It was the sound of the incessant horn of a large truck outside that snapped Cloud and Tifa out of their pre-7:30 AM daze. They had been asleep for one hour…well maybe a little longer. Tifa groaned and began to sit up, only to fall back into the sheets. "Hey…hey are you awake?" she mumbled half-asleep as she hit Cloud's shoulder.
"No…" Cloud answered her.
"What time is it?" Tifa asked rolling over into his back.
"I don't know." Cloud mumbled into his pillow. The phone rang in the room.
"What the…answer that." Tifa said.
"Why?" Cloud demanded of her as he picked up the phone but managed to hit it against everything before actually answering it. "Hello?" he answered it still half asleep. "Cid? Yes we heard the horn…Ci…Cid…Cid…it's way too early to be using the word fuck in a sentence. How did you get this room number? Well, I would assume Shera is beside you. Yes, we are a little bit hung over….but not from alcohol. I don't know if this hotel is non-smoking! Cid…Cid I'm hanging up now. No, me and Tifa don't want to have breakfast with you and Shera…as much as we like you. Because we're both all kinds of naked! Ci….Cid…it's…" Cloud stopped and looked at the clock. "It's 7:30 in the morning. How can you be this worked up at 7:30 in the morning?" Cloud asked. "Oh god, Cid I don't know! No…no…I'm hanging up now. We'll talk to you later. Bye." Cloud hung up the phone. Cid was still ranting on but he didn't care. Cloud sighed and moved over closer to Tifa, putting one arm around her.
"What did he want?" Tifa mumbled.
"He wanted to know if we heard that truck outside." Cloud said.
"I am so tired." Tifa said.
"Me too." Cloud agreed with her.
"Do you think we should call Yuffie?" Tifa yawned and rolled around to face Cloud, sneaking her arm around him.
"No. They are crazy if they are up already. Have we seriously been asleep for only one hour?" he asked.
"I don't know for sure. We were still up at four something I know." the phone rang again. Cloud sighed.
"I swear to god I am going to have to kill Cid later." Cloud said letting go of Tifa and reaching for the phone. "What?" he answered it. "My god yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes...please, please take our kids out for breakfast! Why am I so excited about that? Because me and Tifa are horrible parents who stayed up all night doing x-rated things, we've had like one hour of sleep and we have entirely forgotten that we have a responsibility to raise two kids. So, just take them to breakfast, don't tell them what we've been doing and give me and Tifa the lousy parent award. Tifa just asked me if we should call Yuffie. Oh my god, Tifa's cell phone is ringing right now. I bet it's Yuffie. Hold on let her answer it." Cloud said as Tifa climbed over Cloud to get her phone.
"Hey." she answered it as she laid across Cloud in a listless lump. "Yeah, we're up...barely. Are the kids up? Oh, okay. Well, Cid and Shera were going to take them to breakfast. Cloud is on the phone with Cid right now. O...okay." Tifa rolled back over to her side of the bed. "Yuffie wants to know if we all want to go over there for breakfast?" she asked Cloud.
"I'll ask Cid. Cid, Yuffie is on the phone and she wants to know if we all want to come over there for breakfast. Tifa says the kids aren't up yet." Cloud asked him. "Okay, hold on I'll ask Tifa." Cloud moved the phone slightly. "Tifa...breakfast...Yuffie...what do you want to do?"
"I don't care. I'm not about to get up, get dressed and hop over there right now." Tifa said.
"Cid, did you hear that? Okay." Cloud looked at Tifa. "He's asking Shera." this was hands down, the most confusing phone conversation ever. "Shera says yes, breakfast at Yuffie's is fine with her." Cloud finally said.
"Yuffie, Cid and Shera said yes to breakfast. But call us again when the kids wake up. We're not getting up right now." Tifa told Yuffie. "Alright…alright bye." Tifa threw her phone toward the bottom of the bed and put her arms around Cloud again. "I just want to sleep for like…one more hour."
"I want to sleep the rest of the day." Cloud said kissing the top of her head.
"Mmmm." Was Tifa's reply. It sounded like there was rain hitting the window of the hotel room. Neither Cloud nor Tifa had noticed that it was raining during the conversations with Cid. The truth was that it had been raining since they had barely gotten to bed. Tifa moved her hand to the side of Cloud's face.
"Oh my god..." Tifa stared at her wrists in horror.
"What?" Cloud questioned trying to go to sleep once more.
"Looks at my wrists. Oh god….I'm gonna have to hide this somehow but right now I'm too tired to think about it." Tifa said sliding her hand back down Cloud's body.
