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Chapter Text

It was past midnight, and in the streets, everything was silent except for the sound of rain hitting the pavement and rooftops. Almost everyone was asleep in their beds, exhausted from the previous day but for the first time in so long, sleeping peacefully and contently. It had been so long since anyone had had such a happy day. The day had started out horribly, with children missing and Bahumut attacking, but for once, the day had a happy ending.

Sitting outside Seventh Heaven, Tifa smiled as she formed these thoughts. The rain had drenched her hair and clothing, but she paid it no mind. She was beginning to go numb, but standing outside with the rain pouring around her, made her feel closer to Aeris. Tifa's face grew solemn, and she extended a hand, letting the water droplets gather in her palm. She closed her eyes, and she could almost imagine that Aeris was standing next to her.

"I owe you everything," Tifa whispered softly.

Tifa ducked her head, not wanting to cry. Today was a happy day, she told herself. I shouldn't be crying. But a few tears mingled with the rain on her face. Tifa knew that before today, she had been on the verge of losing everything. Hours and hours ago, she had no idea where Marlene and Denzel were. All she knew was that they had been kidnapped by an enemy whose strength surpassed hers by far. And she had only just found out that Cloud had Geostigma too.

She shook her head, water flying out her hair. She didn't want to think about any of that. Cloud and Denzel could have died from Geostigma. Denzel and Marlene could have been killed by their kidnappers. Cloud could have died from the gunshot. There had been so many different ways she could have lost everything she loved. But they were all alive. Thanks to Aeris, who was not.

"I don't know how to thank you,” Tifa sighed, cupping her chin in her hand.

Tifa couldn't even begin to explain how much it meant to her to see smiles on everyone's faces again. Especially Cloud's and Denzel's. A small smile curled up on Tifa's lips. It meant the world to her, to see Denzel laughing and playing with Marlene, free of pain. It meant everything to her, to have to spend an hour herding Marlene and Denzel into bed, because they were having so much fun laughing and playing. Before, Denzel would spend pain-filled hours in bed before drifting off into a restless sleep, and Marlene would sit next to him sadly.

Aeris brought us hope again, Tifa thought. She titled her face back as the rain got harder. And she brought Cloud and Denzel back to me. A full smile blossomed on her face. Everything was going to be alright. Her family wasn't falling apart anymore. Aeris had given them all a second chance. She closed her eyes, and she knew that Aeris was there, and that she always had been.

Tifa didn't open her eyes as she heard the door open behind her. After a moment, she felt someone sit next to her on the step, and she smiled softly, face still tilted into the rain. Thank you, she told Aeris silently. Thank you for putting my family back together.

"Everything alright?" Cloud asked quietly.

She opened her eyes and turned towards him. He looked worried and a bit shy, as though he was afraid she didn't want him there. Tifa smiled. It had been so long since she had seen anything but regret in his eyes when he looked at her. Now he looked just the way he looked when they sat at the well together so long ago.

"Tifa?" Cloud asked unsurely when Tifa turned her face back into the rain.

Smile still on her face, Tifa began talking.

"I was so scared today," she admitted softly. "It's still hard to believe how close I came to losing everything."

Cloud was silent, and for a moment all they could hear was the rain.

"But Aeris saved us, didn't she?" Tifa whispered.

"Yea," Cloud agreed, his voice barely audible over the rain.

A puddle was forming at Tifa's feet, and she gently splashed her bare feet in it. She smiled, remembering the newly-cured children splashing around in the church.

"Today when we were all together in the church," Tifa began. "I could feel Aeris there with us."

"I could too," Cloud said softly.

Tifa smiled. She wondered if Cloud could feel Aeris now too. Tifa turned towards him to ask but stopped when she saw him tilting his face into the rain, as she had done minutes ago, and she knew the answer. She watched him for a minute, before leaning back and letting the rain run down her own face.

When Tifa opened her eyes again, Cloud was watching her, the look in his eyes unreadable. When he realized that she was returning his gaze, he jumped a little. His mouth opened and closed again quickly. Tifa titled her head curiously. Cloud seemed to be struggling for words. Tifa gave him an encouraging smile, but it seemed to have the opposite effect. Cloud immediately shut his mouth, a curious blush staining his cheeks.

"Cloud?" Tifa asked, touching his arm gently.

He jumped at her touch and sandwiched her hand in between both of his.

"Have you been out here long?" he asked her. "You're freezing."

Tifa looked at her hand in between both of his and wanted more than anything to ask him what he was going to say before, but Cloud began talking again before she could ask.

"Tifa, you're going to make yourself sick," he said lowly.

The concern in his voice made Tifa smile.

"Tifa?" Cloud asked, peering at her curiously.

She let the smile spread across her face and turned towards Cloud. With the hand Cloud wasn't holding, she reached out to touch his left arm, the one that had been infected. The skin was healthy and clear, slick with rainwater.

"You're better now," Tifa stated softly.

Cloud seemed to realize she wasn't only speaking of the Geostigma. He looked down at her hand in his and nodded.

"I'm better now," he confirmed.

Tifa let her hand slide off his arm and looked out at the rain again.

"You know," she said softly. "I'm sorry about some of the things I said the other day. I didn't mean to be so harsh. I was just scared, that's all."

Cloud shook his head, water flying off his hair.

"Don't apologize," he told her, sighing. "You were right. I was running."

His eyes were lowered to the ground.

"If anyone should be apologizing, it should be me," he said, a trace of the old guilt back in his voice.

"Hey," Tifa said gently, tugging on his hand. "Don't be like that. Everything turned out okay, didn't it?"

He met her eyes slowly and she smiled.

"We've been given a second chance," Tifa told him. "Let's do it right this time, okay?"

It took a minute, but finally Cloud returned her smile and nodded.

"Okay." he agreed.

Cloud and Tifa stood up slowly, drenched with rain. Tifa felt Cloud place a tentative hand on her shoulder, and she turned towards him. That unreadable look was back in his eyes again, but suddenly Tifa understood what he wanted.

Tifa hugged him tightly, face buried in his shoulder, arms around his neck. His ducked his face into her wet hair, arms holding her against him. Tifa squeezed her eyes closed. It had been so long. Even as the rain got heavier, and they grew colder, neither of them moved. They held each other closer, savoring the moment, as they felt the large gulf that had formed between them in the past months, slowly closing.

Chapter Text

Cloud stood alone just inside the front door long after Tifa went up to bed. He stared down at the puddle of water that Tifa had been standing in several minutes before. So many different thoughts were buzzing through Cloud's mind. He found it amazing that all the emotions he had numbed himself to over the past few months had been reignited in a matter of days.

Water rolled off his clothes and dripped onto the growing puddle on the floor. He watched the droplets splash down, and smiled, thinking about all the people that had risen to his aid when he had thought he was alone in the world. Especially Aeris, Zack, Tifa, and the kids.

Cloud suddenly realized how long it had been since he'd had a good night's sleep in his bed. Guilt twisted his gut as he thought about how long he had left Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel alone. You can't make up for lost time, he reminded himself sadly. But Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel were all still alive. He gulped as he remembered Tifa's still form lying in the flowers, and how empty the house had seemed when the children were kidnapped.

But everything was okay now. There was nothing holding him back anymore. The notion sent shivers of pleasure and fear down Cloud's spine. He closed his eyes and traveled back in time, and remembered what it felt like to be close enough to Tifa to feel her breath on his face. Like Tifa said, Cloud thought, still staring at the floor. We can do things right this time. He wondered how it was possible to be so afraid and so happy at the same time.

Cloud shook his head, showering everything in the vicinity with rainwater. I have to stop being afraid, he told himself. I know better than anyone that life doesn't give you time to be afraid. I have to stop holding back. He closed his eyes and saw Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel's faces, each of them so eager, so willing to love and be loved. And then, he saw himself walking out the door.

But that's all in the past now, he told himself firmly. I'm not going to leave them ever again. Cloud wondered what the future would hold. He knew that there were going to be a lot of good things to look forward to, and probably a lot of bad things to dread. He shook his head. But whether something good happens, or whether something bad happens, I want to be there for it all. I want to be there for them like they've been there for me. 

He smiled to himself as he left the entranceway and ascended the stairs, adding to the trail of water that Tifa had made through the house. He stepped into his room and flicked on the light. The room was clean, the bed made, just as it always was when he came home. Everything was just as he left it.

Cloud stripped off his wet clothes quickly, hanging them on a chair to dry and pulling on some night clothes. He laid down slowly on his bed. Cloud laced his hands behind his head, feeling wide awake. The moon cast a sliver of light on the space next to him on the bed, and he had a sudden vivid flash-back of Tifa lying next to him, asleep.

He let out a deep sigh and sat up. His room suddenly felt unbearably lonely. He got up off his bed and sat at his desk. It had been kept impeccably clean in his absence. His fingers brushed over the dust free surfaces and stopped at a picture frame. Cloud stared at the photograph for a long time. It was the last thing he had seen before slashing Sephiroth into oblivion. His fingers slowly traced over Tifa, Denzel, and Marlene's happy faces, and he felt overwhelmed with the need to see them.

Moving silently, Cloud left his room and flicked the lights off behind him. Even though the hallway was pitch black, he knew his way around like the back of his hand. He walked quietly across to the children's room and slipped through the door.

A sliver of moonlight lit the room. The floor was covered with various toys, drawings, and knick-knacks. Cloud smiled and carefully placed a few of them neatly on the shelf. The room no longer looked like an orderly sickroom. It was fun, lively, and messy, just like Marlene and Denzel.

Cloud stood between their respective beds and looked down at them. The exhausting, yet exciting, day had obviously taken its toll on them. Both of them were sprawled over the bed, breathing deeply. Marlene had half her body dangling hap hazardously off the edge off the bed, blankets twisted atrociously. Cloud gently righted her, taking special care not to wake her up.

Denzel was a much less violent sleeper. He was so still when he slept, the rise and fall of his chest so slight, that it used to throw Cloud and Tifa into a panic when Denzel was in bed sick from Geostigma. Cloud remembered how Tifa would place her hands lightly on Denzel's back, just to make sure he was breathing.

But those days are over now, he told himself, smiling as Denzel made an incoherent noise in his sleep. Both Denzel and I are better now. He felt like laughing out loud at the thought. He managed to restrain himself, however, and gave the children one last glance before walking silently to the door.

Once out in the hallway, Cloud hesitated. He wondered if Tifa had fallen asleep already. Cloud walked over to her bedroom door and grasped the handle, gently turning it open and walking in.

Like the children's room, Tifa's room was bathed in moonlight. But it was much tidier than the kid's room and it had a feeling of something so mysterious, something so feminine, that Cloud always felt shy coming in. Every time he breathed in, it smelled like Tifa, and the walls and shelves were filled with her personal things.

Despite the strange shyness he always felt when entering Tifa's room, he walked over to her bed. Sound asleep, he thought, looking over Tifa's sleeping form. She was lying on her side, similar to the way she was when he found her unconscious in the church. It was hard for him to recall the plethora of feelings that had arisen in him in that single moment. Panic, fear, guilt... love.

He recalled that split moment of chilling terror in the church, when Tifa had let out a little breath and her head slumped to the side. For a moment, he had been so sure that Tifa had died. Cloud watched her sleeping peacefully in her bed, and it was almost too much for him to bear. He had to clasp his hands together tightly to keep himself from picking her up and shaking her awake.

She's just sleeping, you idiot, he scolded himself. He rested his chin on the edge of her bed, watching her, solemn faced. He frowned slightly as he noticed the wet condition of her pillow. He reached out to touch a single strand of raven hair that was strewn across it, and his frown deepened. She's drenched, he thought, exasperated.

His fingers brushed gently against her cheekbone, and granted, her skin was like ice. He wanted so badly to wake her up, and make her at least dry her hair, but he was afraid that she'd be angry. His eyes followed the length of the bed and rested on the thick comforter folded near Tifa's feet.

Cloud wondered if she had gotten along all right without him being there to take care of her. Guilt stabbed his heart as he pulled the comforter over her body and tucked around her shoulders. He gently lifted up her hair and pulled it to the side, so the wet strands weren't sitting directly on her skin.

"Don't worry Tifa," he whispered, pausing a moment to brush her bangs away from her face. "I'm here to take care of you now."

He let himself look at her peaceful face another moment longer before standing slowly and walking towards the door. He paused a minute in the doorway to crank up the thermostat before returning to his own room and falling into a satisfying sleep.

Chapter Text

It was midmorning, and the persistent rain had been replaced with blaring sunlight. Bright rays of light crept in through the window and onto Cloud's face, causing him to wrinkle his brow unconsciously. Two big brown eyes noticed this with a jolt of panic, and quickly, two little hands reached way up to jerk the curtains closed.

The room was now dark, and Cloud continued sleeping peacefully. Marlene smiled in satisfaction and turned to the doorway where Denzel was watching her. He was hovering in between Cloud's room and the hallway, clearly struggling between being loyal to Cloud, or going along with Marlene.

Marlene rolled her eyes exasperatedly.

"Come on Denzel!" she urged. "Don't be such a goody-goody."

Denzel's eyes flicked nervously to Cloud's sleeping form.

"I'm not being a goody-goody," he whispered defiantly.

"Then come here and help me!" she said, motioning him vigorously to her side.

Sighing loudly, Denzel crept into the room and stood next to Marlene. She shot him a sly smile before pulling him over to Cloud's desk. He dragged behind her, look apprehensive.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" he asked anxiously.

"Just trust me!" she whispered. "Do you want him to stay or not?"

Denzel shut his mouth. He didn't want Cloud to leave again. Marlene's idea did seem pretty plausible. He wondered how mad Cloud would be if they got caught. Denzel wrung his hands nervously. Tifa would probably get mad too. Or perhaps not. Tifa wants Cloud to stay too, Denzel thought as Marlene watched him impatiently. She'll probably be glad.

"Okay," Denzel said to Marlene. "Let's do it."

Her face lit up, and they immediately began to get immersed in their task. Marlene crawled under the desk and rustled around a bit. Denzel shushed her, glancing nervously over at Cloud. Finally, Marlene made a little triumphant noise and began pulling on a black wire.

"I'm pretty sure it's this one," she whispered, crawling out from under the desk holding a plug.

Denzel nodded.

"Okay, let's grab it then." he said.

Marlene leaned over the desk and pulled the phone over to the edge of the desk. Denzel reached out to grab it, and they began walking towards the doorway, being as quiet as they could. Just before they left the room, Denzel stopped in his tracks, causing Marlene to run into him.

"Keep going!" Marlene hissed, turning back to make sure Cloud was still asleep.

Denzel shook his head.

"What are we gunna say when he notices the phone's gone?" he asked Marlene.

The look on her face told him that she hadn't thought about that yet.

"Shoot," Marlene whispered, looking thoughtful.

A moment passed, and her face lit up with an idea.

"Come on Denzel!" she said, pushing him out the door. "I got an idea!"

The two children crept into the hallway, closing Cloud's door quietly behind them. Marlene quickly ran into their room, leaving Denzel alone holding the phone for a minute. When she returned, she had a heavy metal toolbox in her arms. Denzel eyed it apprehensively.

"Marlene, where'd you get that?" he asked.

"Cloud's room," she answered immediately. "I stole it a long time ago."

She set it on the ground and knelt next to it. Denzel glared at the back of her head.

"I'm gunna tell Cloud that you're the reason he's always missing stuff!" he threatened.

Marlene turned around and met his accusing stare.

"If you tell Cloud," she began. "I'll tell Tifa that you're the one that hid a special surprise in a costumer's plate!"

Denzel and Marlene glared at each other for a minute, but their faces cracked into smiles as they remembered the shrill scream the lady had made when she found the worm. Tifa had apologized profusely, but the lady had blamed it on her six-year-old son. Denzel felt a little guilty about that, but he was mostly relieved that Tifa didn't know it was him. He gulped.

"Okay, okay. I won't tell," Denzel promised, kneeling next to Marlene on the floor.

He watched her as she produced a screwdriver with a grin. She held her hand out expectantly, and Denzel handed her the phone. She turned it over, and with clumsy inexperience, began screwing the back off.

"What are you doing?" Denzel asked curiously.

"Breaking it!" she responded cheerfully.

"Marlene!" Denzel hollered.

She looked up.

"What?" she asked defensively. "If the phone's broken, he can't get any phone calls."

When she saw that he was still staring at the phone skeptically, she continued.

"You know how it works. The phone rings, Cloud leaves," she stated matter-of-factly.

Denzel sighed and motioned for her to continue with the screwdriver. She smiled and patted him consolingly on the back.

"It's for his own good," she said, lowering her voice dramatically.

It took awhile, but eventually, the two children were satisfied that there was no way the phone could possibly work. The inside of the phone was mangled beyond recognition. Denzel screwed the back of the phone on, and Marlene put their tools away. They examined their handy work.

"You can't even tell it's broken!" Marlene said proudly.

Denzel turned it over in his hands, looking it carefully over.

"Looks the same as it did before," he said finally, placing it back in the cradle. "We better go put it back before Cloud or Tifa wakes up."

A distant noise interrupted Cloud's deep sleep. He let out a grunt, and for a minute it stopped, only to resume a second later. He could hear two voices conversing quietly and nervously. He tried to ignore it and fall back asleep, but when the voices persisted, he groaned and opened his eyes.

The room was dark, but he could see that the sun was shining behind his closed curtains. Strange, he thought idly. I don't remember shutting my curtains. He shrugged it off and looked around his room. He located the source of the two voices almost immediately.

"What are you two doing in here?" he asked, as he noticed two faces looking at him nervously from next to his desk.

Right away, Marlene and Denzel produced their most innocent faces. Cloud's instincts were telling him to run, but he restrained himself.

"You didn't put anything in my bed or anything, did you?" he asked nervously.

They shook their heads vigorously. He gave them a suspicious look, and angelic smiles bloomed on their faces. He sighed. Marlene and Denzel exchanged triumphant looks when he wasn't looking and sat at the foot of Cloud's bed.

"What are we doing today, Cloud?" Denzel asked eagerly.

Cloud yawned tiredly and scratched the back of his neck.

"Dunno," he said, voice scratchy from sleep. "Seems like your room is a mess. Maybe you guys could take care of that."

Marlene and Denzel laughed loudly at Cloud's joke. Well, at least I tried, Cloud thought, giving in and cracking a smile at their amused laughter.

"Well then what do you two want to do then?" Cloud asked.

Immediately they began talking loudly and animately at the same time. Cloud nodded his head and pretended to be considering their suggestions, even though they were both talking to loudly and enthusiastically for him to make out a single word. His bed wobbled slightly as they bounced up and down to emphasize their words.

"Okay, okay," Cloud chuckled, shaking his head. "We'll figure it out later."

They nodded, and Marlene leaned forward eagerly.

"Cloud, let's go eat pie for breakfast!" she begged.

Cloud hesitated.

"I don't think Tifa wants us eating pie for breakfast," he began.

Denzel interrupted him.

"She's still asleep!" he said eagerly.

The children saw the wavering resolve in Cloud's face and grabbed his hands, pulling him out of bed and towards the kitchen. He let himself be dragged into the kitchen by the two excited children. Overall, they seemed completely untraumatized by the previous day's events. He figured that a million questions would come later, but for now, all they cared about was their pie.

They reached the kitchen and shared a conspiratorial smile.

Tifa awoke to the sound of Cloud, Marlene, and Denzel's laughter, and she smiled. Their voices seemed to be coming from the kitchen, and she could hear their voices all the sudden get low and secretive. She laughed softly and rolled over onto her stomach, propping her elbow up and resting her chin in her hand. They think they're so sneaky, she thought with amusement. I suppose I'll let it slide this time. Pie for breakfast never killed anyone.

She took note of the bright sunlight streaming through her window. It's been awhile since I've been able to sleep this late, she thought with a smile. Despite the exhausting day before, she felt incredibly energetic and cheerful. Tifa chuckled to herself as she heard something drop loudly on the floor downstairs, and hoped Cloud and the kids weren't completely destroying the kitchen. She wondered if she should wait and give them time to hide the pie evidence, or if she should walk downstairs now and give them all a heart attack. The thought made her chuckle.

She sat up in bed, and the thick comforter that she rarely used slide off her shoulders. As she swung her legs over the side of the bed, she noticed the unusually warm condition of her room. Stretching her hands above her head, she walked over to the thermostat and titled her head curiously as she saw that it was cranked up much farther than usual.

Must've been Cloud, she thought, a warm feeling swooshing through her stomach. It was almost beginning to feel like Cloud never left. You never stopped caring, did you Cloud? she thought happily, leaning against the wall. As she heard more muffled laugher coming from downstairs, Tifa almost felt tears spring up in her eyes. Everything really is going to be okay again, she thought happily. We're going to pick up just where we left off.

Tifa quickly made her bed up and left her room quietly. She tip-toed down the stairs, Cloud, Denzel, and Marlene's voices getting louder with every step she took. They actually thought I'd sleep through this? she wondered with amusement, placing her hand gently on the kitchen door and pushing it open silently.

Just as she suspected, the three of them were gathered around a half-eaten pie with forks in their hands. As always, seeing the three of them together made her smile. The first few times she had caught them eating pie for breakfast together, she had let them go at it, the scene was too cute for her to interrupt. Tifa considered letting it go again. She loved seeing the three of them together, and she would feel kind of bad if they found out they weren't as sneaky as they thought they were and she'd known all along.

But just as Tifa was about to slip quietly out the door, Marlene looked up from the pie and her fork clattered to the table in surprise. Cloud and Denzel's heads whipped around to see what she was looking at, and their faces immediately froze up. Tifa had to restrain herself from laughing. You'd think I caught them doing drugs or something, Tifa thought with amusement.

Denzel's eyes flicked between Cloud and Tifa. He nervously leaned over in Cloud's direction.

"Are we in trouble?" he whispered.

Cloud scratched his head and smiled nervously in Tifa's direction. She shook her head exasperatedly at him, a grin beginning to tug at the corners of her mouth. She placed her hands on her hips, giving them all a playfully stern look, eyes sparkling.

"Is this your way of telling me that my breakfasts are no good?" she asked them teasingly.

The kids jumped up quickly, Marlene's arms clinging to her waist, Denzel tugging at her hand. Their sweetest smiles looked up at her as they quickly flattered every single breakfast she had ever made.

"Your pancakes are the best Tifa!" Marlene said, nodding emphatically.

"Yea!" Denzel said quickly. "And your toast is way better than...uhh...better than..."

"Better than pie?" Tifa supplied helpfully, smiling amusedly at the kids.

They winced slightly at the word pie but continued to smile hopefully at her.

"Are you mad?" Marlene asked her sweetly.

Tifa laughed and gently untangled herself from Marlene and Denzel.

"I'm not mad," she told them, wiping chocolate off their faces.

Their little shoulders slumped in relief and smiles lit their faces up again. Tifa looked over their heads and couldn't help but laugh as she saw that Cloud looked almost as relieved at the children.

"Does that mean we can still have fun today, Tifa?" Denzel asked Tifa hopefully.

"Oh, I suppose so," Tifa said playfully.

Marlene smiled excitedly.

"What are we gunna do first?" she questioned eagerly.

Tifa bent down so her eyes were on the same level as the kids.

"How about," she began, smiling at the anticipation on their faces. "You two go clean your room?"

Marlene and Denzel groaned loudly, but scampered off, racing each other to the staircase. Cloud and Tifa watched them go with amused smiles.

"You know," Cloud said as Tifa turned around. "When I suggested that, they just laughed at me."

Tifa laughed quietly at this as she sat down at the table across from Cloud. The empty pie pan sat idly between them. Cloud glanced nervously from it to Tifa.

"You really aren't mad?" he asked her.

She shook her head. He leaned in, examining the look on her face.

"You're sure?" he asked her, his tone serious but his eyes playful. "You're not going to make me clean my room too?"

They both burst into laughter.

"Not this time," Tifa promised him, chuckling.

Still laughing, Tifa grabbed the pie pan and stood up. She walked over to the sink and began cleaning it. After a minute, Cloud stood up too, and leaned on the counter, watching her.

"Did you sleep alright last night?" he asked her.

Tifa smiled at him as she put the pan away.

"I slept fine," she said, unable to keep the teasing tone out of her voice. "But I was a little warm this morning."

Cloud blushed a little, and Tifa smiled to herself, pretending not to notice. She finished up at the sink and turned around, leaning against the other side of the countertop across from Cloud.

"So, what's going on today?" she asked him, chin in her hand.

He shrugged, a thoughtful look on his face.

"I suppose we could go into town,” he suggested. "They'll probably need some sort of help after that mess yesterday."

Tifa smiled and nodded.

"We'll go into town then," she said decisively. "I'm sure the kids will be all for it, especially if we give them candy money."

Cloud laughed and stood up straight, heading up to his room to get dressed. He paused for a minute in the doorway, turning around to give Tifa a shy smile before leaving the kitchen. Tifa smiled at the closed door long after it swung close. Today's going to be a good one, she thought happily.

Chapter Text

It was late morning by the time they made it out of Seventh Heaven. The day was crisp and clear, and they occasionally shielded their eyes from the bright sun as they made their way to the center of the city. They relished the warm breeze on their bare arms, appreciating the fact that this was most likely one of the last nice days of the year.

The fresh air and sunlight were making Marlene and Denzel slightly giddy. They ran way ahead of Cloud and Tifa, stopping only when they had to cross a street. Then they'd wait at the curb, bouncing anxiously on their toes until Cloud and Tifa caught up. The two children would then grab the adults’ hands, pulling them across the street and letting go as soon as they were across to run ahead again.

"And you thought they'd get tired walking all the way into town," Cloud said amusedly to Tifa as the children skidded to halt in front of yet another intersection.

Tifa smiled as Denzel motioned them to hurry up before joining Marlene in spinning around the street sign.

"Where does all that energy come from?" Cloud asked, eyes following them as they spun around and around.

Tifa pulled her eyes away from the kids and gave Cloud a sly smile.

"Maybe they get it from all that chocolate pie they eat," she teased.

"Hey!" Cloud rebutted, playfully defensive. "You know how those two can be. I'm powerless when they want something that badly."

"Last time I checked," Tifa began, laughing at him, "You were eating the pie too."

Cloud laughed and scratched the back of his head, a faint blush on his cheeks.

"Yea well, you know me," he said, a sheepish smile on his face. "Never could resist your cooking."

Tifa rolled her eyes as his flattery, but smiled at the compliment nevertheless. As they approached Marlene and Denzel, the children got impatient, and abandoned their street sign to run at them, tugging Cloud and Tifa forward eagerly.

"We're almost there aren't we Cloud?" Denzel asked, the sunlight making his freckles stand out brightly.

"Almost," Cloud replied, digging his heels into the ground and putting an arm out in front of Tifa so the kids wouldn't drag them into oncoming traffic.

"If we manage to make it there alive," Tifa joked, pulling Marlene back up on the curb. "Look before you walk out onto a busy street!"

