Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Childhood Promises ❯ Childhood Promises ( One-Shot )

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Childhood Promises
Ronin Setora
09.07.02

*

The Planet had finally started to recover from the collosal battle that was
the Lifestream and Meteor. Green was forming where there were once deserts,
snow was less threatening to people's health. The wildlife noticed this
return to peace, and slowly flooded back into newly formed forests and
swamps. The first rain of many years had finally struck over Midgar as if the
Shinra had been holding it back. With the large corporation gone, the
rainclouds seemed to live over the black city.
Further North, the sun was coming back to the world. After the seemingly
unwavering black cloud that was Meteor had been removed from the sky, the sun
and moon strived to regain their importance in human life. The light of the
morning sun reflected off the last visible traces of Mako the Planet would
see just before those green eyes closed. He ran his callused hand through his
blonde hair, sighing into the beauty of his former home.
Cloud Strife, formerly of SOLDIER and Avalanche, two opposing forces, stood
with the sun off to his right at an angle creating a glow about his hometown.
He stared at the rooftops from a hill, and took note of his house and that of
his closest friend. He had been through a lot in his life- working for the
most corrupt of organizations, taking jobs with rebel factions against one-
time employers, making promises, and saving the Planet- just to find himself
in such a situation. Nibelhiem was again quiet, the former occupants having
given up their facade of ignorance and moving away each to begin again their
life. He found now that, even after all he had succeeded in, all the reasons
he had given for the actions then were not true. After defeating Sephiroth he
thought he should be happy and found himself feeling the mission was
incomplete. There was one last part of life to be taken care of, one part
that would bring the happiness that had elluded him for so many years.

All but one of Cloud's former company had gone into a new beginning. One
person remained that had no life left to return to. She, with oak-brown hair
and soft, tanned skin, searched for even one piece of her life that might
remain. She, who had gone so long without anyone to turn to had long ago,
back in a bar in a slum, found a single piece of her past. And that piece,
with blonde at his point and purple wrapping his muscular warrior's body, had
come with little memory of her. That piece, a man that could complete her,
bring her happiness back, had come back to her with no recollection of his
of the past. Through the hardships they then faced together, she made him
remember and though she was not whole, brought him back into himself. She had
made her love into a hero but could not ever admit anything she had once felt
for him. Once he remembered, he quested to put her back together and failed
until a morning under the great airship, Highwind, when he made her whole.
That day they had become one for the next day could have been their last.
Then, on that dreaded following day they had almost lost each other again.
Tifa Lockheart was that person with no life to return to. She had finally
brought back the person she had loved all through her childhood but did not
find her self content with that. There had been too many times she almost
lost him, either to the Planet or to another. Something was bothering her and
needed to be taken up with Cloud.

Cloud sat on the railing of the outer deck of the Highwind, staring out into
the dawn of the second day of the New Year after his solo battle that saved
everything. In the bronze coat of the world, images rolled like a movie on
the hills, images of Sephiroth's final moments and of the many near deaths he
had suffered during his quest with AVALANCHE. That was all over and he could
only wonder where his life would go from now.
Unconciously he sat fingering the two materia slots in his Buster Sword, the
only thing from his past that could never change. Every once in a while his
flashbacks would return to his friend Zack and he would be constantly
reminded of the unfairness of the world. With all of these things in his
head, Cloud did not notice her approach from behind him. He did not pick up
her quiet steps or hurried breaths, and even less did he sense her
nervousness. But for reasons he could not understand, the moments he had
spent with her under the Highwind kept coming back, even while she stood
barely a hair's breadth from his back. A hand fell upon his shoulder and that
familiar, much loved voice interupted his thoughts,
"So what will we do now?"
Cloud shut his eyes, looked down and took a breath,
"We?"
"Do you still remember your promise?"
"Yes... it seems I could never live up to it though."
His words gave her confidence and brought a smile to her face,
"You saved me... and the Planet."
He then turned to Tifa and slid off the rail, looking straight at her face.
"You were right there beside me. I didn't do anything... not by myself."
The two could not help but stare at one another, stare into each pair of eyes
that confessed feelings that could never be expressed in words. Tifa was
first to find the words to say what she was thinking, first to accurately
express what she was feeling,
"I was there beside you... you must have protected me all this time if I
could be there. Now that you've done it, I want you to forget."
"Hmm?"
Tifa stared even deeper into him, searching his mind for understanding,
"I want you to forget all those childhood promises..."
"Why? Why forget what has brought us all this?"
"Because they aren't needed when we'll never be apart again right?"
Cloud smiled one of his rare, non-sarcastic smiles, happier than he had ever
been at this turn in his life,
"Right."

~ Owari ~

a/n: I just felt the need to write this.