Here's chapter 2. Remember, I own nothing, except cid's. 20% off everything if you send a review! (Ok, maybe 25%. I'm not made of money, you know.)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The doorbell rang and Rinoa popped up, an old shirt draped over her head. Aerith gave a small laugh, and Tifa opened the door. But she before it was fully opened, Rinoa returned to searching amongst the boxes. At the front door stood Cloud and Zack, silently staring at the door frame. They did their best to not look at each other, Tifa noticed.

"Hey guys, you all look grea- where's Rinoa?" Zack commented.

"Thanks" Rinoa called from behind the cardboard pile.

"Who said that? Wait, don't tell me Rinoa's been turned into cardboard? Did she misfire a spell again?" Zack stepped back in surprise.

"Yes, and I'm Perry the platypus." Tifa remarked sarcastically.

Cloud took in the scene. There were cardboard boxes everywhere. Well, except where the couch, TV and coffee table stood. But hey, what else did one need in life? However, he was distracted from his thoughts when he realized how plush the carpet was. It was a little surprising, seeing as the house was used. Cloud closed his eyes and imagined himself standing in the softness, letting it envelope him. There, he could live out his secret lifelong fantasy of being a my little pony rancher-

"Hey Cloud, are you awake in there? I'm asking you a question." Tifa waved her hand in his face. She rubbed a finger across his chin. "Were you….drooling?"

Cloud wiped a hand across his face and defensively stated "NO!"

Cloud scanned the room to see who had heard his entrance. Squall was leaning over a bunch of boxes, looking for Rinoa, no doubt. Aerith had stepped behind him and was now speaking with Zack. He felt a chill from the cool evening air. He wanted to close it, but Aerith was in the way- as usual. For once, he wished he could do away with her himself. Last time he hired Sephiroth to do it, but obviously his killing techniques were getting sloppy.

Rinoa was suddenly behind Zack, at the door. How did she do that? Poor Squall was looking in the wrong direction entirely. Cloud wondered how he was ever able to keep up to her. He wanted to giggle a little because he still had some sort of sock puppet on his head.

"Hey Cloud. Tell me you brought one of your six-passenger vehicles." Rinoa requested.

The question perked everyone up, paying attention to their two friends. Squall made his way over to the group, and Aerith shut the door (coincidentally also shutting herself out. And thanks to Rinoa's lock, she was stuck outside until the conversation was completed and someone opened the door.) Tifa and Cloud broke their stares as both he and Zack looked every where else besides into the faces of their friends. That's when Aerith started pounding on the door.

"Hey, let me in! We have to figure out how to get to the restaurant. It looks like Cloud only brought his motorcycle." Aerith pounded on the door.

Cloud punched where he guessed Aerith's head was as his face turned beet red.

"We were running late, and well, the- the vans weren't there." Cloud protested.

"It was his idea." Zack raised his hands in self defense.

"Smooth." Cloud looked back, placing his hands on his hips.

There was an awkward silence for a moment while the words hung in the air. The silence was only broken when Aerith started to pound on the door once again and Squall cleared his throat. He held up his keys and pointed to the door. One by one, they filed out. Cloud and Tifa got on to the motorcycle, and Zack and Aerith headed for the car. Rinoa held back, and Squall came back to get her.

"Rinoa?" Squall eased into the house. The lights were dimmed, and all he could see were the many boxes that lined the walls.

He headed over by the TV and looked in the box. All of a sudden, Rinoa popped up, grabbed the sock puppet. When Squall looked back in the box, she was gone. He looked around and then back in the box, where Rinoa was already up. She kissed him on the nose, and then disappeared.

Squall stepped back in surprise and blinked a couple of times. A smile played on the edge of his lips. He was brought out of any musings by the sound of Rinoa swinging her pearl necklace.

"Found what I was looking for. Now come on." Rinoa looked back and smiled.

With the door locked and everyone in the right vehicles, they headed out. Tifa laughed as the spare black fabric of her dress fluttered in the wind. They were heading to the Gardens, a fancy restaurant in the city. While Cloud and Tifa had the noise of the city to listen to, everyone else was waiting for Rinoa to pick a station in the car. Eventually, she stopped on some sappy love song dedication station.

