Cold mountain air rushed through the window. Perhaps it had been kind of stupid to leave the window open all night. Tifa had woken up freezing at 5:00 that morning. For whatever reason, she rolled over toward Cloud and whispered 'I'm cold, baby'. She didn't remember if he had asked her if she was cold or what. But, she did remember pulling Cloud on top of her, coming very fast, very hard and falling asleep in his arms before the clock read 5:07. The time was now 8:15 AM and Tifa was barely awake. It was warm and cozy under the heavy blankets. Tifa could hear Cloud move behind her.
"Good morning." Cloud mumbled before kissing her neck and letting his warm skin rub against hers.
"Mmmm." Tifa responded still barely awake. The feeling of soft lips on her neck made her shudder all over.
"Your skin is so smooth." Cloud said softly; running his hand down her leg and up the inside of her thigh. Tifa hummed in approval again. They were so comfortable and snug. Tifa sighed contently as Cloud's lips caressed her neck. This autumn morning could not have gotten any more peaceful. Fog clung to the mountains in the distance but neither Cloud nor Tifa were aware of the beautiful morning outside. "Why don't we always lay in bed like this in the morning?" Cloud asked.
"Because you and I get up at 6:30 and we have to get the kids up at 6:45 and off to the bus stop by 7:30. We never have time to lay like this." Tifa mumbled.
"We need to have more mornings where you and I lay in bed like this." Cloud looked over Tifa's shoulder quickly before pressing his lips into her neck again. "My god Tifa, its 8:19 and we're still in bed. This is…god this is wonderful." Cloud buried his face in the pillow beside her and hugged Tifa closer to him.
"It's hard to believe that the whole reason we came here was to see my dad. Funny, I remember all the hot sex and none of my angry dad. That's the way it should be, right?" Tifa asked waking up a little more.
"Yes, yes…that's the way it should be." Cloud reassured her. "I'm hungry…what do you want to do for breakfast?"
"I want…I want a good breakfast. No toast, no cereal, no pop-tarts…nothing either of us would normally eat. I want a breakfast with some substance." Tifa said.
"That does sound good. This is going to require us to get up." Cloud said. Tifa whined about that a bit but rolled over to face Cloud.
"Does this place have room service?" Tifa asked.
"Oh my god, you're a genius. We will order room service. Shit, I bet they have a great menu. This is Nibelheim…people still cook with real ingredients here." Cloud said not volunteering to move…
"So where's the menu?" Cloud asked her.
"Across the cold room beside the TV." Tifa said.
"Damn…that means one of us has to freeze in order to get it." Cloud said.
"It sure does." Tifa said pretty much indicating that Cloud would be the one getting this menu.
"See, its times like this that we need the kids. I would make Denzel go get it." Cloud said. Tifa laughed at him.
"You would not! You would get it yourself because you wouldn't want him to get cold." Tifa said.
"Yeah, you're right. Hey, if you go get the menu I can watch you be naked." Cloud said. TIfa looked at him.
"That's your selling point? If I get the menu you get to watch me be naked?" Tifa questioned.
"Well, yeah. Everybody wins, Tifa." Cloud said. Tifa just stared at him.
"You're…not going to let me watch you be naked are you?" he asked.
"No…but I'm going to watch you be naked." Tifa said winking at him. Cloud sighed and smiled at her.
"This is proof of how much I love you." Cloud said pulling himself out of the cocoon of blankets he had made with Tifa. "Oooooh shit this room is cold!" Cloud observed as her hurried to the stupid table beside the TV to get the menu. He rushed back across the room just as quickly and dove in the bed next to her. Tifa laughed and threw her body over Cloud; feeling the coldness of his skin against her.
"Oooh my god, okay…had you told me you were going to climb on top of me like this, getting this menu would have been much easier." Cloud said putting an arm around her.
"I'm full of surprises." Tifa said moving beside Cloud once more so they could examine the room service menu. "Cinnamon pancakes! Are you kidding me? I want that! Oooh wait…no I want the bacon...all of it. Oh my god they have an entire section dedicated to omelets!" Tifa noticed knowing good and well her eyes were bigger than her stomach.
"I think we should get like… two of these huge platter things and split them." Cloud said.
"I like that idea…keep talking." Tifa said.
"We can get the pancake platter and the egg platter…ooooh and we can get a pitcher of orange juice and a carafe of coffee. Oh my god Tifa, this is going to be the best breakfast you and I have ever had." Cloud said.
"Yes! It's perfect but we need to get the biscuits and gravy on the side." Tifa insisted.
"Alright. I'm going to call this in right now." Cloud said reaching for the phone." Within minutes their perfect breakfast was ordered. "You know, we're going to have to get dressed before that food arrives."
