Hey guys, I realize it's been a while. I've been busy. But if I get a lot of reviews for this chapter, then I'll be sure to post the next one quicker. =)

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Because of this sad fact, I spend my time as an obsessive videogame player writing out stories that I think are good enough to be made by the real owners.

Ok, maybe not, but I still own nothing.

Chapter 11: Temporary Celebration

Yuffie, eager and hyper as always, was running down a long hall in the ship when she nearly collided with a tall man in dark clothes. She gasped in surprise, but then remembered why she was running in the first place. "V-Vincent!" she panted, grabbing onto his arm for support. "You won't believe what I just overheard!"

"If it's pointless gossip, I don't care."

"Oh shut up!" Yuffie said excitedly. "You're gonna care about this. Cloud and Tifa love each other! L-O-V-E. LOVE!!!"

"Yuffie, that's none of our business. What they feel for each other is between them, you should know that..."

"Yeah...yeah, sure," the ninja said, looking over Vincent's shoulder. She had completely ignored the lecture he started to give, only concerned with passing on the valuable information she had received. Alright, so maybe she shouldn't have eavesdropped. Oh well, everyone would have found out eventually. And now they'll just find it out from her. Yeah—that'll make things less awkward for Cloud and Tifa! "I gotta go Vinnie, see ya later!"

Vincent started to protest, but Yuffie was already running around him and to the man part of the ship. Where everyone except the crew was. He scowled and turned around, following her to make sure she didn't cause too much trouble.

"Guys, Tifa and Cloud are together," Yuffie announced. The room around her immediately fell silent and everyone looked to her. Their expressions were so unreadable that Yuffie wondered if she had made a mistake. Silence hovered over all of them like a dark rain cloud for a while.

"How do you know?" Reeve finally asked.

"I overheard them."

"You shouldn't have been snooping, Yuffie," Nanaki said.

"I-I wasn't trying to at first!" she cried defensively. "I was going to talk to Tifa but Cloud was in there and I heard them saying stuff."

"...What kind of stuff?" Barret inquired. Yuffie wasn't sure if he was mad or happy. She hesitated one moment before answering.

"Just that they loved each other and stuff. Really, I feel like I missed a ton of the conversation."

"Well, ain't that a shame?" Cid mumbled sarcastically. Only Nanaki and Vincent, who had great hearing, heard his remark.

Yuffie sighed and plopped herself down in a chair. "Come on guys, this is exciting! First he comes back suddenly, and ever since then they've been falling for each other! It's the perfect romance story, isn't it?"

The room was awkwardly silent, considering men didn't read romance novels or watch chick flicks.

The ninja sighed again, brining a hand to her forehead. "You guys are so stupid," she mumbled.

Footsteps reverberated from the hallway behind them, sounding extremely loud in the quiet room. Yuffie didn't turn around, figuring that it was only Vincent walking away to do...well, whatever it was he did. He was such a mystery to her.

"Hey, what's going on?" Tifa asked pleasantly.

Yuffie jumped out of her seat in surprise. There, right behind her, stood Cloud and Tifa. both of them looked happy, but not in a way that was too obvious to everyone else in the room. Those stupid men wouldn't have seen the romance between them even if it smacked them in the face.

"I'm so happy for you guys!" Yuffie blurted, nearly tackling Tifa in a hug.

"Whoa, what?" Tifa inquired. She cautiously returned the hug, giving the younger girl a few pats on the back.

"We know you two are together," Yuffie said excitedly.

"W-what? But how?"

"That's not important," she responded, releasing Tifa from the tight hug. "But we all know you two...um...well, have feelings for each other. You know, love each other." The words sounded more and more awkward as she kept talking. Eventually, she decided to stop speaking all together and let things flow out naturally.

But Tifa was too surprised to respond with anything but questions. And since she had asked all the clear and obvious questions, she was silent.

Cloud awkwardly rubbed the back of his head before looking over at Tifa. "I'm not ashamed if you're not," he said softly, setting a hand on her shoulder. Tifa smiled widely at this and nodded, leaning into him.

Yuffie squealed in excitement. "We should celebrate! Cid, do you have any beverages on board?"

"!*#& of course I do!" he exclaimed excitedly, thinking about his stash of alcohol. In reality, he only wanted to have a party as an excuse to get drunk. "I'll go get it. Congrats to the happy couple!" The pilot ran out of the room in search of enough beer for all who were interested—or at least enough for himself.

Reeve smiled kindly and stood up, walking over to Tifa and Cloud. "I am happy for you both, especially you, Tifa. I'm glad he finally came to his senses," he said with a wink.

Tifa laughed happily. "Oh Reeve." She gave him a friendly hug, glad for his sense of humor and friendship. They had gotten especially close in the past year. Nothing romantic; just a great friendship. And his opinion meant so much to her; she was truly happy he had said what he said.

