He just wanted a Nap…
Disclaimer: Yes… I would like to have a Cloud to clean up for me….
Tifa Lockheart sighed at the mess on the kitchen table. She ventured a guess: Marlene (Denzel prefers to mess in the garage.) had just learned baking in school and by the looks and state of her kitchen, her baking had probably resulted in something disastrous.
She calmly walked over and surveyed the damage. Eggshells (still dripping with egg) were littered all over masses of flour. The packet of baking powder had spilt and there were traces of an unknown oily substance near a corner of the table. There was a (No doubt.) recently licked spatula lying beside the mixing bowl with bits of the batch still stuck to it.
All in all, her kitchen had been well and truly messed with.
Tifa walked round the table to reach the cleaning cabinet under the sink. Her legs touched something warm and soft. And fluffy. She looked down. Of course, who else would it be? Still, it was a comical albeit touching sight to behold.
Before her, in all his childlike glory sat Cloud Strife. He was curled up against a table leg...sleeping... Upon closer examination, she noticed that he had bits of flour stuck in his blond spikes and his normally matte black leather suit was dotted here and there with patches of flour. Said blonde hugged a mop to himself, there was a bucket of clean water beside him.
Evidently, he'd made an effort to clean up after Marlene. Tifa gave him credit for getting as far as getting the water ready and getting the mop out of the cleaning cabinet. But, she was also disappointed because he had gotten only as far as that. Evidently, said attempt had failed.
She gently took the mop from him...then thought twice before giving him the broom to hug. (She couldn't help feeling a lil' cheered up that the Planet's hero needed something to hug while sleeping) The bucket found itself being moved and fully utilized. Soon, the water in it was milky and smelled of flour.
Tifa stepped back and admired her floor. Then she took a deep breath and directed her gaze to the table. She decided to start with the eggshells...
Cloud woke abruptly. He always woke abruptly, with a sort of jerk accompanied by his Mako-infested eyes jerking open. Then his whole body would stiffen, courtesy of his lean muscles tightening and he would stay stock still until he was absolutely certain that there was no danger. Besides, if there was he would willingly fend it of with his weapon in his arms :a bo-stick....errr, broom...
Broom? What in Gaia's name was he doing with a broom?
Just as he was puzzling over the broom in his arms, he saw a shadow loom over him. He looked up to find Tifa Lockheart wearing an apron and holding a piece of cloth in her hand.
He blinked.
"You are in dire need of a bath."
He gazed warily at the washcloth in her hand. She wasn't going to use that was she?
"Come on Cloud. Up you get..."
He hastily got up, looking guilty. Gaia knows why, he just felt guilty all of a sudden...
He looked at the table and then smacked his head. Now he remembered... he was trying to clean up after Marlene...
He remembered reaching home after a long and tiring delivery and targeting
the bed located in the room he shared with his best friend. He had been on his way up the stairs before he had caught sight of the kitchen.
It had looked as if a flour battle had been going on. There was Marlene all covered in flour and Denzel struggling to turn a spatula in a huge mixing bowl as big as his head.
"Hi, Cloud! Guess what?"
He didn't want to 'guess what'... his mind couldn't take all the horrors that had happened here.
But whether he 'guessed what' or not the little girl didn't wait to find out. Instead, she chose to launch into a full explanation of what had just happened.
"I learned baking in school today and I thought I'd try it myself when I got home. That way, Tifa doesn't have to bake all the time. See?" She held up a batch of chocolate chip cookies, warm from being in the oven.
Cloud looked pointedly at Denzel and directed a questioning gaze at her.
"Oh, Denzel can't spend his time in the garage all the time! Don't be silly Cloud! How is he ever going to learn to cook if he locks himself in there? Even boys need to learn how to cook ya know?" She struck a determined pose, hands on her hips and a defiant face.
Cloud looked at Denzel, who was still struggling to turn the spatula. He thought he'd fare better in the garage. A spanner was definitely seeming a lot easier to turn compared to a spatula in a batch of batter resting in a mixing bowl as big as one's head.
"Marlene, did you ask Tifa whether you could use the kitchen?"
"Nnnnnooooo..."
