Cloud was very, very tense at the moment.

And he shouldn't be.

He was going home, to his best female friend who awaited (with hopefully something that looked like hot dinner), their kids that hopefully would be asleep already and his best male friend, who was dead, but was brought back to life almost giving him a heart attack.

And so, he figured, that after spending a couple of days, making deliveries all around the bloody western continent, he would actually enjoy his ride home and would really look forward to seeing the light of Edge and the aforementioned four people.

He would too, if it weren't for two minor details.

Detail number one. Fenrir tied and chained up, not to fall of the speeding truck it was currently transported on.

Detail number two, which really ought to be detail number one. The driver of the previously mentioned truck.

A very quiet and a very pissed off Barret Wallace.

Cloud shifted in his seat uncomfortably, and the small movement earned him what had to be the glare of the century.

Vincent wasn't as vicious when the first encountered Hojo two years ago. And that HAD to mean something.

There was that little vein pulsing a little but too quickly on the darker man's strong neck, and each time Cloud's eyes glanced towards it, he felt more and more miserable.

How did he get into situations like these anyway?!

North Corel was his last stop, he made it so because he wanted to drop of Barret's package and Tifa's invitation and maybe drink a quick beer with the said man (they had some great ales there, and Tifa rarely allowed him to steal one of her supplies), and then happily go back, not giving a damn about the cold weather as this time he brought an extra vest. And a jacket.

Right, that was the plan.

From the moment he was welcomed with a shit load of curses that would make Cid blush (he still thanked all that was holy, that it wasn't a free demonstration of what the new gun-arm could do) he knew his plan went straight into hell.

He got shoved onto the truck's passenger seat with a promise of meeting his maker (he didn't want to debate whether that would be his mother or Hojo or who?) if he were to even squeak.

Not that Cloud Strife squeaked at any occasions.

And now he was sitting there, praying for his dear life, as Barret ignored all speed limits, the kind of terrain they were travelling on, worsening weather conditions or anything as rational as that.

The big question however still remained unanswered.

And that was WHY?

Cloud sighed heavily, ignoring the low growl that found its way from the gun man. Barret was mumbling something under his nose all the time, but the growl was obviously meant for the blonde. He could see Edge already, it's greenish-yellow halo melting into the night sky already.

"…..with both of my girls too…" another growl made its way out of Barret's throat.

Whatever it was that got Barret's blood near to its boiling point, Cloud sure hope Tifa knew what it was.

Since it obviously was connected with her.

***

The bar was packed tonight. Tifa felt little beads of sweat forming on her forehead and some of her hair sticking to the back of her neck, as she handled one drink after another. She always talked a bit with each of her customers, shared a laugh or offered a sympathetic ear. The air was stuffy and hot, lazy blue ribbons of smoke dancing under the ceiling before the fan would finally wave it away. The children were upstairs, hopefully in their beds and not under them like a couple of days ago. Tifa doubted they were actually asleep, the level of noise really didn't leave much possibilities for anyone to fall asleep, but as long as they weren't running around here she was cool with it.

Zack was sitting at the counter at Cloud's usual place, a dark green bottle in his hand, cheeky grin on his lips every time she smacked his hand as he tried to steal some liquor from behind the counter. He spent his whole days helping her around, enjoying the company of the bartender and the kids and anyone who actually could come.

With a smile, she picked up her full tray, and made her round at all tables, giving out ordered drinks and picking up empty bottles and glasses.

"Lookin' good there Teef" one of the regular patrons patted her on an exposed thigh.

This was one of the bad sides of bartending.

"Do that again Bert, and you won't be getting any drink here" she smacked that hand away "You know the rules… the first one to break through that door, pays for it"

"Teef you're breaking our hearts!" another one called out as she placed a full beer in front of his face.

"Live with it, Jecht" her eyes narrowed when a hand clenched around her wrist, her smile wiped off her lips, replaced by a thin line "Off."

"Come on miss, have one with us! Don't be such a stiff!" there was a tug at the slender wrist.

Zack only managed to slip off his seat, in an honest attempt to go there and kick the guy out. Acting as a bouncer was the only way he could think of repaying Tifa for letting him stay here anyway… He stopped dead in his tracks as he saw her slender hand clutch the man's collar.

