Guess what? Cloud is MIA on disk one and Aerith does have it bad for someone she doesn't know. By the time she figures out something is wrong she gets killed.
THIS.
I don't think anyone here is saying Cloud was somehow out of it completely. The idea that the real Cloud is there in no way negates the fact he was a really messed up individual.
So yes, Cloud was there. But he was there thinking he was a SOLDIER, remembering things he shouldn't, emulating someone he wanted to be like, acting like the man he wanted to be but wasn't. He thought he had experienced things he didn't and had blocked out things he had. As such, his behaviour was drastically altered, so much in fact, that when he acted like the tough macho SOLDIER, Tifa was always WTFing or uneasy. It's why she kept close and watched him and wanted him as a part of AVALANCHE, because he wasn't who he was supposed to be.
To say that just because part of the real Cloud was there everything = dandy is just foolish. A man suffering from mere depression is many times not held accountable for everythign he says/does. Hell, people in great fits of anger are said to be "not in control" of their real selves. And people are seriously saying that a messed up Cloud -- to the point where he had adopted someone else's characteristics and blocked much of his past out, to the point where he was seizing and frequently going under the control of an alien -- is somehow not really affected all that much?
Seriously? Did we play the same game? Then what's the point of the whole "puppet" theme between Cloud and Sephiroth? Why have the Lifestream sequence as the big reveal? What does it all matter if the audience always knew the real Cloud?
No one is saying Cloud was totally out of it. No one is saying Cloud's relationships and feelings for other people aren't real. Or that he doesn't feel guilt or grieve for those he lost after he finds himself. It just means that he himself doesn't know Cloud.
And while Cloud is there, he is not
wholly there and has substituted parts of himself with other "Clouds". He is a mix of things and it's not only foolish to think that this somehow isn't a huge influence in the way he acts, it's a blatant disregard of everything the game AND the creators have repeatedly said.
This is why the dating game doesn't matter. That's why it doesn't matter if you date Barret or Yuffie, because it's a simple game (since those dating sims were popular at the time) that is explained away by Cloud's instability. The times the player makes Cloud act in ways he/she wants him to, are all explained away by this, even if the player makes him act in ways that may contradict the later story. The true Cloud is the one who associates Tifa with tender memories and a secret wish no one can ever know; it's the Cloud who sleeps with her in all versions no matter what liberties the game may have allowed you for a few moments. He is weak Cloud, not heroic, brave Zack!Cloud, as Nomura himself says.
The point is that there far too many different Clouds in conflict with one another for Aeris to have known and loved the true Cloud. She knew he was messed. He was having seizures and beating her up. But not having Tifa's advantage in knowing him before, and seeing Zack in him many times, by the time she realizes Cloud may not be Cloud she runs into Sephiroth's sword.
And then we have SE repeatedly saying that Aeris acted the way she did around Cloud because of Zack, or something to that effect (someone else can get quotes, I get lost with those books). We have them later linking Aeris' appearance to her desire to see Zack again. I mean, come on!
Maybe he'd moved back to Nibelheim.
....why would he return to the one place that holds the worst memories for him? Like...oh, I don't know, his slaughtered family and friends. CoT mentions that neither Cloud nor Tifa have anything there. Also, when everyone else returns home/go out to find what they're fighting for, Cloud and Tifa remain
together in the game.
Cloud would never go to Nibelheim.
Have you ever been shitfaced? That's the most surefire way to feel close and confident with someone.
Ahh, the wonders of liquid courage.