"Yes Tifa," the children replied, still bouncing eagerly.

The cars cleared, and the children diligently looked both ways, and smiled up at Tifa for approval before dragging Cloud and Tifa across the street.

The city center was visible just ahead. Barely a block ahead, they could see a multitude of people swarming around the jagged whole that used to be a monument to those who had died in the meteor incident. It seemed there was some sort of organized reconstruction going on. The sidewalks got more and more crowded as they got closer, and Cloud and Tifa kept a tight grip on the children, craning their necks to see what was going on.

They had barely reached the edge of the circle when Marlene and Denzel tugged them to a stop, eyes looking up beseechingly. Their mouths were already curled up in excited smiles.

"Oh alright," Tifa told them, laughing at their excitement.

Tifa motioned to Cloud, and he dug a few crumpled gil out his pocket, pressing it into their waiting hands. They made to run off, but Tifa grabbed their sleeves.

"Just to the candy store!" she told them. "Cloud and I will come get you there in about a half hour okay? So don't leave!"

She released them, and they ran off hand-in-hand, shouting goodbyes to Cloud and Tifa. Cloud watched Tifa, as her eyes followed the retreating children until they disappeared around the corner.

"Worried about them?" Cloud asked her quietly.

Tifa seemed to shake herself out of a daze, and she smiled at him, shaking her head.

"I’m more worried for the shop owner," she joked softly. "I wouldn't want to have those two as costumers if I owned a candy shop."

Cloud laughed quietly at her reply, and they walked into the crowd. People were hard at work, shoveling up rubble, and even laying down new cement in one place. Cloud and Tifa looked about curiously, trying to figure out who was in charge. Cloud eyes narrowed on the large lettering on the truck next to him. He nudged Tifa gently and pointed to it.

"WRO" Tifa read slowly.

"World Restoration Organization," Cloud told her. "Reeve's men."

Tifa nodded, comprehension dawning on her face.

"Right," she said slowly, looking around. "Are... Rufus and the Turks part of it?"

Cloud shrugged.

"I don't know," he replied. "It wasn't until a couple days ago that we even knew Rufus was living."

Tifa was looking around at the uniformed men with a slight frown on her face. Cloud noticed that her eyes lingered on the sturdy guns at their hips.

"I don't think Shinra has anything to do with the WRO," he told Tifa, leading her farther into the circle. "Besides, Rufus didn't seem to have anything up his sleeve when I spoke with him."

Tifa nodded, but still seemed skeptical. She was still scanning over the many men and women dressed in WRO uniforms. Cloud tugged her hand gently, causing her to break her gaze.

"You still want to see if they need help?" he asked her.

She smiled and nodded.

"Who do we ask though?" she said, looking over the many uniformed figures again, trying to figure out who seemed to be in charge.

Cloud laughed weakly, his eyes searching similarly.

"That's a good question" he murmured, eyes narrowed.

Everyone was so intent at work that they didn't even notice Cloud and Tifa. The WRO worked quickly and efficiently. Nearly all the rubble had been cleared from the hole in the center, and cement was already being laid down in its place. Cloud and Tifa took an unconscious step closer to each other, feeling slightly overwhelmed and out of place with all the scrupulously organization workers.

"They don't seem to need help do they?" Tifa said meekly.

Cloud shook his head silently in response to her question. He was surprised how many people were in the WRO Last he had heard from Reeve, over a month ago, they were really struggling to get members. He was about to suggest to Tifa that they find Marlene and Denzel and go somewhere else, when a voice spoke up amusedly from behind him.

"Do these two belong to you?" a man's voice asked.

Cloud and Tifa turned around, and Reeve was smiling broadly at them, his hands clapped down gently but firmly on Marlene and Denzel's shoulders.

"Reeve!" Cloud and Tifa said in unison, surprised smiles on their faces.

The children darted away from Reeve and latched themselves onto Cloud and Tifa, lips trembling dramatically.

"What's wrong?" Cloud asked quickly, peering down into their fiercely pouting faces.

Tifa untangled herself gently from the children and bent down so she was on eye level with them. She seemed to be trying to figure out whether something was seriously wrong or not. She glanced up at Reeve and seemed to relax a bit when she saw a smile twitching at the corner's of his mouth. Tifa's eyes turned back to the kids and she smiled encouragingly.

"What happened?" she asked.

Cloud peered over her shoulder, eyes flicking between Marlene and Denzel's distressed faces. They looked up at Cloud and Tifa and sighed forlornly.

"The candy shop," Marlene said despairingly.

They fell into a mopey silence again.

"What about the candy shop?" Tifa prompted gently. "Did it close?"

Marlene shook her head sadly.

"It's gone!" Denzel lamented, sagging his shoulders.

Tifa and Cloud straightened and exchanged confused looks.

"Gone?" Cloud asked, looking at the two inconsolable children.

They didn't respond. Cloud and Tifa turned to Reeve. He was miserably failing to conceal his smile.

"It was destroyed in the attack a couple days ago," Reeve clarified, smile disappearing as he thought about the damage. "But we're helping all the businesses that were destroyed rebuild."

Marlene and Denzel perked up a bit at this, but still stared mournfully at the wad of money in their hands that they couldn't spend on candy any longer. Reeve smiled at Cloud and Tifa.

"You know..." he said slowly, winking at them. "Word has it, there's a new candy shop just down there."

The two children looked up hopefully at Reeve, and their eyes shot down the street that his finger was pointing at. His words had an immediate impact on them. All the sudden, their shoulders were no longer sagging, and the cheerful energy was back in their eyes. Marlene latched her fingers around Tifa's arm.

"Tifa can we go? Please?" she begged.

Denzel smiled up eagerly at Cloud and Tifa.

"Of course you can go," Tifa told them, exchanging smiles with Cloud.

The kids let out an excited squeal, and took off, running down the street.

"Hey!" Tifa shouted after them. "Wait a minute!"

Tifa sighed when they didn't turn, and made to follow them, but Cloud stopped her.

"I'll make sure they get there alright," he told her, laughing.

He gave Reeve an apologetic smile.

"I'll be back in a few," he told Reeve and Tifa, before taking off after the children.

Reeve watched Tifa as her eyes followed Cloud around the corner, a soft smile on her face. He cleared his throat gently, and she jumped slightly. Reeve tried not to chuckle.

"So Tifa," Reeve began slowly. "How have things been lately?"

Tifa smiled.

"Well, we've had a bit of a rough week." she said, motioning to the damage around her. "But we're doing alright now. How about you?"

Reeve shrugged.

"I've been okay. Are Cloud and the kids doing alright? I suppose those two keep you and Cloud pretty busy," he said, eyes sparkling with amusement. "They seemed very... energetic."

Tifa nodded, laughing.

"I found them searching through the rubble for candy," Reeve informed Tifa, joining in her laughter. "When I stepped in, they had just decided that they would have to 'borrow' shovels in order to find the candy."

Tifa continued laughing but cringed slightly.

"Sorry about that," she said. "They were just really disappointed. It's had been awhile since I've been able to take them out because of... you know. The Geostigma and all."

Their laughter died off as they approached a more somber topic. Reeve cleared his throat. He sounded a little uncomfortable.

"So Denzel's better now?" he asked, sounding unsure if he was treading on a sensitive topic or not.

Tifa nodded quickly, producing a smile. Her smile, Reeve noticed, was joy-filled, but underneath it, he could tell that there was a lot of unforgotten pain and fear.

"It's completely cured," she told Reeve. "You don't seem that surprised though. Have you spoken with somebody since yesterday?"

"Barret called after he got back to Corel last night," he told Tifa. "It's all pretty hard to believe, huh?"

"Yea..." Tifa said, trying not to think about Sephiroth, the three brothers, and Bahumut, reminding herself it was all better now.

"There are still some people still infected," Reeve said, and Tifa shook herself out of her thoughts.

"Yea, I thought there might be," she replied. "I hope they get to the church in time."

Reeve looked around at the multitude of WRO workers and smiled at their diligence.

"That's another thing we're working on," he said proudly. "The WRO is trying to round up those infected, so they can get the cure quickly."

Tifa nodded interestedly at this but lowered her head slightly. They fell into a silence that felt slightly awkward. Tifa didn't seem to want to meet Reeve's eyes. He cleared his throat.

"So," he began, trying to ease the odd tension. "Are you and Cloud interested in joining up?"

Tifa's head shot up, her face surprised. Reeve smiled at her, but she didn't return the gesture.

"I don't know Reeve," she said doubtfully. "I admire what you're doing and all but..."

Reeve cocked his head curiously at her.

"But?" he prompted, confused at her reluctance.

Tifa looked away. Reeve could tell that she was bursting to say something but wasn't sure whether or not to say it. He felt slightly apprehensive. He knew Tifa to be a fairly easy-going woman, but when she made up her mind about something, she could be incredibly difficult.

"It's just that," she began carefully. "Are you sure that 'restoration' is the WRO’s only goal?"

Reeve eyes narrowed sharply at her. She met his gaze unflinchingly, but after a minute, sighed and placed an apologetic hand on his forearm.

"I'm sorry Reeve." she said quietly. "I don’t really want to get into an argument with you."

He shook his head.

"It's fine Tifa. We can talk about this without arguin,." he assured her. "I just... What did you mean by that?"

Tifa was quiet for a minute, but when she spoke up again, their was a fierce glint in her eyes.

"I was just wondering," she began succinctly, "why all the men and women here are armed?"

She looked up at Reeve, face troubled. When he didn't respond, she continued.

"If restoration is all you're planning to do, then weapons wouldn't be necessary, would they?" she questioned, fixing him with a searching gaze.

Reeve sighed tiredly and shook his head. Tifa was waiting for his response expectantly.

"What you've got to understand Tifa..." Reeve said slowly. "Is that all we want, is to put the world back on its feet. But that doesn't just involve fixing up cities and curing those with Geostigma. The survivors of meteor need protection too."

Tifa's eyes narrowed at the word protection.

"Protection from what?" she asked Reeve suspiciously.

"You know what the monster situation is Tifa," he said tiredly. "And there are still people who are proving to be a danger to others."

Tifa nodded, but her face was closed off, and Reeve knew she still had her doubts. He hadn't proved to be the most trustworthy person in the past, and it hurt him to think those thoughts might be running through Tifa's mind now.

"Listen Tifa," he said lowly. "We're just trying to make life easier for people. They need protection, they need help. A lot of people still need hope. We're just trying to give it to them, that's all."

Tifa turned away again. She didn't mean to make Reeve feel like she was accusing him of anything but she felt her throat involuntarily tighten. That's what Shinra used to tell us... "Mako Reactors, they'll make your life easier!" Tifa thought, swallowing angrily. They seemed to have our best intentions at heart in the beginning too."The SOLIDERS are here for your protection!" And look how that turned out. She closed her eyes, and she saw a flash of her hometown burning.

"Tifa?" Reeve asked cautiously.

Tifa put a hand to her forehead, silently rebuking herself for getting herself so worked up.

"Listen Tifa, let's just talk about something else okay?" Reeve asked, sounding upset. "I'm sorry I asked you to join WRO"

Tifa faced him again and summoned a weak smile.

"It's alright Reeve. I'm sorry too." she apologized slowly. "Just old grudges... old scars... you understand, right?"

They nodded solemnly at each other and fell into an uncomfortable silence, watching the repairs progress. That was the way Cloud found them when he returned several minutes later.

"The kids are on the bench over there," he said, pointing to where the kids were happily holding bulging bags of candy. "Sorry it took so long but-"

Cloud stopped mid-sentence as he caught Tifa's eyes. It barely took him a second to realize something had upset her. His eyes flicked over to Reeve. He was upset about something too. The atmosphere was suddenly so uncomfortable that Cloud wondered why he hadn't noticed it immediately.

"What's wrong?" he asked, concerned.

Reeve and Tifa looked at their feet. Cloud gave them bewildered looks.

"Tifa and I had a little um... disagreement... about the WRO," Reeve told Cloud, somewhat nervously before turning to Tifa. "I'm really sorry about that Tifa. I didn't mean to upset you or anything-"

Tifa cut him off quickly.

"No, Reeve, don't worry about it," she told him, smiling honestly. "You didn't do anything wrong. I'm sorry for getting so worked up."

Cloud scratched his head, still looking confused about the entire situation. He opened his mouth to ask Tifa about it, but she began speaking again before he could.

"Anyways Reeve," she said, sounding more cheerful. "We came out here to help, so if there's anything we can do...Marlene and Denzel will help too if you can find something for us to do."

Reeve nodded and began explaining the work layout to them. While his back was turned, Cloud gave Tifa an inquiring look, but she shook her head, mouthing "Later". He nodded and turned back to Reeve.

Late that night, Cloud, Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel arrived back home. They were exhausted, but happily so, because the day, for the most part, had been a good one. At the end of the day, all the rubble had been cleared out and the hole had been closed up completely with cement. There were plans for another monument to be erected in the old one's place after the cement dried.

Marlene was riding on Cloud's back asleep, and Denzel was standing between Cloud and Tifa. He was trying to prove he could stay awake longer than Marlene, but every now and then his head would nod against Cloud or Tifa's arm as Cloud unlocked the front door.

The door swung open with a click, and they all walked in, glad to be home. Cloud bent down, and Tifa gently took Marlene off his back, scooping the sleeping girl up in her arms and taking her upstairs to her bed. Cloud and Denzel watched them leave, Denzel yawning widely.

"Don't you think you better get up to bed too?" Cloud whispered, clapping a hand on Denzel's shoulder.

Denzel nodded sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

"We can have a lot more fun now that I'm better, can't we Cloud?" Denzel asked, voice slurred with sleep.

Cloud nodded, and Denzel smiled blearily.

"Goodnight Denzel," Cloud told him, giving him a gentle push towards the stairs.

"Goodnight," Denzel yawned, heading up to his room.

Cloud waited until he heard the bedroom door shut and headed into the living room. He collapsed on the sofa, waiting for Tifa to come back down. The day had been fun, except for when he returned from the candy shop to find Tifa so upset. Reeve said they had a disagreement.

"Hey," a soft voice whispered.

Tifa sighed as she sunk into the sofa. She hadn't had the chance to rest all day. Her eyes closed in relaxation for a minute, but when she opened them, Cloud was watching her intently. She knew what he was wondering.

"Well?" he asked quietly. "What were you and Reeve arguing about today?"

Tifa sighed and quickly recounted their conversation, cheek resting against the soft cushion of the sofa. Cloud listened silently, watching Tifa's face in the dim light of the living room. There was a brief silence when she finished. Tifa closed her eyes and gave a shaky sigh.

"It's not that I'm mad at Reeve," she said softly. "He just doesn't understand what I'm getting at, that's all. You understand, don't you Cloud?"

She opened her eyes and met his gaze for a minute. The look in her eyes was so trusting that even if he didn't understand, he wouldn't have been able to tell her no.

"I understand..." he told her softly. "It's not that you believe that the WRO will end up like Shinra necessarily... but there are similarities. After all, Shinra did start out with good intentions. If you round up a large, strongly-supported group, give them weapons, give them power, sometimes they can lose sight of their goal. That's what you're afraid of isn't it?"

Tifa nodded, and attempted a weak, tired smile.

"And I don't really have a good history with governments, do I?" she joked softly. "I guess it will just take me awhile to trust anything new."

Cloud laughed softly and she continued.

"But it's not just that," Tifa said, tone becoming more somber. "If the WRO becomes more like an army..."

She sighed.

"It's not that I'm afraid of fighting... we've done that before haven't we?" she asked softly. "But I don't want that for Marlene and Denzel. I don't want them to have to struggle like we did. I don't want them to experience loss like we did. I want them to have a happy childhood. I can't even think about my childhood without seeing flames."

Cloud closed his eyes briefly, and fire flashed across his eyes... his mother, his hometown, his Tifa... As much as for his own comfort as for hers, he reached out and grabbed her hand. Her hand squeezed back tightly.

"I'll talk to Reeve tomorrow, okay Tifa?" he promised quietly. "I'll make him understand. If he doesn't understand what he's risking now, he will by the time I'm through with him. We won't have another Shinra, I promise."

Tifa smiled at him, and he pulled them both to their feet so they could head up to bed. Before Tifa went into her room, Cloud gently brushed her hair off her face so he could plant a gentle kiss on her brow. She smiled at him sleepily, her fingers lingering his hand before she shut the door behind her. Don't worry... he thought, staring at her closed door. I don't intend to see you or the kids in pain ever again...I could never let anything hurt something so precious.

Chapter Text

Cloud was dragged out of bed the next morning by the smell of something delicious cooking downstairs in the bar area. He had pulled the covers over his head against the sunlight as it came streaming through the window and buried his face in the pillow against the sounds of Marlene and Denzel running up and down the halls, but the smell of Tifa's cooking was unavoidable. The rumbling of his stomach urged him out of bed.

He lumbered slowly down the stairs, still yawing and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. His bare feet slapped loudly against the floor as he moved towards the bar area, patting his rumbling belly reassuringly. It wasn't until he swung the door open that he realized that there were voices in addition to Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel's.

Like every other Monday morning, the bar had more than a few early risers grabbing a bite before work. An older woman clucked her tongue disapprovingly at him before returning to her breakfast. A few others were giggling. Cloud blushed as he realized that he had come down for breakfast in just pajama pants. As he attempted to slip out the door without drawing more attention to himself, he was silently grateful that he actually wore pajamas to bed.

"Good morning, Cloud!" a cheerful voice chirped.

Cloud winced and froze in his tracks. Marlene was giggling behind her hand as all the costumers turned to see who Marlene was talking to. Cloud gave a half-hearted little wave before slipping out the door, cheeks aflame.

"At least I'm awake now," he mumbled sullenly as he tromped back up the stairs to get dressed.

He took a long time getting dressed, in hope that whatever costumers where there when he was, would be gone. He trudged reluctantly down the stairs, slipped in through the bar door, and slid into a seat up front. Cloud let out a sigh of relief when his entrance remained unnoticed.

"So..." a gentle teasing voice came from behind the bar. "I heard breakfast came with a show this morning?"

Cloud looked up sulkily. Tifa's eyes were sparkling with laughter. He tried to fight the smile curling up on his lips, but one look at Tifa, and he realized the effort was futile. He smiled at her slowly, and when Tifa's full spread over her face, Cloud felt the familiar little jump in his stomach.

Then, Cloud realized they had been staring and smiling at each other for quite a while, and the costumers were watching them curiously. Tifa seemed to realize it too, and quickly busied herself with the glasses, cheeks tinged pink. Her nose wrinkled as the ends of her bangs tickled it, and she reached up distractedly to push them behind her ear.

It wasn't until Marlene bustled into the bar with Denzel at her heels that Cloud realized that he hadn't looked away from Tifa yet. He turned his head away quickly and scratched the back of his head embarrassedly. The kids rushed up to the bar when they noticed Cloud sitting up front.

"You forgot Seventh Heaven was open today, didn't you Cloud?" Denzel asked knowingly.

Marlene giggled.

"You're gunna scare all our costumers away!" she said, nearly falling off the barstool with giggles.

Denzel scowled disdainfully at Marlene, and hopped up on the barstool next to Cloud, his short legs swinging.

"What are you doing today, Cloud?" Denzel asked, a tone of pleading in his voice. "Are you going out?"

Marlene rolled her eyes and went behind the bar to see if she could help Tifa and maybe swipe a bit of candy in the process. Though Marlene was always wide-eyed with eagerness when it came to helping Tifa with the bar, Denzel had always been less enthusiastic. He knew Tifa wouldn't mind if he left the bar to go play, but he got bored quickly without Marlene. Going out with Cloud had always been an exciting prospect for him, but he had been too sick before to leave home for long.

But now he was quite healthy, and he stared up at Cloud with big eyes full of admiration and hope.

"Yea, I'm going out," Cloud answered Denzel amusedly. "Did you want to come?"

His entire face lighting up, Denzel nodded at Cloud enthusiastically.

"Go ask Tifa if it's okay then," Cloud told Denzel.

Cloud watched as Denzel jumped off the barstool and ran around the bar, nearly knocking over several chairs as he did so. Maybe I'd be doing Tifa a favor by taking Denzel...Cloud thought, smiling wryly. The little boy was tugging on Tifa's arm excitedly, pulling her attention away from the costumer she'd been talking to.

"Tifa, Tifa!" he said urgently. "Gotta ask you something!"

Tifa smiled and gave the costumer a quick apology before bending down to Denzel.

"What's up?" she asked cheerfully.

"Cloud wanted me to ask you if it was okay if I went out with him today!" Denzel blurted happily in one breath.

Tifa looked surprised for a second, but she smiled quickly and nodded to Denzel. He made to run back over to Cloud, but Tifa grabbed his arm.

"Go get ready," she said pointing her finger upstairs in the direction of his room."And don't forget a jacket!"

Denzel groaned, but obliged and ran out of the bar. Tifa quickly finished up with the costumer and walked back to the bar where Cloud was sitting. She began wiping glasses distractedly but looked up at him after a moment.

"So you're going to see Reeve today?" she asked with an adopted casual tone.

Cloud nodded and Tifa ducked her head over the glasses, sighing.

"What time do you think you'll be back?" she asked quietly.

"Late, probably," Cloud told her. "Is that okay?"

Tifa nodded as she stacked the glasses. She looked up at him, a touch of anxiety in her eyes.

"Do you think it will take long?" she asked Cloud lowly.

Cloud shrugged.

"I just want to talk with Reeve... see if I can find out anything new," he assured her quietly. "But who knows how long it will take to track him down. We ran into him through sheer luck yesterday."

They looked away from each other and towards the doorway as Denzel came skidding into the bar, grinning widely. Cloud and Tifa exchanged amused smiles. Tifa grabbed Cloud's empty breakfast plate, and he stood up from his stool.

"I'll see you both tonight then," Tifa said softly. "Be careful!"

Cloud nodded and put a brief, reassuring hand on her shoulder before he walked over to Denzel. Cloud and Denzel both paused to smile and wave at Tifa before walking out the door. Tifa was just waving back at them when Marlene emerged from the back room and began tugging on the end of Tifa's skirt.

"Where are they going?" she asked, watching them go curiously.

Tifa put an arm around Marlene's shoulder and gave her a little squeeze.

"They're going out," she told her, smiling cheerfully. "It's just us girls today."

The morning passed quickly, and by mid-afternoon, Cloud and Denzel still hadn't located Reeve. Not that we're trying all that hard... Cloud thought, somewhat guiltily. They had taken Fenrir, Cloud's motorcycle, to the town circle instead of walking. Denzel had been beside himself in excitement and it hadn't taken him long to convince Cloud to take the long way so they could ride longer.

Denzel clutched at his shoulders tightly as he rode behind him on the motorcycle, head whipping back and forth as he looked around him. Ever now and then, he'd try to convince Cloud to race another person on motorcycle, or to try and attempt a wheelie. Cloud would laugh but refuse. Tifa would probably kill him if he crashed his motorcycle with Denzel on it.

When they ended up at the town circle, Denzel slumped slightly in disappointment. After Cloud parked on the side of a street, Denzel hopped off, his hair comically windswept. His disappointment quickly disappeared as he looked around the city and up at Cloud.

"So, what're we doing?" he asked Cloud eagerly.

Cloud scanned the crowd around them. Citizens intermingled with WRO workers, as they busily continued working on the street.

"Remember the man you met yesterday?' he asked Denzel, still looking around. "We're trying to find him again."

"Oooh," Denzel said, nodding wisely. "You mean Steve."

Cloud tried not to laugh.

"Reeve," he corrected with a smile.

They had stepped off the curb and waded into the sea of people, on the lookout for Reeve, but it quickly became apparent that the task was going to be more difficult than they had thought. Eventually they decided to skirt around the outside of the crowd, and search around the edges of it, but that proved to be a mistake.

The many stores and stands around the circle were a great source of distraction for Denzel. Cloud had managed to drag him away from the toy store and a few others, but when Denzel had pressed his face up against the window of a new weapon store, Cloud hadn't been able to resist, and they entered the store.

They wandered around the store a bit, Cloud closely examining the merchandise, checking the quality with expertise and scoffing silently at the prices, Denzel close at his heels. When he had been closely eyeballing a protective bangle, he heard a loud crash and winced as he realized that Denzel wasn't behind him anymore. He and Denzel had been escorted out the door by the annoyed shopkeeper. Cloud kept a closer eye on Denzel from that point on.

So, the morning and afternoon had been passed in half-hearted searching looks through the crowds punctuated with short trips into stores that caught Denzel's eye. They had now walked around the circle several times, and to no avail. Cloud sighed and sat down on a bench for a minute. Denzel plopped down next to him.

"What do we do now Cloud?" he asked, sounding completely confident that Cloud would have a solution.

"Hmm," Cloud said thoughtfully. "How about we see if we can find another WRO official. They might know where Reeve is."

Denzel jumped up after Cloud as he stood from the bench.

"How do you tell an official from a regular worker?" he asked Cloud, craning his head to see through the crowd.

"Different uniform." Cloud said. "Bigger gun."

Denzel's eyes got big, and Cloud felt a little guilty for drawing Denzel's attention to the sleek guns strapped at the waists of the members of the WRO. They continued searching quietly through the crowd. Barely ten minutes after they had begun looking, Denzel tugged on Cloud's sleeve and pointed to a man to their left. The man was wearing a sleek suit, quite different from the worker's uniforms, with WRO printed in official lettering on a bronze pin. He was holding a folder and every now and then, a worker would come up to him and ask a question. And like Cloud had told Denzel, the gun at his hip was significantly bigger and more dangerous looking.

Cloud strode up to the man, Denzel close behind him. When Cloud addressed the man, Denzel hid behind Cloud, shy as always in the presence of a stranger.

"Reeve around here today?" Cloud asked, short and to the point.

The man looked at Cloud somewhat suspiciously. It seemed for a minute that the man wouldn't answer Cloud, but when he saw Denzel standing timidly behind him, he seemed to decide that Cloud wasn't a threat.

"No," the man answered curtly. "Reeve's in the office today."

The man was quickly pulled away into other business, as a female worker came up to him, motioning sheepishly to the sign she had just managed to screw on upside down.

"Well Denzel," Cloud said, ushering Denzel back to where they'd parked. "Looks like we're going to WRO headquarters."

Marlene looked up at the sky as she sat on the front porch of Seventh Heaven. The day had started rather sunny, but the sun was beginning to be obstructed by dark gloomy clouds. She frowned slightly when the rather pleasant day turned cold as the sun became blocked out. The wind picked up, ruffling her carefully braided hair. She scowled at the sky as the wind mussed her bangs.

The swirling, ominous clouds continued coming in. Marlene could no longer see even a patch of blue sky. The wind was becoming stronger, and Marlene was continuously trying to push strands of hair out of her eyes as they escaped from her braid. Finally, she got annoyed with the continually deteriorating weather and slipped back into Seventh Heaven.

