Disclaimer: I do NOT own any part of Final Fantasy VII in any way, shape, or form. I own NOTHING!

Harmonies for the Haunted:

Part XI

Men do change,

And change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn,

And it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass.

- John Steinbeck

"Let's go, Marlene."

Stretching slightly, Cloud rose from the pew and began making his way out of the church.

"Five more minutes!" she called back without casting her gaze away from the budding flowers.

It had been five more minutes fifteen minutes ago but Cloud continued to comply with Marlene's wants (something he'd been making a habit of lately). After all, he didn't know when he would be able to haul her back out here again.

Ever since their visit to Elmyra's, Cloud had tried to keep his word and did his best to bring Marlene out to Aerith's church in Midgar at least once a week. Sometimes he managed to do more and sometimes he fell short but he had been consistent in trying. Apparently, that was his motivation in life: to try. So far he felt he'd been doing a pretty good job.

Hoping that actually leaving the church would show Marlene how serious he was about leaving this time, he descended the steps and began kicking around some of the scrap in the churchyard surrounding Fenrir.

Over the years, he'd tried to make the churchyard more presentable but he would never get that far or make any great progress. It seemed to reproduce or perhaps he was just so out of it he hadn't realized how little work he'd actually done.

The churchyard had never been pretty. It was in the slums, after all but after Meteorfall, it hadn't stood a chance. Midgar, aside from a few areas, was mainly nothing but metal scrap, waste, and various forms of wreckage. Still, Cloud couldn't keep himself from trying to sort out some of the rubble and scrap metal littered throughout the area.

Cloud took another brief walk around the church, giving Marlene more time to tend to the flowers and simultaneously giving himself something to do.

He finished his lap and reached the front of the church again but there was no sign of Marlene. Getting her out was apparently going to call for more drastic measures.

Just as he decided to crank Fenrir and hopefully scare Marlene away from the flowerbed, his phone began ringing.

He held the phone to his ear but had no formal greeting. Common cellphone protocol for Cloud was to pick up and wait for someone to start talking to him. Anyone who called him often knew this and probably listened for his breathing instead of a hello.

"Hey, where are you two?"

Tifa.

"Still at the church. We are about to leave though."

"Okay. I'll go ahead and start dinner then. Have any requests?"

"Something edible."

He could hear her faint snickering. "I'll see what I can do. I'll see you soon. Be careful. Okay?"

"Okay." He hung up and slipped the phone back into his pocket. "Marlene!"

"Coming!" Marlene busted out of the front of the church and began bounding her way towards him and Fenrir.

Silently, he handed her the helmet he'd gotten for her and was about to help her secure it to her head when some nearby scrap toppled over, followed by the sound of some animal or monster howling.

Cloud's instincts took over and he was immediately pulling Marlene behind him and putting himself between her and whatever was coming out of the heap of debris.

Slowly but surely, something speckled, striped, and filthy came crawling out from under a half a rusty car door toward them.

Marlene let out a soft gasp behind him before rushing towards it. "It's a cat!"

Cat? No. This was something that might have once been a cat at best! It was ridiculously skinny with matted fur that consisted of about five different colors, a crooked tail, and an ear and a half. The other appeared to have been gnawed or partially ripped off by something.

Before she could get too close to it, Cloud pulled Marlene back and went forward to inspect the thing himself. He needed to determine if it was dangerous, feral, or if he needed to figure out some humane way to put it out of its misery… It was possible it was some mutant made from all the toxins leaking out of the old Shinra building. Hell, this thing could be some experiment from one of the old labs! It could even be something deformed by all the Lifestream exposure here. The list went on and on of all the things that could be wrong with…it.

The thing Marlene called a cat bristled, bowed its back, and hissed at him. However, it continued to hold its ground as he closed in on it. It didn't run away.

It was bold. He'd give it that much.

Cloud reached down, took hold of the loose skin at the back of its neck and lifted it for further inspection.

"Don't hurt him!" Marlene whimpered as she eased closer to him as if to protect it but it sounded more like a scolding for him than genuine concern for the…cat.

"I'm not hurting it," he replied as he lifted it higher, closer to eye level.

To his surprise, it only had four legs and only one thin tail. It had two eyes, two ears (one more chipped than the other), a mouth, and what appeared to be normal cat teeth.

It did appear to be a normal cat, a very ugly cat but a cat nonetheless.

