This story and the following one (that I will be posting soonish) might be slightly confusing as they are linked to my short stories "Beyond Words" and "The Only One" These stories are not on this site but can be found on deviantART via my profile page, if you are interested. With this Im just having some fun, and its quite a challenge for me to do random ramblings like this. haha
Set a few weeks after AC/C, preceding Beyond Words, and fitting within The Only One, and under the heading, It Happened Like this, Time with the Kids
For those following The Promised Land, I'm going away for a week! but I hope to make some notes on the next chap, 36
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy. Please leave something, that would be great
Surprise Vacation
Barrett spent a good hour drinking and chatting with Tifa at the bar at 7th Heaven. He grizzled at Tifa that he wasn't able to see Marlene and Denzel who happened to be out with a couple of friends. Tifa's reprimand, 'if you didn't make unannounced visits than they would be better prepared' did nothing to stop his complaining. After his third beer he was off again, leaving her with vague details about picking the kids up in a few days time for a surprise vacation.
After he left, she began preparing for the night-time customers as well as her family's own dinner with her thoughts becoming a pre-occupied mess as the afternoon progressed. Switching from one concern to another, her thoughts went from running the bar minus the children's help, to being alone with Cloud, amid those awkward silences and her growing shyness in his presence, to Barrett looking after the kids for too weeks. Two weeks?! Did he really say that long? Could Barrett care for children for that length of time, she had to wonder. Maybe it really wasn't that wise...
Marlene and Denzel scurried in later than expected but in enough time to get washed up for dinner. Cloud arrived earlier than he said, and she was glad he could shower in time and come downstairs with the kids. All three waited for her at one of the booths by the window, their family table. Tifa had decided they needed one, because it made 7th Heaven more like a home and less like a tavern. From the kitchen she could hear their faint tones, talking about their day. It reminded her of the early days at the tavern and it warmed her heart to be like that once more. Still, she couldn't shake a niggling doubt that perhaps it wouldn't last.
She carried a huge tray of plates, wraps, seasoned chicken and fresh ingredients for fillings to the table. "It's 'Do it yourself' night," she sang, happily. It was met with squeals of delight from the kids and a pleased smile from Cloud, and she was just as happy she didn't need to cook so much. They could put anything in them and make them as fat as they liked, and for one growing boy maybe too fat. She watched Denzel overstuff his with layers of grated cheese as if he was starving to death. "There's plenty there, Denzel." He already had his mouth full and the sauce dribbling out onto his plate. After the scurry of hands reaching for wraps and condiments had been sated and all were merrily consuming their 'creations' Tifa swallowed and started, "Barrett was here this morning—"
"Daddy!" Marlene was sitting up on her knees on the plush cushions so she could reach the food, and she interrupted with a pout on her face. "Will he be back later?"
"No, he had some business to do at WRO." Tifa slowly bit another mouthful and chewed. "But he's coming back on thursday. He's going to take you and Denzel on a vacation." She watched the children's faces' brighten, and she briefly glanced at Cloud's reaction. He was occupied with his food, but she was sure she saw some spark in his eyes, or maybe that was fear.
Marlene threw her fist in the air and her wrap drooped open. "Hooray!"
"Awesome!" Denzel mumbled, his mouth bulging, and he looked at Tifa, "you're coming with us?"
It was good to see Denzel so happy and full of life and energy. He was like a different boy since being healed, she hardly knew him. Where once he was quiet and almost reserved, now he talked non-stop when he got the chance, and all the questions he asked nearly drove her to distraction, and he seemed to remember everything about everyone. "No, sweetie, not this time. I can't afford to leave the bar."
"Cloud can come though?" Denzel stared at Cloud, putting him on the spot.
Cloud looked up and opened his mouth to speak. "I wo—"
Marlene shook her head sternly and replied, "No, Cloud can't come, he has to look after Tifa." Her wide brown eyes darted between Cloud and Tifa as if she was the mature adult directing the conversation.
Tifa willed herself not to blush at the child's sweet innocent remark that was coming way too close to how she wanted it to be.
Marlene continued, "Like daddy used to look after Tifa in the old seventh Heaven till Cloud came."
On second thought it was probably not a good idea to let Marlene have her way with the discussion. Tifa raised her voice. "Wai—"
"That's right." Cloud swallowed quickly and spoke. "Tifa can't stay here alone." He gave her the barest skim of his perceptive blue eyes that seemed to know what she was thinking, maybe even what she was worried about. But -Cloud had never been that insightful?
"I—" Tifa started again. Surely she could speak for herself.
"Uncle Barrett looked after you?!" Denzel cried wide-eyed at Tifa.
Why was that surprising, she had to wonder. Of course, Denzel had seen her fight monsters and he had seen her train as well. She shrugged her shoulders at him in resignation and gave a lopsided smile. Back than it was true, and Denzel was right, she never really needed protection, not of a physical nature anyway. What she needed was a guard on her crippling depression.
Marlene answered him, with a proud voice, "Daddy was the biggest, meanest man in the slums and no one dare come near Tifa or me!"
