"My family is a weird, improvised, unconventional not so close and a bit broken one…" began reading little Marlene Wallace, shocking her classmates, teacher, friends, and even her guardians who just a second ago had been looking at her with loving, proud and joyful stares, the kid raised her gaze and giggled for a while and continued "It seems like everyone in Edge and I myself are able to say it being certain about it; but today, I decided to point out just why it's the best in all of the planet!" she ended the first paragraph happily, making Cloud and Tifa exchange confused glares; her father Barret and adoptive brother Denzel on the other side, smiled at her trusting that her words would be the most beautiful ever said.
"First of all, and what's very important in any family, is that we can trust each other blindly; that's why daddy left his most precious gift, that's what he calls me, of course, who else?…" she explained brightly, making everyone in the classroom chuckle, the loudest was obviously Barret "and Denzel to his close friends to watch and take care of us as he's busy most of the time; and Cloud and Tifa have grown to win our confidence as well, there's nothing they don't know about us and nothing they cannot help us solve. Like they did last Monday after school…" the child remembered the reason for writing such story to read out loud in an important event like that, and so the memories of a week ago came to life inside her head.
"So everyone remembers what special date is next week, right?" asked Miss Delia to Marlene's class, the school the kids attended to wasn't very big and neither had many students, still the classroom seemed to have much more than 15 students when they replied.
"Family day!" said the children with excitement, the girl was surely excited for the day she'd get to introduce her awesome guardians and all of their friends to her classmates; well, not every kid could say that the people who took care of them had saved the planet and all of the people living in it… twice.
"Exactly, you all have such good memory, so I know that you'll remember working on your projects for that day so all of your loved ones can see it; the idea is to express what makes your family special, it can be a poem, a story, an album with your pictures in it, whatever you feel like doing, just don't forget to bring it, alright?" the bell rang the second she finished talking and the kids started to gather their things and waved goodbye at their teacher.
"Miss Delia, what if all of my family doesn't fit in the classroom? I have a big number of people I want to show my work to!" asked Marlene innocently, a group of girls started to laugh at her back; the teacher smiled to her.
"As if she had a family…" whispered someone, she decided to ignore her as the teacher walked with her to the door.
"Well, try to focus on those that are most important for you and later on you'll show it to the rest, ok? I'm most certain you'll do a great job, Marlene, I'll see you tomorrow" she said goodbye to the little girl; soon her classmates found her again in the playground.
"Look, it's the orphan again, I cannot even think why you bother on coming to Family Day, Marlene, we all know you're adopted…" started Allegra, the head of a group of five girls who didn't seem to like her much.
"What's worse, the mister who adopted you doesn't even want to live with you and that's why he left you with those weirdos…" complemented other; Mabel, taking a step closer to the child and making her walk back.
"And Denzel as well, is your house an orphanage or what?" ended Faye, making the rest of girls laugh; that same group would always disturb the children whenever their family was brought up, Denzel ignored it easily being a bit older than Marlene, but his adoptive sister had some troubles doing it.
"It's not! Tifa and Cloud are the best guardians ever! And daddy constantly visits us, he's just too busy and says that we need a stable home so we can be safe!" she defended them, however fruitlessly.
"You call that a stable home? Your guardians aren't even married!" teased Allegra "I doubt they even like each other, the base of a family is love, and as your believed parents don't love one another neither they can love you or him, and they just got you in their house because they have no other choice…" she pointed at the boy who was walking towards them.
"Leave her alone, you don't even know a thing about us…" Denzel took Marlene's hand.
"We know enough to say that your beloved home is nothing but an act, and it can be taken down at any minute…" insinuated Faye's twin sister, Fiona, high-fiving her sister and being supported by their friend's laughter.
"That's not true, and all of your chatter just proves that our family is way much better than any of yours because we don't need titles or rings or anything to be together, unlike yours do!" and so the siblings walked away from them to the door, where Tifa was already waiting for them and received the children with a smiley face.
"Hey guys, how was your day?" she helped them with their backpacks and took both of their hands to cross the street, Marlene walking with strong enough steps to break the concrete apart if she desired so.
"I've had better!" replied the little girl, surprising the brunette with her angry grimace.
"Why is that, honey?" she asked, Marlene didn't use to have much trouble at school, her grades were remarkable and she got along with her classmates… most of them. Their way to Seventh Heaven was long, and Tifa liked to pick them up sometime so they could talk about things of that nature during the walk, nevertheless the child did not desire to talk about it, so she didn't reply.
"Allegra and her friends are bothering her again" Denzel pointed out.