Marlene was next to him now, holding her arms out for the mangy thing. It had stopped hissing at the sight of her and hadn't tried to claw her to shreds yet (it saved that for him and his wrist), so he assumed it wasn't too feral.

Cautiously, he lowered the cat into her arms and the instant it's unkempt hair made contact with Marlene's skin, it began purring and Marlene began cooing to it as if it were a baby.

It appeared to be a hodgepodge of every kind of cat breed imaginable. It was mostly black but the black was soiled by little blonde and brown speckles splattered throughout. It's belly and feet were white…in places but one of its hind legs was orange with yellow stripes but only up to its hip. Identical stripes were on a piece of its face, but only a piece located over half its nose and right eye. Its nose was pink, its chin white with a black spot on it, and eyes a deep, golden yellow. Cloud knew little about cat breeding but he knew this wasn't what cats were supposed to look like. It literally looked like someone had pieced like ten different cats together and made a whole new cat that didn't look like any of them.

Leaning against Fenrir, he allowed Marlene to play with and pet the thing for a few minutes. She put it on the ground, stroked its bony tail as it rubbed up against her ankles.

"You're gonna get fleas…" Cloud mused, almost laughing even though he was dead serious.

Marlene giggled. "Can we take him home?"

Cloud shook his head.

"Why not? Denzel has his fish," she argued, clumsily pulling the thing back into her arms. He was relieved when it just hung there, limp instead of clawing at her or coarsely leaping out of her arms.

Somehow he knew she would throw the fish factor at him. A few weeks back, he'd made a delivery to Junon with Denzel and one of his regulars had given him several pet fish. They were meant for both Denzel and Marlene but because Denzel was more prone to take care of them, they seemed more like his fish. And to be honest, Cloud thought this was due to the fact that Marlene simply wasn't that interested in them, probably because she couldn't hold or pet them.

"I told you those fish were for both of you," he countered.

"Yeah but they are more Denzel's than mine. He"—she squeezed it, resting her cheek on its head—"can be mine."

"Marlene…" he sighed and raked a hand through his hair. This was another one of those parenting milestones, the dreaded can-we-keep-it scenario.

"Can we at least take him home and get him something to eat? He'll die if we leave him here…"

That was probably true. Frankly, Cloud didn't even know how the thing had survived out here as long as it had. It probably lived off rats or anything else that might be living underneath all the rubble.

He really had to hand it to Marlene, she knew how to bargain and compromise. Something she'd probably learned from watching Barret haggle with people over the years. It also didn't help that Cloud was prone to let the kids get their way lately. He wasn't sure when that started happening but he did know that it was a result of his guilt over leaving them. He told himself it was a phase and that he would get over it after enough time passed, after he felt he'd made up for his prior neglect, after he proved himself to them and stopped being haunted by the time Marlene asked him why he never paid any attention to them...

Sighing, Cloud began emptying one of the compartments on the back of Fenrir, removing anything a cat might rip to shreds such as blankets, spare parts, food and the like.

"You aren't gonna put him in there, are you?" Marlene squeaked, clearly appalled.

"We can't hold it." He took a few steps toward the cat and it started hissing again. He wondered if it smelled the Mako on his skin, sensed the Jenova cells in his veins. Could it sense that he wasn't like other humans?

Reluctantly, Marlene handed the thing back to him and he gently stuffed it into the compartment. It instantly began howling to get out.

"He'll be okay in there, right?" Marlene placed a hand on the compartment lid as if it would help comfort it.

Cloud mounted Fenrir and jarred the bike to life. "It'll be fine. I have the feeling it's been through much worse."

As soon as Cloud parked Fenrir in front of Seventh Heaven, Marlene practically propelled herself off the bike to go to the thing's rescue.

Cloud had barely gotten the kickstand down when he heard the loud, guttural noise that was this thing's imitation of purring. He knew Tifa would probably hear them coming with the way that things was purring now that Marlene was holding it again.

Marlene blazed into the building, hodgepodge in tow, as if she'd won the lottery or found this great treasure.

Tifa smiled at them as they entered the bar but her smile was replaced by confusion at the sight of the thing in Marlene's arms. The way Marlene had swaddled it up in one of the blankets he kept in Fenrir, Tifa probably thought it was a baby. Marlene was certainly holding it like one. The only giveaway was its mismatched face peaking out of the swaddle but he didn't know if Tifa could see it.

"What's that?" Tifa asked him softly, calmly.

