A/N: Warning, this chapter SUCKS. I swear this is the most suckish thing I have ever written. And it's so SHORT. Ugh. But I had to put something up and I needed to cross this bridge to get where I want to so... sorry. :(

If he had to be honest, Cloud would say he wasn't coping particularly well with the children without Tifa. The doctors had told him it was a knock to the head that had induced her into her currently unconscious state; however the blond could not keep his mind wondering to what may have actually happened. He knew Tifa too long to believe that she just happened to 'fall' or 'trip'. She was too skilled in the art of balance to do something like that. No, he thought to himself as he struggled to stuff the sandwich he had made into Marlene's lunch box. Something out of the ordinary had caused Tifa to lose concentration.

"Cloud, when will Tifa be home? You suck at making sandwiches."

It took every bit of him to refrain from snapping back at Marlene. He knew she didn't mean anything by her words. Hell, had he been raised with Tifa's cooking, he'd be fairly impatient to get her back too.

"I don't know Marlene. I'm going back to the hospital while you're at school today. She might even be back when you get home."

The blond soon realized it was wrong of him to get the little girl's hopes up.

Once he arrived, he was greeted by Yuffie, who had gone into the hospital late the night before to keep watch over Tifa while Cloud dealt with the children. Her visiting was most certainly outside of the visiting hours; however the nurses didn't seem to welcome the idea of annoying the Wutain ninja. Despite her cheerful and happy disposition, the young woman proved to be extremely irritable and unpleasant when her best friend was in trouble. It made Cloud grateful for her annoying chatter. She had become so serious to the extent that Cloud was almost scared to be around her. However today, she seemed to be her normal self once more.

"Hey Cloud!" She greeted him outside of Tifa's room. However normal she was acting, Cloud sensed something was off.

"What's going on, Yuffie?"

She bit her lip and ran her hands through her hair before deciding to reply.

"Tifa's awake."

It was a statement that was said someone morbidly. Thousands of thoughts began to fly around Cloud's head in the few short moments before he replied. What if she's lost her memory? What if she doesn't remember me but remembers everyone else? What if her brain's been permanently affected?

"Yuffie, what's wrong? Is something else wrong with her? Yuffie, is she-"

"Hold on, Cloudy!" she exclaimed, putting hands up to grab his attention.

"There's nothing else wrong with her, buddy. She just awake, just a little bump on her head."

The sigh of relief that came from Cloud was almost comical, running his hands through his hair and then sliding a hand across his face. But something still wasn't right. Yuffie wasn't telling him everything.

"Yuffie…"

She bit her lip a little too hard, and then flashed him an innocent smile, laughing fakely.

"Well… Cloud… Don't stress or anything… But what caused her to fall was… well…"

"Yuffie spit it out." Oh he was getting nervous.

"You know the way we were talking about marriage and stuff? And you were kinda shocked that we all thought you two were gonna get married? Well….that was her breaking the vase. She was at the door about to answer it and she heard us… and legged it away from the door so you wouldn't think she'd heard you. And well…she had been cleaning the floor so she slipped. Story over, let's get some ice cream!"

Cloud stared at her, his eye twitching ever so slightly.

Fuck.

How the hell was he supposed to face Tifa after this? After her hearing what sounded like him not liking the idea of marrying her? How the hell was he supposed to fix this? If he ever did ask her to marry him now she'd think it was just 'cos he felt bad. And if he didn't ever ask her to marry him they'd always be stuck in that horrible limbo between friends and family. All he wanted to do was punch something.

"Cloud?"

He looked up at Yuffie, who for once actually seemed worried about him too.

"It's… It's okay, Yuffie. It wasn't anybody's fault. It's just put me in a…very awkward position."

She frowned and put her arms around his neck to hug him, and this time only barely squeezing him, more so in an affectionate way a sister would comfort a brother.

"I'm sorry, Cloudy. I'll help you fix this as much as I can. And I promise I'll try not break anything in the process."

Releasing him and giving him a little smile, she headed off towards to doors of the hospital to go and catch up on some sleep. She was gone, leaving Cloud standing in the middle of the hospital ward looking like an idiot.

He groaned and put his head in his hands again. He had to go face her. He had to do this.

