"If you can hear me, I want you to know that I want you to come back," Cloud said as he looked up towards the ceiling. The feel of the air slightly turned his skin cold under his pajamas. "Damn."

Vincent staggered in, a little tired-looking. "Hn? It started raining so I called Cid and he said it was best if I stayed... You fell asleep pretty fast and I thought you'd like it better if you got to sleep on your bed. Don't worry, you weren't too heavy."

Cloud looked down and blushed. It had only happened one time in his life before, and he wasn't quite sure what Reno had done while he was unconscious, but he trusted Vincent far more than Reno, so there wasn't much question there.

"Thank you for staying," Cloud said. "You want some breakfast?"

"Nah, I'm just going to be on my way. I promised Cid I'd leave right after you woke up." He ran his hand through his hair and turned around, preparing to leave Cloud's house.

"Cid... does know that you're going to have to shower when you get home anyway, right?"

"He says he likes it better when I'm 'dirty,' or something. I am not entirely sure what he's trying to imply by that. Anyway, I'm going to be off before Cid misses me too much." With a yawn, Vincent turned around to leave.

Cloud sighed as he got up to make some coffee. He assumed that Vincent had made some before he woke up, and poured himself some. It was still hot, but not quite steaming, just how he liked it. He got out his milk and poured a little in, watching the lovely swirls it made in his coffee. Then he got out his sugar and stirred five teaspoons in.

He took a big sniff to feel the aroma, just like Sephiroth had done in his dream. Then he caught himself and found it rather ridiculous, as Sephiroth probably didn't even like his coffee that way in the first place.

With that in mind, Cloud drowned the entire mug in one gulp. He wiped his mouth with his arm and got back up to take a shower and get dressed and ready for his morning of... nothing.

He quickly finished up as he looked at his clock. Usually he wouldn't even be awake by then. He wondered why he had gotten up so early, or why he hadn't noticed. After all, the sky outside was still dark. He assumed that Vincent was going to be home soon.

Running fingers through his still-damp hair, he found that there were absolutely no tangles in his coif, for once. He closed his eyes and smiled into the sunrise that filtered in through his kitchen window, and also realized that it was open again. The floor was littered with leaves, even though it hadn't been a second ago.

Looking up into the sky, he muttered curses. "Thanks a lot; now I have to clean up my kitchen floor again. You know, you've got to stop doing that; you know I hate raking up the leaves!"

The wind whispered teases into his ear, and he held up a one-finger salute to it. Then he put his hand down and his expression softened. "Yeah, yeah, love you too. Now clean up my kitchen."

There was absolutely no effort for his kitchen to be fixed, no wind, no nothing. He sighed and pulled out a really big Ziploc bag from his drawer and started picking up the leaves, accidentally crumbling a couple.

When he was done, he took it outside to the trash, and saw a little dot coming towards him. He was wondering what exactly that was, and then he saw the shuriken. "Oh no," he groaned.

Yuffie finally made her way up to Cloud. "I've decided on something!" she yelled. "And hey, thanks for coming out and waiting for me. Anyway, the thing I've decided on is that I'm callin' a summit. You better go out and buy something to eat, because I'm sure that Tifa's going to be here anytime soon now. You know how she likes to be punctual, or more often, early."

"You called a summit at my house without telling me!" He looked somewhat frantic as he walked back into his house. "Why the hell would you do something as stupid as that!"

She followed really quickly after him, and barely missed the door slamming behind her. "It's not stupid. Besides, we have to discuss your problems and you know it! Without all the rest of us moving on, you have no chance of moving on, either!"

"...That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"It may be stupid, but I know for a fact that it works. I had a lot of summits with my friends on important decisions like... like when I broke my arm and wanted to see if I should let my friends sign my cast or if that would be tacky." She continued to tattle off a bunch of "important" things.

He held a hand up to stop her. "Alright, listen, fine. You can have all these friends over, and they can think I'm an idiot because I've got nothing prepared for a summit you've probably told them all that I've planned."