"That kid gives no break, does she?" she attempted to make Marlene laugh "What is it this time?"
"I don't wanna say, let's just go home… I'm hungry and the angriness is making it worse!" she pouted, her guardian smiled lovingly and nodded.
"Alright, starving and furious monster, let's rush home, then" and for the rest of their walk they didn't touch the topic; rather they discussed the fact that Cloud was returning home late again, it was worrying, but he had been tied up with work lately so they decided to support him and not to become too concerned about it. When they got home, Tifa fixed them some sandwiches and sat with them on the table, food was the best way to get them into talking.
"So… about Allegra and her group? What are they doing now, sweetie?" she lowered her head to look into Marlene's almond eyes directly, the child looked down embarrassed.
"Well, they said awful things about… us, daddy, Cloud and you…" she confessed in low voice.
"Like what?" she put a lock of her hair behind the ear and caressed her soft cheek.
"That nor Denzel or I have real parents, that daddy doesn't want us near, and…and…" then a tear escaped the strong hold of her willpower and ran along her saddened face, the small one threw herself into Tifa's welcoming arms not being able to look at her face while saying the last thing that hurt the must "…that Cloud and you don't love each other, so you cannot love us and that's why we're not a true family, you just have to keep us here not because you want to…" she sobbed quietly.
"Oh, baby, you know that's a complete, terrible and stinky lie" she held the girl tight and talked with a calming voice "If we didn't love you, we would've told Barret to find someone else to take care of you, we would've stepped out of your life, and wouldn't miss you each time you're away …" she sat the girl on her lap and the boy hurried to take the chair next to them, tapping her shoulder "And if we didn't love Denzel, we wouldn't have found him or brought him home or fought to cure his Geostigma" she put an arm around the kid's shoulders, bringing them closer. "Marlene, we may not say it very often, but you two have a big role in both of our lives; and we keep you deep inside our hearts, our affection towards you grows each passing day, and we would never dare to desire having it any other way. We may not be the traditional concept of a family, but what's most important is just being there, you know? And we're always together, always around, always concerned and loving. And that's worth more than any of that little nosy brat's words, you hear me?" Marlene chuckled at the assigned nickname for Allegra and smiled to both of them.
"I guess you're right, if only she understood that"
"There's no need, honey bunny; only Cloud, you two and I know how our life is and that's perfect, you don't need to explain anything to anyone; as long as you're happy with it ,who cares about what the other say?" she kissed both of the children's cheeks and took the dishes to the sink. Marlene knew that Tifa was absolutely right, she didn't need to prove anything to anyone… but herself, she knew how close and caring they were but she got scared that she had doubted them for even just a second. "Let's forget about it and do your homework, ok? I closed the bar early today so I'll be here if you need any help" They did as it was said right away, but that tiny feeling inside the child's chest kept her worried until later.
It was two hours past their bedtime and Marlene was still awake, while Denzel slept peacefully on the bed next to hers.
"Pssst!" she called to him, the boy only turned "Hey sleepyhead!"
"I'm already in bed, Tifa!" he answered without opening his bright blue eyes.
"I'm not Tifa, Denzel and I need to talk to you" she pushed aside the covers that Tifa had set so comfortably around her, taking her teddy bear Adam with her as she came out and sat on the edge of Denzel's bed.
"Can't you wait until it is a reasonable hour for us to be awake and explain Tifa why aren't we asleep?" yeah, he couldn't be helpful and dreamy at the same time.
"You and I know the answer to that question" his adoptive sister raised an eyebrow.
"I had to try… what is it now, Marlene?" sometimes he wondered why did she have to wake him up instead of Cloud or Tifa like he used to when there was something making him sleepless.
"You see, It's not that I don't trust Tifa's words, I'm convinced that our family is the best I could've ever asked for, but… it's not about us what gets me worried, it about…" she said to his ear "…them"
"What could be wrong about them?" and that's when he got interested on her game.
"Oh, as if you didn't know… they were childhood friends, like you and me…" he scowled a bit "I'm not saying we'll live together and raise two adopted children, Denzel! I just made a comparison, knucklehead!"
"Ok, sorry, go on" but children will be children.
"They had this strong bond and lost it for no good reason, to later find each other but being… different, you know? Then Aerith dies and Cloud loses it, he turns a bit emo, gets Geostigma , and Tifa feels like she's far behind him, and then he leaves the house… Don't you think they've gone through a lot to never getting to be happy for real?" she hadn't considered all that was to say about their relationship until now; '…your believed parents don't love one another …' echoed he words of that bully on her head, and she shook her head to get rid of them.
