20 December 1979

Cloud struggled to breathe as his mother wrapped a scarf around his mouth and the lower part of the back of his head. He stiffly and impatiently waited for her to finish putting on what she said he would need to go outside.

He had pleaded, begged, and nearly cried to go outside ever since he saw Loz speed out the door yelling, "Snow!" Looking out the window, he had seen little white things falling out of the sky and landing on the ground. Snowflakes, his mother had said they were. Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo were almost always outside, and Cloud often saw Sephiroth staring wistfully out the window. Hearing Sephiroth talk about the fun that could be had in the snow and not paying much attention to Mrs. Strife's saying that snow was, in actuality, not always as fun as Cloud thought it was, Cloud had talked about nothing but snow, and had not wanted to hear about anything else. With some convincing from Sephiroth, Mrs. Strife had finally relented.

Mrs. Strife pulled the hood over Cloud's head, leaving him with a tiny strip to see through, and sat him on the bed to put his shoes on. Finally, after stuffing his hands into some mittens, she declared him ready.

"Wait for me. I need to put some snow clothes on, too." His mother turned to put on her furry coat, and Cloud slid off the bed and sluggishly waddled to the door. The bulky clothing made moving nearly impossible, and that, coupled with his lack of vision, made tripping over much easier.

Cloud's "oof!" alerted his mother, and she stood him up on his feet, hastily checking if he was hurt. Cloud tried to pull away and head towards the stairs, but his mother wouldn't release him.

"I wanna go, Mama!" Cloud said impatiently. "Let's go, let's go!"

"I'm not done yet, Cloud," Mrs. Strife sighed. She continued to hold onto Cloud to keep him from running off and tried to finish putting her furs on with difficulty. Cloud pulled and hopped on his feet, frustrated that his mother was taking even longer now.

Feeling his mother wrap her arms around him to pick him up, Cloud waved his legs back and forth, running in the air as if that would make her move faster. Mrs. Strife carried Cloud outside, pulling the hood completely over his face as a gust of wind attacked them.

Sephiroth dragged his foot across the solid ground, disturbing some of the loose pebbles and snow and watched as the falling ice scurried to cover the black rock hidden underneath. He exhaled quietly, almost inaudibly, as he breezed through his recent memory.

"...we were at it for about a month and a half," Sephiroth continued to explain, wanting to get it over as soon as possible, "and the night you came back in–" Kadaj, having been the one to constantly demand an explanation, leaned closer towards Sephiroth. Loz followed suit while Yazoo feigned indifference. "–was the exact same night I took a chance and knocked her out."

"With what?"

"Sleep drugs."

"How much did you give her?" Yazoo's disbelief grew when Sephiroth gestured with his hands to answer the second question.

"No wonder..." Kadaj said bitterly, giving Sephiroth an ugly look.

"Believe me, I am regretting it."

"Doesn't look like you are," Loz accused.

"I am," Sephiroth genuinely. "I kicked her when she was down and probably did more damage than I had thought." He rubbed at his head. "And then..."

Kadaj groaned, irritated with the pause. "What now?"

"I lost."

Silence reigned for half a minute. Then Yazoo began his sarcastic applause. Kadaj and Loz joined him.

"You three are the worst sometimes." Putting his annoyance aside, Sephiroth said, "Mother did seem to go along with it awfully well. By the time I found out what she was up to, it was too late. No matter how hard I shook her, she couldn't wake up anymore."

"Even a King Behemoth wouldn't be able to shake that off in less than a few days," Yazoo said, shaking his head. "There's nothing else to do except wait."

"True," Sephiroth agreed, "and at first, I thought I could wait until she woke up. Short time later, I pass out. Don't even start," he said sternly. His brothers froze, their arms suspended in the air. Loz then stared intensely back at Sephiroth and defiantly clapped anyways.

Kadaj snickered. "How could you not have seen that?" Suddenly, he sobered and dropped his arms back to his sides. "You really wasted your time on that human, though. And it really wasn't worth it for Mother to sleep on purpose."

"Oh? And why is that?"

"Mother told Kadaj that she couldn't kill that dumb lady," Loz said.

"Why didn't anybody tell me this earlier?" Sephiroth asked calmly. He knew just how much his mother loved to mess with people, but his brothers wouldn't keep something like this a secret. Well, Kadaj would, considering all that had been going on, but Yazoo never kept Sephiroth in the dark, except when something that he didn't want anybody to know happened.

