Operation: Cloud's Birthday

"Are we agreed, then? That's the plan?" Marlene asked Denzel.

The children were sitting on the floor of their room with what looked like a battle simulation of toys surrounding them.

"Yeah, sounds good to me. But why is it so important that it's in 11 days?" Denzel asked, giving voice to his one curiosity.

"Because that's Cloud's birthday!"

"Really?" it had never really occurred to Denzel that his hero was bound by things like birthdays, "How old is he gonna be?"

"I don't know, but it has to be a good birthday, he's actually going to be here! I bet Tifa's already getting started on plans to keep Cloud at the house long enough for his birthday."

"Yeah…okay, let's make this work!"

"It will work," Marlene said with a smile.

Marlene searched the house and found Cloud fumbling to clean his office. Haha, the poor guy didn't know where to start!

"Do you need help, Cloud?" Marlene asked, smiling at how goofy he looked juggling two and a half boxes of loose paper.

"No, it's okay. Thank you though, Marlene," one of the boxes tumbled and Cloud grumbled to himself. He probably said a dirty word.

Marlene picked up one of the smaller boxes, "Do you need any of these?"

"No."

"What are you going to do with them?"

"Burn them."

Marlene gasped, "We can use them in the fireplace!" she said gleefully.

Cloud looked at Marlene incredulously, "Do you really want that heat in the house? It's August."

"Oh, I forgot. Maybe we could save them for winter? We'd like the heat then and winter isn't too far away. Only a couple of months."

Cloud huffed at Marlene, "And in the meantime, the building gets devoured by slips of paper."

"Ummm…well, when you put it that way…"

Cloud shrugged and smiled a little bit at the girl, "It was a good idea, though. Just maybe at another time."

"Okay," Marlene smiled and set to work getting boxes of paper onto the pile that Cloud started.

Denzel ran up to Tifa after checking something with Marlene, "Tifa! I need to tell you something!"

"Yes, what is it, Denzel?" Tifa closed the handbook she was writing in and looked up at Denzel.

"Cloud doesn't have any jobs on call yet," Denzel whispered urgently after making certain that Cloud himself wasn't in the room, "We need to let people know not to ask him to deliver anything for a little bit."

Tifa smiled at Denzel, "You're certain that it's a coincidence Cloud has no jobs right now?"

Denzel's eyebrows rose, "You arranged that?"

"I might have had a little to do with it," she waved her hand passively and gave Denzel a knowing look.

The boy beamed, "You made sure Cloud can stay long enough for his birthday?"

"Of course!"

"I have to tell Marlene! She's been worrying that Cloud would try to leave before his birthday," Denzel turned to leave, "Oh," he turned back to Tifa, "How old is he going to be?"

"24 on the 19th," she replied, "Don't let him know that we realize his birthday's so close."

"Psh, I know that!"

With that, Denzel ran off to tell Marlene the good news.

Marlene grinned from ear to ear, "Perfect! Does Tifa suspect anything?"

"I don't think so, but she's planning something, too. I saw her writing in a little notebook."

"Do you know what it is?"

"No, she closed the book before I saw anything."

"Hm."

As the days drew closer to the 19th, the Seventh Heaven grew more excited. Although the excitement was fairly well contained, Cloud was able to tell that something was up, and was pretty sure that he was the source of the buzz.

On the 18th, Cloud approached Tifa.

"So, what's gotten everyone so excited lately? You, Marlene, and Denzel have been acting oddly ever since I got back, and I usually don't go this long without a job request," he stated, arms folded over his chest and eyebrow raised.

"We're just excited that you're back is all, and for so long, too. We're not sure when you'll leave again, so were all making the most of our time," Tifa smiled.

"Then we should be spending a bit more time actually together, don't you think?" Cloud countered, "Everyone's been in and out of the house constantly…almost like they're planning something behind my back."

"Really? I'm sorry you feel that way, Cloud," Tifa frowned. She shifted a bit uncomfortably, "I've been wanting to spend more time with everyone, too, but I've had lots of things to do for the bar. We were running low on some ingredients."

"Don't even try to lie to me," Cloud replied with a smirk.

Tifa shot him a grin, "Who says I'm lying?"

"Alright. See you tomorrow. You've got some ingredients to pick up?" the blond flipped his bangs out of his face in his signature gesture and walked away.

Well, he still didn't know exactly what was being planned, at least.

Once Cloud was gone, Tifa smiled warmly, "You're letting yourself be happy again, Cloud."

She went outside and pulled out her cellphone. Once the line got connected and the usual "Hello"s and "How are you?"s had been given, Tifa asked, "So, did you make it to Edge yet?...Most of you did?...Great! I'll send Cloud out and you can help us around here…Oh yeah, he'll be fine…Uh huh, He's been happier lately, I'm glad for him…Bye to you, too. See you in a bit!"

Tifa hung up the phone and went inside so that she could "notice" she was out of beef and chocobo, and was almost out of non-cracked dishes.

"Cloud!" she called, "Can you do me a favor?"

Cloud came into the room a moment later, "Depends on the favor."