"What makes you think they're not happy? I mean, Cloud smiles as often as we see an eclipse, but…" when Marlene made a serious face, he turned the other way round " hey, Tifa's always joyful and pleased and never complains!"
"That's the thing, don't you get it? One with his face showing discomfort all of the time so it's awfully hard to say when he's not feeling like that and the other' smiling like a clown so we'll never tell when something wrong for her, at least not in front of us!" nobody could ever deny how smart, and sly the girl was.
"That's very true but what can we do about it? It's not like we can run around spying on them like secret agents each time they're alone so we can make conclusions about their relationship, can we?" Denzel giggled about his joke, and began to shake when Marlene smiled from ear to ear. "By Gaia, no, no, Marlene, that wouldn't be right! They'd get mad! It's an adult thing!"
"Just call me special agent Wallace, covering the Strife-Lockhart case! We'll put on perspective everything they couldn't in years!" she stood on the bed imitating her guardians' fight pose and then jumping up and down.
"Oh, shoot… Marlene! What on earth do we know about these kind of things? Your father's constantly saying to let them be, this is something they have to deal on their own!" he insisted.
"But we won't intervene, we will just keep an eye on them, see how they're going to prove to everyone, including themselves that they must be just the way they are right now…" and sometimes, she spoke much cleverly for him to understand.
"And how is that?" he groaned, puzzled.
"To-ge-ther!" she laughed the syllables out, hugging Adam tightly to show her thrill. Just then, the sound of the opening door caught their attention as the volume of the television on the living room lowered more than it was already. "And our mission starts now…" she took her adoptive brother's hand and they walked, silently to where the stairs finished, making sure they weren't noticeable.
"This is going to end badly…" he whispered disappointed at the idea he had giving to her occasionally reckless playmate.
"Shhh! I cannot hear them!" she replied irritated.
"It's a bit late, but I can make you something to eat, you must be starved…" Tifa inquired, that day he had worked for almost twelve hours.
"I don't want to be a bother, I'm more tired than hungry, Teef, it's ok" he ran a hand through the spikes of his blonde hair, sighing.
"If you were a bother, Cloud, I wouldn't let you live here, don't you think?" she laughed, walking to the kitchen "Just sit, I'll have something ready in a minute" her friend did as she said.
"Why do you think I ever left in the first place?" he continued with the joke.
"Your distorted vision of the world and yourself has nothing to deal with how I see those, Strife…" Cloud nodded and managed to hide a smirk from her, but not from the tiny spies. "So, Marlene had some trouble at school today".
"That's weird, what happened?" he became tense immediately.
"That little loose tongue Allegra is messing with her again, she gets on my nerves really, but hitting a seven year old to death with my leather gloves doesn't seem like a life example I would want to give the children, what do you say?" the listeners became somewhat excited with the idea.
"A bit cruel, so… What did she say?"
"Uh, some weird stuff about us, it's somehow natural other children don't understand how their life is… simply emphasizing the fact they're adopted… and that we…" she stopped in the middle of the sentence.
"We? Something about the two of us?" he became more interested about it, but Tifa avoid any detail talking about them specifically.
"I believe, but I cannot remember actually; she's pretty upset though…" her eyes were uncomfortably looking from one place of the floor to another.
"Ok, then I'll talk to her in the morning; we cannot control other people's actions, Teef, just the way we react to them" he answered, making her giggle happily as she placed a warm meal for him, as fast as she had said she would.
"When did you become this… deep?" she sat in front of him, resting her head on her hands.
"When I decided not to fall into depressive thoughts and rather into reflexive ones, I guess" he replied taking a bite of the food.
"Good choice, how was work today, other than busy?"
"The world seems to be getting bigger with each delivery, but Gil is Gil… and I won't complain, it could be worse" Tifa scowled at the reply.
"But I don't get why are you working so late, there's something called schedule, you know? Should get you one…"as much as she was anxious about the kids' problems, she was with Cloud's, as a good friend, she had always done it.
"Just doing extra hours, nothing to get stressed about…" he assured, taking a zip of water.
"Why? The bar's doing fine, and your work is exhausting, you may be pushing yourself too hard…" her reddish brown eyes gleamed with compassion.
"I'm ok, I just want to get some more money for…" the words died on his mouth before he could say it.
"For…?" demanded Tifa.
"Any emergency or special need we might have, maybe a trip, things the children may need…" excuses, excuses, the three of them knew what his babble meant, he was hiding something "And hey! Yuffie's birthday is coming, we'll have to go to Wutai and that's no cheap journey, and she'll cut us like sushi with her shuriken if we show up without any present for her" then was when he began making sense.
