Work Text:
“Cloud.”
Someone was poking his cheek, trying to wake him up. He came to just enough to judge his surroundings—no sound of fighting, no buzzing of Reunion, no audible hostility. Safe to sleep, and he needed sleep after the past few worlds.
So he grumbled and tucked his head a little deeper into his arm. “Not your Cloud,” he slurred reflexively, already drifting back into blissful unconsciousness.
The voice laughed, though it was watery, and then a familiar pair of lips pressed to the corner of his mouth. “Is that any way to say hi, teddy bear?”
Teddy bear— the nickname his wife had given him. The nickname he’d never once heard repeated, even when he met alternate versions of her. The nickname he hadn’t heard in years.
Cloud woke all at once, shooting upright and nearly hitting Tifa— Tifa!— who barely managed to get out of the way in time. He stared in naked disbelief, propped up on his palms. Her eyes glittered with unshed tears. There were new wrinkles on her face. Her lips trembled as she smiled at him.
“...honey bear?” he asked, breathless with hope and dread as he spoke the silly nickname he’d given her in retaliation.
She laughed, though it sounded like a sob, and reached for him. “About time you realized!”
His hands shook. It was nearly impossible to breathe as he wrapped himself around her, terrified that she would vanish. Terrified that the burning would start in his toes and he’d be ripped away from her for the second time. Was this even real? No—no, he didn’t care. It felt real, and that was all he needed for the moment.
Just one moment.
“It’s okay,” she whispered, pressing her lips to the side of his head. The kiss felt as hot as a brand against his skin. He choked on a sob, throat aching like he’d swallowed a mouthful of glass. “It’s okay. I’m here. I’m real. You’re real.”
“Tifa,” he said, like a prayer. He inhaled a shuddering breath. She smelled like home. He wondered, wildly, if he’d finally managed to die. “Tifa.”
“It’s okay.” She pulled back, forcing him to move enough so that she could take his face in her hands. She blurred in and out as he blinked through what seemed to be an endless stream of tears.
“I love you,” he said, desperate to make sure she knew. He leaned down, or maybe she leaned up, and their lips slotted together like they had so many times before. Like they hadn’t in so long. He breathed her in—her solid, undeniable presence, her weight in his arms, her hands on his skin—like a drowning man pulled from the lightless depths of the ocean. He breathed her in until neither of them could breathe anymore.
“Cloud,” she said, pressing her forehead against his when they finally had to pull apart and gasp in frantic lungfuls of air. “Cloud, I love you too. I love you, but we don’t have much time.”
Ice slid down his spine. His fingers wanted to tighten in reflexive denial—he had to carefully moderate the force of his grip on her. He would never hurt Tifa. Not before, not now, not ever. “What?” he whispered, searching her eyes.
“It’s okay,” she said immediately, firmly. There was nothing but conviction in her voice and face. “It’s not forever, but we can’t hold this for long. I need you to tell me what’s been happening on your end so we can find you easier once everything is ready.”
He was already reeling from just seeing her again. It was difficult to understand what she was asking for, what the implications of her words were. “I don’t…”
“What happened after you vanished, Cloud?”
Oh. “I—I’ve been bouncing around dimensions. A few seconds between worlds, at first, but it’s gotten longer over time. I’m up to maybe eight hours now.”
She looked relieved for some reason, leaning up to kiss him in a brief reassurance. “Okay, good, that’s good. What have the worlds been like?”
“...familiar? Similar to ours? I—they’re like variations on a theme. Sephiroth, and me, I guess. Tifa, what do you mean ‘find me easier?’”
Her eyes welled up again, but she blinked the tears back. “We’ve been looking for you, Cloud, ever since day one. Reeve has an idea about the mechanics of what happened.” Her grip on his face tightened. “We’re going to find a way to bring you home again, I promise. We found you. We can bring you home and keep you home.”
For the first time, Cloud let a faint, flickering hope bloom in his chest. This was more than he’d ever dared to dream. It seemed impossible. Too good to be true, after everything.
He didn’t think he could survive that hope being extinguished.
Tifa knew him better than he knew himself. “Listen to me, Cloud,” she said, as fierce as he was terrified. “I’m here. I’m here, with you, right now, and I swear on everything we love, I would never give you false hope. Do you believe me?”
“Yes,” he said immediately. “Of course I believe you.”
“Good.” Her eyes burned. Her lips burned, when she kissed him again. “Hold on just a little bit longer, teddy bear.”
A little longer. He could do that, after years of expecting eternity apart. He could endure whatever she asked him to, as long as he could see her again.
His toes started to burn with white-hot static.
“The kids,” he said with desperation, taking Tifa’s face in hand so that they were holding each other in a mirrored pose. “Are the kids okay?”
“Yes,” she said, trying to impress the reassurance of her words into his skin. “They’re doing fine. AVALANCHE really stepped up to help us, Cloud. Denzel and Marlene both understand that you didn’t choose this. No one blames you.”
Cloud drew in a shuddering breath, blinking back a fresh wave of tears. The burning was moving far faster than normal, licking up through his torso already. “And Zack?”
She smiled. “He’s fine too. We talk about you every night.”
“Good,” he said, choking on another sob. “Good. Then I’ll see you soon, honey bear.”
“Soon,” she said, voice hushed with the gravity of her promise. She was crying too. His neck started to burn as she kissed him one last time. “I love you, Cloud.”
His skull burned and his vision started to fade. He ducked to rest his forehead on the juncture between her neck and shoulder, trying to impress the feeling of home into his soul. He would hold onto it with all his might, no matter what came. “I love you too, Tifa. So much. More than I could ever say.”
He slid out of the world like he had so many times before, but this time he carried the most precious gift possible with him.
Hope.