Setting: Post-AC
Pairing: Somewhat Cloud x Tifa
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, Square Enix does.
A/N: This is my first attempt at Cloud and Tifa (I know, how dangerous of me to thread into unfamiliar waters, but there's a first time for everything right?), I've always loved the pairing but never really showed much of it. But I do honestly think they are a sweet couple (I'm a sucker for first love-romance). This turned out to be fluffier than expected, so excuse the cheesiness and whatnots. Cheers!

"M-morning."

Tifa stopped at her humming to turn around at the sound of her name, slightly startled. A smile immediately crossed her features when her gaze fell on him. He was standing by the kitchen doorway, looking half-awake. He blinked twice to adjust his eyes to the morning sunshine shining through the windows, bathing the kitchen's dark brown oak interior in its warm, natural glow. Tifa walked over to him with the smile still on her face.

"Morning to you too. Had a good sleep?"

He nodded blearily. His left hand reached up to rub the sleep from his eyes. The blue eyes widened in curiosity and surprise when he caught sight of the large mixing bowl in Tifa's arms in the corner of his eye. His hand fell to his sides as his gaze shifted to meet hers with a questioning look. Patches of flour lightly covered her arms at random spots, and some of it was smudged on her right cheek as well. Her straight sable hair was tied into a messy ponytail as some stray strands escaped the elastic band. His eyebrows knitted together in confusion before a slight smirk crossed his lips.

"I'm baking." She said brightly as she showed him the contents of her mixing bowl. Thick globs of brown and murky yellow swirled together greeted his sight. He looked up at her again.

"What – is that supposed to be?" He asked carefully, knowing well that Tifa's cooking and baking skills should not be questioned. Still, he couldn't help being curious.

"It's the batter for the cookies." She stated matter-of-factly with a raise of an eyebrow, as if daring him to challenge her with the statement. He did nothing of the sort but merely nodded. "Since you are up and awake, why don't you help me with it?" she continued with a grin.

A weak smile appeared as he hesitantly took a small step back. "That's alright. You go ahead Tifa," he said as he took another step back. Baking was not his forte, and probably never will. The first and last time he tried, he nearly burnt down the kitchen which led to his mother screaming and almost murderously – warning him never, ever to go near her kitchen again. That, and the fact that the attempted cookies had given both him and his parents quite a few trips to the washroom than they would in a week. It was also why the girl-next-door did not receive her 7th birthday gift that year.

Not that she ever need to know.

Tifa raised an eyebrow at his attempt to make an escape. She took a step forward to him while he took another step back. Her eyebrow raised a notch higher at his reaction. She couldn't help but grin, and he knew there was no escape. She was going to drag him to baking whether he wanted to or not. Tifa quickly took another step towards him and deftly grabbed him in the arm. She smiled victoriously before pulling him over to the island. He sighed deeply and submissively allowed himself to her wishes. "Don't worry, I'll make sure you don't burn down the kitchen," she said without looking back at him, her voice laced with amusement. He almost stumbled over his own feet at her words.

How in the world did she know about that?

"Why does it look like – that though?" He asked with a pointed look at her mixing bowl. He had to get back at her for the low blow. The incident wasn't his fault, he was only eight and everyone knows eight year olds and baking don't go hand-in-hand, especially eight year old boys with no experience in the kitchen whatsoever.

She shot him a mock glare. "It's not properly mixed yet."

"Really? I thought you had the recipe wrong and it turned out to be that glob of messy brown goo."

"Shut up," she gave him a quick swipe at the shoulder as a chuckle escaped from her. "Here, while I mix the batter so that it actually looks like a cookie batter, you can pour out a cup each of the chocolate chips and pecans. Oh, before that, could you just chop those pecans to make them into small bits?" she said as she brought the bags of chocolate chips and nuts to his attention. He gave her a skeptical look. "It's not that hard really. Just take the knife over there," she pointed behind him to the knife holder, "and lightly chop the nuts. A cup full should be enough."

Their gazes locked on each other's for a moment before she raised her eyebrow again, and he sighed before getting to his ordered task.

A moment of comfortable silence, aside from the chopping and whisking sounds coming from their respective tasks, befell them. She wondered how long it has been since they had shared such a comfortable, companionable silence. He wondered how long it has been since he was around her presence without feeling guilty or wrecked inside.

Tifa lightly hummed to the tune she was humming to before he came down. He recognized it as the song she used to frequently play on the piano. He wondered if she missed playing the piano, her home, her father, their past memories. She wondered if he still remembered the song, his home, their past memories. Tifa turned to look at him to see if he was done but her eyes grew large at the sight of his attempted chopping of the nuts.