"I'm sure she'll be grateful enough for some illegally gotten materia; years go by, the bad habits grow with us" they had to admit it, they loved joking around.
"I don't intend to steal any materia, my times as a criminal are far behind, thank you" his friend smiled and took away the empty plate and glass.
"Ok, this is far too suspicious, you actually considered it and are thinking of buying the treasure princess a present, what are you up to?" Cloud blinked several times before responding.
"Trust me, it's for something good" the lightbulb of ideas lit inside the children's mind; the first stage to analyze would be trust.
"It better be or I'll have to manage to check on you with the camera of your new cellphone" Tifa grimaced.
"No need, Teef, thank you for everything, I'm off to bed" he said quickly enough not to give any more explanations.
"Sleep tight, Cloud" she said as she did the dishes one last time for that day.
"Night, Tifa…" and he approached the stairs dangerously, about to catch the two naughty kids who were supposed to be dreaming by that hour. They hushed to the beds and pulled the covers with such strength and speed that they hid not only their bodies but head as well. The steps of the blond stopped at their bedroom, they started sweating, believing he might have caught them red handed. When he walked to the middle of both of their beds, they were almost certain they were doomed, until…
Marlene felt the covers being gotten down and something soft and warm placed between her arms, Adam.
"Night, kiddos" he whispered and left, allowing them to breathe again.
"Agent Denzel, our first thing to be checked is the trust of our targets towards each other, understood?" she whispered softly.
"Heard you loud and clear, Agent Wallace, just one thing to comment…"
"What would that be, agent?"
"Let me get some sleep now, over and out!" he covered his entire body once again and Marlene released a chuckle.
"Being certain you'll be fresh and ready for the mission tomorrow, you're dismissed…" and she closed her eyes, with excitement for their little mischief and all of the wonderful things they'd discover that week.
The youngest of the house had taken all precaution while performing their "mission", although it became evident for Tifa that they had been doing something last night when she went to their room to wake them up and found them not only unready but still in deep sleep, very unusual in them.
"Kids, breakfast's ready" she announced softly, but none of them moved; she caught a glimpse of someone who had actually woke with her calling, and she made him enter the room to punish their delay; so they tickled Denzel and Marlene and after a few seconds they were wide awake.
"Holy, moly, why?! Cloud, stop it!" said the girl choking with her own laughter.
"We're up, don't you see it? Quit it, please!" also begged the boy, when the grownups had enough fun watching them twitching with their giggles they stopped.
"Perfect, you have five minutes to get yourselves and the beds ready; we'll wait for you on the table" and they left the two agents with bags under their eyes getting all settled for school.
"You look kinda tired…" observed Cloud as the sleepy ones went down stairs.
"It's emotional tiredness what you're seeing" answered Marlene to his surprise.
"Right, Tifa told me about that kid… but Marlene, there's no reason to listen to any of their opinions; they don't know what we've been through, and you're much more kind, intelligent and pretty that the rest of kids…"
"Thank you…" Denzel's sarcasm shone as bright as the sun rays.
"Oh, you know what I mean!" it was truly hard for him to express his feelings, and the children like to fool around with it sometimes.
"Ok, time up, I want to see your mouths chewing, not mocking your almost father…" ordered Tifa, leaving Cloud about to spit his morning coffee. "C'mon, you also know what I mean! "And she left to the kitchen getting busy with nothing much to avoid their discomfort. With a grin, Denzel and Marlene began eating.
"Well, for your information, I've decided that both of you are right. I won't let her or anyone's ignorant comments bring me down no more" she said proudly.
"That's amazing, dear, just try to avoid the expression "ignorant" while talking to her or anyone, kay?" the brunette caressed the child's hair as she started to braid it.
"Sure..." she agreed embarrassed "Anyways, I'm going to spare any doubts about the greatness of our family and nobody is going to stop me! " Except for Tifa's brush that accidentally pulled too hard on her locks. "Ouch!"
"Sorry, honey bunny…" she bit her lip and continued the work.
"Your resolve is admirable for a seven year old, congrats kiddo…" granted Cloud, stealing a smile from his friends face.
"Thank you, my target…" she let out a little bit too much of her resolve then.
"Target?" they were behaving too skeptically that morning.
"Yeah, we use target as an expression like pal or buddy these days, you wouldn't understand it; it's a thing for young people" Denzel covered her mistake.
