wow - almost double the reviews and my day after hits were through the roof! You guys are awesome, you should see my eyes all large and shiny. And I was worried that going 'serious' or at least semi-serious with this wouldn't work. Cloti222 - I feel like we should be holding hands and jumping in circles squeeing. Your enthusiasm is seriously catching. I wrote like a authornado thanks to you. Peeka-chan and City of Dis - I'm throwing in an extra chapter just for your two awesome reviews - yum, detailed reviews. Eagle-heart - its snuggle time! thanks to your review (er, character snuggling, not us). And ahh, man, Kueilan, its so good to get another review from you, I feel like I've got a buddy backing me up. ps- zi-ling - you were first reviewer on the new updates and so this chapter is all for you.

Chapter 17: Cloud

"No!"

Tifa reacted without thinking and threw herself at Cloud. Her body impacted with his and he was like a wall of iron. But he reacted to her tackle, jerking his sword aside and she used his momentum and shift of balance to sweep her foot behind his ankle and jerk. She didn't have bulk on her. She'd had to learn to fight using pressure points and counter weight. Cloud's ankle twisted and the rest of him followed it down. Wrapped around him, Tifa went down too. They hit the end corner of the bed and it flipped them both so that they fell even more awkwardly the short distance to the floor. Tifa shut her eyes tightly with two thoughts in her head. How hard and cold the floor was going to feel – and the fact that there was an awful lot of very sharp steel somewhere in their mix. She heard Denzel shout her name. And then the air was knocked out of her as she impacted with the floor.

It hurt. A lot. But not as bad as she'd worried it would. For one – she didn't feel anything metal buried in her. And for two – all of her bones still felt intact. The floor felt freezing under her and the heat above and around her told her Cloud was on top. Their legs were tangled together and one of his arms was under her. She opened her eyes and saw –

Sunshine…

His hair. Ridiculous – but she found it made her smile.

Painful she pulled a breath into her lungs. Cloud didn't move from on top of her. Dead weight again and the sudden panic that he might have stabbed himself with that giant sword coursed through her. Frantic, she moved her hands that were already on him, over his back. Nothing. He was still breathing.

Oh. Thank God.

"Tifa?" Marlene's tiny voice and Tifa raised a hand to wave it.

"It's all right, Marlene. Everything's all right."

"Tifa…"

It was a whisper. An exhale. A sound against her throat and it made her eyes go wide.

"Cloud?"

He was silent for so long she thought she'd imagined it. Then she felt his fingers move against her back. Against her skin at the small of her back and she realized her shirt must have hiked a bit in the fall. The feel of the heat of his fingers in contrast to the cold of the floor made her shiver and she suddenly lost track of all the noise going on in the room.

"You – grew up…?" His voice was so soft she could barely hear it. Puzzled and young. His fingertips pressed into her skin but not enough to hurt. Other than that, he didn't move.

"I – " she wasn't sure exactly what he was talking about. "I guess I did" she guessed and felt him press his face deeper into her throat. Her stomach did the strangest little dip.

"I didn't get to - watch... I'm sorry... I was supposed to become a SOLDIER - to watch over you… to be strong enough… I wanted - to be your hero again. But – I couldn't… I never - made it back to watch you…"

"Cloud?" The noise level in the room was rising rapidly but all she heard distinctly was his voice, spoken in pausing exhales. He wasn't making any sense at all. But he was talking at least. That had to mean something good - didn't it?

"Tifa…" His breath burned her name into her own skin as he exhaled it. And then the pressure of his fingers went slack and she felt his head go lax. For the strangest reason – she felt tears in her throat and couldn't explain them.

"Tifa?" Denzel's voice and it was low and almost against her ear. She turned her head – just a little – and saw he was crouched down in the small space next to her that was between the bed and the wall. She gave him a weak smile and reached out to touch his cheek. Her other arm slipped around Cloud's back.

"It's okay, Denzel. We're fine. What happened?"

"We were playing cards" Marlene's voice on the other side of her and crouched low and quiet as well. "Then Barrett busted in with a roar – just to startle us – like he usually does, you know?"

"Not like we didn't hear him coming up the stairs" Denzel remarked dryly. Marlene ignored his interruption.

"Anyway, he roared and I pretended he'd scared me, like I always do – and then Cloud was off the bed and he had his sword."

"I've never seen anyone move that fast. Not ever" Denzel sounded more impressed than scared.