"Why didn't you tell us about the game?" Yazoo countered.

"It was between me and her," Sephiroth said stiffly. "But that's not important right now. Did Mother say why she couldn't kill her? "

"Apparently, it had something to do with a mess the human got herself into," Kadaj answered.

The whole conversation was slowly but surely driving the four of them to near insanity. However, this new revelation brought forth possible answers instead of feeble reaches for guesses. Sephiroth pondered over the first arrival of Mrs. Strife, her reason for having to stay with them, and the day she and Cloud were to leave. Mrs. Strife was here because she needed help to survive the winter, but there were already a few problems with that. One: At the time, Mrs. Strife only needed help during that winter three years ago – four years was an extreme amount of time for her to stay. Two: It would have been much simpler to gather supplies and bring them to Mrs. Strife. Three: He, Jenova, and his brothers believed, though Sephiroth sometimes found himself having to disagree with the idea, that if one wanted to gain something, something else (or a combination of things) of equal value had to be given up.

Sephiroth almost hit himself. Almost. He'd never cared about Mrs. Strife to bother thinking about her situation before, and he hated that such an easy conclusion flew over his head. Mrs. Strife was in deep hell for making a Deal, and Cloud was going to be affected in some way. No ifs – Cloud was definitely going to be affected, at least a little. Sephiroth was either going to have to pressure the details out of Mrs. Strife or really pull teeth and try to get something out of Jenova.

"When Mother wakes up, pretend nothing happened," Sephiroth said. "Until she isn't so out of it." His brothers agreed without protest.

Grateful for the peace, even if it wasn't going to last very long, Sephiroth relaxed a bit as the wind picked up and scattered more snow around Mt. Nibel. The cold felt heavenly, and he savored every moment of it. It was never cold enough for him on Mt. Nibel, though the winter seasons did at least provide temperatures low enough for him to feel a heavy breeze. It reminded him of the Northern Continent, and again he missed it.

One day, he swore. One day, he'll return to his home. And he thought of possibly bringing Cloud with him, when the boy was old enough.

Footsteps snapped him out of his thoughts, and he quickly turned in the direction of the sound, instinct urging him to be on the alert now. He vaguely sensed his brothers getting into a pouncing stance with him.

A lumbering figure moved pitifully slowly and held a squirming bundle. Alert state semi-gone, Sephiroth approached it and confirmed his first assumption.

"Where were you?" Cloud scolded, straining to turn around in all the layers of clothing covering him. Sephiroth could barely see Cloud's eyes through his hood.

Mr. Strife's greeting was very different from Cloud's playful one. "What are you doing outside without a coat?!"

Nag, nag, nag! Loz grumbled. Sephiroth silently agreed with him.

"It's not that cold," Sephiroth said defensively.

Mrs. Strife looked at him with shock. "It's freezing!"

Sephiroth scoffed. "No it isn't."

Cloud's mother refused to believe him. "We're turning around right now – all of us," she emphasized after noticing Sephiroth's brothers, "and we're all going to get dressed properly if we want to go and play in the snow."

"No, mama, no!" Cloud cried. He reached out towards Sephiroth with both arms. Mrs. Strife held onto him more tightly. "I don't want to go home! I wanna go play!"

"And we're not going home," Sephiroth said coolly, turning and leading the way down the mountain. He sensed Kadaj erect barriers over his mind – his brother didn't want anything to do with him. Strangely, however, Kadaj still followed along with them, and was even the first to slide down the slope.

Mrs. Strife stopped her lecturing and scolding for a minute – and Sephiroth nearly sighed in relief at finally being able to rest after tuning her out – and looked over the steep slide, quickly stepping back and holding Cloud away from it.

"Where does this lead?" Mrs. Strife asked nervously.

"It's a shortcut," Sephiroth explained. He moved over a step to let Yazoo slide down next. Mrs. Strife panicked and yelled after Yazoo, trying to stop him from sliding.

"Calm down!" Loz said, exasperated.

"We should go the regular way," Mrs. Strife said quickly while trying to comfort a startled Cloud. "This is too dangerous."

"Kadaj and Yazoo are fine," Sephiroth said, gesturing towards the bottom of the slope. "Look."

And, just as he said, Yazoo was in one piece without a single mark on him. Mrs. Strife, however, was very intent on getting her way.

