Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy.
Author's Note: Eh...I messed up on the chapter orders, as some of you may have guessed. It should be fixed after this.
"Tifa! Tifa!" Marlene calls early that next morning.
"mif fisha ma see…." Tifa mutters, as she lays there with her head into the pillow. Her arm hung over the side, and her leg was barely on the mattress.
"Tifa!" Marlene calls, running in and jumping up on the bed. She stands on her feet and jumps around chanting: "Tifa! Tifa! Tifa!"
"Whaaaat?" Tifa moans, looking up at her.
"Cloud took the day off! He's gonna take us all somewhere! Will you please close the diner for my birthday?"" Marlene says, jumping up and landing on her knees next to Tifa.
"Mhm…" Tifa says, "Which means more sleep for me. Go wake up Cloud." She says, closing her eyes.
"Okay, Tifa." Marlene says, and climbs off the bed. "Cloud! Cloud! Cloud!" She calls, running off and running through the hall.
"No…" Cloud moans as Marlene runs into his room.
"Cloud! Cloud! Cloud! Tifa said to wake up! So wake up!" Marlene says, pulling on Cloud's hand to try and drag him out of bed. This, however, was futile, seeing as she was so much smaller than him. All she managed was to drag his arm and head off of the mattress, but the rest of his body wouldn't budge.
"Oomph…" Marlene says, as her hand slips, and she lands on her bottom. "Cloouud. Play Hide and Seek with me." She pouts, looking up at him with large bright eyes.
Cloud opens one eye and looks down at the pitiful form of the small girl who wanted one of her best friends to wake up (who wouldn't) and play hide and seek.
He sighs, and covers his eyes. Marlene is about to cry when suddenly Cloud speaks, "One…two…three…"
Marlene grins and giggles, and runs off as Cloud reaches four. At about six Cloud gets up and changes out of his sleeping pants and shirt into his day clothes.
"Eighteen…nineteen…twenty….twenty one…twenty two…thirty!" he says, feeling she had had more than enough time to hide.
"You skipped twenty three through twenty nine." Denzel says walking into Cloud's room, blurry eyed. He had just woken up.
"So I did." Cloud says, and looks down at him. "You wanna play too?"
"No. I'm too hungry. I'm gonna get breakfast." He says, and walks down the stairs into the kitchen to find some waffles he could heat up.
Cloud sighs, and walks out of the room to go and find Marlene. "Marlene." He calls softly, knowing Tifa was still asleep. "Marlene."
A little giggle could be heard from the closet next to him. He smirks slightly but almost immediately doesn't. "Don't smirk…don't smirk…" he tells himself over and over, Tifa's diary coming to mind.
Cloud's hand closes around the doorknob, and slowly brings it open. "Marlene?" he says, reaching into the closet. His hand rests on top of something silky, and he smiles. "Is that your bow, Marlene?" he asks, as suddenly Marlene shoots out of the closet into Tifa's room. Cloud follows her, and is surprised to find that…Tifa wasn't there.
Tifa sat at the computer in Cloud's room, beating Yuffie's character's butt on her online game. 'I win.' She types to Yuffie as the words 'Ninjaness76 has been defeated' appear.
'Ninjaness76: No fair. You used that sword thing!'
'Tifa3: You used it last battle.'
'Ninjaness76: And I still didn't win!'
'Better luck next time, Yuffie.' Tifa types, and begins to let her character roam about. Tifa sighs, and then notices the sheet of paper with Cloud's online journal password on it.
She stares at it thoughtfully, contemplating on whether reading it for a short time. "Sure, why not." She shrugs, logging on to his journal after logging off of her game site.
She scans the entry and then finds one that was made on her birthday:
'Hey,
Cloud6 again. Today was Tifa's birthday, and I took her and the orphans to the beach. I think she really enjoyed it. She didn't get in the water though, so I stayed out to keep her company. It was more fun watching Denzel and Marlene anyway.
I fell asleep on the sand, though. When I woke up the three of them had piled sand up on me then carved it out to look like a mermaid.'
"I had forgotten about that." Tifa smiles, and chuckles.
'It was funny, I suppose. Marlene took a picture of it. I'm not sure where she put that photo. I think she lost it on our way home. I hope no one we know finds it. That would be embarrassing. Knowing Cid or Yuffie they would post it on the internet.
