LatteJazz, I'M UPDATING BANZAI! x] And to all of you (including you, LatteJazz) I'll try to get better about updating. I get writing on other things, and then I look up and realize I haven't updated in five days. *sweatdrop* My bad! I'll try to do better so you all can have your story fix! haha :)

Woooooo! Thanks for the reviews, everyone! Pinku-chan, ShatterTheHeavens, RennyPenny, and Sayonara Yasashii Akumu, THANK YOU ^.^

ShatterTheHeavens: Hahahaha! Thanks :D Yeah, that's what I'd be worried about, going coffin-hunting. I'd be afraid of the ZOMBEHS O.O haha BAHAHA! Such a Vincent thing to do, i'nt it? xD I wish I'd thought of that! Just like, Vincent: *sits up, points* "Ancient." *lays back in coffin and goes to sleep* xDDD Thanks so much, my friend! :D

Sayonara: I usually can't write fluff, or, when I do, I don't find it fluffy, so thank youuu! :D haha Yesh, Vincent is a vampireeee! Well, that's my theory on how he looks, like, twenty-something and is really in his fifties O.o xD Thanks for the review! :D

Okay, randomness follows, but I feel it's somewhat important *sweatdrop*

So, figuring a timeline here, I'm saying that Anna probably moved away from Gongaga (and to Nibelheim) when she was about five, which meant Zack was somewhere around seven. The time span is so weird in Crisis Core, but I guess Zack is 19 at this point...? Otherwise, he wouldn't be twenty-three after all the other stuff happens. (I won't give details for those who haven't played the game, or haven't reached that point yet. Those of you who have, you know what I'm talking about haha) Am I semi-correct on that, people-who-know-better-than-I? Anywhoo, so that means Cloud would've been about five when Anna moved to Nibelheim. Just thought I'd clear that up!

(Who said they were wondering about it, you crazy, rambling woman? ! xD)

Kind of a shorter chapter, but I hope you all like it nonetheless! Thanks so much for the reviews, everyone! :D

Okayyy, story time ^.^

-Chapter 36-

Kiku

Since it was still pretty early in the day, and since we had nothing else to do, we all went back with Anna to her house. We figured it was more fun than hanging out in our room at the inn all day, right?

Anna opened the front door, swinging it wide open as we all followed her in. "Mom!" she called. "Got some people here you might wanna see!"

"Anna, what are you-?" Mrs. Lockheart stopped her question short when she saw us standing there. She gasped. "Zachary? Cloud? Oh my goodness!" She was practically giddy. She quickly crossed the room, her arms spread wide, expectant for hugs.

"Hey, Mrs. L," Zack said as she hugged him, and he hugged her back.

"Oh, how long has it been? It must be twelve years at least!" She leaned back and smiled at him. "Well, look at you. You've grown into a handsome, strong young man, Zachary."

Zakc chuckled, smiling at her.

"Kiku certainly is a lucky young lady."

I shot Anna a look. You TOLD your MOM? I screeched at her (telepathically, of course).

Anna grinned at me. What? She likes Zack! And she likes you, too. Plus she would've figured it out eventually anyway, so I just saved her the trouble of putting two and two together.

I rolled my eyes, shaking my head.

From the look on Zack's face, he knew Anna and I had been, uh...communicating.

"And you're in SOLDIER, too!"

"1st Class," he said proudly.

"Oh, I'm so proud of you!"

It was almost like she was his mother instead of Anna's.

She looked at him, a hint of worry in her eyes. She gently touched her fingertips to the scars on his cheek. "Oh, my. What happened here?"

"Oh, that?" Zack asked calmly. "It's nothing. Just a couple battle scars. Don't worry, I'm alright."

"Well, as long as you're doing your best to be safe. I mean, SOLDIER is hardly the safest job in the world, isn't it?"

"Right," Zack replied, laughing softly.

Mrs. Lockheart turned away from Zack and smiled at Cloud. "Oh, Cloud, dear," she said, hugging him.

"Good to see you, Mrs. Lockheart," Cloud said, hugging her back.

"Nibelheim has missed you," she said with a smile. "And you're with Shinra, too?"

"Yeah," he said. He looked sort of embarrassed about something. "I'm, uh...an infantryman."

"Well, you just gotta keep working your way up, right? You'll get there someday," she said.

Cloud smiled at her. "Thanks, Mrs. Lockheart."

She looked at him. "I see your hair hasn't changed much... Do me a favor and don't go near any chocobo pens while you're here. It might upset the birds."

