Hello everyone. While working on my current projects I sometimes get side-tracked and end up writing little drabbles. Sometimes they get tossed into the recycle bin while other times they turn into one-shots or longer stories. I've built up a nice little collection of one-shots lately and I thought about uploading them into a collection of sorts. I won't say some of these one-shots might or might not be more than one chapter long, but they're not nearly as long as some of my other stories. They're mostly just one chapter long each. word lengths vary of course, because I can't make up my mind on whether I like writing longer or shorter chapters better. xD

Anyaways, none of these will be in any certain order and they are also likely to not be related unless stated otherwise, so feel free to skip over any as the types of stories that they are will also vary. Family, hurt/comfort, friendship, romance, humor (tons of that), etc. You get the idea. ;)

Enjoy!

Cinderella

He cut the engine off and dismounted Fenrir, stretching his back muscles which had started to protest the last fifteen miles of the trip. Cloud was dead tired. The day's deliveries had sent him all over the place and he was positive he had covered almost every square inch of this continent. He had to start putting some kind of resrictions on his service, that or up the price for long distance trips. He was surprised he managed to get home before sunset and even more surprised by how many monsters weren't out there. He decided not to worry about it as he entered the Seventh Heaven.

He wanted to go to bed. "Forget about the chores and the paperwork. Tomorrow's delivery schedule will take care of itself. Tifa will understand if I don't help out tonight. She's a big girl, she can take care of herself. Just don't worry about anything else, once my head hits that pillow everything else won't matter."

His hand touched the doorknob of his bedroom when the bar door opened. "Spiky? Hey Spike, you home?"

Ohh~ he was so close. Shoulders sagging in defeat Cloud gave up the idea of taking a nap. It would be impossible with Zack around anyway. With one last glance at the door he sighed and headed back downstairs. He entered the bar room and looked around, Zack was no where in sight. "Maybe he thought I wasn't home and left...oh well."

Cloud started to head back upstairs when the door opened again. "There you are, Spiky!"

"Damn." So much for that.

Zack approached his buddy and saw just how tired he looked. "Man, you look like shit, what happened?"

"Nothing," the blonde replied, "I just need some sleep."

"Kids keeping you up at night?"

"No, it's just been a long day." Cloud fought off a yawn. "What do you want?"

Zack couldn't help but smirk. It wasn't often that Cloud openly acted grumpy, at least not to others. Zack was one of the very few if not the only one which the blonde didn't have to put up defensive walls and hide his emotions or what was really on his mind. Seeing Cloud becoming more annoyed by the minute Zack remembered what he came here for in the first place.

"I need your help."

"Huh?" In the blink of an eye Cloud wasn't tired anymore. The warrior had vowed long ago that if his friend ever needed help he'd be there. He did owe him his life after all.

"I need to figure out how to totally sweep Aerith off her feet. My normal charm isn't going to cut it. I'd try flowers, but she grows the prettiest ones around so that's not going to work, I've already used every pick-up line I know and when I take her out to eat we always go to the same place."

Cloud arched an eye brow. "And you think I know anything about romance?" Cloud wasn't sure if he was relieved or disappointed that his battle skills weren't needed.

"Well," Zack scratched his head, "You and Tifa seem to get along and I see the looks she gives you sometimes when your back is turned. Whatever you're doing, it's working."

"Wait, she does?" asked Cloud.

"Well...yeah. You didn't notice?"

By the small smirk that the blonde gave him Zack could tell he didn't. "Wow, either you're so good you don't know it, or you're just lucky."

"Pfft, well it's definitely not luck." Cloud knew he was probably the most unluckiest guy around. The fact that he wasn't even able to catch a nap was proof enough to him. "Alright," he finally gave in, "what did you have in mind?"

Zack sat down on one of the bar stools and Cloud decided since no one was around he'd pour them a drink. Even if those with Mako in their system couldn't really feel the effects. "I need something that will top anything else I've ever said or done for her. Something that will really knock her for a loop, er, but not enough that she'd faint."

"Heh, I don't think you'll have to worry about that," Cloud replied remembering how she almost never fainted when they had been traveling during their adventure to bring down Shinra.

"Come on, man! Just throw me a bone!" Zack gave him one of his most intense puppy eyes.

Cloud rolled his eyes, "Fine, just stop begging. You're worse than Marlene when she begs."

Zack chuckled as he nodded, "Thanks Spiky." Cloud could only shake his head in defeat. He needed to stop waiting for Zack to grow up, even though it secretly made him want to laugh.

