"Lily, what are you doing?" a voice asked making Lily pause what she was doing and caused her to turn her head to see a spiky blonde haired boy with green eyes that matched their mothers. It was her younger brother Aaron.
"Shush!" she hissed out quietly, the young teen didn't want anyone to know what she was doing, especially her parents. If one of them saw her out here this early in the morning around all these presents, she would be in deep trouble. They would think that she was trying to sneak a peek at her Christmas presents. Even though she was in the middle of the floor wrapping a huge box with only the light from the tree to be her guide.
A present that Lily spent months saving up for. Something that she had to do countless hours of research for, though it ended with her asking uncle Zack what she should get. A gift that she hid for weeks until she finally brought it out to wrap it.
A present for her dad. Something for his motorcycle… well, it was something her mother always wanted him to get, but he was slightly too stubborn to get one. I'm pretty sure part of the reason was that he didn't want his hair to become more of an untamable mess of spikes… or to have them flattened.
"He's almost crashed a few times," she remembered Zack telling her, "he's going to hurt himself and your mother would freak."
So here she was wrapping a box her gift was in… hoping that he will like it and use it.
"You wanna help?" she asked her brother, wanting to get this done faster so she could go back to bed… not to mention that she sucked at gift wrapping and now that her little brother was a awake Lily wanted an extra pair hand.
/
Cloud opened his blue eyes as the first rays of daylight pierced the window, but as he looked around, he noticed something. That it was still dark enough for him to see the light on. A dim light, like the lights from the Christmas tree.
Cloud rolled over, carefully shifting his wife's head onto the pillow as he faced her.
"Hey honey, I think that the kids are awake," he said, as he tried to wake Aerith up.
The only groaned and sank deeper into the pillows.
"Umm… Aaron and Lily are in the living room," Cloud heard Denzel say from the open door, "you might want to get out there before they start tearing the wrapping paper."
"Be up in a minute," Aerith muttered as she rubbed at her eyes. In an effort to open them, "Cloud, can you make sure they aren't going to open anything until I'm out there?"
"Okay," Cloud replied as he got up, put on a shirt and walked out into the living room. But then he saw something that made him pause, right in the middle was a black present that wasn't there when he went to bed last night and that his children were curled up side by side in the middle of the floor. Fast asleep.
When his body allowed him to move, he walked up to the sleeping pair and kneeled to wake them up.
Lily was the first to open her eyes, and yawn, "Merry Christmas dad."
"Merry Christmas," he replied as he watched her pull the black present to her before pushing it to her dad, "what's this?"
Aaron opened his eyes, "Lily got it for you… open it."
Cloud looked at his children with disbelief in his eyes, never had his kids actually got him anything. Most of his gifts came from Aerith - who just put the kid's names on some of them- and Denzel.
Cloud slowly pulled away the black paper to reveal a box that gave nothing away, and when he ripped open the top inside was a black circular object surrounded by bubble wrap.
Cloud looked at his daughter and saw the proud look in her eyes as he lifted up the object. A black helmet that didn't shine in the light that had a symbol of a wolf on it, a symbol that he used to have on his clothes long before Lily was born.
"How did you find this?" Cloud asked her, "and how much was it?"
"I used the gil I saved from the past two years and uncle Zack, and Aunt Wil helped me pick it out and customize it."
Cloud looked at the helmet again and felt his mouth lifted into a smile.
"Thank you," he said while he set it down and opened his arms. Allowing Lily to hug him.
And that is the exact moment when they both caught a flash. The flash of Aerith camera as she witnesses the whole event unfold… thankful that her husband now had a helmet, which would cause her to rest easier. Not to mention it was a thoughtful gift on Lily's part.
"Should we start to open the rest? Aerith asked, which almost resulted in Cloud losing his hearing as the kids cheered and dived towards the pile of presents.
Aerith laughed as she sat on the floor beside cloud and rested her head on his shoulder as the two smiled in content. Watched as their children and Denzel open their gifts.