"What are you doing? I said chop, not – not bludgeon."

He looked up at her sudden exclamation. His gaze fell back onto the chopping board. The pecans looked as if a Bahamut has squashed it into pieces rather than being chopped by a knife. A wry smile appeared as he replied matter-of-factly, "Well, you asked me to help. So I did."

"Very funny," she replied as she edged him away from the chopping board and took the knife from his hand. He chuckled lightly. Tifa stopped to look at him. "You really think this is funny don't you?"

"Quite."

The knife was forgotten with a clatter to the counter as a mischievous look crossed her facial features. She took a few steps back and he wondered if he should make his escape now. His eyes caught sight of her hand reaching into the bowl of batter. Her hand reemerged with a handful of the brown batter as she looked at him with a taunting grin.

"You wouldn't."

"Really?" she said with a mock surprise, "are you sure I wouldn't?"

His quick-witted mind told him to look for defense. His blue eyes promptly darted around the kitchen before falling onto the bag of chocolate chips. He grabbed it and dug into it.

"I guess we are at war now," she said casually with a shrug of her shoulders.

"And I'm not going to let you win."

Her eyes widened at his words, clearly not expecting the response. Before she could say anything else however, a handful of chocolate chips were pelted at her face. Two or three stuck themselves to her right cheek because of the slightly sticky flour. The sight of it caused laughter to escape his lips.

Tifa bit her lower lip and swiftly hurled the batter in his direction. His well-trained reflexes helped him to duck on time. The batter landed with a splat on the wall behind him, barely inches away from the kitchen doorframe. He turned to look at it for a quick moment before turning back to face her again. This time, the batter hit him squarely on the face.

Her hand flew to her mouth, trying to hide her amusement and at the very least, to save his pride. But she was failing to do so as her body started shaking and the laughter threatened to spill. A hand of his reached up to swipe the batter off his face as he tried to look at her. The sight of the lower half of his face covered with the batter and a small splotch of it still around his right eye, was all she needed to burst out laughing. Her body convulsed with the fits of laughter as her eyes twinkled with mirth.

He then decided playing nice was not going to give him the winning hand, neither would the chocolate chips. He needed something better, stickier, messier. His eyes fell on the tray of eggs lying innocently at the corner of the island. A grin appeared as he grabbed the tray and took two eggs from their place before walking up to her. She was still laughing but the laughter gradually ceased as she noticed his sudden presence in front of her. The first thing her wine-colored eyes caught sight of was the tray in his hands. Before she could fully register the meaning of it, a loud crack was heard as she felt a sudden impact on her head.

Sticky yellow and clear substance slowly made their way down her hair, dripping onto her bangs, and onto her cheeks. The grin on his face grew wider. She shot him the most intimidating look she could muster under that circumstance.

A thoughtful look crossed his features, "You know, you don't actually look too bad with eggs and all."

"You are a dead man," she growled before swiftly taking another handful of batter and smeared it all over his hair.

He responded with three eggs making another collision with her sable hair.

With a horrified expression, Tifa took yet another handful, pulled down his cotton t-shirt's neckline and smeared it all over his chest before letting it go and patting the now smeared-from-the-inside t-shirt with a satisfied smirk.

"That's cheating. You know I can't possibly do that to you."

"Well, it's good to be a girl isn't it?"

"But it doesn't mean I can't find other ways to get back at you."

In just a split second, he was right behind her with a handful of her own weapon, the cookie batter. Before Tifa could move away, he tugged at the fabric of her top and tossed the batter in. The sudden sticky intrusion on her back made her jerked forward. She whirled around and shot him a glare as she pulled at the bottom hem of her top in hopes of getting the unwanted batter out. He didn't bother to wait for her next move as he took hostage of the mixing bowl with a small, superior smile playing at his lips.

Tifa's eyes widened as her quick reflex screamed at her to duck. Another splat of batter gloriously decorated the wall. The sight of it surged the feeling of regret within her for starting the mess – but only a little bit, she thought with a small smile. She hastily grabbed the bag of flour and went around the island so that it served as a barrier between the both of them.

Few seconds of silence passed, as both adults kept a steady gaze on each other.

Tifa broke the silence with a sudden howl, which he assumed to be her 'war cry' although he doesn't recall her ever doing so during their battles in the Avalanche days – not even during the recent fight with Bahamut Sin, he thought amusedly.

This must be a special case I guess.

With that, batter, flour, eggs and all supposed cookie-baking ingredients were thrown back and forth as both sides valiantly tried to keep their ground and defeat the other.

