Cloud was dragged out of bed the next morning by the smell of something delicious cooking downstairs in the bar area. He had pulled the covers over his head against the sunlight as it came streaming through the window, and buried his face in the pillow against the sounds of Marlene and Denzel running up and down the halls, but the smell of Tifa's cooking was unavoidable. The rumbling of his stomach urged him out of bed.
He lumbered slowly down the stairs, still yawing and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. His bare feet slapped loudly against the floor as he moved towards the bar area, patting his rumbling belly reassuringly. It wasn't until he swung the door open that he realized that there were voices in addition to Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel's.
Like every other Monday morning, the bar had more than a few early risers grabbing a bite before work. An older woman clucked her tongue disapprovingly at him before returning to her breakfast. A few others were giggling. Cloud blushed as he realized that he had come down for breakfast in just pajama pants. As he attempted to slip out the door without drawing more attention to himself, he was silently grateful that he actually wore pajamas to bed.
"Good morning Cloud!" a cheerful voice chirped.
Cloud winced and froze in his tracks. Marlene was giggling behind her hand as all the costumers turned to see who Marlene was talking to. Cloud gave a half-hearted little wave before slipping out the door, cheeks aflame.
"At least I'm awake now..." he mumbled sullenly as he tromped back up the stairs to get dressed.
He took a long time getting dressed, in hope that whatever costumers where there when he was, would be gone. He trudged reluctantly down the stairs, and slipped in through the bar door, and slid into a seat up front. Cloud let out a sigh of relief when his entrance remained unnoticed.
"So..." a gentle teasing voice came from behind the bar. "I heard breakfast came with a show this morning?"
Cloud looked up sulkily. Tifa's eyes were sparkling with laughter. He tried to fight the smile curling up on his lips, but one look at Tifa, and he realized the effort was futile. He smiled at her slowly, and when Tifa's full spread over her face, Cloud felt the familiar little jump in his stomach.
Then, Cloud realized they had been staring and smiling at each other for quite awhile, and the costumers were watching them curiously. Tifa seemed to realize it too, and quickly busied herself with the glasses, cheeks tinged pink. Her nose wrinkled as the ends of her bangs tickled it, and she reached up distractedly to push them behind her ear.
It wasn't until Marlene bustled into the bar with Denzel at her heels that Cloud realized that he hadn't looked away from Tifa yet. He turned his head away quickly and scratched the back of his head embarrassedly. The kids rushed up to the bar when they noticed Cloud sitting up front.
"You forgot Seventh Heaven was open today, didn't you Cloud?" Denzel asked knowingly.
Marlene giggled.
"You're gunna scare all our costumers away!" she said, nearly falling off the barstool with giggles.
Denzel scowled disdainfully at Marlene, and hopped up on the barstool next to Cloud, his short legs swinging.
"What are you doing today Cloud?" Denzel asked, a tone of pleading in his voice. "Are you going out?"
Marlene rolled her eyes and went behind the bar to see if she could help Tifa and maybe swipe a bit of candy in the process. Though Marlene was always wide-eyed with eagerness when it came to helping Tifa with the bar, Denzel had always been less enthusiastic. He knew Tifa wouldn't mind if he left the bar to go play, but he got bored quickly without Marlene. Going out with Cloud had always been an exciting prospect for him, but he had been too sick before to leave home for long.
But now he was quite healthy, and he stared up at Cloud with big eyes full of admiration and hope.
"Yea, I'm going out." Cloud answered Denzel amusedly. "Did you want to come?"
His entire face lighting up, Denzel nodded at Cloud enthusiastically.
"Go ask Tifa if it's okay then," Cloud told Denzel.
Cloud watched as Denzel jumped off the barstool and ran around the bar, nearly knocking over several chairs as he did so. Maybe I'd be doing Tifa a favor by taking Denzel... Cloud thought, smiling wryly. The little boy was tugging on Tifa's arm excitedly, pulling her attention away from the costumer she'd been talking to.
