Title:
Prompt: Cloud/Tifa dinner with Tifa's dad
For: Space-halo
Summary: No one was good enough for his little girl.

The waiter was glaring at Cloud and Cloud glared right back.

"So," the waiter began. "Another water until your party gets here?"

"Please," Cloud replied shortly.

"Right away, sir," The waiter grunted and turned away quickly. Cloud had a feeling he wouldn't be seeing the waiter again anytime soon.

Cloud glanced back down at his watch and sighed; they should've been here by now. He had picked up Robin at three, and they should've gotten out of the appointment at about four so they had planned on meeting at Giano's at five. It was six o'clock, and Robin was getting cranky, and Tifa and her father were nowhere to be found.

The waiter was crankier than Robin since he'd been taking up a table for nearly an hour now.

Robin looked up at him from her two dolls for the umpteenth time and frowned. "Where's mommy?"

"On her way, sweetie," Cloud replied patiently.

Robin huffed and went back to playing; apparently her happiness at seeing him at daycare earlier had worn off. He was old news now to her.

Cloud loved his wife, Cloud loved his daughter, Cloud did not, however, love his father in law. Cloud's mother had always been so proud of him at becoming a doctor; some of the men he worked with at the hospital who were also doctors complained about their mothers. They were rude to their girlfriends, or wives, and they were pronounced not good enough for their sons. However, since they were doctors, usually their in-laws were happy with them and their profession; they were obviously smart and could provide for their significant others. So, Cloud figured, when he finally met his wife, her parents would be pleased, if not thrilled, to have a doctor as a son in law.

The he had met Tifa, and even his mother loved her, and they got along pretty well all things considered; the other doctors were jealous. Their wives complained all the time about how their mothers were always being rude, or giving back handed compliments like 'Oh the roast isn't so bad this time, honey. You're getting better!'. It wasn't like that for Tifa and his mom; they got along and even shared recipes, and giggled over baby pictures of Cloud (that was one thing he could've done without).

Cloud figured since everything went so well with his mom, things should go just fine with Tifa's dad.

He had never been more wrong in his life. Tifa's dad hated him. Despised him. Wished him gone from the very face of the planet; Cloud still didn't know what he had done wrong to make Tifa's father hate him so much.

Tifa's grandmother loved him, and loved that he was a doctor, and the only thing that Tifa's dad thought Cloud had done right was provide his DNA so that Tifa's dad could have a grandkid. Scratch that; if Cloud had done that right, none of his DNA would've been in with Tifa's to make Robin. It should've just been pure Tifa. If Tifa could've asexually reproduced, her dad would've been a lot happier.

"Cloud!"

"Mommy!"

Cloud looked up, relaxing the scowl on his face and saw Tifa hurrying towards them.

"Hey baby," Tifa bent down to kiss Robin on the top of the head and grab her little fingers. Robin giggled uncontrollably and began playing with renewed interest with her downs, shoving one into Tifa's hand.

Tifa moved it absentmindedly as she scooted into the booth beside of Cloud and kissed him. She moved the doll without looking and danced it across the table alongside of Robin's.

"I'm so sorry; the doctor was backed up, and then we got stuck in traffic. Dad had to run by the store, too, so it was just a giant pain in the you know what. How long have you been waiting?"

"About an hour. The waiter isn't too happy."

Tifa's face crumpled with guilt, "I'm so sorry."

"Where's your dad—

"Boo-Bear!"

Cloud stopped talking and stared straight ahead as Tifa's dad came up to the table. Robin squealed with delight and clapped her hands. Tifa briefly squeezed his knee with her free hand, and then smiled at her dad.

"Sit down, dad."

Tifa's dad tickled Robin's cheek before finally sliding into the seat.

"Cloud," he said stiffly.

Cloud nodded his head once, "Mr. Lockhart."

Tifa's dad grunted something unintelligible and then turned his attention back to Robin.

"And is this everybody?" the waiter had materialized beside of Tifa's elbow.

She beamed up at him, and the waiter beamed back. "Yes, we're so sorry for the wait."

"No problem," the waiter replied, smiling.

Cloud sulked while he took their orders; how come it was nothing for Tifa to have the waiter be friendly to her? How come he couldn't do that? Was it a waiter thing? She had been a waiter, and Cloud was pretty sure she had been the only waiter or waitress to ever like him. All others seemed to scorn his existence, sort of like Tifa's dad. Maybe everyone but Tifa scorned his existence.

And Robin, Robin was obligated to not scorn his existence. Scorning his existence would mean scorning her own.

"How was daycare, sweetie?" Tifa was asking Robin now. Robin would only have eyes for her for a while; that meant Cloud had to square off with Mr. Lockhart.

Really, Mr. Lockhart. Cloud wasn't allowed to call him anything else after being married to his daughter for three years. It was disrespectful, even though his mom called Tifa sugar, and honey, and Tifa called her Linda. It was disrespectful to be treated this way.

"Everything check out okay, Mr. Lockhart?"

"It did, I'm sure to your happiness," he replied sourly.

That was the other thing; the man took no lengths to even hiding his hate. Tifa even knew he hated Cloud, and usually she played a pretty good peacemaker. Tifa had only once asked them to do something together by themselves, to try and bridge the gap that existed in their relationship, and that had ended in broken bones.

"Always glad to hear it," Cloud replied.

"And work?"

"Fine," Cloud grunted back at him.

"Good."

"Your mother?"

"Peachy. Yours?"

"Bit under the weather. A cold."