After asking one of the nurses if she was still in the same room, he moved down the hallway as slow as he possibly could. He was joking himself; the more he put it off the worse it would be.

Finally, he reached her door and took a deep breath before grasping the handle.

"Hi,"

Tifa looked up from the magazine Yuffie had brought her to see Cloud awkwardly standing in her doorway, hands in his pockets and a blank look on his face.

Oh shit, oh shit, she's angry at me. Shiva save me!

"Hey Cloud," she replied, placing the magazine on her little table and beckoning him over to sit beside her with a smile.

He agreed to her wishes, plonking himself down into the chair to the left of her bed, and looking down at his hands.

"So…Err… You feel better?" he asked lamely.

She let out a small laugh, looking down at him fondly.

"Much better. Thank you for looking after me, Cloud."

"Well, eh…um, it was the, uh, doctors really"

This is not going well.

Cloud's visit was very brief, leaving the hospital after only twenty minutes, stating that he had to go pick up the kids despite it being two hours before they finished. The doctors told him he could bring Tifa home later that day, as long as she was kept off her feet and stopped doing anything straining. When he informed Denzel and Marlene, they were overjoyed. They said they missed her but Cloud knew deep, deep, deep down inside that it was her cooking and chores she did that they missed the most. Horrible children, he thought humorously.

Before he had to pick up Tifa, he had the children working like little slaves, tidying up all the mess they had allowed build up in the few days Tifa had been in hospital. How they had managed to make so much mess in such little time was beyond Cloud. However he was a little too preoccupied sorting through the washing and throwing clothes aimlessly into the machine to pay attention to them. When he encountered some of Tifa's clothes, primarily her underwear and bras, he tossed them into the machine as if they were poisonous, trying not to look at them too long.

Of course when he finally had the washing done and they looked somewhat presentable, he went to put it away. When he got to Tifa's pile, he deliberated just leaving her clothes folded neatly on the end of her bed. But then the thought that she'd probably want to go straight to bed occurred to him so he ended up deciding to put them into her wardrobe and drawers. Again, he came to her underwear and he found himself blushing out of control. He opened and closed the drawers of her mahogany dresser, not finding the underwear drawer. Eventually though, he did come across it and as a man, he found it hard not to peek, telling himself that he had to make more room in the drawer for the new clothes. Something other than the normal bras and underwear caught his eye. At the back of the wood, rested a black lacy lingerie set. He felt his eyes widen and quickly slammed the drawer shut before he began trying to imagine Tifa wearing them.

Too late, he thought, images of Tifa lounging around in that gorgeous lacy fabric.

His cheeks flared up, becoming incredibly obvious against his blond hair. And when he made his way down the stairs, Marlene looked at him innocently with a cute smile on her face. Cloud didn't put any pass on it until her heard her giggle.

"Cloud? Why does your face look so red? You look like a tomato!"

This was followed by another roll of laughter from the small girl and Cloud's face burned a tiny bit more.

"It's nothing, Marlene," he mumbled, the little girl not even hearing what he said as he threw the washing basket into the porch.

"I'm gonna go make Tifa a cake!" was the carefree exclamation that came from the kitchen. The sounds of Denzel muttering to the young girl met Cloud's ear as well, long before he spotted both of them searching for Tifa's cookbook.

"Guys, she wont-"

But he stopped himself. There was no point in ruining the kids' fun. Let them bake a cake, he thought bitterly as he sat down in front of the TV so he could keep an eye on them.

If only a cake would fix this whole mess.

Reviews:

ACupOfTeaForAliceAndHatter: Yea I know what you mean, don't worry. I am a huge fan of Yuffie and I completely agree with her being intelligant. I mean, how could she be so good at what she does if she wasn't? I think the childishness that kinda comes across is to cover it up sometimes.. I dunno, yea get what I mean?

Guest1: Thank you for your review :)

J Luc Picard:Thank you for your review, am always trying to vary the genre!

Guest2:
I know, I liked that part too ^_^ just kind of thought it would be funny for Cloud to have that kind of weird taste.

Skyscraper15:
Thanks, I'm sorta better, still on the wobbly road to recovery :) Thanks for the reviews!