This fic is dedicated to Suitachi72, who owns Tai. I was thinking of her while getting ready for bed at 3, and this fic popped up! I miss you! Written at 3 in the morning!

For more information on Tai and Kylie, read 'Battle of the Mages' on Suitachi72's account. That story's about them. This is just a little ficlet because I miss Tai. TT

Disclaimer: Well, I don't own Tai (Suitachi does) and I don't own Cloud. I do however own Cloud's wife, Kylie, and their daughter, Chelsea.

This was written as a sort of sequel to Battle of the Mages, after everything is over. It also takes place after Suitachi's fic, 'Merry Christmas Kingdom Hearts' (Which is excellent and amazing, go read it right now! Then come back and read this one!)


Who Would've Thought?

hanyou-samurai

Kylie, the fire mage, stared at the kitchen faucet. Across the kitchen, her young daughter Chelsea was playing with blocks, stacking them up then giggling madly as she knocked them down. Kylie glanced at her and smiled, then turned back to the faucet.

In danced her best friend, the water mage Tai, short brown hair ruffling. Her eyes sparkled as she dropped to her knees beside Chelsea.

"Hi Chelsea!" she said happily. Chelsea smiled, and held out a block. Tai laughed and took it.

"Hey Tai…" Tai looked up. Kylie was smiling at her, obviously wanting something.

"Yes Kye?"

"Will you fill this up?" Kylie held up a large metal pot. "It's for dinner." Tai cocked an eyebrow.

"What's wrong with your water?" Kylie rolled her eyes.

"It broke! So Cloud's fixing it." Tai grinned. Kylie had made her husband fix the faucet.

"Alright." Kylie put the pan on the stove, and Tai pointed at it. It filled up instantly. Kylie grinned.

"Thanks!"

"No problem!" Tai grinned as she left the kitchen. Poking her head back in she said, "I want Chinese!" and then she left. She knew Kylie wanted that water to boil. So she had put a spell on it so it wouldn't.

"We're not having Chinese!"

Kylie stared at the water. The stove had been on full blast for ten minutes, and the water still hadn't boiled. Frowning, Kylie stuck her finger in the water. It was cold as ice. Kylie leaned down and examined the stove. It was on all right: she could feel the heat. So what was wrong with the water?

"Cat." Kylie whirled. Chelsea was pointing to a picture of a cat in one of her books. Kylie dropped to her knees by her daughter.

"What did you say?" she asked quietly. Chelsea smiled.

"Cat!" Kylie burst out laughing. It was her daughter's first word!

"Cloud!" she yelled. He came walking in, covered in sweat and dirt.

"Yeah?"

"Chelsea just said her first word!" Cloud was astonished, and then broke into a grin, dropping to his knees beside his wife and daughter.

"Chelsea, can you say it again?"

"Cat!" she pointed to the picture, and then seemed to grow tired of saying cat over and over again. She went back to her blocks. Kylie and Cloud exchanged grins, and then Cloud leaned in and kissed her. A few moments later they part.

"Are you done yet?" asked Kylie as the two adults stood up. Cloud shook his head.

"Almost." Kylie smiled.

"Good. Dinner's… kinda ready?" Cloud glanced at the clean kitchen and the pot of water.

"Water? Yum, my favorite." Kylie laughed and rolled her eyes.

"No! There's going to be something besides that… probably. Although Tai wants Chinese." Cloud grinned and kissed her again.

"I'll be done soon."

"Okay." Kylie turned back to her pot as Cloud left the kitchen.

Seven minutes later she had been reduced to pacing, stopping every few feet to glare at the water. Kylie growled, and stalked to the phone, slamming open the phonebook to the page she wanted and running her finger down it. Finding the number she wanted, she dialed it into the phone. One ring. Two rings.

"Hello?"

Twenty minutes later, Cloud came in, having already showered. Kylie was there, looking through several different bags. Before he could ask anything, Tai came running into the kitchen.

"Chinese! Did the water not boil?"

Kylie shook her head absentmindedly. "No… then I remembered what you said and decided that Chinese sounded good." Kylie froze and looked up slowly. "Wait… How did you know that the water didn't boil?" Tai looked shiftily from side to side before laughing manically and running out of the kitchen. Kylie rolled her eyes. Cloud laughed and walked to the table.

"What'd you get?"

After dinner, the four of them, Kylie, Tai, Cloud, and Chelsea, were sitting in the living room, the room lit by a fire roaring in the hearth. The island they lived on had gotten cold at night as winter approached. Cloud was reading, Chelsea and Tai were playing on the floor, and Kylie was watching them.

