Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This collection is mine, as are the OCs. Looks like we survived 2012, and now it's on to 2013. Happy New Year, readers! Enjoy the chapter.

..:-X-:..

094 – Back from the Future

"10:32?" Aerith asked, turning the knobs on the clock.

Yuffie was standing on a chair in the kitchen of Merlin's house, fiddling with the wall hanging clock. "10:33 and 25 seconds…26…27…"

"All right, I'll set it to 10:34 then." Aerith said.

"What? No. It has to be exact!" Yuffie declared. "When the clock tolls midnight, ALL clocks must toll midnight. It'll be like this big, reverberating boom to the new year."

"There's going to be at least a few seconds delay. We can't get it exact." Aerith sighed.

"It would be negligence on our part as hostesses to allow the living room to go into the new year almost a whole half a minute before the kitchen." Yuffie snapped.

Aerith snorted and continued to wind the clock. "Are these the last two?"

Music was blaring from the living room, and Aerith could hear people talking and laughing as Merlin's New Year's Eve party got into full swing. Yuffie in particular had gotten truly enthusiastic as the dawn of the new year neared. She had been particularly enthusiastic about the New Year's Eve tradition of kissing someone at midnight. Little surprise as to why.

"Yup." Yuffie chirped. "Then we will be exactly one hour, 24 minutes, and 10 seconds away from—"

The back door opened abruptly, swinging wide and smacking into the wall as Cloud stormed in. Aerith and Yuffie both jumped, and Aerith started to smirk but stopped when she saw the expression on Cloud's face. He was white as a sheet, except for the very noticeable red burn mark on the left side of his jaw, and both of his pupils looked blown wide.

"Cloud." Aerith stepped toward him, afraid he was about to topple over.

He looked at her, almost startled, as though he hadn't realized where he was.

"Is he gonna puke?" Yuffie asked, then directly at Cloud. "Are you gonna puke?"

Cloud shook his head no, but he started to list sideways. He caught himself and looked unevenly at Aerith. "Aerith—"

"Sit down." Aerith reached him, grasping his elbows and aiming him toward the nearest couch. "Yuffie, could you—"

"I think I missed a clock in the den." Yuffie hopped off the chair and left them alone.

Cloud slumped into the couch, offering no resistance. Aerith sat on the edge of the coffee table in front of him, lifting her hands to his face and turning his jaw slowly to inspect the burn. It was nearly three inches long and looked fresh. She hissed lightly at the wound.

"This looks like it hurts. What happened?" She asked. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you since…" She paused, blinked. "…for a while anyway." She grimaced, "I'm going to get the first aid kit. That needs to be treated."

She retrieved the little red box and returned to where Cloud hadn't moved. Wordlessly, she popped it open and started cleaning the angry red burn. He only barely reacted. She didn't push her questions, and the silence hung thick between them as she dressed the burn. His silence was making her worry increase exponentially. Cloud was quiet about a lot of things, but he almost looked traumatized by whatever had happened.

"Something happened." He finally murmured.

Aerith stilled, closing the first aid kit and looking at him patiently.

"I, uh, went somewhere…It was Agent Mike." He said hoarsely.

Aerith deflated slightly. "What?"

"I saw her again. I went with her." He said.

Red flags went up in Aerith's head. "Went with her…where? How exactly?"

"Out." Cloud made a vague gesture.

"You went…out…with her." Aerith iterated slowly.

Cloud made eye contact with her, "She was attacked. There was a…monster…Somehow her time travel machine thing went off and opened a portal. She fell into it, but she was still being attacked by that thing…So I went after her and wound up…out."

Aerith drew a measured breath. Cloud had been talking about this situation for months. It was always about time travel, this agent woman—who no one else ever saw, conveniently enough—and this non-Heartless monster that she was supposedly hunting. She'd always considered Cloud to be a grounded person, but his history with delusion and existential crises made the line hazy to interpret. She honestly wasn't sure how to handle this.

"Where is 'out'?" She asked, exasperated and worried at the same time.

"The future…" He cleared his throat, "The past…Other places."

Aerith pursed her lips. "Cloud," She reached out and cupped her hand around the unburned side of his face. "I'm trying to understand here, but you're not making sense and…You're scaring me. Time travel doesn't exist."

Cloud closed his eyes and pressed the heels of his hands against his eyelids. "I saw—" He cut off abruptly, curling forward until he was almost doubled over in his seat, head bowed.