The next moment the said man was on the floor, the whole bar dead silent. Zack's eyes widened slightly as he saw Tifa support her body's weight on one foot and take a nice, big, fat swing with her occupied hand. Jecht's body didn't seem to weight anything as she threw him out, the closed door being no real obstacle in its way. The drunken man gave only a broken whimper from outside as Tifa turned around violently, her shoulders tense. A broken plank of wood fell down onto the porch.

"Bar's closed, get out" she snapped not giving anyone even a quick glance "NOW" there was a visible threat in her voice.

Stumbling and swaying on their legs, without any protest, all the patrons left the bar, gil scattered on the tables. All the time in dead silent. They all knew by now when to shut up and get lost, as more than one got bruised one time or other. That girl knew how to get her point through with a bunch of drunks and most of the patrons knew where the limits were. Jecht obviously tried to push his luck today.

Tifa almost slammed the tray onto the counter and rubbed her temples.

"This is the third time this month" she sighed finally "I tell them all again and again and again and they just won't listen! Tell me Zack, what am I doing wrong so that they just DON'T listen!?"

The older man joined her behind the bar and looked at her clothes. He fought of the grin that was forming.

"Ya know Teef… " he rocked slightly on the soles of his feet, hands in his pockets.

"Don't call me that" she growled, her usually soft glowing eyes in the color of earth spices turning into dark crimson.

"I'm no special guy with a well developed fashion sense, but I think that a change of work attire might do the trick" he pointed to the short skirt she was actually wearing.

Maybe short was a big understatement here, as the tight piece of cloth that just hugged her hips was beyond short.

"Shut up, Zack…" she threw a dish rag at him.

"But hey, the way you threw that guy? Masterpiece!" he smacked his lips "I mean seriously Teef…" he stopped mid way as she glared at him.

"Now I know why Aerith actually tried to kill you while you were up there. Move it , Fair, help me clean this up"

"No wait, I mean Aerith is cool and cute and pink, but hell if she could ever do that! I mean, you just threw him out with ONE hand! Tifa, one…!"

He once again stopped at the strange light in her eyes. Before any words formed in his head, there was a loud roar of engine just in front of the bar, a screech of tires and a steadily increasing grumble coming in.

And before Zack or Tifa could even blink, Cloud was literally pushed into the bar, stumbling over his feet. First Tsurugi followed, obviously thrown into after its owner, one blade separated from the rest.

Cloud only looked at Tifa, greenish blue eyes filled with some kind of despair.

"TEEF!"

Barret didn't just walk into the bar. He barged in. Positively fuming, making Tifa's eyebrows shoot up.

"Barret…. I wasn't expecting you so soon! I know I asked Cloud…" she stopped halfway in her tracks suddenly, those brows knitting.

This wasn't good.

Dark brown eyes were literally burning as they rested them on Zack's frame.

"You're Zack, huh ???? So ya think ya can just barge in here and have your way with my girls??" he pointed his healthy arm at the dark haired man, who took a step back.

Tifa paled.

"Listen here, ya hedgehog, you and Spiky over there" a glance towards the blonde "Ya guys and me, gotta have a word!"

"Barret!" she finally snapped "Aren't you forgetting something!?".

"You stay out of this Teef!" he growled "So ya punks better listen! There's my little girl upstairs!! I don't want her getting ANY ideas about what's going on here!"

"Are you…." Once again Tifa tried to be the voice of reason.

"QUIET!!!" Barret roared, slamming his fist onto the counter, the glasses there dancing "Lemme give you a straight picture. FIRST, Marlene's my baby girl, and NO FUNNY business goes on here! NONE!! We clear on that, you two!??"

"CLEAR!" both younger men said in unison, backed up against the wall.

"SECOND!! Tifa's OFF limits!!" he pointed to the bartender who stood there, her jaw slightly opened, eyes wide "IF I see tears or a frown OR ANYTHING of the sort on any of my girls faces, I swear, I will rip both of you apart!!! I know ALL too WELL what goes on in minds of punks like you"

"Papa….?" A sleepy voice came from the staircase.

Marlene, rubbing her eyes with her fist, came down, her pale pink night gown pooling around her ankles, brown hair muffled.

"Now see what ya all did? Wakin' up my lil girl!!"Barret fumed for one last time before he dropped onto his knees to pull his daughter into a tight hug "Papa's here baby, come 'er "

Small arms wrapped around his broad neck as he lifted the petite body up and the small girl let out a tired giggle, half way back to sleep. Another angered glare towards the trio in the room that clearly stated "we're not finished", and he went up to put her back into bed.

