Hello, again! Now, this is the freakishly short chapter. I was suffering major writer's block when writing this, but I promise the next chapter will have more meaning to it! This is sort of a short filler.

And this chapter is actually Beta'd! Thank OCV for all the neat grammericalness!

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy or the characters!

BTW, apologies for those few who noticed that the POV's aren't centered, FFnet and I are arguing about it, and, currently, it's winning.

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Thoughts

Chapter 11: Just Games

???

My plan was perfect. Absolutely brilliant. I nodded my head towards Serge, then he bowed and left the room.

Everything was set, and nothing could go wrong. Plans made unbeatable by the best.

Including me, of course.

***

Tifa

I groaned. Where the hell was my pillow...

Answering my thoughts, I fell on the floor. Yelping, my eyes shot open, taking in the scene before me.

I had apparently fallen asleep on the sofa last night while we were finishing up details on what we were doing the next day. Zack was sleeping on my shoulder, and when I fell off, he had slumped down, laying at an awkward angle. Aeris was curled up beside Cloud on the other sofa and I felt a familiar pang of ice slice through my chest.

Shaking the feeling away, or trying to, I got up in search of the ones missing.

I found Vincent slouched over in a booth, head resting on the table in an uncomfortable way. I cringed at the pain he'd be in when he woke up.

Yuffie was curled up in a ball in the same booth, but on the other seat. Her hair had fallen loose of her headband, and was hanging in her eyes. Her face looked, surprisingly, innocent. Exactly the opposite from when she was awake, with her eyes glinting with mischievous thoughts of stealing materia.

Brushing her hair out of her eyes, I glanced for Barret and Cid. Not seeing them, I walked upstairs to check on the kids and hopefully find them somewhere.

The door creaked as I opened it, but, thankfully, I heard faint snoring. I had to bite the inside of my mouth to stop my laughter from bubbling over.

Denzel, Marlene, Cid, and Barret were curled up on the floor, all the blankets from the bed's ripped off to form a haphazard bed on the floor.

Wishing I had a camera to capture the moment with, I closed the door swiftly to avoid waking them.

Returning downstairs, I found Cloud, hair messier than normal, getting a glass of water. Walking up behind him silently, I said, "'Morning, Cloud."

Surprisingly enough, he jumped, and I let a small smile tug the corners of my lips up.

Getting some water, myself, I asked, "What? Did I scare you?"

He let out a grunt, and I couldn't restrain a laugh. For the moment, I had completely forgotten about what almost happened between us and apparently he had, too. We talked about nothing important, exchanged a few laughs, and after we separated to do different things, feeling better than before.

***

???

Sighing impatiently, I scooted around in my chair. Everything was planned out, so that only left one thing to do. Wait. Wait and see how this game played out.

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You all know who the '???' pov is, don'tcha? Hope ya do! But, you will soon enough.

Oh, and, the name 'Serge' actually has some meaning. It literally means 'Servant' in Russian. Funny, huh?

Expect an update by, at the latest, Friday. I'm trying to get better at updating sooner!

Reviews gives me warm fluffies!

~Niyati