"A cat," Cloud replied matter-of-factly as if she had never seen a cat before.

Tifa blinked. "Why is it here?"

"We found it at the church and Marlene didn't want to leave it in Midgar to die, so we decided to bring it back here and give it something to eat."

"Do we have any milk?" Marlene inquired eagerly, the thing cradled securely in her arms as she bobbed toward Tifa.

"We can't keep it. This is a bar. It would be a major health violation," Tifa replied with a shake of her head.

"At least I didn't bring another kid home this time." He shrugged.

"Yeah." She laughed a little and folded her arms over her chest as she inspected it. "At least there's that. We definitely couldn't afford another kid. I don't even know if we can afford a cat."

"Is that a cat?" Denzel asked as he casually entered the kitchen.

"Yep! Cloud and I found him by the church," Marlene declared, still showing the thing off as if it were the most beautiful thing in the world. Cloud would understand if it was actually cute but it wasn't. It was honestly one of the funkiest if not the funkiest cat he'd ever seen.

"Are we keeping it?" Denzel asked, his eyes darting between Cloud and Tifa.

"For now i suppose…" Tifa sighed as she poured some milk into a small bowl and placed it onto the floor.

The thing made a weird noise and Marlene put him down so he could help himself, which he did. Aggressively.

The purring resumed and intensified when the kids sat on the floor next to it and began taking turns stroking it.

"Don't go getting attached to it," Cloud cautioned.

It growled a little, as if the sound of his voice had reminded it of his presence and he was almost tempted to growl back.

"It hates me. By the way," he said to Tifa and she covered her mouth to keep from simpering.

Tifa put the milk jug back into the fridge before moving to pull the bread she'd baked for dinner out of the oven. She placed it onto the counter a bit to quickly to keep from burning herself and accidentally knocked a nearby whiskey bottle off the counter and into the floor. The bottle shattered, startling the kids and the thing as the dark liquid began spreading across the floor.

"…Crap…" Tifa groused but Cloud could tell by the way she said it that she really wanted to curse.

Cloud moved to grab the broken bottle as Tifa bolted for the closet holding the mop and broom.

He picked up the larger bits of glass and tossed them into the waste basket and when he moved back to see if there were any other pieces he could pick up, he saw that the thing had abandoned the milk and was now lapping the whiskey up off the floor.

Marlene and Denzel were giggling as he and Tifa stood there in awe. Cloud snickered despite himself and Tifa laughed in disbelief as she leaned against the broom handle.

"All right, Whiskey." Tifa chided as she lifted it off the floor and headed toward the bathroom. "No more liquor for you. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to cut you off."

"It fascinates me how much laundry we go through in a day," Tifa mused as she folded one of Denzel's shirts in her lap. "If I had known there was this much to go through, I would have made the kids help me."

After successfully getting the kids to bed with…Whiskey, Cloud had helped Tifa haul their laundry to her room and she had immediately begun folding and going through all of it. She now sat on the floor surrounded by various piles of clothing.

"Could be worse. You could be back in the wilderness washing Cid and Barret's sweaty clothes in streams and ponds," Cloud countered passively as he sat on her bed.

Tifa visibly cringed. "This is true."

Cloud remembered how Tifa had sacrificed her own comfort for the sake of their hygiene. Thankfully, inns and running water were relatively handy throughout their travels but there were days when they got pretty rank. Yuffie would complain about the smell and Tifa would then politely beg that they find a body of water to wash off in. They would eventually be forced to comply and give Tifa their clothes so she could attempt to work some feminine magic on them.

He would never forget how happy Tifa'd looked when Vincent had finally given her an article of his clothing. He never let the others see him without his trademark red cape, but after a particularly nasty encounter with a Malboro, he pulled Tifa aside and allowed her to aid him in cleaning it.

That was just the magic Tifa had to her. She didn't even have to try and she probably wasn't even really aware of her powerful charisma but if she could conquer Vincent Valentine, she could conquer anyone.

"Want some help?" he offered.

She glanced up at him briefly before shaking her head. "No. You've had a long day and I can tell that you're tired. You can help by keeping me company."

He could do that. It was probably for the best anyway. There was the distinct possibility that he would just mess up the folding process and she'd end up having to do it all again anyway.

There was suddenly howling in the doorway and then the thing was in the room with them, sauntering through and over the piles of clothes surrounding Tifa. It sniffed around, turning its nose up at his articles of clothing. Eventually it settled on one of Tifa's shirts and began trying to make a bed out of it.