She looked down, embarrassed. "Sorry, was I supposed to say that I had planned it?" She tried digging her foot into the floorboards to look cute. Of course, that had never worked before, especially not with Cloud.

It didn't matter anyway, because within the next second or so, she was literally saved by the bell. Yuffie rushed to answer it to try and get on Cloud's good side (or, at least, to distract him) and smiled to Tifa and Vincent. "Cid called me while I was on my way home," Vincent said. "So..."

"Help yourself to anything in the kitchen, and the bathroom's down the hall to the left," said Cloud. "I told you that you should have showered before you left."

"I didn't know you were going to call this meeting."

"You can blame Yuffie for that one."

"No!" Yuffie retaliated. "Don't blame Yuffie for anything!"

Tifa smiled outwardly to try and convince Cloud that she was happy, and she walked in to his living room to take a seat. Cloud didn't buy into it for one second, but decided to grin and act like he too, was okay with everything.

He walked back into his kitchen to put on some tea for the horde of people that were to visit him in the next hour or so. He felt like killing Yuffie, because of course, he didn't have enough proper food to cook. Of course, even with the proper materials, it wasn't like he could cook, anyway.

Soon, his friends were all at his door. After all, instead of having an "emergency," they had all been given a set time to arrive at Cloud's doorstep, and, in being that apparently it was an urgent matter, they had all been on time.

Cloud invited them all in with gritted teeth behind a grin, and explained to them all (under his breath) that this was really all Yuffie's idea. Barrett, actually, had surmised as much and brought a few snacks for everyone's benefit.

Yuffie busied herself by fluffing the pillows. Everyone took a seat and politely accepted the cups of tea being handed to them by Cloud. Well, everyone but Nanaki and Cait Sith.

As everyone settled themselves in, and all became rather quiet, Yuffie started to speak. "So... does anyone have any starting statements, or should I just go first? 'Cause, you know, I planned stuff to say, but it's not so important." This told everyone that she wanted to talk, but didn't want to sound like she was making up an excuse to rant to Cloud.

Nobody said a word to contest Yuffie, so she continued. "All right then. Let's begin. I would first and foremost like to say, I think that, and I'm deeply sorry for this, Cloud, that you are a psychotic. I read all about it! Psychotics are people who don't know that there's something really, really, really wrong with them, even though there totally is.

"Anyway, before you say anything, Cloud, I'm gonna explain to everyone else why. Firstly, I think you've gone insane because of all the traumatic experiences that you've experienced throughout your childhood and your adult life. Secondly, you've taken twenty-eight years of your life to finally realize your sexuality and that the man you're supposedly in love with is dead. Which, in my thought process, is just an excuse for us to leave him alone.

"Finally, you have become extremely antisocial. In fact, this is even worse than what you were like before, which was pretty bad. Cloud, none of us have heard from you in ages up until recently. That isn't healthy, because we're your closest friends. Anyway, that is what I had to say. Anyone else?" She stepped down, and although most of them had that thought floating around their heads, they never would've said it.

"I think we should give Cloud a chance to defend himself," Tifa said.

"No, I want to hear what you've all got to say first," he replied. It was silent. "No, I'm not kidding. I really want you all to voice your opinions. Yes, Yuffie, including you. I want you all to have a say before I speak next."

Since no one started speaking, Yuffie poked Tifa in the side. "Fine," she muttered. "I'll go next... Really, everyone, I don't see a problem with this. It's an obsession, but I think that it's a healthy one. It will pass soon enough, and then we can perhaps go back to how it used to be, except better, because Cloud will be rid of something that has been hanging over his head. We can all move on."

"This ain't no phase, Tifa," Barrett replied. "And it might recur, yanno. Like that whole dress-wearin' thing. Man, you got more issues than anyone could deal with; you should get yourself checked out. And I'm only sayin' this 'cuz I'm your friend; don't take it the wrong way."

"Cloud-san can do whatever Cloud-san wants!" Cait Sith said. "He's a man now, and he might be crazy, but he can make his own decisions because he's a big boy and he can do it! I have faith in him!"