"It isn't safe," she insisted.

"Yes it is," Sephiroth argued back. "Show her, Loz."

Loz took a running leap off the slope, landing on his feet partway down and sliding the rest of the way, shouting, "Suiciiiiiiiide!"

"What's swiss-side?" Cloud asked.

"Something you should never, ever do," Mrs. Strife answered seriously, still not trusting the slope.

Just push her off if you have to, Yazoo said. Or make her go back.

Pushing wasn't something Sephiroth wanted to do while Mrs. Strife was holding onto Cloud. Pulling, however, was good enough for him.

He didn't know who screamed more – Cloud or his mother.

It was colder than she remembered it being, and, as she lifted a heavy, aching arm to pull the makeshift curtain to the side, bright. Blindingly so.

Jenova let the nearly useless limb to fall back onto the bed and became out of breath. Her body was starved past the point of hunger, and she felt nausea settle in and try to force its way out.

The dry heaving helped somewhat with being able to regain movement. A hot flash surged through Jenova as she sat up and fought off the heaviness, clinging sleep, and disorientation.

It was finally snowing. There was no guessing to where everybody else was. As quickly as she could, Jenova trudged towards the stairs.

The human wasn't here. She had to keep watch, make sure it didn't try to leave with Cloud. Too much time had passed for everything to fail.

The slide was fun, though it was scary at first. Cloud didn't know why his mother was still scared. She was still shaking, and the ride had been over for a while already. At least she put him down. He lumbered towards Sephiroth, dragging out his walk to listen to the sinking crunch crunch noises under his feet. The snow came up past his ankles, and he had to be extra careful to stay upright this time.

"Can we do that again?" Cloud asked eagerly.

"No, no, not again!" Mrs. Strife exclaimed breathlessly.

"Maybe another time," Sephiroth said. "Come here." He turned and half-dragged his feet through the snow, leaving two trails behind him. Cloud mimicked him, looking at the path he made while his mother held his hand and followed after Sephiroth. The snow lightly fell and stuck to his coat. Disappointingly, the flakes melted when Cloud tried to touch them. He looked straight up into the sky, which was light grey and slightly cloudy. A snowflake fell on his nose and he rubbed it away. His mother pulled the hood back over him so that it covered most of his face again.

Sephiroth stopped at an empty area. It was hard to tell, but it looked like the place where Sephiroth had first taken Cloud. Cloud marveled at how the snow made everything different. It was still very cold, but nowhere near as bad as the mountain, and instead of a multitude of colors splashed across the environment, it was plain white. Cloud wondered if it was possible to make snow any color besides white. Maybe some blue snow with green speckles.

Yelling and a flurry of snow brought Cloud out of his fantasy and he saw Loz shoving snow into a writhing Kadaj's pants in the distance. Yazoo was bending over, scooping snow into a pile far away from them by himself. Cloud waddled over to him, reaching about half the distance before Sephiroth scooped him up and carried him over there.

"What are you doing?" Cloud asked curiously.

"Building a fort," Yazoo said almost inaudibly.

"Why?"

Instead of answering, Yazoo looked back at Kadaj and Loz who were wrestling and kicking up snow before getting back to work. Sephiroth sat on his haunches and scooped more snow onto Yazoo's small pile.

"Can I help?" Cloud asked.

"I guess," Yazoo said, not looking at Cloud.

Cloud looked at his mother who was worriedly watching something that Cloud couldn't see.

"What about Mama?"

This time, Yazoo froze. He looked between Sephiroth and Cloud's mother, then hesitated.

"...I guess," he finally said, resuming his fort-building like nothing had happened.

Cloud scooped up as much snow as he could, though he ended up dropping more than half of it, and dumped a small pile near the bigger one. His mother suggested that they work on making a pile on the left side of the current one and then connect the two together so nobody gets in each other's way. Cloud agreed without complaint, and, with his mother's help, managed to make a medium-sized hill. Moving farther to collect more snow, Cloud and his mother left their creation unattended, not thinking of anything that might undo their work. A blur and a destroyed mini-fort later, Cloud was so angry tears nearly started to leak from his eyes.

Kadaj returned to Loz's side, smug at Cloud's outward reaction. Loz smacked Kadaj on the back, knocking him down, and laughed.

I'll get him for you, Cloud heard Sephiroth say in his mind. Go bring me some more snow while I fix your fort.