"I am sorry to hear that," Mr. Lockhart said, and was honest. He even loved Cloud's mom, but he didn't love Cloud. It didn't make any SENSE.

And now he had to sit through an entire dinner with the man. Tifa loved him, Robin loved him, he loved Robin, he loved Tifa, so why couldn't he love Cloud? Not even love him! Just respect and tolerate him, maybe even like him a bit. Cloud was willing to do the same for him, but the man had never given him a chance! Tifa said that her dad had been like that with all of her boyfriends though; she said it probably had something to do with her mom being gone and everything.

Course then that got into the whole conversation of Tifa's ex-boyfriends which Cloud had no desire to hear about, even though Mr. Lockhart talked about one of them with great respect and fawning. Tifa said he hadn't started to talk about Reno like that until after she married Cloud; she said up until that point her dad had hated Reno.

That only told the level of hate Tifa's dad had for him now; if he had gone from hating a man with a name like Reno to loving him all because of Cloud, well, that hate just didn't exist in normal time and space. That kind of hate was only found at the seventh gate of hell.

Tifa's dad glared at him again.

Maybe Cloud should just be outright rude to him, too. But Tifa said it only made it worse. How could it get any worse than this? It seemed pretty bleak already. Might as well just fight back. He felt pretty much like a pansy for just sitting there and taking the abuse from Mr. Lockhart. Maybe that was why he didn't respect him; because Cloud had never stood up to him before.

"I'm going to run to the restroom," Tifa said suddenly, and slipped out of the seat.

Maybe this was it; maybe this was the chance to finally stand up to Tifa's dad.

"Mr. Lockhart," Cloud began.

The man turned his gaze to Cloud and scowled. Did he always scowl? Or was it only Cloud that brought that out? Surely he was grumpy elsewhere, right?

"I know that you and I have had our differences over the years. I have always respected you, and I know obviously you are a very…good man to have raised Tifa to be the woman she is by yourself."

He was sitting back now, crossing his arms and studying Cloud intently.

"I just think it would be better if we could be more…friendly. Robin's getting older now, and starting to understand more, and I think it best if we can get along better in front of her and Tifa at least."

Mr. Lockhart grunted.

"I just think we should try to be a little more respectful of one another, for the sake of Robin."

"So you don't want to get more respectful just because of me? I think I deserve respect regardless of my grandbaby or not."

"That wasn't what I meant; I've always respected you—

Mr. Lockhart let out a harsh, barking laugh. "You just want me to lay off. Strife, you're not gonna get it until your baby is a teenager and these boys come running around. They're nothing but animals, but she didn't take any of 'em seriously, not even Reno, and he was a good guy." Cloud bit the inside of his mouth. "Then you come along, and you're together all of a year before you get married. Can you understand my apprehension? It seemed a little rushed, even your mother thought so. We talked about it—

"See! That's my point! I don't get it how you can love my mother and not even like me!" Cloud burst out before he could realize it.

"I like your mom because I feel bad she had to raise you," Mr. Lockhart said simply.

Cloud's mouth popped open, but then he shut it quickly. He raised a finger to say something and shook it for a few seconds before the words would come.

"Listen here, this is only going to get worse the more time goes without changing anything! Robin's getting older, Tifa's getting tired of it, I'm tired of it, and I don't appreciate it very much. Tifa and I are going to be together for the rest of our lives, so you might as well learn to deal with it and like me a little bit more, and since we're expecting again it's only going to become more important that you and I—

"Wait, what?" Tifa's father cut him off. "Expecting?" Cloud watched as Mr. Lockhart jumped from his seat, and go charging down the aisle between the booths. Tifa was at the end coming back from the bathroom.

"Another baby! Another grandbaby?" He was grabbing her arms, grinning, and Tifa was grinning back, telling him yes. "Cloud just told me!"

Cloud felt a little jolt; that was the first time Mr. Lockhart had called him Cloud, and not Strife, or idiot, as he usually preferred.

Mr. Lockhart tugged Tifa back down to their table, squeezing Robin's arm.

"You're going to be a big sister! Another baby! You're going to be a mother again! Oh another grandbaby. Congratulations Robin! I'm so happy for you Tifa!"

Cloud was promptly ignored, which he liked better than being insulted, so he ate the rest of his meal in silence, and was rewarded with a pat on the shoulder from his father-in-law as a goodbye.

Cloud went and got the car and left Tifa and Robin with her father while they waited for him. Cloud came up, and Tifa slipped Robin into her car seat, and slid in next to Cloud.

"Well that wasn't too bad," Tifa said. "He took the news well, I told you he would."

Cloud grunted.

Tifa was grinning at him, Cloud knew, but he refused to look over at her.

She kept grinning and staring at him for a minute or two, and Cloud finally sighed and looked over.

"What?"

She leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Dad is so happy. He hopes it's a boy this time, so we can have a little Cloud to go with our little Tifa."

A/N: So, here I am. I don't know what's up, but I was looking through all my old fanfictions earlier this week. I think it's quite sad I haven't written anything for here in quite a while and I still need to get on Cygnus Olor! But I digress, I was looking at my old stores and I hate them now! I don't know if any of you others ever experience that, especially A time for Love, Come TOgether, and My Cloud. I was so young when I wrote those! Ugh, they make me sick now. I remember reading an interview with Tamora Pierce (Not that I could ever compare myself to her) about how she couldn't even read the first book she wrote anymore because of all the things she wishes she could've changed in it. I feel the same way about my early fanfiction; it's almost embarassing for me to read now. HA!

Anyway dearies, I'll try to update more. Enjoy!