"Tifa, Tifa!" he said urgently. "Gotta ask you something!"
Tifa smiled and gave the costumer a quick apology before bending down to Denzel.
"What's up?" she asked cheerfully.
"Cloud wanted me to ask you if it was okay if I went out with him today!" Denzel blurted happily in one breath.
Tifa looked surprised for a second, but she smiled quickly and nodded to Denzel. He made to run back over to Cloud, but Tifa grabbed his arm.
"Go get ready." she said pointing her finger upstairs in the direction of his room."And don't forget a jacket!"
Denzel groaned, but obliged and ran out of the bar. Tifa quickly finished up with the costumer and walked back to the bar where Cloud was sitting. She began wiping glasses distractedly, but looked up at him after a moment.
"So you're going to see Reeve today?" she asked with an adopted casual tone.
Cloud nodded and Tifa ducked her head over the glasses, sighing.
"What time do you think you'll be back?" she asked quietly.
"Late, probably." Cloud told her. "Is that okay?"
Tifa nodded as she stacked the glasses. She looked up at him, a touch of anxiety in her eyes.
"Do you think it will take long?" she asked Cloud lowly.
Cloud shrugged.
"I just want to talk with Reeve... see if I can find out anything new." he assured her quietly. "But who knows how long it will take to track him down. We ran into him through sheer luck yesterday."
They looked away from each other and towards the doorway as Denzel came skidding into the bar, grinning widely. Cloud and Tifa exchanged amused smiles. Tifa grabbed Cloud's empty breakfast plate and he stood up from his stool.
"I'll see you both tonight then." Tifa said softly. "Be careful!"
Cloud nodded and put a brief, reassuring hand on her shoulder before he walked over to Denzel. Cloud and Denzel both paused to smile and wave at Tifa before walking out the door. Tifa was just waving back at them when Marlene emerged from the back room and began tugging on the end of Tifa's skirt.
"Where are they going?" she asked, watching them go curiously.
Tifa put an arm around Marlene's shoulder and gave her a little squeeze.
"They're going out." she told her, smiling cheerfully. "It's just us girls today."
The morning passed quickly, and by mid-afternoon, Cloud and Denzel still hadn't located Reeve. Not that we're trying all that hard... Cloud thought, somewhat guiltily. They had taken Fenrir, Cloud's motorcycle, to the town cicle instead of walking. .Denzel had been beside himself in excitement and it hadn't taken him long to convince Cloud to take the long way so they could ride longer.
Denzel clutched at his shoulders tightly as he rode behind him on the motorcycle, head whipping back and forth as he looked around him. Ever now and then, he'd try to convince Cloud to race another person on motorcycle, or to try and attempt a wheelie. Cloud would laugh but refuse; Tifa would probably kill him if he crashed his motorcycle with Denzel on it.
When they ended up at the town circle, Denzel slumped slightly in disappointment. After Cloud parked on the side of a street, Denzel hopped off, his hair comically windswept. His disappointment quickly disappeared as he looked around the city and up at Cloud.
"So what're we doing?" he asked Cloud eagerly.
Cloud scanned the crowd around them. Citizens intermingled with WRO workers, as they busily continued working on the street.
"Remember the man you met yesterday?' he asked Denzel, still looking around. "We're trying to find him again."
"Oooh." Denzel said, nodding wisely. "You mean Steve."
Cloud tried not to laugh.
"Reeve." he corrected with a smile.
They had stepped off the curb and waded into the sea of people, on the lookout for Reeve, but it quickly became apparent that the task was going to be more difficult than they had thought. Eventually they decided to skirt around the outside of the crowd, and search around the edges of it, but that proved to be a mistake.
The many stores and stands around the circle were a great source of distraction for Denzel. Cloud had managed to drag him away from the toy store and a few others, but when Denzel had pressed his face up against the window of a new weapon store, Cloud hadn't been able to resist, and they entered the store.
