Happy Birthday to You
Tifa woke early the next morning and looked to her right to see a blond hedgehog poking out from under Cloud's blanket. She laughed quietly then went downstairs to set everything up.
The night before, when Cloud and she had been putting away dishes, Tifa had been very careful not to let him near the areas where cake and decorations had been hidden. Now, she quickly removed all of the pieces from their hiding places and arranged them about the bar. She placed the cake on the counter and made it the centerpiece of all of the decorations and finished adding details on the cake itself. Tifa had to feel quite a bit of pride in her cake, made for Cloud or not.
It was a super moist lemon pound cake with dense vanilla icing the perfect shade of yellow. The embellishments on the cake were done in the same dense icing, but white. Tifa just enjoyed herself while decorating the cake, so it turned out a bit more pretty than it should have been, but she had had so much fun making the first icing rose on the side that she had to put a little cluster, and then the edges looked empty to she had to put trimming, and so on and so on.
Tifa admired her cake for a moment before finishing the decorations. Due to a low range of available shopping items, most of the decorations had been handmade by everyone in the group. Marlene had recruited her father into helping her make several bags full of flower wreaths (it was no easy task to get the flowers, but ever since Shinra had stopped draining Mako, foliage was slowly making its way closer to the city). Cid had taken it upon himself to bring two jugs of homemade whiskey which, assuming there was any left after today, could go towards the bar if it tasted good. Shera had brought some sort of…thing. Tifa couldn't make out what it was, but it was mechanical and didn't look like it would blow up, so that was good enough for her. Vincent brought some money he found in Shinra Manor. Nanaki brought a woven blanket from Cosmo Canyon, which Tifa recognized as the blanket Cloud had admired for a bit the first time they all had been to the canyon. Yuffie probably wasn't bringing anything, and if she did it would be something…nevermind. Most of the gifts (excluding Cid's and Shera's) were wrapped or put in bags with tissue paper.
Tifa finished setting everything up, stretched, and went back upstairs to get a few more minutes of sleep before the rest of the house woke up.
"Marlene," Denzel shook the sleeping girl's bed, "Marlene, wake up!"
"Mmmmf…," the 7 year old rolled over and looked blearily at Denzel, "Mm?"
"We have to get everything ready, Tifa and Cloud are still sleeping," the 8 year old reminded.
"Oh, yeah…" Marlene yawned and stretched, then hopped out of bed, "Okay, let's go."
Denzel walked over and reached under his bed, pulling out a necklace with a pearl on it that looked like it had a tendril of lifestream circling it, and a note. This was going to be Cloud's present to Tifa. Meanwhile, Marlene was digging through the children's dresser to pull out a bottle of metal polish (Cid had helped Marlene pick the right type for Cloud's swords and bike), new boots, and a note. These were going to be Tifa's presents to Cloud. Marlene and Denzel hadn't planned on doing notes, but Cid (and after that, everyone not Tifa or Cloud) had worked together to forge Cloud and Tifa's handwriting as best as possible. Shera wrote as Tifa and Vincent wrote as Cloud.
The two children crept downstairs, skipping that one creaky step and board in the hall.
Once downstairs, their eyes were captured by all of the decorations placed around the bar. Albeit slightly browned, the flower wreaths made by Marlene and Barret were pretty and adorned nearly every available surface in such a way that turned the dinghy bar into almost a church like Aerith's. On the table lay Cloud's presents: grown-up drinks, a metal thing, some money, a bag, and a box. Marlene looked at the presents and then wistfully at the cake before deciding that Cloud and Tifa's presents for each other would be better off given after the party.
"Denzel, they're going to sneak each other the presents," she said matter-of-factly.
"Huh? Why?"
"So that they'll know they're from each other!" Marlene replied, "You'll give Tifa's note to her and I'll give Cloud his note."
"Why?" Denzel was thoroughly confused by this sudden change in plan, although he agreed that putting their presents with everybody else's would be a no go.
"Cloud talks to you more than me and Tifa talks to me more than you, so it would make sense that they would give the notes to us if they were too chicken to give them to each other," Marlene replied, waving a small finger at Denzel as though he should have known this from the get-go.
"Oh, that makes sense, I guess. Are we going back to sleep, then?"
"Yeah, I'm sleepy."
The children went back upstairs to their room and crawled under the covers of their beds to tuck themselves away from the lightening day.
