"Welcome home, Cloud!"

Zeph looked down the stairwell. He could see some of Tifa's legs and the bottom of Cloud's black boots. He was surprised he was home already, but then again Cloud had left around four for an important delivery to the Western Continent. There was a rustling sound and a small chuckle.

"Look what I brought back from Costa del Sol."

"Oh, butterfish! Hm, and fresh whelks. I can make a pasta dish with those..." Tifa giggled softly. "If you'd like, that is."

"If there's plenty of sauce," Cloud replied quietly. There was some more laughter.

"I bet. Mm, the bar isn't too busy this evening, so I think I'll close early. How about we grill the butterfish? Do we have any wood charcoal?"

"Ah, yeah. I'll get the grill ready." Cloud came fully into view, and he looked up at Zeph without a lick of surprise on his face. "Hey, Zeph. Can you get Denzel and Marlene? We're gonna help Tifa make dinner."

"Oh, um, they're visiting a friend's house," he said as he walked down the stairs.

Cloud nodded once, then looked behind him, then back at Zeph. "Guess it's just you and me, then. C'mon."

Zeph followed behind Cloud as he went back into garage. He went up to something that was covered in a black tarp, and he pulled it off, revealing a very simple grill. "It's nothin' fancy, but it gets the job done," Cloud explained. He pointed at a dirty white bag right next to it. "Could you grab that?"

"Sure." The blond boy grabbed it up, surprised at how light it felt. He looked the bag over, but there was no name on it. "What's this?"

"Wood charcoal. It's from Wutai." Cloud pressed the button to the garage door and watched it roll up, then he lifted the grill and walked out and into the alley. A wall of hot, humid air hit them both.

As Zeph followed him he noticed Cloud tense as several alley cats scattered in every which way. One yelped as it skidded past the spiky haired man in a panic. Zeph swore that his guardian looked ready to follow it, but Cloud only put the grill down, albeit in a very deliberate manner.

When he turned around, his face was full of focus, and he was taking deep breaths through his nose. Zeph shifted his weight on his feet as he continued to hold the bag. "...Are you alright, Cloud?"

"...Yeah," he answered lowly. "I...guess those cats caught me off guard."

Zeph wasn't sure how cats could surprise a warrior that took on werewolves in dank, dark sewers. He wondered if maybe he had had a bad experience with them when he was little, and it was just something he couldn't help. The alley cats seemed extraordinarily skittish when Cloud left the garage, but they were friendly when he or Denzel and Marlene showed up. Why didn't they like Cloud?

After a final huff Cloud took off his gloves and pocketed them, then took the bag from Zeph. "Anyway, we wanna put in about this much—after we take off the grate."

He pulled off the lid and then the grate, leaned it on the grill, and dropped in a pile of round black things. Then Cloud put the bag down and arranged the pile of charcoal in the metal pit. The grill was low enough to the ground that Zeph could easily see what Cloud was doing.

"Now," Cloud began, "we light it up." He moved himself in front of Zeph with his back to him. He couldn't see what Cloud was doing, but after a few seconds he heard a 'whoosh' and watched as a tuft of black smoke rose and dissipated. He turned around with a smug grin on his face. "And now we let it go for a bit."

"How did you light it?"

Cloud shrugged. "I have really powerful lighter."

A skeptical look graced Zeph's features. How did he do it so fast? Was he hiding a piece of materia? Maybe. Maybe he had some. Zeph really wanted to see.

"Hey!"

They both turned to see Denzel and Marlene jogging towards them. The two stopped in front of Cloud. "Hey guys. I brought home some butterfish, we're gonna grill them."

"Oh, we haven't had that since last year," Marlene said. "I can't wait!"

Denzel nodded. "I wish we could eat it more often."

That was when Zeph asked the question that had been bothering him since Cloud came home. "What is butterfish, anyway?"

"It's a type of fish that migrates to the Costa region in the summer," Cloud explained. "It has a soft, sweet meat that melts in your mouth. It's delicious."

"Yeah, I bet you'll like it." Denzel looked up at Cloud. "Natsumi said hello."