"Yeah, well, I kinda think it's sweet." Everyone looked at Cid strangely, especially Cloud. This was not the type of reaction they had expected from the pilot. In fact, Yuffie had thought that Cloud's head would have been speared on a plate by now. Cid had really, really hated Sephiroth. "What? I do. Everyone deserves to find who it is they love."

"I think Cid's gone insane too," muttered Yuffie.

The room was silent for a bit, and then Yuffie nudged Nanaki. "I really don't have an opinion in this matter. I don't believe in love, only existence. Love is a controversial term that is too complex for anyone to understand."

Seeing as how that failed, the last person that could speak besides Cloud was Vincent. He took his cue. "I agree with Cid," was all that he said. Cloud looked at him with a glare that said: "I want the truth." Vincent had seemed to read Cloud's mind, because he stated absentmindedly: "It is the truth."

"Oh, that is so not the truth, Vinny! You're just siding with your boyfriend! You know, ever since you two got together, the both of you've been absolutely nuts! You crazy people should all get together and like, start a loony bin!"

"That's mean, Yuffie! They're not crazy; they're just... well, I dunno!" piped Cait Sith. He started bouncing up and down idly; it seemed to be somewhat of his screen-saver.

The wind suddenly blew past through the window by the door and a leaf hit Yuffie in the face. "Hey! What the hell was that!" she asked, waving her arms around as if she had been attacked unfairly.

Absentmindedly, Cloud muttered: "Sephiroth."

It was not exaggeration to suggest that everyone could hear each other ellipsing. "...Okay everyone, do you believe me now when I say that Cloud's gone off his rocker? Do you!"

"Give him a chance to explain himself!" exclaimed Tifa. "Go ahead, Cloud."

"Fine," he said. "I want you all to know, I am not surprised at the lack of confidence you have in me and my choices. I know they may not be the best ones, and I know... I know it all sounds crazy, but as crazy as it sounds, it's true. I'm sorry. You all have no idea what it feels like, and I can understand that, but would you please all at least try to see where I'm coming from?

"I know this is greedy. I know that this is something that I never should've done, or at least, should have done long ago as to not involve any of you in it. I know you're all doing this because you care, but it comes off to me as if you don't.

"Every morning, every night, I'm plagued. Haunted. It's like I'm resting, but I can never rest. And yes, I admit, it's driving me insane. All of it drives me insane. I've been having these dreams lately, and they're so real, but then I wake up and they're so far away from me. I'm sorry that I'm insane, it's really not something I can help."

Yuffie looked back at him. "I know this meeting is about you, but Cloud, life isn't about you. I know you've had tough times, but I want to be happy, too. Everyone wants to be happy, and in order for everyone to be happy, everyone's gotta sacrifice something. Even if it means sacrificing the one you love."

"No one," Tifa said firmly, "should have to sacrifice someone they love."

"Why are you on his side? I'm not the one who broke your heart; he is!"

"Because, Yuffie, I know how he feels! Even if we had been a happy couple for only a moment in life, that is completely fine with me. We've all given up a lot for everyone, but Cloud has especially. I think we should just leave him be for a little while, like he wants us to."

"I think we should help him," Cid said.

"How? How can you help me when some of the friends that I thought I was closest to don't even have my back? I don't need any help, all I need is a little peace and quiet." Cloud didn't realize he was on his feet until he had finished speaking.

The breeze warmed up, and blew faster, like a loving hand, brushed over his face. The rest of the party only felt it gently wizzing past their hair. "That..." Barret started, "is some creepy ass wind."

Cloud started to walk away, but Vincent placed a hand on his shoulder and slightly pushed down, gesturing for him to sit back down in his seat so he could finally get what he wanted. "Cloud," he said. "What is it that you most want?"

He thought for a moment. In looking at Vincent's eyes, he was met with a stare that he couldn't lie to. "I... I want him to come back." Those red irises changed as everyone fell to a silence that was staler than the rest had been. Even Vincent hadn't anticipated a response like that.

