30 Moments in Time

Prompt: Powder

Rating: K+

Set: Post ACC

Summary: The next morning, he'd gone down to the kitchen to find the flour way, way up in the cupboards.

Warnings: fluff, or, in this case, flour

Word count: 1,722

Powder

It started off as a simple day, fairly normal except for the fact that Cloud had finished with his deliveries earlier than usual. He sauntered into Seventh Heaven with his goggles still strapped to his face, his hair wind-streaked, and his clothes smelling like dust and rain as a storm had just rolled in from Kalm. The bar was still open, and more than a few patrons were seated inside, chatting lowly and sharing drinks. Most of the regulars knew who he was and nodded in a show of respect, though some unfamiliar faces still grimaced when he casually strode to the bar and said hello to Tifa.

"Oh, hey, you're back early," she said happily, wiping out the inside of a soapy mug. Setting down the cup and rag, the barista stepped around the bar table, rose to the balls of her feet and pressed a chaste kiss to the corner of Cloud's mouth.

She'd done it on purpose, he knew, as afterwards, her dark eyes quickly scanned for those few customers who had shot him dirty looks earlier. Their eyes were averted now, most of their mouths twisted into frowns as they realized that their very attractive hostess was not very available.

"Busy night," Cloud murmured to her, his eyes sweeping the grounds once more. When the men that had surely been eyeing Tifa before he'd arrived continued to look down at their food with sudden interest, he returned his gaze to her, satisfied.

"Kind of." Tifa shrugged with a smile. "Busy day at work?" she countered, eyes pointedly raking over his tousled hair.

"Not particularly busy," he replied nonchalantly. Taking off his goggles, he ran a hand through the mess that was his hair, frowning when his fingers continuously snagged on knots. Eventually, though, he breathed out a resigned sigh and let his hair be; then he said, "Just wanted to get home tonight."

The word home sent a familiar thrill though Tifa and she couldn't help but smile. "I'm glad you're back, and I'm sure the kids would be excited to see you. They're upstairs doing their homework if you want to go say hi," she said with a nod towards the stairs.

"Hey, Tifa, can I get another order of dumplings and beer?" piped a man sitting in one of the barstools, a regular that Cloud happened to recognize.

"Sure thing, Mason," she called back. And to Cloud's raised eyebrow, Tifa laughed as she made her way to the kitchen. "Yuffie came by and dropped off some Wutaian ingredients that I've been dying to try out. Dumplings are the specialty tonight."

Ah, so that was why there were so many people still present even though a storm was well on its way. Wutaian food was hard to come by in Edge for most people, so they tended to swarm whenever a bar or restaurant was lucky enough to pick up the far-western delicacies.

"Need any help?" Cloud offered, watching as Tifa carefully began to set out and chop chunks of meat and vegetables.

She turned her head with a smile, still chopping, and then said, "Sure; if you could get the flour for me it'd be a big help."

The flour, for whatever reason, was shelved in one of the higher cupboards completely out of her reach, and she always had troubling getting it down. Usually, she had to borrow a stool to stand on. Many a time, Cloud had suggested that she simply move the flour to a new, more easily accessible, location, but, she would have none of it. It belonged there, she'd said, so it would stay there. Everything had a place, and the flour's place was up in the cupboard, away from small hands.

A part of Cloud knew that it was because the one time that he'd been in charge of the kids, Marlene and Denzel had accidentally dumped out an entire bag of flour onto the floor since it had been just sitting on the back counter. He and Tifa had spent the entire night wiping down the floors—flour was hard to clean up, after all; it stuck to practically everything, especially when it was wet. The next morning, he'd gone down to the kitchen to find the flour way, way up in the cupboards.

A wry half-smile on his face, Cloud edged his way in directly behind Tifa, and then reached up to open the cupboard above her head. Just as his hand had grabbed the very full bag of flour, however, Tifa, directly in front of him, jumped back with a shout and knocked fully into his chest. The flour tumbled from his grasp before he could react, and then, in a blink of an eye, everything was…white. White dust floated through the air, swirling in small clouds.

Tifa let out a few hacking coughs and Cloud released a few of his own before rasping, "Tifa?" in a very confused tone.

"Oh, Leviathan, Cloud…" she muttered. Obviously, she'd been hanging around Yuffie a little too much lately…Cloud was sure that he'd have to fix that. Small hands reached up to wipe at his face. "I'm so sorry!"

Blinking the white particles out of his eyes, Cloud said, "It's fine… Are you okay?" and grabbed her hands, setting them down gently before she could fuss more.