"Have you tried sending a message through a song?"

"How does that work?" asked Zack as he took a swig of the drink.

Cloud shrugged, "Women are funny that way. They're pretty good about keeping their real thoughts to themselves, but if the right song starts playing they let their emotions show. Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes you have to really pay attention, but you can always see it in their eyes."

"Wow," Zack blinked, "and you think it'd work for Aerith?"

"It works for Tifa. She runs the Jukebox whenever she's cleaning the bar and sometimes I'll walk in and see it, but it also depends on the song."

"And what kind of song do you think will work for Aerith?" asked Zack.

"Hmm...good question." Cloud gave it some thought before stepping out from behind the bar. "Follow me."

He lead Zack into his garage and opened a cabinet. "Here." He pulled out a few clear plastic boxes where he kept his CD's. "See if you can find something in here. It's not much and I don't know if any of them will work,"

"Worth a shot though, right Spike?"

Cloud nodded. "Just put 'em back when you're done." With that he left his friend to his search, figuring he might as well go back and help Tifa get things ready for business tonight. All this talk of wanting to do something nice made him want to surprise her.

Two hours had passed and Cloud had done more than just get the place ready for business. He was originally just going to sweep, set the chairs down and wipe down the table tops, but on top of that he had straightened up all of the liquor bottles, polished the glasses, got all of the dishes done and washed the windows. During the last five minutes he had remembered how tired he was a little too late as he nodded off while wiping down the bar's counter.

Sometime later a gentle hand was shaking his shoulder and he slowly opened his eyes to see Tifa standing next to him with a few bags in her arms. "Cloud, are you alright?"

"Mmm-yeah," he mumbled as he tried to hold back a yawn. He hadn't realized he had dozed off. "Just tired."

"What's gotten into you?" she asked as she looked around the bar. Her keen eyes noticing everything he did. "You get bit by a cleaning bug?"

He shook his head, fighting back another yawn. "I saw it needed to get done, so I did it."

"Well thank you," she said, "I was going to clean it up after I got back from the market before opening up, but I was running a little late."

He heard Marlene and Denzel in the kitchen putting away the food that was in the bags they had brought in. Denzel came into the bar holding a bottle of engine oil. "I saw the other day that you didn't have any oil for your bike and wondered if it was almost time to change it and I got you some."

Cloud was impressed by the kid's forethought. Fenrir was due for an oil change and Cloud had been meaning to make time to take care of it. Denzel had saved him a bit of trouble and he was glad now that he had bought all of those motorcycle books for him. Even if he didn't know it was Cloud that did it. "Thanks Denzel, go put it in the garage for me and we'll work on it over the weekend."

With a smile the boy hurried off to do as asked as Cloud turned to Tifa. "Did you?"

"Nope, it was his idea," she replied.

A startled shout came from the garage followed by a crash which startled the two. Tifa was about to charge in and see what was wrong before Cloud remembered his friend. "It's okay, Zack's here."

A few minutes later both Denzel and Zack entered the bar. "Are you okay?" Tifa asked Denzel. "Yeah, I just didn't know anyone else was here," the boy replied.

"I thought you had already gone home," Cloud told Zack who shook his head. "N'ah, At first I couldn't find anything, but then I ended up having too many good choices."

"What's he talking about?" asked Tifa.

"Cloud's lettin' me borrow some of his tunes," Zack replied. "I just couldn't decide. At least until Denzel popped up and scared me. We had to pick up the CD's and this was the last one and It think it's got just what I need."

Cloud looked at it and saw it was his newest Daughtry CD. "Just don't scratch it," he replied.

"Aww, what makes you think I don't take good care of my music?"

Cloud gave him a deadpan look, "I've seen you use CD's as coasters for drinks."

"Heh, well those are old and junky. I'll take good care of yours, promise."

He waved to them as he headed out the door when Tifa called to him, "Hey, flip that sign to open, would you?" Zack gave her a salute and flipped the sign as he left. As she turned back to look at Cloud she could tell he was pouting. "I'll never see that CD again."

. . .

Over at Zack's place he and Aerith were having a nice diner. It wasn't anything fancy, just something he picked up on the way home before going to pick her up for their diner date. "I wanted to tell you something," Zack began after they had finished. "And what's that?" she asked.

"Well, you know how last time I tried to sweep you off your feet the broom swept me of mine?" he asked with a kicked puppy look in his eyes.

