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Love is Never Silent	By : OneWingedAngel Category: Final Fantasy VII > Het - Male/Female Views: 1950 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 19
- 20
Chapter 19
~~--~~
Tifa was amazed that she was able to make it through the rest of the party and keep her emotions in check. It didn’t help anything when Barret walked up to the bar and tried to talk to her.
“Hey, Tifa, you want me to get rid of those Turk scum for ya? We don’t need their kind here. All they’re good for is just ruin’ the fun. ” He said, annoyed crossing his arms.
Tifa just shook her head, turning away from him, so he couldn’t see the tears. She tried to distract herself by cleaning up glasses so that she could try to ignore what he was saying. “Look nothing is going wrong and they aren’t at the center of it. If they start something, I’ll personally get rid of them. However, I don’t see them causing any trouble.”
Barret grunted annoyed. “Yeah well, they are causing me problems. Especially that tall one that’s got a sunglasses fetish. That’s low of a man, making a girl cry like that, after all that he did to you. And he stole some important papers for the oil field. Thankfully, Marlene warned me and I was able to change all the important information. After all that he’s done, I wouldn’t want him even near me!”
Tifa turned to glare at him, throwing down the rag she was holding. “Now wait just one minute Barret! Don’t you dare start blaming Rude! Sure he lied to me, but it was your daughter who helped to cause all of this! She was the one gave Reno those papers about the oil field! She’s not so innocent! You should consider yourself extremely lucky that I didn’t ship her off to you! Now I think that you should take your beer and go find someone else to bug for the rest of the evening! If you so much as try and talk to me about what happened, I swear, I will kick your ass! And you’ve seen me fight, so you know that it’s not a threat!” She said flexing her arms threateningly.
Barret just shook his head sadly as he picked up his beer; he gave her a look of complete pity and then walked away from her, still shaking his head sadly. “She’s changed too much. Those damn Turks, they’re like friggin’ parasites.” He sat down at the table by Marlene and then helped her to straighten her wig.
Tifa muttered angrily under her breath as she turned her attention to the party that was starting to wind down. She found herself counting down the time until she could lock up for the night.
~~--~~
At exactly 11 o’clock, after the last customer had left and the costume contest was over, (Barret won an Honorable Mention for his costume as a popular old television show character, even though he claimed he wasn’t dressed up at all.) Tifa quickly finished last of the dishes and decided to leave the bulk of the cleaning for the next day, right now, she needed to hang out with someone who wouldn’t judge her for her past decisions. In all honesty, Tifa was looking forward to talking with Elena. Sure, they were supposed to be enemies, but there was something about her that Tifa admired. Maybe it was because she knew what it was like to be ignored by the one that she cared most for. Tifa took one last look around and then grabbed her purse as she locked up the bar.
~~--~~
Elena sat patiently on a bench just outside the bar. She made sure that Reno and Rude both made it home safely. After his conversation with Tifa, Rude drank more than he usually would, which caused him to become slightly intoxicated. Whereas, Reno was past three sheets to the wind almost half an hour after he arrived at the party. Elena was still very worried about Rude ever since their breakup, his behavior was borderline self destructive. She knew that he was taking this pretty hard, but she knew that if anyone could get the two of them back together, it was her. She just had to talk to Tifa; there had to be a reason why she wouldn’t forgive Rude. Elena knew that Tifa missed Rude almost much as he missed her, but something was stopping Tifa from talking to him. She spotted Tifa coming towards her and she gave Tifa a small and wave, waiting for her to join her.
Tifa sighed a bit in relief, quickly walking over to Elena, a bit embarrassed. “Sorry that it took me so long. One of my customers decided he was going to try and stay late and hit on me.” She sighed again shaking her head. “I always seem to get that one customer who gets a little handsy with me.”
Elena looked at her a bit concerned. “Do you need me to take care of him?”
