personalapocalypse | (no subject)

Someone posted a screencap of Barret asking Cloud at the very start of the game if he wanted to see his "little baby." In context, it was almost certainly Tifa he was referring to. My first reaction was, "Really, translators? Really?"

My second response was this.

Title: Baby
Fandom: FFVII
Characters: Cloud, Barret (implied Barret/Tifa)
Missing scene, SFW.

Barret had hoped that blowing up the reactor would help calm him down. And maybe it had a little, but seeing that spikey-haired kid wandering around the sector and showing off was just riling him up again.

Of course Cloud pissed him off. Why shouldn't Barret be mad? Tifa had saved his life, she'd lived alone in this city for way too long, and she'd not only survived, she'd actually prospered. Barret didn't know where he and Marlene might be if she hadn't helped out, but he didn't think it was nowhere good. But then this punk showed up and treated her like she was still a kid! Said she shouldn't even go on the mission she'd helped Barret planned, because he was gonna be the hero and make sure everything went smoothly. And that shit wasn't all right with him. Tifa deserved way better than that.

Tifa could put up with it. She said she didn't want him wandering off again, that he'd been her friend and she wanted to make sure he was going to be okay. Just like her, worrying about people even when they didn't treat her the way she deserved. But that didn't mean that he had to let it pass.

“Cloud,” he said, looking down at the scrawny kid as he came closer. Guy with empty eyes like that shouldn't have those muscles. Just didn't look right. “You gonna go see your little baby?” And yeah, maybe he shouldn't have let that slip out, maybe he should've played it cool. But just the thought that Cloud thought of her that way - treated her that way - steamed him up good.

Cloud started to answer, but then he just blinked. “Huh? My little baby?”

“Hey, c'mon!” he said, maybe a little rougher than he should've been talking to a guy who'd just managed to escape from certain death, but he couldn't help it. “Stop actin' like you don't know what I'm talking about!”

“I can't.” The punk's face was as straight as ever. “I don't know.”

Barret squinted. If Cloud was lying, he was doing a damn good job of it. “Honestly,” he said, making it only a half-question, because he wasn't so sure he wanted to admit he'd read the kid wrong.

Cloud shrugged. “Yeah. Look, just... I'm gonna make sure we weren't followed. I'll come back.”

Barret watched him go, frowning. Maybe the kid wasn't as much a punk as he'd thought.

Didn't mean he trusted him yet, though. And Tifa wouldn't end up getting hurt on Barret's watch. He'd make sure of that.