Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This story is mine, as are the OCs. Big developments in this chapter, character and plot-wise. Enjoy!

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131 – It Takes a Village

The sound of Mikayla's crying jostled Cloud out of the doze that he hadn't realized he'd fallen into. He opened his eyes to find the living room of Leon and Tifa's house dark. He blinked away confusion and remembered. Tifa would be returning to work at the Alliance in a few weeks, and she had wanted to get back into the swing of what was going on in her department, as Cloud and Tifa's top interns had more or less taken over running it during her maternity leave.

The problem was that Tifa was meticulous when it came to the running of her department, and it had been early afternoon when Cloud had arrived at her house. It was night now. He sat up off the couch just as the upstairs light flicked on. He saw Tifa's shadow move out of the bedroom and toward the nursery. How long had he been dozing? He ran a hand over his face as he got up and meandered upstairs to let Tifa know he was going home.

Tifa was holding Mikayla and bouncing on her heels when he walked in.

"Hey." He greeted, feeling re-energized after the impromptu catnap.

She half turned toward him, "Oh, hi. Sorry, you checked out, so I just sort of left you there…She should calm down in a few minutes."

"S'okay." He saw the dark circles under Tifa's eyes and held his hands out. "Give her here."

Tifa blinked. "What?"

"Let me have her. You go to bed. In that order." He reiterated.

"Oh, no, Cloud, that's okay. I can't ask you to—"

"You're not asking. I'm telling. Sleep, that's an order."

She raised a challenging eyebrow but let him pluck the infant from her arms. Mikayla changed hands easily. She continued to cry, but she had dropped from below a scream to a whimper. Tifa's exhaustion seemed to double as she stepped away.

"Thanks, Cloud."

"Yeah, yeah, shoo." He waved her off with his foot.

Taking over custody for the moment, Cloud carried Mikayla with him downstairs. The baby squirmed a little on the way down, but she had more or less quieted by the time he walked back into the living room. Papers were scattered across the coffee table and furniture, along with baby stuff, parenting books, toys, and power bar wrappers.

"You are really putting these two through the ropes." He murmured, looking at the little girl. "Have you no mercy?"

Mikayla hiccupped, her lower lip wobbling as her tears tapered off.

"You should be nice to them, y'know. You took them by surprise. You took all of us by surprise." He mumbled, sauntering around the living room with her; moving around and talking to her seemed to keep her calm. "They're not doing a shabby job either though."

Mikayla pouted, one of her hands finding his chin, the other finding his ear. Cloud turned his head, looking back into her wide, teary blue eyes. She hummed at him, and he leaned in, bopping his nose against hers.

"Boop." He chirped. When she leaned away and giggled, he smirked.

Silence settled over the house, and Cloud rubbed Mikaya's back as she quieted. Hopefully Tifa would get some real sleep tonight. While he knew didn't have to stay, Cloud was content to loiter for a bit. Both Tifa and Leon had had a lot on their plates recently, and it seemed to kill them inside to ask for help occasionally. With their responsibilities to the Alliance, it was impossible to do everything, even for them. And it wasn't like Mikayla didn't have an entire Restoration Committee of aunts and uncles to help out. Stubborn mules.

It wasn't long before the front door opened, and Leon trudged into the house, looking just as bone weary and exhausted as Tifa. He straightened when he saw Cloud in the living room with Mikayla, a look of confusion darting across his face.

"Is this the right house?" He asked, only half serious.

Cloud just pointed toward the stairs. "Go to bed."

Leon frowned, "Tifa—"

"Already sleeping. Go." He pointed again.

"But you—" He pointed at Mikayla.

"Ah." Cloud scolded, pointing a third time. "Don't make me push you."

Leon looked bewildered but soon surrendered, heading up the stairs. Cloud snorted and looked back to Mikayla as they were alone together again. She was starting to doze off, those eyelids beginning to work their way closed. She let out a yawn and then seemed to contentedly make herself comfortable as she fell asleep. He smirked; she had it SO rough.

He continued to absently meander around the living room, lulling Mikayla to sleep, before picking his way upstairs to the nursery. She proved to be a little stubborn when he leaned over to deposit her in the crib, squirming in her sleep while he tried to be as gentle as possible. The angle that he had to contort to in order to accommodate her forced the little black box in his pocket to wiggle out and drop to the floor. It landed with a plop that, under normal circumstances, would have been dismissed, but in the middle of the night, near a barely-asleep baby, it sounded like a bomb going off.

He grimaced, but she didn't stir. He snatched the box up from the floor, checked to make sure the little diamond ring inside was still there, and shoved it back into his pocket before quietly slipping out of the Leonhart residence.

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132 – Losing Inhibitions

This was to be their official, true blue, bona fide, certified, no-doubt-about-it first date. Jake had been extra supervisory in making sure that it all went perfectly. When Tabaeus finally found an open slot in her schedule for a dinner date, she had pretty much left it up to him to pick a place, a time—within the allotted slot—and 'whatever else there is.'

So now here they were, sitting across from each other at a small local restaurant that had a friendly but quiet atmosphere, good service, and that was both classy but within a modest budget. He grinned like an idiot at her, unable and unwilling to tone it down. She looked stunning. He'd told her as much since he'd picked her up at her apartment. She had evacuated her uniform for a long sleeved olive blouse with a thin black ribbon running under the seam of the chest and black pants. Instead of boots, she wore black closed toe flats, and instead of a tight ponytail, her tawny brown hair was down and looked like it had been subjected to aggressive straight-ironing. She had attempted to paint her nails, and for a while, she had fidgeted by picking at the dried nail polish that had ended up missing the nails. No jewelry, but she had applied a tiny bit of make up. A 'tiny bit' of make up was nearly a makeover considering that she never wore make up.

