A/N: Another one done in less than a month. Man, I'm on fire! Jokes aside, thanks for the reviews guys. :)

Again, just in case you missed the notes in the first few chapters: this whole fic is the response to my first taken challenge, by WishingDreamer5. Enjoy.

09: Happiness

Like every other day in Radiant Garden, today was happy. The sun smiled down on the town, making it come alive with radiance. People crossed streets smiling at each other. Children ran along alleys playing and laughing with each other. Aerith smiled as butterflies danced around her and her flowers in the garden. Yuffie smiled as she annoyed Cid on his computer. Cid smiled despite the annoyance. Merlin smiled at Cid's annoyance.

Even Cloud was smiling faintly as he helped Leon hang banners off the Postern. It as a pretty scary job hanging banners off a place this big so high up. Then again these two were the only hope of getting anything done around town without any drawbacks. "And go!" said Len as he rolled the last of the banners off the edge. Cloud was hanging onto it and it kept falling for several feet before Leon secured his end of it to the edge. Cloud took his masive sunflower (as Yuffie's mis-spell still hadn't rubbed off yet) off his back and hammered its hard end onto nails on the banner into the bricks behind it. After he was done he tugged at the banner, giving Leon the signal that he was done. His smile died as he got no response.

After a few more failed attempts he began to climb up, his sunflower gritted between his teeth. The amount of weight the piece of cloth could take really surprised Cloud. Assuring himself that the banner won't rip and drop him to his death hundreds of feet below, he began to reanimate his smile.

The scene he was met with when he reached the postern killed his smile again. Leon was standing there transfixed to his spot like a statue. When Cloud saw what he was looking at he frowned. Sephiroth was here.

"Do excuse my intrusion if you were busy, Cloud", he grinned and said as if Leon wasn't there. "I just wanted to make sure you were alive and well."

"I am busy", Cloud said in a voice colder than shaved ice. "And I'm sorry to disappoint but I'm feeling alive as ever. Now if you'll excuse us, we're going to whip your butt."

As if on signal Leon lunged from his position in a blur, gunblade at the ready. Cloud swung his sunflower into action and was almost glad to see it turned back to his buster sword. Before their weapons could make contact Sephiroth flew up and landed lightly behind them. "I'm not here for a fight", he said. "I come to deliver news about Reno."

At that name Cloud looked taken aback for a second but kept his face straight. Sephiroth smiled and continued, "He may arrive here in a matter of time. But it is up to the fates to know." At this he lunged at Cloud but stopped as a feint and flew up and vanished into the clouds.

"Who is this Reno guy he mentioned?" asked Leon. Cloud smiled. "He's uh...I know him", he said. "He's on our side, don't worry."

"I can see you're happy he is coming", grinned Leon. Cloud scoffed. "Nah, I'm just glad I got my Nu- I mean sword back."

A/N: Yeah, you know the drill; I thank you again, then tell you how awesome you are for reading/reviewing on this, and pathetically ask you to leave a review if you haven't already.