forearm as she begins to cry.
C: "Why are you crying?"
T: "I just..I haven't seen you in so long I thought you left me"
C: "Ill always come back", he leans in close as he grabs her head resting her on his chest as she cries a little then he wipes her tears with his finger.
T: "Cloud..your real right? Im not dead?"
C: "No, Im here"
T: "..I..need to tell you something"
They lock eyes as they sparkle at eachother
T&C: "I-"
The door flew open sending a SOLDIER down the stairs bleeding from his lip as he groaned.
The blonde looks up quickly to see his friend endangered as he gets up the brunette continues to gaze at him as she grabs his arm from leaving catching his attention.
C: "Tifa-"
T: "Dont go"
C: "I-", he looks at his friend in the stairs then he looks back to feel Tifas hand fall as she was sitting unconsciously with her hair fall on her face, he moved her hair behind her ear and smiled.
4 years ago
The spikey blonde wakes up in a hotel feeling buzzed as he shakes his head realizing he was laying in the floor with a trashed place, glass shattered in the floor and the bed was completely messy.
[hours earlier]
The brunette was drunk acting silly and goofy as she has a bottle in her hand sitting on the bed as the blonde was sitting down on the bed next to her with his arms crossed completely avoiding her in that state.
T: "Do you love me?"
C: "huh?"
T: "I said, Do you love me?"
C: "Your drunk"
T: "Sshh", she teases as she comes close to him waving her bottle in his face, "You want some?"
C: "I dont drink on the job"
T: "Oh but your not working", she bobbles her head
C: "I am if your drunk"
T: "I dont need a babysitter", she continues to drink
C: "Why are you drinking?"
The brunette walks over to the curtains and opens them completely revealing the stars and the moon.
T: "Because...", she looks at the ground then removes her red boots throwing them around as she takes another sip, "You know my dad used to drink, he would come home drunk. He would say that he was working when he lost his job due to drinking so much, so I had to find one to pay the bills. Heh the only one I could find was the post office and they didn't pay much so I sometimes sacrificed my breakfast to make it to the rent. The only one who made food was Elony..but I didn't like to bother her with my things so I starved myself."
The blonde looks up sentimentally at Tifa who had her back turned
C: "I didn't know"
T: "ahuh..I know why people drink..to forget. I like to forget things...leaving no trace is the best feeling"
C: "You mean disappear?", he stands up walking close to her
T: "is it getting hot in here or what?", she takes off her shirt making the blonde blush as he turns around avoiding her
C: "Im gonna go-", he blushes as he feels the brunettes pillowy chest against his muscular back.
T: "Stay..Im lonely as it is"
The brunette wraps her arms around him as she hugs him resting her cheek on his back
C: "I dont think-"
The brunette pushes him on the bed making him stumble as he almost fell luckily his legs were strong.
T: "Have a drink", she encourages him as she hands him the bottle in his face. He takes it and drinks some but Tifas finger lifted the bottle further keeping him drinking as he swallowed his last drop. The brunette leans close revealing her bra making the blonde nervous as he falls back on his bottom crawling away from the brunette who kept moving close.
C: "I-uh Tifa you-"
The brunette kisses him gently on the lips, the blonde pulls away and stands up quickly moving her around by grabbing her shoulders as her hair sways making her sit down on her bed.
C: "You need sleep, goodnight"
The blonde leaves the brunette sitting down as he begins to walk out as soon as his hand touches the doorknob Tifa begins to cry causing the blonde to stand still.
T: "...I just..", she sniffs, "Please dont leave me"
The blonde widens his eyes as he remembers Tifas nine year old crying face as she reaches for him from falling in the dirt.
T: "Does no one want me?..am I not..needed?", she slips in the covers falling on her bottom in the ground as she hugs herself crying whispering, "Mom" which made Clouds eyes look up then he turns around to see her crying by herself. The sound of his boots walk over to the crying brunette as he sits besides her on the floor with their backs on the bed side, he hugs the brunette with one arm and his hand clutching her shoulder. She rests her head on his shoulder crying silently then the blonde felt his shirt get wet from her tears as she shoved her face in his chest.
T: "Do you think..Cloud will come back Elony?"
The blonde gives her a sad expression
C: "Yea he will, he always does"
T: "Yea he usually does, do you think mom will..", he opens her eyes and sits up quickly grabbing her head covering her face, "No no no"
C: "Tifa-"
T: "I..I killed her"
The blonde looks at the brunette surprised
T: "I killed her, its all my fault", she gets up as the blonde follows her around concerned as she continues to pace around the room.
T: "Its my fault..its all my fault!", she grabs her head making the blonde anxious, "AAGGH"
The brunette grabs the vase on the shelf and throws it on the ground then kneels down with her hands covering her ears as she continues to cry, Cloud kneeled down removing her hands.
C: "You didn't kill anyone-"
T: "You don't understand I was there! When she..", she looks up at him hopelessly and afraid out of her mind. The blonde hugs her tightly as she fought him but the blonde continued to hug her tightly until she stopped.
T: "Wwhyy!!", she yells crying, "Why now?"
C: "Because I couldn't before..and I had no idea how much you suffered alone. I should have been there, its not your fault"
The brunette touches his arm and looks up at him with her big eyes
T: "Do you..remember I had a cat"
C: "huh?"
T: "I had a white cat..right after Cloud left, my cat ran away and I couldn't find her but every time I would see her around she would never come back to me. I thought to myself maybe she was sad that Cloud left too.."
C: "Tifa..Im right here", he whispers
The brunette was drunk and silly, her vision was blurry and she was seeing three blondes at the same time struggling to keep her eyes open.
T: "I..can you help me change?"
C: "What?"
T: "Please, I can't-"
The blonde looks at her spinning
C: "Sure.."
The brunette moves her hair up as she turns to her side revealing her feminine figure as she reveals her bra which caught him off guard.
C: "Uh! Why dont we leave those on okay?"
T: "But its hot"
C: "Its okay..wait here"
The blonde stands up grabbing a blanket covering her
T: "What?"
C: "You can undress yourself now"
T: "Do I have to do it?", she says with her blushy cheeks
C: "Yes"
The brunette begins undressing herself as the blonde looks away
T: "Okay now what?", she says childishly
The blonde wraps the blanket around her and moves her to her bed as she begins to complain.
T: "Im hot thooo"
C: "Tifa-"
T: "You look familiar?"
The brunette leans close to the blonde as she stumbles on him causing the blonde to fall backwards as she laid on top of him naked under the blanket. Clouds face turns completely red as the brunette pokes his cheek like a child as she was still drunk then her eyes grow weak as she struggles to keep them open.
C: "Tifa dont fall asleep"
T: "huh?"
The brunette falls asleep on his chest making the blonde extremely uncomfortable as he gulps, he had no choice but to move her to the side as he was starting to feel his buzz kick in just when he was about to leave the room instead he falls asleep next to her in the wooden floor.