Author's Note – Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out to you all. I'm trying to juggle some critical things in my life. But I have to tell you, losing myself in Cloud's world makes me happy so I'll keep the updates coming. Damn, don't we all wish we could make money writing fanfiction? That would sure put an end to some of my problems.

Things will begin to pick up after the lull in this chapter because we all know Cloud can't stand being bored. Besides, we don't want him going back to drinking…a very nasty habit for our boy.

Chapter 19 – Pieces

I went to the pool to talk to Tifa and found about a dozen Shinra guards there, too. Aeris was sitting on the edge of the deep end, watching Denzel and Marlene and making sure they weren't getting in the way of the guards diving off the board.

Tifa was swimming laps. She saw me and swam to the edge of the pool where I crouched. "How did it go?" she asked.

"Better than I thought." I admired her in her black bikini.

"He didn't blow up at you?"

I shook my head and shrugged. "Rufus doesn't blow up. Besides, I got the impression that he already knew there was something going on between us. He admitted to not liking it, but he's not going to stop us from seeing each other."

"So we don't have to sneak around anymore?"

"Nope."

Tifa put her hands on the edge of the pool and pulled herself halfway out in front of me. She kissed me with an open mouth.

I knew there were eyes on us, but it didn't matter any longer. I let her have her way for the moment.

"Do you love me?" she asked playfully when she finally pulled away.

"Yeah, I love you."

"Say it."

"I just did."

"Say it again."

"I love you."

"Say it louder."

I knew the game she was playing. "No, I'm not gonna say it louder."

She pushed off the edge and fell backward into the water. Then she splashed me.

I stood up and stepped away. "I'll see you later."

"Where're you going?"

"I've got an errand to run."

Reno and I took a trip to the Icicle Village Academy for two reasons. I wanted to get my materia and my laundry, which I hoped was done by now, and I wanted to have a chat with Redgrave.

We landed in the square just inside the parameter fence and Hutchins was there to greet us.

"Any trouble since we left?" I asked the school security man as he walked with Reno and I toward the building.

"Not really. I contacted the Icicle Village authorities right away and they came out for a few days. But the helicopter never came back."

"That's because I took care of it the next day."

Hutchins didn't ask me how.

We walked into the building just as the students were changing classes.

I was immediately bombarded…girls hugging me, touching my sword, asking me questions about Tifa. In the midst of the faces, I spotted Sara and Jaden, Tifa's closest friends and pulled them off to the side.

The two girls eyed Reno so I felt compelled to introduce him.

"Sara, Jaden, this is Reno."

"Good afternoon, ladies," he drawled in his flirtatious manner.

I cut in before he could say anymore. "Tifa's safe."

"What're you doing here, Cloud?" asked Sara.

"I came to get some stuff and Tifa's phone."

"It was Priscilla," Jaden blurted out. "We heard she snuck into the file room and found Tifa's file. She was the one that called the reporter."

I had a feeling that's what happened. "Is she still here? I thought she was expelled."

"No, she's gone. Her parents came and got her a couple days after you and Tifa left."

"Good." I gave them a smile. "I've gotta go, so you two behave yourselves. No more late night drinking sessions, all right?"

They laughed.

"I'll make sure Tifa calls you." I turned and walked away a few steps before I noticed Reno wasn't with me. I turned back around and saw him lean against the wall, smiling at the two girls.

"So what's this I hear about late night drinking?" he casually asked them.

"Reno!"

Reno moved away from the wall. "Gotta go." He walked toward me. "What, I can't talk to Tifa's friends?"

I walked on and he fell in step next to me. "Does the name Aeris ring any bells?"

"Oh yeah, my little heartthrob," he said dreamily.

"You do know she's capable of circumcising a fly from thirty feet away, right?"

He cringed. "Yeah, she's given me the lecture. If I so much as look at another girl, it's lights out for me."

I couldn't help but laugh at that. Aeris could be very possessive when she wanted to be.

"Where're we goin' now?" he asked.

"To talk to the principle. Then we're going upstairs to get my stuff."

"And then we're out of here?"

"Yup."

"Good cuz I'm getting the heebie jeebies in this place. All girls, man. How the hell did you stand it for a week?"

"I didn't."

A few minutes later we stood in front of Redgrave's door. I knocked once but didn't wait for a reply before I barged in.

Redgrave looked up from some papers on her desk and her face fell. "Oh no, not you again. And look, you brought a friend. How delightful."

"Shut your pie hole and listen to me."

She opened her mouth to protest, but decided against it.

"Did anyone call you about Tifa in the last week or so?"

"No…no one. Well, except Mr Shinra, of course, to tell me that he was temporarily taking Miss Lockhart out of school."

"Anyone call you before that?"

"No."

"How did it leak out that Tifa and Rufus have the same mother?"

"I…I have no idea."

I leaned a fist on her desk. "I'll enlighten you. Priscilla got into your file room, took Tifa's file and called a reporter."

She looked genuinely shocked.

