Boys' Nights
"Are you sure you two will be all right?" Tifa asked Cloud for what Denzel thought was the hundredth time. They were standing outside of the bar; Tifa and Marlene were beside a dull yellow taxi waiting for the driver to load their luggage while Cloud and Denzel stood waiting with them.
Tifa and Marlene were going on a girls' only weekend somewhere with Yuffie. Denzel didn't really care he just wished they would hurry up and leave already so him and Cloud could spent the whole weekend together.
"Yes," Cloud answered calmly. Denzel looked up at his hero and, now, father. Cloud and Tifa had just recently adopted him so now he was Denzel Strife. Every time he thought about it he felt so happy that he thought he would burst.
"Well, my phone..." Tifa started.
"Number, the hotel number and all the emergency contacts are by the phone in my office and the kitchen; they also saved in my contacts on my phone" Cloud finished as the two children giggled.
"Just making sure" Tifa added, smiling softly.
"Stop worrying" Cloud replied as he dropped a hand to Denzel's shoulder, "we'll be fine, right Denz?"
"Yeah" agreed Denzel happily, smiling up at Cloud.
Marlene swung her arms around Denzel for a quick hug and whispered in his ear, "make sure both of you stay out of trouble, ok"
Denzel hugged her back, "promise"
While the children were making their goodbyes the adults were making their own.
Tifa looked up at Cloud, "are you really sure you two will be okay?"
Cloud cupped her face in his hands, "Tif, I'm sure," he gently pressed his lips to hers, "it'll be fine, trust me"
Tifa smiled and returned the kiss, "I do" backing away she bent down to hug Denzel goodbye as did Cloud for Marlene.
With their goodbyes complete, the girls climbed into the taxi and set of to start off their girls' weekend. As soon as the taxi was out of sight, Denzel turned and looked up at Cloud, "now what do we do?"
Cloud looked down at Denzel and smiled, "go get a jacket and some sunglasses and we'll go for a ride"
Denzel curled up happily in his bed. He had had the best day EVER with Cloud. After they'd ridden around Edge for a while, they had picked up some lunch from one of the small sandwich shops on the edge of the city and rode out to Cloud's friend Zack's grave. There they had lunch, talked and then rode back into the city.
They had returned to the bar just after 5 o' clock and played racing games on the console for a while before Cloud decided to order pizza for dinner. He then told Denzel to choose a movie to watch while they ate. Much to Cloud's amusement he chose his favourite movie, Cars.
Denzel began to drop off at the end of the movie so Cloud carried him up to bed and tucked him in. Denzel smiled softly as he fell asleep.
Cloud's head shot up off the pillow at the first rumble of thunder. Sitting up in bed he turned to Tifa's side of bed before he remembered she and Marlene were away. Sighing, he looked over at the clock on his bed stand, 01:30am.
Another crack of thunder rumbled through the house. Cloud laid back down, it was going to be a big storm alright. Closing his eyes he listened to the rain hit the roof. Another rumble of thunder came and underneath Cloud heard light footsteps on the stairs.
He stayed where he was listening to the footsteps. After a short while the footsteps grew louder and the door to the bedroom opened. Sitting up Cloud saw Denzel standing shyly in the doorway.
"let me guess?" Cloud said kindly, "the storm woke you up?" Denzel nodded. "Come on, then"
A small smile bloomed on Denzel face as he climbed on to the bed and snuggled into Cloud's side. There he tried to relax like Cloud was but as another clap thunder rumbled he jumped and moved close to Cloud.
"Don't you like storms?" Cloud asked softly.
"In the daytime" came the replied
Cloud chuckled, "they're exactly the same at night time then in the daytime"
Denzel shook his head, "nuh uh, they're different"
"How?"
Denzel looked up at Cloud then away, he definite didn't want to tell his hero that he was scare,
"Denzel," Cloud voice was soft and coaxing, "how are they're different?"
"Cause…. Cause…. They're scarier at night"
Much to Denzel's surprise, Cloud didn't laugh at him. Curiously he looked up at Cloud. He was looking up at the ceiling and seemed to be thinking about something. Denzel closed his eyes, embarrassed, why had he said that, bet Cloud wished he hadn't adopted such a scaredy cat for a son.
"I used to be scared of storms too," Cloud sighed, remembering his mother, "When I was your age"
Denzel looked up at shock at Cloud, "Really?" No way could Cloud Strife, the guy who beat Sephiroth, twice, be scared of anything, EVER.
"Yeah, in Nibelheim the storms uses to be really big" Cloud elaborated.
Denzel asked something he had been wondering about for ages, "What was your mum like?"
He felt Cloud stiffen and instantly regreted asking it.
He sat up to look at Cloud and spoke quickly, "I'm sorry Cloud but Tifa tells us stuff about when she was a kid and I was just really curious about your's 'cause you never really tell us and all I know about your's is what Tifa told us and… and… and... " he ran out of breath.
Cloud sighed, "I get it Denz, you're curious" Cloud shifted so he was sitting up facing Denzel," my mother was a beautiful woman and very strong, not physically but mentally and emotionally, because my dad died when I was really young so I don't remember him really well. She was, is my hero."
Denzel thought for a moment then moved forward to hug Cloud. He smiled when Cloud returned the hug. Deciding to leave the topic for now he decided to ask Cloud something else, "Cloud, can you tell me a story?"
"What kind?" Cloud replied. Denzel thought for a moment, "one about you and Zack?"
Cloud nodded and the two shifted into more comfortable positions.
As Cloud finished telling how he and Zack had been chased by a herd of angry chocobos' (completely Zack fault, as usual). Denzel snuggled closer and drifted off to sleep.
Early the next morning Tifa and Marlene walked into a silent and empty bar. Worried about as to why they both went to look. Surprise and dismay filled both of them when they discovered that Denzel wasn't in his bed, although it had been slept in. Tifa rushed up to her and Cloud's room to see if he was there.
More dismay filled her when she saw the door wasn't closed. About to run in to see what was going on, she skidded to a stop and felt a smile spread across her face. She sighed and wished she had a camera to capture the moment. Curled up on the bed together was Cloud and Denzel still asleep.
3 ;-)