They wandered around the store a bit, Cloud closely examining the merchandise, checking the quality with expertise and scoffing silently at the prices, Denzel close at his heels. When he had been closely eyeballing a protective bangle, he heard a loud crash, and winced as he realized that Denzel wasn't behind him anymore. He and Denzel had been escorted out the door by the annoyed shopkeeper. Cloud kept a closer eye on Denzel from that point on.
So the morning and afternoon had been passed in half-hearted searching looks through the crowds punctuated with short trips into stores that caught Denzel's eye. They had now walked around the cirlce several times, and to no avail. Cloud sighed and sat down on a bench for a minute. Denzel plopped down next to him.
"What do we do now Cloud?" he asked, sounding completely confident that Cloud would have a solution.
"Hmm..." Cloud said thoughtfully. "How about we see if we can find another WRO official. They might know where Reeve is."
Denzel jumped up after Cloud as he stood from the bench.
"How do you tell an official from a regular worker?" he asked Cloud craning his head to see through the crowd.
"Different uniform." Cloud said. "Bigger gun."
Denzel's eyes got big, and Cloud felt a little guilty for drawing Denzel's attention to the sleek guns strapped at the waists of the members of the WRO. They continued searching quietly through the crowd. Barely ten minutes after they had begun looking, Denzel tugged on Cloud's sleeve and pointed to a man to their left. The man was wearing a sleek suit, quite different from the worker's uniforms, with WRO printed in official lettering on a bronze pin. He was holding a folder and every now and then, a worker would come up to him and ask a question. And like Cloud had told Denzel, the gun at his hip was significantly bigger and more dangerous looking.
Cloud strode up to the man, Denzel close behind him. When Cloud addressed the man, Denzel hid behind Cloud, shy as always in the presence of a stranger.
"Reeve around here today?" Cloud asked, short and to the point.
The man looked at Cloud somewhat suspiciously. It seemed for a minute that the man wouldn't answer Cloud, but when he saw Denzel standing timidly behind him, he seemed to decide that Cloud wasn't a threat.
"No," the man answered curtly. "Reeve's in the office today."
The man was quickly pulled away into other business, as a female worker came up to him, motioning sheepishly to the sign she had just managed to screw on upside down.
"Well Denzel," Cloud said, ushering Denzel back to where they'd parked. "Looks like we're going to WRO headquarters."
Marlene looked up at the sky as she sat on the front porch of the Seventh Heaven. The day had started rather sunny, but the sun was beginning to be obstructed by dark gloomy clouds. She frowned slightly when the rather pleasant day turned cold as the sun became blocked out. The wind picked up, ruffling her carefully braided hair. She scowled at the sky as the wind mussed her bangs.
The swirling, ominous clouds continued coming in. Marlene could no longer see even a patch of blue sky. The wind was becoming stronger and Marlene was continuously trying to push strands of hair out of her eyes as they escaped from her braid. Finally, she got annoyed with the continually deteriorating weather, and slipped back into the Seventh Heaven.
She tromped back into the bar, looking windswept. Tifa was wiping the bar looking a little bored. It was just after the lunch rush and the bar was empty save for a couple of kids older than Marlene filling up on sweets. Tifa smiled at Marlene's disgruntled expression as she climbed up onto a barstool.
"The stupid wind messed up my braid." she pouted in explanation.
Tifa smiled and smoothed the free strands back.
"Is it really that windy out?" Tifa asked, trying to peer out the windows from her place behind the bar. "It wasn't this morning."
Marlene nodded emphatically.
"The wind's crazy!" she told Tifa. "And the sky's gone all cloudy and dark."
Tifa walked out from behind the bar to look out a window. As Marlene said, dark clouds were filling the sky and Tifa could tell by the swaying street signs that the wind was blowing strongly.
"You two better get home!" Tifa said to her young costumers. "There's a bad storm moving in."
The kids paid and thanked Tifa and left the bar quickly, leaving Marlene and Tifa alone in the quiet bar. Tifa was watching the sky silently from the window. Marlene hopped off the barstool and joined her at the window. Marlene grabbed Tifa's hand as she watched the first raindrops fall.
