Inconvenient Recollection
by Ky

Summary: The things we remember and the things we do not are often not what we expect. Tifa wonders how well she knows Cloud and Cloud wonders how well he knows himself. A fic to deal with Cloud's apparent "two birthdays." (Happy birthday, Cloud!)
Genre: General/Drama
Rating: PG
Warnings: Very mild language.
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and all of its characters belong to Square Enix. I'm worried my Barret isn't so good because I've never written him before. I have trouble with his way of talking. My Denzel is probably a little weak as well.

Notes: This idea has been in my mind for a while now, ever since I was made aware of the discrepancy in Cloud's official birthday. In Final Fantasy VII, it's listed as August 19, but it's listed as August 11 in everything released from Advent Children onward. I remember reading someone's reasoning about when Zack's birthday could have occurred in Crisis Core and realizing that it made sense for 8/19 to be Zack's birthday, because Cloud spent so much of Final Fantasy VII acting out Zack's persona. I couldn't resist throwing in my other bit of my Zack head-canon. As I explained in the notes of Presents, Zack is "like a puppy," and chocolate is bad for dogs, therefore Zack is allergic to chocolate.

We'll keep it small, Tifa decided. Cloud will get embarrassed if he thinks too many people came to Seventh Heaven just for him. But everyone deserves a birthday party, even a small one.

Barret was taking a break from his work with the oil fields to visit Marlene. He and the kids were glad to help with the preparations.

"Now, it's gotta be a surprise," Marlene told Barret and Denzel, wagging her finger at them. "So make sure you don't say anything to Cloud."

When he returned to Seventh Heaven after completing the day's deliveries, Cloud was met with an unusually quiet bar. "Slow night," he commented to Tifa as he headed up the stairs towards his room.

When he later climbed back down the stairs in search of food, he was greeted with a loud "Yer another year older, SPIKEY!" from the direction of the bar counter. The source of the noise, Barret beckoned him with a wave.

Tifa leaned against the counter. A modest-sized chocolate cake, heaped with frosting, sat on the counter between her and Barret.

Marlene, sitting next to Barret with Denzel at her side, stage-whispered "One! Two! Three!"

On her cue, she, Barret, Denzel, and Tifa began to sing. "Happy birthday to you…"

Tifa sliced a piece of the cake and slid the plate in Cloud's direction. "Happy birthday dear Cloud! Happy birthday to you!"

"And many more to ya," Barret added at the end, clapping Cloud on the shoulder.

"What's this… about?" he looked perplexed.

"Tifa said it was your birthday," Denzel piped up, beaming.

"Tifa, I…" Cloud was having trouble meeting her eyes.

"Don't be silly, have a piece," Tifa replied,

"It isn't my birthday."

"But I…" Now Tifa looked embarrassed.

"It's the nineteenth. Not for a few more days."

"You can still have the cake, right?" Marlene chimed in, hoping to brighten the awkwardness between the two adults. "You just get to celebrate twice, right?"

Cloud forced a half-smile at this. "I guess so."

Marlene puffed up, ever the one in charge despite her small stature. "Well eat up, Cloud. We're all waiting."

"Yep," Tifa smiled. "No one gets cake until the birthday boy takes the first bite."

"Truth is, Tifa," Cloud looked honestly apologetic. "I can't eat this."

"Huh?" This was the last thing Tifa had been expecting.

"The chocolate. I'm allergic. Uh, bad stuff happens if I eat it."

"Oh. Uh, Okay." Tifa tried to hide her disappointment. The cake had been her main responsibility in the birthday preparations.

Sensing that he'd let her down, Cloud's eyes dodged uncomfortably about the group of people seated at the bar counter. "I've got stuff… upstairs…" He backed out of the room.

"DAMMIT!" Barret pounded his fist into the counter. "Think that punk coulda at least told us before we went through all the trouble?"

Tifa sighed.
"So you had no idea?" Denzel asked. "I can't imagine not being able to eat chocolate at all."

"What kinda bad stuff?" Marlene wanted to know.

"Like hives and well, I knew a kid who was allergic to bee stings," Denzel explained to her. "He said if he got stung, he would swell up and he wouldn't be able to breathe."

