Flowers Blooming in the Church -Ch. 2

Chapter 2

Flowers Blooming in the Church

It was a difficult descent, even for Tifa. Her calves were sore, her ankles ached and her eyes fell from time to time. She didn't know what drove Cloud, but it wasn't a mutual feeling. Tifa couldn't help but feel torn as he dove down to yet another metal slab, a piece of Midgar's infrastructure, praying that this one wouldn't decide to let go of what it held onto and let Cloud plummet the rest of the way down. She wished that he would decide to turn back to the Shera, decide to settle down and maybe even settle down with her… Tifa shook these thoughts from her mind; for Cloud was too broken to think that way. And Tifa knew she missed her chance. She failed to see that little boy that cared so much about her in his cold desolate eyes. She knew she failed to be there for this man who lost everything. He became her hero, but who was going to be his?

Cloud was beginning to feel the toll of this escapade, but the need to see that church one last time surpassed the pain. He chuckled to himself, finding it so strange that this little journey would take its toll so quickly. The Northern Crater, even the decaying Ancient City was more difficult to manoeuvre in. But it was the vision of that woman dressed in pink that haunted him constantly and slowly took his will to move away. That heart warming smile of hers, her girlish chuckle, the way her dress danced with her movements, her gentle touch... he thought he could bury her memory in her ruined church, and with her buried memory, go on with his life. Or could it be that he was doomed to a memory? Whatever, that wasn't for him to decide. He had no right to decide...

He saw Aeris with the point of the Masamune slicing through her body, blood soiling that pink dress and tainting her auburn hair. And all he could do... No, all he did, was watch him kill her, then tell Sephiroth how much of a horrible man he was. When Cloud knew, he was the worst thing that evil ever spat out. All he did was stand and watch as his own ally sacrificed herself unknowingly at the hands of a madman.

He could smell her. Everywhere he went, he could smell her. The way flowers smelt, sweet and gentle, hypnotic and comforting... He could also smell her blood. Cloud couldn't manage to wipe off the only thing she left him, her blood stained into his hands. Not to say his hands weren't already soiled, but all he could see was her innocent blood staining his already tarnished hands.

That was when he knew she didn't deserve to be a memory, his little lost cause. She needed to rest along with her body; let go so that she could finally return to the Planet she belonged to. Yes, that was what all this madness was about, to put to rest a woman that cried to be let go.

Tifa watched as Cloud stopped in mid-jump, falling back onto the plank that he launched himself from. He stumbled slightly, trying to regain his balance but couldn't managed and slipped to the empty void surrounded by metal ahead; Tifa's worry become a reality. Tifa held back a cry as she jolted to her friend's rescue, but there was no need to worry; Cloud had found Aeris' church. Tifa remained silent instead and watched as Cloud stood and continued to walk forward, his cerulean eyes gleaming as if possessed by something that Tifa wouldn't dare stand against: the love for a dead woman.

"Oh, Cloud," Tifa whimpered to the emptiness engulfing her, "if only we were stronger. If only we were strong enough to carry on. But our burden is too great for us to carry alone. If only we could swallow our pride and cry for the help we need. "

But her voice couldn't reach him, even if he were standing inches away from her.

Cloud remained an observer to the church's dismantled state. The roof was caving in after a metal plank savagely ran through it (whereas it wasn't as noticeable before). There was only one stained glass window that remained. And the garden... The garden was unrecognizable. The flowers were drowning in a multitude of weeds, desperately trying to struggle out and failing miserably. He knelt as Aeris once knelt by the flowerbed, attempting to untangle the flowers and make some sense out of the garden.

Tifa stood by the door, resting herself on the frame, watching Cloud tend to the garden. She couldn't imagine Cloud having a green thumb. The thought of Cloud being a botanist just made her chuckle (silently, of course). But he seemed so utterly content with the soil in between his fingers, the green stems twining around his hands. It would take hours before Cloud would be satisfied with the garden, satisfied enough to make Aeris proud.

Tifa fell asleep by the door, minutes after crouching down, and Cloud was still hard at work. It was only when Tifa's body slumped onto the ground, causing a rather loud thud that Cloud took his eyes off of the garden. He knew he felt like he was being watched, but by what, he couldn't say. And all of that became clear as he sauntered to the open entrance.

Of course, Tifa was the only one sly enough to get by his constant guard. She looked exhausted, strewn onto the dusty ground without a care in the world. Only her eyebrows furrowed slightly but relaxed once she felt Cloud's hand on her shoulder. He attempted to wake her, ready to ask her what in gods' name she was doing all the way down here, but decided against it after the third time trying. So he picked her up and laid her next to the flower garden, next to him while he worked.

Tifa awoke as Cloud was settling down to pull a weed. She tried to pretend that she hadn't waken at all, just to prolong the moment he would look to her as if to say "you're an idiot".

"What are you doing all the way down here, Tifa? You look beat."

She sat up. "I am."

"Then, why go through all of that just to come down here?"

"I was...," she hesitated; she didn't want him to feel like he could no longer be trusted alone with those thoughts running rampant in his mind, "following you."

"Oh."

It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Cloud was neither angry nor relieved by that sentiment, but truly, he felt betrayed. Were all of his comrades this worried of him, too?

"Looking good."

Cloud looked up from his flowers and his thoughts.

"The flowers. They look very nice. "

"It's the least I can do."

Tifa placed a hand on his shoulder, not giving him the chance to fall back into his own little world, "she'd love them. I'm sure."

His chest contorted and his eyes watered, everything hurt. But he couldn't cry; Tifa was beside him, her eyes reflecting him as clearly as a mirror. No, he could not falter now. He could not return to the small weak child he once was.

He turned back to the flowers again, trying to make one stand up, but it was hopeless. Tifa took a sliver of the hardwood floor and stuck it in the ground beside the little fella and with a shoelace; she tied the stem to the piece of wood.

"There, all better."