"Cloud" Tifa cleared her voice, her vocal chords obviously strained "Care to enlighten me?"

"Hear, hear!" Zack finally found his voice, slipping into a vacant seat.

"You know as much as I do" he sighed, grabbing a open bottle of beer "This ok? Well, one moment I'm driving my ass off the western continent, the next I'm here with a pissed off Barret!"

"But WHY Cloud, WHY?!" she almost pulled her hair out, her fists full of the long tresses "Didn't he like…SAY anything at all?? "

"You wish" he mumbled under his breath taking a larger drink from the bottle "And you think I haven't…."

"Teef" the low growl was awfully close now, the thumping getting louder.

"Gods…."

"You two.." Barret sure could give of scary glares "Out. NOW"

The beer bottle just danced on the counter as Cloud and Zack were out in a flash. Cloud knew perfectly well when was the time not to mess with his friend who happened to have a gun in his arm, and Zack, while not fully understanding what was going on exactly, just followed his steps out of common sense and a well developed sense of self preservation.

Tifa could swear the gust of wind those two created actually managed to make her hair sway a little.

"Teef"

"Barret" she took a seat at a table and motioned him to do the same.

Outside, Zack banged his head lightly against the wooden wall, his hands buried deep in his pockets.

"So what's the big deal?"

"Hm?" the blond looked up at him, deep in thought, as he chew on his lip slightly "Oh, you mean Barret?

"Yeah, I mean Barret"

"He's a good man" Cloud sighed , pinching the bridge of his nose and taking a deeper breath "He may have a loud mouth and a louse attitude, but he's a good man .. deep, down there somewhere"

"So… Tifa's off limits?" he grinned at his smaller friend, throwing a careful look inside and noticing the two sitting at one of the table.

"Fatherly thing I guess… " there was a shrug of shoulder "He's pretty oversensitive… back in Midgar, when someone made even an attempt of a move on Tifa, he'd get all armed and ready to shoot ass… THAT was scary."

"Man, where does she find all those weird guys around her??" Zack snorted, missing the amused look Cloud gave him and not noticing that they too were in fact included in the "weird guys" group.

"Train stations, bars, streets, roads…."

"That was a rhetorical question! Damn, I'm COLD"

Cloud was silent for a longer while, hearing the voices come in from the bar.

"So Zack… how was it?"

"What was what?"

"You know… up there…" he noticed the strange look his older friend gave him "What?"

"You're not serious right?" Zack raised his brows with surprise

"What?"

"Cloud, you do realize that for the last two years I was stuck in a flower field? Put Aerith on top that and her slight obsession about NOT stepping on flowers…?"

"Sounds like fun"

"Yeah yeah, just 'cause you're her favorite spike-haired guy… I guess she wouldn't clubber you into oblivion"

"You just placed 'Aerith' and 'clubber' in the same sentence"

"Trust me Cloud, I know her longer than you"

Tifa threw a tired look towards the door, hearing the two young men talk about something or other, then she turned her attention to the more pressing matters at hand. Namely Barret. She already heard about breaking down doors with drunken men and that the way she dressed attracted a lot of unwanted comapny, now it obviously was the time to talk about the black haired youth.

"I don't like it, Teef. You know I tolerate Spikes hanging round here just cause of your soft spot for the bastard " he rubbed his chin lightly "And now that?"

"WHAT exactly?" she took a deep breath, .

"That Uncle Zack "he snorted and Tifa's brows once again raised "He may have gotten a nice spot in Marlene's heart, but I don't like the friggin' idea of another man living here around ya!"

Well one mystery solved. Obviously Marlene had to talk about Zack living with them. Tifa somehow had to miss the part when he transformed into being Uncle, but there were more pressing matters at hand.

"So young lady" Barret growled slightly "What do you have to say for yourself?"

She hid her face in her hands for a moment. She knew it would come to this, explaining the strange yet real situation to their friends. It will be easier with Aerith, hopefully, who they all knew and missed more or less. They only heard about Zack not knowing him in person, except her and Cloud and the Cetra of course, and only heard about him once. But that was one of the reasons she wanted to invite him, to plan this whole thing out…

Not like THIS!

Not with doors broken, with wind howling in, with Zack and Cloud's teeth ringing so loud outside she could actually hear them…

"Listen Barret…. It's not…. What it looks like…."