Cloud looked annoyed and we all laughed.

"I'm only kidding, Cloud."

"Mm-hmm," he said, unconvinced.

She smiled and shook her head a little. "I see the past two years have been good to you, Cloud. You're not that wide-eyed little boy anymore. Now you're a handsome young man, working to fulfill your dreams." She hugged him again.

Cloud looked shocked, but hugged her back anyway.

"Well, now that all the greetings are out of the way, who's up for lunch?" Mrs. Lockheart walked over to the two doors near Anna's staircase, and knocked on them. "Grace! Cheryl! Lunch! And we have guests, so you'd better not still be in your pajamas!"

We all laughed a little.

"Knowing them, they probably still are," Anna said quietly.

Grace and Cheryl appeared a few moments later -fully dressed.

"You girls probably don't remember Zack," Mrs. L said to them. "He was Anna's friend back in Gongaga."

"Hey, Zack," they said.

"Hi," Zack replied, waving a little.

"And you know Cloud," Mrs. L said.

"Yeah, the chocobo head," Grace said as she walked into the dining room.

Cloud sighed and hung his head as we laughed.

Grace smirked happily at her remark.

Anna patted Cloud on the shoulder, apologizing for her family and comforting him all at the same time. And then she shot Grace a look that should've turned her into a puddle of goo right then and there.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at Anna's, eating and talking and laughing. You won't believe what Mr. Lockheart said when he got home that evening and said hello to Zack and Cloud. Well, Cloud, really. Seems he didn't remember Cloud as well as his wife did.

Mr. Lockheart finished shaking their hands, then turned to Anna and said, "Isn't this the lemon-head you've been rambling about for the past however many years?"

Zack and I burst out laughing.

Cloud looked at us, confused. He hadn't heard Mr. L's comment.

Anna's face flushed red, and she shot the two of us a look.

"I'm sorry," I said, laughing. "We don't mean to laugh."

Zack stopped long enough to say, "But if we'd held that in, our teeth would've exploded."

That sent us into another laughing fit, followed by Cloud asking what was so funny. That was followed by Anna glaring at Zack and I some more, and telling her Dad not to give her friends fruit-based references.

It felt a little strange, being so comfortable in that home -laughing and talking like I'd been there for years instead of just a couple days. I hadn't felt comfortable in a home in a long time.

To be able to sit in a house with the people I loved... To be able to sit and laugh and just forget about everything outside that house... It was one of the most amazing things I'd ever experienced. I felt loved, and that was a feeling I knew I would never be able to get over, or take for granted.

I wanted to stay at Anna's forever -all of us-, and never have to go back out and deal with Sephiroth, and Genesis, and Hollander, and all the other stuff that had been going on. But, of course, that was impossible. I knew it was, and yet I wished for it anyway. I knew from experience that I couldn't escape into a fantasy and just forget about reality. We had to go back to the inn and start discussing what we were going to do about Sephiroth.

But...it seemed Zack had other plans in mind. I knew, because he was grinning.

"What's that look for?" I asked him as the four of us stepped outside Anna's house.

"You've got a scheme going, I can tell," Anna said, giving him a look.

He just kept on grinning, slowly turning his head to look at the two of us.

Anna and I looked at each other, then back at Zack. "What is it?" we asked together.

Cloud looked terrified. Did he know what Zack had in mind? Or maybe he just knew that the look Zack had on his face usually meant trouble.

"Oh, nothing," Zack said. "Just a little...idea I have." He looked at Anna. "Anna, can Kiku stay the night here?"

She blinked at him. "Uh...I don't see why not. But...why?"

"But I'd have to get my things from the inn," I said. "Why am I staying the night at Anna's?"

"You'll see," Zack said, a singsong edge in his voice. "C'mon. Let's go back and get your things, Kiks."

Anna, Cloud, and I looked at each other quizzically, then followed Zack.

Cloud jogged to catch up with Zack, falling into step next to him. They talked to each other quietly, occasionally glancing back at us.

Anna leaned over to me. "Can't you just read his mind and figure out what he's got planned?" she whispered.

I exhaled. "I could, but I have a feeling we don't want to know."

Zack

"You can't wimp out, Cloud!" I said.

We were back at the inn, and Anna and Kiku had already left. Now I had to get Cloud on board with my plan.

"No way!" he shot back, his eyes wide in fear. "I won't do it! No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!" he cried, shaking his head, his blonde spikes flurrying around on his head.

"But it won't be that difficult!" I insisted. "C'mon, like you've never been on a..."