"I'm sorry, we can't do that," Tifa said. "You can't... bring back the dead, Cloud."

Yuffie refrained from her (now) somewhat-usual response of: "I told you he was crazy." She just sighed, and everyone got the picture. The only sound immediately after was that of Nanaki's clumsy ruffling through the bags of chips.

"We could do it," Cid said. "You know, because it wasn't hard for him to come back those other two times... 'slong as we can be sure he ain't crazy when we do it, we can accomplish that."

Yuffie shot him a look that said: "Cid, don't encourage Cloud to place his hopes and faiths in such a stupid and impossible idea." Cid shrugged in return and she wiped that expression off her face, as if no one would have noticed.

"I won't ask you to go out of your trouble to do something you don't want to for me," Cloud said. "In fact, I change my mind. What I want most right now, is some more sleep. So, if you will grant it to me, please do." Without waiting for a reply, he headed for his bedroom.

"We have to do it," Cid said.

"Why? Why would we do something so incredibly insane?" Yuffie asked.

"Cloud's done a lot for us," Tifa said. She sighed after a pause. "I'm never getting him back. He... ever since we were little kids... I never had him; I just hoped he'd never realize. But even if... even if he never loved me, I still love him, and it would be selfish of me to see him suffer the way he does."

"Besides," Vincent said, "If we find a way to resurrect Sephiroth, and he returns to us the way he was before... Even Cloud could not find a reason why we shouldn't send him back to his fiery grave."

There was a hum of agreement from everyone, except Yuffie, who was still trying to hold onto her case. "I can't believe you've all gone insane and forgot to tell me about it," she muttered. "But... you do have some points, and I would like to see Spiky happy for once. And, I do guess I owe him one," she admitted reluctantly.

"So, let's go tell Spiky the good news!" she exclaimed. She ran to his bedroom door and knocked on it. "Hey, Cloud! Cloooouuud! Wake up! I got a deal for you, okay? It requires you to answer me!"

He got up groggily and staggered to his door, fumbling to get the knob to turn. "Yeah?"

"Alright Spiky, here's the deal. In exchange for giving up the second thing that you said you wanted to spend time with us, we, as your good friends, have decided to try our hardest to grant you that first thing you most wanted."

"Nice try, Yuff," he said, closing his door.

She knocked on it harder. "CLOUD! I WASN'T KIDDING! Come out here and face me like a man! Come on! On my ninja's honor, I swear that we will try our hardest to bring back Sephiroth. Cloud!" Her look slackened at the futile attempt. "Cloud... I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to say the things I said. Cloud!" Nothing. "FINE! You want to make sure that I'm being honest! I... I swear... I swear on... MY MATERIA. HAH."

Cloud finally opened his door. "You really would do that all for me? Why?"

"Because Spiky, we love you. Okay, okay, and we owe you. And I kinda would like to know what it's like, you being happy and Sephiroth being not insane. But! We do have one condition. If he comes back and he's still hell-bent on destroying everyone, we can kill him, okay?"

"...Deal."

She jumped up and clapped her hands before running towards the others in the group, arms raised and spread like she was trying to fly. "Everybody, it's time to get to work! We're gonna revive Sephiroth! Ganbatte yo!"

"...Didn't you hate this idea five seconds ago?" Cloud asked, walking into his living room.

"I can change my mind, Cloud," she replied as her only defense.

"Yeah, that's what worries me," he said.

Tifa got up and brushed her skirt down. "Well, as long as we have that settled, I think this meeting is adjourned. Someone can organize the meeting next time, when we figure out a plan."

"Why can't we figure one out now?" asked Yuffie.

"Because, Yuffie," replied Tifa. "It's time for lunch."

"Take some of my gil," Cloud said. "There's a nice restaurant in Kalm past the materia shop. "I'm rather tired, so I'm going to go back to sleep."

"NAH UH! Cloud, it was part of our deal that you'd give up what you wanted most second in exchange for what you wanted most first. Therefore, you're spending the rest of the day with your lovely and very generous friends, got it?" Yuffie said in a dignified manner. Cloud had no choice but to oblige.