She tromped back into the bar, looking windswept. Tifa was wiping the bar looking a little bored. It was just after the lunch rush and the bar was empty save for a couple of kids older than Marlene filling up on sweets. Tifa smiled at Marlene's disgruntled expression as she climbed up onto a barstool.

"The stupid wind messed up my braid," she pouted in explanation.

Tifa smiled and smoothed the free strands back.

"Is it really that windy out?" Tifa asked, trying to peer out the windows from her place behind the bar. "It wasn't this morning."

Marlene nodded emphatically.

"The wind's crazy!" she told Tifa. "And the sky's gone all cloudy and dark."

Tifa walked out from behind the bar to look out a window. As Marlene said, dark clouds were filling the sky and Tifa could tell by the swaying street signs that the wind was blowing strongly.

"You two better get home!" Tifa said to her young costumers. "There's a bad storm moving in."

The kids paid and thanked Tifa and left the bar quickly, leaving Marlene and Tifa alone in the quiet bar. Tifa was watching the sky silently from the window. Marlene hopped off the barstool and joined her at the window. Marlene grabbed Tifa's hand as she watched the first raindrops fall.

"This is just like that scary storm a couple days ago," Marlene whispered to Tifa. "The one that looked like the storm from meteor..."

Tifa smiled at Marlene and gave her a little hug. She led them away from the window and out of the bar area.

"It's just a regular, old storm this time Marlene," she told her as she opened the door to change the sign to closed.

Marlene nodded at Tifa's words but still shrunk away from the wind and rain coming from the open door. Before Tifa closed the door she paused in the doorway. The storm is going to get worse fast... she thought worriedly. I hope Cloud and Denzel get home before it gets too bad.

Cloud and Denzel were well on their way by the time they felt the first raindrops. WRO headquarters was located outside of the town of Edge, and on the far outskirts of the old, dilapidated Midgar. As they passed in front of the place Zack had died, Cloud gave a faint grin in memory of his friend, but it quickly turned into a grimace as he realized headquarters was all the way on the other side. We're about to get soaked... he thought, looking nervously at the menacing clouds.

Just as he finished forming the thought, the clouds dumped water on them in a constant downpour. Cloud groaned and he felt Denzel's hands clutch the back of his shirt tighter as thunder rumbled in the not so far distance. Water was obscuring his vision, but he managed to stay on the now muddy path well enough. He performed a quick turn to avoid running into a tree and mud splattered all over him and Denzel.

"Don't worry," he reassured Denzel over the sounds of the wind, rain, and thunder. "We're almost there."

Denzel made a response that was indistinguishable over the sound of the storm. Cloud was now sure that Denzel would rip a hole in his shirt if he gripped it any tighter. Their wet, miserable ride continued for several more minutes before Cloud first spotted the large outline of the WRO headquarters. By the barely audible sigh of relief made behind him, Cloud could tell Denzel had spotted it too.

They pulled up into the large lot in front of the building. There were various vehicles parked there: trucks, motorcycles, buses, old tanks, and several cars. Cloud parked the motorcycle near the front and quickly helped Denzel off the back.

Soaked to the skin and covered in mud, they ran towards the front doors. The rain, wind, and thunder were increasing in intensity, and Cloud could have sworn he felt hail hit against his skin. Cloud's hair was becoming limp and weighed down with the weight of the water. He noticed that Denzel's soaked hair was flattened down into his eyes.

They both sighed in relief as their hands pushed against the front doors and entered the building. Cloud and Denzel entered quickly and found themselves in a rather large lobby, dripping mud and water on the mat in front of the door. The receptionist looked less than pleased to see them. Cloud and Denzel wiped their feet on the mat, but it didn't make much of a difference. Cloud gave the receptionist an apologetic shrug as he approached her desk.

"How can I help you?" she asked unenthusiastically, scowling as a bit of mud slid off Cloud's arm and just missed hitting her polished desk.

"We're here to see Reeve,." Cloud told her.

The receptionist immediately began flipping through a notebook.

"Name?" she asked shortly.

"Cloud," he answered, trying to keep any more mud from dripping off him.

"Cloud..." she repeated slowly, her bespectacled eyes searched the page. "Do you have a last name?"

"Strife," he told her.

Immediately, the receptionist slammed the book shut and gave him and Denzel an annoyed look.

"Reeve is very busy today," she said dismissively. "If you'd like me to, I can make you an appointment for tomorrow."

Cloud shook his head. The receptionist scowled fiercely as water flecked her desk.

"We're not leaving until I talk to Reeve," he told her firmly. "I suppose you don't mind if we stick around for awhile."

Her eyes looked at Cloud's wet, mud-covered form and them to Denzel who was shifting from foot to foot, his dripping shoes making odd squelching sounds. She sighed in an annoyed manner.

"I'll send him a memo saying you're here," she snapped.

She stood up, but Cloud stopped her.

"Before you go," he said quickly. "Is there a phone I can use?"

The receptionist quickly pushed her own phone out of sight and pointed a finger to the pay phone in the opposite corner. She hurried off down a hallway that led out of the lobby. Cloud and Denzel exchanged slightly guilty looks as they tracked mud across the floor all the way over to the pay phone.

"Who're you calling?" Denzel asked Cloud, pushing wet clumps of hair out of his face and leaving mud streaks on his forehead.

Cloud dug around in his pocket for some spare change.

"Tifa," he answered. "She'll want to know we made it okay."

For some reason, these words seemed to make Denzel nervous. He ducked his head quickly from Cloud's gaze and began making squelching noises with his shoes again. Cloud watched him curiously for a moment but shrugged it off and placed the coins in the slot. He dialed the number and waited for a minute. Nothing.

Cloud hung the phone up and scratched his head wonderingly. Denzel was now wringing his hands anxiously.

"Is the phone in my room still the only one in Seventh Heaven?" Cloud asked him, watching his strange behavior curiously.

"Yes..." Denzel squeaked.

Denzel's face turned bright red. He seemed extremely distressed about something. Cloud hesitated a minute before asking.

"What's up?" he said, bewildered at Denzel's odd anxiety.

Denzel looked up nervously, and he seemed to shrink away from Cloud's gaze slightly. Cloud began to feel slightly alarmed.

"Denzel," he said slowly. "What's wrong?"

These words seemed to break open the dam.

"Well-I – um..." Denzel stuttered. "I mean me and Marlene...uhh."

Cloud looked at him expectantly and Denzel looked down, continuing rapidly.

"Before you woke up the other day we just kind of...well..." Denzel trailed off.

"Kind of what?" Cloud prompted.

"We broke your phone," Denzel said, his voice tiny.

Cloud stared at him a minute. Denzel looked at his feet, refusing to meet Cloud's gaze.

"Well..." Cloud began lowly. "Was it an accident?"

Denzel sniffled and shook his head, still refusing to look up. Cloud sighed. He wasn't mad exactly, he was just confused as to why Denzel and Marlene would purposely break something. Guess Tifa will have to wait until we get back, Cloud thought, turning away from the pay phone. Denzel risked a quick glance at Cloud. His bottom lip quivered slightly. Cloud sighed again.

"I'm not mad," he told Denzel, and some of the fear disappeared from Denzel's face. "I just don't understand why..."

Denzel shuffled his feet uncomfortably.

"Me and Marlene thought..." he muttered eyes looking at the ground, "that if you didn't get calls, you wouldn't leave anymore."

Cloud suddenly felt as though he had been punched in the stomach. He opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn't think of anything to say. Denzel looked up at him and Cloud seemed to realize he wasn't done.

"And umm..." Denzel said, looking away awkwardly. "I thought that maybe..."

"You thought what?" Cloud asked quietly, not sure if he wanted Denzel to finish his sentence.

"I thought that if you were around all the time..." Denzel mumbled uncomfortably, "Tifa might not be so sad anymore."

The ability to speak left Cloud quickly. He now felt as though he had been stabbed in the stomach rather than punched. Denzel looked up anxiously, but Cloud found himself unable to force even the brittlest of smiles. He sighed shakily and clapped a reassuring hand on Denzel's shoulder. All Denzel had done was speak the truth, and as brutal as the truth had been, Cloud was glad he told him.

"Am I in trouble?" Denzel asked, voice barely above a whisper.

Cloud shook his head, throat still to tight to respond. Denzel visibly relaxed.

"And..." Denzel said looking up at Cloud. "You're...not mad?"

This time Cloud managed a small smile.

"I'm not mad," he reassured Denzel.

They both made to walk over the chairs lined up against the wall of the lobby, but they were quickly stopped as the receptionist hurried into the room, heels clicking loudly against the floor.

"Mr. Strife!" she said, looking slightly apologetic and abashed. "Mr. Reeve will see you now."

Cloud motioned for Denzel to follow, and they walked behind the receptionist into the broad hallway.

Chapter Text

The sounds of the storm increased in caliber. Tifa winced as the wind howled and a crunching sound indicated that Seventh Heaven was loosing a few ceiling tiles. Her ears were sensitive to every sound. Hopefully Cloud and Denzel would be walking through the door soon. She wasn't letting the full force of her worry wash over her yet. Just give them time, she told herself. They'll be back.

Tifa sighed and threw the rag down as she realized she had been wiping the same table for the past ten minutes. She collapsed into one of the chairs. On the surface she knew it was just a storm, and it was unlikely that anything bad would happen to Cloud or Denzel but deep down... Tifa sighed again. She couldn't help but worry. I hope Cloud and Denzel had good sense enough to at least stop somewhere, she thought, watching the rain pound against the windows.

Small arms wrapped around her neck from behind, and Tifa snapped out of her daze. Marlene put her chin on Tifa's shoulder from behind and shuddered.

"I don't like storms much Tifa," Marlene confided.

Tifa smiled and motioned for Marlene to come sit with her. The little girl squeezed into the chair with Tifa, and both of them looked out the window at the storm.

"Do you like storms Tifa?" Marlene asked, cuddling closer as lighting flashed.

Tifa grimaced and stroked Marlene's hair. Not when Cloud and Denzel are out in them on a motorcycle, she thought grimly. Marlene looked up at her, wide-eyed and waiting for an answer.

"They're not all that bad," Tifa told her. "Just loud."

Marlene covered her ears and nodded at Tifa in agreement as there was another crash of thunder. Tifa rested her head atop Marlene's soft brown hair and Marlene ducked her face into Tifa's shirt to hide her eyes from another flash of lightning. They stayed that way for awhile, seeking comfort from each other in the big, lonely house.

Cloud and Denzel followed the receptionist down the hall, leaving a trail of mud behind them. Denzel tried hard to stay right behind Cloud, but every now and then he'd look around to marvel at the many adjoining hallways and rooms, and Cloud would end up tugging him along. Denzel looked up at Cloud, but his face was carefully blank. Denzel wondered if he was thinking about the broken phone, and whether Cloud was as uncomfortable in this big building as Denzel was.

The receptionist motioned them into another waiting area, and they walked in slowly. A secretary looked up and smiled as the door closed behind them.

"Mr. Strife?" she asked pleasantly, ignoring his wet, muddy state. "Mr. Reeve will see you now."

Cloud hesitated and glanced down at Denzel. The secretary smiled in understanding.

"I'll keep an eye on your little boy," she told him, ushering him to a door.

Somewhat flustered, Cloud walked through the door and into the office. He paused a minute to look around. The desk, though expensive-looking and luxurious, was covered in mountains of paperwork. Behind the papers, Reeve was sitting in a chair and looking exhausted. Reeve raised his eyebrow as he took Cloud's appearance in.

"Raining outside?" Reeve asked.

When Cloud gave Reeve a blank stare, Reeve let out a tired chuckle.

"Sorry Cloud, stupid question," he said, rubbing his temples. "But I've been cooped up in this office since four o'clock this morning."

Cloud's eyes flicked to the walls; though spacious, the office was also windowless.

"Well sit down then," Reeve offered, motioning to a chair. "What brings you here?"

Cloud sat in a chair in front of Reeve's desk.

"I wanted to talk to you about something," Cloud began slowly.

By the somewhat apprehensive look on Reeve's face, Cloud figured Reeve had a pretty good idea what "something" was.

"I take it you've spoken with Tifa about yesterday," Reeve said quietly, running a hand over his exhausted face.

Cloud nodded and Reeve sighed, a resigned look on his face.

"I'm not sure what you want me to say Cloud," he said, shaking his head. "I understand how you two feel but-"

"No, you don't," Cloud cut him off quietly. "You couldn't."

Reeve sighed but nodded, motioning for Cloud to continue.

"Tifa has no reason to trust any sort of government," Cloud said, a twinge of past pain evident in his voice. "Not after Shinra."

He scratched his head and smiled bitterly.

"Neither do I really," Cloud said wryly.

"There's not much I can do about that." Reeve said, sounding more exhausted than ever.

Cloud shook his head.

"I know," he assured Reeve. "That's not why I'm here."

Reeve straightened in his chair and stared at Cloud inquisitively.

"Then why did you come?" he asked.

Cloud shifted uncomfortably in his wet clothes.

"Yesterday..." he began slowly. "Tifa was upset about how well armed the WRO workers were."

He noticed Reeve stiffening. A guarded look appeared in Reeve's eyes.

"She couldn't understand why you'd do it, why'd you'd be so blind," he said slowly. "But I thought maybe..."

Reeve was no longer meeting Cloud's eyes.

"I thought maybe you knew something we didn't," Cloud finished.

Cloud watched Reeve silently as his shoulders slumped and he rested his head in his hand. It took Reeve a moment, but he regained his composure and met Cloud's eyes. The grim look on Reeve's face was quite different from his normal cheerful expression.

"I do," Reeve stated quietly. "But if I tell you..."

Reeve sighed.

"You have to keep quiet about it Cloud," Reeve said, his tone dead serious. "I won't bother to tell you not to tell Tifa, but besides her, no one else can know."

Cloud nodded and Reeve continued.

"As you know, we've been trying to restore the world," Reeve said. "But restoration is a broad term. We've been doing everything from rebuilding to providing food to setting up businesses, but we've also been doing investigations."

Reeve motioned to the piles of papers in his office.

"All theses were discovered in the old Shinra building," Reeve stated lowly. "Some of them, we already knew about. Nearly all of them belonged to the old President Shinra and were administrative paperwork and such. the type of stuff open to the general public."

Reeve stood up and headed to the back of the office. He stopped in front of a wall that was lined with tall filing cabinets, each with a heavy lock on the front.

"These," Reeve said grimly, motioning to all the filing cabinets. "Belonged to Hojo."

Cloud's gaze sharpened. Reeve moved over to one filing cabinet. It alone was unlocked.

"The papers in this one," Reeve said, rapping on its metal top, "were found in his lab. They're mainly about Hojo's attempt to breed an Ancient. They were nothing new to us."

Reeve trailed off, looking as though he didn't want to continue.

"And the rest?" Cloud asked quietly.

Reeve sighed.

"About three or four months ago, we began working with Rufus and the Turks. They were willing to help us with the investigation of the Shinra building for a hefty amount of money," Reeve told Cloud. "They knew a lot about the building, and it wasn't long before they discovered Hojo secret lab below the basement."

Reeve's face twisted into a look of disgust.

"The papers in the rest of the filing cabinets were discovered there," he said with a grimace. "Apparently Hojo had been conducting secret experiments underground for ages with President Shinra's permission. Rufus, however, had not been informed of them."

Cloud nodded, listening intently.

"I've been reading the lab reports ever since they were discovered..." Reeve sighed, looking sickened. "Hojo was conducting human experiments. It seems like he was determined to improve the SOLDIER program."

Cloud stiffened in his seat at the mention of human experiments but motioned for Reeve to keep going.

"According to the reports, Hojo exposed test subjects to extremely high concentrations of Mako and Jenova cells." Reeve paused a second to shake his head. "I don't really understand all of it; it's very scientific- and twisted- but somehow he managed to keep them from mutating or from losing their minds. The ones that made it through the main part of the treatment were observed to have extreme strength and violent tendencies. He kept them from losing their minds, but he couldn't completely keep the insanity from creeping into their skulls."

Reeve sat down in his chair, looking weary. He looked up and Cloud noticed that there were dark circles under his eyes.

"We thought that Hojo would have destroyed his 'specimen' when he left the Shinra building, or the poor people had died when the building was destroyed," Reeve said, closing his eyes. "But it quickly became apparent that we were deeply mistaken."

Cloud waited tensely for Reeve to get to the point.

"When the Turks were investigating, they found several tanks with corpses inside... but the majority of them were empty and broken. Some of Hojo's test subjects escaped," Reeve continued quietly. "There were bodies of Shinra employees down there too. By the looks of it, they had been dragged down into the lab while they were still alive. Towards the end of Shinra, nobody would have paid any mind to missing employees but I wish we..."

Reeve trailed off and shook his head sadly. He glanced up at Cloud, who was eerily calm.

"So where are they now?" Cloud asked quietly.

"This is where we run into some issues." Reeve replied tiredly. "We know that they dug out of the Shinra building... and we have evidence enough to believe that they would have remained underground somewhere..."

Reeve threw his hands up in frustration.

"But besides that, we're shooting in the dark. They're out there bidding their time, waiting for a vulnerable moment," Reeve grimaced. "So basically, we have to wait for them to strike first. All we can do is be prepared."

"And how are you going to do that?" Cloud asked, his voice carefully neutral.

"All our workers are armed and trained in case of an emergency," Reeve told them. "We have workers all over the globe, so chances are when a crisis strikes..."

Cloud stared at him incredulously.

"Where we they several days ago when we were being attacked by a giant Bahumut?" he asked. "Like always, we had to take care of it ourselves."

Reeve covered his weary face with his hands.

"There was a major problem with several old Mako reactors that day," Reeve said, his voice strained. "We had two evacuate three large villages and fix the problem before the reactors exploded and destroyed all the work we had done."

There was a tense silence.

"So that's exactly the type of weakness these 'Underground Soldiers' will be waiting for," Cloud said softly.

"Exactly," Reeve said, in the same sort of hushed tone.

They both leaned back in their seats, troubled by their thoughts. The thought of just sitting back and waiting for them to strike was a sickening thought. Granted, Cloud and the others had done it years ago when they were hunting Sephiroth. The only way to track him down had been by the path of devastation he left behind him. It had worked, but they had lost Aeris. Now the idea of waiting around for the enemy to make the first move made Cloud feel like his head was exploding.

Tifa could take care of herself well enough, but if she was alone with the kids... Cloud felt a tightening in his chest. Tifa had already proved that she would put herself between the children and the danger. Cloud knew she would do all she could to protect the kids, but she wouldn't waste a second’s time worrying about herself.

Reeve watched Cloud as he mulled over the issue in his mind.

"I wish I could guarantee you their safety," he told Cloud softly. "But if you want to keep up to date with what’s going on here, and stay close to home, I can offer you a job."

"I'm not joining the WRO,” Cloud said tersely.

"That's not what I meant," Reeve said hastily, shaking his head. "I was talking about a delivery job."

Reeve looked over at Cloud to make sure he was following him and continued.

"You wouldn't have to be away from home for too long" he told Cloud. "In fact, I could probably make it so you could make it home every night."

Reeve kept a close eye on Cloud as he absorbed this. Cloud's brow was furr,owed, eyes focused downwards.

"If you need awhile to think it over..." Reeve began carefully.

Cloud quickly shook his head.

"I don't need time," he said, looking up. "I'll take the job."

It didn't take long for Cloud and Reeve to figure out all the minor details, and they then walked out of the office together and into the waiting area. It was late according to the large clock on the wall, and the windows revealed that it was still storming outside. The secretary was busily doing paperwork at her desk, and Denzel was sitting on the floor with his back propped up against the side of it, tongue caught between his teeth in concentration as he linked together all of the secretary’s paper clips. Cloud caught his eye, and Denzel looked somewhat guilty, and quickly dropped the paper clips back into the tin.

"I didn't know Denzel was with you," Reeve said as Denzel stood up and moved over to Cloud's side.

Reeve observed the way Denzel tried to mimic the way Cloud stood and he fought back a smile. Denzel was wearing clothes that Reeve recognized as a WRO uniform even though they were missing the standard emblem and pins. The little boy tugged his pants up unceremoniously.

"Would you like some dry clothes too?" the secretary asked Cloud, holding up another set of clothes. "Denzel's wet clothes are in this bag here. You can go change in the bathroom if you want."

Reeve felt a little sheepish. He hadn't thought to ask Cloud if he wanted to change into something clean and dry. Reeve could tell by the dumbfounded look on Cloud's face that Cloud hadn't even thought to ask.

"Yea, thanks," Cloud said, taking the clothes

Cloud looked out the window at the still raging storm, and Reeve spoke up quickly.

"I'll get one of our big trucks to take you home," he offered. "Your motorcycle can fit in the back."

Cloud accepted Reeve's offer hastily, and in a matter of minutes, Cloud and Denzel were on their way home.

When the truck finally jerked to a stop in front of Seventh Heaven, the lightning and thunder had stopped, though the rain still pounded the windows. Denzel had fallen asleep long ago, head slumped against Cloud's now numb arm. The driver, a WRO worker who appeared to be a few years younger than Cloud, rushed out his door to unload Cloud's motorcycle. The young man took it out with careful eagerness. He seemed half-awed half-frightened of Cloud.

Cloud thanked the driver and gently shook Denzel awake.

"Wake up Denzel," Cloud whispered. "We're home."

Denzel opened his eyes blearily and looked around. He seemed confused to find himself in the truck, but as he woke up a little, comprehension entered his eyes and he opened the truck door. Cloud jumped down quickly to steady Denzel as the little boy stumbled down to the concrete below. They hurried over to the door and Cloud fumbled for his keys.

The house was dark and silent. Cloud breathed in deeply, a sense of peace washing over him. It was good to be home again. Denzel, yawning widely, seemed to be sharing similar thoughts. He looked as though their day out had exhausted him. At least we won't be chasing him into bed tonight, Cloud thought amusedly.

"Why don't you head up to bed?" Cloud whispered to Denzel, unable to speak louder, in fear of breaking the stillness.

Denzel nodded, face split into another yawn, and removed his muddy shoes, placing them by the door. Cloud quickly removed his own muddy boots, trying to pretend that he had been planning to do so all along. After a quick whispered goodnight, Denzel padded through the living room and up the stairs. As the bedroom door upstairs closed, Cloud heard a soft stirring on the sofa.

Cloud walked quietly into the living room. He arrived at the sofa just in time to see a pajama-clad Marlene slip out from under Tifa arm. A moment before they had both been curled up on the sofa, sleeping soundly, but apparently Cloud and Denzel's arrival had awakened Marlene. In Marlene's absence, Tifa drew her arms to her chest and rolled over, still very much asleep.

"Cloud!" Marlene said, rubbing her eyes sleepily. "When'd you get home?"

"Barely a minute ago," he replied quietly. "Denzel just went up to bed."

Marlene nodded and tugged her blanket tighter around herself as she tip-toed over to Cloud. She eyeballed his numerous pockets.

"Get me anything?" she asked, smiling a sweet, sleepy smile.

"Not this time," Cloud told her, ruffling her messy brown hair.

Cloud felt a grin tugging his mouth as she shrugged her little shoulders, not put off in the least.

"Why'd you and Tifa decide to sleep on the couch?" he asked her, as her head began to nod sleepily.

Marlene blinked her eyelids heavily and looked pointedly out the window at the rain.

"It was storming Cloud," she said emphatically. "I told Tifa that the roof would blow off for sure. She said it wouldn't, but I thought we should sleep down here just in case."

"The roof's not going anywhere, Marlene," Cloud told her, amused as always by her irrational fears.

She gave him a skeptical look and he just sighed, unwilling to try to convince her further.

"Well, it's not storming anymore," he said, giving her a gentle push towards the stairs. "I'm sure your bed is safe now."

Marlene seemed too sleepy to argue otherwise, and she trudged sleepily up the stairs to her room. Cloud stood silently in the dark living room until he heard the gentle click of Marlene's door closing.

The living room was now completely silent except for Tifa's soft breathing over on the sofa. Walking quietly across the hardwood floor, Cloud moved closer and sat down on the end of the sofa by her feet.

As soon he sunk into the soft cushion, Tifa made a soft noise and lifted her head up from the pillow propped against the armrest. Cloud could see her brown eyes reflected the meager light in the living room. She blinked at him sleepily for a moment, but then she pushed herself into a sitting position, pushing stray hairs out of her face.

"Sorry," Cloud said softly. "Didn't mean to wake you up."

Tifa smiled and shook her head.

"I'm glad you did," she told him, her voice fuzzy with sleep. "I was getting worried. Is Denzel upstairs?"

Cloud nodded and watched as Tifa wrinkled her nose and rubbed the side of her neck.

"You shouldn't let Marlene talk you into sleeping on the sofa," Cloud said, with a reproachful gaze.

Tifa smiled and shrugged.

"The wind was loud upstairs," she admitted. "I couldn't sleep either."

Cloud laughed softly, and then they fell into silence again. Tifa drew her legs up under herself on the couch and leaned against the cushions, the ends of her hair just barely tickling Cloud's arm. He wouldn't have mind remaining in this comfortable silence for the rest of the night, but Cloud knew the question was coming.

"How'd it go?" she asked softly, and Cloud could feel her eyes on him, evaluating his reaction.

Cloud sighed and immediately felt the shift in Tifa's mood. The sofa cushions moved slightly as Tifa sat up straight. Cloud chanced a quick glance at her. He looked away quickly as he saw the mixture of concern and anxiety in her wide, brown eyes and blurted out the first thing he thought of.

"Reeve offered me a job," he said quickly.

Tifa jerked slightly in surprise, a pretty frown on her face.

"A... job?" she asked, sounding more confused than anything.

"Not as a WRO member," Cloud said quickly, and felt Tifa relax immediately. "But a delivery job. He wants someone he can trust to deliver important information to headquarters."

Tifa was quiet. Cloud knew what question would come next and hurried to answer before it was asked.

"I accepted," he said. "Reeve offered me a good sum of money and..."

"And..." Tifa prompted softly, peering at him inquisitively.

"And he promised that I would be able to make it home every night," Cloud said, his tone equally soft. "No more weeklong delivery jobs."

There was a sharp intake of breath from Tifa, and a creaking from the sofa and she leaned towards Cloud to peer at him closer.

"You mean it Cloud?" she asked, her voice hushed but hopeful.

When Cloud nodded, Tifa threw her arms around his neck, pressing her face into his shoulder. Her happiness was almost heartbreaking to Cloud, as he remembered what Denzel had told him earlier that day. Maybe it's not too late to make it up to her, Cloud thought, returning the hug gently.

Tifa drew back a little, her hands resting on his shoulder, his still circling her back, and she fixed him with another gaze.

"Is that all?" she asked quietly.

Immediately, Cloud felt sirens go off in his brain, telling him to keep quiet. Apparently, Tifa noticed something was wrong, because her brow wrinkled in concern. She looked so vulnerable in her pajamas, with her hair mussed from sleep, that Cloud couldn't bring himself to break the bad news to her. She tilted her head, now looking somewhat anxious, and her hands slid off Cloud's shoulders to his chest.