And Cloud did just that, putting more force into his step to make the sinking and crunching noises louder. He sniffed, holding his anger in.

"Are you alright?" his mother asked him. She looked at Kadaj with disapproval.

Cloud nodded and brought two handfuls of snow back to Sephiroth. His fort was reconstructed, and it looked a little better than it originally did. He helped Sephiroth connect the forts together and make the second one taller. By the time everything was finished, the wall of snow was about as tall as Cloud when he was standing up but towered over him when he sat against it.

His nose was getting runny. He sniffed a couple of times as he watched Sephiroth mold some snow into a ball and throw it.

A chorus of "Lame!" "Lame!" "Ultra lame!" "Very lame!" shot back. Cloud stood on tiptoe to peek at the other side. Kadaj and Loz didn't have a fort of their own.

"Your retorts are pitiful," Sephiroth replied loud enough for them to hear.

"Loser!" Kadaj yelled, throwing a snowball. Cloud fell onto his butt, blinking away water and small chunks of melting ice.

He tried to keep quiet and get back up. He really tried. But he couldn't handle it anymore. The tears came out first, and then the angry sobs. While his mother rushed to comfort him, asking if he was hurt, Cloud wished things would happen to Kadaj.

Bad things. Like Kadaj falling down. Then when he asks for help, Cloud would say no because of the mean things Kadaj had done. That big, no good, dirty buttface deserved it!

"'m okay," he sniffed, rubbing at his now red and freezing nose, irritating it more than his mother did when she wiped off all the water.

His mother rose to her full height and, with a determined look on her face, marched towards Kadaj.

Sephiroth squatted down next to Cloud with an open arm. He wrapped the arm around Cloud's body and picked him up. Cloud instinctively slumped over Sephiroth's shoulder, staying limp and relaxed.

I'll get him for you, Sephiroth repeated.

"Can you hit him?" Cloud said out loud. Closing his eyes, he sniffed again. Sephiroth felt very warm from where the left side of Cloud's face made contact with the juncture between Sephiroth's neck and shoulder.

"No."

"Why not?" Cloud whined. He dug his nose into Sephiroth's warmth to chase the cold away.

"I can't hit him."

Cloud pouted at that. "But why?"

"He's going to do something," Yazoo interrupted. Cloud opened his eyes and saw Yazoo watching Mrs. Strife and his brothers. He felt himself slip downwards as Sephiroth put him back on the ground.

Sephiroth concentrated his gaze in the same spot Yazoo was looking. Wondering what the big deal was about, Cloud stepped in front of the fort to see.

His mother was talking in a raised voice – Cloud couldn't make out what she was saying, but he knew for sure that she was scolding – and making gestures to emphasize her words. Kadaj appeared to be paying little attention to her, but his expression was slowly changing for the worse.

"Don't you ever just shut up?" he asked rhetorically, exasperated.

Cloud nearly exploded. He picked up some snow and balled it up.

Mrs. Strife was dumbfounded, then insulted. She now began to lecture Kadaj on being rude. Sephiroth's youngest brother gave no warning before suddenly shoving Mrs. Strife backwards.

"YOU LEAVE MAMA ALONE!" Cloud screamed, running at Kadaj as fast as he could and throwing the snowball at him.

The projectile never reached Kadaj, but that didn't stop him from murderously speed walking towards Cloud. Cloud backed up, stumbling over his feet and tripping. He curled up, waiting for Kadaj to do something.

That something never came. Cloud held onto his mother as she helped him get back on his feet.

Sephiroth had one arm tightly wrapped around Kadaj's head, pressing his brother against himself.

"I think you've had enough of picking on little kids," Sephiroth said. He then muttered some things to Kadaj that Cloud couldn't hear before releasing him.

Kadaj wasted no time in jumping on Sephiroth and, together with Loz, tried to bring him down. Sephiroth stumbled when Loz barreled into him but didn't fall, instead using a foot to trip Loz. Kadaj was thrown right onto Loz after Sephiroth pried him off.

Cloud watched the fight as his mother pulled him away, not moving or making a sound as his mother worriedly fussed over him. His shock wore off quickly, and then he remembered.

"Are you okay, mama?"

Mrs. Strife blinked a few times before shaking her head. "I'm fine Cloud, but it's not me you should be worried about."