"Where do you want to go for lunch?" asked Cloud.

"Well, how about we just go to that place you recommended? " Yuffie suggested. "Come on, it shouldn't be a hard decision. Anyway, we shouldn't dwell on such matters because we're wasting time that we don't have."

"She's right," Tifa said. "We only have you for a day, Cloud, and then we're all yours. " She smiled and playfully punched him in the shoulder, which wasn't exactly very nice of her because then it hurt.

Nevertheless, all eight of them headed off towards Kalm to have their well-deserved lunch. Cloud reached for his house keys and a handful of gold coins before closing the door after everyone had exited.

Yuffie challenged Nanaki to a race as she started running towards the blue dot at the middle of the horizon. Both of them were far ahead of the rest of the party, and Yuffie realized she really should not have challenged Nanaki to a race. She thought that perhaps she should have chosen Cait Sith instead.

"Hey! Wait for me! " yelled Tifa after them. She had recently developed an instinct to watch over Yuffie, who had been the youngest. Even though Yuffie was then twenty-three, she still regarded her as the sixteen-year-old girl they had stumbled across while on their way to Nibelheim.

Suddenly, it seemed like everyone had decided to follow suit and run forward, each pushing themselves to try and win. Even Vincent had decided to participate in the escapades of the party.

The blue dot got bigger and bigger and they all finally made it to Kalm, breathless and tired. "We..." Yuffie started, "are so... out... of shape..."

"Speak for yourself," replied Nanaki. "But if you're all tired, I guess that I shall go and get us seating," he stated. He didn't even seem to be breathing harder than he had started. He walked into the restaurant that Cloud had recommended and said there was seating for eight. He hated being excluded from the table.

The others made their way slowly in as they walked over to the booth where Nanaki was situated at, Yuffie taking the seat to his left and starting to play with his mane.

Cloud hurried up the process and ordered a pitcher or big bottle of all the drinks they had to offer, except the coconut juice, which Barrett was firmly against in ordering, saying that he was allergic to it. No one contested this, even though in truth, he probably just didn't like the smell.

"I'll have the steak. No! Wait, I'm on a diet. Oh, but today's a special occasion... hmm... You know what, I'll go for the steak. Oh, no! You have lobster here? Oh wait, but that's too expensive..." Yuffie had wanted to place her order first, and the waiter was already worried that each of them would behave the way she did.

"It's okay, Yuffie. Order whatever you want. Order the most expensive thing on the menu if you want. Battle Monsters carry around more gil than they ought too, anyway," Cloud replied.

"Fine, in that case, I'll have the lobster," she said in all her dignity, folding the menu with a slap, and gracefully extending her arm to the waiter to retrieve. "Thank you, dahling."

"I'll just have the side salad and a small vegetable soup," Tifa said. "No dressing, please." She handed the menu to the man and looked back at Cloud, who was looking at her in an odd manner. "What? I'm not hungry today."

Barrett, Red XIII, and Cid ordered steaks and Vincent ordered a grilled chicken. Cait Sith ordered a tall watermelon juice because he liked the color, and also the play umbrella that came with it.

"I'll have the Wutaian spicy bean curd with sprouts, please." After his order, he returned his attention to his friends. "So, in attempts for you all to find out what's been going on in my life these past few years, none of you give any intimation on what you yourselves have been up to. How about you, Yuffie? In these last five years, has anything significant happened?"

"Of course not! If it had, I would've called you about it," she replied as if he was being stupid about the whole thing. "I've just been traveling as usual. You know, like I did before I met you guys. Still, I haven't found anyone quite as interesting as you lot."

"Well, obviously," Tifa stated, "since we are the most interesting people on the planet. We are a representation of the entire planet. Everywhere from Midgar to The Gold Saucer to North Corel to Rocket Town to Cosmo Canyon to Wutai to Nibelheim."