New, more urgent, sirens went off in Cloud's head, and he gently removed Tifa's hands, enclosing them into his own.

"That's all," he managed to choke out.

The lie burned in his chest. He avoided Tifa's eyes, focusing instead on her soft, warm hands which were still enclosed by his own. He felt her eyes on him for a moment, and he didn't dare look up until he heard her sigh gently and sink back into the sofa, her hands sliding out of his.

Any guilt that he felt over the lie almost disappeared when he saw the look of relief on Tifa's face. She gave him a gentle smile.

"I'm heading up to bed then," she said softly. "See you in the morning."

She brushed her lips across his cheek gently and Cloud's face lit up, though it was not visible in the dark room. The elation slowly drained away as Tifa disappeared up the stairs and into her room. The guilt stabbed at Cloud's gut, and he shifted uncomfortably on the sofa.

"There's no reason to tell her yet," Cloud reassured himself in a frantic mumble. "No need to upset her."

But a small part of him still disapproved of his lie.

"I'll tell her when I know more," he promised himself.

Cloud sat alone in the dark living room for a long time before heading up to bed. He felt almost overwhelmed with the need to not only keep Tifa safe from the new threat emerging, but to keep her happy, keep her from worrying. As he thought of how he would tell her about what he had learned in Reeve's office today, his mind kept straying to the warm spot on the couch where Tifa had been moments before, and the way her hands felt in his.

Chapter Text

Weeks later, life at Seventh Heaven was its quietest by far. Cloud, Tifa, Denzel, and Marlene had fallen into a comfortable daily routine that was beginning to become as natural to them as breathing. The days passed quickly, and the only thing that really changed was the weather, which was becoming colder day by day, as wintertime got closer.

Tifa was always up first, closely followed by Cloud. The bar opened at eight, but Tifa was usually up and going by six. Soon after, Cloud would trudge down the stairs, bleary-eyed and looking less than enthused about going outside and scraping the early morning frost off his motorcycle.

Truth be told, both of them wouldn't have minded an extra half-hour of sleep or so, but mornings were one of the only times they had to themselves. Of course, there was never much to talk about in the mornings, but when the bar was still dark and the house was quiet, they found that it was worth getting up earlier just so they could sit in each other's company before the hustle and bustle of the day really started.

Sometimes, Cloud learned, it was in these quiet shared mornings that he learned the most. For example, he could tell when nightmares had plagued Tifa dreams just by looking at her eyes. He ought to recognize that haunted look. After all, he had seen it in his own eyes many times. He found that at times, all it took was a quick squeeze of the hand to chase the look out of her eyes.

And then there were the few rare mornings when he'd have to hold her for a few minutes, until she was brave enough to smile again. Cloud had bad nights too, and he soon figured out that Tifa could read him as well as he could read her by the gentle way she treated him those mornings. But they never spoke of it. They already knew all about each other's horrors of the past.

But luckily, those mornings were few. Cloud and Tifa had discovered that it was in the times that you were the happiest and most at peace that all the bad things of your past come back to haunt you, simply because there is nothing more urgent on your mind. But they had yet to have a dream bad enough to haunt them throughout the day.

Even if the comfort of each other's presence wasn't enough to chase their past away, the two bouncing balls of energy they lived with would most certainly be enough. Marlene and Denzel had never failed to wake up at least fifteen minutes before Cloud's departure to run into the bar sunny-faced.

The peaceful bar always began to lose its quiet morning serenity at this point. As the bar filled with the morning light, it also filled with the unceasing chatter of the two children. Almost instantly the two children would begin to beg Tifa to let them drink coffee like Cloud, and after she said no, they would instantly begin begging Cloud for a sip of his.

Cloud, as always, was less resilient than Tifa. He let the children sneak a sip once and had to hide his chuckle from Tifa when their faces puckered at the bitter taste. They accepted their juice with much less sulking after that experience.

After Cloud left every morning at 7:30 or so, Tifa would begin to open the bar. Seventh Heaven was open every day from 8 am to 9 pm. They were strange hours for a bar, Tifa would admit, but Seventh Heaven wasn't so much a bar as it used to be nowadays. The bulk of costumers came between 11 am and 6 pm.

Marlene and Denzel usually ran around the house for the first part of the day. Marlene still loved to help with the bar, and Denzel usually grudging followed her example till after lunchtime, when to his great relief, Tifa chased them outside to go play with the other kids.

They always stumbled back in before dark, much more tired and dirty than they had been when the day started, ready to eat dinner. Usually, they didn't mind that Tifa insisted they come home before dark, but as "before dark" got earlier and earlier due to the days getting shorter and shorter, their wheedling finally convinced Tifa to allow them to stay out until at least 6:30, provided that they stay in sight of the bar if it's getting dark.

And so, after dark, when the bar was more or less empty, Tifa and the kids sat in the bar together waiting for Cloud to get home. Granted, Cloud made it home every night, but whether he'd come home at 7 or 9:30 or any time in between was always a mystery. The good part of this arrangement was that it kept Denzel and Marlene quiet for a couple of hours while Tifa cleaned up the bar. Each of them wanted to be the first to hear the putter of the motorcycle that meant Cloud was home.

And that's where Tifa found herself today. The glasses had already been cleaned and stacked and the soft lighting of the bar glinted off their surfaces. She'd even found time to clean the floors. Marlene and Denzel were sprawled out on their stomachs on the floor quietly playing a card game with Tifa's old beat-up deck. They were already cleaned up and in their pajamas.

Tifa sighed and absently straightened a chair or two. From her spot on the floor, Marlene was beginning to yawn, and Denzel's head was drooping from where it rested in his hands. Tifa glanced at the clock. It read half past nine. So, it's going to be a late night today, she thought. She looked sideways at the staircase. Cloud had bought a new phone to put in his room upstairs along with a new cellphone. If he was going to be later than ten, he'd call.

She walked over to the kids and sat on the floor next to their sprawled-out figures.

"Sure you two don't want to go to bed?" she asked softly, already knowing the answer.

They both shook their heads and pushed their cards around half-heartedly on the hardwood floor. Marlene sighed and sat up, leaning against Tifa's side.

"This game's getting boring," she told Tifa matter-of-factly.

Denzel lifted his chin out of his hands and nodded.

"Me and Marlene always tie," he said, tucking his feet under him as he lifted up off his stomach. "Except when I win."

Marlene made a face at him and turned to Tifa.

"I usually win," she corrected.

Denzel shrugged and leaned against the wall. Even the prospect of an argument of Marlene didn't seem all that exciting at the moment. Marlene sighed when she realized the argument was over before it had even begun. Tifa collected the cards slowly and slipped them back into the box. They sat in silence for a while before Marlene perked up.

"Hey Tifa?" she asked, her voice losing the bored, sleepy tone. "Let's play dragons and princess, like we used to!"

Marlene was smiling eagerly, but Denzel seemed less sure.

"I don't really want to play that game," he said, looking at Tifa uncomfortably.

Tifa looked at Denzel confusedly for a moment. Pretending to be a dragon and chasing Tifa around the bar while she screamed realistically as possible had once been a favorite past time of Marlene and Denzel. But then Denzel looked away with a troubled expression on his face, and Tifa remembered that he had witnessed Tifa being knocked unconscious by a real dragon, on one of the most frightening days of his life.

Though comprehension had dawned on Tifa's face, Marlene was still staring at Denzel's strangely closed face curiously.

"Why-" Marlene began, tilting her head.

But she never finished the question as a sound outside caused her to scramble to her feet.

"Cloud's home!" she said, rushing to the front door.

Tifa and Denzel rose up more slowly. Denzel's eyes were still pointed towards the floor. Tifa gently put an arm around his shoulder.

"I guess that game's not so fun anymore, huh?" she asked softly.

Denzel shook his head silently.

"Well, we'll find a different game that's just as fun, okay?" she said briskly.

Denzel gave a small smile and nodded.

"Maybe Marlene could be the princess, and we could attack her," he suggested. "That would be fun!"

Tifa laughed and jostled his shoulder playfully, glad that the troubled look was gone from his face. Denzel began walking out of the room to greet Cloud, but Tifa stopped him.

"If you ever want to talk about it," Tifa told him gently. "You know you can talk to me or Cloud, right?"

He nodded solemnly and walked out of the room. Tifa watched him walk out and shook her head with a small smile. Denzel wanted so much to be like Cloud, but he was already like him in more ways than he knew.

After the excitement of Cloud coming home, it had been nearly impossible to get the kids to fall asleep. In the end, Tifa had agreed to let them stay up while Cloud ate his late dinner, knowing that they'd drift off eventually and they'd end up getting carried up to bed.

So within about fifteen minutes, Tifa was turning off the lights and quietly closing the door to the children's bedroom. She walked down the stairs cautiously, careful not to make one creak that might wake them up again and went into the kitchen where Cloud was devouring his meal.

"No time for lunch today," he explained when Tifa cocked an eyebrow at him.

She smiled in understanding and sat down in another chair.

"Busy day?" she asked him sympathetically.

Cloud nodded and stared at his food. The fact that he hadn't told Tifa the bad news Reeve had told him weeks ago had been eating at him recently. But as the days went on, nothing new turned up and... Cloud guiltily stabbed his food with his fork. He just hadn't found an opening to tell her.

He glanced up at Tifa to see if she was going to question him further, but she seemed preoccupied with something completely unrelated. He put his fork down.

"Hey..." he said softly. "Something wrong?"

Tifa troubled sigh bothered him.

"Do you think the kids think about that day much?" she asked Cloud quietly.

There was no reason to specify what she meant by "that day." Cloud ran a hand through his hair thoughtfully.

"I don't know," he said truthfully. "Being kidnapped and all was probably pretty scary for them."

"Yea," Tifa said softly. "But everything turned out okay in the end, so I just figured..."

"All's well that ends well?" Cloud finished.

Tifa nodded, corners of her mouth tugged downwards. Cloud watched her carefully.

"Did one of the kids say something about the kidnapping?" Cloud prompted gently.

She shook her head, brow furrowed.

"Denzel... he said something about..." she looked up at Cloud. "Oh, you weren't there yet were you? When Bahumut attacked I-"

A look of understanding came over Cloud's face.

"Oh. That," he said softly.

Tifa looked confused.

"You already know?" she asked.

Cloud nodded, looking thoughtful.

"Denzel told me what happened awhile ago," he told Tifa quietly. "He was pretty shook up about it."

Tifa frowned.

"Why didn't he say something to me?" she wondered.

Cloud was silent. He knew exactly why Denzel didn't say anything to Tifa. It was scary to see Tifa hurt, and it frightened both Cloud and Denzel much more than it probably frightened Marlene to see Tifa knocked unconscious. Cloud ruefully remembered the conversation he and Denzel had after Denzel told him about the Bahumut attack.

"I didn't think anything could hurt Tifa," Denzel had admitted shyly. "She had her gloves and everything..."

Cloud had hesitated before saying anything. He imagined that Tifa and himself seemed invincible compared to Denzel's late parents. It most have been a cruel shock to him to find out that Tifa could die just as easily as his mother had despite their weapons and battle-hardened bodies.

"No one's invincible Denzel..." Cloud had replied slowly.

Denzel had nodded in understanding before looking up to Cloud, admiration shining in his eyes.

"But nothing bad will happen to any of us as long as you're around, right Cloud?" he asked eagerly.

All Cloud had been able to do was smile and nod, before gesturing for Denzel to go play with Marlene again.

In the present, Cloud shook his head and sighed. He sat with Tifa in silence for a bit, both caught in their own thoughts. He was surprised to feel Tifa lean her head on his shoulder after a minute, hiding her face.

"I just want either of them to end up..." she trailed off.

Cloud closed his eyes and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Like us... he finished silently.

Chapter Text

Winter in the Midgar area came swiftly with a harsh, bitter coldness. Even the children were reluctant to go outside, though they often pressed their noses to the window in hope of snow. Frost now covered the windows and ground daily, but they had yet to see even a flake of snow.

But Marlene and Denzel had yet to give up hope. They asked Cloud and Tifa at least five times a day when it was going to snow. When all Cloud and Tifa could offer as an answer was an exasperated "soon", Marlene and Denzel would return to their hopeful peering out the window. It was getting to the point that it was a challenge just to keep them in bed. They were convinced that it could start snowing any minute and were determined to spot the first snowflakes.

Which was why when Cloud heard a soft disturbance around 3 o'clock in the morning, he immediately sat up to go toss Marlene or Denzel back in bed. It wasn't until he reached the children's bedrooms that he realized two things. The children were both sound asleep and he was freezing.

Now completely awake, he blew between his hands and rubbed them together, trying to keep them warm. The hallway felt like an icebox. Cloud could feel the cold air seeping through through his pant legs and thin t-shirt, sending shivers down his spine. He quickly ducked into his room to pull on a sweatshirt and a pair of mismatched socks. Cloud noted that his room was the same temperature as the hallway, and marveled that he hadn't noticed before.

"Heat must be broken..." he muttered to himself.

Cloud crept out into the hallway again, slightly gloomy at the thought of fighting with the water broiler. Barret had set it up when they had built Seventh Heaven, and to Cloud, it was just an odd metal barrel with numerous pipes sticking out of it. He was even less enthusiastic about the thought of going into the dark, tiny basement of Seventh Heaven. It was chilly down there during the summer, it must be iced over down there now.

Once downstairs, he fumbled with the cold metal doorknob and opened the door to the narrow wooden staircase. He could barely see the first three steps because the basement was so dark, but he could see a beam of light moving around at the bottom, and he found the source of the disturbance that had woken him up.

"Tifa!" he said in surprise.

She turned around quickly, and the beam of light landed on his face. Cloud put a hand up to block the light and she lowered it, apologizing softly through chattering teeth. Cloud stepped closer.

"You should have woken me up," he reprimanded gently. "Any luck?"

"Nope," she whispered, subconsciously drawing close to the warmth of another body in the cold, dark basement.

Cloud put out a hand, and Tifa placed the flashlight in his palm, her icy fingers brushing him as she did so. He directed the beam towards the water broiler. A frown tugged at his lips when he saw it. It still looked like an odd metal barrel with tubes to him. Gingerly, he felt up and down the numerous tubes, checking for leaks. As he did so, he noted that the metal was every bit as frigid as the rest of the house.

He turned away from the confusing mess of metals and tubes to Tifa. Her face was gently illuminated by the weak beam of the flashlight. She looked every bit as confused as he was.

"Any ideas?" she asked, shuddering from the chill.

Cloud shook his head no.

"I'm lost," he admitted. "We might as well go back up."

His hand carefully found her elbow, ushering her towards the steps. He almost drew away in shock when his hand met cold skin. Tifa was still in one of the thin-strapped pajama tops she always wore.

"Christ Tifa..." he swore, pulling his sweatshirt over his head. "Put this on before you freeze."

He held the shirt out to her, and he felt her hands tentatively close her hands around the material. Despite their dark surroundings, he could feel her eyes on him, and he looked down at her. Tifa was gazing at him warily, looking almost hurt. Then, with a searing pain in his chest, he realized that he had just raised his voice at her.

"I'm sorry Tifa," he said softly. "I didn't mean to..."

He trailed off, unsure of how to finish.

"It just makes me upset when you..." he tried again.

Again, he wasn't sure what exactly he was trying to say. He could still feel Tifa's eyes on him, and he sighed helplessly.

"I can't stand it when you look at me like that," he finished weakly, still avoiding her hurt gaze.

He heard a faint rustling as she slipped the sweatshirt over her head. Cloud could feel himself blushing, and he wasn't exactly sure why. To his surprise, he felt Tifa's slender hand slip into his hand and her lips next to his ear.

"Thanks for caring, Cloud," she whispered gently, and he could hear the smile in her voice.

Cloud felt himself involuntarily returning her smile, and he followed her up the stairs, his hand still caught up in hers, and he was surprised to find that even though he wasn't wearing his sweatshirt anymore, he was no longer cold.

When Marlene woke up hours later, there was just one thought on her mind. Oblivious to the cold, she bounced out of bed and rushed over to the window, pushing aside the blinds. She stood on tip-toes to look outside. Her little shoulders slumped in disappointment. No snow.

Now shivering from the cold, Marlene raced to her bed, cocooning herself in her toasty blankets. As the springs on her bed creaked from her bouncing, she heard Denzel stir over in his bed. He sat up slowly, clutching his blankets around himself tightly.

"Snow?" he asked Marlene hopefully.

Marlene just shook her head. Denzel sighed, but still got up to look out the window, dragging his blanket along with him. Marlene joined him at the window, still wrapped in her blanket too.

"It's cold!" she exclaimed, giving an exaggerated shiver.

Denzel nodded in agreement, still observing the snow-free view sadly. The two children turned from the window and padded out the door.

"Maybe Tifa has hot chocolate for us," Denzel said, his blanket dragging on the floor.

Marlene's face brightened up considerably at this thought and began walking faster down the stairs. The two children shuffled down the stairs and into the living room, sniffing the air hopefully for a whiff of chocolate. As they were passing the sofa, Marlene stopped and put her hands on her little hips.

"Look!" she whispered to Denzel. "They're not even awake yet!"

Denzel looked over to the sofa, and granted, Cloud and Tifa were curled up on it. All that was visible of Tifa's head was splayed strands of dark hair. Her face was hidden in the nook of Cloud's neck. Cloud's chin was rested on top of her head, his arms wrapped close around Tifa's back. Denzel felt somewhat uncomfortable and began to back away. It seemed like too personal a scene for him and Marlene to be seeing.

"Marlene maybe we should just..." he began.

But apparently Marlene didn't feel the same. Before Denzel could stop her, she was on top of both Cloud and Tifa, dropping her blankets in the process.

"Wake up sleepy heads!" she chirped.

Denzel heard Cloud choke as Marlene kneed him in the gut accidentally. Cloud and Tifa sat up slowly, looking confused at first as to where there were. They seemed to realize after a moment that they had fallen asleep on the couch together. Slowly, cheeks tinged pink, they untangled their bodies from the close confines of the couch, avoiding Marlene's knees as she bounced on them.

"Tifa it's so cold!" Marlene exclaimed. "Why is it so cold? And when is it going to snow?"

Tifa smiled and grabbed Marlene's blanket, wrapping it back around her little shoulders.

"The heater's broken," Tifa told her. "And it will snow soon, I promise!"

Marlene smiled cheerfully. Denzel sulked behind her.

"I thought it'd snow today for sure," he mumbled.

Tifa gave him an apologetic grin and shrug. Cloud ruffled his hair reassuringly.

"Give it time," he told Denzel. "Pretty soon you'll be sick of snow."

Marlene and Denzel gave Cloud a doubtful look. Tifa smiled at him over their head, a smile much shyer than the normal one she usually gave him. Her hair was still tousled from sleep, and her petite frame was almost lost in his sweatshirt. He felt suddenly dizzy. He almost stumbled when Denzel tugged his arm.

"Are you staying home today?" he asked Cloud eagerly.

Cloud had to restrain himself from swearing and Tifa's eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh Cloud!" she said, looking worried. "You're going to be late."

She motioned him towards the stairs.

"Go get ready," she told him. "I'll go make something quick."

Tifa and Marlene marched into the kitchen, but Denzel lingered behind. He followed Cloud with slightly disappointed eyes. Cloud put a hand on his shoulder.

"How about this Denzel," he said. "When it snows, I'll take a day off work so we can all go out in the snow together."

Denzel's face brightened up.

"Deal!" he said, racing off into the kitchen.

Cloud watched him go with a grin, even though he wasn't positive that increasing Denzel's excitement about snow was the best idea ever. He went to his room quickly, going as fast as he could through the ice-cold house. A faint smile played on his face as he noticed the entire right side of his body was still warm from where Tifa had been sleeping on him. He was pretty sure that Tifa hadn't meant to fall asleep on his shoulder on the couch, but it was just so easy and so tempting to just lay back on the couch and hold her that Cloud couldn't bear to wake her up.

By the time Cloud pulled up in front of WRO Headquarters, it was about an hour past the time he was supposed to have been there. He wasn't worried though. His job was fairly flexible and Reeve had worse things to worry about other than whether Cloud was exactly on time or not. Cloud parked quickly and rushed into the building, turning his collar up against the bitter wind.

He stepped into the lobby and sighed out loud with relief. For the first time since the heat broke, he was surrounded by warm air. Cloud felt a surge of guilt when he thought of Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel stuck in Seventh Heaven with its subzero temperature. He hoped Tifa would be able to get a hold of Barret and he would be able to tell her how to fix the heat.

The receptionist interrupted his thoughts, calling from the desk across the lobby.

"Cloud?" she said motioning him over. "I have a message for you from Reeve."

He cheerfully noted that it was the motherly, older receptionist rather than the young one that had been so rude to him and Denzel the day they tracked mud all over the lobby. The receptionist today, Mrs. Judy, was his favorite; she always gave him food, insisting that growing boys needed the extra portions. Cloud was afraid that if he admitted to her, he had stopped growing about five years ago, she wouldn't give him food anymore.

"Good morning, Cloud," Mrs. Judy said kindly. "A little late this morning, are you?"

Cloud nodded sheepishly, trying not to be too obvious as he looked her desk over for a pastry box or covered plate. It looked disappointingly food-free.

"So, Reeve has a message for me?" Cloud asked, trying not to let on that he had been hoping for an éclair, or a pastry, or maybe one of those sugar-covered scones.

"Reeve wanted to let you know that he's in the office today," the receptionist said, bringing Cloud's wistful thoughts to a stop. "And he wanted you to come up as soon as you got in."

"Right," he said distractedly, turning away to head upstairs.

"Oh, and Cloud?" the old woman said, with a hint of amusement in her voice.

Cloud turned around hopefully, and the receptionist smiled, holding out a small, covered plate.

"A snack for later," she said, handing it over.

Thanking her, Cloud eagerly took the plate and continued heading down the hallway. Though headquarters had been confusing to him at first, he was now used to the big building and turned the corners thoughtlessly as he approached the elevator.

The elevator went up a few floors and finally let out a "ding" as it reached Cloud's destination. He walked to the waiting area leisurely. Reeve's secretary was used to him wandering in, and waved Cloud into the office without question.

When Cloud stepped into the office, he did a double take. It had been a few weeks since he'd actually seen Reeve in person, and he looked exhausted. His goatee was haggard and there were dark circles under his eyes, indicating it had been awhile since he'd gotten sleep. Cloud felt the carefree attitude he had felt since he woke up that morning slowly melt away.

"I take it you don't have anything good to tell me," Cloud said lowly, sitting down in a chair opposite Reeve's.

Reeve sighed and ran a hand over his face.

"I'm afraid not," he said dully.

Cloud remained silent, waiting for Reeve to elaborate. He looked reluctant.

"The Turks did extensive research the past couple weeks," Reeve said, his voice scratchy. "What I told you last time only scratches the surface."

Hiding his apprehension about Reeve's words, Cloud adopted a calm, casual voice.

"What did you find out?" he asked flatly.

"They call themselves Deep Ground Soldiers," Reeve answered quietly.

"Deep Ground Soldiers," Cloud repeated in a mumble, brow furrowed.

Reeve nodded.

"The ones who were experimented on most by Hojo seem to be the leaders," Reeve told Cloud in a quiet voice. "We've been trying to work up a profile on them, but it would be nearly impossible to make one for all the others..."

Cloud stiffened at this.

"Exactly how many of them are there?" he asked, almost dreading Reeve's answer.

"A whole army of them," Reeve answered.

There was a deafening silence that followed Reeve's statement. With the world struggling to restore itself and lacking a strong centralized government, it was an incredibly easy target. Not to mention that they had no idea exactly where this army was hiding, and when they would strike.

"Vincent seems to know something," Reeve said, just to break the silence. "I tried talking to him just yesterday, but you know how he can be."

Cloud nodded in understanding. Unless Vincent really wanted to discuss something, it was nearly impossible to get more than a single word or cryptic phrase out of him.

"Anyways..." Reeve said, clearing his throat. "We don't expect an attack for awhile so there's no immediate threat. However... I expect you, Tifa, and the kids will not be safe in Edge for long."

Another silence descended on the room. Reeve was watching Cloud for his response, but Cloud remained silent. He knew he could not put it off any longer. It was time to tell Tifa.

Chapter Text

Marlene and Denzel sat on the sofa, snuggled under layers of blankets, and watched the basement door, waiting for Tifa to emerge from it. The bar had been closed for the day, considering Seventh Heaven was too cold for customers. Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel had spent the majority of the day huddled close under a pile of blankets, trying to stay warm and cure their boredom at the same time.

After much wheedling from Marlene and Denzel, Tifa had given in to telling them stories from her and Cloud's old Avalanche days. At first Tifa had stumbled around in her mind, trying to find a story to tell them that wouldn't be painful to tell. In the end, she decided to tell them about the time Cid managed to launch his rocket into space.

It was extremely amusing to see Marlene and Denzel's eyes grow wider and wider as the story progressed. When she was done, the two children decided that "Rocket Launch into Outer Space" would be their new favorite game to play as soon as there was heat again.

Periodically during the day, Tifa would dial Barret's number into the phone with stiff, cold fingers. Time after time, he was unreachable. Luckily for Tifa, the children were so captivated by the idea of outer space that they didn't even think to beg for another story.

It was dark by the time Tifa had managed to get a hold of Barret. The children had grinned widely when they recognized the deep, gruff voice on the other end of the phone. Reluctantly, Tifa had stood up from their warm cocoon on the sofa and entered the dark basement, cradling the phone to her ear.

Now the children were waiting for her, alone in the living room. They could hear faint clinking noises coming from the basement and every now and then, they heard Tifa talking to Barret, her frustration barely detectable through her patient tone. But finally, they heard Tifa's triumphant shout, and a minute later, she was emerging from the basement door, flushed with cold and shaking, but smiling.

"It's fixed!" she said cheerfully, coming over quickly to dive back under the blankets.

Denzel and Marlene shouted out happily, their breath clouding the cold air as they did so.

"Oh, and Marlene?" Tifa said, holding the phone out. "Your Papa wants to talk to you."

Marlene grinned widely and took the phone. A minute later she was chatting away, cradling the phone with both hands. Tifa smiled at the little girl's enthusiasm, and held the blankets closer around her, trying to get rid of the cold that had seeped into her limbs. Denzel's back was pressed against her from one side as he idly flipped some weapon catalog of Cloud's and Marlene was laying across her lap with the phone.

Best seat in the house, Tifa thought with a smile.

Cloud's day had been unbearably long. He quickly dropped off the last box of folders and files he had retrieved from the old Shinra building, at Reeve's office. He checked his watch somewhat guiltily as he rushed down the hall. He was going to be late again.

"Having a rough day dear?" the old receptionist, Mrs. Judy, asked as he burst into the lobby.

Cloud skidded to a stop and scratched his hair sheepishly.

