Hello again! Just another fun little chapter with the Strife family and some Christmas spirit because all the winter ads have put christmas on my brain :)

Christmas

"DADDYYYY!" Aeris yelled, "Zack'sh holding my schair again!"

Cloud shouted down the stairs to his kids, "Zack, let your sister go!" Cloud swore, ever since school let out for winter break, the children had been testing how far they could go before Santa left coal in their stockings.

Zack pouted, "Hmph. Tattle tale," he shoved his sister's wheelchair away from him.

"Four-eyesch," Aeris shot back.

Zack scowled and adjusted his glasses, "Would you prefer I rubbed my dirty hands all over your face to see what you looked like?" he reached a hand out threateningly.

"Eek!" Aeris wheeled out of Zack's reach in a hurry, "No! You already know what I look like, grodie!"

Angeal tore from around a corner and scooped Aeris out of her seat, "Gotcha!"

Aeris whined,"An-ge-yaaal…"

Zack held out his arms, "Toss her to me!" the 13 year old called.

Angeal swung Aeris, getting ready to toss the small 6 (and 3 quarters!) year old.

"MOMMY!"

"You will do no such thing," Tifa walked into the room and pointed at Aeris' empty chair, "Put her down, Angeal. And Aeris, stop yelling in the house. If you three don't start behaving, then Santa won't leave you anything."

Angeal rose an eyebrow. Surely Mom didn't think he still believed in Santa Claus?

However, he played along for his sister's sake and drooped along with Aeris' pout. He then passed his sister onto an unsuspecting Zack, who dropped her.

"Hey!" Aeris squealed.

"Sorry!" Zack helped Aeris into her chair. Once in her seat, Aeris snatched Zack's glasses and put them on her head. She'd made the mistake of putting the green spectacles over her eyes only once.

"Heey! I need those!" Zack felt the air near Aeris' head and knocked her on the ear. Aeris giggled and returned her brother's glasses. Zack hated it when people could see his eyes. He could never make them go where he wanted them to.

Tifa rolled her eyes and went upstairs to answer the ringing phone, although Cloud got to it before she did.

"Uh huh," Cloud was saying when Tifa walked in, "You're almost done? ...By her birthday?...Thanks, Cid. This means a lot to us," Cloud turned to Tifa, "It's Cid. He said he should have Aeris' braces ready by her birthday."

Tifa smiled hugely, "Really? That's fantastic! Thank you Cid!" she called, "And the crutches have come in already?" she asked Cloud.

Cloud nodded.

Tifa smiled and clasped her hands together, "Our little girl is going to walk, Cloud."

Cloud chuckled, his eyes bright, "I know."

December continued with the promise of Christmas in the forefront of the children's minds. With the decorations up and the tree done, it truly felt like the holidays. It was at times like this though that Tifa thought of Zell. Her and Cloud's first attempt at parenting. She would often talk with Cloud about the excitable baby boy and wonder how he was doing. He should be about 16 or 17 years old by now. Tifa laughed. She was getting older herself at 39, and don't even mention Cloud's 40th birthday party. Tifa was finding more white hairs lately when she brushed her hair, too. It was actually one of her favorite activities to have her children pluck the grays. It was very relaxing and was basically a free head massage. Tifa had noticed that Cloud's hair had too grown less vibrantly gold as he aged. His sideburns were totally white now. He had laughed when he found his first white hair and had plucked and shown it to Tifa and said, "I guess even heroes aren't immune to time," to which Tifa had laughed and shown a tiny white patch that was growing in near the top of her scalp and said, "You probably have more, but it's hiding in the blond," to which Cloud chuckled again and said, "We're getting old. Who would have thought we'd have the luxury?"

Maybe Tifa could write to Edea and see who Zell had been adopted by. Obviously a boy that charming wouldn't still be in the orphanage. Tifa had also wanted to send the boy a Christmas or birthday present ever since she gave him up. As the days grew closer to Christmas, Cloud and Tifa's three biological children grew proportionally more well behaved, and by the 23rd they were all perfect little angels. Well, almost.

"Mommy?" Aeris asked that evening.

Tifa knelt down, "Yes?"

"If I'm good, can I open one of my presentsch tomorrow? Pretty pleassh?" Aeris blinked her big green eyes at her mother.

Tifa smiled and smoothed Aeris' dark wavy hair (where the waves came from, Tifa had no idea, but they were so pretty. She had entertained the notion that the curls came from Aeris' name), "We'll see. But I get to choose the present."

