Steel Bars Wrapped Around Me
I've Been You're Prisoner Since the Day You Found Me
And now, my personal challenge of following the 'Strife Family' for a year has come full circle! That's not to say this will be the last of my stories, no, no. I'm not sure where I'll go from here but I hope you enjoy the final story in the first 'year'!
I don't own Final Fantasy, it belongs to Square Enix.
Tifa was engrossed in her magazine. The TV was on in the background but she wasn't paying it any attention. It appeared that Cloud was reading the newspaper beside her but really he kept glancing at her repeatedly. Finally, his impatience got the best of him. He closed the newspaper and tossed it aside.
"Okay, if you're not going to tell me what you want to do for your birthday I have an idea…" he started.
"Alright." Was Tifa's reply. She didn't look up from her magazine.
"You remember the chocobo farm outside of the Mythrill Mines?" he asked.
"Of course I remember them." Tifa said.
"I've been thinking lately…what if…we bought some property there? You know, like…kind of a sort of vacation home. We could buy property that adjoins part of the farm and even have enough land to raise a breeding pair of chocobos." Tifa looked up from the page that she was infatuated with the most bizarre of looks on her face. "Think about it! We could have small a ranch style house in those rolling farmlands. Me and Cid could build a stable. Marlene and Denzel would have so much fun with a little chocobo; taking care of it. You remember the kid they called chocobo Billy? I bet he's still raising chocobos on the farm. He could teach them to ride and how feed them properly. They would have so much fun in their first chocobo race." Cloud paused. Tifa was still staring at him. She had completely stopped looking at her magazine.
"Oh my god…do you even hear what you're saying?" Tifa questioned.
"What, you don't think that sounds wonderful? To have a place in the country away from Midgar?" Cloud pressed onward.
"Why do you hate me?" Tifa asked teasingly, keeping a straight look on her face.
"Okay, so you're not 100 percent on this. Maybe you want to think about it for a little while." Cloud said.
"Yes, Cloud. That's exactly what I want…something else to take care of." Tifa said sarcastically as she returned to her magazine.
"You seriously don't think that sounds like a good idea?" Cloud insisted.
"No…no baby…that's a horrible idea. First, chocobos are a hell of a lot of work. We would have to hire someone to care for them when we were here. We would have over 10,000 gil in feeding them alone. That's not even considering stable fees or the costs of purchasing a breeding pair. Second, the last thing in the entire world we need is another home. A timeshare or something like that would be a good idea but no…we don't need any more property, Cloud Strife. Third…how the hell did you dream up this idea?" Tifa finished.
"I don't know…I guess…I guess I was just thinking how the kids have never seen that part of the world…how much they would enjoy it. I was also thinking about the fact that…they're getting older. It's not going to be long that they'll want to be with their friends more and more and us less and less." Cloud confessed to her.
"Okay, Cloud…buying a breeding pair of chocobos and property near the farms is not going to keep our kids with us. Yes, you're right. They are going to want to be with their friends and…you know, they're going to have interests that don't include us. But, we need to support them and love them and…they'll still be our kids." Tifa said.
"So, other couples with kids…they're like…glad when their kids reach this stage because the sex returns to their marriage….right?" Cloud said.
"Yes…at least that's what all the Marlene's friends' moms say." Tifa said returning to her magazine. Cloud sighed.
"Well, yeah…I mean…sure the kids are getting older…so are you telling me that four times a week turns in to six?" Cloud asked her.
"That's what I'm telling you. Savor it." Tifa said.
"But my god, Tifa….I'm so tired sometimes. I can't fuck you six days a week" Cloud said letting his head hit the back of the couch.
"Oh, Cloud…twenty-seven going on fifty-five. Oh, happy birthday me." Tifa mumbled as she engrossed herself in an article.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! That is….that is so not true! I can fuck you six days a week." Cloud said.
"You just said you couldn't and don't point at me…I'm reading this." Tifa said not taking her eyes off her magazine. Cloud was getting ready to say something but he didn't get the chance because the front door went flying open.