"Where is Tifa anyway?"
"She's out shopping. She left a note on the counter."
Cloud strode to the counter and picked up the note.
Guys,
I'm going out shopping for a while. Will be back ASAP.
Tifa
"Are you planning to clean up?"
"Well, yyyeah..."
"Good. Because I need a nap. Wake me up if you need anything."
"Ok!"
He then proceeded to snag a cookie off the newly baked batch and went up to their bedroom for his nap.
He found himself being shaken into existence minutes later by a heavy, pressing weight sitting on his stomach.
He opened his eyes to discover Marlene, sitting on his stomach like it was a throne and wearing pleading eyes.
"Cloud, wake up! Please wake up!"
"What?"
"Cloud, I'm tired!"
"And?"
"I can't clean up anymore. I'm too tired, Cloud..."
"Ok... where's Denzel?"
"He's downstairs getting out the mop."
Cloud sighed before sitting up, forcing the little girl off his stomach.
"Come on then, if I help, it'll be faster."
Cloud never knew that cleaning up was hard. He knew enough about cleaning up after battles or cleaning up a mess in his life. It was what one learned on the battlefield. But he never once in his life learned how to clean up a kitchen. Never.
And so Cloud Strife, amateur kitchen cleaner, found himself stuck with a whole kitchen to clean. (Oh alright!! That was exaggeration...it was really just one corner...) He looked at the scene of disaster, took a deep breath…
And headed for the cleaning cabinet for a mop and a pail where he met Denzel who was struggling with trying to squeeze out the water from the mop. Cloud took it from the poor boy and sent him to go find Marlene who had mysteriously disappeared.
Later, as he was just beginning to figure out the workings of the mop. Denzel came back in and told him that Marlene had just fallen asleep on the couch.
"Go wake her up again. Then both of you go and have your bath. We need to keep the sheets clean."
Denzel was sent again to wake Marlene and probably face her wrath at the same time… And a very blur mercenary was left to think of how to use the mop correctly.
He started with holding the mop in a straight vertical line, with both hands at the exact center of the mop. He tried that method for five minutes and discovered that it wasn't really effective. So he tried holding it at an angle and shifted his grip to the top of the mop. Nope… not working….
All this thinking and mopping (If you could call it that…) was really tiring. To Cloud that is. So, he opted to use the well-known tactic employed by all humans when facing problems: Solve the one you know first.
Therefore, he went to check on Marlene and Denzel… He discovered them in their respective bathrooms, reading in the bathtub…
"Out," he told them.
They both had taken one look at him and scrambled.
He then went back to the kitchen and looked at the spot that he had somehow managed to mop using his non-conventional methods and thought that the spot looked inviting.
Oh, well… he could face the wrath of Tifa later… But, right now, he needed a nap…
He looked at Tifa warily… "Sorry…"
"Sorry? For what?"
"For not cleaning up."
Tifa gave him a disbelieving look. "You mean to tell me you did all this?"
He shook his head vigorously.
"Then, watcha apologizing for?"
"For not cleaning up…"
Tifa shook her head gently. They were going around in circles. She knew she should have learnt interrogation techniques from Barret when she had the chance…
"Cloud, I don't blame you for not cleaning up… I blame Marlene for using the kitchen."
"Oh…"
"Well, either way, it's done already… so yeah, I think you should go have a bath now."
"Ok…"
He turned to go as Tifa called him again.
"Oh and Cloud?"
"Yeah?" He sounded much more confident now that he knew she wasn't angry at him…
"Come down again after you're finished. I think I'd better give you a crash course on 'Cleaning Up after Marlene'."
He nodded and headed upstairs. He could forget the nap…
A/N : Ok… that was stupid… I actually meant for some fluff to happen, unfortunately my fluff circuits aren't working… Anyways, this fic was meant to show off Tifa's endearing patience with her family and not Cloud's tolerance with Marlene's antics. (Meant to… mind you…) Though I think Denzel handled the whole situation quite well… (A thousand apologies, kid…) Oh, and do you guys want another chapter? I'll try my best if there are any requests…hopefully my fluff circuits will be working again by then.