Kids

By Riquisel Yutifae

Author's Note: This is like the epilogue. Enjoy.

Eleven

7:00 am…

Cloud slowly opened his eyes, his sleep disturbed by the chirping of the birds from outside. He blinked, adjusting his vision in the bright room. The sunlight was hitting his face directly. He groaned and turned away from it, slowly getting up and scratching his head. "What a night… I feel like I've been hit by a truck…" he muttered to himself as he got up from bed. But it felt like he was still in dreamland.

Last night, he had a long "dream" but he could not clearly point out at that moment what happened. But he could remember seeing Aerith there.

Deciding to go to the bathroom outside in the hallway, he opened the door, got out and went straight to the bathroom. Seeing that the door is closed, he knocked. "You in there, Tifa?" he called out, knowing that at that hour, Tifa would be awake already and hogging the bathroom doing her morning rituals inside.

No answer.

Puzzled, he turned to the door of Tifa's room and saw that it was open but she was still asleep inside. "Strange. She must've stayed up late last night…" he thought before entering the bathroom. "Oh well, at least this one's mine for the taking. Heheh…" he thought victoriously before shutting the door and then locked it so that no one would disturb him. The way he shut the door was by way of slamming it, causing Tifa to get awakened by it, surprising her.

"What the--…" she thought mindlessly, sitting up. She stared at her door. "Why is this open?" she mumbled in complete confusion before getting up to step outside her room, examining the hallway. No one there. She looked back inside her room and glanced at her clock on her bedside table. 7:10 am.

"Oh dear… I overslept…" she thought before deciding to go to Marlene's room. The door was also open. She frowned slightly and saw that the little girl was still asleep. "Gee… she's still sleeping." She thought before going downstairs. She was surprised at the scenario: Yuffie sleeping on the couch, Vincent sleeping on the floor with Red XIII, and Barret sleeping on the other couch. She gaped at them. "Was there a party here last night?" she asked out loud in total bewilderment. She bent down and began to shake Vincent, "Vincent?" she called out with a worried look on her face.

Vincent slowly roused. "…Oh… hello, Tifa." He greeted rather sleepily. And he blinked, stiffening. "…what am I doing on the floor?" he asked as he sat up in bewilderment. His eyes were wide in wonder as he looked around. He slowly got up and dusted himself.

"I was supposed to ask you that." Tifa told him as she got up and proceeded to the kitchen.

"Oh well." Vincent stated flatly, shrugging it off. He looked at Yuffie and Barret who were still asleep. "Why are they sleeping here?" he asked.

"I don't know." Tifa said, feeling weird as she began to prepare breakfast. "You know there's something weird about this morning." She pointed out.

Vincent nodded, feeling rather uncomfortable as he walked to the kitchen and took a seat. "Yes, yes. And I thought I had a good dream but now I couldn't remember what happened there." He said with a confused look on his face.

"Me too!" Tifa said, surprised.

They were silent for a while until they heard Yuffie say, "Oh my Gawd… what am I doing sleeping on this couch? Grossness!" and she went over to them with a disturbed look on her face. "Oh. You guys are up early." She told them.

"…You mean you don't know what you're doing on that couch?" Tifa asked.

Yuffie shrugged. "I don't even know why I'm sleeping there! I never sleep on couches unless it's naptime!" she said before shaking her head and proceeded to the stairs. "I must've dozed off yesterday afternoon and then it lasted longer than expected…" she muttered.

"Oh well. It must've been a tiring day for us yesterday." Tifa pointed out although she was still confused.

Sora sat still by his parents' bed, watching them sleeping. It was 11 in the morning but they were still asleep. Sora had to make himself and his sister breakfast since their parents had a long and rough night because of what happened. When they had returned to the present, it took them three hours before they got to go home again to their house in Sector 2 because President Rufus was still bothered by what Samara had done.

A soft smile was playing on Sora's lips every now and then especially when he would see his mother stir in her sleep, and everytime he would hear his father grunt and embrace his mother.