Aerith chewed the side of her lip and placed her hand on his back. She could feel him shaking. That broke her and she put her arms around him in a hug, holding him.

"Tell me." She murmured. "Tell me what you saw."

..:-X-:..

095 – The Stroke of Midnight

"No, nononono, look." Yuffie pointed. "The computer clock says 11:45 but the one on the wall says 11:47. Can no one set time properly?!"

"Whoa, whoa, okay." Trevor lifted his hands placatingly. "Let's just fix it. We've still got 13 minutes—"

"Fifteen minutes!" Yuffie corrected, "This is why we can't have nice things!"

Trevor smirked at her fervor, lifting his beer to cover the grin.

"Don't you laugh at me." Yuffie pointed at him threateningly.

"I'm not." He said through a snicker.

Across the room at the couch, Jake was fiddling with the little paper umbrella in his drink. "But it's tradition, Tabaeus."

McCallister, for once out of her fatigues and wearing jeans and a sleeveless shirt, looked at him flatly. "Since when are you a man of tradition?"

"I take my kissing traditions seriously. You were there with the Mistletoe Incident last week." He gestured. "You saw my dedication."

"Yes, and Commander Highwind is still threatening to kill you for that."

"C'mon, the kiss at midnight is the ultimate tradition." He grinned. "Fifteen minutes from now, one kiss, and then I'll stop bothering you about it."

Tabaeus rolled her eyes and looked at her watch. "Ten minutes, actually."

Rinoa set down her drink, eying it strangely for a moment before looking up at Beverly. "What did you put in this again?"

Beverly beamed. "That would be whiskey."

Rinoa hiccupped and took another drink, grimacing as it burned down her throat. "Ugh, it's terrible." She took another drink and nearly choked again. "I'll have two more."

Beverly smirked and poured another drink. "Go easy on these. They'll sneak up on ya."

"I found a shop." Rinoa hiccupped. "For a bakery. It's perfect. It's expensive." She chugged the drink. "Too expensive."

"Well…" Beverly tilted her head. "Chin up. Enter the new year with a give-'em-hell attitude."

The bell in the clocktower in Radiant Garden's town square suddenly tolled.

Everyone at the party paused in their conversations and laughter to look at their watches and cellphone clocks, which Yuffie had forced them to synchronize with the house clocks. According to their times, the clocktower had rung five minutes too early.

"What?!" Yuffie barged into the living room. Cid walked in from outside and Yuffie stared daggers at him. "What time is it?!"

Cid removed his weather gloves. "Midnight."

"Quick!" Jake leaned toward Tabaeus.

She squeaked but didn't lean away, letting him kiss her sloppily on the lips.

With a sort of giggly shrug, the rest of the party did the same: finding their significant others—or comparably drunk friends—and participated in the New Year's tradition. Beverly pointed at Cid, curling her finger toward herself with a tempting smile. He smirked and shook his head, shrugging out of his jacket as he crossed over to her.

Rinoa watched them kiss and groaned, downing her last shot.

Yuffie huffed. "But…but it's not midnight! I've got nearly a dozen clocks throughout this house that say that it is—" She checked her wristwatch. "Three minutes and 16 seconds until midnight."

Trevor sauntered out of the den to stand beside her. "Did you read the clocktower's time right before you started changing all the clocks in the house?"

Yuffie put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "Of course I did. I'm not stupid." When Trevor just grinned at her knowingly, she narrowed her eyes. "I checked it. I'm like…80 percent sure I checked it."

Trevor sighed and reached down, grasping Yuffie's hand and lifting it. She eyed him warily as he turned her wrist, twisting the little knob on the side of the watch to adjust the time. She looked down at the watch face and saw the minute-hand advance three minutes. He stopped adjusting and clicked the knob back in. The second-hand resumed its forward clicking, inching toward the number twelve, closer to a second midnight.

"Three." Trevor said, standing in front of her. "Two." He leaned in. "One."

The kiss was just a peck on the lips, and when Yuffie blinked and just stared at him, he smiled and kissed her again, properly this time. She closed her eyes and returned it, feeling his arms move around her back. Then he was tilting her backward, lowering her into a ballroom dip as he kissed her. Yuffie giggled and kept her hands on his shoulders. They both soon ran out of air and the kiss ended. Trevor stood her back on her feet.

She cleared her throat and patted his arm. "That…you…Shut up."