"No, Whiskey." Tifa sighed, picked it up, and shooed it back towards the doorway.

It didn't leave though. It kept trying to make the piles of clothes into a bed but when Tifa continued to foil his plans, he surrendered and settled for curling up next to her hip instead.

Tifa looked down at it sternly, clearly thinking of putting it outside or in the hall and shutting the door to keep it out but ended up ignoring it since it technically wasn't causing any trouble even though it was supposed to be in bed with Marlene.

Murmuring something he couldn't understand under her breath, she resumed her task. Tifa diligently continued to fold their clothes into neat stacks and it reminded him so much of how he use to keep watch for her while she worked on their party's garments in some pond, creek, or lake. She was always careful about where she washed and dried their clothes. She would pick relatively safe areas with trees or rocks providing her with cover from anything that might want to attack her but there were times when she would be uncovered and vulnerable. Regardless, Cloud being Cloud, would always demand someone go with her and keep watch in case things got hairy.

Cloud and the others had tried to help her out with some of the heftier loads from the really messy or sweaty days and she would try to show them how to clean them either with or without soap (depending on their supply). However, Tifa would usually grow weary of explaining or of their mistakes, so she usually tended to the washing herself, which, now that he thought about it, wasn't too unlike their situation now.

He intently watched her make steady work of their clothes and found himself drifting away into his head. He watched her hands, her fingers, and even the clean pallet of her fingernails. Her hands moved gracefully as she folded clothes again and again with care.

When she picked up one of her white tank tops, he went even further into his mind, beyond the present and into the past, into his memory bank…

FLASH

There was no such thing as privacy anymore. Modesty had gone out of the window a while back. Cloud couldn't remember when exactly. He just knew it was long gone now.

The only time any consideration was taken into account was around Yuffie because she was younger. Tifa, however, had been exposed to it all because she was more mature and since she was the one who would always offer to rinse out their clothes.

Vincent would always refuse but Barret and Cid would strip off in front of her without a second thought.

Cloud liked to be more considerate. He at least tried to be. Besides, he wasn't that thrilled about the thought of completely exposing himself to Tifa in this context even though there was the possibility he had a few times by accident.

Unlike Barret and Cid, Tifa still tried to hold onto some of her modesty and her privacy. As a result, if they were in the woodlands or other wildernesses where they were without running water for various periods of time, Tifa would go off on her own to take a bath of sorts in any body of water she could find.

They'd made camp near a creek not too long ago. Navigating the Ancient Forrest had proven to be more challenging than they had initially anticipated so they had been forced to make camp after they'd lost daylight and almost lost Cait Sith to a carnivores plant they hadn't been able to see.

The tents were up. Barret was already asleep and snoring in one of them. Cid was propped up against a nearby tree trunk, smoking a cigarette and flicking his lighter on and off. Vincent was cleaning his gun and counting bullets while Cait Sith rambled on and on about something Cloud could see Vincent wasn't the least bit interested in. Vincent probably wasn't even listening. He was probably miles away in his own mind. Meanwhile, Yuffie was pulling some of the various parasites and debris out of Red XIII's fur, something he seemed to be enjoying thoroughly.

Cloud, however, couldn't relax with Tifa gone. All he could do was poke at the fire, collect firewood they didn't need, or pace until he'd worked grooves into the forest floor. He'd wanted to go with her but she'd been adamant about wanting to be alone and having some privacy. That didn't keep him from worrying though.

"I'm gonna go check on Tifa," he finally said when he couldn't stand it anymore.

"She won't like that," Yuffie warned in a singsong voice.

Cloud didn't reply. He just began heading back into the woods.

"Don't come cryin' to us when she clocks ya again!" Cid called after him but Cloud didn't stop. He wasn't afraid of Tifa clocking him again even though that had hurt like hell. He was afraid of something happening to her while she was out in this dense woodland alone and probably vulnerable if she were still in the water.

"Tifa?" Cloud called into the thick, night air once he could hear the steady trickle of water coming from the creek they'd past a few hours ago.

"Cloud?! Is something wrong?"

She was nearby but still pretty far away. He couldn't see her but he could hear her voice and the water sloshing around her.