"It's nothing difficult. Can you go to the butcher and get some beef and chocobo, and get some new dishes? Almost all of the ones here are cracked," she paused, "Maybe wooden dishes wouldn't be a bad idea," she mused to herself.

"Where am I supposed to find wooden dishes, Tifa?" Cloud looked dubiously at her.

"Good point. If you can't find any, just go with our regular type. I'll be right back with the money."

Once Tifa left, Cloud inspected the cabinets and freezer to see if they were truly out of anything, but found it was exactly as Tifa described.

She left these chores for me on purpose.

Once Cloud was out of the house, Tifa made a call and gave the all-clear. A few moments later, Barret, Vincent, Cid and Shera (shockingly enough), and Nanaki arrived. Reeve was busy, so Cait Sith had to be absent and Yuffie was still about half a day's distance away.

"How much time do we have, Tifa?" Nanaki asked.

"At least two hours, so let's get as much behind-the-scenes work done as we can. Just make sure that none of it's visible, I'll make everything look nice while he's sleeping."

"D'ya think he's totally ignorant?" Cid pondered, twirling a cigarette in his hand.

"Absolutely not, but he doesn't know exactly what we're doing, so things are going well," Tifa replied. She took the cigarette and tossed it in the trash.

"Bitch! What was that for?!"

"I'm not having that smell in my bar. It'll take days to get it out," she poured a cup of water into the trash.

"Shit, figures that he can't keep his nose out o' things that ain't his business," Barret huffed.

"Shutcher ass up, you buffoon!" Cid snapped, "It don't get much more his business than his God damn birthday.

Shera hit Cid in the arm, "Would you quit it with the filthy mouth?"

"Shut up!"

"That's enough, you three. Cid, Barret, quit arguing and start bringing everything inside while I start the cake. Vincent, Nanaki, could you help them?" Tifa asked.

The men went straight to work.

Amid the grown-ups running around doing this or that, Marlene and Denzel helped organize everything that was being brought inside.

"Hey, Denzel," Marlene grabbed the boy by his sleeve.

"What is it?"

"There's a lot of stuff here, what if Cloud doesn't find our thing?"

"We'll just have to put it somewhere we know he'll see it. Do you think he'll know it's from us?"

"I hope not. He's a lot more questioning about stuff than Tifa."

"But Tifa might know, too," Denzel frowned, "If they know that they didn't give them to each other, then our whole plans blown up."

"Plan?" Cid had walked by carrying a bag of food, "What plan is this?"

"Nothing!" the children yipped.

The pilot stared the children down until they averted their eyes.

"It got anythin' t'do with me?"

"No, it's about Cloud and Tifa," Marlene murmured.

Cid smiled, "Anythin' I can do ta help?"

After everything was brought inside, Barret, Cid, Vincent, Shera, Nanaki, Marlene, and Denzel gathered in and near the kitchen, drawn by the smells of heaven inside. That woman can cook!

"What kind of cake is it?" Barret asked. Strewn across the counter were eggs, flour, lemons galore, sugar, and everything else that may or may not be necessary to build a Tifa cake.

"Lemon pound cake. I've been wanting to bake something with lemons for a while and I was able to find some, so I bought as many as I could carry. Shera, do you want to help?"

The scientist had been watching Tifa's hands and movements like a hawk, possibly hoping to improve her baking skills through diffusion, "Oh, well I, um…"

"Her baking skills are no better than mine, so unless you want rocket booster in your cake, I would suggest leavin' the two of us out of the mix," Cid scoffed.

"Oh, please, I was just going to ask her to zest some lemons while I was making the batter."

"Isn't that where you shred little bits of the peel?" Shera asked.

"Yes, would you mind? And unless you are under the age of 10, get out of here," Tifa replied, shooing the men from the kitchen, "Go get the decorations hidden somewhere and don't make a mess."

By the time Cloud returned, everyone had left and the house looked the same as before, if not a tad bit cleaner.

"Did you get everything?" Tifa inquired, relieving Cloud of the bags of meat and putting them in the freezer.

"Yeah, I'll be right back," he left and returned with the dishes he picked up. He set the large box on a nearby table before opening it.

"You found wooden dishes?!" Tifa was amazed! She was fairly sure that anything made out of wood would be nonexistent in this city of scrap metal, "Where did you find them?"

"I know a guy," Cloud replied enigmatically.

"Uh huh? How much were they? I'd like to get more if I can," Tifa returned, picking up and inspecting a plate.

"Oh," Cloud reached into a pocket and handed the leftover money back to Tifa, "They were a little expensive, but there was enough to pay for them," Cloud left out the fact that he threw in a bit of his own money to get a larger set of dishes that had been a better price per dish.

Tifa laughed, then started gathering dishes to put on the shelves, "They're really light," she observed.

"Yeah," Cloud helped put the new dishes away. Tifa made sure he didn't open any cabinets he wasn't supposed to.

Cloud leaned on the counter once they were done and looked at the raven haired girl across from him, "So, can I be pretty certain about the cause of you being so busy?"

"Pardon?" Tifa raised an eyebrow and placed her hand on her hip.

"Nothing. Do you need help with anything else?"

"No, I 'm done here."

"Alright, goodnight, Tifa," Cloud went upstairs.

"Goodnight, Cloud."