He was leaving again. He'd stayed five nights this time, which, according to Mariel's statistics for the past two months, was one night more than an average Strife-stay at Seventh Heaven. Nevertheless, he was leaving.

Mariel had been brought onto the team during the previous year as a cook when Tifa Lockhart decided to build the inn onto the original Seventh Heaven Bar. It was the best of the five odd jobs she'd done since coming to the city from her family's ranch in the country. It had been just over six years that she'd been living away from her family, and Mariel felt that she had shed most of the shadows that she'd been running from. Perhaps that was why she worked so hard for Tifa, fought so hard for the happiness of the other residents of Seventh Heaven. It was the first place that she'd actually been able to call home in six long years.

Even after a year and a half of working with Tifa and her lot, Mariel knew that Cloud's departure would make room for yet another bout of depression. She told herself that it was for the sake of the children and Tifa, even Yuffie and Cid, and the other frequents of the bar, and their happiness, that Mr. Strife's common absences made her so furious.

Tifa had seen him refueling Fenrir that morning. He'd be gone by the time they all woke up the next morning, and everyone knew it. Mariel could see it in their hopeful little faces. The post-Cloud-departure breakfast scene was getting a little too familiar for her liking.

Denzel let a spoonful of oatmeal plop back into his bowl. Little droplets of milk dripped from the outer lip of the ceramic dish.

"Denzel, elbows off the table," Tifa chided from her seat, but her voice was thin and quiet. Denzel didn't lift his head from where it was perched atop his fist or remove either of his elbows from the tabletop. Marlene sat with her hands folded in her lap, her back flat against the back of the chair, oatmeal untouched.

Mariel stirred another batch of chopped vegetables into the broth on the gas stove.

"Will everybody be here for lunch?" she asked as brightly as she could, although she already knew the answer.

"Yes," Tifa responded a moment later. "I think we'll all be staying in today."

"I'll double this recipe then," Mariel concluded and dipped into a crate for another stalk of spinach.