"Wait, wait…let me….holy….shit…what the hell did I do to you! All I did was tie you up…a lot…" Cloud said examining her wrist.
"Obviously the fabric burned my wrists where it rubbed. We'll deal with this later." Tifa said pulling the covers father up around them.
"Why is it so cold in here?" Cloud asked.
"I don't know…it just is." Tifa said. Neither of them had remembered turning down the thermostat the night before when they came bursting in here having a heat flash. "I missed you…while you were gone. I didn't think it would be a big deal; you being gone and all. But it was even though I kept telling myself it was only for a little while." Tifa admitted. It was kind of random but Cloud never knew how much she had really missed him.
"It was strange. The whole time I was gone I kept saying things to people like my wife this and my son that and that was the first time I realized that other people…well they related to that kind of stuff. People don't relate well to…to the person I used to be." He explained.
"It's easier to be in love with life than it is to fight it." Tifa said.
"As always…you're right." Cloud pulled her closer against him.
"I'm not always right. I'm just right when it matters." Tifa laughed and squeezed his side.
"Oh please. You are…you just wait. One of these times I'm gonna be so right about something and you'll be like oh Cloud you are so smart and sexy and number one." He purposely put his hand in Tifa's hair and messed it up as much as possible.
"I do think you're smart and sexy and number one. I just think I'm right more often than you." Tifa said.
"Yeah. You know, we're supposed to be asleep right now. Yuffie's gonna call and we're gonna be…still awake." Cloud said.
"I know…it's just that…now I'm actually awake and now that I'm awake I can't go back to sleep." Tifa yawned again.
"You know what will happen…we'll get home today and crash. Who knows we may be so exhausted that we sleep for twelve hours. I hope Marlene and Denzel don't…you know…need stuff." Cloud let go of Tifa and rolled over on his back.
"Oh no…no. They're only our children…they would never need anything." She said staring at the ceiling. She laughed again and wondered what time it was by now. She and Cloud laid there in silence as the spring rain hit the hotel room window. It didn't take either of them long to doze off again as the gray Midgar morning remained hidden away behind the curtains.
It seemed as though Cloud and Tifa hadn't been asleep for long when Tifa's phone rang again. The truth was, they had been asleep for nearly an hour but since they were both severely sleep deprived it didn't feel like an hour. It was Yuffie. Tifa answered it. Sure enough, Marlene and Denzel were up. She didn't stay on the phone with Yuffie long. Tifa yawned again and sat up, the cool air of the room hitting her bare (and bruised) back. "Cloud…Cloud." She poked him. He didn't respond. She shook his shoulder. That usually always worked. Cloud yawned and reached an arm up in the air.
"What?" he asked her sleepily.
"Yuffie just called. The kids are up. We should call Cid and get dressed." Tifa said. She felt Cloud's hand on her back.
"You have an awful bruise on your back. What is that from?" he asked touching it lightly.
"Where you slammed me in to the stupid door handle." Tifa said.
"This is why we don't drink too much and have sex isn't it? Someone always gets hurt." Cloud said.
"That's exactly the reason." Tifa said wiggling out of the cocoon of covers. She looked brilliant as she walked in front of the bed wearing nothing but her own skin. Cloud sat up and picked up the phone to call Cid and let him know that Yuffie had called. Cloud could hear the water running in the bathroom. "Hey Cid, Yuffie called. Yeah give us about ten and we'll meet you and Shera downstairs. Okay…okay bye." Cloud hung up the phone and pulled himself up to dig through the bag of stuff that he had packed the day before. It didn't take him long to get dressed. He proceeded to trade Tifa places in the bathroom, handing the bag over to her. She sat the bag on the bathroom counter and dug through it.
"Cloud! This is what you packed me to wear?" Tifa complained as she noticed the only things left in the bag were their toiletries and one of Cloud's long-sleeved shirts and a pair of his boxers.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't being very creative." Cloud said.
"Anything…absolutely anything in my drawer would have been creative enough." Tifa said.
"Hey, you should be glad that shirt is long sleeved judging by the looks of your wrists." Cloud said. He was at least right about that much. Tifa did in fact need the coverage over her wrists. Cloud looked at the clock: 8:48. The good thing was that they could be downstairs and checked out of the hotel in no time since they didn't really have anything to pack up. Once Tifa was dressed, she double checked to make sure everything was picked up off the floor and stuffed back into their bag. "Say what you want but you look adorable." Cloud said hugging Tifa up against him.
"Oh hush." She answered wrapping her arms around Cloud. "Let's go get checked out." Tifa took Cloud by the hand as they headed out their room and toward the elevator.
