A/N: As always, I can't pass up a good holiday fic when I feel one and so here is another Halloween story presented by me. Enjoy and R&R please. Happy Halloween *tosses out candy corn*

"Trick or Treat"

By MakoRain

Chapter 1: Trick

Her footsteps echoed around on the empty hardwood floor as her searching became more frantic. Where could he be? She searched their bedroom, the kid's rooms where they were getting ready, and downstairs to the empty bar. Unless he was hiding behind the bar with the glasses, he was nowhere to be scene. One place left. And that's exactly where she knew he would be, the last place she looked.

"Cloud."

Tifa fought the urge and then gave into tapping her foot impatiently while standing in the doorway that connected the garage to the main house. Please, just not today.

Taking a deep breath, Tifa asked more calmly, "Cloud, what are you doing?"

He finally looked up at her from the piece of machinery on Fenrir he was shining with vigor and her anger lessened a few notches; his eyes always did that to her and he knew it. Damn him.

"I...um..." was all he could mutter, seeing her face strained in forced calm he settled for pointing lamely at the bike.

He wasn't the best at talking but looking at her always gave him a pause before words could actually form. Damn her. Her tired sigh signaled that she had let it go and he smiled, knowing he was in the clear again...until her next words threw him off balance again.

"What day is it, Cloud?"

Tifa had her arms crossed over her chest, either not knowing or knowing all too well what it did to her chest and his eye contact with it. Her small smirk made it evident that the latter was correct. Still, he swallowed and thought as hard as he could about the question and not her...ample assets. If she knew what you were thinking, you'd be in big trouble, his conscience scolded to which he shooed away. She's my girlfriend, I'm allowed to think about her like that. But apparently not when she was still waiting for an answer.

"Friday? Yes, definitely Friday." He said, so sure of his answer that she couldn't hold back a laugh. He was so cute when he was playing dumb and he knew it. Damn him again.

"And what is the significance of this Friday, October 31st?" She walked closer to Cloud as he stood up, patting his hair like the chocobo head he was and he just quirked an eyebrow cutely. Or maybe it was just cute to her, she couldn't tell anymore.

She couldn't take anymore and finally told him. "Halloween. With the kids. Trick or treating?"

A look of recognition dawned on his face as his mouth caught up with him. "Right, of course Halloween with the kids trick or...wait, trick or treating? Come on Teef do I-"

"Yes," she answered firmly before he could weasel his way out of it. "You agreed to this just fine when I asked you earlier." It didn't matter that they had been making out at the bar counter, giving her an unfair advantage when she'd asked. All is fair in love and war.

Tifa turned around quickly back into the house as Cloud followed close behind, like a puppy on her heels. He was so cute sometimes it was insufferable.

"You're coming with, right?" He finally asked when she stopped at the top of the stairs in front of their room.

She flashed her gorgeous smile and he felt something already warm inside go softer. "Of course I am." She added a light bubbly giggle at the end and he crumbled.

"All right, all right, I can't take anymore. Geez you lay it on thick." He said, complying with the ominous trick or treating. "I assume this is the trick part. So what's the treat?" He asked with a sly smile, walking towards her.

"I wasn't even trying that hard," she said sweetly and it was his turn to laugh.

"So, what are you going to be?" Once again, she was talking gibberish and completely avoiding his question.

"Be?" At her pointed stare, he finally got it. "Oh, be. As in costume. Tifa, do I seriously have to dress up? Can't I just go as Hero of the Planet Twice? That title never grows old, you know." Her eye roll indicated that was no such luck. "Ex-SOLDIER? I still have all my old gear..."

"Oh, then I'll just go as a barmaid." She said sarcastically as he took one last shot that he found quite clever. "Why don't we go as a couple since ours is one of the greatest love stories ever known." He even slid his hands up and down her arms to convince her.

"Awwww how sweet but we already are a couple. You could go as a chocobo to match Marlene. You know she'd love it. And your hair is half the part completed." That stung and he made a sour face, messing with his hair as she laughed.

"I was kidding. Come on, Cloud! The point of Halloween is to not be yourself so try again." Her exaggerated sigh made him stick his tongue out in childish retort until something came to him.

"If we're not going as ourselves, than maybe you should go as a proper lady since I really don't see you handling the facade of the "weaker sex" in silence."

After recovering from her shock and then rage, Tifa took a deep breath. "Is that a challenge?" She asked in an exaggerated light voice, her eyebrow arched in curiosity.

"Would you like it to be?" He wiggled his eyebrows comically and then forced a serious look, wanting her to agree but at the same time wavering at the set stance she now passed by where all they could hear were the children putting on their costumes in the other room, the hallway was that uncomfortably silent. Maybe he'd gone too far.

"Fine. I'll be a prim and proper lady...if you'll be a proper gentleman."

He did a double take when she simply agreed, with strings attached of course. She walked into their room, going through his clothes and muttering "I know you have a suit in here somewhere" as Cloud watched over her shoulder. She was determined and determined Tifa was to be feared. It was also something he admired about her and found made her sexy as hell. This was turning out to be a bad idea, he could feel it.

"There," she said, stopping her assault of his closet and handing the clothes to him. He turned to face the full length mirror and eyed the ensemble she picked out for him warily. He was just buttoning up his shirt when he noticed she was not in the room getting ready with him. He turned around to see the bathroom door cracked and Tifa's long hair flowing down her bare back as she slipped on something long and red the color of crushed roses.

"Keep your eyes to yourself, Cloud Strife."

His cheeks blushed at being caught but he quickly composed himself, turning his eyes back to her only to see the door closed. This is not fair.

"But I need help with my t-" Cloud's words caught in his throat as Tifa submerged from the other room clothed in a lovely evening gown so long it brushed the floor with each step she took closer to him. Her long auburn hair was held back from her face in a clip, showing off her elegant long neck that he suddenly longed to feel beneath his lips as he had time and time again just the way she liked. He felt himself fighting off another blush as his cheeks burned.

"Iiieeee" he finally breathed out and she smiled coyly, her lips as red as the yards of fabric he felt sliding between his fingers as if his hands had a life of their own. Suddenly all he wanted to do was taste her cherry red lips to see if they were as sweet as they looked but she stepped back.

"Now now, a proper lady does not let a man take advantage of her, kind sir," she nodded to his lips even as a little part of her tugged to get back in his arms but she shook it off. It was time to play the part he had challenged her to. To busy herself, her hands went to his tie, looping and pulling the cloth just right and trying her best not to choke him; out of teasing or seriousness, she wasn't sure.

As she smoothed down his shirt, Cloud focused on the roll of a proper gentleman he now looked like from the top of his still spiky hair, he couldn't smooth it down for the life of him, to his black shiny shoes. She could feel the transformation the clothes made him into and wasn't so sure about this until he walked out the door calling "Coming, slowpoke?"

Nope, she'd never lose the fun and childish Cloud she had fallen in love with and she was happy about that fact as she walked out after him, her high heeled shoes click clacking all the way down the stairs. He turned to watch her sashay as he reached the bar room floor and took her into his arms, spinning her around until she was giddy with laughter. That's when the kids finally decided they were ready and ran past them to the front door, orange pumpkin treat buckets in hand.

He pulled her up from the dip and whispered softly, "Don't think that I forgot about my treat," in her ear before offering his arm to her in the most gentlemanly manner she'd ever seen him use. The rosy blush she felt at his suggestion, however, was not as lady-like as she would have liked it to be but she pushed that thought aside as they walked into the crisp autumn air.

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