"I didn't know what to do so I screamed for you." Tifa couldn't see her but she could actually feel Marlene's wince. "Sorry."

"No. You did right. I – " Tifa paused. "I told him to protect you two. I didn't think he was listening. It was just to make him feel necessary. I didn't realize…" Her voice trailed off and her hand on Cloud's back spread and tightened. She hadn't realized he'd do as she asked – even unconscious and weak with sickness.

"Hn" was Denzel's comment on that fact and all three of the Lockhart children spent a moment in quiet contemplation.

The noise in the doorway rose to a new pitch.

"Hey – Tifa?" Aerith's face suddenly appeared above her as her friend crouched on the bed and looked down, face torn between worry and curiosity. "Are you going to get up any time soon?"

Tifa sighed and patted her fingertips against the warm skin of Cloud's back.

"I'd rather not," she answered. "He's warm and they sound really angry over by the door." She said it lightly – but that didn't mean she didn't mean it. Aerith gave her a stifled smile and her eyes relaxed.

"More freaking out than angry. Barrett's about to blow a fuse – going on about dangerous men with giant carving knives and your dad is hollering from his room at everyone to keep it down. I think the guy from the convention is here and there's another guy I don't know and Barrett's not letting them into the room because he doesn't know them. Neither one of the them wants to let the other go so they're arguing with each other and pretty much leaving you on your own at the moment." She paused. "Do you know you've got a woman asleep in your bar?"

Tifa couldn't help it. She snorted a laugh. Some days – she adored Aerith.

"You want to hide down here with us?" she asked and her friend grinned.

"Is that Blond, Cute, and Quiet from the convention too?"

"Aerith, it is such a long story I'm not even sure it's going to make sense when I tell it."

"Nonsense stories are the best kind" her friend assured her.

With a groan, Tifa sat up, slipping her arms around Cloud to hold him against her while she did. It left him laid sideways on the floor, his upper body supported against hers and in her arms. His head was against her shoulder and his soft hair tickled her throat. She hadn't been kidding – he really was wonderfully warm.

"Where's – " she started and Denzel jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the giant sword he'd apparently recovered from wherever it had fallen and stashed in the far corner, closer to them than the rest of the group. Tifa nodded at him. Sometimes common sense and self-preservation superceded orders not to touch things. Then Tifa cleared her throat.

It was a quiet sound but one she'd practiced on rambunctious children for many years and the raised voices in the doorway suddenly stopped. Tifa shot them all – and Leon was among the small group – a level glare across the surface of the bed.

"Out. Downstairs. Everyone." She ordered it in her 'don't test me' voice. The one she used on customers just before she knocked their chair out from under them. She got wide-eyed blinks in response and then there was a shuffling movement as everyone edged out of her doorway and out of sight. Aerith stayed where she was on the bed and watched. Tifa exhaled again and absently stroked Cloud's hair.

He'd been defending her sister and brother…

"Thank you" she lowered her head to murmur it against his ear. He gave no response but she wasn't so sure he couldn't hear her anymore. Gentle she laid a kiss to the tip of his ear, more a habit from her usual reward for her siblings than in actual thought, and then she raised her head.

"Okay" she told the small crew that remained. "Let's get him back in bed."

It took some doing but they managed to get Cloud upright and then onto the bed. Tifa got him propped up with a pillow against the headboard and tucked the blanket in around him again. Somewhere in the jostling, his eyes had opened and the sightless blue of them stared at nothing.

"He's – really weird" Aerith told Tifa as they got him comfortably upright and Tifa gave her a curious look. This from the girl that had dressed up and worn ears that were longer out than her shoulders just over a month ago? Aerith shrugged.

"When I touch his skin, my palms tingle." She held up her palms as if they could all see it but Tifa didn't see anything other than soft hands. Aerith met Tifa's eyes. "Its like that whenever I get near leaks in the power conduits where the mako is."

It took a minute to register but when it did Tifa's eyes went wide and she looked at Cloud with new understanding.

"Mako poisoning?"

Aerith rested her hands in her lap and just looked at Tifa. Tifa reached out and gently touched Cloud's forehead. Then she put a hand under his chin and tipped his face up to her. It was – terrible to see nothing in the startling blue of his eyes when she was used to seeing so much but she looked past that and at the color itself. Purest, intense blue. But not regular blue. Aqua. And as she searched carefully she could start to see streaks of green that radiated out from the darkness of his pupils. The green she'd seen in them when she'd first found him… the way his eyes had glowed in the dark…

- the fact he could lift that huge sword with one hand…

Under her study, his eyes flickered briefly. Life and awareness briefly swimming through the depths of that tropic blue before it faded away again.