"Congratulations, Cloud and Tifa," Nanaki said, walking up to the two of them. "It's about time something good happened around here."

Cloud hummed in agreement, nodding. "Thanks, Red."

While Cloud continued to interact with Red XIII, Tifa walked over to Barret.

"Tifa..."

"Barret, I know you're probably upset--"

"You always said you would ask me if I approved of the guy," the burly man said calmly.

"I know; you're mad because you don't think he's good enough. Because he ran away. But..."

"Tifa, let me speak, please." Tifa nodded and stopped trying to speak, knowing that she was most likely in for a lecture. Barret was like a brother to her. Or a father, since he was so protective of her.

"I think he's perfect for you."

She gasped and looked up at him, disbelieving at first. But he was smiling at her, and that told her otherwise. "R-really?"

Barret nodded. "Yeah. Teef, he's the best thing that's gonna happen to you. I could see from the very start that something was going to happen. The way he looked at you...I've never seen a man look at you like that." He laughed. "Heck, I've wanted to knock out any other man who looked at you. Including your ex."

Tifa's smile faded at that last sentence. "You never told me that..."

He shook his head. "No; I wanted to respect that you had to live your life your way. Who you date isn't up to me. It's just up to me to protect you from getting hurt by 'em." Tifa smiled again. "But now I don't have to worry about that, do I?" he mused.

His adoptive sister shook her head. "No," she agreed. "But I know you'll still be looking out for me anyway."

Barret burst out in laughter. "You got that right," he said with a smile. They shared an embrace, everything at that moment being absolutely perfect.

"Hey-hey!" Cid hollered, hurrying into the room. He held at least a half dozen beer bottles in his arms, nearly dropping them as he made his way over to a table. "Let's get it started!!"

Yuffie squealed in delight, glomping Tifa and Barret from behind. Tifa laughed cheerfully, a smile appearing on her face.

From the other side of the room, Cloud smiled. Even with nobody watching him, he knew that his smile was important. It was something he hadn't done too much of in the past year—or his entire life, for that matter. But now...now that he was genuinely happy, he had every reason to smile. And he would do it for himself.

"Congratulations, Cloud," a monotone voice said from behind him.

He turned around and offered his friend a small smile. "Thank you, Vincent." Though the vampire's tone showed no emotion, Cloud knew he wouldn't have said anything if he didn't truly mean it. He and Vincent were alike in that sense. "Who knows; maybe it'll be you and Yuffie next."

Vincent chuckled. Cloud wasn't sure if it was an awkward laugh or if Vincent thought the idea was absurd. But then again, it wasn't his business. The only thing he had to be worried about now was Tifa. And his family, Marlene and Denzel.

He had a new sense of purpose now; his duty was to protect and love them all. It was a challenge he was ready to face head on.

This time, he wouldn't turn away.

"Kadaj," a man said to his superior. Kadaj smiled pleasantly and turned around in his chair, seeing both of his brothers enter the room once more. Both of them looked extremely pleased. Pleased...and excited. Things were progressing so much more quickly than they had originally thought possible.

"Brothers," he greeted. "Excellent job. The information that we gathered because of that fight was absolutely crucial to our mission. I couldn't be more pleased with the results."

Loz laughed and took a few steps over, sitting down in a chair. Yazoo followed his lead and did the same, making a complete triangle with the three brothers. "So, what next? Need we give them our next physical challenge?"

"That's hardly necessary," Yazoo said. "At least, not for the purposes of testing. We could use it to keep them off our trail a bit longer. After all, so far they've been so busy they haven't had a chance to do real detective work."

"Yes, I'm a bit disappointed in that," Kadaj confessed. "After all, what's the fun of this if we can't even get them involved in their own special way?" He paused. "Nevertheless, we have a rare opportunity now to skip over days of work and hassle. We can move on now and get our task completed that much sooner."

"Who would have thought technology would come in handy so much?" Yazoo mused.

"Agreed," Kadaj said with a laugh. "You two didn't even travel to the fight location—the clones did all the work."

"And Tifa and the others figured that we would actually show up so early in the game!" Loz said mockingly. "Perhaps we have overestimated their intelligence."

"No; they just haven't had a chance to really discover the truth," Kadaj inserted. "Given more time, they would see it all so clearly and be on our tails. That's why we can't give them that chance."

Yazoo and Loz silently nodded in agreement.

"Yazoo, you'll be in charge of getting the new target. Loz, you'll take care of Marlene. We'll start the next phase of this game at exactly five o' clock A.M."

"What are you going to do, Kadaj?" Loz asked innocently.

Kadaj smiled and answered the question without missing a beat. "Make the phone call, of course."