Before him, Tifa stood, her leather outfit covered in white, bleached grits in her hair, flour smothering her face. She coughed again, sending another puff of white smoke curling into the air. "Yeah," she nodded curtly, "I'm fine. Sorry about that… I turned the faucet on to wash the vegetables and it was a little hotter than I expected, so I accidentally…" She trailed off slowly after making eye contact with him, and then, her lips began to purse, the bottoms of her dark eyes bowing. She was holding back a laugh, he knew.

"…What?" he asked hesitantly.

Quickly, she shook her head, sending flour flying into the air. "Nothing."

"Tifa."

"Cloud."

When she continued to make that face—the one where she practically bit her lips in order to keep from laughing—Cloud craned his head to peer at her more closely. "What is it?" he asked again.

This time, Tifa giggled, though she quickly smothered it and re-clamped her lips. "You're…" she began slowly, chewing on her upper lip. "You're covered in flour," she finally said, snorting, her shoulders shaking.

Perplexed, Cloud looked down at himself to see that yes, he was doused from head to toe in flour, and then to her, noting that she too had the impossible-to-rid substance covering nearly every visible inch of her skin. "So are you," he replied, feeling a chuckle coming on. Reaching up to his hair again, he ran his fingers through his bangs and then pulled them away to find his gloved hand powdered with white.

Tifa laughed again. He'd always been pale, ever since he was a kid, but, the flour made his skin look stark white, and his hair too. It contrasted nicely with his deep blue eyes that had a hint of Mako-green around the edges. "You look…good that way."

"Mmm, so do you," Cloud told her, his voice low and a quirk to his lips. He folded his flour-covered arms across his chest, watching as she slowly took inventory of the damage done.

Flour coated the floor, seeping into the cracks, and it was in the sink and all over the counters—thankfully, though, the patrons didn't seem to mind the small slipup. In fact, some of them thought it was funny; most of the regulars began chuckling, shaking their heads and continuing on in their conversations.

"We made a mess…" she murmured aloud, looking into his eyes. Her own were warm and bright and shining in that way they did when she wanted him to kiss her.

Cloud found himself nodding and stepping closer, pressing her into the edge of the counter with his hips, his arms bracing themselves on the counter and caging her. Leaning forward until the ends of his hair brushed her face, he whispered into her ear, "We did." Then he placed an abrupt kiss on the side of her neck, which startled her.

He was hardly the type to be affectionate in public. But, then again, she'd seen that look in his eyes when he'd first walked in—he'd known that some of the customers had been ogling her in ways that weren't appropriate—and she knew that he happened to be a bit…selfish when it came to her. And that pleased her to no end. As if she hadn't made it clear earlier by pecking him with a small kiss, he was making doubly sure that everyone in the bar knew that she was his. Frankly, right now she didn't care…

But she was sure that she would later. Some of the regulars would undoubtedly be making comments about it, just to tease her.

"Geez, and you say that we're messy," Marlene's voice giggled, and the two adults tore away from each other and whirled around to see both of the children standing at the base of the stairs.

Denzel was grinning when he chirped, "Hi, Cloud!"

"Hi, Denzel, Marlene," Cloud greeted, secretly enjoying the way that each child beamed when he said their name. They both came hurriedly over, smiling, happy to see both Cloud and Tifa.

"What're you guys doing?" Marlene fixed her curious gaze on the two adults, her almond eyes wide.

"Well," Tifa chuckled, reaching out to slip her arm in-between Cloud's and lean against him, "we were trying to make dumplings. But…"

"But Cloud made a mess?" Denzel finished in a guess.

"Something like that." Cloud unfolded his arms, leaving one hand to intertwine with Tifa's and reaching out with the other to ruffle Denzel's hair. "I'm a terrible cook. Tifa should know better than to let me help."

That night, both he and Tifa spent hours scrubbing the floor, counters and sink spotless. It'd been well past three before they'd tumbled into bed, without showers and with their flour-crusted clothes still on. And the next morning, Cloud went down to the kitchen to find the flour in a new cupboard, well away from the previous spot it had been in and at a noticeably lower and more Tifa-height space.

Pointless fluff, my favorite kind of fluff. :3

THANKS TO ALL MY REVIEWERS: SapphyreMyst, J Luc Pitard, SkeleTonQueeN06, Kohryu, Ryujin65

SkeleTonQueeN06:Aha, Barett never said that, It's just part of the story :3 figured it was something like he would say and I thought it was cute...and fitting.