"You could say that," he mumbled.

She smiled and tapped her pen against the clipboard on her desk. Cloud sighed as he realized he'd almost forgotten to sign out. He ran a hand over his face and came over. The receptionist watched his as he signed his name hastily and looked at his watch irritably to note the time.

"Running late again?" she asked sympathetically.

Cloud nodded distractedly.

"I hope you won't be in trouble," Mrs. Judy said, her voice teasing and a twinkle in her eye.

He looked up from the clipboard, a smile almost detectable around the corners of his lips.

"Not too much trouble," he told her.

Slowly, the corners of his mouth turned downwards.

"I just don't like leaving them alone," Cloud said slowly.

"Do you have a family at home?" she asked with a smile.

Cloud started at her words. Had he really never spoken to the receptionist about Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel? A second later he berated himself for being so surprised. He wasn't a social person in the first place, and he was more content to eat Mrs. Judy's food than actually converse. Slowly he reached into his pocket and pulled out a photograph.

The old receptionist took it gently with her wrinkled hand. She smiled as she unfolded it. It was the same picture of him, Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel that he had framed in his room, but much more battered and creased. It was the copy of the picture that Cloud had carried with him when he left home so long ago. It had gotten him through some hard times, and he rarely left home without it.

The receptionist gave his hand a gentle pat before she handed him the picture back.

"What a lovely family," she said. "I can see why you are reluctant to leave them alone."

He grinned and nodded, feeling proud for some reason. Cloud hadn't noticed before that he liked people knowing that they were all a family. He carefully folded the picture and put it in his pocket.

"They must be hard to disappoint," the receptionist said kindly.

Cloud felt his face harden and he nodded. He said a quick goodbye and rushed out the door. He needed to talk to Tifa before he lost his nerve.

Seventh Heaven was dark when he got home. It always gave him a bad feeling to come home when the lights were out. It meant that he was so late everyone had given up on waiting for him. And that was saying something, considering Marlene and Denzel were next to impossible to put to bed.

Cloud pushed the door open and smiled as he stepped into a warm house. Barret must have helped Tifa out, he thought, locking the door behind him. He paused briefly in the entranceway to wipe his boots off before continuing into the living room.

The living room was a mess. He smiled ruefully when he saw the scattered puzzles, toys, books, and games on the floor. Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel must have spent all day in here, Cloud thought. He walked carefully across the living room, avoiding the obstacles on the floor and stopped at the foot of the sofa.

Tifa and the kids were fast asleep on the sofa, curled up like a bunch of cats under what seemed to be every blanket in the house. Tifa was almost in a seated position, Marlene's upper half asleep on her lap, and Denzel leaning heavily against her shoulder. They looked peaceful.

So this is the hard part, Cloud thought, watching Tifa's nose unconsciously wrinkle as her hair fell across her face. Should I wake her up? Or maybe I can wait till tomorrow. He about lost his nerve, but luckily Tifa made his mind up for him.

"Cloud!" she whispered, moving carefully as to not wake up the children. "You're home late."

He nodded, and Tifa rubbed her eyes, still waking up. She fixed him with a gaze. He tried not to look away.

"Something's wrong," Tifa sighed.

Again, Cloud nodded. Tifa's face tensed as she looked up, waiting for him to elaborate. She noticed how he looked at the kids apprehensively.

"Outside?" Tifa whispered, jerking her head toward the door.

She gently peeled Marlene off her lap and Denzel off her shoulder and stood cautiously. The two children stirred slightly, but fell still after a moment, stretching out on the sofa in Tifa's absence. Tifa grabbed her coat and shoes and bundled up quickly. Cloud, who was still in his outdoor things, watched her tentatively.

The two adults went out the front door quickly, reluctant to let any more cold air into Seventh Heaven now that it was warm again. It was a calm night. The street was empty and the air was cold and quiet. Cloud and Tifa stood on the front steps, facing one another, their arms crossed in front of their bodies to stay warm.

"Well?" Tifa asked, her breath steaming in the frigid air.

Cloud could tell by the look in her eyes that her calm tone was forced. He scuffed his boot restlessly against the cement.

"Let's sit," he said quietly.

Tifa nodded, and they sat side by side on the small cement step, shoulders barely touching. It was much easier this way, to stare at Tifa's shoes instead of her face as he told her.

And so, he told her about the Deep Ground Soldiers, everything Reeve had told her. As he told her more and more, he sensed her pulling closer, the fear and cold drawing her in. By the time he finished, she was shivering. He realized how easy it would be to end there. All she wanted at the moment was comfort, and all he really wanted was to hold her, and tell her that everything would be alright.

"How long have you known?" she whispered suddenly.

Cloud hesitated, and immediately he felt Tifa pull back.

"Cloud look at me!" she demanded, the slightest trace of anger in her voice. "How long have you known?"

He reluctantly granted her request and met her eyes.

"Ever since the first day I went to Reeve's," he told her.

Tifa stood quickly and turned her back to him, but not before he saw the hurt and betrayal in her face. Cloud scrambled to his feet quickly and put a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off coldly.

"Tifa..." he pleaded softly. "I'm sorry."

She whipped around quickly, angry tears in her eyes.

"So you just been lying to me?" she asked him, hands planted on her hips. "I thought that was going to stop Cloud! I thought we were going to be honest with each other..."

She spun her back to him again. Cloud saw her hand dart up to her eyes once or twice. She was trying to wipe her eyes without him seeing. He took a step closer, but Tifa's voice stopped him from continuing forward.

"It's just like the Geostigma..." she whispered, ducking her head.

"No Tifa..." he protested gently. "It's not."

Again, she turned, this time not even hiding a tear trailing down her cheek. She roughly wiped it away, eyes sparking.

"It's not like Geostigma..." he protested. "Because I'm not leaving this time!"

"Why do you feel like you have to hide things from me?" she asked, her voice more tearful than angry now.

She stood about a foot away, fists clenched at her sides, chest heaving with passionate anger. Her hair was blowing fiercely in the cold breeze, her eyes shiny with tears.

"Because I..." Cloud whispered, eyes locked with hers. "I..."

"Because what?" she asked, her tone still hurt.

They fell into silence. Under Cloud's gaze, Tifa's angry demeanor slowly melted. Her hands unclenched and fell limply at her sides, and she let a tear roll down without swatting it away in spite. She took a small step closer.

"Because what Cloud?" she whispered, her voice so faint, it almost blended with the wind.

It had begun to snow, but neither of them took any notice. Snowflakes settled on Tifa's dark hair and caught in her thick lashes but she ignored it.

"Because..." Cloud breathed faintly.

He took a step closer, and almost unconsciously, his hand reached to her cheek, his thumb softly brushing away a soft dampness on Tifa's cheek that was either a tear or a melted flake of snow. Her eyes closed briefly as his touch.

Her eyes flew open almost immediately as his other arm snaked around her back, his hand resting against the soft, surprisingly warm, skin between her coat and the top of her pants. Cloud thought maybe he had crossed a boundary, but he found that he had been longing to touch her bare skin this way for so long, that he couldn't move away. His heart almost stopped when he felt Tifa's cold hands pleasantly snake up behind the back of his neck, which was beginning to feel uncomfortably hot.

"Because..." he repeated again, his mouth now so close, that his breath was melting snowflakes that had fallen on Tifa's lips. "Tifa I...I..."

And for what seemed to be barely a millisecond to Cloud, he could barely feel the soft fullness of Tifa's lips under his. It was so short it could barely count as a kiss, and he could already feel Tifa's arms tightening around his neck, and his fingers tensing against her back, pulling each other closer.

And then, the door was bursting open.

"Snow! Snow!" the ecstatic voices came. "It's snowing!"

They were now standing side by side, the intertwined fingers between them not nearly enough contact for either of them.

"It's snowing Tifa!" Marlene shouted cheerfully, spinning in the swirling snow.

Denzel followed Marlene's example in spinning in bouncy circles.

"Cloud's staying home tomorrow!" he announced with glee. "And it's snowing!"

Cloud risked a glance in Tifa's direction. He knew her heavily flushed cheeks weren't just from the cold. And somehow, he knew that the glimmer of fear in her eyes wasn't just in fear of the new danger coming their way. She was afraid of what had almost just happened. And then, noticing that he was squeezing Tifa's hand as hard as she was squeezing his, Cloud realized that he was scared too.

Chapter Text

Tifa had slept fitfully all night. It was now barely morning, but she couldn't bring herself to lay her head back on her pillow. She sat up in bed, hair tangled from sleep, her blanket tight around her shoulders, and stared out the window. The streets were covered in a soft layer of powder white snow, and flakes were still falling. Tifa sighed and leaned against the wall, pressing her fingertips gently against the cold glass of her bedroom window.

Even though she was cuddled comfortably between her bed and window, she couldn't rid herself of the feeling that she was falling. She had gotten so used to the routine her, Cloud, and the kids had fallen into that any change left her somewhat startled. There was another threat on the horizon, just when peace had been reestablished. But was that really such a shock?

Tifa had known since she was eight that life never dealt you the hand you expected. Things could change in the blink of an eye, people could die, and the lives of the ones you loved most could be threatened. But she wasn't that worried about that. By now, she knew that she, Cloud, Marlene, and Denzel were all survivors. No matter what happened, they would fight until the end to stay alive.

No, that wasn't what had kept her up all night, tossing and turning.

It was that longing she felt when Cloud held her close, the almost overwhelming desire that made her skin burn when she felt the slightest brush of his lips against hers, that kept her from falling asleep. She gently touched her lips with shaking hands and closed her eyes.

Had she really never felt those feelings before? Deep down she knew they had always been there. But when meteor had loomed on the horizon, it had been more than enough to sleep on Cloud's shoulder and know he was close. Times and times before, a smile and the occasional and incredibly cherished hug were enough for her. She and Cloud had fallen into a comfortable relationship. They were always there for one another.

Now, she found herself asking if it was enough for her. She had thought she had all she wanted, a family. She now knew that Cloud would never leave her or the kids. They would always be there for each other, and they knew they loved each other. Whether or not they loved each other was never the question. They knew they did.

But was that enough? Tifa hugged her knees to her chest. She had thought it was. It had been enough for her. Just having Cloud home and being able to watch over him, knowing he was safe and happy had been enough to keep her happy. She knew she could live the rest of her life that way if she wanted to.

She pulled the covers tighter around her. Did she want that? The answer was yes, of course, but she was beginning to find out that she wanted more. She didn't want to be satisfied with cold nights alone in her room, wondering whether Cloud was tossing and turning too. She wanted to feel his arms around her and feel more than gentle concern or affection.

She wanted to feel the passion and the desire that she felt last night. Tifa didn't want to have to hold it back anymore. She could feel the tension between her and Cloud reaching the breaking point, and she knew Cloud could feel it too.

But she was scared. She knew that if they decided that they wanted to cross that line together, there was no going back.

Cloud sat on the edge of his bed waiting impatiently as the hold music continued on the phone. Denzel was bouncing excitedly by Cloud's window, wearing his pajamas and a pair of snow boots. He pressed his nose to the window and looked to Cloud eagerly. Cloud held up a finger, exasperation and amusement clear on his face.

"Cloud?" Reeve's voice finally crackled through the phone.

Denzel faintly heard that Cloud was no longer on hold and rushed to the foot of the bed, silent so he might be able to hear the conversation.

"Hey Reeve," Cloud replied, brow wrinkling at the bad transmission. "You there?"

"I'm here," Reeve replied loudly. "I can barely hear you though."

Cloud spoke a little louder.

"The streets are pretty bad..." he said slowly. "I don't think I'll be able to make it in today."

Denzel jumped up and down excitedly, and Cloud quickly hushed him. He sat next to Cloud on the end of the bed, barely containing his exhilaration. Cloud stood up and paced around his room as he spoke to Reeve, trying to figure out where the reception was best. Finally, he came to a stop head tilted, listening to the man on the other end. Denzel watched him, wringing his hands eagerly.

When Cloud silently gave Denzel the thumbs-up, he jumped off the bed, letting out at happy exclamation. Cloud exasperatedly hung up the phone.

"Go wake up Marlene then and get ready," he told Denzel.

Denzel nodded and raced out of the room, his snow boots pounding on the floors. Cloud watched him go and sighed, falling back on his bed. He ran his hand through his blond spikes, holding his head in his hands for a minute. Lately, his head tended to feel like it was going to explode.

He wondered if Tifa was awake yet, and when they would get a chance to talk alone. Cloud felt confused. On one hand, he wanted to talk to Tifa more than anything, but on the other, the concept terrified him. What in the world was he supposed to say?

He knew that he'd be there for her no matter what. He had promised her long ago that he'd be a hero for her, and he had promised himself numerous times that he'd never let anything happen to her. If she wanted things to be the way they used to be... Cloud swallowed hard. He could live with that. He would force himself to, if it would make her happy.

But if she wanted... Cloud wasn't even sure how to finish the sentence. If she wanted... more... then... He sighed and rubbed his face. He knew that was what he wanted. Whatever more was... he wanted that with Tifa.

But he knew deep down that despite anything he might feel, he could hold it back if Tifa wanted it that way. He owed her that much. It would kill him to hold his feelings back, to see her everyday but not be able to touch her the way he wanted to, but if it was for Tifa, he could do it.

So how exactly was he supposed to tell her that? He was getting better at the whole "communication" deal but this was beyond him. The idea of sitting down and having a serious discussion about feelings made Cloud shudder involuntarily. This situation felt painfully familiar. He tried to recall the advice Tifa had given him last time.

"Cloud... words aren't the only thing that tell someone what you're thinking..."

Cloud groaned and buried his face into his hands. What had he gotten himself into?

Tifa was strangely grateful for the mass chaos as she tried to get Denzel and Marlene ready to go out into the snow.

"Hold still!" she told Marlene, holding her gently by the shoulders.

The little girl wriggled impatiently as Tifa's hands gently tugged her hair back into a braid. The little girl was already bundled up in several layers of clothes. Tifa looked her over with a critical eye.

"Put a hat on," Tifa commanded. "And go put on a pair of long socks over the ones you have now."

Marlene ran off to go dig around in the closet.

"Gloves!" Tifa shouted at her retreating back.

Pushing past Marlene, Denzel tromped forward to get approval from Tifa. His face was shiny and eager. Smiling, Tifa pulled his hat up so that his eyes were visible.

"Put your coat on Denzel!" she said exasperatedly. "And put socks on for goodness sake!"

Denzel wriggled out of his boots and began pulling all the socks out of the drawer. Tifa sighed and sat down on Marlene's bed. She was remembering now why she and Cloud had never pursued a deeper relationship... No time! Tifa thought. But still, a smile tugged at her lips as she watched Marlene and Denzel run around the room getting ready, the thought of snow exciting them beyond words. And yet, Tifa thought to herself, getting up to help Denzel into his coat. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Marlene and Denzel were now bundled up to her satisfaction and grinning up at her. She tapped a finger to her chin and tried to think if there was anything she was forgetting. Tifa looked down slowly at her feet clad in two thick pairs of socks and slapped a hand to her forehead.

"My boots!" she groaned. "I wonder if Cloud..."

Before she could finish the thought, Cloud entered the doorway, holding up a pair of red boots.

"Found them," he said quietly holding them out to Tifa.

Tifa took them from him slowly. She could feel his eyes on her as she bent down to slip them on. The excited chatter of the children seemed far away now as Tifa got lost in her thoughts once more. So far this morning, everything between her and Cloud had been tentative, as though they were tip-toeing around each other.

"Can we go now?" a voice chirped happily.

Tifa found her vision blocked by Marlene's big brown eyes staring right at her.

"We can go," Tifa assured her, smiling.

Marlene and Denzel cheered, and raced out of the bedroom, their snow boots pounding on the floor. Tifa stood slowly and looked over to Cloud who was waiting by her in the doorway. He met her eyes cautiously.

She approached him slowly. He made to back away so she could make it through the door. It seemed as though he had been afraid to touch her all morning. Tifa gently grabbed his sleeve and stopped him from moving back. He looked down at her, eyes inquisitive.

"It's okay," she said softly.

Cloud tilted his head, not sure he understood. Tifa slipped her gloved hand into his.

"You don't have to ask my permission to touch me" she clarified in a whisper, before pulling him out the door.

Cloud stumbled after her down the stairs, feeling as though the steps were moving beneath him. Sometimes he wondered if Tifa knew what she did to him.

"Tifa!" Denzel said sternly as Tifa tried to juggle a few snowballs. "You're not taking this seriously!"

Tifa quickly stopped juggling and put on her most serious face.

"I am taking this seriously," she told Denzel.

He gave her a skeptical look and added a handful of snow on top of their snow fort. Tifa peered around the edge of their carefully crafted snow wall, her snowballs carefully cradled in the nook of her arm. Denzel hovered behind her.

"Do you see them yet?" he whispered.

Tifa shook her head, shaking her loose black strands of hair. Denzel nervously packed down more snow to make the wall stronger.

"They're gunna get us back bad," he said nervously.

Tifa silently agreed with him. Their fun little Cloud and Marlene versus her and Denzel snowball fight had gone from a leisurely game to full out war when she and Denzel had managed to shove handfuls of snow down the back of Cloud's shirt and mix it in with his hair. The past ten minutes had been spent in tense anticipation of what punishment they would be dealing out to them.

"They just disappeared!" Tifa whispered, peeking around the corner again.

The little boy nodded solemnly.

"I bet they're waiting out there for us to leave," he said suspiciously. "We should probably hold our ground."

Tifa bit back a smile as Denzel's no-nonsense attitude and tried to nod as seriously as possible. She leaned back against the snow wall as Denzel scanned the premises. Snow was still falling steadily from the sky. Tifa played with the snow at her side. The snow was now piled so thickly, you couldn't even tell that they were playing in the middle of the street.

"Tifa!" Denzel shouted suddenly. "Watch out!"

Tifa attempted to scramble to her feet, but it was too late. Cloud and Marlene were standing over their snow wall, and in their hands were big buckets filled to the top with fresh snow.

"Cloud! Marlene!" Tifa half-pleaded, half-laughed. "Don't you dare-"

Tifa and Denzel shrieked loudly as snow was dumped over top their heads, sticking in their hair and blinding them. Their shouts of protest were drowned out by Cloud and Marlene's hysterical laughter. As Tifa shook snow out her hair, she heard Cloud urging Marlene through fits of laughter to run.

"Not so fast!" Tifa said, stumbling to her feet. "Come on Denzel! Let's get them!"

She pulled Denzel to his feet, and they clumsily ran after the other two, tripping over the deep snow. Cloud and Marlene looked over their shoulders and tried to speed up as they saw they were being chased. Giggling like mad, Marlene tripped and landed face forward in a soft pile of snow.

As Cloud turned back to help her up, he was tackled to the ground by Tifa and Denzel's bodies. Tifa, slung over his stomach, held him down as Denzel planted snowball after snowball in his face.

"Marlene!" Cloud hollered. "Help!"

The little girl scampered to her feet and jumped on top of Tifa. Cloud grunted at the added weight.

"I said help me, not suffocate me!" Cloud protested.

Marlene just giggled as Tifa turned on her, flicking little bits of snow into her hair.

"I'll help you Cloud!" Denzel offered, grabbing Tifa's leg and trying to pull her off.

"Hey!" Tifa said in mock-offense. "I thought you were on my side!"

Denzel just smiled and packed a snowball between his little gloved fists. Tifa smiled daringly.

"You wouldn't!" she said.

His only reply was to bring the snowball down on top of her hair, causing white flakes to fall over her face and down her back.

And then, it was as if they had never decided on teams. Snowballs were flying everywhere, and the four of them, red-faced and breathing loudly were all on the snow-covered ground, trying to avoid getting a face full of snow while doubled over with laughter.

Marlene and Denzel had Cloud pinned down, and he held his hands feebly up to ward off their attack, even though he could have easily grabbed each of them with one hand and stood up. Marlene sat triumphantly on his chest as Denzel buried his legs in snow. Laughing, Tifa helped him, and it only took minutes to cover his whole bottom half.

"Let's bury him all the way!" Marlene said excitedly. "And leave him there!"

Denzel and Tifa laughed but Cloud gasped, pretending to be offended.

"We could go back inside for a couple hours," Tifa suggested sweetly. "Then come back out and see who could find him first."

Marlene giggled gleefully as Cloud stood up, gently tossing her into a snow drift. Laughing, Denzel and Tifa scrambled backwards. Denzel charged at Cloud, but Cloud caught him under the arms and swung him into the snow next to Marlene.

"Run Tifa!" the children urged Tifa, shouting from their snow pile.

Out of breath with laughter, Tifa tried to get to her feet, but laughing almost as hard as she was, Cloud ran up behind her and slung her over one shoulder. Marlene and Denzel hooted with laughter as Tifa pounded Cloud's back with her fists.

"What should I do with her?" he asked the kids as Tifa tried to threaten him in-between bursts of laughter.

"Toss her!" Denzel chanted.

"Face down in the snow!" Marlene shouted.

Tifa's shouts of protest only encouraging him, Cloud shifted her flailing body around in his arms. As he made to toss her into the snow, she clung tightly to his arms, and the momentum of his toss brought him tumbling into the snow on top of her.

He heard Tifa's sharp intake of breath, and suddenly all the laughter faded from his face, and all games were over.

"Tifa?" he asked urgently, lifting himself up with his arms. "Did I hurt you?"

But a cheerful smile was spread across Tifa's face, her cheeks rosy from the cold snow. She was out of breath from all the laughing, and her hands were still wrapped around Cloud arms. Strands of black hair were splayed across the snow. She looked beautiful, he noticed.

Cloud turned his head as he heard the children running unsteadily towards them in the deep snow. He felt Tifa's hands tugging on his arms, and he gently righted her. Marlene and Denzel knelt down beside them in the snow.

"What do you two want to do now?" Tifa asked them.

Cloud didn't have to look at her to know she was smiling.

"Let's build a snowman!" Marlene suggested cheerfully.

Marlene's suggestion to build a snowman quickly evolved into them building a whole community of snow people. There were now several snow people scattered around the street in front of Seventh Heaven. Some of them were extremely tall, yet lopsided and malformed. Those ones were Cloud's. Tifa and the kids had laughed and teased Cloud about his deformed snowmen until he had gotten offended and knocked the head off of one of Tifa's perfectly formed snowmen.

This in turn, led to another snowball fight.

Finally, it had started to get dark, and the four of them had stumbled back into Seventh Heaven, wet, cold, exhausted, and hungry, yet extremely satisfied. The day had been the most fun any of them could remember ever having.

They all shed their wet outer layers in front of the door and then raced up to their own rooms to change into warm dry clothes. After steaming mugs of hot chocolate and a warm meal made by Tifa, the children had given into exhaustion and allowed Tifa to tuck them up in their beds under the warm covers.

Smiling at the children who were already sleeping deeply, Tifa closed the door behind her. Cloud was behind her, leaning against the wall of the hallway and watching her with penetrating eyes. Tifa gently smoothed her hands over her pajama top and met his gaze.

"We need to talk, don't we?" Cloud asked her softly.

Tifa nodded slowly.

"Yea..." she answered in a whisper.

Cloud sighed and shook his head.

"The problem is," he began. "I don't know what to say."

Tifa bit her lip.

"Maybe you don't have to say anything," she breathed softly.

Cloud felt himself stop breathing for a moment. Tifa was watching him under her dark lashes. Your move, she seemed to be saying. Though he wasn't confident he still had the ability to walk, he took a step forward. Almost subconsciously, his arm slid around Tifa waist, his hand resting on the small of her back. His other hand gently took hold of Tifa's and placed it on his shoulder. Tifa slid her other hand up to his chest, sending pleasant tingles all the way to Cloud's feet.

"Tifa," Cloud whispered breathlessly. "Is this what you want?"

The hallway was silent, the only sounds were his and Tifa's soft breaths. For a moment, Cloud's heart hung in purgatory, but then Tifa moved her head up and down in a slow nod, and that was enough for him.

All Cloud could hear was his heart pounding in his ears as he lifted his free hand to Tifa cheek. Her eyes closed as his hand made contact with the soft skin. He gently tilted her head in his hands and felt his own eyes slowly close. A second later, he was conscious of the fact that he could taste Tifa's warm breath, inches away from his own, and then, all he was aware of was the feeling of her soft lips under his.

Time seemed to stop for them as they stood together in the hallway, kissing each other as they had been longing to do for years. Tifa wound her arms tightly around his neck, pulling herself up to compensate for the height difference. Feeling her warm arms against him, Cloud deepened the kiss, parting her lips gently.

Tifa pulled away gasping for breath, and for a minute, Cloud worried that maybe he was moving too fast for her. But then, her hands were tangled in his hair, and she was pulling his lips back down to hers. Cloud suddenly found that he had little control over what his hands were doing. He desperately tried to keep them in a safe perimeter as Tifa's body pressed dangerously close.

And just as he became delightfully aware of the soft noises Tifa made when he ran his hands down the warm flesh of her sides underneath her top, they heard a loud creaking noise. Their mouths quickly separated as their heads whipped around towards the children's door.

To their great relief, the door was still shut. It took a minute for their minds to clear enough to realize that Tifa's back was now pressed against her bedroom door, which had caused the squeaking noise. They were both breathing in a labored fashion, lips slightly parted. Their hearts were pounding in their chests.

They became painfully aware of the state they were in, and how quickly things had progressed in just a few minutes. Cloud looked down at Tifa's flushed cheeks and eyes shining in the dark hallway, and he realized if he didn't end things now, he might be in trouble.

Cloud took a shuddering breath and grabbed Tifa's hand, rubbing his thumb gently over her knuckles. Tifa smiled at him, and the subtle change in the way she smiled sent his head reeling. He returned the smile.

"Come on," he told her softly. "I'll put you to bed."

She nodded, and they stepped into her room. Cloud deeply breathed in her scent, which seemed to saturate every inch of the room. Tifa walked over to her bed, Cloud holding her hand behind her. She slipped under the covers, not letting go of his hand yet.

"Stay," she whispered sleepily, her head resting on her pillow.

Cloud nodded quietly and settled down next to her, letting her tuck her head under his chin and allowing himself to wind a hand through her hair.

"Just until you fall asleep..." he murmured, more to himself than her.

Even then, he felt his eyes closing.

Chapter Text

A faint sound tugged Cloud slowly out of a deep sleep. It was a familiar sound he heard every morning, though it seemed much quieter than usual. He groaned quietly, trying to muffle the sound by burying his head into the pillow. My alarm, he thought as the sound persisted. He continued ignoring the sound for a minute, but then his eyes shot open. My alarm! he thought, exasperated. How long has it been going off? Why didn't I hear it earlier?

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness in the room, he quickly remembered where he was. A warm body was curled up against his side, a dark head tucked under his, silky hair smooth under his chin. For a minute, the persistent beeping of his alarm clock wasn't nearly enough to rouse him from the bed. He lightly moved the tips of his fingers over her cheek, tucking the dark strands of hair behind her ear.