"Yeah!" Cait Sith chimed in. "All we need now are people from Mideel and Junon and Gongaga and Bone Village and--"

"I don't think that's what she meant," Cloud interrupted. "In any case, our food's here." None of them had even noticed and some looked embarrassed as they reached for their plates. "Sorry for keeping you waiting."

Yuffie reached over and took a little steak and a slice of mushroom off Nanaki's plate. "What? Don't look at me like that; you can have some of my lobster. You have had lobster before, right?"

"And you two?" he directed towards Cid and Vincent.

"You've never had lobster!"

"Nothing terribly exciting. Unless, of course, you want extreme detail, in which I am sure would have caused you to pay for these meals for absolutely no reason. Well, except ours, obviously," Vincent said without a second thought.

"I tell you, everyone's gone nuts."

"Wow! Cloud, you're already finished?" Tifa looked at his plate with astonishment. It was completely cleaned and looked sparkling, even. "You've never eaten anything that fast before," she commented. "Where'd you learn to do that?"

"I... uh, am not entirely sure," he replied. "I must have been starved."

"Well then, order something else," Yuffie suggested. "I suggest the lobster! It's amazingly soft. Oh, or you could just order a huge dessert! There's nothing like a whole lot of sugar to make you happy."

"No, I'll just... watch you guys eat," he replied.

"Nonsense, Cloud. If yer worried about the bill, I'll pay it," Barrett offered.

"It's not that. I don't feel like eating anymore." Cloud put his arms behind his head and reclined into the soft seat. "Maybe I'll have a dessert with you all though," he added, as he leaned back up to pour himself a cup of tea.

"You know, we should all get you like, tea or something for your birthday. You like, inhale it. Oh man, we missed your last birthday, didn't we? We missed Vinny's, too... hold on." Yuffie dug into her pocket and pulled out a ring she had one at the Golden Saucer and a tiny notepad whose cover was doodled all over. "There! ...I'll get you guys real gifts later."

Both of them, unsurprisingly, politely declined to not only the temporary gift, but also the permanent one. Yuffie, in return, rolled her eyes. "Boys," she muttered. "Can't you just put away those giant egos for a second?"

"Now you know if they did that, they'd plummet all the way back down to the Planet and we'd have to admit them to the emergency room," Tifa said. "Or waste a lot of energy trying to heal the wounds. And then they wouldn't be pretty anymore because of the awful scarring."

"Oh, you're probably right. Besides, they'd probably just angst more, and everyone knows that we've seen far too much of that already. Especially you two. God, lighten up! You've got one life to live, so live it!" Yuffie pointed to herself and extended her chest. "That's my motto; that's my advice."

"Yeah, yeah," Cloud replied. "Easier said than done."

"Well, I just so happened to have forgotten that you're old now," she said. "Yeah, you're only two years away from hitting the big three-o. That's gotta hurt somewhere down there in your inner child."

"Yeah, but you know, Sephiroth would be... thirty seven by now if he hadn't died. I think that, if or when we bring him back, he'll still look like he's twenty five," Cloud stated. "That will certainly be interesting."

"Oh yeah, Sephiroth..." Yuffie trailed off, rather disappointed-sounding. "Yeah, well, when he comes back, not if, but when, I bet he'll be just as pretty as when he left us. I mean, he had really nice hair for a guy..."

Tifa looked proudly at Yuffie as if to say: "Nice save." "Yeah, he was always groomed. Actually, I kinda always liked the color of it. And no matter what, it always seemed to sway..."

Yuffie smiled back in response to the look she had been sent.

Before they could order anything else, the waiter came over with the bill. "We haven't had dessert," Cloud said after him, but the rest of the party argued that they didn't want dessert anyway, so he just paid it. "Fine, but you're letting me buy you all ice cream."

There was a unanimous agreement to this, and all of them got up from the table to leave. "Well, you were right. This place was kind of nice," Tifa commented. "I uh, like the décor."

"You don't have to pretend like you had a good time," Cloud replied. "After all, I have the rest of the day to redeem myself, don't I?"

With that said, the whole party, reformed again, started walking towards the exit to see what the rest of the day had in store for them.