"This is just like that scary storm a couple days ago." Marlene whispered to Tifa. "The one that looked like the storm from meteor..."
Tifa smiled at Marlene and gave her a little hug. She led them away from the window and out of the bar area.
"It's just a regular, old storm this time Marlene." she told her as she opened the door to change the sign to closed.
Marlene nodded at Tifa's words but still shrunk away from the wind and rain coming from the open door. Before Tifa closed the door she paused in the doorway. The storm is going to get worse fast... she thought worriedly. I hope Cloud and Denzel get home before it gets too bad.
Cloud and Denzel were well on their way by the time they felt the first raindrops. W.R.O headquarters was located outside of the town of Edge, and on the far outskirts of the old, dilapidated Midgar. As they passed in front of the place Zacks had died, Cloud gave a faint grin in memory of his friend, but it quickly turned into a grimace as he realized headquarters was all the way on the other side. We're about to get soaked... he thought, looking nervously at the menacing clouds.
Just as he finished forming the thought, the clouds dumped water on them in a constant downpour. Cloud groaned and he felt Denzel's hands clutch the back of his shirt tighter as thunder rumbled in the not so far distance. Water was obscuring his vision, but he managed to stay on the now muddy path well enough. He performed a quick turn to avoid running into a tree and mud splattered all over him and Denzel.
"Don't worry," he reassured Denzel over the sounds of the wind, rain, and thunder. "We're almost there."
Denzel made a response that was indistinguishable over the sound of the storm. Cloud was now sure that Denzel would rip a hole in his shirt if he gripped it any tighter. Their wet, miserable ride continued for several more minutes before Cloud first spotted the large outline of the W.R.O headquarters. By the barely audible sigh of relief made behind him, Cloud could tell Denzel had spotted it too.
They pulled up into the large lot in front of the building. There were various vehicles parked there: trucks, motorcycles, buses, old tanks, and several cars. Cloud parked the motorcycle near the front and quickly helped Denzel off the back.
Soaked to the skin and covered in mud, they ran towards the front doors. The rain, wind, and thunder were increasing in intensity, and Cloud could have sworn he felt hail hit against his skin. Cloud's hair was becoming limp and weighed down with the weight of the water. He noticed that Denzel's soaked hair was flattened down into his eyes.
They both sighed in relief as their hands pushed against the front doors and entered the building. Cloud and Denzel entered quickly and found themselves in a rather large lobby, dripping mud and water on the mat in front of the door. The receptionist looked less than pleased to see them. Cloud and Denzel wipe their feet on the mat, but it didn't make much of a difference. Cloud gave the receptionist an apologetic shrug as he approached her desk.
"How can I help you?" she asked unenthusiastically, scowling as a bit of mud slid off Cloud's arm and just missed hitting her polished desk.
"We're here to see Reeve." Cloud told her.
The receptionist immediately began flipping through a notebook.
"Name?" she asked shortly.
"Cloud." he answered, trying to keep any more mud from dripping off him.
"Cloud..." she repeated slowly her bespectacled eyes searched the page. "Do you have a last name?"
"Strife." he told her.
Immediately, the receptionist slammed the book shut and gave him and Denzel an annoyed look.
"Reeve is very busy today." she said dismissively. "If you'd like me to, I can make you an appointment for tomorrow."
Cloud shook his head. The receptionist scowled fiercely as water flecked her desk.
"We're not leaving until I talk to Reeve." he told her firmly. "I suppose you don't mind if we stick around for awhile."
Her eyes looked at Cloud's wet, mud covered form and them to Denzel who was shifting from foot to foot, his dripping shoes making odd squelching sounds. She sighed in an annoyed manner.
"I'll send him a memo saying you're here." she snapped.
She stood up, but Cloud stopped her.
"Before you go," he said quickly. "Is there a phone I can use?"