Suddenly, every single clock in Merlin's house began to ring as they all simultaneously tolled midnight, ushering in the new year.

..:-X-:..

096 – M is for Mystery

"Monica." Tifa suggested.

"Margaret." Leon countered.

Tifa tapped her chin. "…Mindy."

"McCallister would never speak to us again." Leon shook his head.

Tifa groaned and reclined along the length of the couch, her head slumping against the armrest. "I thought the whole point of picking a first letter was supposed to narrow this down."

Leon lifted his shoulders, sitting on the floor in front of the couch. "Who knew there were so many names that started with M?"

On the floor beside him, Duke the golden retriever lay curled up, tail swishing occasionally as he scratched her ears. The dog yawned and closed her eyes as he petted her.

"Mona." Tifa input.

"As in Lisa?" Leon grimaced.

She smacked the back of his head.

Leon pursed his lips. "Mmm…Marla."

"Ugh."

"Molly…Milly…May…Mai…"

"You're just making noises now."

"Oh, because you've been offering such amazing suggestions?"

"I like something with a K in it." She quipped. "Mackenzie?"

Leon pondered it. "That one's a possible."

Tifa shifted on the couch, and he twisted around to look back at her. She looked uncomfortable, and she couldn't get settled on the couch. That had become the norm over the past few weeks. Her middle had become so swollen and heavy that she couldn't get comfortable. She was constantly exhausted and every part of her body ached. He was pretty limited in his capacity to help her with any of that. Beyond body rubs and cooking anything that she had a craving for, regardless of whether or not it was conventional to put mustard on those foods, he was pretty useless.

She caught him watching her and smirked. "It's not polite to gawk at whales."

"Pfft." He exhaled, shifting around so that he was facing her. "You're not a whale."

Duke snorted in displeasure at his facing away from her and taking his hand with him. She licked his elbow and lowered her head again.

"Ugh, I just wish that she'd come out already." Tifa rubbed the side of her stomach. Before Leon could reply, she started to sit up, tapping him on the shoulder to tell him to move.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

She sat up, swinging her legs to the floor. "I'm getting up and walking around. The books say that taking walks could help start the process."

Leon sprang to his feet and helped her stand. "Where do you plan on walking to? There're nearly two feet of snow outside."

"Then I'll be walking…to the study…then to the kitchen…then back here…maybe to the back porch and back to the front door." She gestured vaguely. "Y'know…'around'."

Leon sighed and extended an arm. "Then, after you."

She lifted her chin and moved past him, walking slowly around the couch and toward the hallway. Leon fell into step beside her, biting his tongue to keep from making a joke about how she didn't quite 'walk' anymore as she more 'waddled.'

"Michonne." Tifa prompted as they stepped down the hall.

"Because our daughter will be a katana-wielding zombie-killer." Leon said flatly.

Tifa snorted. "All right, fine. Your turn."

"Marsha."

"Eh, maybe. How about Michelle? Misha? Mikinley?"

Leon narrowed one eye. "Mikinley?"

"Mik…Miklyn? Mikkie? Oh, ha, no. Mary? Mary Sue?"

"Bite your tongue." Leon hissed, "Midnight."

Tifa lifted her eyebrows at him. "You want to name our daughter 'Midnight'?"

"No, it's…past midnight." Leon pointed to the clock on the wall.

"Thus ends our last year as a family of two." Tifa said loftily with a snort.

"This time next year…" Leon started, but trailed away.

A thousand different things could be happening 'this time next year,' and not all of them pleasant. Wars had started and ended in less time. People were born, people died, technology changed, and everything got a year older in the span of one year. He glanced into the study room distractedly as they walked past it. What other changes lay in store for their next 365 days?

"Hey," She caught him frowning, and she kissed him softly. "Happy New Year."

..:-X-:..

A/N: Yes, Michonne was a reference from The Walking Dead. Mwahaha. There was also a slim, teeny tiny wink in there at Supernatural. Anybody in that fandom probably saw it; if not, it didn't really add anything to the chapter. It just sort of…snuck in there.

Cloud's escapade with Agent Mike will be explored further in later ditties. There's still Paradox Parts Four and Five until that gets wrapped up.

Preview for next week: After the first 14 hours of contractions, Tifa began to regret her decision to go painkiller-free, because the subsequent half an hour brought with it the most intense pain that she had ever experienced.