A/N: The idea of the FFVII gang carving pumpkins makes me giggle so I thought I would share. Happy Halloween
"Picture Pumpkins"
By MakoRain
"Hey guys, thanks for coming." Tifa greeted her last minute guests warmly even though she was pretty sure they'd rather be anywhere but there. Reno waved off her anxious niceties and looked her up and down, as per his custom.
"Who wouldn't want to spend time with the beautiful Tifa Lockhart?" His eyebrows wiggled comically and she stifled a laugh, smiling.
"Thanks, Reno. Now go help the kids while I keep a track on business out here." A glance around the room confirmed Seventh Heaven's rather abundant population of locals to include almost half of Midgar…no wonder she'd called the Turks. Okay, Reno and Rude weren't exactly the on-call babysitting type; that was not the Turk job description. They were both doing this as a favor to the fair-skinned raven-haired bartender whom Rude held emotions for whereas Reno just wanted a piece of ass and what a mighty fine ass she had.
"Anything for you," Reno said with a smirk and Tifa just rolled her eyes throwing a comment over her shoulder. "Play nice." That sentence started a path of bad thoughts and Rude had to push Reno away from the door to the table where they saw Marlene and Denzel sitting with none other than Cloud Strife, first class hero and saver of the world…twice. He was without a doubt one of Reno's many obstacles in life to win Tifa's body. It would be pretty hard to woo her without legs, as Cloud's glare threatened their very existence, full of disdain for ShinRa's Turks.
The first thing Denzel saw of the newcomers was Reno's red hair and with a shout of "Turks!" he launched a blob of something orange that hit Reno square in the forehead with a resounding 'plop.'Calmly, he reached the table to look down at the pumpkins that Denzel, Marlene and Cloud were carving and stifled a groan.
"Yo," Reno said, placing his suit jacket on the back of his chair before sitting down. Cloud eyed him suspiciously and Reno just shrugged. He may not be as tidy as his fellow Turks but he knew it'd be a hell of a dry cleaning bill if he got pumpkin goo on his uniform and Rude wouldn't cover the bill for him again after the whole coffee/ketchup/spaghetti sauce/ice cream day. Reno cringed and then brushed the thought off; hence, he was being careful of cleanliness now.
"And how is chocobo head?" he said off handedly but Cloud kept carving his pumpkin, shaking his head.
"Go away."
"Is that any way to treat your buddy?"
Rude was already to work on deseeding his pumpkin and Cloud was in ignore mode now so it wasn't fun anymore. With a dejected sigh, Reno grabbed the giant orange vegetable and cut off the top, looking down into the exposed pumpkin guts. Why didn't these things come pre-gutted? Digging a hand in, Reno pulled it out full of orange pulpy-looking stuff that squished through his fingers before throwing the pile into the trash. A few more handfuls later and the clean pumpkin was ready for carving. Knife in hand, Reno started, still behind the kids, Cloud and even Rude who was absorbed in his work.
"I made a ghost face in mine," Denzel stated proudly, turning it to show Marlene and the other guys.
"Good," Rude stated in his deep voice, putting the finishing touches on his own masterpiece. Reno looked up quickly, smiled for the boy's benefit and went back to work. Cloud even stopped his detailing to pat Denzel on the back, which brought a brighter smile than ever to his face.
"Look, look! My pumpkin has triangles as eyes and a nose and scary sharp teeth." Marlene said happily, attempting to lift the pumpkin bigger than her head up while snarling to make it seem scary. Instead, the pumpkin thunked back down onto the table from the few inches she was able to lift it.
"It'd be scarier if you could make it floating head scary," Reno said, receiving a mild unhappy gaze from Cloud.
"It looks good, Marlene." He said instead, ruffling her hair till she giggled.
What was it that Cloud did to girls to make them swoon and sigh like lovesick puppies? Reno glared at his pumpkin while bitter thoughts went through his brain until his carving was complete.