He sat up slowly, gently removing Tifa's arm from across his chest and laying it back down on the bed next to her. Her nose wrinkled unconsciously as his alarm continued to beep. Cloud got up from the bed silently, doing his best not to disturb her.

His bare feet slapped gently against the floor as he walked down the quiet hallway. His pushed his door open quietly and the sound of his alarm met his ears loudly. He quickly shut it off, hoping it hadn't woken up the whole house. He set it down on his bedside table, and then the house was completely silent again.

Cloud glanced at his neatly made bed that hadn't been slept in last night. A slightly guilty feeling washed over him. Suddenly the line between what was okay and what was not okay seemed incredibly blurred. It certainly felt okay to sleep in Tifa's bed with her... But he wondered if it was okay with her. Sharing a bed was something married couples did and, well, he and Tifa were hardly married. He frowned and scratched his head, feeling confused.

He had lived with Tifa for so long that they had developed certain unspoken boundaries. Before last night, anything that had to do with Tifa's room was out of the question. He'd been in there before to check up on her, a few glances at her sleeping face before slipping out the door. But he had always felt as though he were violating her privacy if he stayed more than a minute.

The last thing he wanted to do was put their little family in jeopardy. It felt like he and Tifa had skipped a few steps; they had two children before they had even kissed, before they had even acknowledged anything deeper than friendship between them. He wondered what it meant now that things were different. They already lived together.

He sighed and shook his head, not sure where he was going with his thoughts. He rested his hand against the edge of his window and looked out on the snow that was still coming down. I don't want to ever cause her pain, he thought. Like I said, whatever she wants, however she wants things to be, that's what I'll do. Finally reaching a conclusion that was somewhat satisfying, Cloud let his mind relax as he watched the swirling snow.

Guess I'm not going anywhere today... Cloud thought, examining the streets buried under several feet of snow. At least we don't have to worry about going hungry, he thought with a little smile, Just one of the advantages of living at a bar. His smile faded a little as he realized that even if he wanted to, it would be next to impossible to go anywhere. And getting Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel out of the house was out of the question. Reeve's voice seemed to resound in his mind.

"They're out there biding their time, waiting for a vulnerable moment."

A shiver went down his spine, leaving a sick feeling in his stomach.

"Cloud?" Tifa's voice asked hesitantly from the doorway.

He heard her softly walk over the window and stand next to him. They stood in silence for a minute, and he felt her eyes searching his face.

"You're worried," she said softly, placing her hand on his arm.

There was a time when he would have soothed her fear with a gentle lie, but he knew that time was over. He looked down at her wide eyes and nodded. There was barely a glimmer of fear in her eyes before she put on her brave face, the one he'd seen so often during the crisis two years ago.

"Do you think there's a possibility..." she began quietly, her voice carefully controlled.

"I don't know," he answered quickly. "Reeve said he didn't expect one for awhile but..."

He trailed off into silence. Next to him, Tifa was staring down at the thick piles of snow. Thought her face revealed nothing, Cloud could see that her hands were trembling slightly. She knew just as well as he did what an attack would mean now. He put a gentle hand on her shoulder, and she moved closer, resting her cheek against his chest.

Cloud breathed her comforting scent in as he closed his arms around her. It now seemed so long ago that he had to search for an excuse to hold her. He felt Tifa breathing in deeply and return the embrace with hands that were no longer trembling.

"I didn't know it could snow this much in Midgar," Cloud said softly, tentatively changing the topic.

"It usually doesn't," Tifa whispered back. "I can only remember it being this bad one other time... the first year I lived in Midgar. It snows like this in Nibelheim. It made me so homesick..."

"Does it still make you homesick?" he asked.

He felt her shake her head.

"I try not to think about Nibelheim anymore," she said softly. "It hurts too much."

Cloud nodded in silent agreement. It was easy for him to avoid all thoughts of Nibelheim. He had never been truly happy there though he knew that Tifa had been at one time. But the woman he held in his arms now had a lifetime of hardships separating her from the happy little girl he had once admired. Like him, she would never be happy in Nibelheim.

"This is home now." she whispered.

Cloud smiled, his cheek just barely resting on the top of Tifa's head. He couldn't have said it better himself.

"You sure we can't go outside?" Denzel asked, nose pressed against the window.

Tifa smiled, exasperated. Her, Denzel, Marlene, and Cloud were all gathered in the bar, none of them bothering to change out of their pajamas. Through the numerous bar windows, they could see nothing but swirling white.

"I'm sure Denzel," Tifa replied. "We'd never make it back in!"

Marlene pressed her little palms against the window next to Denzel.

"All our snow people are buried," she said mournfully. "We'll have to make them all over again."

The two children pulled reluctantly away from the window and returned to their half-eaten breakfasts. They discreetly snuck a few pieces of unwanted bacon onto Cloud's plate, who seemed to eat everything on his plate, regardless of what it was. Marlene watched him shovel his breakfast down and wondered whether he'd eat a penny if she put it on his plate.

But before she had a chance to test her theory, Cloud's plate was empty, and he was leaning back from the table. She scowled and shoved her penny back into her pocket. Across from Marlene, Denzel had his chin in his hands. Tifa cleared the table quickly, dumping the plates in the sink for later.

She sat down with them at the table and Marlene stood up to go sit with her. Tifa's arm automatically looped around her waist, securing her on her lap, her hand gently untangling the knots in Marlene's brown hair. Marlene smiled angelically, secretly fingering the penny in her pocket.

"What're we doin' today?" Denzel asked, moving closer to Tifa and Marlene.

Marlene hopped off Tifa's lap and stood on the other side of her chair.

"Yea!" she asked eagerly. "What're we gunna do today?"

Cloud watched the threesome with interest, curious to see what they did all day. He felt a smile tug at his own lips as Tifa smiled indulgently at the children, and they leaned in closer, their eyes bright with admiration. They're the luckiest kids alive to have her, he thought, silently berating himself for being so sentimental.

"We can do whatever you two want to do," Tifa told them. "Except go outside."

She laughed sweetly at Denzel's over-exaggerated pout and patted him on the shoulder. Denzel recovered from his disappointment quickly and smiled up at Cloud.

"We have to something really fun today since Cloud's home to play with us!" he said excitedly.

Marlene nodded with enthusiasm and went over to grab Cloud's hand, pulling him out of his chair.

"Can I pick what we get to play first Tifa?" Marlene asked, bouncing on her toes.

Denzel scowled fiercely at her, and Tifa threw Cloud an exasperated look.

"We'll flip a coin," she said decisively.

"I have a penny you can use," Marlene said, smiling at Cloud in a way that made him feel his life were in danger.

After flipping ten times, since the children insisted in best out of ten, Denzel got to pick. He stood tapping his chin for a minute, before a mischievous glint appeared in his eyes.

"Hide-and-seek!" he said decisively, giving Tifa and Marlene secretive looks.

Tifa smiled slightly reproachfully, giving Cloud an apologetic look.

"Okay then, " she said. "The bar's off limits."

The four of them stood in silence for a minute, glancing around at each other.

"Not it!" Marlene and Denzel shouted in unison, running out of the room.

Tifa laughed at the confused look on Cloud's face.

"Sorry Cloud!" she laughed. "Not it!"

Cloud watched, dumbfounded, as Tifa ran out of the room after the children. Trying to fight the smile creeping up his face, he sat down and covered his eyes and began to count.

The first ten minutes of the game wasn't bad. Granted, he didn't find anyone, but at least he was looking in different places. The next twenty minutes weren’t quite as good. Scratching his head hopelessly, he searched the same old places over and over again. Where could they possibly be? he wondered. Feeling slightly sorry for himself, he lamented that they had probably had millions of previous hide-and-see games to find the perfect hiding spot.

"Anybody in here?" he mumbled, poking his head into the kitchen cabinet for the fifth time.

He sighed as he was met with canned vegetables and boxes of food. Muttering grumpily under his breath, he trudged back upstairs to look in the children's room again. He opened the door quietly, trying to catch them off guard. His eyes swept over the scattered toys and books on the floor. He shook his head hopelessly.

Several feet above his head, Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel all huddled around a crack between the ceiling tiles to look down. They muffled their giggles against their hands as they saw Cloud scratch his head.

"Told you this was the best hiding spot ever!" Denzel whispered triumphantly.

Marlene hushed him. Tifa smiled and watched as Cloud went to search the closet. Although she had nearly had a heart-attack when she first discovered Marlene and Denzel hiding in the ceiling above their room, she had to admit it was a good hiding spot. And safety-wise, she was confident that the ceiling was strong enough to hold all of them.

"My legs are getting cramped," Denzel complained in a whisper, trying to stretch his leg out and accidentally kicking Marlene in the process.

"Ouch!" Marlene hissed, poking Denzel in the side.

Denzel promptly poked her back and she giggled.

"You're gunna get us caught!" Denzel whisper-screamed.

They all smothered their laughter against their hands as they heard Cloud make a loud exclamation.

"I know you're in here somewhere!" he said, sounding beside himself with triumph.

Marlene and Denzel buried their faces into Tifa's pajama top to muffle their giggles.

"Took him long enough!" Tifa told them, and they giggled louder.

"I heard that!" Cloud shouted from below. "Where in the world are all of you?"

"You'll never find us!" Marlene taunted in a sing-song voice.

There was a ten second silence before they heard Cloud exclaim loudly.

"You're in the ceiling!" he asked loudly.

Then suddenly, one of the ceiling tiles was being pushed away and Cloud's head was looking straight at them. Cloud laughed at the sight of the three of them squeezed into the small crawl space, their faces streaked with dust.

"Sure, you're laughing," Tifa teased. "It took you so long to find us, I thought we'd be stuck up here forever!"

Marlene and Denzel crawled on their hands and knees over to Cloud.

"Isn't it the greatest hiding spot ever?" Denzel asked proudly. "I found it."

Marlene rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, well I figured out how to get up here!" she stated.

Cloud looked around the small space between the ceiling and roof, and he had to admit, it was the best hiding space in the house. It was big enough to hold Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel at the same time, and if they kept their mouths shut, it was undetectable. He looked around it thoughtfully.

"You okay Cloud?" Tifa asked, sounding slightly concerned.

He smiled and nodded, reaching his arms out to help them all back down.

At the end of the day, Cloud was surprised to find himself exhausted. Almost more exhausted than he was after a day of work. He wondered how Tifa kept up with Marlene and Denzel's seemingly endless supply of energy and creativity. Even hide-and-seek was better than some of the games they made up, Cloud discovered. And if he didn't keep his guard up, strange things happened to him. Mysterious pennies appeared in his sandwich and strange bits of paper were found stuck in his hair.

Luckily, Tifa made the kids settle down a little bit after they had eaten dinner. He watched from the sofa as she set them up in the middle of the living room with crayons and paper. Amazing, how they quieted down and intently colored like two little professional artists. He smiled, watching them point out on thing or another in their drawing as Tifa praised them gently.

Tifa looked up and met his gaze. She returned his smile, and came over, sitting beside him on the sofa.

"The snow's slowing down," she said softly.

Cloud nodded, looking out the window behind the children.

"Maybe there was nothing to worry about after all," he said quietly. "Except maybe Marlene and her pennies."

Tifa laughed gently.

"They're so happy to have you home," she whispered softly when her laughter died off.

Cloud looked down. I'm almost too afraid to leave, he admitted to himself. What would I do if something happened to them while I was gone? He watched Marlene and Denzel diligently coloring a piece of paper together, sharing all the good colors and looked at Tifa beside him, sitting comfortably close, her face happily exhausted. She tilted her head slightly, and smiled at him, her eyes shining like they always did when she was happiest.

He jumped slightly when he noticed that Marlene was suddenly standing in front of them, tugging at Tifa's hand.

"Will you help us draw a bird please, Tifa?" she asked with surprising politeness. "Ours look like fat, winged blobs."

Tifa allowed herself to be dragged over to the children's masterpiece, and knelt down near them, sprawling out on her stomach just like the kids. Cloud watched them from the sofa, surprised to find that his eyes were drooping.

Cloud looked around him, confused. When did he go outside? He noted that the snow had stopped. It had reached its final depth at about four and a half feet. There was a sharp, icy layer over the snow, but a small path had been carved down the street. He looked down and noticed that a small clearing had been swept away in front of Seventh Heaven where he was standing.

He put his gloved hand against the front door and began to push, but a giggle behind him caused him to stop. He whipped his head around.

"Denzel?" he asked, sounding bewildered. "Didn't Tifa say to stay inside?"

Denzel was barefoot, dressed in pajamas, but he walked across the snow without flinching. He didn't seem to have heard Cloud. Apprehensive, Cloud followed Denzel down the street. 

"Marlene!" Denzel shouted. "Wait up!"

Cloud jumped as Marlene suddenly appeared next to Denzel. She too was dressed in pajamas. She was carefully packing snow into the base of a snowman. Cloud watched with increasing bewilderment as Tifa, barefooted and bare-armed as the children, helped pack the snow down tightly.

"Aren't you all cold?" Cloud asked, his chest tightening unpleasantly.

But they continued as though they hadn't heard him. Cloud reached out to touch Tifa's pale shoulder, but just as his hand was about to brush it, Tifa disappeared. He jumped, in shock and fear, but then noticed that she was now on the other side of the snowman, helping Denzel create the middle. 

"Need some help?" a light, sweet voice asked.

Tifa looked up with a pleasant smile and reached out a hand towards her friend. Cloud's insides twisted painfully as he watched her pull Aeris towards their snowman, and the two girls began chatting as they used to when Aeris was still alive.

"Denzel!" two echoing voices shouted in unison. 

Denzel looked up and smiled. 

"Better go!" he said to the girls. "Mom and dad are calling me!"

Suddenly a cold, iron grip seized Cloud's insides. He watched as Aeris and Marlene disappeared, and Tifa transformed into the way she was when she was fifteen, with that silly cowboy hat. Her father walked out from behind a building, wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and they too disappeared.

"No," Cloud whispered.

He thought he could see them in the distance, walking next to Aeris and Zach, Tifa's father...and a blonde woman who Cloud painfully recognized as his mother.

"No!" he shouted, tearing his eyes away. 

He ran into Seventh Heaven, ignoring the broken lock on the door and the shattered pictures on the wall. He burst into the kitchen, eyes searching wildly. He opened the cupboard, and when only canned vegetables greeted him, he knew with a flash of realization where they were.

"Tifa! Marlene! Denzel!" he shouted, tearing up the stairs at an alarmingly fast pace.

The door to the children's room was torn off the framework, but he simply ran over it. His heart was pounding in his ears as his hands pushed away the ceiling tile. He stuck his head in the hole, but it was dark, too dark to see.

But even though he couldn't see, he reached his hands out and felt the soft silk that was Tifa's hair, her body draped over the two smaller bodies of the children. Cloud climbed into the ceiling and pulled Tifa's body to his.

"Tifa wake up!" he whispered. "Marlene, Denzel, open your eyes!"

But then it was as though the ceiling was flooded with light, and Cloud could see their bodies, could see what had been done to them while he was gone, could see the dark stains soaked into the ceiling...

Cloud didn't realize that he was shouting until he was on his feet in the dark living room. He blinked and stopped his shouting abruptly, his chest heaving. His mind still blurred from sleep, he took two running steps towards the stair case. Before he could reach them, he collided with a soft smaller body.

"Cloud!" Tifa said in shock, her hands gripping his arms to hold herself upright. "What's wrong? Why were you yelling?"

Without mind-shattering relief Cloud pulled Tifa to him, almost crushing her body to his.

"Tifa, are you hurt?" Cloud asked, his mind still fuzzy from sleep. "The kids? Are they safe? Are they-"

Tifa put her hand gently on his chest and he loosened his arms enough to let her pull away. Her eyes were gentle with understanding.

"Everything's fine Cloud," she whispered, placing a soothing hand on his face. "You fell asleep on the sofa. I just put the kids to bed."

She hugged him gently, and he buried his face into her hair, trying to replace the foulness of the nightmare with her sweet scent. His heart rate slowed as his eyes adjusted to the dark living room, and he realized they were all truly safe.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Tifa asked him quietly.

They had had enough nightmares between the both of them, that they were used to this sort of conversation, but Cloud stubbornly shook his head.

"No," he whispered firmly. "Because it's not going to happen. I won't let it happen."

Tifa pulled back enough to look up at Cloud inquiringly. He put his hand to her cheek, tracing the contours of her face almost reassuringly. I'm never leaving them alone again, he thought despairingly. Nothing is worth that risk...

He bent his face down to hers and kissed her with desperate passion, pulling her warm body tight to his to chase away the faint memory of her cold, still body in his dream. He felt her fingers grip the shirt on his chest and felt the soft curve of her back under his hands. Never... he silently promised himself.

They pulled away from each other to catch their breath, and Cloud gently pushed Tifa's hair away from her face in the brief interlude.

"Everything's really alright," Cloud whispered, almost to himself, as the full effect of his nightmare slipped away.

"It was just a dream..." Tifa replied breathlessly.

"This isn't a dream too is it?" Cloud asked, equally out of breath.

Her laugh was the sweetest sound he had ever heard. Laughing himself, he pulled her up against him again, just so he could kiss that sweet smile. She wrapped her bare arms around his neck, and he gently trailed his hand down to the small of her back so he could support her against him.

Just as the sofa began beckoning to them, the lights flickered on. Cloud quickly pushed Tifa behind him, but he soon realized that there was nothing to protect her from, and the damage had already been done.

With his personal copy of the house key in his hand and snow covering him from head to foot, Barret was staring at Cloud and Tifa, his jaw almost touching the floor.

Chapter Text

The silence that followed Barret's entrance was the most awkward of anyone's memory. Barret's eyes darted between Cloud and Tifa, his mouth opening and closing silently. Tifa discreetly straightened her suspiciously tousled hair, chewing her bottom lip and blushing mercilessly. Cloud resisted the temptation to scratch his head, a nervous habit of his.

"So umm..." Barret began uncomfortably in his deep voice. "I thought maybe the heater broke again and y'all were here freezin'..."

Unfortunately for Cloud and Tifa, Barret never stayed embarrassed for long.

"But apparently, things have just started heatin' up!" he said, face cracking into a wicked grin.

He chuckled at the mortified looks on Cloud and Tifa's faces. Those two're too shy for their own good, Barret thought, still laughing at their outright embarrassment. Then he thought about the steamy session he'd just interrupted. Maybe shy's not the word, he thought, laughter dying away. Barret cleared his throat loudly and the young couple flinched, as though expecting another mortifying joke.

But luckily for them, someone began pounding loudly on the door. Barret gave a little jerk, and his eyes widened in guilty surprise.

"Ohh yea," he grumbled. "Forgot 'bout Yuffie..."

Temporarily forgetting her embarrassment, Tifa put her hands on her hips and gave Barret a fierce look.

"You forgot about her!" she scolded, marching past him towards the door. "There's four feet of snow and ice out there, and you forgot her!"

Tifa disappeared into the other room to let Yuffie in and Barret and Cloud were left in the room alone. Cloud looked at Barret questioningly.

"Yuffie?" he asked.

"Yea," Barret grumbled, looking comically grumpy about being reprimanded by Tifa. "She was headin' to Reeve's and got caught in the snowstorm. I picked her up near Midgar's outskirts..."

Cloud nodded and the two of them were silent for a minute. Then, Barret gave a little jerk and scowled at Cloud.

"But don't think you're off the hook!" Barret said suddenly. "You and me are still gunna have a little chat before I leave..."

Cloud opened his mouth defensively, but just then Tifa came into the room, dragging a snow covered Yuffie behind her. Yuffie directed a nasty look at Barret and shook some snow out of her short, dark hair.

"You j-j-jerk!" she managed to get out through chattering teeth.

Barret looked a little less grumpy upon seeing Yuffie's miserable condition.

"Serves her right," he muttered under his breath. "Blabbered the whole way here..."

Tifa helped Yuffie brush herself off, ignoring the small pile of the snow they were accumulating on the floor. They managed to get all the snow out of her hair and clothing, leaving Yuffie slightly damp and shivering. Scowling fiercely at Barret, Yuffie plopped on the sofa and wrapped herself tightly in the fleece blanket that was sitting on a nearby chair. Tifa slowly sat down next to her.

"What brings you all the way out here?" Tifa asked Yuffie, stubbornly ignoring the awkward atmosphere.

Completely oblivious to any social tension, Yuffie leisurely kicked off her shoes so she could curl her feet underneath herself.

"Pops has some business with Reeve," she replied, still trying to find the most comfortable position on the sofa. "But he's too old and lazy to leave Wutai and come himself."

Yuffie muttered under her breath darkly. Knowing about Yuffie's rocky relationship with her father, the others exchanged looks.

"You could have said no," Cloud suggested, looking slightly uncomfortable in his seat next to Barret.

Yuffie's head drooped slightly, and she let out a sigh.

"Nah," she said, shaking her head, her short mop of hair showering them with melted snow. "Then Pops would have gone himself and left me in charge. Last time he did that, I made a mess of everything, and he had to come home early just to yell at me."

Yuffie's mouth twisted angrily.

"He owes me one this time though! First getting stuck in the storm and then getting stuck with this big jerk!" Yuffie raged.

She pointed her finger accusingly at Barret. He shrugged his big shoulders and shifted in his seat.

"You're lucky I even picked you up," Barret told her defensively. "Haven't had a minute of quiet since."

Yuffie opened her mouth to make an angry retort, but Cloud cut in quickly, knowing that if he spoke up soon enough, Yuffie's short attention span would stop the fight.

"What business does your dad have with Reeve?" he asked quickly.

Yuffie's face immediately transformed from angry to thoughtful. Tifa shot Cloud a grateful look, glad they wouldn't have to break up another fight caused by Barret and Yuffie's clashing personalities.

"He just wants information," Yuffie said slowly. "Reeve sent WRO workers to Wutai a while ago and they've told us some, but I think Pops is tired of secondhand information."

"I'll probably be goin' to Reeve's too," Barret said, sounding a little weary. "The WRO's been providin' funds and workers for the new power source. It's probably gunna take more than we thought to get it runnin'."

"Poor Reeve." Tifa mused. "All of us dumping our problems on him..."

Cloud shrugged.

"It can't really be helped," he said honestly.

"I guess you're right," Tifa replied softly.

They all lapsed into silence. For a minute, Tifa was reminded of the old days when everyone would sit around in quiet companionship before they fell asleep. Sometimes they'd talk about what had happened that day and sometimes Cloud would exasperatedly explain things for the twentieth time, but usually they'd just sit quietly with their own thoughts, a group of strangers who had somehow become friends. Tifa found herself aching for the others: Red, Cid, Cait Sith, Vincent, and Aeris. But of course, she reminded herself, Aeris was gone, Cait had been long since deactivated, and everyone else was scattered around the globe.

As though she had picked up on Tifa's train of thought, Yuffie perked up in her seat and looked around at the others, bursting with something to tell them.

"Guess who I saw on my way here?" she asked them.

Cloud and Barret looked up with mild interest, but Tifa leaned in eagerly.

"Who?" she questioned, hoping it was one of their friends.

"Vincent!" Yuffie exclaimed. "I can't believe I almost forget to tell you guys. I don't think he was too happy that I found him though."

"Wonder why that would be," Barret muttered under his breath, chuckling to himself.

"Where was he?" Cloud asked quickly, pulling Yuffie's attention away from Barret.

Yuffie scowled at Barret, but thankfully, let his comment slide.

"Sulking away in Nibelheim," she answered, rolling her eyes. "Right where we first found him! I told him that it was a stupid place to hide if he didn't want his friends to find him."

The other three smiled at Yuffie's exasperation.

"I asked if he wanted to come with me to see Reeve," Yuffie continued.

"What'd he say?" Tifa asked.

Yuffie frowned.

"He made me promise that I'd go away and never bother him again," she said sullenly. "And he told me not to tell Reeve where he was."

"Wonder why he's avoiding Reeve," Cloud pondered out loud.

The others shrugged.

"Anways," Yuffie said, a wicked smile replacing her sullen expression. "You all know how well I keep my promises."

Tifa laughed quietly. Barret and Cloud gave Yuffie apprehensive looks.

"You realize he sleeps with his gun?" Barret asked Yuffie.

Cloud seemed to silently agree with Barret, but Tifa rolled her eyes at the two men.

"Vincent's just grouchy," Tifa told them. "I think he needs someone to badger him into leaving that lonely mansion and stop moping around."

"Sleeps too much," Yuffie said, agreeing with Tifa. "That's probably why he's always so cranky."

"Grouchy and cranky aren't the words I'd use..." Cloud muttered, quiet enough that only Barret could hear him.

"Women," Barret said under his breath, shaking his head in disbelief.

"What about Cid and Red?" Tifa asked, eager for news of her other friends. "Has anyone heard any news of them?"

Barret and Yuffie shook their heads. Slightly disappointed, Tifa sunk back into the sofa cushions. Silence permeated the living room again. The old, wooden clock that one of Tifa's customers had given them read half past midnight. Tifa stared at the sofa until all the colors blurred together, but Yuffie's loud yawn snapped her out of her daze. She stood up, stretching a hand out to the younger girl.

"Come on Yuffie, let's get you in some dry clothes," she said. "You can share my room tonight."

Yuffie reluctantly let her blanket fall from her shoulders and let Tifa pull her off the sofa.

"Just like old times, right?" Yuffie asked Tifa through a yawn.

Tifa smiled and nodded. Barret and Cloud watched the two girls disappear up the stairs. When they heard Tifa's door close, Barret settled his gaze on Cloud sternly, and Cloud suddenly wished he had left the room while he had a chance.

"Now..." Barret began tentatively.

"Yea?" Cloud asked warily, aware that this would be an uncomfortable conversation.

"Don't get all defensive on me!" Barret told Cloud, sighing. "I'm not interferin' or anything... I just wanna make sure there's nothing fishy goin' on. Just 'cause we're friends doesn't mean I'd hesitate to beat your spiky head if you ever hurt her."

Cloud shook his head.

"You know I never would," he answered quietly.

"I'm jus' sayin'..." Barret said, putting his palms up defensively. "You better be good to her."

Cloud nodded.

"I will," he promised. "Are we done?"

Barret hesitated. Cloud could have sworn he was blushing.

"I also wanted to make sure that...uhh..." Barret mumbled, not meeting Cloud's eyes.

"What?" Cloud asked apprehensively.

"I wanted to make sure..." he began determinedly, "that you were being careful."

Cloud gave him a blank look.

"Careful?" he repeated flatly.

Barret smacked himself in the forehead. His looked up at Cloud, raising his eyebrows meaningfully.

"Don't make me spell it out..." he said through clenched teeth. "You know...careful..."

Barret's meaning hit Cloud like a train, and he felt his cheeks flame. He scratched his head, not sure how he was supposed to reply to Barret. He determinedly avoided his gaze.