"Nerd! Quit standing there and help us!" Kadaj yelled, pulling at Sephiroth's hair while Loz kept on trying to push Sephiroth over.

Yazoo hadn't moved from his original spot. He reacted as if nobody was there and idly drew patterns in the snow with his finger.

"You're almost as useless as Loz!" Kadaj spat, regaining his balance after Sephiroth tripped him.

"Shut up! I'm on your side, remember?" Loz threw a punch at Sephiroth, managing to hit his arm. Sephiroth brushed it off and lifted his brother before slamming him back onto the ground.

"And here I stand, waiting for the day the squabbles will finally end."

"Mother!" Kadaj cried.

Cloud watched as all four of the brothers ran and made a circle around Jenova, blocking her from view. He tugged at his mother's hand which was holding his, and she reluctantly let him approach the crowd.

He couldn't catch much of what they were saying other than demands for a "splalation" – whatever that was – over who won and who lost something and some annoyed comments from Sephiroth saying that Jenova should go home.

"But she just got here," Cloud butted in. Kadaj gave him an ugly glare, Loz gave him a fleeting glance, Yazoo didn't acknowledge Cloud at all, and Sephiroth looked down at him for second.

"But I just got here," Jenova agreed. "I also need the prize I couldn't collect long ago." She looked at Sephiroth smugly.

"What prize?" Cloud asked. "What did you win, Ba?"

"A free trip to the kitchen to make me a sandwich," Sephiroth said. "Or a pie. Pie is better. Get started on it, Susie."

"Ba's name is not Susie!" Cloud exclaimed.

"No it is not," Jenova agreed, grumbling a little.

"Go home, Susie," Sephiroth said, ignoring the previous statements.

"If she wants to stay, she's staying," Kadaj said defensively, switching from giving Cloud an ugly look to crossing his arms and giving Sephiroth a meaningful one.

Sephiroth looked back at Cloud. "Play in the snow for a bit."

Mrs. Strife pulled on Cloud's hand in the opposite direction. Cloud looked back at her, seeing her eying Jenova nervously, and protested.

"But I want to stay with you."

"I'll be there in a minute or two," Sephiroth said. Cloud pouted at that. If Sephiroth was going off somewhere, Cloud was going with him.

He flailed as his mother lifted him.

"No! No, I don't want to go!" he yelled.

"I'll show you how to build a snowman. I used to love to do that when I was a child," Mrs. Strife said quickly.

"I don't want to!" Cloud practically screamed. He tried to run when he was put down, only to get caught. "I don't want to, I don't want to!"

Sephiroth inwardly sighed in sympathy for Mrs. Strife. However, there was one issue he need to try to address at the moment.

"You fell asleep." It was not a question.

"I did," Sephiroth confirmed. "Apparently, it was all a waste of effort."

"It was," Jenova said. "For you," she added. Kadaj snickered a little at that – Smart move, Sephiroth heard him taunt mentally – and Yazoo expressed some sympathy towards Sephiroth.

"So the lady really did get herself in trouble and make a Deal?" Loz asked. Jenova nodded. "What did she agree to?"

"I choose to keep that to myself." She picked a random direction and walked off.

"No, no," Sephiroth said, forming a barricade with his brothers. "You're not going anywhere."

"Go home, stay here. Go home, stay here," Jenova said thoughtfully. "Hmm, contradictions aren't easy to follow, much less do."

"Just give us some answers, Mother," Yazoo said.

"I'll do as I please. What I would like to do now is find a place to sit."

"Not until you tell us what's going on," Kadaj said. Sephiroth was relieved that he stopped worshiping their mother for a minute and actually said something against her.

"Telling you now would only spoil everything," Jenova said cryptically. "In time, everything shall be revealed."

"Why would it spoil everything and why 'in time'?" Yazoo inquired.

"In time."

"When?" Loz asked, nearly whining.

"...nine months from now," Jenova relented.

"That's August," Sephiroth said. "That's when Cloud is supposed to leave." Why that exact month?

"Tell us now," Kadaj said impatiently, half demanding and half pleading.

"Nine months from now. No less," Jenova said firmly.

Neither Sephiroth nor any of his brothers were satisfied with waiting that long. All four took their turn trying to pry out real answers, even going as far as ganging up and presenting their arguments all at the same time.

Mrs. Strife rolled up some snow into a big ball, her calm but still slightly upset son assisting her. As she rolled the snow into a bigger and rounder sphere, her mind also rolled.