"Can we see it, Cloud?" Denzel asked while Marlene scooted closer, trapping Cloud between them. Wordlessly, Cloud turned it to the table's audience, showing his skilled carving of Fenrir in silence. Reno snickered and put down his own carving knife.
"You drew your bike?" he snorted, not noticing as Denzel bent over and turned Reno's pumpkin around.
"You drew your… rod?" Cloud asked, eyebrows up at Reno's carving.
"I did not! It's been in my pants the whole time!" Reno argued forcefully. At the giggles and stares from patrons around the bar, he looked away from them all, focusing on the orange pumpkin in front of him.
"Oh, yeah. My electromagnetic rod." He said quieter this time. Rude said nothing as he showed his pumpkin to the others. It was as perfect a replica one could carve on a pumpkin of none other than Tifa. Lighting the candle inside threw her face into highlights and shadows, contrasting the hair and face nicely. Reno stared, always underestimating his partner's skills due to his ever present silence while Cloud looked on quizzically.
"It looks like her, but it's not." He said softly to Rude, stating a simple fact. All three of the men gathered at the table may have held the idea of a claim to Tifa Lockhart but the closest one she'd ever accept was Cloud.
"I know," Rude said in his simple voice. They all knew that. Speaking of her seemed to make her appear as if by magic behind Cloud's chair.
"So how you guys doing?" she asked, looking over their carved creations. Pumpkin was everywhere and but the kids' smiling faces made it worth the mess as they displayed their pumpkins with pride.
Out loud Tifa congratulated Marlene and Denzel while mentally checking the others. Fenrir…how original; is that Reno's rod? She couldn't keep back her laughter at her last thought and stopped abruptly with a soft 'oh' at Rude's picture. She flushed and smiled, watching her image flicker with the candle's flame.
"Thank you, Rude, it's very nice." She motioned to hand him the pumpkin as the kids ran to greet someone just entering the bar. Instead of accepting, he stood up and zipped his jacket up.
"Keep it. I have plenty of pictures in my head." No emotion broke through to tell her anything but what he said at face value and so she smiled, nodding and placing the pumpkin on the windowsill to let everyone see. She walked Rude to the door and they both waiting a comfortable and not awkward silence for Reno to catch up.
"Fun times," he said with his trademark smirk just as a burst of laughter came up from a person now sitting at the table with Cloud. Zack got up and walked over to Reno, chuckling.
"You know what your pumpkin looks like, right?"
"My rod." Reno said with more pride than he should have.
"That's one way to put it…but I doubt you could measure up." And Zack couldn't continue as his laughter broke through again. Reno flushed with anger and annoyance but attempted to laugh it off as well.
"Very mature." Tifa rolled her eyes at Zack and let the Turks out the door. Turning back to him still snorting, she took a sucker from the Halloween candy bowl and shoved it in his mouth.
"That almost made me choke, Miss Lockhart."
"It's just there to stop your mouth, Mr. Fair. Now go clean up the pumpkin stuff since you were unable to participate in the festivities."
"I forgot!" Zack mumbled, cleaning the table Cloud had vacated to stand by Tifa.
"It's pretty," he said, following her gaze to Rude's carving of her, glowing eerily with the candle's illumination.
"He doesn't mean anything, Cloud," she said softly, eyes locked on the pumpkin and then moving to his face.
"It's a copy," he stated with a nod before looking down into her face looking up at him.
"You have the real thing."
They smiled and shared a sweet and simple kiss that warmed Tifa's heart more than the candle burning bright in the pumpkin.
"I know."
They all knew Cloud had Tifa and she wouldn't want it any other way.
As it was meant to be.
I know I'm a little late with this but I haven't had a computer for a while. Belated Happy Halloween. I was also wondering if anyone knew the artist for a picture that looks remarkably close for my Halloween fic last year "I put a spell on you" it's on my homepage since I admire it so much. If you know anything, please, let me know, I'd like to talk to the artist since I love this picture so much, it'd be awesome if my writings inspired artwork since I can't draw people that well. Thanks and lemme know what you think with a review if you want