A/N; Hm, "All children miss their mothers" works for father-y type figures too! And no, I am well aware Barret is Marlene's daddy, but Cloud is like...psha. An uncle maybe? I dunno! Anyway, carry on foo' (:

Departure
By: Princess Yori
Summary: Marlene is worried that Cloud's going to leave again.
Genre: Family
Pairing: None!
Setting: After Advent Children
Rating: K
Status: Complete
Type: Drabble-y

Disclaimer: All related Final Fantasy names and characters are copyrighted © by the almighty Square Enix. This story and the possible OCs involved are all me, however. Enjoy.


"Cloud?" A tiny voice, paired with a small hand tugging at his shirt, drifted through his dreams. "Are you awake?"

Slowly he managed to force his eyes open, meeting Marlene's he blinked for a moment while she pulled back away from him. He swung his legs over the bed and sat up; Marlene quickly crawled on him. She leaned her head against him and sighed sleepily.

"Marlene?" He inquired, having an idea as to why she was there. "Wanna talk about it?"

"No!" She buried her face in his shirt; he waited several moments simply holding her. "Well…maybe. Cloud, are you going to leave again?"

"What?" He asked, taken aback, he'd been back for months; none of them seemed worried for him to leave them again. He thought maybe he hadn't been observant enough. No matter what he had sworn to himself he wouldn't leave Denzel and Marlene again, not like that.

"Are you?"

"No," Cloud shook his head, feeling Marlene relax further into his arms. "I won't leave you Marlene."

"…okay," Marlene said, seemingly unconvinced.

Cloud frowned slightly, he had brought it upon himself, but he didn't think it would be so hard to convince them. Tifa and he had promised them a billion times that he wasn't leaving; he'd be there when they returned from wherever they were going. That he was going to come home that night after delivering whatever to whomever. He guessed they were just not convincing enough.

"Really, Marlene," He mumbled to her, noticing she was already asleep again. "I'm not going anywhere."