[ Cloud starts to speak and Tifa, for all she might want to play it cool, finds herself hanging off of his every stammered word.
It’s likely why she doesn’t register Sephiroth’s presence until he’s right there behind her, too, her own spine going straight before she tilts her head to look back at him. Watching as he gestures, her heart does a series of nervous, little somersaults, right up until he’s turning away—at which point, finally, she lets herself turn her attention back to Cloud.
His apology is met with a brief shake of her head, as if to say it’s all right. Anything further she might’ve wanted to put out there—for example, asking after that half-spoken question of his—is swallowed down when Zack makes his approach, though. Affable as he might seem, Tifa is… well, she’s shy, at least about this one, specific thing. It makes it harder than she’d like to pursue a proper conversation with Cloud, even if this is every bit the moment she’s been waiting two years for.
Still, after just a beat of hesitation: ]
Mm. You know… he’s always been like that, ever since we were little.
[ Reliable, she probably means. She remembers, years ago, her dad telling her about Cloud coaxing her up Mt. Nibel, but—beyond that, she could always count on him, couldn’t she? He was steady fixture in her life before he left for Midgar, always tracking down Fluffy whenever she ran away from home without even needing to be asked, always hovering in the periphery of her thoughts.
That little detail, though, Tifa keeps to herself, even if she’d struggle to explain why if pressed. ]
Right, Cloud?
[ That said, her gaze flits in his direction again, and Tifa shifts her weight from foot to foot, almost like she wants to sidle closer, to give him a playful, gentle elbow. It’s the presence of a third party—and a touch of uncertainty—that keeps her rooted in place, though, unable to close the distance between them after the hug they’d shared, like her self-consciousness has finally managed to catch up with her. ]
no subject
It’s likely why she doesn’t register Sephiroth’s presence until he’s right there behind her, too, her own spine going straight before she tilts her head to look back at him. Watching as he gestures, her heart does a series of nervous, little somersaults, right up until he’s turning away—at which point, finally, she lets herself turn her attention back to Cloud.
His apology is met with a brief shake of her head, as if to say it’s all right. Anything further she might’ve wanted to put out there—for example, asking after that half-spoken question of his—is swallowed down when Zack makes his approach, though. Affable as he might seem, Tifa is… well, she’s shy, at least about this one, specific thing. It makes it harder than she’d like to pursue a proper conversation with Cloud, even if this is every bit the moment she’s been waiting two years for.
Still, after just a beat of hesitation: ]
Mm. You know… he’s always been like that, ever since we were little.
[ Reliable, she probably means. She remembers, years ago, her dad telling her about Cloud coaxing her up Mt. Nibel, but—beyond that, she could always count on him, couldn’t she? He was steady fixture in her life before he left for Midgar, always tracking down Fluffy whenever she ran away from home without even needing to be asked, always hovering in the periphery of her thoughts.
That little detail, though, Tifa keeps to herself, even if she’d struggle to explain why if pressed. ]
Right, Cloud?
[ That said, her gaze flits in his direction again, and Tifa shifts her weight from foot to foot, almost like she wants to sidle closer, to give him a playful, gentle elbow. It’s the presence of a third party—and a touch of uncertainty—that keeps her rooted in place, though, unable to close the distance between them after the hug they’d shared, like her self-consciousness has finally managed to catch up with her. ]