So much had happened, so much trouble was brewing all at the same time. First there was that strange game that Sephiroth and Jenova were playing. She never did figure out what exactly was happening between those two, but then the both of them disappeared. Cloud easily discovered that Sephiroth was only asleep (the poor man had had a lot of rest to catch up on), but who knew what Jenova was up to. Mrs. Strife still counted the few blessings she had left – at the very least, she hadn't had to worry about any encounters until now.

She took a peek at the circle. The eccentric family were still bickering, but it seemed to be getting less and less intense as the seconds flew by. Soon enough, the circle broke up, each member going their way. Sephiroth came over to help with the snowman, Yazoo took a position behind the still erect snow fort, and Kadaj and Loz started on their own fort directly across from Yazoo's. It was fine with her, but Jenova...

Jenova sat there, watching.

Waiting.

Mrs. Strife's nerves grew worse, and she tried to calm down without betraying her growing panic. She should have taken the chance. Her home was very close by – she should have taken the chance to escape with Cloud. But there was the chance that Jenova could have been alerted, either by one of her sons or by some other means.

It was too late now. She had a chance before, though it ranged between possible and slim, but now Jenova was watching her. Mrs. Strife felt that the scrutinizing gaze was permanently on her, watching her for the rest of her days.

Cloud, meanwhile, cheered up much more when Sephiroth returned. The snow man was half built in a short amount of time with the silence only being broken by Cloud and Sephiroth. Nothing other than their exchanges and the shouts from Kadaj and Loz and the sounds of snow hitting surfaces could be heard.

Mrs. Strife's head snapped up when she heard a growl and a surprised yelp. She clutched at her chest in horror when she saw a Nibel wolf digging its teeth into Kadaj's arm. Her horror grew when she realized that nobody was doing anything to help Kadaj.

"It's only Kajar," Sephiroth said calmly before Mrs. Strife could fully panic. "We used to keep him in the house until he got too wild."

It was a pet?! First a bandersnatch, then a Nibel wolf... What was next, dragons? Sure, why not? Let's add that to our dangerous petting zoo! Mrs. Strife imagined. Even though Kadaj had no visible marks on him, Mrs. Strife couldn't help but worry. She couldn't understand how it was all brushed off as normal, couldn't understand how Loz easily joined Kadaj in roughhousing with the wolf.

In the midst of it all, Mrs. Strife remembered Bat was no longer with Jenova. What had happened to it?

"He died of old age last month," Sephiroth answered, not paying attention to Cloud's sudden stop.

"Bat died?" Cloud asked with disbelief.

"Don't worry about it, Cloud," Mrs. Strife soothed. "Look – we're almost done with our snowman." She hoped that it was enough to distract him.

Cloud frowned, but didn't say anything more on the subject, instead asking, "Can I pet that wuff and play with it?"

"No," Sephiroth said quickly. "He bites a lot and is way too wild."

Mrs. Strife felt relief when Cloud didn't say anything after seeing for himself how wild the Nibel wolf really was. She bent over and dug under the snow to look for pebbles. It then struck her that Jenova had been very attached to the bandersnatch. So it died last month, which was also around the same time that Sephiroth and Jenova were gone...

Making up her mind, Mrs. Strife decided to take the risk. She handed a few pebbles to Cloud and told him that they were for the snowman's eyes and mouth before stepping towards the watchful figure sitting in the snow.

"I-I heard that your wolf died," Mrs. Strife began, unsure on what exactly to say, "and I'm sorry for your loss."

No reaction. Not even a blink.

Mrs. Strife continued, "I know what it's like when someone you love dies." She kept on, even with the lack of reaction and acknowledgement, "When I married my husband, I thought that we were going to have a long, happy life together." She sniffed as her throat started to burn. "We were together for two years when–" Her voice suddenly cracked. "–when he caught pneumonia. I was always by Lenras's side, and the coughing and wheezing was terrible – it had even given me nightmares some nights. I was scared that I might catch the illness, but I still stayed by him and did what I could to keep him comfortable." Mrs. Strife's voice distorted even more and tears began to leak from her eyes. "You might know this already, but there isn't a real doctor here in the town, so all I could do – all we could do – was wait until he recovered on his own. Even though he was stubborn about it, I insisted that I do everything around the house while he stayed in bed." Mrs. Strife paused to draw a shaky breath.