I bought Tifa a bracelet to go with the necklace that Marlene and Denzel had bought her. The bracelet was white gold, and was decorated with a couple of diamonds. The necklace had a small silver chain with a diamond that looked like a tear drop hanging in the middle as a pendant. (Marlene and Denzel made local deliveries for me to earn the money to buy it for her.) It looks nice on her, or at least, I think it does. Silver and white gold suit her better than the yellow gold. Too bad her ears aren't pierced twice. There were some earrings that matched the necklace better than the bracelet but they require two holes in each ear. Maybe for her birthday next year I'll take her to get her ears pierced again. She's afraid it'll hurt, but I keep telling her it doesn't. I don't understand how she can take a punch in the stomach and not a pinch in the ear. No sense what so ever.'
"Hmph…" Tifa snorted. There was no way he'd get her to pierce her ears again. It didn't feel good the first time! Why induce yourself with pain when it's unnecessary? Besides. When fighting you don't want someone to grab you by the earring and tear it out of your ear, do you...then again...why did she wear the pair she had now if that was the case?
'She'll probably fight against me tooth and nail just to not have her ears pierced, but I think they'd be really good on her.'
"Huh?" Tifa says, cocking her head.
Denzel still wants to learn how to fight, but I think he should learn fighting from Tifa first. Things like how to be fast and powerful with no weapons, then when he's older he can use weapons. If anybody has any suggestions on that call me and tell me.
I have to go. I promised Marlene and Denzel I'd take them to the park. Marlene is here tugging on my elbow to hurry me up.
Cloud6'
"Well that was interesting." Tifa says, cocking an eyebrow. "So he thinks another piercing in the ear would look good, huh?" she says, then smiles. "Hey Marlene!" she says, logging off the computer and shutting it down.
Marlene pokes her head around the door and looks in. "Yes, Tifa?"
"You know how you asked if you could get your ears pierced?"
"Yes."
"Well, can that be my birthday present to you?"
"Yes! Oh, thank you Tifa!" Marlene cries, and runs in to hug Tifa about her legs. Tifa smiles, and places a hand on her head. "Will you get yours pierced too, Tifa? I kind of don't want to do it alone."
"Umm…only if Cloud pays for mine."
"I pay for what?" Cloud asks, coming in. "I thought we were playing hide and seek, Marlene." He says, looking down at her.
"Tifa's gonna let me get my ears pierced." Marlene says, smiling up at Cloud. "She said she'd get hers done too, if you paid for hers." She grins.
Cloud cocks an eyebrow at Tifa, "I thought you were afraid to--"
"I got over it." Tifa says, smiling at him. "Maybe it wouldn't be so bad." She says, though inside she got butterflies in her stomach. The thought of getting her ears pierced nearer to the cartilage made her nervous.
"Sure. Okay. I'll take you guys to get your ears pierced now." He says, and walks out the door. Marlene follows dragging Tifa behind her.
Denzel went with them, but Tifa wouldn't let him get his ear pierced like Cloud. "Only the girls." She says, smiling down at him. Denzel looked a little put out, but felt better once they all got some ice cream at an out door ice cream parlor.
"I don't know why you'd want one." Tifa says, shaking her head at Denzel. "You're handsome enough without one. Besides it might make you look girly."
"But Cloud's got one." Denzel says.
"His earring is a doorknocker. That's not girly." Marlene chimes in, making Tifa chuckle.
Marlene smiles, as the diamonds in each of her ears shone in the sun light.
Tifa looks up at Cloud and smiles at the sight of his ear ring, as the ear piercings in her ears glimmered. Cloud gave a small smile back.
'More feminine…' Tifa thinks, looking up at the sky. 'But if Reno likes me the way I am, why shouldn't Cloud?' she thinks, looking over at him. 'Maybe he does, and I'm just kidding myself that he doesn't. Then again, why do I care? Like I said, I don't think I even like Cloud that way anymore…'
Sighing, she looks down at her ice cream, and licks it. "Mmm. Chocolate." She smiles, looking down at Marlene.
"Mmm. Strawberry" Marlene mimics Tifa, making Cloud give a small smile, though Denzel didn't notice anything but his melting ice cream.
"Let's go home." Cloud says, standing up.
Later that night Tifa pulled out her diary. "I wonder what my customers will think when they see me with more earrings or more importantly, what I'm gonna do if Yuffie finds out…"
R&R