"How long until they deliver?" Tifa asked.
"About 20 minutes." Cloud answered her. "Should we call home and see if Yuffie and her boyfriend have been having sex in our bed? I swear Tifa if they have been…" Tifa cut him off.
"He didn't spend the night and they aren't having sex!" she insisted.
"When we get home, if you ask Yuffie if she's screwing her boyfriend I'll ask her how the kids know about me screwing you." Cloud said.
"Alright, I'll ask her." Tifa said wiggling around and sitting up in the bed. She still had the covers pulled up around her.
"Very well. It's settled then. Oh god…I dread what Yuffie tells me." Cloud said. Tifa let the air rushing in from the windows invade her senses.
"Can you smell that?" she asked.
"Mmm…smells like fall." Cloud answered her.
"It does." Tifa said. "So, since you got the menu I feel a little guilty…so I'm going to get our clothes. What would you like?" Tifa said rolling away from the warm spot in their bed and standing up only to be surrounded by cold air.
"Just get me that Sherpa hooded sweatshirt and those jeans. Oh, and there should be a gray t-shirt over there too…on top of those boxers maybe." Cloud said. Tifa shivered as she grabbed his cold pile of clothes. She had to dig around in the duffle bag for her own.
"I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm closing the window. I want to eat breakfast warm." Tifa said hurrying back towards their bed only to flop their clothes in a pile as she reached with chilled hands for the window.
"Turn the TV on and see what the temperature is." Cloud said reaching toward the bottom of their bed for anything he could get his hands on.
"Let me get dressed first." Tifa said reaching for the layers of clothes she intended to pile on to herself. Cloud was dressed before she was. He got up and turned on the TV to see the weather for that morning. He also pulled Tifa's cell phone off the charger where he had left it the night before.
"You have a missed call from your dad. He must have called while it was charging. He left a voicemail." Cloud said.
"You can listen to it if you want but I don't care to hear it." Tifa said.
"I'll just delete it. Listen, I'm going to go downstairs and get us late checkout because let's face it; we will not be out of here before the 10:30 checkout time. It's totally stupid to have a checkout time that early anyway." Cloud said.
"Well, it's not like we're at a resort hotel…this is a two story twenty-room inn." Tifa said.
"Yeah, you're right. I should be back before our breakfast is delivered." Cloud said grabbing his wallet before disappearing out the door. Tifa decided to call home and check in on things while he was downstairs.
"Hi! What can I do for you?" the young woman behind the desk asked Cloud.
"Good morning. I need late checkout today if that's alright." He requested of her.
"Okay, that's no problem. What's the name?" she asked. Cloud told her but he hadn't expected her next remark.
"Are you alone?" she asked him.
"What?" he asked a bit confused.
"Are you traveling alone?" she repeated.
"Um…no…why?" Cloud wondered. The woman smiled.
"Well it's just that…you're too good-looking to be traveling alone. Have you had breakfast? Do you want some company? I can get you anything you want for free and I'll join you right over there by the fireplace." The woman said. Cloud had a very serious look on his face.
"I told you…I'm not here alone." Cloud said.
"Oh…then who are you with?" the woman asked him rather disappointed. Cloud looked at her intently.
"My wife." He didn't even stutter, didn't hesitate…it just came out that way.
"Hm…I don't see a ring on your finger. You must be one hell of a husband." She said sarcastically.
"Thanks for the late checkout." Cloud said as he quickly left to get back upstairs before this situation made him any more uncomfortable.
"It sounds like you are having a good morning. Me and Cloud will be leaving sometime before noon today so we should be about around 3:30 or so. Listen, Cloud just walked in the door and he looks overly dramatic right now so I'll talk to you later." Tifa said hanging up the phone.
"What? Did they charge us for late checkout?" Tifa asked putting her phone into her purse. Cloud shook his head and stood there, his eyebrows narrowed. Tifa walked over to him and put her hands on his shoulder. "What's wrong?"
Cloud finally looked at her. "I…we…we need to make this official." Cloud said.
"What are you talking about?" Tifa asked.
"You and me...we're husband and wife but yet we never, ever say it out loud. We're married but we've never use that word and we've done nothing to make it so." Cloud said.
"Cloud…this works for us. What happened downstairs?" Tifa asked walking him over to the edge of their bed. Hell, he had only been gone for three minutes at the most!
"People think you aren't committed to anyone or anything when you don't have a ring on your finger to prove it. When we get home, let's just go to the courthouse Monday and sign the papers. There's no reason for us to not sign a marriage license." Cloud said.
"You're serious about this aren't you?" Tifa asked.
