Chapter Text
“Hey, Cloud?”
“Mmhhmm?”
“What are you doing?”
Cloud jumped in his chair and quickly shoved his phone into his pocket.
“Oh, uh, nothing,” he said, picking up his fork and resuming his meal.
Marlene scrunched up her face and shared a look with Tifa, who raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, and continued shining the dry glasses. The young girl, never one to back away from a challenge, persisted. She scooched her chair across the floor until she was shoulder to shoulder with the blonde, who steadfastly avoided her eyes as she leaned on his shoulder.
“It didn’t look like nothin’.”
Cloud frowned at his eggs as if they had greatly offended him.
“Yeah, well, looks can be deceiving,” he said curtly.
Behind the bar, Tifa snorted and he shot her a glare.
“Seriously Marlene, it’s nothing. I was just looking at some old deliveries.”
Marlene grinned, her eyes lighting up with mischief and Cloud suddenly felt as if he had made a grave error.
“So which is it then? Nothing or deliveries?”
Cloud spluttered as he tried to come up with an answer.
“It’s…I mean… it’s the same thing!”
“Why didn’t you just say it was deliveries then?” Marlene replied, smugly.
“I… I… Tifa!” He shrieked, in a very manly tone.
Tifa shrugged and ignored Cloud’s plea, placing the last glass in the cupboard.
“She’s got a point, Cloud. Why didn’t you just say that in the first place?” Tifa said, placing her elbows on the bar, and cocking her head to the side innocently as she laid her cheeks in her palms.
Cloud looked between the two females with a frown, and then abruptly stood, mumbled something about being late, and left without another word.
Tifa and Marlene dissolved into giggles. Teasing Cloud was one of their favourite sports, mostly because he was so easy to fluster. However, Tifa knew where his limits were and she was always careful to keep an eye on his reactions so they didn’t push him too far and hurt him. In this case, she was genuinely curious about what he'd been doing. He hadn't been that interested in getting a phone to begin with, claiming it was a waste of money that they needed elsewhere, so to see him with his face buried in the cheap, second-hand model that she had eventually convinced him to buy was odd and intriguing.
Even stranger were his terrible attempts at lying about what he was doing. Cloud Strife was many things, but a good liar—to those he loved at least—was not one of them. His excuses were bad even for him. What could he possibly be doing that would make him want to hide it so badly?
Tifa resolved to find out.
* * *
The sound of socked feet quietly ascending the stairs and into the bedroom roused Tifa from her sleep when Cloud came home from his delivery later that same day. She lay still in their bed and listened to the sound of his clothes landing on the floor, drawers being opened and shut, and then felt him gently lift the covers and slide into bed with her.
His arms wrapped around her waist as he curled around her, and she rolled over to face him.
"Oh, sorry," he whispered, "did I wake you up?"
She shrugged a little and burrowed into his bare chest, tangling their legs together and placing a hand on his back to hold him close.
"Maybe a little."
"Sorry."
They lay in silence, the only sound the occasional voice echoing from outside on the street. Sometimes Tifa couldn't believe how quiet Edge was compared to the slums of Midgar. The constant buzz of humanity coming and going was missing in Edge, if not simply because the population had been cut so drastically, but Edge lacked the drastic push that Midgar seemed to thrive on. There was a calm in Edge, a sense of time passed, something new beginning, and everyone was willing to wait for it. If Midgar had been crashing waves, Edge was the slow tide. Still moving, but slower, calmer, steadier.
The sky had been obscured in Midgar. The slums could only see oppressive steel, a reminder of their place in the food chain, but even those on the plate were eternally bathed in green. The stars were hidden from view. Not so in Edge, and maybe, seeing how small they all were compared to the… bigness of the sky was the reminder they all needed to live for the moment. Moments like this with Cloud, tucked up in bed with him, were moments she treasured. It didn't matter how many times his strong arms wrapped around her, his soft hair tickling her face as he breathed a sigh of relief into her skin, every time became her new favourite, until the next one.
Tifa was lost in her musing, and only when she became aware of Cloud's quiet snoring did she remember the question she wanted to ask.
"Cloud?"
A grunt.
"Are you awake?"
"I guess so," he groaned.
"What were you looking at on your phone earlier?" She asked quietly, drawing little designs on his chest.
Cloud rolled onto his back with a sigh.
"I told you, it was nothing." He said, throwing an arm over his eyes.
"You're a really bad liar." She replied, laying her head on his shoulder.
He was silent, and Tifa assumed the conversation was over, until he suddenly spoke so quietly she barely heard him, even in the quiet of the room.
"It's stupid."
"What is?"
He pursed his lips.
"What I was doing," he finally said.
Tifa paused, briefly concerned about what "stupid" thing a man in his 20s could be doing.
"Oh," she paused, thinking how to tease the information from him, "well, how about you tell me what it is and I can tell you if it's stupid or not?"
He lifted his arm high enough to look down at her with one glowing blue eye, his whole form radiating uncertainty.
After a minute of staring into her face, Cloud tightened his arm around her waist and then covered his eyes again.
"I was… looking at some pictures I took on my phone… from when I was out on a delivery," he mumbled.
That certainly took her by surprise.
"Oh, okay."
Cloud groaned and rolled over onto his stomach, smushing his face into the pillow. Tifa realised that her answer was probably the wrong one.
"Cloud," she leaned in close and rubbed circles on his back, "I was just surprised your phone could even take photos. What you said isn't stupid."
