"You made it!" the Captain smiled as he stood up when Reno and Tifa walked in.
"Yeah." Reno barely kept the distaste out of his voice he felt for the formalities he was about to endure, and Tseng was here as well, so he wouldn't be able to pull any stunts to get out of this.
"I'm sorry we missed last night, I didn't know we were invited." Tifa told the Captain, shooting an offended glance at Reno, who slunk over to the chair next to Cloud and plopped down in it, causing her to do a doubletake. "Cloud! Yo…you're here?"
"Delivery boys need vacations too." he said casually. "I take it Barrett is taking care of the kids?"
"Of course. And Yuffie is helping out when she can." Tifa sat down next to Tseng, forcing herself to smile at him. She had long since gotten over blaming him for her and Cloud not working out, but his current unexpected interference in her personal life wasn't welcome.
"Why aren't you two sitting together?" Jillian asked.
"Don't ask questions you don't want answers to." Reno muttered. "Besides, you'll find out for yourself soon enough."
Seeing Tifa frown at the exchange, Cloud wondered what feelings she had for the red-headed Turk. He had been as stunned as Barret when she announced her pregnancy and that Reno was the father. It was so unlike her to do something that…well not necessarily careless, but definitely impulsive. Reno could be a jerk, but…Cloud frowned too as he realized he really didn't know what positive traits he had, except loyalty. But Tifa was a grown woman, if she cared for Reno, he would support her and subtly meddle to get them together. "So are you as smart as Tseng?" he asked Reno quietly. "I love smart men."
Reno swallowed his sip of wine wrong and started coughing when he got a look at the flirtatious smile on Cloud's face, and Reno's face turned as red as his hair. He got control of himself in a few moments, gesturing for his parents to take their seats again as they had stood up to rush over and help him.
"Your face looks hot. I guess that means with your boss on one side of me and you on the other, I'm in the middle of a hot Turk sandwich." Cloud couldn't stop himself from needling Reno more as the man scooted his chair as far away as he could, not going back to Tifa's side like Cloud intended. He had thought he was over his asinine high school behavior, but he hated formal dinners too, and teasing Reno was so much fun!
"Since we haven't formally met yet, Mr. Sinclair and Miss Lockhart, I'll just introduce myself and some of my crew." the Captain said. "I'm Captain Saxaul, this is my Executive Officer Tibby, Entertainment Director Bikoff, and Chief Engineer Torres."
Tifa exchanged pleasantries with the crew before asking the important question that had been on her mind for a while. "What's for dinner?"
"Behemoth Beef Wellington." Tibby answered first. "We have a wonderful kitchen staff, including two five star gourmet chefs."
"Oh." Tifa's enthusiasm faltered. "Are we allowed to make special requests?"
"What allergies do you have?" Saxaul inquired.
"Oh, it's not that, I was just wondering if they could top mine with whipped cream and candy corns." Tifa explained, smiling as everyone regarded her with curious stares.
"I, um…will find out." the Captain told her, signaling for the waiter to go ask the chef on duty.
"Oh, your baby is going to be a special one!" Jillian exclaimed. "Just like my little Dickie, isn't that right, Daddy?"
"He's a grown man now, I don't think you should call him that in public anymore." Patrick murmured to her as Reno slumped down further in his chair, his embarrassment so obvious Cloud almost felt sorry for him.
"If he's not too big to be spanked, he's not too big to be called that!" Jillian retorted, unhappy at having her mothering questioned.
"Did you know there's a wedding chapel on board?" Tseng asked Reno and Tifa, speaking for the first time into the awkward silence.
"That's nice." Tifa was puzzled as to why he would mention that. Was he suggesting…no, he couldn't be. "But I'm not interes…" Her sentence was interrupted by the arrival of the chef in a foul mood.
"Who is the heathen demanding I cheapen my food?" he nearly shouted at the table.
"Calm down." Tibby stood up and walked over to the irate man. "No one is disrespecting you, we just have a pregnant woman with special cravings."
"I don't have the cravings, my baby does. Is that a problem?" Tifa stood up and faced the chef at her most menacing, her red eyes glaring at him as she assumed a battle ready stance.
A faint smile appeared on Reno's face as the chef turned tail and fled back to the kitchen while Tifa primly sat back down. This was the most entertaining formal dinner he had been to in a long time, and they hadn't even started eating yet. Granted most of it was embarrassing to him, and he didn't want to marry Tifa either, but it bothered him more than he wanted to admit that she didn't want him either, and he had to get married soon.