Tifa just smiled and shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I just had to tell him that he had to keep his hands to himself with a little more force than I usually would.” She said with a small. “So where are we going? I can’t imagine that many cafes would be open this time of night.” She asked as she and Elena began to walk towards the center of the town.
“Not many are, but this one is just for ShinRa employees only, if that’s okay with you?” She asked, giving Tifa a hesitant look. “It’s just that I don’t know many other places that can make coffee strong enough for me. Plus their cakes are simply to die for!” She gave Tifa a conspiratorial grin.
Tifa looked at her a bit nervously. “There’s not going to be any trouble for you bringing me there right?” She asked, not wanting to ask what she truly wanted. Hoping that she wouldn’t run into him there
Elena knew what it was she wanted to ask and her heart broke for her. “No, there won’t be any trouble. Most people don’t go there this late.”
Tifa just gave her a smile, glad that Elena picked up on her subtlety. “Good. Now let’s just see how good that cake really is!”
~~--~~
“Hey there Laney! It’s been awhile. I thought ya had forgotten about lil old me.” The older gentleman at the bar gave her a smile. He then looked over at Tifa and gave her a smile as well. “And you brought a friend too with you! Ain’t she the pretty one? What’s your name Miss?”
“I’m Tifa, it’s nice to meet you sir.” Tifa said giving him a nervous smile.
He gave Tifa a small nod, “Nice to meet you Tifa. Just make yourself at home here.” He turned to look at Elena sternly. “Hope you didn’t forget about my rule Laney!”
Elena just smiled as she took off her jacket and pulled her gun out of its holster. “Don’t worry Mr. Hale I haven’t forgotten your rule.” She handed him her gun and then walked over to a small table. “Mr. Hale is very strict about not letting us wear our side arms while we’re in here.”
“That’s right. I don’t want anybody getting drunk and shooting anyone, either on accident, or otherwise. Or trying to prove their manhood by showing how big their weapon is.”
“You know Reno then?” Tifa said with a roll of her eyes.
He laughed a bit at her reaction. “So I take it you’ve had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting him?”
“Yes, sadly, I have.” She said crossing her arms annoyed.
“Two cups of coffee and two slices of your chocolate cakes please Mr. Hale!” Elena said as she let Tifa over to a small table in the corner.
“I’ll have those for you in a minute Laney.” He said as he turned his back to them and began to make them their coffees.
~~--~~
Tifa gave a small squeal of delight as she took a bite of her cake. “This has got to be the best cake I’ve ever eaten!” She said as she took another bite.
Elena just smiled and interlaced her fingers in front of her face. “I told you, Mr. Hale has some of the best cakes around.”
He smiled a bit at her, “Well thank you Laney, this is one of my wife’s recipes.”
“Be sure to give your wife my thanks!” Tifa said with a smile.
He gave her a nod, “I will indeed. She just loves to hear that people love her cake. Now, do you ladies need anything else?” He asked looking at both of them.
Elena just smiled and shook her head. “No, I think we’re good for now Mr. Hale, thank you.”
He nodded again, “Alright, well just let me know if you ladies need anything else.” He then gave them both another smile and then walked away.
Elena just smiled and interlaced her fingers and laid her chin on them. “You know, I’m surprised that Rude didn’t bring you here. Aside from your bar, this has always been one of his favorite places to come.”
Tifa froze for a few moments, her fork halfway to her mouth. She shook her head clear and regained her composure as she looked at Elena sadly. “Well why would he want to bring me to one of his favorite places when our relationship meant nothing to him?” She asked stabbing her cake angrily.
“Maybe he thought you wouldn’t want to come here, since it does resemble your bar a lot. Rude would have wanted to take you to places that you liked. Not places that reminded you of Cloud. All he wanted was to make you feel better, not remind you of your heartache.”
“Don’t try and give me that crap Elena. You were there for the start of it, the day that Rufus told him to do this! You knew that this relationship was just a scam! All of the good times we had together, the love that I thought we shared, it was all a lie!” She said angrily, not wanting to cry again. She shook her head a bit, mentally scolding herself. What was she doing, talking to Elena about this? Even though, she knew it wasn’t true, Elena was part of the problem.