Denzel piled food into his mouth as if he hadn't eaten ever and tried to speak. "And than Cloud came?"
Tifa ate quietly, wondering how she was going to divert the conversation before it veered into perilous waters. With Marlene anything could be said and anything was possible. That child knew far too much than what was good for her to know. Damn how much didshe know? Perhaps she should leave the table altogether, maybe they needed something, anything from the kitchen.
Marlene nodded; the two of them quite content conversing with each other about stuff that happened years ago to grown adults. "Daddy didn't like Cloud at all at first, but he let him hang around only 'cuz Tifa liked him—"
"Marlene, that's because Cloud was my friend," Tifa cried with sudden anxiety and growing fear, because just that simple statement underlined her deep attraction to Cloud, even back than. Surely Marlene couldn't have sensed that, at that age?
Cloud gulped his juice down and cleared his throat. "Barrett is stillthe biggest, meanest, baddest man around. And it's true, we didn't get on. We still don't get on sometimes. We're opposites."
Marlene nodded in understanding. "You don't say much and daddy talks a lot."
Denzel added, "And he's loud."
Cloud looked at them both with a stern brow. "Barrett has a short fuse, so you better watch yourselves."
Tifa leaned towards them, hoping to scare them into being on their best behavior. Who knows how Barrett would react to mischievous children. "So you'll have to listen to what he says and be good while you're away."
"If you're lucky, or maybe unlucky," Cloud grinned at his own humor, "he'll tell you some of his war stories."
Denzel's innocent face lit up with excitement. "War stories?"
"But whatever he tells you, don't believe his story about the time he killed a Zolom singlehandedly." Cloud took a bite of his overfull wrap.
Tifa gave a laugh in memory. Barrett's stories were always over exaggerated. Some of them she had to wonder if he made them up altogether because she couldn't recall some of the things he said happening to them at all.
"Yeah, I think I know that one," Marlene continued chewing, suddenly not that interested.
Denzel ogled Cloud, "What's a Zolom?"
Cloud said, "A monstrous snake creature. There's no way he could kill it himself, if that's what he tells you."
Tifa took up the story and she reminisced as she put herself back all those years ago, and she spoke more to Cloud than the children. "He was lying nearly completely under the thing's swishing back end—"
Cloud took over her story, "one wallop away from death and we're trying to get him out and retreat, and he's heaving, 'more materia, yo' foo's, give it more materia!'" He finished in a deep voice, mimicking the bigger man's baritone.
Marlene peeled with giggles and Denzel howled with laughter at Cloud's imitation.
"That's right," Tifa brightened at the funny recollection, although not funny at the time. Covered with bruises and bleeding gashes, they kept at it. Adrenaline had kept them going in that crucial moment and faith in each other's abilities. "I'm trying to drag him away and Cloud is distracting the snake-thing, meanwhile Aeris is pouring Healing materia into Barrett. I think Nanaki was on the other side," she stated thoughtfully.
Cloud had a smile on his face, despite Aeris' name being mentioned, "and Yuffie was behind me trying to cast some weird spell, and Barrett's shouting his bleeding chest out." He put his best Barrett voice on, now aware of how much it made the kids laugh, "'Don't yos' pull me out, you spineless mogs, I'm going to kill that fu—sucker if it's the last thing I do." He finished with a quick look at Tifa and a restrained grin.
Grinning broadly, she smiled at him and the kids. Marlene responded in her grown up voice, "It's alright Cloud, I know what he probably said."
Denzel wide-eyed and bottom lip dangling, asked, "Did you kill it?"
"Sure did."
Tifa added, "Barrett's not one to back down."
"It must have been heaps of fun!" Denzel cried.
Cloud gave him a tight smile. "It had its moments." His shining blue eyes looked to Tifa for affirmation.
"I'm not sure I'd describe it like that at the time," Tifa said to Denzel. They were on the run most of the time, never knowing where they were going to spend the next night or what they were going to face. Never adequate sleep nor the best food, and never able to trust anyone. No matter how she viewed it, the memories were strong and lasting.
"You must be bored now," Denzel commented without a care as he took a third wrap.
Tifa gave him a deep drawn-out sigh. Wasn't it only a few weeks ago they were attacked by Jenova remnants and a giant summoned monster?
"We have you kids, how can we get bored?" Cloud's face was a mask of serious consideration.
Marlene gave him a dazzling smile. "Yes, you have us. Who needs monsters, right?"
Cloud scratched his chin, his brow creasing with puzzlement in an attempt to figure out if she was joking or not. A spontaneous giggle erupted from Tifa's throat, and she nearly choked on her mouthful of food.
Denzel said, "What will you do when we're gone?"
"Uhm," Tifa raised her eyes to the ceiling, her mind racing for some answer that wouldn't lead to more questions. "Work, I guess..."
"I don't know, what do you think we should do?" Cloud's mouth was straight but his eyes sparkled with mirth.
Denzel considered him and the corners of his eyes crimped with deliberation. "Maybe you could take Tifa for a ride."