Mako… concentrated Lifestream… the essence of life and death itself… and he would have had to be saturated in it to be as sick as he was.

"It's okay, Cloud," she told him softly. "Everything's okay now. We're going to make sure you get better."

She said it but – from what she'd heard mako poisoning was not only rare, it was unpredictable. He might never come back to himself or he might come back in pieces that would never fit together. Every soul that had ever swum this world had had a chance to invade his mind and soul. How did that affect someone?

Drawing back she looked at the three faces watching her expectantly.

"You guys stay here and keep an eye on Cloud. See if you can get him to drink some more." She stood up. "I'm going to go downstairs and settle everything down."

Not that she wanted to – it was much more peaceful here. But she needed to settle things and the sooner she started the sooner she'd have it done. First she stopped by her father's room though and assured him that she'd kicked the rowdy bar patrons back downstairs. At least that's who he'd thought they were and she didn't correct him. His concept of time was vague at best and there was no way she was going to try to explain to him what had really happened. When he was finally settled, she started down the stairs. And as she walked, her shoulders drew back and her lips started to frown.

She knew. If she went down there apologetic, they'd eat her alive. If she went down there mad at them however…

By the time she reached the floor and strode into the bar, she was furious.

"How dare you?" she started it with a growl. All three of the men were standing at various stations around the room, arms crossed over their chests. Tifa set her hands on her hips and glared. "He's sick and now he might get worse. Is it so much to ask you to control yourselves when you're in my house?!"

It worked on Barrett. Who scowled at her and jerked his thumb at Cid and Leon.

"I didn't do nothing. It was them and that crazy man you've got in your room. All I did was show up and next thing I knew everyone was trying to kill me!"

"He didn't know you, Barrett. He thought he was defending the kids." She gestured with a finger. "That's what you get for always having to try to scare them instead of just announcing yourself like a normal person."

Barrett looked down and muttered something about 'people still tryin' to kill him' but she knew he was safely out of the dangerous area. For the moment. He'd get back there once he realized the guy was in her bed. She turned her attention on Cid and Leon. Cid was looking down and ripping open a new pack of cigarettes and since he wasn't volunteering anything, she didn't either. Instead she locked eyes with Leon.

"He's my friend," she stated fiercely. His cold eyes met hers and didn't back down.

"You could have mentioned you had a man in your bed."

She felt Barrett start to inflate next to her again as the words registered but she spoke before he could get anything out. She decided not to take Leon's words the way Barrett had.

"He's unconscious. He has been since I brought him home. He wouldn't even have known you were in the house if he hadn't thought someone was threatening the children. You were perfectly safe."

His arms didn't uncross and his eyes didn't change.

"How many people are you going to let know we're here? I thought we were supposed to be a secret."

She exhaled and shifted, leaning up against a wall herself, arms folded over her stomach.

"You are a secret. I didn't know Barrett was coming but he's not a friend of Shinra. He's my friend and I trust him with my own brother and sister. You met Aerith at the convention and there's no one I trust more. I asked her to come here because she's good with healing and I thought Shera needed all the help she could get. And Cloud would never have known you were here if Barrett hadn't walked in and startled him. He probably doesn't even register that anyone else was in the room as sick as he is."

Leon pushed off of the wall and walked over to her. Looking down into her face.

"Why's he here?" he asked softly and his eyes weren't ice anymore. She didn't have to ask which 'he' Leon was talking about.

"He's sick and he needed me. He's an old childhood friend." It popped out without thought but it sounded safe so Tifa used it. "When I picked him up at the train station there was no way I could let him go anywhere but here until he got better."

The last bit wasn't exactly a lie. Just – a careful wording of the truth.

"That's a very – distinctive sword."

She gave Leon a tired smile. That she could answer in a way that would help keep their minds from jumping to the conclusion her's already had.

"He's from Wutai. From what I can tell they're big on bladed weapons there."

Leon exhaled and put his hands on her shoulders, giving her a light little shake.

"You scared me, Tifa. Don't do that again."

"Trust me" the smile she gave him was stronger and more relaxed. "I don't want to do that again either."