He chuckled. "Hello back." He rubbed his hands against his pants. "I'll be right back."

Cloud put the cooking grate back on top of the grill and went inside, and the children guarded the grill as they talked. Zeph noticed the cats coming back after a minute, and he rubbed the chin of a yellow one after it warily rubbed the side of its body against the wall of the bar.

"They seem kinda skittish today," Zeph remarked.

Marlene gave a black cat a pet. "Are they? I guess they would be. Um, I mean, it's kinda hot out. They can get like this in hot weather."

He frowned. "It's been hot out, but I've never seen them like this."

"I dunno what's up, then." Denzel peeked at the grill as it continued to heat up.

The cats scattered again as Cloud reappeared, missing his shirt and holding a large plate filled with long, plump looking fish. He narrowed his eyes and they darted towards the nearest cat. His eyes closed and he walked up to the grill before opening them again and taking a look at the grill.

He picked up one of the fish from the plate. The skin went from a ruby red head, to green, to blue and yellow at the tail. It looked like there was something scattered all over it, and three cut marks on the body. "Tifa just finished fixing these up," Cloud said as he began positioning them on the grill. "There's one for each of us."

"I see six," Denzel remarked.

Cloud immediately replied back. "I want seconds."

"How long does it have to cook?" Zeph asked.

Cloud poked at one of the fish. "Uh...How long...?"

Marlene let out a sigh. "Tifa said about ten minutes per inch when you cook fish."

"Oh, okay." More poking and prodding. "I guess twenty minutes, then."

Denzel raised a brow. "You guess?"

"I'm sure I got this. I'll flip it in time." He put the lid on the grill.

Again he left, but returned a minute later with a new plate and metal pincers, and a small folding table that he put them on. With that he leaned on the wall of the bar and watched the grill. Zeph noticed he had a necklace dangling on his chest, and something glimmered on it near his crossed arms. What was it?

Zeph's attention went to the garage as he heard shuffling within. Tifa was placing something on the work table, and then moving about folding chairs. She finally came outside and stood next to Cloud, leaning into him ever so slightly before looking him in the eye. "How long have they been on the grill?"

Cloud's face went blank and he looked away. "Uh...almost five minutes?"

"Hm." Tifa looked at the grill. "I'll take a look in a few minutes, then."

"I thought it would take twenty minutes to cook them?" Zeph asked while looking between her and Marlene.

"It's on a grill, sweetie. The fish need to be watched closely."

"Oh."

The children ended up playing with a ball thew found in the garage, tossing it to each other and occasionally Cloud or Tifa. Zeph still wondered about the cats, though the subject quickly found itself mostly forgotten as the smell of their dinner grew stronger.

Soon enough the fish were taken off the grill and brought into the garage, where there were plates and sides waiting for them. It looked like a rice dish and some vegetables to pick through. There was a pitcher of tea near the end of the table.

It was nice, he thought. They were eating in the garage, a slight evening breeze puffing by as they sat in chairs with their dinner. Zeph never thought he'd try a dish from Costa del Sol, let alone ever see the beaches on the other side of the world. But Tifa said she had been there a couple of times, and she had learned how to make some of the cuisine.

"Like the fish?"

Cloud had a brow raised and some meat on his fork. The fish on Zeph's plate had a crispy skin and meat exactly as Cloud had described earlier. Whatever herbs and spices Tifa had put on it only made it better. "It's good," he replied simply.

It was good, and so was the coconut rice and even the vegetables were tasty. Everone put Cloud had some of the rice, he seemed content with his two fish and a small serving of roughage he picked at here and there.

His eating habits still seemed strange. Maybe his body needed more protein. After all, he had a giant sword. He tried not to think too much on it, or the cats, and more on his dinner. Fiore would have liked this, and a pang of guilt went through his chest.

"Hey, Cloud. Is that a ring?"

Zeph looked up from his plate. Cloud was beginning to blush furiously. "M-maybe."

From the look on Marlene's face, Zeph was certain that he wasn't going to get much studying done after they had eaten.