She tried not to giggle at the memory, which she had secretly found adorably cute when she walked in and saw him all tangled up in cleaning supplies when he wanted to surprise her. "I do,"

"Well, I wanted to try again, but with something a little better." He got up and put in the CD he had borrowed and skipped it ahead to song number fourteen. "Come on buddy, don't let me down," he prayed as he hit play.

As the music started playing he held out his hand for her and as she took it he brought her into the living room and started mouthing the words to the song which he had played on repeat ever since he got home in order to memorize the words.

"'Cause you're my Cinderella, we're two birds of a feather, I'll even sing you a capella, you so hella good lookin' tonight. My Cinderella, whenever you need some shelt'a, we can stand under my umbrella. Together, need no fortune-teller to say it's forever with you."

Aerith giggled as he twirled her as she listened to the lyrics while watching him lip-sing the words to her. The song had Zack's charm alright and she wondered if he had written it himself. She couldn't stop smiling even if she tried.

"Check out those stars, I picked 'em up one day on Mars and you thought I was at the bar, okay well maybe there's a little truth to that. As I was saying if you squint a certain way you'll see they kinda spell your name, just a little...Okay, maybe that's a stretch."

They danced until the next song began to play, but Aerith went back to the song and hit repeat and by the end of the night they had lost count how many times the song repeated itself.

The next day Zack planned to return the CD to his friend, but decided to listen to that song one more time. By the time it was over he wrote a reminder note on the fridge. At least he knew what to buy his friend for Christmas now.

{Bonus Scene}

What took Zack so long...

Zack was looking through Cloud's CD collection and setting the ones that weren't going to make the cut into a pile. "Hmm...Linkin Park? Nope. Skillet? Nope. Nickelback? Nope. Backstreet Boys...really Spiky? A boy band?" He chuckled to himself before moving onto the next few titles. "Bon Jovi? Eh, classic, but not what I'm looking for. Ohh, Journey! Haven't heard that in years, but n'ah."

He had to start a second pile as the list of unhelpful artists grew. "Creed? Nuh-uh. Godsmack? Probably not. Five Finger Death Punch? Didn't really take him for the heavy metal type. Slipknot, wow. Disturbed? Again, wow."

Zack was surprised how many CD's were really here. The two containers didn't look that big. "Fall Out Boy? I'll have to borrow that another time. One Republic, nope. Breaking Benjamin? That's a bit depressing. Shinedown, nope. DragonForce? Never heard of them. huh, Spiky must really like Daughtry if he's got three different CD's. Rodney Atkins? I knew he was still a country boy at heart."

Zack took a few of them and played them in Cloud's garage radio. Out of pure fun Zack decided to see why his friend liked a boy band. It only took one song for Zack to realize why and he wasn't going to make fun of him for it. Not for that song. He didn't see any other CD that might be of any help so he put them all back and went to put them away when he backed up and bumped into another person.

They both jumped as Denzel cried out and Zack dropped the boxes causing all of the CD's to crash to the floor.

Cinderella is not one of my favorite songs from Daughtry, but I can't help but picture Zack saying these things in the lyrics to Aerith. It just sounds like something he'd naturally tell her.

Why does Cloud have a Backstreet Boys CD? One word: "Soldier." Why does he also think the way to a woman's heart is the right song? That's because I have a friend and I swear, she could be in any mood and when the right song comes on the radio her mood totally changes. It's kinda scary, but I'm a pretty big music fan myself so, I can kinda understand it...kinda. I think that's how I am when it comes to songs and Stories. I really pay attention to the lyrics when it comes to these one-shots at least and this isn't the first story that's been born from a song. "Country Boy" was created because of a song and so was "You're Everything." Still trying to think of what I can do to add to that one-shot btw, since some of you guys have asked for an extra chapter. Just like "Little Ducklings" and "His Smallest Fan" I'll try to add a little something extra for it - just for you. ;)

Fun Fact: Every group that Zack named off is in my CD collection, but that's not even half of it. xD I'm not all Rock though. I'm a fan of many genres. Pop, some Country, Techno, Electronica, Dubstep, a little bit of rap. Movie Soundtracks: "AVATAR, Disney's Tarzan, Lord of the Rings, Greatest Video Game Music, Two Steps From Hell, etc." I also have several NOW CD's.

...I think I just named everything from my listed favs from my Profile. ^^; I need to redo that too whenever I can find the time. Which is probably never. xD Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and thanks for taking the time to read it, even if it wasn't your cup of tea. More one-shots will be uploaded soon.