Small Tokens of Love part II

Pairing: Cloud and Tifa (Cloti) but there is also familylove :)

Subjects: Family, love, homework

Timeline: About eight months after FFAC

Third Cloti Fanfic

"What a stupid assignment." Denzel thought to himself as he pushed the door open to Seventh Heaven, the bar he considers to be his home. He put down his schoolbag on a table nearby and looked around to see if he could find Tifa, only to find her in the living room stretched out on the couch. "She must have been taking a nap." he thinks and gently wakes her up.

Tifa opens her eyes drowsily waking from her peaceful slumber. "Heey Denzel" she greets him and gets up from the couch. "How was school?" she asks walking to the kitchen. She goes to get him a nice cup of tea, and a few chocolate cookies. Denzel sits down at the table, where he had just put his schoolbag and proceeds to tell Tifa about his school day. The usual things happened, Denzel barely thinks he learns something new. Then he tells Tifa about the assignment he was given.

"I have to think about what love is and what it means to me." he begins and Tifa listens carefully. "Once I have determined what love is, I have to transform my thoughts and feelings into an artwork, which can be a poem, drawing or painting, or a sculpture." Denzel gets the assignment from his schoolbag and shows it to her. Tifa quickly reads the description and smiles. "Oh that is a nice assignment I think." she nods as she returns the piece of paper to him. "Yeah well I think it's stupid, why do I have to think about it? I don't want to and I don't want to share it with the rest of my class." Denzel says and sighs deeply.

Tifa smiles tenderly, she knows why he doesn't want to fulfill this assignment, he isn't the popular kid in his class. He is a silent kid who in many ways refers to Cloud when he was his age. On the other hand, maybe this time he can show the others what he's made of. Tifa thinks to herself and tries to find a way to make the assignment a bit more appealing, but that proves to be hard. "Denzel, what is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about love?" she asks him. Denzel looks confused and replies "What do you mean?" Tifa gets up and gets him a piece of paper and tells him to get some crayons.

"Well lets make this a bit easier," she begins as she sits down with him again. "Write "love" in the middle of the paper, and draw a red circle shape around it." as Denzel begins to obey her as she explains to him that they are going to make a mindmap. "A mindmap helps to organize your thoughts and if you add images to it, it might help you to get things back in order." she explains to him. Denzel had never thought about making a mindmap before but he thinks it could be fun. "Now that we have our main object, just draw or write down whatever reminds you of love." Tifa says. He then starts to think about whatever reminds him of love, he thinks about how he looks up to his adoptive parents Cloud and Tifa. He is still grateful that they took him into their family. He thinks about Marlene, his little adoptive sister. Cloud, Tifa, and Marlene are three people he considers to be his family. "Can I write your names with it?" he asks Tifa and she smiles. "Of course you can! In fact I'd be very happy if you think of us that way." He then writes down their names and draws little cartoon figures of their faces. "Good job, now think of what it is that you love so much about us." Tifa says and watches him draw and write down several words.

With Cloud he adds words as "Strong," "Honest", and "Fatherfigure" He also draws his big sword with it, he loves that sword, and wishes he could one day wield it as well. With Tifa he adds words like "Loving," "Caring," "Motherfigure" and he draws smileys around it, thinking about all the special smiles she has given him. It made him feel at home and he always thought of her as a mother. Even though Cloud and Tifa aren't his real parents, he considers them to be his parents now. Denzel stops for a moment, thinking if maybe he should draw a line between Cloud and Tifa, he isn't quite sure if he should see them as lovers. He knows they care for each other and as weeks passed by he has noticed how they looked at each other. Cloud follows her every move with his eyes and Tifa always puts up a smile as soon as she sees him. He decides it would be best if he just asked her. Tifa isn't quite sure if she understands his question completely. "Um... are you asking if Cloud and I love each other?" she asks him. "Yeah, I mean I really don't need to hear about all the things you do together when we aren't with you," he says and puts up a disgusted feature on his face.

