In the morning, Tifa provided breakfast for herself, Marlene and her guests. However, she hadn't seen Cloud yet and wasn't sure where he was. Excusing herself momentarily to go check on him, she found the office empty and the spare bed neatly made with only small impressions to show it had been slept in.

Confused and slightly hurt, Tifa went back downstairs to continue eating breakfast. Marlene and Denzel had already finished and Marlene was leading him off to show him some of her toys.

"Children are so innocent." Renee said, smiling.

"Yeah," Tifa nodded. "They sure are."

They continued eating and Tifa let her thoughts roam back to Cloud. Had he changed his mind already? Didn't he want to be around her? Was he just too uncomfortable?

"We should get going." Ben said once he and Renee had finished eating. "We have... things to do." He looked over at Renee and she shook her head slightly.

"We should stay a bit longer," she paused and looked at Tifa. "If that's alright with you? It's just that, Denzel's never really played with toys before. He's an orphan."

"That's fine!" Tifa said quickly, her eyes widening slightly. "He can even keep some if he wants!"

"Oh no, we couldn't possibly..." Renee trailed off and looked away.

"Well anyway, make yourselves at home." Tifa urged, not wanting the conversation to turn uncomfortable. "I'll be around, probably just doing house work."

She stood up and smiled at them, leaving to go wash up. As she ran the water, she thought she could hear the giggles of happy children and smiled wider. It was strange having another child than just Marlene around the house. It was nice.

*

Reno whistled happily and out of tune, walking along the footpath with a smile on his face. He was going to see Tifa today. Not that it was a strange occurrence seeing as he almost went every day anyway, but he was just particularly happy today. Maybe it had something to do with what had happened yesterday.

"If you hurt her, I promise you'll die a slow and painful death."

In a round-a-bout way, Cloud had told Reno that Tifa was all his as long as he didn't hurt her, and hurting her was the last thing on his mind.

Letting his eyes wander around at the crowds of people that were already out, Reno began counting his steps. He was trying to think of ways to amuse himself so that he'd be at Tifa's house in no time.

"Reno."

The fact that it was his name that had been spoken was not what made Reno stop and spin around to see who was talking to him. It was the voice that said it.

Staring at the person who had spoken to him, his eyes widened as far as they could possibly go and his mouth fell open.

"You're... alive!?" he gasped.

*

Tifa quickly wiped her hands dry and went to the door to see who it was that had rung the doorbell. Opening it up, she winced inwardly as she saw it was Reno.

"Hey," she said, smiling slightly. "Are you okay? You don't usually ring the doorbell."

"I'm fine. Can I come in?" Reno grinned back, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, sure." She stepped back and allowed him to walk in.

"Do I hear two children voices?" Reno asked, curiosity appearing on his face as he turned back to look at Tifa again. Tifa giggled slightly and nodded.

"Yeah, I've got a couple staying over for a bit." she explained vaguely. Reno nodded in acceptance of the explanation and wandered further in the house. Tifa found herself tensing up and glancing back at the door in paranoia. What if Cloud decided to come back now? What would he think to see Reno here again?

"Who's that?"

"Reno."

"Oh. Who?"

"Tifa's friend. He's really funny."

"Hey kids!" Tifa smiled, managing to relax slightly as she walked after Reno and found him talking to Marlene and Denzel. "What are you guys up to?"

"Can we play twister again?" Marlene asked excitedly.

"Sure! Can you fetch it for me?" Reno asked, grinning. Marlene nodded and ran off to grab it.

"Your hair's really red." Denzel pointed out. Reno widened his eyes, feigning shock.

"Really? Is it?" he asked. Denzel grinned and nodded, obviously thinking Reno amusing.

"Here it is!" Marlene came running back in and began stretching out the twister mat. Reno went over to help her and soon he was calling out instructions for them and they were giggling madly.

"Does this come naturally or something?" Tifa asked quietly to Reno as the children fought over a blue circle.

"What?" Reno asked, looking over at her in confusion. She laughed lightly.

"Dealing with kids." she said.

"Oh. Dunno." Reno shrugged and turned back to see Marlene and Denzel sharing the blue circle. He flicked the arrow on the twister board he was holding. "Right hand green."

Tifa sighed, wrapping her arms around herself gently and leaving the room to go back to her washing up. There was no point in asking Reno to leave when Marlene seemed to love him so much.

*

"Zack?" Cloud hesitated in the doorway of the church, watching as Zack and Aerith both looked up in shock. "I'm sorry."

Zack ran over to him, pulling him inside the church and getting him in a headlock, grinning widely.

"Knew you'd come back!" he laughed.

"Zack, get off me!" Cloud shoved his friend off and rolled his eyes at Zack's hurt puppy look. "I'm not back for good, I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry for what I said yesterday."

"Oh." Zack's playful mood changed and he stood there awkwardly, realising he'd had a foot-in-mouth moment.

"Just didn't want you to be mad at me." Cloud mumbled.

"It's alright Cloud, we understand." Aerith said, walking up to stand beside Zack and put a hand on his shoulder in reassurance.

"Thanks." Cloud said.

"How's Tifa?" Aerith asked, trying to be helpful.

"She's fine." Cloud shrugged. "Same as always I guess."

"I hope things work out for you Cloud." Aerith said gently. "You're a great guy." Cloud ducked his head, not used to taking compliments.

"Well I guess I should go back before I'm missed." Cloud scoffed slightly at the thought of being missed and then turned to leave.

"If you don't visit us I'll kill you." Zack growled. Cloud paused and grinned, looking back at Zack over his shoulder.

"Then I'll have to visit again, won't I?"