sekiharatae: (Tifa Searching)
sekiharatae ([personal profile] sekiharatae) wrote2009-06-25 08:15 pm
Entry tags:

fanfic -- Principles

Title:  Principles
Characters:  Tifa
Summary:  No matter how circumstances change, Tifa has principles, and she sticks to them.

Tifa didn’t balk when her customers began to dwindle, and the bar remained empty more often than not.  She knew it was because of Denzel’s geostigma, and while the loss of business hurt their finances, the tangle of emotions in the little boy’s eyes hurt far worse.  Regret and guilt and pain were reflected there, as if it were his fault that people could be cruel and petty and superstitious.  That expression – so similar to things she’d seen in Cloud’s weary gaze  – tugged at her heart, causing her hands to ache with the need to curl into fists, and her throat to seize with the urge to vent her frustration at the world.

She resisted both impulses: fighting could only upset things more, and she’d long since learned that the world was unfair and people were selfish.  So she hugged Denzel close, masking her worry and upset while pointedly demonstrating that she wasn’t afraid of either him or the disease.  Over the next few days, she took pains to make sure he knew that nothing had changed, that he was still welcome. Hesitant offers to help bus the tables were willingly accepted, he and Marlene continued to take their meals in the bar, and anyone daring to make a fuss about the black sores on his forehead was abruptly asked to leave. 

And although funds grew tight, and she and Cloud scrambled a bit more to pay the bills, Tifa refused to let her concerns change who she was as a person.

[identity profile] yuenmei.livejournal.com 2009-06-26 05:34 am (UTC)(link)
This is great. Good to see this response to what you were talking about in your LJ the other day. This is the Tifa we know and love!

[identity profile] sekiharatae.livejournal.com 2009-06-26 07:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! This started as the beginning of Catharsis, believe it or not. It was going to be "three times Tifa didn't break and one time she did" (or something like that). But then the other two times were much more Cloud/Tifa focused (and potentially sappy) so I scrapped the idea and just saved the text. The same is true of "Stolen Moment".