Disclaimer: we all know I don't own anything from FF7. No characters. No locations. No vehicles. No Chocobo. All I own is myself, and I'm not even sure about that one.

Oh well, at least this story's mine. See, I can see the silver lining to every Cloud ...:-p

Sorry, couldn't help that one :-p

Don't upset the Lifestream... I want to share the fun too. Wait for meeeeeeeeeee!

Part 1: Petites vérités

Vincent watched a pink and white blur throw itself in an astonished Cloud's arms. The latter let go of Tsurugi as he called out her name. Marlene? Had she really grown that much? Vincent had vague recollections of a small bundle of energy with enormous eyes; back then, he had not really paid much attention to the child beyond his initial surprise upon learning that she was loud-mouthed Barret's daughter.

However, it seemed that she had overcome her shyness of the ex-SOLDIER by the way she now clung onto him- much like the way she had thrown herself in her father's arms when they had returned. And interestingly enough, Cloud's features softened at the girl's obvious distress, even trying to soothe her.

"Cloud! Denzel is… Tifa is…!"

"Tifa is fine"

His back still to the tree, Vincent observed the little scene before him. The young man had changed on that aspect. Once, they might have been thought to have almost the same temperament, except for Cloud's occasional and strange outbursts. Caring for little else apart from their respective goals… introverts… seen as being rather cold and aloof…

'How strange life can be. Cloud assuming a father-figure role to Barret's daughter? Who would have thought that someone like him would ever do that? Or maybe it was to be expected; he is the kind of person to need someone to need him.'

Marlene liked Cloud; after all, he was a member of their family. Kinda like a daddy. She had promised her father, her real one, that she would be a 'good kid' when he had left her in the care of Tifa and Cloud, but there were times when she could not really respect that promise. In such times, she could not help doubting Cloud just a little. Specially after the way he had gone, without saying where he was going and when he would be coming back.

Abandoning her, Denzel and Tifa.

Plus, it was because of him that they had gone to that church, to look for him and bring him home. And it was there that Loz had hurt Tifa. She had watched Tifa fight and get beat up, and that had been frightening; and the most frightening of all was when Tifa had passed out in the bed of flowers; as pretty as all of them, but deathlike in her stillness. Tifa had told her to run, but she had not been able to; Loz, had already grabbed her arm, taken the chest with the strange glowing balls called materia and dragged them out of the church, leaving Tifa behind. She had make sure that Tifa was OK; Cloud could only be trusted so much –after all, he had not told them that he was sick like Denzel, and that was bad.

"I want to talk to Tifa!"

Cloud reached in his pocket for his phone, but did not find it. He had lost it! At the look of regret on Cloud's features, Marlene turned to Vincent. She didn't really know him, but she kinda remembered him vaguely as being one of their friends. He should have one… after all, every adult had to have one, no?

"Could I please use your phone?"

Vincent moved aside his cape briefly, regretfully revealing only Cerberus in its holster.

"I can't believe it!"

She was in the company of two grown men, and neither of them had a phone to spare! And just when she needed to talk to Tifa and hear her say that everything was OK! That was not fair!

There was an embarrassed silence after the girl's outburst, the two men unsure of how to cope with her disappointment. But there were things to be done; the situation was critical, what with the missing children , the three brothers and JENOVA.

Under any other circumstances, Vincent would have agreed to Cloud's request. But he too had a mission: stop Kadaj's gang or at least find JENOVA before they did; time was of the essence and bringing Marlene back to Edge would take too much of that precious commodity. It seemed that Cloud was completely oblivious of that fact. Talk to Rufus? Whatever for? The ex-Turk could feel it; the answers lay in the hands of the trio; Rufus Shinra would only be a waste of time, his value as reliable informer to his former enemies not being much in Vincent's opinion because of his strange association with Kadaj. He was more than a bit puzzled at his former comrade's lack of judgement.

Moreover, this child was Cloud's responsibility and it seemed that it was high time he remembered his duties.

Marlene was fuming. She listened to the two men bicker and discuss about things completely out of subject with what she had requested. What were they, dumb? And the dumbest of the two could only be Cloud! He was wilfully thrusting her into the care of someone whose name she didn't even remember and who by the look of it, was not about to take her to Tifa.

Marlene's face screwed up. Unbelievable! Tifa had never been like that with her, treating her like a burden that no one wanted to handle. And hurt the most was that it was Cloud who was treating her like that.

How could he have changed so much? Maybe that was why Tifa had had these loud 'conversations' with him some weeks ago. She could feel tears prickling at her eyes, welling up, but she would not let them fall. She was almost a grown up, she took care of stuff at the bar and also helped take care of Denzel. Babies cried. Not little girls of six! She bet Tifa had stopped crying at that age.

Fine! That was IT!

"I don't like you anymore Cloud!"

She stepped back from him. There. She had said it, but it did not hurt any less. And the funny look on Cloud's face did not help either. She was suddenly reminded of all the things that Tifa and herself had said to him, but they might as well have talked to thin air, or tried to make a Chocobo fly for all the good it had done. Her voice came out a bit shrill, full of reproach, hurt and anger.

"Why don't you ever listen to what we have to say?"

"Huh…?"

How could someone be so clueless? Did he think she was just a stupid kid? Did he think she could not see all that had been happening at the bar, when Tifa and him had been arguing? Marlene ran and grasped Vincent's leg, prompting him to draw his cape over her. The huge, tattered red cloak all but hid her from view, except for her sneakers, those sneakers that Tifa and her had bought in a new shop at Edge the last time the bar hostess had had a free day. Thinking of Tifa calmed her down but also made her sad; she wanted to see her. She was so afraid that she would never see her again, like the flower girl.

Beneath the cover of the strange friend's cloak, Marlene waited for Cloud to come to his senses.

Her protector said something to Cloud and a conversation about things called 'sins' followed. Whatever they were, they looked complicated. Forgiveness? Were sins blunders? Had they done something wrong? Like the idiotic things that Denzel and her sometimes did?

She rolled her eyes. Adults were so complicated! If you did something wrong, you can say that you're sorry and promise not to do it again, right? What was difficult about that? From the looks of it, both were sorry for something, but neither had said they were sorry! How rude and totally incomprehensible! She much preferred Tifa; at least, she knew what was right and what to do. Not like those two here, heh.

'..Boys..'

Silence. Cloud seemed to think about something. His sins? Whatever it was, it must have made him realize that he was being a fool. The funny thing is that it made him look like he had not looked like in ages; he looked like the Cloud that she liked and trusted. He looked… less sad.

Author's Notes:

I rather like Marlene. She says and does things that most of us would like to hurl at Cloud (plus hurling yourself at him, if you're a rabid fan girl) and her perceptions are those of a child, rather innocent and straightforward.

We know that she can hide the truth (see when Denzel asks her how his Geostigma seems to be) but that's probably because Tifa has explained why she should not tell. Cloud does not do that. He does not treat her as an equal. He just assumes she will comply to whatever he orders; something which really points out how much time he has spent with the kids. man, he needs to take that 'human relationships' 101 course, BAD.

In fact, I think Tifa was taking care of 3 kids in that house: precocious Marlene, sickly Denzel and immature Cloud. /Hands her a medal and bows/