"I brought down some blankets and pillows," Tifa's voice cut through the incredibly embarrassing silence.

Cloud and Barret's eyes snapped over to her. She gave them confused looks.

"What's going on?" she asked.

There was yet another long silence. Out of the corner of his eye, Cloud saw Barret open his mouth. Without thinking, Cloud jumped of from the sofa so quickly that both Barret and Tifa jumped.

"I'm going to bed!" he announced quickly. "Night Tifa!"

He raced up to his room, taking two steps at a time. Tifa watched him in astonishment and then turned suspiciously to Barret, hands on her hips. He cowered under her gaze and took the blankets from her with a weak smile.

"Thanks for the blankets, Tifa," he said meekly. "I better go to sleep too."

Tifa shook her head slowly.

"I'm not going to ask," she said decisively.

Pretending she didn't see Barret's shoulders slump in relief, she turned to go up to her room.

"Night Tifa!" Barret yelled at her retreating back.

"Goodnight..." Tifa replied, her tone exasperated.

Men...she thought, rolling her eyes.

The sun rose over Seventh Heaven a mere six hours later. For the first time in days, the sky was clear and blue. The sunlight glinted brightly off the powder white snow, lightly melting the surface. Every now and then there would be a muffled thump as a large mound of melting snow fell of the roof and onto the road.

Cloud groaned and pulled his covers over his head, trying to block the merciless light pouring through the blinds on the window. He desperately tried to fall back into the lovely, deep sleep he'd been enjoying minutes before. He sighed desolately as he heard his bed creak under the weight of another body. He winced as a small finger poked his shoulder.

"Go back to bed Marlene," Cloud mumbled sleepily.

Marlene gave his shoulder a more insistent shove.

"Cloud wake up!" she whispered urgently. "There's someone in Tifa's bed!"

He sat up quickly, startling Marlene.

"What!" he snarled, fists clenching.

But then he remembered the previous night and fell back into bed, hiding under the covers again.

"It's just Yuffie," Cloud mumbled to the anxious little girl.

He rolled over, turning his back to Marlene, his eyes closed in hope of sleep. He sighed as he felt Marlene poke him between his shoulder blades.

"Hey Cloud..." she whispered. "Wake up!"

Cloud groaned.

"Go downstairs," he urged Marlene. "There's a surprise for you."

"What kind of surprise?" Marlene asked.

When the only reply she got was a grunt Marlene sighed and got off the bed. She tip-toed down the hall to the stairs and peered down them. Curiously, she crept down the stairs. She entered the living room, but it was empty. The sofa had blankets piled on it as though someone had slept on it the previous night. She smelt breakfast being made in the kitchen and heard Tifa talking cheerfully. It wasn't until she heard someone reply in a low, gruff voice that she realized what her surprise was.

"Papa!" she shouted, running into the kitchen, her bare feet slipping on the hardwood floor.

Marlene threw her arms around Barret's neck, and he grunted as her small body hit him at full running speed.

"There you are!" Barret said, lifting her to his knee. "I was beginnin' to think that you were gunna sleep all day!"

Marlene giggled as Barret kissed her cheek.

"Your whiskers tickle!" she said, hiding her face in his shirt.

"How's my girl been?" he asked her.

She looked up eagerly and launched into an expressive and highly dramatized narrative of the past few months. Every now and then she'd turn to Tifa for conformation and Tifa would stop making breakfast for a second to nod. Sometimes, when Marlene over-exaggerated to the extreme, Tifa would smile and shake her head slightly at Barret over Marlene's head.

Halfway through Marlene's narration, Yuffie came into the kitchen, her short hair wild and tousled from sleep. She yawned and tugged at the pajama pants she'd borrowed from Tifa. Tifa swatted her hand away as she tried to dip her fingers into the pancake batter Tifa was stirring. Yuffie shrugged and grabbed a juice box out the fridge.

Marlene stopped her story as Yuffie sat down at the table. She watched Yuffie curiously as she jabbed the straw into the juice box. Yuffie stopped mid-sip as Marlene continued to watch her.

"Hi," Yuffie said uncomfortably.

"Hi," Marlene said shyly.

Barret and Tifa rolled their eyes at one another. It was hard to belief that Marlene was capable of being timid and quiet.

"Marlene," Tifa said. "Do you remember me telling you that Yuffie has cats?"

And just like that, Marlene's shy streak ended and Yuffie was bombarded with questions about her cats, their names, where they lived, how many she had, and if she could maybe come see them sometime. Yuffie answered all the questions looking slightly unnerved at having Marlene's complete and undivided attention.

But she was saved from Marlene's unending questions as Cloud and Denzel entered the kitchen, both of them blinking sleepily, clad in plaid pajama pants. Denzel hid behind Cloud, shy because he barely knew Barret and Yuffie, and cranky because it was so early.

But Marlene ran behind Cloud to grab Denzel's hand and pull him into the chair next to her. Denzel stumbled sleepily, and sat down, hiding his eyes shyly under his tousled hair.

"Denzel remember Yuffie?" Marlene asked, forcing him to look over at Yuffie.

Yuffie waved weakly.

"She has like a bajillion cats!" Marlene told him enthusiastically. "And she said I can go visit them sometime..."

Marlene chatted unceasingly and eventually Denzel relaxed enough to ask Yuffie a few shy questions. Tifa looked up from the stove a minute and caught Cloud's eye. They exchanged smiles. It was nice to see their friends again.

Chapter Text

Breakfast was interrupted by the shrill ringing of a cellphone. Cloud and Yuffie both automatically reached for their phones, but stopped when they realized it was Barret's. Silently excusing himself, Barret flipped his phone open and stood from the table.

"Reeve," he mouthed silently to the others.

He stepped out of the kitchen, leaving the others in a silence broken only by their forks scraping against their plates. Tifa quietly fixed herself a plate and slipped into the seat next to Cloud and tilted her head, trying to overhear the conversation like the others were.

Marlene and Denzel were less discrete than Cloud, Tifa, and Yuffie however. Sliding out of their chairs and onto the floor, they belly-crawled over to the door and pressed their ears against the crack. Frustrated at only being able to hear the deep undertone of Barret's voice, Yuffie pushed her breakfast plate and joined the children at the door. Tifa and Cloud both shrugged and continued eating, resolving to wait for Barret to recount the conversation to them.

They didn't have to wait long. The kitchen door swung open. The children, clearly more experienced at listening at doors than Yuffie, jumped nimbly out of the way, but the door narrowly missed hitting Yuffie in the face. Barret lifted an eyebrow at the three eavesdroppers and they returned to their seats, smiling guiltlessly at him

"So what'd Reeve say?" Yuffie asked, lazily leaning her elbows on the table.

"Hmph..." Barret scoffed, pocketing his cellphone. "You tell me, you were listenin' in."

Yuffie rolled her eyes as Barret grumpily took his seat.

"I didn't hear anything," she retorted. "Not like it was a personal call anyways..."

Barret and Yuffie glowered at each other, their infamous morning crankiness getting the better of them.

"The doors are too thick to hear through," Denzel piped up matter-of-factly.

Everyone's attention turned to the little boy, who was nodding wisely. Next to him, Marlene gave the group a knowing look.

"Believe me," Marlene said, giving the door a critical look. "We've tried before."

The fact that this little tidbit of information caused Cloud and Tifa to pale slightly put Barret in a good enough mood to answer Yuffie's question.

"Reeve just wanted to know what time we'd be able to make it in," Barret told her, sounding considerably more cheerful. "I told him before eleven."

Yuffie groaned and looked at the time.

"You better get ready then," Tifa told her, standing up and jostling her shoulder. "You can borrow some of my clothes again. Yours are still wet."

Sighing, Yuffie allowed Tifa to stack her plate on top of her own and dump them in the sink. She followed Tifa out of the kitchen, muttering darkly at Barret for telling Reeve they'd be in so early.

Without Tifa to rebuke them for picking the chocolate chips out of their pancakes and leaving everything else, the children sprung from their seats. Barret watched with interest as they scrapped the leftovers into the trash and neatly stacked their plates on top of Tifa and Yuffie's. They then scampered out of the kitchen and into the living room to go play.

"I'm impressed," Barret mused. "They actually clean up after themselves..."

Cloud gave a short laugh.

"Not quite," he replied. "They're good about keeping the bar area and kitchen clean for Tifa... but you should see their room."

Barret chuckled lowly, gratefully sipping the coffee Tifa had made. God knows he was going to need it today.

"Oh," Barret said suddenly, looking up. "Almost forgot... Reeve said the road'll be cleared by late afternoon if you wanted to come in and catch up on paperwork."

Cloud sighed and ran a hand over his face.

"Paperwork..." he said distastefully. "Right."

"You could come in with me and Yuffie in the truck and just go home whenever you're done," Barret told him. "Reeve said the bike'd fit in the back."

Cloud looked down into his own coffee cup, swirling the dark liquid pensively. As reluctant as he was to leave Tifa and the kids home alone, he couldn't avoid going to work forever. Barret kicked him under the table, annoyed at his slowness in answering.

"You comin' or not?" he asked.

"I guess I better go clean up then," Cloud sighed, dumping his plate in the sink.

Cloud passed through the living room, stopping momentarily to right the sofa that Marlene and Denzel had managed to tip before going up the steps. He dragged his bare feet against the smooth hardwood floor, somewhat troubled by his thoughts.

"What's up?" an inquiring voice surprised him.

He looked up to see Tifa peering into his face questioningly.

"I'm going in to work with Barret and Yuffie today," he told her, the reluctant tone in his voice telling her something was discomforting him.

"And?" she prompted him.

They both turned their heads sharply as they heard Yuffie rummaging around noisily in Tifa's rooms, humming aimlessly to herself. Cloud nudged his head in the direction of his room and Tifa nodded, following him in and shutting the door behind her.

"You and the kids will be alright on your own today?" Cloud asked as soon as the door clicked shut.

He turned around quickly, to see Tifa staring at him, apparently surprised. She smiled uncertainly and tucked her bangs behind her ear.

"We always are," she told him reassuringly, taking a step closer.

Cloud sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Tifa's face turned serious, and she lightly placed her hand on his arm.

"You're that worried?" she said softly.

He stepped closer, resting his cheek against the top of Tifa's head and wrapping his arms around her back. She leaned into the embrace, pressing her face into his shoulder, her breath warm against his neck.

"What would I do if something happened while I was gone?" he whispered into her hair.

"We'll be fine," Tifa whispered, her breath tickling against his collarbone.

"You don't know that," Cloud said softly.

Tifa was silent. Cloud ran his hand lightly over her back, and her eyes closed, clearly taking as much comfort from the caress as Cloud.

"You should go," she murmured. "You can't spend the rest of your afraid to leave the house."

Cloud sighed, unable to ignore Tifa's logic. He put his hands on her shoulders and pulled back, looking her in the eye.

"You'll keep your gloves on you?" he requested softly. "And call me if something happens? And-"

Tifa smiled and put her fingers to his lips.

"I will," she promised.

When Cloud's eyes still showed concern, she pressed her hand lightly to his cheek.

"All this is really getting to you, isn't it?" she asked.

"These Deep Ground Soldiers..." Cloud breathed quietly. "We don't know yet how strong or how insane they are... We're up against an unknown enemy."

Tifa sighed and let her forehead gently fall against his.

"We don't know where or when they'll strike," he continued. "But I want to be with you and the kids when they do."

He trailed off. He could now feel Tifa's breath warm against his mouth, and he threaded his hands through her hair, tilting her head so he could brush his lips against hers. Tifa kissed him back, her arms tight around his neck.

When they parted to breath, Tifa hurriedly whispered in his ear.

"You'll be careful too, right?" she asked.

He nodded in reply.

"I won't be gone long," he said softly. "Reeve will understand."

He bent his lips back down to hers, hands trailing down to the small of her back. Tifa fingers tensed against his chest as he deepened the kiss, parting her lips gently.

"Tifa!" Yuffie's piercing voice penetrated through the walls. "Where's your sock drawer?"

Sighing in frustration, they broke the kiss. Tifa groaned and let her head flop against Cloud's chest.

"Coming Yuffie!" Tifa called back, successfully hiding the frustration in her voice.

"Better go before she tears your room apart," Cloud said into her hair.

"Yea," Tifa agreed softly, neither of them moving away.

A loud bang from the other room finally caused them to release one another. Tifa sighed and distractedly smoothed a hand through her hair. She turned around briefly to smile understandingly at Cloud's quiet exhalation of annoyance before slipping out the door.

Cloud sat down on his bed after Tifa left, running a hand over his face. This new battle had already proved to be far different from the last and it hadn't even begun yet. Last time, Tifa had been with him through it all. If he was worried, all he had to do was turn his head and check on her. Furthermore, it wasn't as if they weren't traveling with eight other friends, battle-hardened fighters who were always watching their backs.

No, Cloud thought, tiredly beginning to get dressed. This is different. Now he was leaving Tifa home with two children, children Tifa would die for before thinking twice. Even if he were there with them, he wouldn't be fighting to beat an enemy, he'd be fighting for his family's life. Arms carrying children to safety couldn't hold a sword and fight at the same time or fight in hand-to-hand combat for that matter.

Cloud shook his head, trying to clear his head of the thoughts running through it. Gotta buy Tifa a cellphone...Cloud thought as as pull his shoes on. It would be a small consolation knowing that Tifa had an easy way to get in contact with him. He tied his shoes sloppily and grabbed his wallet before leaving the room, flipping through the bills to see how much he had on him.

He walked down the stairs and into the living room where he could hear Tifa, Barret, Yuffie, and the children talking. Tifa smiled at him somewhat sadly as he entered the room. Marlene had her little arms wrapped tightly around Barret's neck, clinging to him like a little monkey. Goodbyes were always somewhat difficult for Barret and Marlene.

"I'll be visitin’ soon." Barret promised the little girl. "And I'll bring you a present from Corel... you too little man!"

Barret winked at Denzel and set Marlene back on the floor. She sniffed quietly and went over to Tifa, reaching up to hold her hand.

"We going?" Yuffie asked, bouncing eagerly, dressed in Tifa's clothes.

Her eyes darted between Cloud and Barret. They nodded at her, and she went to hug Tifa goodbye.

"Thanks for the clothes, Tifa," she told them. "They give me an excuse to come visit again so I can give them back."

Tifa laughed.

"I'm glad I gave them to you then," Tifa told her with a smile.

Yuffie knelt down to let the kids shyly hug her goodbye and Barret came over to pat Tifa on the shoulder.

"Take care of yourself," he told her.

"You too..." Tifa replied softly.

Yuffie stood up and she motioned Cloud and Barret in the direction of the door, ready to get a move on. Barret turned to the two children before heading to the door, a smile twitching on his mouth.

"Watch over Cloud and Tifa," he told them. "Make sure they stay out of trouble... and remember to knock on doors before openin' them."

The children giggled without really knowing what they were giggling at, and Tifa rolled her eyes at Barret, unamused. Yuffie gave Barret a weird look, before turning to Cloud for explanation. He just shrugged and turned away to walk to the door, desperately trying not to give the satisfaction of seeing him blush.

"You're leaving too?" Denzel piped up, running forward to tug at his sleeve.

Denzel's surprised, almost panicked tone made Cloud stop his tracks. He ruffled Denzel's hair and gave him a reassuring smile.

"I'll be back before dinner," he promised.

The little boy nodded, still slightly subdued, and made his way over to Tifa and Marlene. The threesome ran over to the window as the door shut behind Cloud, Yuffie, and Barret so they could wave them goodbye.

Cloud smiled and waved back before turning gloomily to the truck, not looking forward to the drive with Barret and Yuffie, which would be undoubtedly filled with Barret's seemingly never endless supply of suggestive jokes that confused Yuffie and embarrassed Cloud. Barret beeped the horn and Cloud sighed, resigned to his fate.

Cloud flipped through a stack of papers as he waited in one of the chairs outside Reeve's office. Barret had just gotten through with talking to Reeve, and was grumpily flipping through his own stack of paperwork, occasionally borrowing the secretary's pen to sign a few. Cloud glumly scanned over a couple paragraphs, knowing Reeve would have more papers for him once he got through speaking with Yuffie.

As soon as he formed this thought, Yuffie burst from Reeve's office, her face strangely excited. She bounced over to Cloud and Barret, who gave her strange looks at her excitement.

"Well?" she said, grinning widely. "We're going after them again aren't we? Just like last time right? All of us together again-"

She stopped when Cloud and Barret shook their heads at her.

"I've got a mine to manage," Barret told her.

"Well, what about you then?" Yuffie asked Cloud, disappointed.

"Not this time Yuffie," Cloud answered.

She gave them incredulous looks, but they just shrugged at her, unmoved. She wrinkled her nose at them and harrumphed.

"Fine," she said, crossing her arms. "I'll find someone else to go kick some butt with me."

Yuffie pouted exaggeratedly and collapsed into one of the chairs, muttering under her breath. Cloud shook his head, slightly amused. Sometimes they forgot that Yuffie was so much younger than all of them. While they were dragged into adventures, Yuffie jumped into them headfirst.

"Cloud?" Reeve's said, appearing in the doorway of his office. "You can come in now if you're ready..."

Cloud waved shortly to Barret and Yuffie who were gathering their things up to leave and walked into Reeve's office. He noticed that Reeve was looking as exhausted as ever.

"Find anything new?" Cloud asked him as he began signing the standard paperwork that Reeve had set out for him.

Reeve shook his head.

"No..." he replied tiredly. "We've been really backed up because of the blizzard."

He removed a large sealed package from a locked drawer and slid it over to Cloud.

"This needs to be delivered to Rufus and the Turks today if you can," Reeve said, sitting down. "It's some sort of high-tech map that shows areas that have hollow spots underground."

Cloud picked up the package.

"Trying to figure out where they're hiding?" he asked, tucking the box under his arm.

Reeve nodded.

"We have a few ideas," he told Cloud. "They're not much... but it's better than nothing."

Cloud made to stand up, but hesitated, looking to Reeve with an unspoken question.

"Something wrong?" Reeve asked, filing papers away.

"Yea," Cloud said slowly. "I was wondering... how long I should wait before moving Tifa and the kids?"

Reeve sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"To be honest with you Cloud..." Reeve told him. "I don't know... and until we have some idea where these soldiers are located, we don't even have a location that could be considered safe."

Cloud nodded, his brow wrinkled in thought.

"All you can really do is be prepared Cloud," Reeve said quietly. "Make sure you know what you'd do and where you'd go in the worst were to happen. Have bags packed in case you have to leave quickly. Keep a stash of money in the house."

"Right," Cloud said slowly.

"I wish I could give you a better answer." Reeve sighed. "Personally, I'm sick of planning for the worst."

"The worst?" Cloud questioned quietly. "How exactly do you plan for that?"

Reeve shook his head, rubbing his temples.

"Refugee camps," Reeve said softly, shoulders slumped. "Medical supplies... I could go on for days."

Cloud tried to ignore the sick feeling in his stomach. Reeve looked up and tried to give Cloud a reassuring grin.

"But we're doing everything we can to keep it from coming to that," he said.

Cloud found himself unable to return Reeve's grin as he stood. Reeve sighed again, the circles under his eyes suddenly painfully apparent.

"I'm going to deliver this now," Cloud said as he left. "The roads seemed clear enough. Then I'm going home if that's okay."

"That's fine," Reeve assured him. "Tell them I said hello."

As the door shut behind Cloud, Reeve's head fell into his hands, and he rested his weary eyes for a minute. As bleak as his and Cloud's conversation had been, he guiltily felt that he had perhaps made the situation seem more optimistic than it was.

Cloud's bike sprayed water noisily against the piles of dirty snow on the sides of the roads as he returned home that evening. It had taken him frustratingly long to track down the Turks and he was cold and tired. The white, snowy wonderland that the city of Edge had been a few days ago was now the same old city, but with piles of gray snow.

He sighed with relief as he parked outside Seventh Heaven. He noted from the sign on the door that Tifa had the bar open. Must have gotten bored... he mused. I doubt there are many people are out today, even if the streets are cleared. He pushed the door open, and as he expected, the house was quiet. It lacked the noisy bustle that meant Tifa had customers.

Though he expected silence coming from the bar area, he was surprised to find that the living room was equally silent. Marlene and Denzel were laying on their stomachs, working fervently together on a single piece of paper. But, Cloud noticed, they weren't gripping crayons, their small hands were awkwardly wrapped around carefully sharpened pencils. Cloud scratched his head.

"You two in trouble or something?" he asked them.

Their serious faces lit up for a minute when they saw that he was home, but they quickly turned solemn again as they nodded and returned to their paper. Cloud knelt down next to them.

"Don't worry," Marlene told him. "We got out of time out ages ago."

"I see..." Cloud said. "Can I ask what you did?"

They both looked up from their paper, their little shoulders emotionally tensed with injustice and their jaws defiantly stuck out.

"We bit some kid," Marlene said, her voice daring Cloud to say anything about it.

"Some stupid kid," Denzel elaborated.

Cloud stared at them.

"You both bit him?" he asked unbelievingly.

The children's hands clenched into self-righteous little fists and they nodded.

"We were playing jungle..." Denzel began defensively. "And we were tigers."

Marlene nodded.

"We let him play too..." she said, eyes begging Cloud to understand. "And he wanted to be a sloth."

"A what?" Cloud asked.

"A three-toed sloth," Denzel clarified for him. "It's some dumb monkey thing that doesn't do anything."

"And well..." Marlene continued. "Tigers eat sloths so..."

Cloud sighed.

"So you bit him..." he said, shaking his head at them.

"Not hard!" Marlene said quickly. "It's not our fault he doesn't understand how the jungle game works."

"Then the big crybaby had to go telling his mom," Denzel said, scowling.

Denzel and Marlene exchanged dark, surprisingly angry looks. Cloud scratched his head again.

"So what is this then?" he asked, motioning to the paper.

The children looked at them and smiled slyly.

"We told Tifa we'd write his mom an... apology... letter," Marlene said slowly.

Cloud snatched the paper up and the children tried to grab it back anxiously. They gave up when Cloud stood, and the paper was up above their heads. They stared at it, wringing their hands.

"It's not done yet Cloud..." Denzel said. "You can't read it until it's done..."

But the children's protests were ignored by Cloud, and they sighed defeatedly as he smoothed out the letter and began to read it.

Dear mother of the kid we bit, the letter stated eloquently at the top of the paper.

You are a fat, mean woman. If you come to our house again we'll both bite you twice. We can bite really hard. You better stay away because we don't like you at all. Actually, we hate you. 

The letter continued for several more lines, but Cloud stopped reading for a moment to peer at the children over the paper, one eyebrow cocked. They squirmed under his gaze a bit, shame-faced.

"What'd she do?" Cloud asked, curious to find out what would make the normally friendly children so spiteful.

Marlene and Denzel looked at their feet.

"She yelled at Tifa," Marlene said, eyes swimming with tears. "You're not mad at us are you Cloud?"

Denzel scowled, his freckled nose scrunched up with anger.

"She called us monsters and told Tifa it was all her fault," he told Cloud, tears barely detectable through his angry tone.

"We're not monsters Cloud, right?" Marlene sniffled.

Cloud shook his head silently at her, his eyes returning to the letter. The children watched in miserable silence as he finished reading it. He handed it back to them when he was done and then went over to the desk in the corner of the room, pulling out a tattered dictionary and handing it to them.

"You spelled imbecile wrong," he told them.

The children gave him shaky smiles and rubbed their faces free from any traces of tears and unhappiness. They huddled on the floor over the letter again, whispering intently to one another. Cloud watched them silently for a minute, but the sound of a chair falling over in the next room followed by a barely constrained growl of frustration caused him to leave the room and enter the bar area.

Tifa was cleaning tables- rather violently, Cloud noted. Her hair had been pulled into a ponytail in a moment of extreme frustration judging by its lopsided nature. Her mind was clearly elsewhere as she vigorously scrubbed the same spot over and over, her fingers clenching the rag so tight her knuckles were white. The chair he had heard fall over had not only been left on floor; the dented nature of its legs suggested Tifa had also kicked it.

"I think the table's clean Tifa," Cloud said quietly as she continued her scrubbing.

His voice caused her to jump. Her thoughts had kept her so so absorbed that she didn't know he was home. She sighed and pushed away a strand of hair that had escaped. Looking around the bar, she settled her eyes on the tipped over chair and righted it. It wobbled unsteadily before crashing back to the floor. For the first time since he had walked into the room, her angry expression fell, and he thought she might cry.

"Don't worry about it," Cloud said quickly. "I can fix it."

Tifa nodded and sunk into another chair, resting her arms on the table and burying her face into them. Cloud tentatively sat next to her.

"The kids said..." he began cautiously.

Tifa lifted her head up, scowling.

"That stupid woman," she interrupted, eyes sparking. "I should have slapped her for saying those things about the kids. What does she know about anything?"

"What did she say?" Cloud asked softly.

"She called Denzel and Marlene monsters," she said, her hands unconsciously clenching into fists where they laid in her lap. "And that I was too young and incompetent to be a mother and she hoped for the children's sake that someone would have enough sense to take them away."

Her voice became tearful as she said this, and her fists relaxed as she became wringing her hands.

"What right does she have to say any of those things?" Tifa asked, eyes shiny and hurt.

Cloud noticed her swallowing convulsively to hold back tears and moved over to her chair, bending down to cradle her head against his shoulder. He stroked her hair gently, feeling a few tears seep through his shirt.

"You're the best thing that ever happened to any of us," he whispered to her. "She's just a stupid, bitter woman..."

A stupid, bitter woman that's going to be torn to shreds if I ever get a hold of her... Cloud finished darkly in his mind.

"Tifa..." two small, shy voices said from beside them.

Tifa looked up quickly, one hand wiping her eyes, the other still clenching the fabric of Cloud's shirt. Cloud loosened his arms to her shoulders, allowing her to turn in her seat and face the two children.

"We made you something," Marlene said, giving Tifa her sweetest smile.

Denzel held out a piece of paper. This one was a carefully colored drawing featuring Denzel and Marlene on either side of Tifa, the three of them holding hands and smiling. 'We love you Tifa!' was written in blue crayon underneath. Tifa took the drawing in both hands, a small grin creeping up her face. She opened her arms and Marlene and Denzel climbed up on the chair with her.

"Thank you," she said softly, kissing them both on the face.

They smiled and hugged her in response. From over Tifa's shoulder, Denzel gave Cloud a wink. Grinning and shaking his head, Cloud saw that in Denzel's back pocket, was a wrinkled envelope clearly addressed to 'The mother of the boy we bit.'

Chapter Text

It took a little over a month for all the snow to melt and for spring to blossom. It took less than two months for spring to come and with it, beautiful, warm weather. The streets were crowded with adults and children running about their daily lives, enjoying the spring after a long winter.