"He didn't make it," she concluded, wiping the half-frozen tears from her face.

Jenova chewed on some snow, then suddenly made a choking sound. The choking noises continued at a frequent interval.

Mrs. Strife was touched and, admittedly, a little surprised. Her intentions were only to show Jenova that she wasn't alone and that Mrs. Strife truly did know what she was going through. Managing to pull a few of Jenova's emotional strings made Mrs. Strife realize that she really did have a heart in there somewhere.

Mrs. Strife stooped down to Jenova's level and slowly reached in for a hug.

"Don't touch me," Jenova choked out. She swallowed, and continued making the noises, now sounding like something other than choking.

Jenova hadn't been crying. She had been laughing.

Mrs. Strife teared up again, this time from hurt. She contemplated saying something to Jenova, but instead wiped her face again and retraced her steps back to the now complete snow man.

"Look, mama," Cloud said proudly. "We finished him."

"That's good," Mrs. Strife said, trying to hide the evidence of Jenova's doing from Cloud. She failed miserably.

"Are you okay, mama?" Cloud walked up to her, a concerned look escaping from what she could see of his face.

Although Mrs. Strife was positive that Sephiroth saw through her, he instead looked towards Jenova as if he was tired of her antics.

"Did Ba do it?" Cloud asked, clenching his little fists.

Mrs. Strife shook her head. She didn't want to get Cloud involved.

"Ba shouldn't be so mean." Cloud crunched his way towards Jenova. Mrs. Strife grabbed onto him only to be blocked by Sephiroth.

"I'll go tell her to stop being mean," Sephiroth said.

"No, I'll tell her," Cloud said, taking off. Sephiroth got in the way of Mrs. Strife's every attempt to bring Cloud back. Cloud ran faster until he finally stood in front of Jenova.

"I don't like you anymore," Cloud said. "You made mama cry."

Jenova didn't say a word to that. Instead, she laughed at him. However, it wasn't the same mocking, patronizing laugh that she had given Mrs. Strife – it was like the short laughs Mrs. Strife often had when Cloud happened to say something cute or funny. The laughing continued until Jenova erupted into a coughing fit. She hacked and vomited up some clear liquid.

"Go home already," Sephiroth said, exasperated.

Mrs. Strife rushed over to pick up her scared son and try to soothe him in her embrace.

"I think we should all go home," Mrs. Strife said.

The trek back up the mountain took much longer. Mrs. Strife was nearly frozen and exhausted by the time they arrived back at the house. All four of Jenova's sons crowded around her once more, and small bickering over why she didn't take care of herself instead of going out in the snow occurred along with Jenova's constant insisting that she was perfectly fine.

Staying out of it, Mrs. Strife prepared some hot soup, instructing Cloud to keep his furs on and stand by the oven. Cloud gladly put his hood down when he was allowed to, and she noticed that his nose was red, his ears were slightly pink, and that he was still sniffing to prevent his runny nose from overflowing.

"Did you have fun?" Mrs. Strife placed the bowl of soup on the table. Cloud picked up the spoon and took small sips of the broth, trying to warm himself up without burning himself at the same time.

"Yeah!" he said eagerly after the first spoonful. "Can we go again?"

"Maybe sometime," Mrs. Strife said, eating her own serving of soup.

Warmth easily settled into Cloud and Mrs. Strife, though Cloud complained that his hands were still cold. Sephiroth broke off from his squabbles with Jenova and knelt in front of Cloud, rubbing his own hands over Cloud's to warm them up much to Kadaj's displeasure.

As Mrs. Strife cradled a sleepy but content Cloud, she again realized how quickly time was slipping through her fingers.

She only had almost exactly nine months left.

Notes:

Started: 2013年6月1日（土）

Finished: 2013年8月25日（日）

This chapter is dedicated to JollyBigSis. Without her, this would've taken even longer to finish. I'm eternally grateful and can't thank you enough, Jolly! Hmm... But I did flip my desk ten chapters ago. ┬──┬◡ﾉ(° -°ﾉ) That should make things easier now. There were a few tidbits I wanted to add that didn't make it in here. Ah well, they weren't important story-wise anyways. My one regret is not being able to get Chapter 26 out on the nineteenth. It would have been freaking hilarious in a very, very mean way.

That's right. Chapter 26 is Cloud's fourth birthday. Don't be afraid to ask any questions you might have.