"No," he admitted, his tone a bit sheepish. "I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

"I'm fine. I'm almost done. Just…don't come any closer…"

That was code for nudity but he wanted to know where she was exactly in case the unthinkable happened. He trudged through the unbearably thick foliage, jumped over the hearty tree roots, and climbed over the fallen tree trunks, all of which were essentially the same blinding shade of green. Nightfall had dulled the green and the moonlight made it less pronounced by adding streaks of silver and white to the landscape but it was still enough green to smother anyone.

Occasionally there was a red plant with barbed teeth, a purple vine, or some blue orbs handing from trees like lanterns, but everything else essentially had the same tinge of green. Even the water of the creek now that he saw it had a greenish hue to it despite the moonlight on it.

Due to all the green, Tifa's form stuck out like a beacon. He could see the outline of her, waist deep in the creek with her hair hanging loosely around her, floating in the water behind her like a trail of oil.

He looked away the instant he spotted her, respecting her privacy despite his curiosity, despite the fact that his first – and very impulsive – instinct was to get closer.

To remove some of the temptation, Cloud turned his back on her and rested it against the trunk of the nearest tree. He focused on the opposite end of the creek instead, staring out as the water belched steam into the gray, violet sky overhead.

As he waited, fatigue began wrapping its tendrils around his limbs. It was occurring to him just how tired he was from fighting these woods and its inhabitants all day. He should have listened to Red XIII when he told him to rest while Tifa bathed instead of pacing the camp like a paranoid idiot.

"Where are my clothes?!"

"What?!"

The fatigue vanished like a puff of Cid's smoke and just like that, he was back in action, leaping over roots and fallen trees like he'd just entered the woods.

He could hear her, so he tried to follow the sound of her voice but again, he couldn't see her.

"My clothes were gone. Do you have them?"

Cloud stopped dead in his tracks. "No. I was waiting farther away like you asked."

"Then who took them? If Yuffie is messing with me, tell her it isn't funny."

"Yuffie is at camp."

Tifa then began screaming into the woods for Reno to give her clothes back before she made mincemeat out of his face.

"I don't think Reno's out there. We haven't seen the Turks in a while…"

"Then something took them…" He could hear her gentle footfalls in the lush foliage. They were closer and she was probably barefoot.

"Where are you?!"

"To your right..."

He took a few more steps forward, trying to follow her voice. He could tell she was close and after several more steps, he saw a sliver of her face and a bare shoulder peaking out behind the trunk of a huge, moss-covered tree. He also briefly saw the whites of her eyes, the outer curve of her side, and her hand gripping anxiously at the lush moss blanketing the rough bark.

"Uh, how much did they take…?" He was looking away, nervously scratching at the back of his neck.

"…"

"Tifa?" he said a bit louder but his eyes didn't leave the spotted tree frog he'd spotted on a nearby log.

"Everything but my underwear… I was trying to get clean!" she whined, trying to defend her carelessness.

"Okay… Just…" Unsure of how else to handle this, Cloud slipped his shirt off his head and extended it in the direction of the tree. "Here. Wear this for now."

She hesitated for a moment until she likely reached the same conclusion he had come to. She knew there wasn't much choice. This was surely better than nothing, and after another second or two, he began hearing the rustling of fabric.

"Is it long enough to…? You know… Cover everything?"

A very meek, slumped, and slightly damp Tifa came out from behind the tree in nothing but his shirt. She was fiddling with her hair, rubbing at her shoulders, and avoiding eye contact.

"It'll do."

Cloud's throat went dry. Yeah. The shirt was long enough to cover everything but just barely. There was a lot of leg, too much if he really thought about it but he couldn't think. All train of thought outside of how she looked in that shirt was long gone. Long, long gone…

"Uh…" It was impolite to stare but it was hard not to. She looked…tantalizing yet somehow he managed to recover. "Whatever took your clothes couldn't have gotten far. I'll, uh, go get some of the others and we'll search the area."

He turned abruptly to rip his eyes away from all the temptation but before he could get to far, she'd lunged forward and yanked him back by the curve of his elbow.

"No! Cloud, please, don't tell the others. This is embarrassing enough as it is…" Her eyes were big and pleading as he looked down at her and her hands were warm despite the dampness that still clung to them.

She was too close and the moonlight leaking through the canopy overhead was clearly trying its hardest to make her look even better. He could see some of the water still glittering along her skin and the paleness of that skin in contrast to all that dark hair curtaining around her and his shirt was nothing if not stunning. It was honestly one of the most endearing, appealing things he had ever seen. Urges were popping up like hives and he could feel them itching underneath his skin, demanding he acknowledge them.