The bar was once again bustling with business. Tifa found herself enforcing the hours more forcefully than she had ever expected to. She had ended up, more than once, ushering disgruntled customers to the door. In her old bar, she never would have risked losing business by upsetting her customers, but the lack of competition let her get away with a lot. A smart customer never showed up before eight in the morning when Marlene and Denzel were still eating breakfast and never stayed past nine at night when the children were already in their pajamas.

Though it was proving impossible nowadays to get Marlene and Denzel in bed. Cloud was always home before dark now, and though he never provided an explanation for his shortened workday, Tifa sensed he was worried about the oncoming danger. The children were always over-enthusiastic when it came to helping Cloud and Tifa finish up their night's work. They knew that the faster the bar was cleaned up and the faster Cloud's delivery schedule was made, the sooner they'd all be able to play.

Behind the bar on a balmy evening, Tifa was mildly surprised that Cloud wasn't yet home. The cellphone Cloud had bought her was sitting on the counter next to her pile of dishes, but it had been silent all day. She flipped it open just to be sure, but there were no messages. She frowned slightly, observing the bar area. It had been an uncharacteristically quiet day. Her few customers were spread around the bar, eating and talking in soft voices.

She sighed and looked out the windows, searching for Marlene and Denzel. They were outside the bar with a few other children. When they saw her watching, they quickly smiled and waved, a wave she returned with slight suspicion. They hadn't asked her once today why Cloud was late coming home, and they had been strangely obedient all day.

What are they up to? she wondered, smiling absentmindedly as she said goodbye to a customer. Clearly Cloud was in on it too, and judging by Marlene's barely contained excitement, it was something good. Tifa brow furrowed as she began working on the dishes, a tiny bit hurt at the exclusion.

She looked up from the sink as the front door opened and the children rushed in. The time read seven o'clock, exactly the time Tifa had told them to come inside. The children mimicked Tifa in looking at the clock before giving her identical angelic smiles. She didn't bother to hide the suspicion in her eyes when she returned the smile.

"Dinner's on the kitchen table," she told them. "Do you want to eat it now or wait for Cloud?"

Marlene and Denzel exchanged a secretive glance before turning to Tifa.

"We'll wait," Marlene said, bouncing on her toes.

"We'll go wrap it up and put it away for you," Denzel offered, grabbing Marlene's hand and pulling her into the kitchen.

Tifa watched them go with growing bewilderment. She glanced at the clock once more before returning to her work. If the children weren't going to give anything away, she'd just have to wait for Cloud to get home.

As Tifa locked the door behind her last customer of the day, Marlene and Denzel watched her with mounting excitement. She sighed and shook her head at them. They were still dressed and unfed.

"Don't you think it's time to eat dinner now?" she asked them, hands on her hips.

They shook their heads cheerfully, swinging their feet from the high barstools. Tifa let out another sigh.

"I give up!" she told them, unable to hold back a smile at their knowing looks. "What are you two up to?"

Marlene and Denzel both glanced at the clock again and muffled giggles behind their hands. Tifa rolled her eyes, exasperated.

"Well if you two won't tell me anything," she said, wiping her hands on her skirt. "I'm going upstairs to go get changed."

She took two steps towards the door leading to the living room, and the children's eyes widened in panic. Tifa stopped, smiling a bit triumphantly as they leaped from their seats and positioned themselves between Tifa and the door. She bent down so her eyes were on the same level as theirs.

"There's something in the living room," she stated, smiling knowingly.

As the children shook their heads desperately, a muffled bang in the living room confirmed Tifa's statement. She took a step towards the door and the children grabbed her around the waist.

"No Tifa, wait!" Marlene begged, throwing all her weight against her.

Denzel flattened himself against the door, spreading his arms out as far as they could go.

"Don't!" he said, shaking his head emphatically. "We promised Cloud that-"

His face turned bright red and Marlene glared at him.

"Denzel!" she shouted.

Denzel scowled at her.

"I didn't say anything!" he yelled back.

As the two began arguing, Tifa watched with confusion and amusement. So Cloud does know what's going on... she thought, using the children's distraction to tiptoe around them and reach the door. They cried out in distress as her hand closed on the doorknob, but to her surprise, someone was already turning it.

Tifa jumped back as the door swung open. Standing on the other side was Cloud, looking a little out of breath, his hair rustled. Tifa's mouth dropped open, eyes going between Cloud and the children, her flabbergasted expression clearly the cause of their amused smiles.

"Cloud!" she managed to stutter. "How long have you been home?"

The children giggled as Cloud shrugged, and they raced past Tifa to tug Cloud's arms.

"Did you pick it up?" Denzel whispered.

Cloud hushed him and nodded. Marlene clapped her hands with pleasure and the three of them glanced at Tifa. Her hands were on her hips, eyes pinning them in the doorway.

"What's going on?" she demanded finally.

Her insistent tone would have normally caused them to meekly comply with whatever she asked, but they just smiled at her. Her hands dropped to her sides and laughing, Marlene and Denzel grabbed her hands and pulled her into the living room.

Tifa dug her heels in, stubbornly resisting, but then she felt Cloud's hands on her back, gently pushing her through the door. Cloud and the children playfully tugged her into the living room as she continued to resist, all three of them laughing with the knowledge of a shared secret.

"Hey!" Tifa protested as one of Cloud's hands covered her eyes.

Cloud, Marlene, and Denzel all shushed her, and she grumpily grasped the children's hands as they guided her into the living room. When they came to a stop, Tifa stumbled blindly, but Cloud's hand on her waist gently steadied her. The children's hands slipped out of her own.

"Ready?" Cloud whispered, his breath warm on her ear.

His hand slipped off her eyes, and she found herself positioned directly in front of a wooden piano, its sleek wood newly polished.

"Happy birthday!" Marlene and Denzel shouted, jumping in the air, and clapping their hands at the look of shock on Tifa's face.

Tifa's mouth dropped open wordlessly, and she stumbled backwards into Cloud. He laughed, placing his hands on her shoulders and whispering in her ear.

"Happy twenty-third Tifa..."

He kissed her jaw gently, and Tifa felt her face flare up. She took a step away, turning to face him.

"But today's..." she began weakly.

"The third of May," Cloud said, laughing as Tifa's hand jumped to her mouth in surprise.

She turned away from Cloud and the children's smiling faces for a minute and took a step towards the piano. Her fingertips swept delicately over the smooth wood surface before dropping down to touch the glassy white keys. Gently she pressed down on one note. It played clearly and in tune.

"Oh..." Tifa said softly, her hand covering her mouth again.

Marlene and Denzel crowded around her, climbing up on the piano bench.

"Do you like it Tifa?" Marlene asked eagerly.

"Me and Marlene helped pick it out!" Denzel told her, smiling widely.

Her hands gently stroked the children's faces.

"It's perfect," she told them, smiling to hide the tears in her eyes.

The children grinned widely, and Tifa turned to look at Cloud. His smile was shyly pleased.

"This was your idea?" she asked softly.

Cloud shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded, grinning. His grin deepened as Tifa took a step closer and his arms opened just in time as Tifa's hug knocked the breath out of him.

"Thank you..." she whispered.

His only response was to thread his hand through her hair and tilt her head enough to brush his lips against hers. She closed her eyes and leaned into him, enjoying her birthday kiss before she remembered that the children were watching. She jumped back and glared at Cloud. Marlene and Denzel giggled. Cloud smiled at Tifa innocently.

"Do you remember how to play?" he asked, guiding her to the piano bench.

With Marlene and Denzel sitting on either side of her, and Cloud's hands gently brushing her shoulders, Tifa rested her fingertips on the piano keys. She closed her eyes remembering her piano in Nibelheim and the sheets of music that she had played over and over until they were engraved in her memory. Opening her eyes to the children's expectant faces, Tifa began to play.

Reeve leaned back in his office chair and cradled the phone to his ear with his shoulder. He ran a hand over the stubble on his chin, silently grateful that the man on the other line couldn't see his disheveled state.

"Yes, yes... I'll get the documents to you tomorrow, Rufus." Reeve said assuringly.

"Why not tonight?" Rufus asked, his tone still as annoyingly arrogant as ever.

Reeve sighed.

"Cloud isn't working today," he told him exhaustedly. "And there is no possible way I can leave my office."

Rufus grunted in frustration but said nothing.

"I'll have them to you by tomorrow," Reeve told him. "Until then, all we can do is continue making the preparations. I have to go."

Reeve hung up with Rufus and picked up his pen, hovering it over a pile of paperwork. The endless lists of names were exhausting him. He scanned over the list and sighed, pushing the papers away and leaning back into the chair.

The inevitable was hitting him in the face. Over two years had passed since the meteor incident and they still had no idea who was dead, who was alive, and who was living where. Their old data banks were now completely useless, and it would be frightfully easy for someone to adopt another's identity.

That sort of possibility, in the midst of the approaching danger, was unacceptable. Reeve's only option was to conduct a worldwide census, and issue new papers of identification. He groaned as he thought of the huge amount of work this would require. He was already swamped.

But the decision was a necessary one. Right now the world's population was nameless and numberless. He had no idea how many people lived in the main cities, how many of them were ex-Shinra employees or ex-SOLDIERs. He would have no way of tracking someone down if they ever were discovered to be one of the Deep Ground Soldiers. Without official records, names could be changed, identities stolen.

He sighed as he glanced at his watch. It was past ten already. Time for him to go to sleep. Reeve groaned his way to his feet. Tomorrow would be a long day.

It was after eleven when Tifa finally shut the door to the children's bedroom. Denzel and Marlene had begged her to keep playing the piano for them until she had feebly protested that she didn't know any more songs. The children then brightly reminded her that they hadn't eaten dinner yet, and they had all retreated into the kitchen to eat.

Tifa smiled as she saw Cloud leaning against the wall.

"I thought we'd be up all night," Cloud said quietly, eyes flashing in amusement.

Tifa laughed softly.

"Luckily," she said, "my memories not all that great. My fingers were going to fall off if I had to play one more song."

Cloud laughed, watching her eyes glow softly with happiness. The past few months with Tifa had been the most amazing and terrifying of his life. On one hand, there were Tifa's sweet kisses and the feeling of her body against his...and on the other hand there were the temptations.

Watching Tifa slowly approach him, Cloud swallowed hard. He tried hard to remember that there were two small children asleep in the room behind Tifa and that they could wake any minute. He took a shuddering breath as Tifa's arm snaked up to his shoulder. She gave him a curious look.

"My room?" she asked, nudging her head in direction of her door.

To hell with temptation... Cloud thought helplessly as he nodded and followed Tifa into her room, shutting the door behind him. He leaned against the door and watched her as she moved over to her dresser and removed her pearl earrings, placing them in a wooden jewelry box. She noticed him watching and smiled, sitting down on the bed and patting the spot next to her.

He sat down slowly, their legs brushing.

"You liked the piano?" Cloud asked, reaching for her hand.

Tifa nodded and squeezed his hand tightly.

"I can't believe you remembered," she whispered.

Cloud laughed quietly.

"I can't believe you forgot," he replied.

Tifa leaned in and buried her face into his shoulder. He felt the subtle shift of her mood and cautiously circled her back with his arms.

"I've had other things on my mind," she whispered.

Cloud's arms tightened around her.

"I know,” he said, tangling a hand through her hair.

He knew she was thinking of the four bags they had hidden in the small attic above Marlene and Denzel's room. He had shown Tifa and the kids exactly where to go if something were to happen and made Tifa promise to call him as soon as possible. It was a feeble precaution, but it was all they had.

"I feel like we're always just waiting for something to happen," Tifa mumbled.

"Yea," Cloud whispered.

Tifa pulled back a little so she could look up at Cloud. He smiled and gently brushed her cheeks with the tips of his fingers.

"It's your birthday," he whispered to her. "Don't even think about anything else."

She leaned forward and kissed him, fingertips barely brushing his collarbone. Cloud shifted so they were facing each other and cupped her cheek gently. It was a soft lingering kiss. Tifa pulled back slowly with a sleepy, heavy-lidded look in her eyes that messed horribly with Cloud's self-control.

Suddenly Tifa perked up and looked around the room, eyes playfully suspicious.

"Barret's not going to pop out of the closet?" she asked in a whisper. "Yuffie's not going to start pounding on the door? The kids aren't going to run in?"

Cloud joined in Tifa's quiet laughter.

"I don't know," he said, giving the door a sideways glance. "Maybe we should get all our doors dead-bolted just in case."

They laughed softly together, an amused yet slightly frustrated admittance of their lack of privacy. Tifa's arms were still loosely looped around Cloud's neck. Cloud let his hands settle around her waist as she leaned forward, resting her head under his chin.

"Well, we're alone now aren't we?" she whispered.

Delightful chills ran down Cloud's spine.

"Yea," he replied in a hushed voice.

Tifa's cheek brushed his as she lifted her head up. It was too hard to resist the way her eyelashes brushed his skin when they kissed, too hard to resist the way her fingers dug into his back when he deepened the kiss, too hard to resist laying down on Tifa's soft bed, her body fitting enticingly against his.

Why exactly am I trying to resist? he asked himself, mind feeling fuzzy. His lips trailed off hers, exploring the soft skin of her jaw before trailing down to the bottom of her neck. His mind dimly registered the strap of fabric in his way before his hands pushed it away, freeing one lovely, rounded shoulder.

Cloud swallowed hard and looked up at Tifa. Her eyes mirrored the same desire he felt and yet behind that, he could see that she knew what he did. They were going to stop before anything happened, like they always did. Cloud sighed and shifted so that when he collapsed on the bed, he wouldn't be collapsing on top of Tifa. He could feel Tifa's disappointment as sharply as he could feel his own.

Is it because the children are asleep in the room next to us? he wondered as Tifa settled against his chest, resigning to sleep. His hands ran through her hair, gently smoothing it out of its tousled state. No, he decided as he felt Tifa's body relax against him, her breathing deepening. It's something else...something else is stopping us.

Was it their worry about the oncoming danger? No, he answered himself, hands still caressing the soft silk of her hair. There's something missing... he decided. His stomach twisted with nerves. He felt his mouth go dry as Tifa's word's come back to him.

"Can't do it because we're not a real family?"

He felt suddenly light-headed. He worried that the loud pounding of his heart would wake Tifa up.

"What have I gotten myself into?" he whispered.

The room was silent, except for the soft sounds Tifa made in her sleep. He took a deep breath and wondered when, and how he would ask. And how he would scrape up the nerve.

Chapter Text

Reeve's voice blurred with the Turk's and ex-President Rufus's in Cloud's ears as the meeting dragged on. He sullenly glanced at the other faces in the circular conference room, trying to connect the faces to names and failing miserably. He sighed and spun his pen around with his fingers.

He had sensed ever since Reeve offered him a job that Reeve would try to wean him away from deliveries and into a more political position. Overall, the work wasn't too bad. Reeve instinctively knew that he'd never be able to push Cloud into a public position and Cloud was fine with the sort of behind the scenes work Reeve came up with for him.

But the meetings... Cloud silently glowered at the intently conversing people around him. They seemed to stretch on for an eternity. Everyone had their own opinion, and they tended to express it in a loud obnoxious way. They'd just finished discussing the recent census that took place in Kalm. Everyone agreed it was a success. The disagreements came when they began discussing plans for the census in Edge- a city much larger than Kalm.

The voices around him rose to a higher caliber and Cloud sighed and stared at the dark wooden table. I have my own problems to worry about, he thought grumpily as the argument continued. His stomach clenched in a familiar way, and he welled up with self pity.

I'm being punished, he thought sulkily. It was the only way he could justify it. Why else would Tifa had worn that shirt the other day...the one with the little straps for sleeves that just happened to be too loose and slip off her shoulders from time to time...Cloud felt his eye twitch.

And the skirt the day before yesterday? True, it didn't quite match the standards of her old Avalanche skirt, but there were a good few inches of calf and thigh showing that definitely hadn't been showing last summer. He wasn't even going to get started on the slow lingering goodnight kisses that ended too soon and the coy little smiles.

He scowled. Oh, he could confront her about it. She'd deny it. That much he was sure of. He could sense the laughter behind those doe eyes. She knew exactly what she was doing to him. In fact, he was almost positive she was enjoying it.

Cloud slumped and fingered the small box in his pocket. It had been a week since he bought it but... He hadn't asked yet. What are you waiting for? he asked himself for the millionth time. He could feel himself wilting. I never knew I was such a wimp, he thought grumpily.

It took him a second to register that the voices had stopped. It took him another second to realize that every head in the conference room was staring at him. He immediately straightened up in his seat and tried to get rid of the blank look in his eyes.

Reeve cleared his throat.

"So... are you coming?" Reeve asked, clearly trying to be helpful. "Tifa and the kids are invited too of course."

Cloud tried to sort through the conversation that had taken place during the past hour and half, searching for information that would be helpful in answering the question. He was coming up empty handed.

"Uuuh..." he replied, running a hand through his hair.

Reno rolled his eyes at him.

"Dude, even I was paying attention," he said incredulously. "The party. Are you coming?"

When Cloud continued to look blank, Reno elaborated.

"You know... a party? The kind Rufus throws? Everyone gets dressed up, listens to lame music, and gets drunk off expensive wine?" Reno said as Rufus rolled his eyes at Reno. "Meanwhile all the important people sit in a corner and smoke cigars and talk about important stuff?"

Cloud shook his head.

"I don't think so..." he answered dubiously.

He was answered with badly hidden snickers and a few amused grins.

"That's what you think..." Reno muttered, exchanging smiles with his fellow Turks.

Cloud whipped his head around to Reeve's, eyes narrowed.

"What does he mean?" he asked Reeve, a hint of panic in his voice.

Reeve gave Cloud a sympathetic look.

"Rufus didn't address the invitation to you Cloud," Reeve began, a grin creeping over his face.

Cloud suddenly felt like a trapped animal.

"I addressed it to Tifa," Rufus said, and the conference room burst into laughter.

Cloud was cringing inside as he maneuvered the streets of Edge on back of Fenrir. He had tried to leave early to beat the mail, but laughing, Reeve had refused. All the men at the conference had laughed freely at the desperate look in Cloud's eyes. Elena, the only woman present, had offered Cloud a pitying smile, to which his response was a dark glowering look that made her laugh.

I don't do parties, Cloud thought grumpily. Sure, Avalanche had thrown a few impromptu parties where they all got rip roaring drunk off of Tifa's never-ending supply of Corel alcohol. He endured, and most of the time enjoyed, the small parties they had.

But he had thus far managed to avoid the other kind of parties. The kind of party where he'd have to dress up and make small talk with important people. Where he might have to dance...and eat things he couldn't pronounce. He shuddered on the back of his bike. He wasn't going.

That's final... he decided with a smug grin as he parked his bike in front of Seventh Heaven. Tifa could shout, scream, beg, plead, or flutter her long lashes at him. He wouldn't budge. A party? he'd say, raising an outraged eyebrow. Never. I won't go. And neither will you. He nodded, satisfied at his planned response.

With long manly strides he approached the door and swung it open forcefully, ready to tell Tifa that there was no way he was going.

The second he opened the door, a little girl flung herself at his legs, babbling incoherently. He stumbled back, the determined look on his face wavering. He sighed and pried Marlene off of him.

"Slow down, Marlene," he told her wearily. "I can't understand you."

She smiled at him toothily.

"Me and Tifa are going shopping!" she pronounced enthusiastically. "For dresses!"

Marlene spun around like a princess and knocked into a lamp. Cloud caught it with the reflexes of a man who had saved the same lamp from a sudden demise many times before. Marlene jumped up and down, unable to contain her excitement.

"We're all going to a party!" she sang.

Cloud opened her mouth to tell her that they most certainly were not going, but she jumped on him, efficiently knocking all breath out of him.

"Where's Tifa?" he managed to choke out.

Marlene smiled and grabbed his hand, pulling him into the bar area. Tifa was behind the bar, mixing a few drinks for her last customers of the day. He noticed that she was wearing one of those shirts again... the kind that just happened to lift up and reveal a few inches of midriff when she happened to reach up and push her hair back.

He felt his eye convulsively twitch again.

He sat down sulkily at the bar and crossed his arms. He didn't care that he looked like a pouting five-year-old. Tifa took one look at him and began fixing him a drink, discreetly hiding her smile. He glared at her as she pushed the drink towards him and took a seat behind the bar, resting her chin in her hands and observing him.

He defiantly downed the drink. The alcohol took the edge of his nerves. He pushed the empty cup towards Tifa, eyes pleading with her to fill it again, but she shook her head and dumped the cup in the sink, eyes amused. He sighed and slouched his shoulders.

"Oh Cloud..." Tifa sighed, reaching out to lightly touch his arm. "It won't be all that bad."

He silently glowered and looked away, avoiding her gaze. His eyes followed Marlene as she ushered Tifa's last customers to the door and locked it behind them before prancing away.

"Barret's coming," Tifa said, leaning across the bar, trying to catch his eye. "So are Cid and Shera, and Yuffie and her father..."

Cloud didn't budge.

"I bet Vincent isn't going," he mumbled.

Tifa laughed, exasperated.

"Of course Vincent isn't coming," she said, amused. "Neither is Red."

Cloud continued to sulk, arms crossed eyes lowered. He heard Tifa sigh and almost felt triumphant. But then he heard the footsteps walking around the bar and the thin arms slip around him from behind and the chin resting on his shoulder.

"Please Cloud?"

A soft whisper that tickled his ear.

This is it... he told himself. This is when you say: Absolutely not Tifa! We're not going and that's final!

Instead, he found his shoulders relaxing under Tifa's gentle embrace. His cheek brushed against the side of her head and the enticing scent of her hair wafted through his senses. What's so bad about parties again? he thought fuzzily as he turned his head to gently meet her lips.

He turned around in his barstool so he and Tifa were facing. Her arms were still loosely draped over his shoulders and her lips were still parted slightly. He sighed defeatedly at the inquiring look in her eyes. Who am I kidding? he asked himself hopelessly.

"But..." he said, wincing at the whine in his voice. "I don't have anything to wear!"

Tifa's laugh was sweet and intoxicating. He found himself smiling uncertainly. She grabbed his hand and yanked him off the barstool.

"I'll take care of it," she promised.

He grudgingly followed her into the living room. Denzel was on the floor, grumpily knocking around some of his toys and Marlene was perched on the piano bench, mangling some song. Tifa's hands slipped out his and she walked over to Marlene, gently fixing the position of her fingers on the piano keys.

Cloud sat down on the floor next to Denzel, who glanced up mournfully at him.

"I have to wear a suit Cloud," he said simply, his eyes wide and horrified.

Cloud sighed and leaned back against the sofa. Denzel joined him, crossing his arms across his little chest. They frowned at Tifa and Marlene's cheery backs. I tried Denzel... Cloud thought, patting the little boy on the shoulder. At least we're not alone...

Vincent crumbled up the invitation in his claw, shaking his head with slight amusement. The invitation had only been sent to be polite. Everyone knew he wouldn't be going. Vincent could bear providing information to Reeve when he needed it, sometimes he could even put up with Yuffie's constant phone calls. The discovery of the 'ignore' button on his cell phone helped.

But a party? The sort of social events he used to go to in stiff suits and watch Lucrecia stand by Hojo while he discussed all sorts of sick plans with other scientists. Vincent shook his head. That sort of thing was in his past. Now they were dealing with the aftereffects of Hojo's experiments.

He, Vincent, knew more than anyone what they might be dealing with. He knew what Hojo was capable of. What he didn't know was how long they had. He stretched his long legs out in front of him and frowned.

Clearly the Deep Ground Soldiers weren't idiots. Striking out now, with Reeve and the others on high alert would be asking for defeat. Their best chance would be one hard swift strike. Vincent tilted his head.

The party? He shook his head. Reeve wasn't an idiot either. He knew that bringing the world's most influential people together in one party would be begging the Deep Ground Soliders for an attack.

Bait then? Vincent pondered. A slight smile shadowed his face, and he smoothed out the crumpled invitation. Perhaps I will be making an appearance then...

Reeve picked the phone up and set it down again. He'd be honest with Cloud so far. But would he come if he knew? The danger would be practically non-existent. Reeve would have almost all his troops stationed around the building, the ballroom, on the roof. It was a simple trap. Lure the bastards out of their hiding hole and blast the hell out of them.

He rested his forehead on his desk. The guilt still swirled in his stomach. He was deliberately putting Cloud and his family in danger. No danger... he reminded himself forcefully. They'll be safe inside while the fighting goes on outside. They'll be safer at the party than at home.

Reeve hated it. He hated luring the enemy to the middle of a metropolis. He knew that some innocent bystanders would die. But that was the price. What were his other options? Sit and wait for them to make the first move?

He shook his head. That was unacceptable. He knew he had to act before them. He had come to accept that. It was the best tactic he had. It was his only choice.

It still hurt.

"I want a scary story," Denzel mumbled sleepily, tugging at his pajamas.

He buried his face back into Tifa's shoulder. Marlene, on her other side pushed one leg out from under the covers and shifted closer.

"I don't," she protested in an equally sleepy voice.

Denzel yawned, too sleepy to come up with a rebuttal. Tifa smiled and smoothed his hair back.

"I think you two are too sleepy for any kind of story," she said softly, pulling the covers over their shoulders.

"Nuh-uh," Marlene murmured.

Tifa slipped her arms around Marlene's middle and stood up. Marlene sleepily slipped her arms around Tifa's neck and allowed herself to be placed in her own bed. Tifa kissed her forehead.

"Goodnight Marlene," she said softly.

"Night Tifa," Marlene mumbled.

Tifa smiled as the little girl rolled over in bed, already beginning to rumple her blankets. Tifa moved over to Denzel bed and gently smoothed out the indentations in the bed that she and Marlene had made. Denzel looked up blearily.

"I'm not going shopping tomorrow," he murmured softly.

Tifa smiled and kissed him goodnight.

"We'll see," she replied.

She smiled as he wrinkled his nose and closed his eyes. Her footsteps were soft as she left the room, leaving the door open a crack. She turned the hall light off and walked down the stairs into the living room. Tifa smiled as she saw Cloud on the sofa, head bent over a small stack of papers on the coffee table.

"A little behind on your work?" Tifa asked, sitting down on the sofa next to him.

Cloud nodded and stacked the papers up, setting them aside. Tifa leaned into the sofa, propping her feet up on the table. Cloud mimicked her.

"So we're really going?" he sighed finally.

Tifa smiled, head tilting to rest on his shoulder.

"It won't be all that bad," she told him. "Marlene can't wait."

"Denzel's not all that thrilled," he contradicted.

Tifa sat up and jabbed an accusing finger into Cloud's chest.

"He'd be excited if you weren't so glum about it!" she scolded.

Cloud opened his mouth defensively.

"I don't like parties!" he said.

Tifa rolled her eyes and slouched back into the sofa.

"We've never been to this kind of party," she said softly. "Maybe you'll like it."

Cloud shook his head stubbornly.

"Well then," Tifa sighed, shifting so she could peer up at him. "I owe you one."

Cloud smiled at this.

"You owe me one," he affirmed.