Elena just stared down at her coffee, sighing sadly. “Tifa, I promise you that this entire thing wasn’t a scam. Rude did care for you. He wasn’t lying about that.”
Tifa just rolled her eyes a bit. “Yeah right. Sorry if I don’t believe you, but given my history with your company, I’m sure you understand.” Tifa said sarcastically. “Your company is full of nothing but liars who take pleasure in hurting people like me!”
Elena thought for a second. There just had to be a way to get Tifa to believe her, from what she could tell just from talking to her, she knew Tifa missed Rude. She then smiled as an idea finally hit her. She promised herself she would never use it, but she just knew it had to work! Tifa would finally understand. She reached into her inner suit pocket and pulled out a small vial. “I assume you know what this is?” She asked, holding it out to her.
Tifa looked at the bottle and racked her brain for a few minutes. The contents did look familiar to her, but she couldn’t place it. She gave a small shrug. “No, what is it?”
Elena opened the vial and smiled a bit. “This is a very powerful Truth Serum. If ingested into the body, it makes the person tell us anything and it will be only the truth.”
Tifa flinched a bit, looking at the stuff. “I’ve taken that before. Reno tricked me into drinking it. Rude was very pissed when he found out.” She said with a small laugh, shaking her head. That vile stuff was what caused this mess in the first place. Tifa gave her a hesitant look, why was she bringing this up? Was she planning on forcing her to drink some?
“Then you know how it works then. Good.” Elena then dumped hers into the remainder of her coffee and then drank the rest of it. She closed her eyes for a minute then looked at Tifa.
“Why on Gaia would you do that?!” She asked, completely shocked. She expected Elena to give it to her, not drink it herself.
“Because I knew you wouldn’t believe a word I said otherwise. Hopefully, this will help you to trust me, I really would like to help you Tifa. And I really would like to be your friend.” Elena said giving her a smile and taking her hand.
Tifa was taken back by this, she wasn’t sure what to do, and so she just sat there, staring at her half-eaten cake. “You want to help me? Why?”
Elena sighed, shaking her head a bit. “It’s just that I’ve seen how you and Rude have been since the two of you broke up. It breaks my heart to see the two of you so completely miserable. It makes want to do whatever I could to make the two of you get back together.”
“It’s not so easy though Elena. Not after what he did. He lied to me about everything! Our relationship was just another mission to him! He didn’t care about me at all!”
“Who did you hear that from? Was it from Rude himself? I don’t believe Rude would ever have said something like that. Rude adores you Tifa. He has for a very long time. He would never say he wouldn’t care about you! Who told you this?”
Tifa sighed, looking down at her plate. “Reno told me.”
Elena gasped and shook her head. “Tifa, why on Gaia did you listen to what Reno said? Even though he is the number two Turk, everyone at ShinRa knows that you don’t trust a damn thing that comes out of his mouth! Reno has had it out for you two ever since you started dating him! Reno would say and do anything to get you to break up with him!”
Tifa flushed a bit, embarrassed. Of course she knew better than to listen to Reno. “He was the only one who told me any part of the truth. He told me how Rude was being nice to me just for the information. How he had taken me out just so you could get the information you needed.”
“Tifa, Rude knew nothing about what Reno was doing. He took you out because he wanted to make you feel better. It was eating him up, knowing that he was hurting you like that. He never meant to lie to you Tifa! He loved you more than anything else! You were...are his entire world!” She said sadly, her heart breaking for the two of them.
“Then why couldn’t he have just told the truth from the start then? Why all the secrecy about this? Why all of a sudden did he just decide that he had to tell me the truth then?” She asked with a raised eyebrow. “Why did he all of a sudden decide that he couldn’t lie to me any more?”
