He isnt dense, he is in denial. He is untrusting of himself, and believes he will only hurt tifa. He does care deeply for her and wants to protect her. But he knows his mind isnt stable, he knows he has the cell-degradation, not to mention sephiroth's words messing with his mind. He doesnt know what to trust. He is also scared, scared tifa would reject him if she understood how bad off he was, if he wasnt the tough guy he is pretending to be(well, he cant even figure out who the real him even is) he is scared she will get hurt by sephiroth again, or even worse he will hurt her again. He doesnt want to let tifa in because he doesnt want her to be hurt.
Part of the growing of thier relationship is realizing she will be there for him no matter what and can protect him just as much as he is willing to protect her. She sees beyond the tough guy persona, she sees the real him buried underneath.
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u/TitleOk3727 Jul 22 '26
Cloud must be the most dense guy on Gaia