Tifa turned to Barret. "Maybe he never had a reason to bring up the chocolate thing, but I was sure about the date. August 11."

"He tell you?" Barret wanted to know. "Before the… you know?"

She understood his concern. "No, it was his mother."

Tifa remembered it had been an unusually hot summer day in Nibelheim, several months after Cloud had gone off to become a hero in the Shinra army.

She had rolled up her t-shirt into a knot at about rib level to try to keep at least her stomach cool while she went about her shopping. After her mother's death, she had gradually taken up the role of woman of the household, cooking dinner for her father whenever she could. Even at thirteen, her cooking skill nearly surpassed his. She enjoyed it, so it never felt like a chore. As she tried to decide what kind of fruit to buy, she was approached by a woman with long blonde hair tied in a loose bun at the back of her neck.

Cloud's mother was younger and prettier than most of the other mothers in Nibelheim. Tifa always thought she looked nice enough, but since she wasn't sure whether to address her as Miz or Missus Strife—to the best of Tifa's knowledge, Cloud's father had never been in the picture—Tifa generally avoided addressing her at all. Besides, talking with her carried a similar stigma as talking with Cloud had. Then again, Cloud turned out to be not-so-bad.

Cloud's mother spoke to Tifa. "You're one of Cloud's friends, aren't you?"

Tifa didn't hesitate in answering: he would save her in a pinch, so of course. Yes, they were friends.

"Has he kept in touch with you at all?" she wanted to know. She smiled. It had a touch of that look adults gave when trying to look braver than they were. "He left a note, saying he wouldn't come back until he became a hero, but he didn't leave an address. You see, today's his birthday, and I'd really like to send him something, but sending a letter to a boy in Midgar with no address… He hasn't written me and I'm getting worried…"

Although in hindsight Tifa knew she should have tried to sympathize with Cloud's mother, she remembered only feeling elation at learning new information about Cloud. She fixed the date in her mind so that when he finally did come home a hero, she would remember it.

"I'm not sure, Barret," she decided. "Maybe I remembered the wrong day."

Barret shrugged. "Don't get too down. Either way, these things is just difficult."

The next eight days passed slowly. Cloud wasn't home often, but when he was, he wasn't in the mood to drink with Barret, talk with Tifa, or play games with the kids. He seemed to have time for nothing but sleep and silence.

On August 19, he had planned to give himself the day off from the delivery service because a birthday was as good an excuse as any to have a day off. As the hours dragged on, he hardly left his room.

"Cloud's a weird guy. Maybe that's how he likes celebratin'," Barret commented, more to reassure Tifa than because he actually believed it. She just shook her head.

He didn't show his face in Seventh Heaven until the evening. He slid onto a bar stool next to Marlene, who was enjoying dessert: vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup.

Cloud pointed at the bowl. "Any left over?"

"Sure," Tifa grinned at him. "And since it's your birthday, I'll even scoop it for you myself."

Cloud didn't smile back, just took the bottle of chocolate syrup from the counter next to Marlene and proceeded to drizzle it all over the ice cream Tifa gave him.

"Cloud!" Marlene scolded. "I thought you said you couldn't have that!"

"No, Cloud, stop!" Tifa panicked as she watched him deposit a spoonful of the chocolate-soaked ice cream into his mouth and swallow.

"I'm not allergic to chocolate. I never was. And you were right. Today's not my real birthday."

Tifa's face was still white, and Marlene's eyebrows knitted together in a confused frustration.

"I've been thinking. Getting it straight. That wasn't my memory. It was his. And today. Today must be his birthday. Zack's. I remember thinking it was strange that our birthdays were only a few days apart, but I don't know why, when everything got mixed up, I remembered that he was allergic to chocolate. I don't know if he ever told me that. It was a reflex, to say I couldn't eat that, but I used to have chocolate sundaes like this all the time when I could. Helped beat the heat in Midgar."

Tifa nodded, a gesture of the sympathy she wished for but could never truly feel.

Marlene glanced at Tifa, then asked, wide-eyed, "Cloud, who's Zack?"

Cloud laughed: a short, sad bark. "Just a voice. Just a voice in my head."