Elena sighed a bit, running her hands through her hair. She hated her role in what happened. “Earlier that day, Reno forced us to have an intervention for Rude. I was against the entire thing; I could see how much he loved you. I didn’t want to cause unhappiness with the two of you. I wanted to call of the entire thing. Of course no one listens to me, I’m just a Rookie. Rude became scared; he had to tell you because the President said that if Rude couldn’t complete his mission, then he would send someone else after you for it. Of course, that would have meant that you probably would have been kidnapped or tortured for it. Rude loves you so deeply that he couldn’t risk you getting hurt. He would have rather lost you than let anyone or anything hurt you!” She said passionately.
Tifa gasped a bit. She hadn’t heard that part; of course he wouldn’t have told her that. She forced herself to eat another few bites of cake as she contemplated everything The more she let what Elena say sink in, the more sense it made. She could understand why he didn’t tell her the truth. He was just trying to protect her. He would have done anything to keep her safe, even if it hurt the both of them. Tifa’s eyes began watering a bit, her resolve starting to waver a bit. “So then why did he agree to do this mission in the first place?” She whispered, looking at her.
Elena just smiled and took Tifa’s hand again, comfortingly. “Tifa, think about it. Rude had liked you for a very long time, but Cloud was always around. He thought that he would never get the chance to just talk to you. He was always so nervous when it came to you. Whenever Reno would tease him about you, his face would turn pink; he would cough into his hand and mess with either his tie or his watch.” Elena giggled a bit. “It was always the cutest thing. So of course he would jump at the chance to do something that would involve being with you.” She folded her hands in front of her. “I know that seems like a silly reason for him to do this, but he loved you very much.”
“That still doesn’t justify the fact that he was doing this for information!” She said softly, trying to find a reason to still be mad at him. Her anger right now was the only thing keeping her together, she needed her anger. She needed to hate him. She didn’t want to love him again…or did she?
Elena shook her head. “That’s not true. He never once gave Tseng or the President any type of information about the oil field, or about you. Sure, he was supposed to be on a mission to get information from you, but this is the first time that I’ve ever seen Rude deliberately fail a mission. Tifa, you are the only one who Rude would do that for. He loves you very much. And you love him too, right?” She asked.
Tifa didn’t say anything for a few minutes; she just sat and stared off into the distance. –Is that really true? Is everything Elena said the truth?- She thought, playing with her cake. –I mean it has to be. She willingly took Truth Serum so that I would believe her. So that was the truth, all of it was the truth. Rude didn’t tell them anything about me.- She was in awe at that point. –He honestly was just trying to protect me. He really did…does love me! He never wanted to hurt me, all he wanted to do was just protect me.- Tifa’s eyes began to water. “He was trying to explain everything to me and what did I do? I didn’t believe him. I believed Reno. Reno!” She whispered. “Rude loves me. He really does love me.” She whispered, looking at Elena, crying.
Elena just nodded and took her head. “He does. He would do anything for you, Tifa. He would let you be with Cloud if that would make you happy.” She gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
“I-I was so stupid! I didn’t want to believe him. I thought he didn’t love me back. I wouldn’t listen to the truth. I listened to my friends instead. I was so stupid.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
Elena just stood up and walked over to Tifa and just hugged her and she sobbed. “Shh, it’s okay Tifa. Just let it all out.”
Tifa allowed Elena to hug her as she continued to sob. “Do you think that he’ll ever forgive me for what I did?” She asked looking up at Elena.
Elena just smiled and wiped a tear away from Tifa’s eye. “Of course he will. He’s been totally miserable with you Tifa. He needs you back in his life, just as much as you need him.”
Tifa thought for a few minutes and then looked at Elena, “Say Elena, do you think you could give me a hand with something?”
~~--~~
((Note from OneWingedAngel: Thank you so much for your patience with me in this story! I'm so sorry that this chapter took me soo long to get up, I've been dealing with serious issues in my life. Now that they are mostly taken care of, I hope that I will have the rest of the story up with no more delays! Thanks again for your patience!))
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Love is Never Silent