The receptionist quickly pushed her own phone out of sight and pointed a finger to the pay phone in the opposite corner. She hurried off down a hallway that led out of the lobby. Cloud and Denzel exchanged slightly guilty looks as they tracked mud across the floor all the way over to the pay phone.
"Who're you calling?" Denzel asked Cloud, pushing wet clumps of hair out of his face and leaving mud streaks on his forehead.
Cloud dug around in his pocket for some spare change.
"Tifa." he answered. "She'll want to know we made it okay."
For some reason, these words seemed to make Denzel nervous. He ducked his head quickly from Cloud's gaze and began making squelching noises with his shoes again. Cloud watched him curiously for a moment, but shrugged it off and placed the coins in the slot. He dialed the number and waited for a minute. Nothing.
Cloud hung the phone up and scratched his head wonderingly. Denzel was now wringing his hands anxiously.
"Is the phone in my room still the only one in Seventh Heaven?" Cloud asked him, watching his strange behavior curiously.
"Yes..." Denzel squeaked.
Denzel's face turned bright red. He seemed extremely distressed about something. Cloud hesitated a minute before asking.
"What's up?" he said, bewildered at Denzel's odd anxiety.
Denzel looked up nervously, and he seemed to shrink away from Cloud's gaze slightly. Cloud began to feel slightly alarmed.
"Denzel." he said slowly. "What's wrong?"
These words seemed to break open the dam.
"Well-I – um..." Denzel stuttered. "I mean me and Marlene...uhh."
Cloud looked at him expectantly and Denzel looked down, continuing rapidly.
"Before you woke up the other daywe just kind of...well..." Denzel trailed off.
"Kind of what?" Cloud prompted.
"We broke your phone." Denzel said, his voice tiny.
Cloud stared at him a minute. Denzel looked at his feet, refusing to meet Cloud's gaze.
"Well..." Cloud began lowly. "Was it an accident?"
Denzel sniffled and shook his head, still refusing to look up. Cloud sighed. He wasn't mad exactly, he was just confused as to why Denzel and Marlene would purposely break something. Guess Tifa will have to wait until we get back... Cloud thought, turning away from the pay phone. Denzel risked a quick glance at Cloud. His bottom lip quivered slightly. Cloud sighed again.
"I'm not mad." he told Denzel, and some of the fear disappeared from Denzel's face. "I just don't understand why..."
Denzel shuffled his feet uncomfortably.
"Me and Marlene thought..." he muttered eyes looking at the ground. "that if you didn't get calls, you wouldn't leave anymore."
Cloud suddenly felt as though he had been punched in the stomach. He opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn't think of anything to say. Denzel looked up at him and Cloud seemed to realize he wasn't done.
"And umm..." Denzel said, looking away akwardly. "I thought that maybe..."
"You thought what?" Cloud asked quietly, not sure if he wanted Denzel to finish his sentence.
"I thought that if you were around all the time..." Denzel mumbled uncomfortably, "Tifa might not be so sad anymore."
The ability to speak left Cloud quickly. He now felt as though he had been stabbed in the stomach rather than punched. Denzel looked up anxiously, but Cloud found himself unable to force even the brittlest of smiles. He sighed shakily and clapped a reassuring hand on Denzel's shoulder. All Denzel had done was speak the truth, and as brutal as the truth had been, Cloud was glad he told him.
"Am I in trouble?" Denzel asked, voice barely above a whisper.
Cloud shook his head, throat still to tight to respond. Denzel visibly relaxed.
"And..." Denzel said looking up at Cloud. "You're...not mad?"
This time Cloud managed a small smile.
"I'm not mad." he reassured Denzel.
They both made to walk over the chairs lined up against the wall of the lobby, but they were quickly stopped as the receptionist hurried into the room, heels clicking loudly against the floor.
"Mr. Strife!" she said, looking slightly apologetic and abashed. "Mr. Reeve will see you now."
Cloud motioned for Denzel to follow, and they walked behind the receptionist into the broad hallway.
