Love is Never Silent

 

~~--~~

As soon as Tifa's head hit her pillow, she fell back to sleep. She didn't expect to get a very peaceful sleep, as her dreams had been haunted with nightmares for many weeks. Her dream tonight started out as it normally did. She was with Cloud and the others, fighting the Bahamut SIN, just like they did almost two years ago. Suddenly the Bahamut would charge Cloud and he would disappear, as if destroyed by the creature. 



~~--~~

Today, her dream changed, Tifa found herself in a beautiful meadow, smiling and laughing as she was fighting a Shadow Creeper.  She under estimated the animals as she became tired and worn out, just from the sheer numbers of them. She thought about calling to her companion for help, but she didn't want to seem like a weakling. One bit her in the shoulder, weakening her. She cried out loudly and fell to one knee, as she closed her eyes, knowing what was coming.  



"TIFA!!!" She heard as she felt herself being pushed back, slowly opening one eye. 



The person was surrounded by the Creepers, so she couldn't tell who was fighting; she heard herself gasping as she saw the person being buried under the mob. 



She screamed the person's name, sobbing. It seemed that the closer she tried to get to her savior, the further away they were. She stopped and screamed the person's name one more time. 



~~--~~



Tifa shot up from her bed, looking around in a daze; her senses were on high alert. She guessed by the lack of sunlight in her room that it was at least early evening. She could hear the sound of a young girl singing and she also smelled something delicious coming from the kitchen. Her stomach growled loudly as she realized how hungry she was and how desperate she was to have something in her stomach that didn't have any liquor in it. She yawned and stretched as she stood up, her dream and the person who saved her momentarily forgotten. 



~~--~~ 



"Is Tifa going to eat dinner with us today?" Marlene asked as she set the table with three plates. 



"Maybe. Marlene, I'm not sure how I feel about leaving you here with her while she's like this." Barret said, looking around the mess in the kitchen, shaking his head sadly at the number of bottles in the sink. 



Marlene ignored him momentarily as she quickly grabbed the picture of her, Tifa, Cloud and Denzel and placed it at the fourth place on the table. "Cloud, please come home soon. Please come home safe!" She whispered, looking at the picture. Barret smiled at her, as she did her nightly ritual. "Tifa's okay Papa. She's just upset right now. Tifa's always been good at taking care of me!" 



"Are you sure? I'd feel much better if you were at the site with me. I'm sure Denzel will be happy to have you there." 



"It's boring there Papa! Denzel is always too busy to play with me! Besides, I wanna be here when Cloud gets home!" Marlene said, crossing her arms.



Barret sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "Fine, we'll see how Tifa is before we decide anything." 



Marlene grinned as she hugged him. "You're the best Papa!" 



~~--~~



Tifa walked into the kitchen, humming happily to herself. "Hello Barret. Hi Marlene! I didn't hear you two come in!" She sniffed the air. "Yum. This smells good. Did you make this Marlene?" 



"I made this all by myself!" Marlene said proudly, relieved that Tifa wasn't falling over drunk tonight. 



Barret watched Tifa very closely. Something was different about Tifa. He couldn't place his finger on it, but he was glad that it didn't include liquor. "We haven't been here very long. We figured you were sleeping and we didn't want to disturb you. By the way, when did you get the new window in the bar? It looks pretty great."



Tifa blushed as she filled her and Marlene's plates with food. "Well I just got it installed today. The old one was….damaged." She said blushing again. 



Barret looked at her, with a raised eyebrow. "Really?" 



"I had a customer get a little too rowdy and broke the window." She said, not completely lying, but not completely telling the truth. 



"Well it's amazing that you were able to find a carpenter."



Tifa smiled a little, as she sat down. "Well I happen to know a very good one." 



Barret nodded, as he helped himself to the food. "He does very good work. Maybe you could see if he wants to come and work for me at the site. I could use someone like him." 



Tifa blushed as she looked down at her plate. "Maybe, I'll have to ask him." 



Barret sat down at the table and looked at Tifa, a serious expression on his face. "Tifa, you know that I'm going to be busy at the site for awhile. I won't be able to take care of Marlene very well. I need to know that you are okay enough to watch Marlene."



Tifa sighed annoying, looking up at him. "I'm fine Barret."



"Yeah, but the way you've been the past two weeks, it makes me wonder if you're stable and sober enough to take proper care of Marlene. I know you miss Cloud-"



Tifa slammed her hands on the table. "Look Barret, I'm fine. I know I've been incapacitated for awhile, but I'm okay now. I really don't want to hear about Cloud right now. If everyone keeps talking to me about Cloud, I'll never get any better! I'll just keep sinking into a bottle! So please, just drop the subject!" Tifa stood up and placed her plate in the sink, looking at it in disgust. "The dinner was really good Marlene, you're getting better!" 



Marlene beamed at Tifa's praise, ecstatic that Tifa was going to be okay now. "Thanks Tifa! I worked hard on it!" 



Tifa smiled and nodded, she looked over at Barret and her look hardened. "I'm going to go upstairs; I want to be alone right now. So please don't disturb me. Your room is still clean Marlene and ready for you to sleep in. Barret, I'm sure the guest room besides the bar is clean enough for you. Now excuse me."  Tifa walked out of the room. 



~~--~~ 



Tifa walked upstairs and stopped and Cloud's room. She sighed as she walked inside, looking around. Thankfully, Cloud's room wasn't the worst room in the house, but she felt compelled to come in here nonetheless. Tifa hummed sadly to herself again as she picked up some of his things and looked at them. She picked up one of his jackets and held it to her face, as if trying to memorize his scent. She shook her head clear. –Come on Tifa! Get a grip on yourself! You're driving yourself crazy worrying about Cloud! He's got to be okay, he's Cloud. This isn't the situation at North Crater! Cloud isn't just going to show up and need you to take care of him. He's gone for now Tifa. Cloud will show up when he wants to. You can't waste anymore of your time moping about. Besides, you've got other things to worry about, like tomorrow night! So let's just cheer up and get to cleaning!- She thought as she began to place Cloud's belongings into different containers, telling herself that it was just to protect his things from being damaged when she cleaned the entire room.