"Okay," he said and he hoped his voice wasn't as rough or husky as it felt. "We better start looking though."

There were few minor encounters with Diablos, Rilfsaks, and the like, but during those encounters, Cloud was sure he had never been more distracted. Her legs kept filling his vision and she kept pulling his shirt down to cover herself but sometimes, she couldn't pull it down quick enough. To make things worse, she was continually tempted to kick but would have to backtrack when she remembered her lack of dress.

After a while, they discovered that a small flock of Epiolnis had found her clothes and scattered them through the woods with their beaks, paw-like appendages, and talons. It was then like finishing a puzzle, trying to figure out what was missing. Bit by bit, Tifa threw on the clothes as they found them. Cloud would be lying if he said he wasn't a bit disappointed when she shimmied her leather skirt up her legs. However, watching it go up her legs was…satisfying.

Last but not least, they found her white tank top. Relief, visibly washed over her as the shirt found its way into her hands.

"Hang on a second. I'll give you your shirt back."

Tifa disappeared behind the nearest tree and Cloud waited patiently against a tree of his own.

Eventually she reemerged as Tifa again. He was glad to see the old Tifa but a part of him would miss that vulnerable version of her, the one who had continually yet accidentally given him glimpses of precious skin.

Cloud couldn't keep himself from grinning at her as she held his shirt out to him.

"Thanks for letting me borrow this." Even in the darkness he could see her blush.

When he put his shirt back on, the prominent scent that was strictly Tifa Lockhart overwhelmed him.

FLASH

The shirt she held now was identical to the shirt he'd found lying on the ground that night even though he knew it wasn't the same shirt. Still, something about seeing her lift another almost identical shirt off the floor caused those memories to echo off his brain.

"Remember when you lost your clothes in the Ancient Forrest?" he asked, smirking.

Tifa subtly bit her bottom lip to hide her smile. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You'd gone off on your own to wash off in the creek and—"

"I thought we had agreed to never speak of that again," she said softly, trying to sound stern but it was clear to him that she was trying to fight chuckles.

"No. I just agreed not to tell the others." Cloud had no idea where this playfulness was coming from but he just went with it.

Tifa grinned but kept her eyes on the pile of clothes next to her. "What made you think of that?"

"Your shirt."

"Huh." She held it up and eyed it skeptically. "I guess it does look like my old shirt."

"Maybe nothing will steal this one," he teased.

She shot him a glare but it was half-hearted at best.

Once all the folding was done, Cloud helped Tifa put away half of the load. He took his clothes to his room but didn't dare try to sneak into the kid's room. He let Tifa handle that. She was much quieter and was use to pulling stunts like that. It amazed him out she somehow knew she wouldn't wake them.

Even though he was a supposedly superior sample of the human species with better eyesight and reflexes than most, he still didn't trust himself with going into that room and putting away the kid's clothes. He just knew he would knock something over or step on a creaky floorboard or sneeze or something.

After putting his clothes away, for some reason, he followed Tifa back to her room.

"Need help with anything else?" he asked.

"Hmmm." She mulled it over for a moment as she put the last pair of shorts into her chest of drawers. "I don't think so. I'm probably about to wash up and go to bed."

Cloud nodded but didn't leave. He lingered there but she left to go to the bathroom, likely assuming he would leave. He didn't though. He stayed and when she came back, he was lying across her bed.

Surprise flashed across her face for a moment but she said nothing about it, keeping her thoughts and any potential objections to herself. Instead she just said, "Not sleepy?"

"Not really."

He didn't know why. He should by all accounts be sleepy. He'd done his deliveries for the day, come back to Edge, picked up Marlene, and then, took her to Aerith's church. After that they'd found the cat thing…

"We probably need to talk about the cat," she said as she crawled onto the bed next to him.

"Mm." He nodded. "I'll start asking around to see if anyone wants a cat."

She laughed and looked down at it sleeping on the floor. "You think anyone would want it?"

Cloud grimaced. "Maybe some kid will find it charming the way Marlene does."

"And if they don't?"

"We'll figure something out. In the meantime, we can keep it outside. If we're lucky, it'll run off or take up with one of the neighborhood kids."

Tifa nodded and rested her head on his chest. "I'll try to fatten it up so it will stand a better chance of finding a home."

"That thing needs a lot more than some extra weight… Weight won't help its looks much but I guess healthy and ugly is better than skinny and ugly." His head subconsciously angled towards hers until his cheek was resting lightly against her hair.