He started to say something, but it was muffled by the pillow. She gave a gentle pull on the back of his hair so he would lift his head, a silent request to speak to her rather than the pillow.
He turned to face her with a glare, ruined slightly by his pink cheeks and barely contained smile.
“It’s not that bad,” he grumbled, and then his face became more serious and nervous as he reached out to curl some of her hair around his fingers and a frown etched onto his features. “Are you sure it isn’t stupid?”
Tifa sighed to herself. Cloud’s insecurity would never fail to surprise and sadden her. He was so bright, and talented, and wonderful to be around, and one day, she hoped he would see that in himself. At times like these, he seemed like a child, worried about being mocked for something he enjoyed. Those missing five years of his life seemed stark in these moments, a lack of confidence in a man who had plenty to be confident about. He would never be one to draw attention to himself or brag about his accomplishments, but she would give anything to give him a glimpse of the man she saw when she looked at him. As a child, she thought he hung the moon, but even as an adult, she felt he must still maintain it.
She smiled reassuringly and ran her fingers through his spiky hair.
“Of course not!” She bit her lip, then gently asked, “can I see them?”
Cloud’s eyes widened comically and Tifa had to stifle a giggle.
“You want to see them?”
She nodded eagerly.
“Why?”
“Because you took them,” she stroked his cheek, “and it’s something you enjoy,” then along his eyebrow, “and it makes me happy,” and thumbed his lower lip, “when you are happy!” She punctuated this with a prod on his nose, and felt her heart flutter at the tiny, shy smile curling his lips.
He nodded, and then turned to lean off the bed and grab his phone, before he came back and shuffled up with his arm under Tifa’s head and his face in her neck, handing her his phone and then hugging her close and hiding his face.
Tifa shook her head and smiled at his antics, his embarrassment palpable, and began to flick through the gallery on his decrepit phone.
The pictures were… good. Really good. The camera on the phone could only do so much, but the photographs themselves, the angles, the light, the subjects, were lovely. Tifa felt her heart swell with pride to know that Cloud was, yet again, full of surprises.
“Cloud, these are really good.” She said, the awe apparent in her voice.
He lifted his head from her neck a little.
“Yeah?” he asked, hesitantly.
“Yeah,” she giggled, “I didn’t know you were into photography.”
Cloud shook his head and took the phone from her hand, rolling onto his back again to flick through the pictures himself. There were a lot of them, far more than just a single trips worth.
“I’m not. I was trying to do a map and I kept forgetting bits so next time I went through the area I took a picture and then I took some more and… yeah…” He trailed off, still flicking through his photos.
“There’s a lot. How long have you been taking them?”
He looked sheepish and his cheeks went pink.
"A few months? Maybe? I don't know. I lost track."
Tifa balked. Months?!
"Cloud, why didn't you say anything?" She was aware her voice was getting louder, but she couldn't believe he had been taking pictures on the road for months and never said a word.
"I just thought it was dumb. Didn't seem important, I guess," he shrugged.
Cloud flicked his phone shut and they lay in silence. Tifa could feel the tell-tale beginnings of hurt feelings climbing up her ribs, and she knew it was silly. Her first reaction was to be upset that he didn't want to share this with her, something he was enjoying and, despite his protestations, clearly found important enough to become a hobby of sorts. Thankfully, the more rational side of her knew that this was Cloud, and much like when he first started spending money on Fenrir, he sometimes behaved in ways that, although to others might seem strange, to Tifa they were simply Cloudisms.
The silence had stretched on too long and Tifa decided to break it.
"So," she began, "which one is your favourite?"
Cloud looked at her from the corner of his eyes and then his lips hiked up in Tifa's favourite boyish smile.
He opened his phone again, and with barely concealed excitement in his eyes, began showing her a sunset he'd taken near Gongaga two weeks ago when the light had been just kissing the water and the waves were red — just like her eyes but not as pretty, he'd added with a blush — then he'd frowned and said his phone didn't really do it justice but it was his favourite anyway.
Once he began talking about his new hobby, he couldn't stop. Tifa had only seen him this animated when he spoke about Fenrir, which was hardly a surprise. He spent the night showing her his best shots, while she spent the night admiring him. They didn't get much sleep, but, for Tifa, it was worth it all the same.
* * *
Sharing his photos with her that night seemed to give Cloud confidence in his hobby, and from then on, it became a routine for him to show her the shots he’d taken that day. At first, it was just the two of them, curled up in bed or hunched over the bar talking quietly. Until one day, out of the blue, Cloud brought his phone out over dinner to show Marlene a picture of a baby chocobo he’d seen… and then an exotic flower in her favourite colour, and a picture of his hand beside a footprint of some animal or other, and a bird's-eye view of a rockpool. The pictures were endless, as were Marlene’s giggles and glee, and it was only when Tifa asked him about the sheer number of photos later that he shyly confessed that he’d been saving them up for her. Not for the first time, Tifa felt her heart swell, and fell in love with him all over again, particularly when Cloud presented those very same flowers to Marlene after his next trip to that area.
It became a family affair after that. Marlene would eagerly ask Cloud what he’d seen on his trip, he would pretend he wasn’t thrilled that she had asked, and then show her everything he’d seen. It was only when she saw Cloud frowning at his phone, yet again annoyed that it wasn’t able to properly capture the scene, that an idea entered her head.
It might be difficult to arrange, but as Cloud's face lit up with a grin at Marlene’s reaction to a particularly ugly monster he'd encountered, Tifa was determined to make it happen.