"Yes, yes I am. The woman downstairs…I'll tell you over breakfast. Maybe it's good how it happened because it finally got me to talk to you. So what do you think?" Cloud asked her. Tifa put her arms around him. The truth was she didn't give a shit if they ever got married…she didn't need that from him. It seemed to be more of an issue for Cloud than her. So this was no big deal. Hell, go to the courthouse and wait in line forever and slap her signature on a couple papers. They both had a very casual attitude about it even though Cloud was a little more worked up than he perhaps should have been. This wasn't one of his normal overly-sensitive moments that he lapsed into…she could tell by the tone in his voice he had been thinking about this for a long time. Whatever had happened downstairs had merely been a catalyst to the events that were happening right now. This was the second catalytic event of the weekend.
Marriage was such a strong and traditional word. Tifa felt like she and Cloud were anything but traditional. She knew Cloud was right…they were married…but neither of them had ever confronted that idea. Tifa realized she hadn't really given him an answer. What was she going to say, no I'm not going to officially marry you I'm just going to live with you? Of course not, she knew that look; that look on his face that that said 'someone just turned my world upside down please fix it'. One thing was certain about Cloud, despite his tough exterior shell…he was so easy to shatter. Absolutely anyone could break his heart one way or another. Tifa could always tell when someone had gotten to him…and someone obviously had. But he wasn't over-reacting either…he was serious about this.
"I can go in to work late Monday, say…6:00 or something. You know how the lines get backed up down there at the courthouse." Tifa said. It wasn't like they were getting married…they were just making it legal. In fact, no one would have to know about it…except for Marlene and Denzel. They would treat this like a stop in between going to the grocery store and going to the bank. If this were a to do list it would read 'bread, go to courthouse and legally marry, withdraw 300 gil'. Neither of them would have wanted this to be made a big deal of. There was a knock at the door. That seemed to break Cloud out of his serious state.
"That's our amazing breakfast." Cloud said.
"Do we need to pay him now?" Tifa said walking over to the table to get her purse.
"No, no. I'll tell them to put it on our tab." Cloud said opening the door.
"Here at least give him a tip." Tifa said.
"Oh my god, Tifa! That much!" Cloud asked rather surprised by what she had handed him.
"Cloud, the door is open!" she scolded him.
"Put like…half of that back." Cloud said as softly as he could. Tifa shoved the wad of money into Cloud's hand before he could challenge her any further on this matter. Cloud closed the door and they both went over to the table ready to get into this divine breakfast.
"My god, this looks so good." Tifa said sitting down and removing the covers that were over their food. "So, what's next? Are you going to tell me we have to buy a minivan with a DVD player in the back of it and get a bumper sticker that says 'my child is an honor roll student'? because that….is something I won't do. Cloud, we can make this as legal as you want to make it but I will never be a mom in a minivan." Tifa said. Cloud gasped.
"Tifa Lockhart-Strife! It's a piece of paper with a notary stamp on it…my god we aren't 40. Being legally married isn't scary…but my god a minivan is terrifying. I love you, Tifa. I would never do that to you." Cloud said. Tifa laughed at him.
"So are you going to tell me what happened downstairs that lead to all of this or what?"
"Yeah, of course. But right now I'm sidetracked by maple syrup." Cloud said. Tifa laughed at him again.
"You know we really should have registered….we're going to get crappy shit we don't want like a toaster or a set of crystal goblets we'll never fucking use." Tifa said sarcastically and kind of making fun of every other person she and Cloud had ever known that got married and they had to buy some stupid gift for. Shit, there would be none of this registering crap…that was for the couples who didn't already have all their shit figured out in the first place.
"Who's going to throw my bachelor party?" Cloud said just as sarcastically.
"Don't worry Marlene will make you a grilled cheese sandwich and blue raspberry Kool-Aid and Denzel will call a stripper but then they'll find out he is 11 so that will get shot all to hell." Tifa said as dryly as she could. It was near impossible not to laugh.
"That's okay….you can do it instead. Besides, you do one hell of a good job." Cloud winked at her. Tifa rolled her eyes.
"Maybe I will. Now, when we get home we can't say anything about signing any papers to Yuffie or she'll get all…well…Yuffie on us."
"We can tell her. She's sleeping with her boyfriend so she'll be mellow and nonchalant." Cloud said.
"Oh my god, are we back to this again?" she asked.
"See, since she's sleeping with her boyfriend we can tell her because she'll respond calmly and without excessive reaction." Cloud tried to convince Tifa. She sighed.
"You wear me out sometimes." Tifa said shaking her head.
"I wear you out all the time." Cloud said. Tifa knew good and well what he meant.
"Shut up and eat your eggs." That was another way of saying 'I do.'