I waited a minute to let her digest the information and also to see if maybe she might be hiding something. I'd be able to tell if she was because I intimidated her.

"It looks as if I will need to invest some money on a better security system for the file room," she finally said. She sighed and looked up at me. "Will Miss Lockhart be coming back sometime soon?"

I decided to test the waters and see if she knew more than she lead me to believe. "Not until Dalton is caught."

She didn't flinch, not even an eyelash. Either she was good or she didn't know the man. It didn't matter, I wasn't going to trust anyone. But at least now I knew Redgrave had nothing to do with what happened.

"You better hope Shinra doesn't blame you for all the shit that went down here," I said before walking away. "Have a nice life."

Reno got the door and we walked out.

Upstairs in Tifa's room, I didn't have anything to put my stuff in, so I grabbed a garbage bag. My clothes had been cleaned and were stacked on top of the bed. I threw them haphazardly in the bag, not really caring that someone had taken great care to make sure they were neatly folded. Luckily my materia was still in the drawer of the nightstand. I put the magic balls in my pocket.

I noticed Reno looking around the room, opening drawers, picking up things on the dresser. "Don't touch anything." I went around and grabbed some things that belonged to Tifa. Her teddy bear, a couple pairs of shoes, her jacket, the picture of me and her in the nightstand drawer. I even emptied her underwear drawer into the bag. Now she'd have plenty in case I got careless again and accidentally ripped any off of her.

I found her cell phone under her pillow and stuck it in my pocket. What else? I went in the bathroom and grabbed a few things from the shelf and from the medicine cabinet. I left the condoms where they were.

When I came out of the bathroom, I found Reno opening the lid of a container and sniffing the contents. He sneezed and white powder went flying. I laughed because he had it all over his face. "I told you not to touch anything."

Reno quickly put the container back on the dresser and wiped his face with a sleeve. "Are you done yet?"

"Yeah, let's go."

We walked out of Tifa's room.

I waited until the helicopter blades slowed down before I hopped out. When I told Reno to land in the chasm where Fenrir crashed, I thought it had been a good idea at the time. But now I wasn't so sure. Seeing what remained of my precious motorcycle tore at my heart.

Pieces of Fenrir were scattered all around, some of them charred from the explosion. A crushed side mirror, the leather seat torn in half, the bent and burned wheels.

I crouched down and picked up a piece of the handgrip, remembering the hours of cussing out Cid for getting the wrong ones.

"I told you I wanted the ones with the brake lever on top. These are a piece of shit!"

"Hey, better take what I can find, you little bastard!"

"I gave you ten thousand gil to get me the black ones. Give me my fucking money back, Cid!"

"Shut your trap or I swear, I'll piss in it!"

"You couldn't piss your way out of a wet paper bag!"

"I'll bend you over my knee and whoop your behind with my spear!"

"Oo, I'm so scared!"

I smiled to myself. The handgrips ended up working better than the ones I had originally wanted. I looked down at the one in my hand and shook my head before I tossed it aside and stood up.

What was left of the frame rested on its side several feet away. I walked over and yanked a piece of the fender off to retrieve one of the Butterfly Edges. But most of the serrated teeth had snapped off probably on impact. The blade was useless now so I tossed it aside.

From the corner of my eye I saw Reno jump out of the chopper and look around. I waited for him to make some kind of joke, but he didn't say anything and just watched me walk around to the other side of the frame. I picked it up and pushed it over on its other side so I could get to the other blades. The second Butterfly Edge and both Rune blades were destroyed. So much for getting my swords together.

"What about this one, Cloud?"

I turned to where Reno was standing on the other side of the chopper. He came around carrying my Organics blade. I took it from him and inspected the blade and handle. The frame was alittle bent, but I knew I could fix it so it would fit snugly on Apocalypse again. "Yeah, this one's fine."

Reno scratched the back of his neck and kicked at a rock. "Sorry about your bike, man. I know how much she meant to you."

I wanted to tell him he didn't know a damned thing about me, but I kept my mouth shut. He was just trying to be sincere and I needed to accept it. "Thanks." I glanced one last time at what remained of Fenrir before walking to the chopper door. "Let's go."

When we got back to Healin, I went straight to the apartment with my bag of stuff.

Tifa immediately greeted me with a hug when I walked in the door. "Where did you go?"

"I went to see if I could salvage anything from my motorcycle."

"And?"

"Just one of my swords."

She pulled away and looked sympathetic. "Oh."

I held up the garbage bag. "I also went back to the school and got my clothes and some of your stuff, too."

Tifa followed me upstairs to my room and watched me empty the contents of the bag onto the bed. She snatched her teddy bear out of the pile and hugged it. Then she saw her underwear and quickly gathered all of them. "I'll go put these away." She started to walk away.

"Tifa." I waited for her to turn back and walked up to her. "Stay here with me."

She looked confused. "I was going to play with Samurai for alittle bit after I put my things away."

"No, I don't mean right now. Tonight…every night." I tilted her face up and kissed her. "I don't wanna sleep alone."

