Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, the world, or its characters; Square Enix does.

Pieces of You

Chapter 2

Set Apart

By the time Cloud returned to Tifa's bar, it was already sunset. Orange light streamed across the darkening sky and cast elongated shadows across the cooling city. The crowd in the city's center, where the Meteor monument stood proudly, was beginning to thin, citizens' faces worn and tired from the long day. Cloud shuddered as he slowed Fenrir to a stop—he hadn't any warm clothes and it is was cool now that the sun no longer bore into his skin. Parking the bike in the garage, he entered the bar through the garage door.

The bar was still a little slow, but there were a few patrons sitting at the tables, smoking and drinking mainly by themselves. Tifa was behind the counter finishing up the last glass of a row. She looked up and narrowed her eyes. "Where were you?"

He shrugged. "Truce is farther than I thought."

"Where'd you get those scratches?" she asked, further narrowing her eyes and pointing to his bare arm.

He looked down and saw faint white traces of scratches. "Fenrir skidded out."

She paused, several emotions flashing across her face—worry, fear, anger, sadness. She placed the glass firmly on the shelf before beckoning him over. "Did you at least clean everything?"

"Last night, on the phone." He slipped onto a red vinyl stool before pulling away the collar of his shirt to display the bite on his shoulder. Though it was still an open wound, it was starting to look well on its way to healing, though his messy job of sutures made it look worse.

Tifa put her hands on her hips. "Cloud! How? That couldn't be from Fenrir!"

He shook his head and let go of his collar, adjusting his shirt. "It's not. I got attacked by a monster on the way there."

Tifa tapped her foot. "I doubt any Kalm Fangs could have done that."

He rolled his shoulders. "I didn't see very many of them, so I imagine the monster I ran into was feeding off them."

"What was it?"

"I have no idea. It looked like a wolf, but it was enormous. And it was fast—it could easily outrun Fenrir."

"But…? Well…what…? I've never heard of any exceptionally large wolves on this continent."

"Same here. I wonder if I could get someone to check it out for me?"

"Why don't we ask Reno or Rude? I'm sure they wouldn't mind. They stop by every once in a while for a drink, though I haven't seen them lately." Tifa frowned, but she returned to her place behind the bar and took out a glass. "Do you want something to drink before I clean up your injuries?"

"Tifa, I—"

"—didn't do a good enough job. So something to drink?"

He nodded. "All right. I'll just take a beer."

She rolled her eyes and grabbed a beer from underneath the counter. "So, other than being attacked by a huge wolf, how was your trip?"

He took the beer from her and took a sip, closing his eyes. "I lost about two thousand gil to fix Fenrir—"

"—What happened?"

"It skidded out when the wolf attacked. I'm not sure what happened, but the engine died once I got into Truce Canyon. The mechanic fixed it overnight and the brat who was behind the counter charged me too much."

"And you gave it to him anyway?" She lifted an eyebrow at him, a small smile ghosting across pale lips. He had a soft spot, whether or not he wanted to admit it.

Cloud brushed it off with a wave of his hand before taking another sip. "Anyway, I didn't deliver the package after all."

Her eyes widened, and she paused in her task of transporting the dried mugs to the cupboard. "Why not?"

He shook his head. "It doesn't exist, apparently."

"How does it not exist? I mean…well, maybe they got the wrong address? Hmm, did you see what the return address was? Let me see it."

Cloud nodded toward the garage. "It's in the garage still. I didn't bother—"

"Cloud!"

He had just about enough time to turn before a small brunette nearly pummeled him over.

"Cloud, you're back! Why didn't you tell us?"

"Marlene! He's injured! Don't—"

"No, it's all right," Cloud murmured and returned the hug.

She immediately pushed him away, her almond brown eyes filled with worry. "Injured? Cloud, what happened? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," he told her and spread his arms wide, modeling his well covered body to her. "Alive and well," he added shooting a dark look at Tifa, who rolled her eyes and turned away.

"I'm going to get that package. Cloud, stay and watch the bar."

The little girl scrunched her face up in doubt but then shrugged and flung herself on him once more.

Though she'd gotten older within the past few years, she was still tiny and short enough to bury her face in his shirt. He let go of her and she slowly backed away. "Where's Denzel?" he asked, looking around for Denzel. Though the boy was hardly as energetic and positive as Marlene, he normally came to greet Cloud.

Marlene looked behind her. "Oh, well, I thought…he was just behind me. Denzel!" she called, heading for the hallway. "Denzel! Cloud's back!" She stood at the base of the stairs, waiting for Denzel to come thundering down, but he didn't. "Where are you, Denzel?" She turned back and shrugged.