"And here's to a certain Zombie girl of mine, Aerith you really shine!" the DJ blared. "And if you need some help just know you can always turn to your man, Zack Fair. Enjoy the music, you two."

Squall and Rinoa turned to look into the back seat, only to find the couple beet red, staring down at something interesting that apparently seemed to appear on the floor.

"I called that in almost a month ago! How come it's just now playing?" Zack belted.

"Squall, the road!" Aerith pointed.

With a fluid movement of the wheel, the car got set back on the road, crashing at least three and a half cars in its wake. Cloud shook his head as he stayed well behind the carnage that was Squall's driving. In no time at all, they reached the restaurant, and found a parking spot. They met up and walked in to the building.

Fountains were at every corner of the dining area, and flowers littered the wall. The flowers at the very top of the wall looked wilted, but you could hardly see them because of the lighting. They also looked like they had been stapled to the wall. Regardless, there was a quaint feeling in the atmosphere and things couldn't be more tranquil.

Dinner started taking a turn for the worse when Sephiroth showed up. Apparently he was meeting Genesis and Angeal for a reunion, as they had become living again through the same mysterious process that had brought Aerith and Zack back. Come to think of it, Cid had introduced Tifa to them as well.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud growled.

Tifa glared at Sephiroth and then noted to Cloud "not here."

He gave a small 'hmp' and walked on. Apparently they had reserved a booth in back. Back at the table, Rinoa wanted to know why the author kept using the word 'apparently'.

After everyone ordered their food, Tifa excused herself to power her nose. Or something like that. Not that she actually carried powder, of course. On her way over, she whispered to Sephiroth, and he got up from his seat. He mentioned something to one of the workers before exiting.

In an instant, the birthday song blared through the restaurant as a bunch of waitresses and waiters began singing in a chorus of loud, annoying and very off pitch voices.

"Happy birthday, Yuffie!" they ended.

"Yuffie?" Aerith pulled out the worried face. "But I don't know any Yuffie."

"I do." Zack glumly mentioned.

A sneeze came from the ball pit, but no one paid it any mind. That is, until it became a loud and rather annoying round of sneezes. Apparently the ball pit had been there the whole time. Or had it?

"What do you want? I'm busy trying to find treasure. My sources tell me something valuable to Shinra is buried here!" she cried.

Reno and baldy picked her up by the arms and dragged her away.

"No! They're coming to take me away!" Yuffie complained loudly.

"Oooookay…" Rinoa tipped her head.

"Serves that nose picker right. She stole my treasure….twice!" Zack held up three fingers.

Aerith put down his ring finger and sighed. Happy face was back.

Tifa quickly returned, and the food came along with it. They had a lovely time until the food fight broke out. No one knew who had started it, but it was the splat heard round the world.

"We've got to get out of here." Aerith yelled.

Everyone was crouching behind their overturned table, trying to figure out what to do. Sephiroth was standing in the middle of the room, fuming over the mashed potatoes in his hair. they had no gravy. Rinoa picked up a pencil and erased the word apparently from the last sentence.

"Serves you right!" she blew a raspberry. "Find another word."

The author wanted to be mean to her little puppet Rinoa (as I'm sure you all understand the author is ruler over all time and space in their story) however, she needed to finish typing up the tale. And Rinoa was needed for dramatic effects for later. So, while the author schemed, the story continued.

It took some doing, but after crawling across the floor, they made it outside. Soon all was silent, as the dead and not so dead were counted. Angeal and Genesis were trying to calm down Sephiroth who was now threatening to cut off his hair. Fangirls congealed at the window, pushing our protagonists away from the door. Mr. Background character rang a bell and announced the number of dead. Most had died from Sephiroth's anger. One had died from eating the veal. He was sadly, discarded from the story in no time at all.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I love background characters…..so convenient when offing your main characters. Don't let them die in vain, though! Make sure to review!