He looked at me, half-sitting on the footboard of his bed, then shifted his gaze to the floor.

I stared at him, mouth agape. "You never have been on a date before!"

He sighed. "Yeah, okay?" he said, throwing his arms up in the air and smacking them back down on the footboard. "YES, I, Cloud Strife, have never been on a date before. THERE, I said it!"

I blew out a breath, running a hand through my hair.

"Besides...I'm not even good enough to get into SOLDIER. So why would she go on a date with me even if I did ask her?"

I sighed and walked over to him. "Man, you gotta relax."

He gave a half-chuckle. "No, that's your department."

I shook my head. "No, really. Anna doesn't care whether or not you're in SOLDIER. She cares about you, not your position in the company. She's proud of you, and of the fact that you're an infantryman."

"Yeah?" he said, unconvinced. "And just how do you know that?"

I smiled a little. "Because I got at least five letters a month from her when she moved here, telling me all about this boy with blonde spiky hair that she was obsessed with."

Cloud's face flushed red and he looked at me. "R-Really?" he stuttered.

"Would I lie to you?" I asked. I looked at him for a moment, then exhaled. "Look, I know Anna doesn't really seem like the...'go-on-a-date' kind of girl, but...I have a feeling she'd make an exception for someone she really liked," I said, poking him in the shoulder.

"Well..." He looked away. "You...you might be right..."

"Of course I'm right," I said, smiling. "Now all you gotta do is ask her."

All the color drained from his face. "Oh, yeah," he said dryly. "That'll be a snap."

"That's the spirit!"

He sighed and fell backwards onto his bed, his feet dangling over the footboard. "How come it sounds so easy when you say it?"

I chuckled and looked at him. "It's an art form." I shrugged. "And I never said it wouldn't be hard for me either. I doubt Kiku's ever been on a date -just because of her past living situation-, so she'll probably be a little hesitant about this, too."

He looked at me. "But why now? Why this sudden...epiphany?"

"Well, we can't just sit around waiting for Sephiroth to come out of the basement, now can we? What if he's in there for a week? We'd get so bored, we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves!"

"Well, you're right about that..."

"And aren't Kiku's and Anna's birthdays this week?"

Cloud looked at me, as if surprised that I knew this. "Yeah...Anna's is in three days."

"And Kiku's is in four," I said. "See? We'll figure out this double-date thing, and then we'll each do something for their birthdays. This is perfect."

Cloud sat up and looked at me, pulling his legs underneath him. "Zack. May I remind you that this is not Midgar. Nibelheim isn't exactly known for-"

"I know, I know, it's a small town. But we can't leave Nibelheim. We'll be charged with abandoning our mission, and that could mean very bad things."

Cloud nodded.

"Don't worry," I said, waving my hand dismissvely. "We'll figure this out!"

Kiku

"Well, I mean, I was getting a vibe about something, but..."

"But you didn't actually read his thoughts, so there's no way of knowing for sure," Anna finished.

"Yeah," I said.

Anna sighed, falling back on her bed.

I leaned against the metal footboard, sighing as well. "Guys confuse the daylights outta me."

"And, lucky you, you fell in love with one of the most confusing ones."

I hit her with my pillow and she laughed.

"But you've got the whole mind-reading thing now! You can figure guys out!"

I laughed once. "Trust me. Reading guys' minds does not help to understand them in any way." Then a thought hit me. "Wait... Anna, isn't your birthday in three days?"

"And your birthday's the day after that, isn't it?" she asked, sitting up and pointing at me.

We blinked at each other for a few moments.

"Those little sneaks!" we said in unison, then we fell back on her bed, laughing.

Anna looked at me. "If we're right...do you really think Cloud will go along with it?"

I smiled at her. "If you go along with it, I'm sure he will."

She smiled. "You really think so?"

I nodded. "I know so. Plus I know Zack can convince anyone of anything."

Anna grinned. "Are you speaking from experience?"

"Ah!" I cried in shock. I hit her with my pillow again, which set us on another laughing spell.

We were still laughing when we crawled under the blankets on the bed, and turned to face each other.

"We really are lucky," I said.

"Yeah," she said, smiling. "We are lucky."

Then our eyes closed, and we drifted off into sleep, wondering what the next day would bring.

Random bit of trivia: In reality, the real "Anna" and my birthdays are only about a week apart! :) (You call that trivia? Well, I thought it was interesting!) xD

Anywhooooo...'til the next chapter! ^.^ Ja mata!