Cloud woke that morning with nary a thought to his birthday, just another day to live as he considered it. Once he left, a woken Tifa opened her eyes and smiled at the surprise waiting for Cloud in the downstairs bar.
The blond stopped short when he arrived downstairs. When had Tifa done this? He didn't remember her getting up early and she went to bed before he did (he had cleaned his office a bit more before going to bed). Or did Marlene and Denzel do it? He had heard the two kids try and sneak past his and Tifa's room earlier that morning, but they wouldn't have been able to make the bar look as nice as it did.
"Morning, Cloud. Do you like it?" Tifa had come downstairs and leaned on the bar counter.
"When did you do it?" Cloud picked up a flower wreath made by Barret, which nearly fell apart in his hand. He set it back down before it could fall entirely to pieces.
"Before you woke up," the dark haired beauty replied with a shrug.
"…It's nice…"
Tifa watched Cloud as he gazed around the decorations and gifts.
"You didn't have to do all of this…Thank you…"
"Don't be so embarrassed, Cloud. It's your birthday and it's a miracle any of us are around to celebrate it, so be happy!"
Cloud huffed a laugh and went over to inspect the metal thing that Shera had brought. His eyebrows rose, "Is this what I…?" he picked the contraption up and started towards the exit, "Can you get the door for me, Tifa?"
"Sure," she held the door for him and followed him outside, curiosity piquing her interest.
Cloud took the thing over to Fenrir and compared it to the engine already set in the bike. Although the new engine had several differently shaped parts, it was obviously made to fit in Fenrir. Tifa smacked her forehead. How could she be so stupid?! What else could Shera's gift have been than something for that never-ending project of Cloud's?
Cloud set the engine down with a smile and went inside to get the tools needed to upgrade his toy. Cloud may have been far from a master mechanic, but he had learned enough by working with others to replace any part of his bike that he wanted or needed to. Tifa laughed to herself and went inside to fix breakfast for when everybody showed up.
Within a few hours, everyone (hyperactive ninja added to the mix) had arrived at the house and were busy making their usual ruckus. Shera was thrilled that Cloud had already installed the engine she gave him and Cid was marveling that there was any whiskey left, because he apparently has it in his head that Cloud and Tifa could drink a gallon of whiskey each. Yuffie pulled Tifa to the side and shoved a box into her arms.
"What's this?"
"Cloud's present."
"Why don't you put it on the table with the others? Or give it to him?"
"Because open it."
Tifa wasn't sure that was such a good idea. She hesitated.
"Come on! Just open it!...Actually…" Yuffie paused as an idea popped into her conniving little brain, "It doesn't matter if you or he opens it, now that I think about it," Yuffie snatched the box from Tifa and ran back into the main room, placing it with the assortment of other gifts, then thought of something and ran out of the bar, hollering her imminent return in a half hour.
Oh, God, what's she up to? Tifa seriously pondered opening the box just to save Cloud from whatever foreign horrors Yuffie had brought with her.
Sometime a few hours later, most everyone had dipped into Cid's whiskey, even Cloud had had a healthy amout, which was understandable. It was his birthday after all. Tifa limited her intake of whiskey so she could watch everyone else be drunk and remember what happened, thus having the ability to laugh the next day.
"YO! SKIPEY!" Barret slurred, "YOUSGONNA JEZ LEAVE DEEZ PRESENTS?!"
Cloud sighed, hoping 'Skipey' was only a mistake brought on by drunkenness and not a new nickname. He had never skipped in his life and never will. He got up, tripped on his ankle, then walked over to the gifts and the mostly devoured cake and picked up a bag with colored tissue sticking out of it.
Nanaki (who partook little in drinking human liquor) sat up from his resting position, "That one's mine."
Cloud nodded and rustled the tissue paper out of the bag, then smiled as he took the blanket out, "Thanks, it's nice."
"Uh huh, I saw you looking at it the first time we went to my house," Nanaki barred his teeth in a smile and rested his head on his paws, "Glad you still like it."
"I brought booze! You're WELCOME you f*****g DUMBASSES!" Cid hollered through an empty glass.
"The money on the table this morning…" Vincent mumbled to himself.
"FLOWER POWER," King Bellows.
"I helped!" Marlene chirped.
Denzel attempted to pick up the sword leaned against the wall while no one was looking. Tifa caught it when it was knocked off balance.