Aerith had a peaceful look on her face when she turned her head towards the sunlight seeping through the heavy drapery of the masters' bedroom. The sunlight directly hit her face, and upon feeling its warmth against her skin, she slowly opened her eyes, frowning slightly because of annoyance, but she felt at ease when she realized that her son was seated by the bed and looking at her with a smile on his face. She smiled, "Sora," she said softly in a sleepy whisper.

It woke Cloud up and he was surprised to see his son there in the room. "…Gee… what are you doing here? What time is it?" he asked.

"Around 11 am, dad." Sora replied as he mindlessly glanced at his wristwatch.

Aerith's eyes widened. "Oh dear… I failed to wake up to cook you breakfast…" she said with an attempt to sit up and get off the bed so that she could rush to the kitchen, but Sora stopped her, "Hey, no, ma! Just relax there. I fixed breakfast for myself and for Aerial. If you want I can cook our lunch too!" Sora said brightly.

Cloud wondered why his son was suddenly acting like that. "Well… that's a surprise…" he began as he sat up on bed and reached out to pat Sora's head. "What has gotten into you and you're suddenly watching me and your mother sleep, huh?" he demanded with a slight smile on his face.

"Well at least I didn't catch you doing some honky-honkies. Hahah!" Sora joked while laughing.

Cloud and Aerith were shocked upon hearing that.

Sora stopped laughing and cleared his throat. "Uhm… I'm just… glad that you're together, that's all." He said before bowing down his head with a faint smile on his face. "You see, when I was transported back to the past and met daddy's younger self, I… felt pity on him. I mean, I haven't seen so much sorrow in dad's eyes before until I met his younger version. And all because mommy's not yet there." He looked at his parents again, "You could just imagine how hard it was for me to keep it a secret from him on how she came back. I wanted to tell him how so that I could see him happy with her, but I thought twice about it and realized that there's always a right time for everything." He explained.

Aerith smiled gently at her son. "Oh Sora," she sat up and welcomed her son in her arms. Sora jumped onto the bed and embraced his mother tightly, "I love you, mom. I can't imagine where me and dad would be without you." He said with tears in his eyes.

Cloud smiled lovingly at his wife and son. "What a way to start a day. With tears." He said as he wiped the tears streaming down from his son's eyes down his cheeks.

Sora chuckled lightly. "Gee… sorry if I'm crying, dad… I just… couldn't help it…" he said rather sheepishly.

"It's fine, Sora. There's nothing wrong with crying." Cloud told his son reassuringly as he patted his back.

Sora grabbed his father and embraced him along with his mother. "I just love you folks! Hahah!" Sora said with a light chuckle.

Cloud and Aerith exchanged gentle smiles as they hugged their son.

"Alright… let's break it up. I'm kinda hungry." Cloud told them as he let go of them and jumped out of bed.

"No!" Sora wailed.

Aerith laughed, "Come on, Sora, I have to cook lunch for us! And where's your sister?" she asked.

"Aw, she's just in her room playing with her dolls." Sora told her.

Aerith lifted him off from herself and placed her on the space on the bed where Cloud was. With that, she got up and straightened her night shirt.

Cloud looked at Aerith first before smiling slyly. Aerith gasped, but before she could say anything else, Cloud ran to the bathroom, closed the door and locked it.

Aerith pouted. "He'll hog it for more than 30 minutes. Can I use your bathroom, Sora?" she asked.

Sora laughed. "Sure, mom!" he said happily.

Cloud opened the bathroom door again and motioned for Aerith to come in. "Aw c'mon. We can share." He told her before turning to Sora. "Say, Sora, why don't you check on Aerial for a while and start preparing lunch while… your mother and I are in the bathroom, huh?" he asked simply.

Sora innocently nodded his head and happily obliged, stepping out of the room.

Aerith giggled as she went to the bathroom, "Oh Cloud, you silly man, you…" she said with a slight blush on her face. Cloud just shrugged. "Whatever." And embraced her…

The End. ;)