CloTi Remake

Chapter 4: I Like Him

Tifa POV

"Cloud!"

I screamed at the top of my lungs as I watched him fall on the floor. I quickly grabbed his sword and leaned it against the wall. I ran back toward his lifeless body and grabbed one of his arms, wrapping it around my shoulders and then lifted him up.

"You're alot heavier than you look, I hope you know that." I said aloud, knowing damn well I wasn't going to get a response.

I gently placed him onto my bed and ran toward the sink. I wetted a towel and made my way back toward Cloud, placing the towel on his forehead.

I leaned my head against his chest. "Thank God, his heart is still beating."

I lifted my head and sighed, probably the biggest sigh I ever let out in my life.  After calming down I went to grab a cup of water but stopped midway because there was knocking on the door.

"Tifa! I'm back!" Aerith screamed from the opposite side of the door.

I opened the door and in return she gave me a huge smile, handing me two matching flowers.

"Uhm, these are for?"

"One for you and the other one for Cloud." She said, walking inside the room and closing the door. "Matching flowers."

I looked at the flowers, if I didn't have a certain situation I would've smiled and thanked her.

"AH!" Aerith screamed. "Why is Cloud here?!"

I walked toward Cloud and sat on the bed I laid him down on earlier. I took the towel off his forehead and tossed it in the direction of a table, not caring if it actually landed on it or not.

"We were talking and then he fainted out of nowhere." I answered while stroking Cloud's hair.

Aerith sat on her own bed and put down her bag, I assume a bag full of flowers.

"Just like that time in the lab."

I nodded and continued stroking his hair. "I wish he would tell me what's going on."

"Maybe he doesn't know what's going with himself either." Aerith stated.

I looked toward her direction. "What do you mean?"

"He used to be a solider and when you become a solider they do stuff to you to enhance your strength and stuff. Maybe something wrong happened or this is a side effect." She replied.

"Are you sure?"

She shrugged in response. "Dunno, only Cloud or somebody else involved can answer that question for you." She got up from her bed and put her hand on my shoulder. "I'm just giving the best answer I can so you don't overthink it."

Aerith let go of my shoulder and walked in the direction of the door. "I'll go tell Barret the situation. We'll probably have to cancel our plan to go to Wutai tomorrow and reschedule it to another day."

"Yeah." I responed with the only thing I could think of saying.

Aerith told Barret the situation and then he and Red made their way to our room. We talked about our plans for tomorrow since going to Wutai wouldn't be happening. Barret and Red said they would walk around the shops since they haven't had the chance to. Aerith and I decided that we would watch over Cloud and force him to rest for the day. Knowing him, he'll want to go to straight to Wutai the second he wakes up, but i'm not going to let that happen.

"I'll carry Cloud back to our room." Barret said, making his way toward Cloud and I.

I shook my head no and stopped Barret in his tracks. "No, it's okay, i'll take care of him tonight."

Barret took off his sunglasses and then looked at Red, who nodded in response.

"That's probably the best idea since you know Cloud the most and Aerith is probably the best when it comes to anything healing related." Red said.

With that, Barret and Red left our room. I looked at Aerith and she gave me a smile, probably to help cheer me up.

"Where do you plan on sleeping?" Aerith asked as she laid down on her bed.

"I won't." I responded.

"What do you mean? You need to sleep and you know Cloud wouldn't be happy if he knew you stayed up watching over him."

I chuckled. "I know, but I know Cloud; He'll wake up soon and then when he wakes up i'll have a talk with him." I said.

For a few minutes there was nothing besides silence that could be heard. It was definitely uncomfortable but neither Aerith or I could come up with anything to say. We were both really worried about Cloud.

"How do you feel about Cloud?" I asked, breaking the silence between us.

Aerith shifted her body, instead of looking up at the ceiling she was now facing toward the wall.

"I like him."

I got up from my bed and sat down on Aerith's. "I like him too." I responded, putting my hand on her shoulder, just like she did to me earlier.

Once again, a few minutes of silence went by before either of us said anything.

"I don't have any plans getting between you and Cloud." Aerith said, breaking the silence once again.

I let go of her shoulder and smiled. "Don't worry, best man wins, right?"

"No, you guys are meant for each other." Aerith responded, getting into a sitting position.

I chuckled and stared her right in the eye. "I feel the opposite; your personality fits him alot better than mine."

We both started laughing. Never in my life did I ever think I would have a girl talk about Cloud Strife, but here I am.

"Even if my happy and flirty personality fits him, he needs someone to protect him." She responded. "When we were on top of the Shinra building Cloud told us to leave him. When we were leaving you kept looking back at him and then you ran back to save him." Aerith stated

"Well I did force him into promising to always protect me. It's only fair I return the favor." I explained.

"Even without that promise, you still would've ran back to save him." 

I nodded my head in response.

To be fair, I would've saved anyone in that position. All my friends are important to me, but if one of them demanded we run away like Cloud did, I would hesitate but I would still follow orders and run. Because it was Cloud I constantly kept worrying and couldn't handle leaving him all alone. So I ran all the way back and luckily I made it just in time.

"No matter who ends up with Cloud, no hard feelings, okay? We're friends after all." I said, sticking my hand out.

"Of course!" Aerith responded, shaking my hand.

That was the end of our girl talk. Not long after Aerith fell asleep. I was still sitting on my bed, with Cloud, waiting for him to wake up. I knew he would eventually wake up but I never expected him to wake up as fast as he did.

I pushed his bang away from his eyes and gave him the biggest smile I possibly could.

"Good morning."