Aeris beamed and hugged her mom around the neck, "Yay! Thank you!"

The next day, the whole house was abuzz with the knowledge of fun and presents. The family went down the street to visit Barret before getting some other things done around the city. Zack got his cane out of his pocket and Aeris and Angeal made sure their transport help was ready to go before the family left. Angeal was slightly lopsided because he needed to have his prosthetic readjusted, which Barret would take care of that day.

Cloud walked in Barret's shop and shouted over the noise, "Barret! We're here!"

The noise stopped and a gray-haired Barret emerged. He had gained weight in the past few years, but hadn't lost but a small percentage of his previous strength. He wiped his hands free of oil and scooped Aeris up and set her on his shoulder, much like he would do with Marlene when she was Aeris' age. Aeris laughed and flopped over Barret's head and sang, "Uncle Barret! Uncle Barret!"

"Hey, guys! Ya'll here to get Angeal evened out?" Barret asked, knocking said boy in the arm.

Angeal nodded, "Yeah, I'm lopsided again."

Zack shoved his brother, "You're always lopsided!" he laughed.

Angeal shoved Zack back, "At least I can see where I'm going!"

"Boys," Tifa warned.

Zack scratched the back of his head, "Heh heh…sorry, Mom…"

Angeal started looking around and admiring items in Barret's shop.

Tifa patted Zack on the head and played with his hair.

"Alrigh', son," Barret set Aeris back in her chair and turned to Angeal, "Let's getchu all fixed up. DENZEL! GEDDOWN HERE!"

Zack jumped and covered his ears. A moment later, Denzel rushed into the room, wiping grease off his hands, "Yeah?" the fuzzy 22-year-old asked.

"I wantchu to work on Angeal's leg this time. You been watchin' me for years. That alright with you Teef? Cloud?"

Cloud shrugged, "I don't see why not."

Tifa nodded her head, "Absolutely. Is it okay with you, Angeal? And Denzel, you really should shave. You look homeless."

Denzel sighed, "Tifa…"

"I don't want you looking like that in our Christmas pictures. Shave."

Cloud snickered quietly. Tifa was pulling the "Mom" voice on Denzel again, and Tifa hated facial hair. The only time Cloud could grow his beard out was when he was on a long delivery (which were becoming rarer the older he got) and he had to shave as soon as he got home or Tifa wouldn't even give him a "Welcome back" kiss.

"Barret gets to have a beard," Denzel countered.

Tifa put her hands on her hips, "Barret is older than me and would look weird without one."

Barret laughed loudly.

"But-"

"Shave or I won't let you in Christmas pictures."

Cloud knew fully well that Tifa wouldn't cut Denzel out from the photos, but he didn't say anything.

Denzel rubbed his growing beard sadly, "Alright."

Cloud and Barret shot each other smirks. Works every time.

Angeal played with the gap between his two fingers on his disfigured hand like he did when he thought about something. Denzel had made a lot of really cool things before, but Barret had always fixed his leg. He nodded, "Yeah, that's fine. Denzel can fix my leg."

Barret smiled, the wrinkles on his face deepening, "There's a good boy!" he thumped Angeal on the shoulder, then looked over at Cloud and Tifa, "You guys got 'is measurements?"

Tifa pulled a slip of paper out of her bag and handed it to Barret, "Yup, here you go. When should you two be done?"

Barret pointed over his shoulder at Denzel, "Denz hasn't worked with prosthetics yet, so it'll take him a while, then I have to make sure he did a good job, so it'll take a bit longer than usual. How 'bout…give or take 4 hours? Can you handle crutches that long, Ange?"

Angeal nodded, "Yeah, I'll be fine," he sat down in a chair and disconnected his leg and removed the middle piece from his stump. He handed the parts to Barret, who handed them to Denzel, who immediately left to get started. Cloud lent a hand to get Angeal to his foot and keep him balanced until Tifa got the crutches from Barret.

With crutches securely under Angeal's arms, the Strife family headed out to get their errands done. However, as usual while out of the house, the Strife family got plenty of strange or sympathetic looks from strangers, but that went largely ignored by everyone but Aeris.

"Daddy, why do people keep looking over here?" the girl asked, leaning backward and looking up into her father's face.

Cloud maneuvered the chair over a ridge in the sidewalk, "Because they see a lot of weird hair and good-lookin' kids."