Of course Denzel would suggest that, it was the very thing he enjoyed and wanted to do. Tifa tilted her head in thought, it wasn't a bad idea, she'd give the kid that.
Cloud nodded, and excluding Tifa from the discussion, he said, "Do you think she'd like that?"
"For sure!"
"What else do you think Tifa would like to do?" A small grin suddenly appeared and he gave Tifa an engaging glance that melted her heart. She half wondered if he was actually sourcing the boy for information on her likes. Thank Gaia, Denzel would have no idea what she really wanted to do.
Denzel looked at Tifa and spoke as if he knew exactly what she wanted. "Tifa would like cherry-chocolate ice-cream after she goes to the playground."
"The playground, eh?" now Cloud afforded Tifa a teasing smirk.
Tifa shook her head at them, thinking it best not to answer at all.
"Maybe we can go for ice-cream, I don't know about the playground..." Cloud's blue gaze rested on the child who had been quiet, absorbed in the conversation. "What do you think Marlene?"
Unlike questioning Denzel, Marlene could be dangerous. Her mouth pressed up in deep concentration and Cloud fidgeted in his chair at her prolonged silence. Tifa knew she was working up something important to say, as if she had spent days thinking about it, and she expected Cloud was thinking the same thing. Tifa had a shooting desire to bolt to the kitchen while she had the chance.
Finally after swallowing a mouthful of food, she studied Cloud dead in the eye and said, "Tifa wants to have fun. A lot of fun. You need to make her laugh." She remonstrated to Cloud and pointed at his chest as if somehow it was his fault and responsibility to make her have a good time.
Everything in Tifa pricked up in irritation and she sat erect ready to protest. It wasn't true, she did laugh, sometimes and… and… it wasn't her that didn't laugh, it was Cloud. "What? I do lau—"
Without turning his head, Cloud gave her the barest glance and he responded seriously to Marlene's comment, before Tifa could speak. "You think I need to make Tifa laugh?"
Marlene gave repeated big fast nods of her head.
Cloud rubbed his chin in contemplation while Tifa stared at him and the children, her mouth open at their dissection of her needs.
Denzel piped up, "adults don't laugh, not like kids, and I know Tifa is hard to get laughing. She won't laugh at animals, even cute frogs in the bed."
Marlene stared at him, her face reddening with disgust and she sniffed, her nose in the air. "That's because it's not funny."
"But...it was friendly, and was going to keep you company," Denzel whined.
Cloud's eyes widened and his voice croaked with a chuckle. "A frog?! In whose bed?"
"Mine!" Tifa's voice was strong and still had the underlying tones of reprimand, as she recalled the slimy thing crawling against her lower back. "At night. Late. Not funny."
Cloud burst into laughter and didn't try to restrain it.
Tifa crossed her arms, her lips twitching with a grin. "Well, Cloud Strife, I'd like to see how you would react." Probably a lot more civilized than her, no screaming from him, or rushing around with a pillow in hysterics trying to destroy the 'thing'. No, he 'Warrior-man' would probably get his sword, or two, and destroy it and the bed without a word, silently. No shame in that and no one knowing about it. "Yes, I'd like to see that. Maybe that would make me laugh."
Cloud raised his palms in surrender and he looked at the kids, especially Denzel, watching him with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Okay, frogs are not allowed, or bugs, or any other thing that moves."
Denzel's shoulders drooped in a forlorn slump. "Ahww—"
Marlene pushed his shoulder to annoy him. "I know! Sometimes grownups laugh at aunt Yuffie."
"She makes me laugh too." Denzel's face lightened at the mention of the young woman.
"That crazy ninja makes everyone laugh," Cloud added, "although I don't think she intends to. But I don't think we'll be asking her over."
Thank goodness. Having Yuffie around when Tifa was feeling so sensitive to any pestering over her love-life was begging for trouble. Tifa smiled, hoping the awkward discussion had passed when Denzel turned to her and looking at her directly, asked without any guile, "What would make you smile, Tifa?"
Why did it have to be that question? She groaned inside and her heart pounded into her mouth at Cloud's beautiful turquoise eyes, staring... waiting for some answer, and his lips, the merest curve, transforming into a curious smile. The very thing that would make her smile was sitting right before her. You, you make me smile, Cloud..."I... really don't know..." Her mouth struggled with revealing her inner thoughts, and unable to think of anything but him right than, she lied. With all eyes turned to her, she felt defensive, angry even. "I think I smile as much as everyone else when there's something funny," she finished sharply, "What makes you smile, Cloud?"
His blue gaze dropped from her and his face became a mask, hiding his true thoughts, but his answer was genuine, "The kids make me laugh."
Tifa gulped, wanting to suck her harsh words all up. She murmured, suddenly realizing how tangled her thoughts and heart were over him, everything else was overshadowed by his very presence, it was making her irrational. "They make me smile too." She quickly stacked the empty plates and left the table, before anyone could see her pained expression and her moistened eyes. As she went she heard Cloud say, and he said it loud enough he must have known she would hear. "You're right, Tifa does need to laugh." His remark might have made her smile in itself, but it was so true, she wanted to cry.