"You should open mine now!" a drunken Yuffie commanded, tossing a thin box in Cloud's direction, which he almost dropped.
Cloud and Tifa both gave Yuffie dubious, untrusting looks as Cloud took the wrapping paper off of the box and took a peek inside, not revealing to anyone else what was in it.
"What is it?" Tifa tried to look in the box.
"I don't know, but I don't trust opening it in its entirety."
"Oh, come on! That's not fair!" Yuffie stomped her feet angrily, "Just open the stupid thing!"
Everyone raised eyebrows. Cloud opened the box again, raising the lid more than last time before snapping it shut, his face flushing with a mixture of embarrassment and anger. Tifa took a few steps away and hid her face. Yuffie burst into ecstatic guffaws, "It doesn't matter who decides to wear it!"
What was Cloud supposed to do with silk, black lingerie? Tifa would be more likely to use it, as was likely Yuffie's initial idea, but Cloud would sooner impale himself on any number of his swords than give it to her. Should he trash it? Someone might root through to see what it was…burn it, maybe? And what was with the blond wig stuffed underneath the underwear? Memories of Cloud's worst moments as a man strolled through his mind. Stupid purple dress...
For the moment, Cloud shoved the box unceremoniously under the sofa, much to everyone's general dismay (they still didn't know what it was and hopefully never will). There was an awkward silence for anyone not Nanaki, drunk, or a child (meaning Vincent, Cloud and Tifa). Tifa slipped a box into Cloud's hands sheepishly.
"Here."
Cloud looked at Tifa, "You didn't have to get me anything," he said somewhat shyly, "You've done more than enough already."
"Well I've already bought it, so open it, Strife," she mock demanded.
Cloud sighed, unwrapped, and opened the box to reveal a thick black jacket with a pendant of Fenrir emblazoned on the left shoulder.
"I worry about when you have to go through cold areas on that motorcycle," she explained as Cloud slipped the jacket over his arms.
"It's really warm," he said, not waiting long to remove the jacket again.
"Do you like it?"
"Of course," Cloud replied, a slight smile turning up the corners of his mouth.
Tifa beamed, "Good."
"Heeeey! Whatz wrong with what I got you guys?! I gaves you FUN-TIMES!" Yuffie slurred happily, waving and spilling some of her whiskey. Tifa sighed and took the glass from her.
"You've had more than enough."
"Gawd! MOM, WHYYYY?" Yuffie flopped onto her back dramatically, limbs splaying everywhere and almost kicking Tifa in the face, "Hi-yash!"
Tifa made sure Yuffie was withheld from any source of alcohol after that.
With the mysterious disappearance of the last half-gallon of Cid's whiskey, Barret retired to the bathroom to sleep and everyone else fell asleep wherever they happened to be five minutes after the whiskey disappeared. Yuffie had been sleeping for half an hour when everyone else fell asleep. Cloud and Tifa yawned, also feeling the effects of whatever Cid had put in the whiskey. Cloud's head bobbed as he fought a lack of adrenaline. He felt Tifa tap his arm and he looked blearily up at her.
"Help me get blankets for the others?"
"Mm," Cloud stood and reeled, then rubbed his eyes and followed Tifa to a closet, the same closet actually that they had been trapped in by Barret. Cloud didn't get a blanket for Barret. After everyone was taken care of, Cloud and Tifa carried Marlene and Denzel upstairs (Tifa stopped by the bathroom to let Marlene pee) and put them in bed. Those two had crashed as soon as the cake and sugar in their systems had been digested a little bit.
Tifa yawned and stretched, bones popping in her spine, then brushed her teeth, keeping to the side so Cloud could brush his teeth too, which he almost fell asleep doing.
By the time Tifa was pushing Cloud into their room, he was dead on his feet and she was dangerously near the same point. He crawled into the first bed available (still fully clothed) and instantaneously fell asleep. Not caring much that Cloud had stolen her bed, Tifa crawled into the beckoning blankets and warmth after Cloud and fell asleep after kicking her shoes onto the floor.
I'd like to thank everyone whose followed my story :) I'm really honored that people are reacting well to it, but I'm bad at this kind of stuff (meaning "Thank You"s not given in person), so please bear with me! Also, I am going to shoot for a new chapter every Sunday, so remember me! Love you guys!