"And now we're corpses; fine then fresh new caterpillars, go brush your teeth or you'll be late" Tifa sent them off.
"Your imprudence is also admirable, Agent Wallace" her partner lectured her.
"Hey, we're the perfect couple, I've got the brain and bravery, you have the reflexes and attention, there's no way we'll fail this mission!" she complimented. "Now let's split, you check on them while I get the pearls clean and then we switch places" she winked and Denzel hid behind the wall with only his head facing the dining room.
"Somedays I do feel like I'm getting old, they're too clever for me" Cloud helped Tifa with the dishes.
"Have you thought it may be because of who's raising them? They learn from our mistakes, they'll become dangerously smart for sure…" she pointed out.
"Which mistakes?" he glared at her disconcerted, she released an awkward laugh; was that really all he had heard?
"You know things that … we could have lost the opportunity of doing… or! Things that we could do in future time, they'll see how stupidly we screw up and get a good lesson from it…" when the blond couldn't notice she sighed relieved, that was definitely close.
"Okay, we may have made some fairly foolish things in the past, but with such high hopes and good wishes for the future you're not making me feel any cheerful, Teef" his friend shook her head and stared at the ground.
"Ignore it, then…" she answered uneasily, or rather begged.
"As we ignored that?" Cloud pointed at something through the window.
"Damn it, no! " Tifa shielded her face with her hands in disappointed and growled. "Kids, you missed the school bus" she walked to the stairs, finding Denzel peeking at something.
"Hum, yeah, that was what I was about to say! I thought I had heard the noises of the bus…" he grinned naively at her.
"I'm sorry, we didn't notice, our chit chat distracted us" and the boy knew it was undoubtedly true, they had rather an interesting conversation, well, would've been interesting if Tifa had said what she honestly meant.
"Reports, Agent Denzel!" said little Marlene marching out of the bathroom.
"There's definitely something that Tifa and Cloud are keeping themselves from accepting aaaand we missed the school bus"
"What?! No, that's no good! I had to get there early so I could confront Allegra, now I'll have to delay everything!" she complained stepping hard on the ground.
"Sorry for that, we switch now" and he headed the bathroom as the girl trampled down the stairs.
"We'll never be on time if we go walking, it may get them into trouble" the alarmed brunette let her motherly worries out.
"That might not be necessary…" began Cloud, making her turn to face him as a reflex.
"What do you suggest?" she asked cautious.
"You remember I told you I was doing extra hours to get some more money?"
"I do and if I didn't trust you like you requested it would've kept me up all night" she crossed her arms to her chest.
"I appreciate the confidence vow and will reward you for it, follow me…" he said when Denzel joined them and they walked out to the garage of the bar, where Cloud left them speechless when they saw two motorcycle sidecars.
"Oh my, Cloud, these are amazing!" Marlene's moodiness faded as she checked the new acquisitions out with Denzel, but keeping an eye on them anyways, Tifa instead was still astonished.
"You… bought children sidecars for Fenrir, for real?" the miniature spies perceived that she was making great efforts not to get as delighted as they were.
"Surprise, I pictured I could help you more when it comes to them, you know for times like this or when you're busy with the bar, or just to take them for ride to spend some time…And don't worry I've tested them in any way possible, they're hundred percent safe, and as I see it they're surely content with them, so, what do you think?" it was stunning how he confessed it so carelessly, as it often was so hard to get a clue of what was going through his head.
"This is awesome, I can't believe it, I'm so… touched; thank you, thank you so much" and this time, the brunette brightened up her gestures fearless. The children also smiled to themselves.
"Thank you, Cloud!" they chorused, almost euphoric at Tifa's joy and Cloud's own satisfaction at her reaction.
Also because the first stage had been passed and ended; they had come to be more open and attentive with the other since the nightmare about Geostigma had ended, and if they didn't had thought of sneaking a look that specific night, they wouldn't have noticed. As they admired the scenery of Edge like they had never done it, heading to school, a petite light of hope shone brilliantly for the kids that first test day, and that was only the first of their discoveries.
To be continued…
Dreamer.
Hello, everyone! So this is the first fanfic I've ever done about Final Fantasy, and why? You may question, well, I've been in love with the stories of the games for quite a while, my favorite are VII of course and X, X-2; and the life shared by Cloud and Tifa has always had me so excited and loving towards their relationship, you know, with so many things left unsaid but not unfelt; I also happen to love Denzel and Marlene and how the four of them create this kind of family that definitely become something important for Spiky, so I hope to make this a devoted expression about how their situation may be and I also hope you like it and comment about it. Thank you for reading, bye!