She laughed softly, jokingly chastising him about being mean to the cat before yawning. Her hand made its way to his chest and grabbed a fistful of his shirt. Tifa treated his shirts like pacifiers, taking hold of them like a baby latches its mouth onto rubber nipples and teething rings.

His hand found the top of her own, gently drawing invisible circles and lines up and down the length of her bare arm with his fingertips as he stared blankly at the ceiling, his mind wandering.

Cloud didn't know when they'd found this comfort with one another again. It had crept up on him. He didn't mind though. He'd missed this kind of thing…with her. It kept the inevitable bad days at bay and when they did come – and they always did – they weren't as bad. They were bearable. Maybe he was finally proving himself to her. Maybe he was finally, finally what people might consider better.

Just as he was about to drift off into a contented sleep, the cat leapt onto the bed.

"No, Whiskey," Tifa groused but was too tired to do anything to him. She probably didn't even open her eyes. "Get down."

Cloud pushed at it with his foot, trying to shoo it away but it only hissed at him and crawled onto Tifa.

Yawning, Tifa released his shirt, rolled onto her back, and began scratching the thing behind its good ear.

Cloud was suddenly kind of jealous of that thing.

"Why don't you like Cloud, huh?" she asked it in a singsong tone. "He's not that bad once you get use to him."

Tifa moved the cat closer to the foot of the bed near her feet so she could return to his chest. Before Cloud even knew what he was doing, he was moving his arms away so she could get into them. Like always, once she was comfortable, she grabbed a fistful of his shirt and nestled into his side as the cat did something similar near one of Tifa's legs.

Cloud could tell Tifa was trying not to like that ugly cat so that she wouldn't have any trouble parting with it but he wanted to warn her that sometimes that strategy didn't work. He knew from experience. Sometimes, things could still burrow their way into your heart and stay there. After all, that was what she and the kids had done to him but he didn't really mind anymore. Having something precious, while still scary, was no longer as terrifying as it once was. Again, he wasn't sure when that had happened either. These changes kept creeping up on him.

Sleep was creeping up on him too and after sleeping next to Tifa for a while, he eased out from under her and pried her stubborn fingers off his shirt.

He held her hand for a moment longer, running his thumb across her lethal knuckles and brushing some of her hair away from her face.

Cloud stared at her for a moment then, as quietly and as gently as he could, pressed his lips to hers.

Just what he was hoping to accomplish by doing this, he didn't know. He suddenly felt like a curious thirteen year old who'd never kissed anyone and wanted to experiment. No, he felt like himself at thirteen, too shy to kiss her while she was awake, terrified of rejection and heartbreak but desperate for the comfort, her taste.

She was warm, her breathing slow and even, and her lips soft. A part of him wished she were awake so she would be more responsive.

Her eyes opened as he pulled away and she smiled at him. It was small but it was genuine and reached her eyes. She looked legitimately and wholeheartedly happy. As he smiled back, he realized, in that fleeting moment, he might be too…

"Stay," she whispered.

How many times had she asked this of him? Not much recently, but before he ran away, she use to ask him this a lot and he would always find some reason to deny her of the request even though he use to stay with her through the night often. Now, she was apparently confident and comfortable enough to ask this of him again. It was yet another step in the right direction, proof that he was slowly yet surely regaining her trust but he doubted he deserved it yet.

Stay. She wanted him to stay and despite his better judgment, he did.

A/N: Thanks so much for reading and reviewing!

First of all, I can't tell you how much I adore you guys and how much love and support this story gets. So as a sort of thank you, I made this chapter a bit longer than the others and put in a VII flashback. Some of you asked for more pre Meteor flashbacks like the Great Glacier tent stuff and the blind Tifa incident, so here you go! I don't always have time to reply to reviews and replying to guest reviews gets tricky but I do read all of them and note what all of you say and genuinely try to cater to your wants. I had some other requests regarding some material from Broken Hearts and Maladies (I won't say what it is but I'm pretty sure you guys can guess) and I will fit it in eventually. I just haven't gotten there yet but I will. Don't worry.

Secondly, I must be going soft because this turned out to be one fluffy, ooey gooey chapter! But I suppose we need it to counter all the angst I poured into the beginning of this story. Don't go getting use to the fluff though because if things go the way I plan, the angst will return next time!

Thanks again for everything and I hope you enjoyed Part XI!