"And what it does it look like to you, Teef??"

"I…"

"Well lemme tell ya, it looks like you're the top of the market girl living with two hedgehog heads and two little children! And I dunno bout ya, but to me it doesn't sound like some fucking good press!"

"Barret, I can't KICK him out can I?" she raised her voice slightly, pointing to where the door used to be.

"Why the fuck not?!"

"I just can't! Barret , please, it is rather complicated right now…" she had her fists full of her hair again, her eyes shining with slight despair.

The large man kept his frown as he watched her for a longer moment. His unmoving gaze seemed to frustrate her somehow.

"I appreciate the concern, and I know you're worried about Marlene and myself, but I think I can handle the situation fairly well! Listen Barret, I've been on my own since sixteen, you know that I can take care of myself, you've seen me take care of myself!" she clenched her hands into fists "I know what I am doing and what am I taking upon myself!"

"Do you, Tifa?" he asked, his voice suddenly all cool and flat.

She stared at him as he got up, all anger suddenly gone. Somehow she tried to recall when was the last time Barret called her with her name, and not just 'Teef'. And failed miserably at it..

"Where did'ya get him from anyways?"

"Lifestream" she said without thinking too much, watching his eyes widen for a moment.

The silence that fell was a really loud one, and Tifa could swear she heard bells ringing in her ears because of it. Not that there were any bells around the continent that could ring which had to meant it was really, really silent.

"I'm gonna turn in now. We're still gonna talk 'bout this shit tomorrow" Barret grumbled under his nose "Takin' one of them spiky-butts' beds. And I don't give a fuckin' damn if they have to sleep on the bloody floor. 'Night Teef!"

"Nights Barret…" she said, hiding her face in her hands.

The large man nodded once and made his way upstairs, his boots thumping on the wood. And Tifa exhaled loudly, her finger reaching up to her hair. Can her life get ANY more hectic?

"Can we come in already?"

She looked up and couldn't help but chuckle. Both spiky haired heads were the only things she could actually see on both side of the door frame.

"Seriously Teef, it's freezing out here!" Zack added with a sheepish grin.

"Sure, sure… Gods, let this day end" she sighed as they both quickly got inside, almost crushing into each other at the door "So ok, you two get the tools and set the door up again… "

"So, who was it this time…?" Cloud sighed, scratching the back of his head as Tifa rolled her eyes and snorted.

"Jecht, who else… "

"You act as a lousy bodyguard, you know?" the blond pointed at his companion "Couldn't you prevent it from happening…?"

"For your information, she handled it like a pro! Grab the collar, threw him, scare the whole bar off?" Zack stopped at two looks that quite clearly stated for him to shut up now "Right, so I'll get the wood now and we'll be all set"

"Yeah you do that…" Tifa nodded in disbelief as she cleaned up the tables "Listen Cloud… we're having a bigger dinner tomorrow… I'd like you to be here… family and close friends…"

"Alright…" he got some tools from one of the cupboards, and prepared nails in different sizes.

Tifa bit her lip lightly and took a deeper breath.

"Aerith's going to be here"

Blond head shot up, blue eyes wide opened yet blank.

"So…" he finally choked, his voice rather weak, but a smile played in the corners of his mouth "So she is here…. And was there…. And here?"

"Yes she is .. and was too… and I invited her over when she brought the kids in and you see " she crouched next to him, watching him intently , her hands resting on her knees "Do you think I should tell Barret about this whole 'back from the dead' thing?" there was a playful light in her eyes and soon enough it was reflected in his azure ones.

"After tonight? Not a word!" Cloud chuckled lightly "He sure earned one today!"

"So who's sleeping with mister big up there?" Zack asked from the door where he was picking up the best wood to make repairs with.

"Cloud, and I will … alright I don't know, try and find you something " Tifa said with slight defeat, placing a rag over her shoulder "I don't need any bloodshed or anything suspicious or surprising happening tonight on top of everything… more than already that is. And since when did Marlene start calling you uncle anyway??"

Zack only flashed her one charming smile.

No matter what age, girls loved him. Apparently, Marlene was no exception.

"I hate you, Zack" she shook her head.

She didn't mean that. If she did, Tifa would make him sleep in the same room with Barret. And she didn't!

That grin just got bigger, as Cloud lowered his head only to hide his own smile forming from Tifa.

Author's Note:

Just wanted to say Happy New Year to everyone!!!