"Cat!" Chelsea said for the forty-second time in the last hour. She stood up and grabbed a cat stuffed animal, taking it to Cloud. She put it in his lap. He looked up from his book, startled, reading glasses perched on his nose.

"Thank… you?"

Chelsea smiled, and got another cat stuffed animal. This one she put in Kylie's lap. A third she gave to Tai, and a fourth she hugged. Cats were her favorite animals. Kylie and Cloud, both holding stuffed cats, looked at each other.

Tai smiled as she played with the cat.

"Maybe you guys should get a cat."

Kylie blushed a little bit. "Well, actually, I kinda want one." Turning to Tai, she said, "Do you remember that grouchy old cat that belonged to that crazy old lady down the street?"

Tai nodded eagerly. "Yeah! He was the weirdest looking cat! It looked like his face had gotten squished by something!" Kylie laughed, and explained the story to Cloud.

"This cat was so mean! It only tolerated its owner and Tai!" Cloud laughed.

"That's because I fed it!" Tai proclaimed proudly.

"I tried to feed it too!" said Kylie. "It just wouldn't eat anything from me!"

"Did you give it ice cream?"

Kylie opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it, raising an eyebrow. "Ice cream?" Tai nodded vigorously.

"Yeah."

"No. I gave it fish." Tai grinned.

"He only liked ice cream."

"A cat." Cloud broke into the conversation, removing his reading glasses. "That would be nice. I would like a cat." Kylie raised an eyebrow at him.

"You wanna get one?" Cloud considered it for a few moments before nodding.

"Yes." Tai grinned.

"Wow, blondy can think for himself!"

"Tai…" Kylie said wearily. Those two were always bickering. Cloud ignored her and leaned down to talk to Chelsea, who looked up at her father.

"Chelsea, we're going to get a cat!"

Chelsea grinned, stood up, and began to run in circles, yelling, "Cat, cat, cat!" over and over again. The three of them burst out laughing.

The next day, the four of them went to the pound, looking at all of the cats and kittens.

"Are you letting Chelsea choose?" Tai asked, playing with a tabby kitten. Kylie nodded as Chelsea hid her head under her father's arm when a cat hissed at her.

"Yeah. I mean, we want her to grow up with it, and it only makes sense if she chooses it."

Tai and Kylie went back to Chelsea and Cloud. Cloud was holding his white-blonde child up to a cage, in which a pitch-black kitten stood against the bars, poking its pink nose out. Chelsea was petting it gently. And then she saw its eyes. They were as vivid a green as Kylie's. Chelsea let out a sound of astonishment, and pointed from them to her mother and back again. Kylie didn't understand at first, and then she grinned.

"That's right honey. That kittens eyes are the same as mommy's!"

"Ugh, gag," Tai said cheerfully. Kylie glared at her.

"When you have children, you'll understand! How else would I have gotten Cloud to go kitten shopping?"

"Oh, I dunno, you can get him to do most things."

Kylie laughed. "That's true."

"I do it to make her happy," the man in question said quietly, holding Chelsea in one arm and taking the kitten out of the cage with the other. Tai and Kylie exchanged looks.

"Aww," said Kylie, putting a hand over her heart. "That's so sweet!"

Tai merely made retching motions.

Chelsea held the kitten, who had immediately become attached to her.

"Is that the one you want?" Tai asked Chelsea. Chelsea nodded, stroking the kitten's tiny black head.

"Do you want to look at any of the other ones?" asked Cloud. Chelsea shook her head.

"Cat!"

"Are you sure?" asked Kylie. Chelsea nodded even more violently then she had shaken her head.

"Cat!" Kylie and Cloud exchanged glances.

"I guess that's the one we're getting," said Cloud, and went up to the front counter to pay and buy supplies, leaving the child and the kitten behind. Tai and Kylie laughed as they saw Chelsea playing with her new pet.

In the car on the way home, Kylie and Cloud holding hands in the front, and Chelsea playing with her kitten in the back, Tai, sitting in the back with Chelsea, remarked, "Y'know, who would've thought that me playing a trick on Kye to get Chinese food would lead to you guys getting a cat?" Kylie and Cloud smiled, silver wedding rings glinting in the late autumn sunshine.

"Who would've thought?" Kylie agreed. Cloud smiled at her tenderly, rubbing his thumb across the back of her hand. They had everything they could ever want. Ever.


Well, that's it! I had fun writing this. Hope you enjoyed it! And I hope you review too!