"I hate Ms. Yamatsu! She's a total bitch!" Denzel said throwing his backpack in the floor. Tifa immediately shot her eyes upward and threw her magazine on the table in front of her. "What did you just say?" she asked very matter of factly. Denzel looked up at her cold eyes. He knew he had just overstepped the line. "What…did you…just say?" Tifa repeated after the silence from Denzel.
"I said Ms. Yamatsu was a bitch." Denzel said swallowing hard. Sure, Cloud could scare Denzel or Marlene for a good thirty seconds but Tifa could put the fear of god in them for an indeterminate amount of time.
"Get over here….right now." Cloud said moving toward the edge of the couch. Oh, Denzel knew he had it coming. He walked over to where Cloud was and stood in front of him. Cloud's eyes were even colder than Tifa's.
"You listen to me…you never…ever…say something like that about your teacher or ANY woman for that matter…do you hear me?" Cloud asked.
"Yes." Denzel said unconvincingly.
"I said…do you hear me?" Cloud repeated.
"Yes, sir." Denzel said more affirmatively this time.
"You listen to me….if you ever…EVER say something like that again…I swear Denzel Lloyd…I will knock your mouth off your face. And if you don't think I'm serious about that….try me." Cloud said not breaking his gaze with Denzel's.
"Would you to tell us why you're using that kind of language?" Tifa asked. Denzel shook his head.
"I don't guess." He said.
"If you can stand there and have the gall to call your teacher a bitch then you can stand there like a man and tell us what's going on." Tifa insisted seriously. Now that…Denzel was scared of….
"Well…" Denzel started to sit down beside Cloud.
"No…any man in this house that uses that language will stand." Tifa insisted.
"Yes, ma'am." Denzel said quickly standing back up.
"Now…tell us what's going on." Tifa said sincerely.
"I got blamed for something that I didn't do in Ms. Yamatsu's class. I got in trouble and it wasn't even my fault, I swear! There were two boys that stole a test key off her desk to get the answers. When she walked back in the classroom one of them shoved the key in my back pocket before she could see that I had it. I promised her that I didn't do it but she took one of my respect stars anyway. Caitlyn stayed after class to talk to her about what really happened because I was so mad at her.
"Don't you think that after Caitlyn talks to her about what really happened she'll give your star back? She knows you're not a troublemaker. She had to do what she did because she didn't see what happened. She'll make it up to you Denzel." Tifa promised him.
"I don't care! I didn't…" Cloud stopped him.
"You don't ever take that tone with Tifa, young man. You raise your voice to her again like that and you'll wish you hadn't." Cloud warned him.
"I'm sorry, Tifa. I'm just upset. I didn't mean it." Denzel said honestly.
"I know honey…just listen a minute. Let's think about this." Tifa put her hands on his shoulders. "Your friend Caitlyn told Ms. Yamatsu what really happened. When you go to school tomorrow I'm sure she will make it all okay and penalize those two boys instead. If she doesn't say something to you, then you say something to her. It'll be okay. No one likes to get blamed for something they didn't do." Tifa assured him as she pushed his hair away from his eyes.
"It'll be okay Denzel. If it's not then Tifa will call her and talk to her about what happened, okay?" Cloud asked him. Denzel shook his head yes but his eyes were fixed on the ground.
"Come here, give me a hug." Tifa said wrapping Denzel in her arms. Denzel squeezed his arms around her. "You have any homework?" she asked.
"No, I got it all done at school." Denzel mumbled into her shoulder.
"Okay, well Cloud's going to start dinner here in a little bit." Tifa said rubbing his back.
"He is?" Cloud asked, looking at Tifa.
"Yes…he is. I'm exhausted from going in to the bar this morning at 6:30 AM and cleaning dishes since the dish boy broke his leg. You have no idea how many dishes I washed today. I don't care what you fix…but you're fixing it." Tifa said.
"Okay…I'll fix something…but I don't guarantee the quality of my product." Cloud said standing up.
"That's alright…if I don't like dinner, I'll love desert. That is…unless you're too tired to dish it out." Tifa said winking.
"Oh, you are so not funny. Listen to you all…sitting there still being twenty-six. You just wait until tomorrow when you're twenty-seven. You won't want any desert at all…you'll just want to turn the fan on and curl up underneath your blanket." Cloud said pulling a box of something from the cabinet.