"What about…" she said as she kissed me back. "…the kids?"

"Don't worry about them. They don't know what's going on."

"Do you have bad dreams at night?" Marlene asked Tifa out of the blue while we were all sitting together having dinner.

Tifa smiled at her. "Why do you ask, Marlene?"

"When I have bad dreams, sometimes I get in bed with papa. I thought you had a bad dream and that's why you slept in Cloud's bed last night."

All eyes were suddenly on me. Tifa, Aeris, Marlene and Denzel. I shoved a forkful of noodles into my mouth so I didn't have to respond.

"Don't be stupid, Marlene," Denzel finally said. "Tifa's not having bad dreams. Her and Cloud are having sex."

I opened my mouth and spit my food back on the plate after nearly choking on it.

"Denzel!" yelled Aeris.

"They are not!" Marlene shouted at him.

Denzel folded his arms angrily and looked at each of us. "I know all about sex. I'm not an idiot, you know."

The kid was twelve years old. How could he know anything about sex? I didn't even know anything about it until I left Nibelheim and I was almost sixteen at the time.

Marlene suddenly turned to me. "What's sex anyway?"

Thank the Gods Marlene didn't know. She was only nine.

I suddenly realized all eyes were on me. I stared back at everyone with my mouth open. They couldn't possibly think I was going to answer that question. I held up my wrist. "Wow, look at the time." I didn't even have a watch on. I quickly got up and headed for the doorway. "Talk to Aeris," I said to Marlene before walking out.

Let Aeris have that sex talk with the kid. It wasn't my responsibility.

I watched Cid's ship, the Shera, land smoothly on an open patch of land. As the engines died, I felt my stomach lurch at the recollection of all the times I had been forced to fly with the crazy pilot. He was good and all, but I still got sick as a dog. Both me and Yuffie emptied our stomachs too many times to count.

The ramp came down in back and a few minutes later Cid came out riding the Hardy Daytona he promised to bring me. He stopped next to me and after setting the brake, he dismounted. "Here she is, kid."

I walked around the bike, inspecting it carefully. It wasn't as big or versatile as Fenrir, but it was something to get around in until I had the time to build another one.

"I replaced the oil tank, cuz it was dented and I gave her a tune-up."

"Thanks, Cid."

"Yeah, sure. No problem."

I mounted the Hardy and revved the engine, getting a feel for the machine I had once used to escape from the Shinra building. It purred like a kitten.

"So what's this I hear, you're banging some chick now?"

I looked up at him with a frown. "What?"

"Yeah, Barret told me."

"How the hell does Barret know what I'm doing?"

Cid grinned and pointed a finger at me. "Gotcha!"

"You two morons don't have a clue."

"You just confirmed it, pal. So who is she? Anyone I know?"

"None of your business."

"Yeah, it's someone I know. Is it Aeris?"

"Shut up, Cid."

"Nah, she's too busy doing Reno." He snapped his fingers. "It's that blonde Turk chick…what the fuck's her name…Lorraine, Eloise…Elena, that's it."

"I said shut up."

"Wait a minute, I got it. It's Tifa."

I rolled my eyes and looked away.

"Yup, it's Tifa. You're blushing like a little girl."

"I'll kick you in the fucking pills if you don't shut up."

Cid laughed so hard he was bent over.

I released the brake and spun the back tire, splattering the wet ground into Cid's face. As I took off, I laughed at the image in the side mirror…Cid spitting grass and mud out of his mouth. Served him right for being so nosey. I needed to remind myself to get back at Barret somehow for opening up his mouth. How the hell did he find out anyway? Who was the snitch around here?

I came back to the apartment pretty late, hoping the kids would be asleep so I wouldn't have to live through another awkward moment.

The den was quiet and the lights were out.

I snuck into the kitchen to grab a bottle of beer from the fridge. As I stood in the open door, taking a long swig, something touched my ankles. I looked down and found Tifa's kitten rubbing himself on my boots. He looked up at me and cried.

"Shhh, quiet or you'll wake everybody up."

I picked him up and he was purring loudly as I cradled him in my arm. I kicked the refrigerator door closed and left the kitchen.

When I got upstairs, I poked my head in Marlene and Denzel's room. They were both asleep. I quietly stepped inside and placed Samurai on Marlene's bed. He immediately curled up at her side.

I walked out of their room and took another gulp from the beer bottle as I headed for my room. The door was closed. I opened it and walked inside before closing it behind me.

Tifa was lying in bed, facing the window. She was breathing steadily which meant she was asleep.

I quietly finished my beer and undressed down to my boxers.

As I crawled under the covers and slid up against Tifa's back, she stirred. I carefully slipped my arms around her from behind and kissed her bare shoulder.

"Where've you been?" she protested groggily.

"Just out riding." I kissed the side of her neck.

"I was waiting for you," she continued to protest half-heartedly.

"Shhh, go back to sleep." I nuzzled the back of her head and closed my eyes.

A minute later she was breathing quietly again.

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