"Oh and by "things" you mean, the hugs and kisses we share?" Tifa states bluntly and laughs. Kids really know how to brighten up your life when they share their thoughts about subjects such as romance and love. Denzel's face turns crimson red and is left without words to answer. Then Cloud enters the bar and finds the two laughing and wonders what could be so funny. "Hey Denzel," Cloud says and walks up to them.

He notices the piece of paper and quickly spots the floating heads of Tifa, Marlene and himself. "Hi Cloud!" Denzel replies and gets up from his seat, quickly hiding his mindmap. He walks up to Cloud and hugs him. "Right so it's ok for you to hug him but when I hug him, you see something completely different in it?" Tifa asks with a sarcastic tone in her voice. Denzel isn't quite sure how to reply to that and looks at Cloud. Both men seem to be unsure how to answer that question but Cloud gestures Denzel not to say anything to that.

"That's a trick question, don't answer it," Cloud whispers to him silently and then he turns to Tifa. He gives her a small hug and walks to the kitchen to get something to eat. "Well I'm going to finish the mindmap upstairs in my room." Denzel says and with that he went to his room. He was happy not to have to answer that question and to see his favorite hero come home. He then starts to think about what he could add to Marlene. He cares for her like a brother. "Maybe I should add a Moogle. She loves Moogles and Barret of course, since he is her real father." Denzel thinks to himself and starts drawing Barret's face with it. He slowly adds the other members to his mindmap too, but they are a little more distant than Tifa, Cloud and Marlene since he doesn't see them as much as his adoptive family. He also adds "Seventh Heaven" to his mindmap since that is where he lives now.

Meanwhile Cloud and Tifa are in the kitchen, and they are talking about their day so far. Tifa is preparing dinner as he leans against the kitchen counter watching her movements. "Now that I think of Denzel's mind-map about love, are we a couple now?" Tifa asks him. She had that question in her mind for quite some time. They grew closer over the past few weeks and she wonders if Cloud still has the same feelings for her as she does for him. Cloud on the other hand is a bit struck by her question, why should he have to decide this, and he gets a bit insecure. "I... um..." he begins, "What do you think about it?" he counters the question back to her, hoping she can produce a suitable answer.

Tifa isn't easily tricked into his trap and she lets go of her knife which she used to chop the vegetables. She moves to him and puts a hand on his chest. She looks him in the eye and moves slowly to his lips. Cloud expects her to kiss him but right before she would do so, she asks him "Do you love me?". "Damn, what's with her and these direct questions? I'm not that good with words, she knows that." he thinks to himself and with that he thinks it would be better to not answer her question with words. Instead he bents forward to her and presses his lips firmly against hers. A quick kiss might do the trick. She seems to be satisfied with that and looks at him. "I guess your answer means "yes" or am I wrong?" she asks rhetorically and smiles to him. He moves closer towards her and puts his hands on her body, drawing her closer to him, and brings his face closer to her. He then gives her another kiss a bit more passionate than the smaller one and it produces the desired effect. When they break away Tifa only gasps for air and Cloud smiles content.

He then notices that Denzel had come down the stairs and noticed the whole thing. "That was disgusting!" Denzel says and looks at them with a look that says it all. Tifa is a bit shocked to see that he saw the whole thing and they didn't notice. Then again they were quite busy with each other, it will most likely happen again. Cloud laughs at the young man's comment and walks into the bar, leaving Tifa to take care of this. He sits down at the familybooth where Tifa and Denzel sat before he came in.

"Oh I take it this is what you mean by the "things" we mentioned earlier," she says and continues to preparing their dinner. Denzel gets himself a drink from the fridge and looks at Tifa. "Yeah, I know now where to draw the line in my mindmap, but please don't do that during the daytime. If Marlene sees it she won't shut up about it." he turns around and walks to Cloud where he gives Denzel a high five, smiling at their little victory which left Tifa without a steady reply. Denzel goes to his room and quickly finishes his mindmap and then shows it to Cloud. He explains what love means to him and what he loves about the three main characters of his mindmap.

Somehow the assignment wasn't so bad after all, and maybe Denzel would have fun creating a piece of artwork after all.