"No Cloud, tomorrow is my birthday…I'll want and seconds and thirds so you might as well turn on the fan and curl up under the blanket right now 'cause you obviously need to get some rest." Tifa said.
"What kind of desert are we making for your birthday?" Denzel asked innocently. Tifa laughed.
"Oh honey…the kind that…seems to be a challenge for Cloud." Tifa said putting her hand on the top of Denzel's head. Cloud narrowed his eyes and shook his head at Tifa.
"Hey, where's Marlene?" Denzel asked.
"She's with Barett. He's bringing her by later tonight." Tifa explained.
"Oh. Well, I'm going to go change clothes." Denzel said letting go of Tifa.
"Okay, sweetie." Tifa let go of him and Denzel took off for his room. "Oh my god…Cloud…that can't seriously be what you're going to fix?" Tifa said glancing over at the countertop to see a box of pasta, a jar of mushrooms, and an orange. Cloud shook his head.
"No…I had to move all these stupid things out of the way to find this takeout menu. I mean seriously, why do we have this takeout menu jammed between a box of pasta and an orange?" Cloud asked.
"Who knows. I want a sub, but with no onion and I want a cup of the tomato bisque." Tifa said. "Denzel! Denzel, come back in here a minute and tell Cloud what you want from this menu!" Tifa yelled at him. He hurried back and perched himself up on the barstool at the kitchen counter. Cloud handed the menu over to him and searched around for the phone.
"I just want the breadsticks." Denzel said hopping down from the barstool and handing the menu back to Cloud. He took off again to his room. Tifa returned to her magazine while Cloud phoned in their order. He snapped his fingers and pointed to Tifa's purse. That meant: give me the credit card so I can pay for this now. She dug around until she found her checkbook. She handed the card over to Cloud and returned to her magazine.
"Twenty-five minutes." Cloud said hanging up the phone and tossing it aside. He shoved Tifa's credit card back into her checkbook. "Now, about the chocobo farm. What if we just drove up there for three or four days?" Cloud asked.
"Yeah…yeah, I'd like that. Now, that would be a nice little trip." Tifa gasped. "Oooh you know what we could do? That would make a great road trip for Denzel. He would get so much practice. You could ride with Denzel on his bike and Marlene and I will take the Fenrir and…" Cloud cut Tifa off with his hand shoved in her face.
"Wait…wait…wait…wait…wait….wait. First…Fenrir is NOT a girl bike. So, with that being said me and Denzel will take the Fenrir and you and Marlene can take the car." Cloud said. Tifa threw her magazine on the table in front of her again.
"First…you have some serious attachment issues when it comes to the Fenrir. Second, the whole point of such a fun road trip would be for Denzel to get practice on his bike. He can't ride it alone and you know that. Third…me and Marlene are taking the Fenrir. Besides Cloud, the sight of me on your bike is enough to make you lose control." Tifa said.
"You're not gonna win this one just because you're hot…Fenrir is NOT a girl bike. Denzel can drive it." Cloud's argument was weak because Denzel most certainly could not. It was just too big for him.
"I'll be wearing a black racerback tank top and my ripped up jeans for this trip. I'll need to find my leather gloves and if we leave tomorrow it's supposed to be sunny so I'll need some sunblock. When you leave for work tomorrow morning, I'll have 'er gassed up and ready to go when the kids are home from school. I'll pack for the both of us tomorrow. The kids can pack tonight." Tifa said. "By tomorrow night, I'll be spending my birthday nestled within the hills of the Mythrill Mines, holding a glass of champagne and staring at the stars." Cloud just stared at her.
"Where in the world are you going to get champagne?" he finally asked.
"Downstairs, from Leo." Tifa said.
"What do you think I got you? Do you think I got you something good?" Cloud asked.
"I haven't the slightest idea." She answered.
"Ooh it's somethin' good. And by somthin' good I don't mean a grocery store gift card." Cloud promised her. Tifa laughed.
"Alright, so it's settled….me, Marlene and the Fenrir. Look out chocobo farm here come the Strife's." she said.
"It…might be a good idea to call and make sure a cabin is available." Cloud said reaching for the phone again.