"When Tifa gets back, we'll look for him," Cloud assured her.

"I'm back, and you're not looking for Denzel. First we're going to do a better job stitching up your shoulder—"

"—but Cloud said he was fine." Marlene pouted.

"I am fine." Another dark look. "Come on, Marlene, let's go get Denzel. Maybe we'll all get something to eat to bring back to Tifa?" he added more for Tifa's forgiveness than as a suggestion. Tifa grunted and decidedly chose to ignore him while she studied the package.

/ - / - / - / - / - /

Cloud had been sorting through messages on his voicemail and browsing through his list of deliveries when Tifa called to him. He first ignored her, figuring she was calling him down to interrogate him again—there wasn't anything he hadn't said already about the attack by Truce Canyon—but she called him again. "Cloud Strife! Stop keeping your guests waiting!"

"My guests?" he repeated, frowning. Wondering who his guests might be and what they might want from him, at this time of night, anyway, he snapped his phone shut and left his office, carrying a glass of water with him. He passed Denzel and Marlene's room, where they were whispering to each other until he visibly passed. Then a heavy silence ensued until he was well down the stairs.

"What ya got?"

Cloud frowned as stopped on the last step, Reno's voice carrying to his ears loudly.

"You can read," bristled Tifa. "Anything you see up here, I've got."

"Give me something hard."

Cloud could tell that Tifa rolled her eyes, and so he chose that moment to walk out into the scene.

Reno and Rude sat at the counter—Rude sitting up straight and on the edge of his stool while Reno was slouching over a glass dish full of peanuts. Rude turned to Cloud, the emotions in his eyes hidden by dark sunglasses. "Have a minute?"

"Or two for old time's sake?" added Reno, turning to get a better look at Cloud.

Cloud shrugged. "What do you want?"

"Do we need to want something from you to say hi?"

Cloud narrowed his eyes. "Is that supposed to be a joke?"

Reno sighed. "All right, so the President wants to hire you."

"Again? What for?" That was Tifa. She unconsciously handed the redhead a mug full of pale ale. Her questions, however, were aimed at Rude.

Reno answered anyway with a one shouldered shrug. "People in Truce Canyon have been—"

"A monster there. A wolf," Cloud finished, swinging his leg across the chair and bending over his drink Tifa had handed him silently without any intention of drinking it.

"How'd you know?"

"I was delivering something. I got attacked." He reached up to his shoulder and pulled back the collar. "Took a chunk out of my shoulder." With that said, he let go of the collar almost immediately after uncovering it and peered at them from over his shoulder. "What do you expect me to do about it?"

"Check it out. Defeat it. Whatever." He took a sip of his drink and then spit it out. "What the fuck? This is—"

She shrugged. "You left it up to me." Tifa, in Cloud's personal opinion, looked a little too smug.

"I'll take whiskey. Or…to be more specific…Red Label…or do I need to know the bar code on the back, too?" Reno glared.

Tifa fluffed her hair. "If you can guess right, then I won't charge you for the ale."

"What?"

"What do you know about the wolf so far?" asked Cloud, lifting an eyebrow in question.

"'S been attacking lots of people there. Killed three so far, two teenagers and a kid," Reno muttered, straightening his tie.

"It didn't seem like it was any immediate danger over there. Everyone there seemed relatively normal. I was there today."

"What a coincidence," said Reno unconvincingly.

"I'm not fit enough to kill it," Cloud admitted, turning his gaze away. "The wolf is too fast, too strong, too big."

"When has that stopped you?"

Tifa straightened up, her pride on display for everyone to see. "Cloud, you just weren't in any position to be fighting! You were riding on Fenrir, and he took you by surprise. If you'd been on even ground and expecting him, you could defeat it. We could defeat it," she amended quietly.

"Yeah," continued Reno. "Gather up your gang or whatever and kick some ass. Save the people you fought so hard to save the last two times."

"Why me? Don't you want to 'rebuild Shinra'? If you want to prove that Shinra's worthy of being in any position of authority, why don't you do something for the people for once?"

"We can't. You're the strongest one we've got. If that thing fazed you, think what it could do to us. At least you came home alive, and next time you'll have a bunch of people here to help."

"That is if they want to help."

"We do!"

Tifa's intent gaze made Cloud stand up. "What do I get in return?"

/ - / - / - / - / - /

Author's Note: Well, this was short!

Please tell me what you think so far! I'm also open to suggestions and/or constructive criticism, so don't be shy!