About half an hour later, everybody in the house was finally up, heading for the living room, still in their nightclothes.
As all of them had expected, there was no sign of Vincent. He seemed to have left during the night, most likely to find some time for himself during the holidays, which even enlarged his suffering from Lucrecia's death.
Still, the atmosphere, apart from the fact that it was too early actually to be up already, was a happy one.
Marlene still had not stopped running around excitedly, not being able to wait for opening her presents any longer.
So there seemed to be no other way out for everybody to get a little rest than to finally enter the living room and let the girl rip open her presents.
Yet the living room looked far better than anybody had expected: a nice, warm fire was sparkling in the fireplace, mountains of presents were packed onto wonderfully decorated tables and, right in the middle of everything, there it stood: the Christmas tree.
Most obviously, Shera had been able to persuade Barret, as it was standing in a perfect 90° angle. It was hung with thousands of tiny pieces of decoration, from sparkling glass balls to small sugar canes and real red candles.
That wonderful sight brought smiles to all faces, even Barret and Cid could not deny that it looked incredibly "christmasy".
And while everybody was saying their "Merry Christmas", they started searching for their presents and piling them up.
Little Marlene's eyes were growing wide at the amount of presents she had received, and, more happy than ever, she started ripping them open one by one.
Most of the presents had little name-tags that told who had given it to whom, and everybody seemed to be quite content with what they had gotten: Yuffie's eyes were shining as she unpacked her elemental and summon materia, Cid was concentrated on his book about the history of spaceships, Marlene started playing happily with her toys and "girlie stuff" like Barret called it, he himself was focused on accessories for his gun arm and Tifa received lots of stuff for herself and the twins.
Only Cloud was sitting in front of his pile of presents, motionless, absent minded. Considering the look on his face, he was fighting an inner struggle.
Obviously not even noticing the pile of presents right next to him, he simply stared at his hands which lay closed in his lap.
Whatever it was that he was thinking of, it definitely had to be quite important if it could consume all of his thinking at once.
After having watched him for a few minutes, Tifa started to worry and decided to ask him what was wrong.
Carefully, she got up from her place on the floor next to Marlene and went over to Cloud, sitting down right beside him.
Strangely though, as he noticed her approach, he seemed to tense up even more, a quite uncommon sight with the strong warrior.
Gently, she placed her hand on his cheek and turned his head around so that he now faced her.
"Cloud, you allright?" she asked, concern showing on her face. "Anything wrong?"
Cloud swallowed visibly hard and, suddenly, dropped down onto one knee in front of her.
An awkward silence fell over the room as everybody stopped unwrapping their presents and chatting loudly to stare at the young couple.
Summoning up all his courage, Cloud took Tifa's hand in his and, quietly, started to speak, his voice slightly quivering, yet determined.
"Well, Tifa, we've known each other for like our whole lives now, and even though there have been incredibly hard times, the past year has been the best ever. Since we finally confessed our feelings for each other, and now even will be having our twins soon", he smiled at Tifa and gently touched her stomach, "I could not be happier and more content with life. And I don't even dare imagine what it would be like if you weren't by my side, cheering me up, holding me back when I'm about to do something stupid; loving me for who I am no matter what. I never want to lose you, Tifa", he looked her deep into the eyes and tightened the grip on her hand unconsciously. "I can't stand the though of being without you. And now, with the twins to be born soon, I want us to be a real, whole family that no one can break apart."
He made a short pause to give Tifa some time to take in the news. Silent tears were glistening in her eyes as she watched the love of her life smile at her.
"Well, I guess you already know what I'm about to ask, but still, I'm gonna say it straight out…"
He let go of Tifa's ad and opened a small velvet box he had kept tight in his other hand. Tifa gasped as she looked at the incredibly beautiful ring right before her eyes. It was made of pure platinum, with two lines running through the ring at full length: one of deep crimson, the other of clear, shining blue. The young woman found it hard to get her eyes off it and look at the man kneeling in front of her.
With the ring held out right before him, Cloud cleared his throat and rose his voice again, to finally end the waiting.
"Tifa Lockheart… would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"
A sobbed 'yes' could be heard before Tifa rushed into his arms, kissing him passionately, tears still running down her face.
Suddenly, the room grew loud again with cheers and clapping of their rejoicing friends who were happy that everything had finally worked out the way they had always known it would.
When Cloud and Tifa had finally broken the hug, he took the ring and slowly slid it over her finger. Unbelievingly, she looked at it, turning her hand in all directions, still not sure if it might not just all be a wonderful dream.
Cloud smiled at her, slightly bemused by the incredulous look on her face. Carefully, he took her face in his hands and turned it toward him.
"Believe me, Teef, this is true. It's not just a dream. It's better."
With a smile on both faces, they kissed again, knowing that things could hardly get better than they already were.
Nothing, they assured themselves, absolutely nothing would ever be able to tear them apart, no matter what.