Aeris kept her voice low to no one could hear her trouble with "S"s, "It's becaushe we need help, izn't it? People alwaysh look like they feel sch- bad for our family."

Tifa rubbed her daughter's head. Aeris was too smart sometimes, "That's part of it, too, honey. But don't worry about what they think. People will always look at whoever looks a little bit different."

Angeal hopped forward and turned to face his sister, "Just pretend like you're famous and they wish they could get your autograph."

"But they can't," Zack continued, "Because they're just normal people."

"So they can only stare and hope that you'll look at them." Angeal finished with a smile and raised his 3-fingered hand, "I'm Alien Lord Goomplank."

"I'm Donatello! Leader of the Ninja Turtles!"

Aeris laughed and gave a regal wave to the common folk. "I'm Aeris`. Enough ssaid."

That evening, Cloud saw Tifa going through her old fighting gloves. He scoffed, "What're you going through those old things for?"

"I couldn't reach Edea, but I figured out where Zell is. I talked with his mother a bit and apparently he's in training to become some sort of "SeeD" cadet, and prefers to fight with his fists. I thought I would send him a Christmas present."

"You found who adopted Zell?!" Cloud sat down next to Tifa, "How in the name of Gaia did you manage that?"

"I have connections," Tifa said with a smile, "Zell's mother is a sweet woman named Carla Dincht. She offered to let us come by and see Zell again."

Cloud's eyebrows rose, "Really?" he paused, "Do you think we should? There's no chance that he would even remotely remember us."

"I know, and I told his mother that, but she offered to introduce us as old friends of hers after I told her about our relationship to Zell. She also asked if we had anything of Zelda's that we could give to her and Zell."

"Uh…" Cloud scratched his head, "Didn't Zelda like to knit? Do we have any of the stuff she made still?"

"Probably. I was going to send it with the gloves…how about my old Kaiser Knuckles? They were some of my favorites," she reminisced with a laugh.

"Ugh, I remember the bruises you gave me with those sparring. They're perfect," Cloud rubbed his arm.

There was a knock on the door and Zack's voice sounded up, "Can we open a present? Aeris has been bothering me and Angeal to ask you for an hour."

Tifa looked over at Cloud, "You wanna go down?"

Cloud nodded, "Sure."

Once everyone was together, Tifa carefully picked out one present for each of her children. They all sat the boxes in their laps excitedly. Aeris shook her noisy mystery gift and started tearing the paper off of her shoebox before exclaiming jokingly, "I got shhoess!" She opened the box and exclaimed at the box full of stickers, small jewelry, and little trinkets. "They're ssso pretty! Thank you!"

Tifa smiled. Cloud ruffled Aeris' hair.

"Daaaaaddyyyy…"

Cloud got a quarter and looked at his sons, "Heads or tails?"

"Tails!" Zack yelped.

"Heads." Angeal grinned.

Cloud flipped the coin and slapped it down on the back of his hand. He uncovered his hand and looked at the circle of fate. "Zack, go ahead."

"Yes!" Zack tore into his package and opened the shoebox. He reached inside and pulled out the figurine. His jaw dropped when he grabbed onto a turtle shell. He searched for the hero's weapon to identify which TMNT toy he got, "Donatello!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Thank you!" he carefully started working the plastic ninja turtle out of its case.

Angeal rolled his eyes. "You're so immature." He took his present and smiled at his parents before ripping the brightly colored paper off.

"Awhoa-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho! This is AWESOME!" Angeal removed the alien mask from the box and pulled it over his head. He held up his right hand and wiggled his fingers, "TAKE ME TO YOUR LEA-DER."

"I'm immature?" Zack wrinkled his nose at his brother while Aeris chortled into her sticker-covered hands. Angeal stuck his tongue out at Zack and Aeris, but the mask only showed the narrowing of his eyes.

"Alright. It's time for bed." Cloud plucked Aeris out of her chair and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Go brush your teeth." Tifa stood and stretched.

Once all three children were sound asleep, Cloud and Tifa took on the roles of Mr. and Mrs. Clause. They arranged the three big gifts and filled the stockings and carefully laid out the smaller gifts around the fireplace before turning in for the night.

Merry Christmas even though Thanksgiving is next week! I couldn't wait to upload this. I'm sorry if I put it online a tad early :P Happy National Turkey Day!