When the bag of flour was emptied of its contents, Tifa's hand groped around the counter and immediately picked up the first thing that it made contact with. Shielded with the aluminum cookie sheet, he eyed her warily and duly stated, "I hope you know that's a close equivalent to Yuffie's shuriken." Tifa instantly glanced at the item in her hand – a metal cookie cutter, before looking up at him with an apologetic face.

Eggs continued to whiz across the kitchen as baking and cocoa powder were added to the mix. Tifa's occasional shrieks of surprise, sudden yelps and his manlier-sounding versions added to the clamor.

"Let's call it a truce," Tifa finally suggested, almost breathlessly, as she crouched behind the island for cover. She glanced at the empty baking powder tin in her hands before taking a quick survey of her surrounding for a backup.

"Do you mean it?"

"Yeah," she called back, hoping he was just as out of supplies as she was.

"Okay."

Tifa then heard him slump himself down on the other side. She breathed in relief and proceeded to make herself comfortable by sitting down cross-legged with her back leaned onto the island. Minutes of silence passed as the both of them breathed heavily, trying to catch their breath. Tifa felt a slight hoarseness in her throat from all the shouting and shrieking.

"It's been a while hasn't it?" he suddenly spoke up.

Tifa's head jerked up in surprise at his sudden question. "What do you mean?"

"This. Having – well, fun. Laughing and enjoying ourselves. We've missed out a lot on this," he replied in a low voice, sounding almost shy to admit it.

Tifa glanced to her left where a pile of gritty-looking flour was gathered on the dark hardwood flooring. She absent-mindedly reached her index finger out to twirl it around in circles, creating a spiral design.

"This is good right?"

She stared at the flour. "Cloud," she paused to collect her thoughts, "it's always been here. It's always been good. The fun, laughter – smiles. We were just waiting for you to come home to them." He didn't say anything so she soldiered on. "Sometimes, when one looks only at the pain and guilt of the past, it's hard to see the smiles of the present."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You are-," she stopped mid-sentence, feeling hesitant to continue. He cleared his throat as if prompting her to finish. "You are home now. And you're smiling again, that's all that matters," she softly said as she continued her flour-twirling. Silence. She shrugged to herself and proceeded to scatter the flour with all five fingers.

He suddenly stood up and walked over to her side, his footsteps barely made a sound as they made their way across the mess. She looked up at him – startled for the second time in the morning, as he sat down beside her.

"You're right. I'm home," he said in an almost whisper.

A smile appeared on his facial features before she mirrored his with her own.

"Did someone attack the two of you? What happened in here?" an inquisitive, girlish voice was suddenly heard from the doorway.

"I thought Marlene and I made a bigger mess when we tried to make that chocolate fudge. But boy am I wrong," another voice, this time a boy's, said.

Cloud and Tifa hastily stood up with a sheepish look on their faces. Denzel and Marlene's eyes widened.

Tifa's hair was sticking up at odd ends as an aftereffect from the eggs, with flour and chocolate chips on her cheeks. What looked like a streak of chocolate sprinkles was swiped across her forehead, while her sleeveless blue top was splotched with batter and butter alike. Her previously white skirt looked as if someone had ran it through the washing machine with a mixture of all the above. Flour patches were all over her exposed legs as well.

Cloud didn't look any better with his now-brown hair and the pecan nuts stuck in between. The small patch of batter around his right eye was still evident as it proudly displayed itself alongside other patches of baking powder. His batter-smeared t-shirt had bits of egg shells stuck onto it and the egg's substance had allowed cocoa powder and sugar to stick onto his t-shirt easily, creating some weird design of their own. His pants were also in the same state.

"What did you guys do?" Denzel said as he scanned the disaster. Marlene shook her head with a look of disapproval, reminding Cloud and Tifa so much of the latter whenever she reproved the children's behavior. A light blush crept to Tifa's cheeks at her 'misbehavior'.

I feel like I'm eight again, Cloud mused with a small smile.

"We're really sorry," Tifa said as the two kids made their way into the kitchen, as if inspecting the damage done.

"It's okay Tifa. We understand how easily it is to fall into the bait of a baking war," Marlene stated simply as she gingerly fingered the island's surface. She looked up and gave a bright smile.

"You do?"

"Yeah. We definitely do."

Cloud and Tifa exchanged worried looks at Denzel's tone of voice. Before either one of them could react, their backs met with a sudden light impact and the sound of cracking immediately followed. Based on their earlier knowledge, they didn't have to turn around to know what it was.

Marlene laughed as she hurried to Denzel's side by the refrigerator. He had an almost innocent look. In his hands was a new tray of eggs, fresh from the fridge.

"Looks like we're going to have a second round," Tifa said with a knowing smile at Cloud.

His smiled widened.