"You're doing it again." She said slowly.

"I know." He continued to smile. "Is it making you uncomfortable?"

"Yeah, but…not…in a BAD way." She shifted slightly, fidgeting with the straw that was sticking out of her empty glass.

That was something that Jake hadn't anticipated: Tabaeus was a nervous drinker. It was alarming how quickly she had inhaled the drink as soon as the waiter set it down in front of her. He hadn't realized how nerve-wracking the whole 'date' situation was for her. It was just she and Jake. It wasn't like this was a blind date with someone she didn't know or was trying to impress. He tilted his head slightly, noting the make up and nails and the hair again.

WAS she trying to impress him? Tabaeus McCallister, enlisted soldier in the Alliance, right hand to Commander Leonhart, and weapons specialist, was trying to impress Jake Alms: oddjobs man, part-time animal shelter employee, and paintball enthusiast? The thought ballooned in his chest like a warm bubble, and he felt giddy.

"Why are you nervous?" He asked, leaning forward.

"M'not." She lifted her shoulders slightly.

"You INHALED that drink." Jake lifted an eyebrow.

She pursed her lips, looked from him to the empty glass, snorted, and giggled.

Tabaeus McCallister…giggled.

"Are you okay?" He asked with a small smile.

She straightened herself in her seat. "I'm…fine." She enunciated. "How are you?"

Jake bit his tongue hard against a smile at her expense. "I think you're tipsy."

She snorted again and mimicked his forward leaning. "I've only had ONE."

"Yeah, but you drank it really fast." He chuckled. "And you've hardly eaten."

Tabaeus looked down at her plate, as though she had just remembered it was there. "Oh." She looked at him. "Is this mine?"

Jake lost his battle at hiding the smile. "Getting you drunk was in no way part of the plan for tonight. That's all your own doing."

She looked up from her plate to his face, and she seemed to be concentrating extra hard on keeping her eyes focused. "I am not drunk." She said with deliberate enunciation.

"Whatever you say." He said as the waiter brought the bill to the table. "Anyway, how about we go for a walk? The stars look awesome tonight."

She made a clumsy reach for the bill, but he tugged it to himself defiantly, so she huffed, sitting back. "Sounds swell." She gave a lopsided smile and narrowed her eyes, "But if you make one comparison of the shimmering night stars to my eyes, I will throw you into a shrubbery."

"Deal." He bobbed his head, and they shook hands on it.

After leaving the restaurant, the two of them walked side by side through town. It was late evening at that point, a balmy night with a handful of other people milling around. He hadn't been exaggerating: the stars were out in full bloom that night. And it would be a lie to say that the stars' glinting wasn't reminiscent of Tabaeus's brown eyes, but he had given his word so he didn't say it aloud. He had given no word not to compliment her though.

"You look beautiful."

"Oh, hmph. I stabbed myself in the eye with the eyeliner earlier." She snorted.

"Not just tonight…all the time." He looked at her as they walked. "With or without dolling yourself up…Although I am flattered that you got dolled up for me."

She dropped her gaze awkwardly and knocked her elbow against his affectionately. "Well…I…wanted to. I mean, I tried. So…you're welcome."

Jake snickered and fluidly slid his hand down to hers, intertwining their fingers brazenly. He felt her hand twitch, fighting that knee-jerk reaction to pull away, but she reciprocated the gesture. Before it became comfortable, she stopped walking, turned on her heel, and faced him.

"I'm going to kiss you now…because…I might be a little tipsy." She announced.

"Okay, that's—" He was cut off as she pulled him to her, planting a sloppy kiss on his mouth that tasted like vodka and cherry lipstick.

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133 – Push the Boundaries

Aerith shook herself briefly, rolling her shoulders to get the kinks out of her muscles. She stood alone in one of the private labs of her Allied department. Being the head of the division that specialized in experimental healing magic and remedies, there were a number of labs and scientific rooms designed to withstand high pressure spellwork and power levels.

She paced back and forth in front of one of the lab tables. The table surface was clear except for three samples of the blue crystals that she had confiscated from the deep chamber of the castle ruins. Fringes of the world's heart: that's what Merlin called them. Pieces of the collective, physical evidence of the undercurrent. Theoretically, since she had been able to manipulate the essence of the undercurrent, she should be able to use these crystals to…what? Nibbling on a fingernail, she stepped over to the crystals.

Picking up one of the crystals, she wrapped her fingers around it and rubbed her index finger along the jagged edge. The stone was cool but carried a low hum to it. She inhaled slowly and held the thing out, palm up. She opened her fist so that the crystal was simply resting in her hand. She could feel it; the familiar sensation of warmth was emanating from the stone, just like when she accessed the undercurrent, as though she was handling something alive and aware, like it was watching her and sizing her up.

She had been working with the intangible essence of the Heart of Radiant Garden for over 10 months; she had a pretty good grip on it. It almost came easily now. How much more different could using a physical manifestation be?

"Okay." She bounced once on her heels, like a boxer entering a ring. "Here we go."

Holding the crystal in her open palm at arms' length, she stepped away from the table and out into the empty floor of the lab. As she had for months when working with the wispy smoke of the undercurrent, Aerith concentrated on accessing the sentient thought process of the crystal, trying to breach the consciousness and be granted permission to summon forth the power of the world's heart.

With the smoky fog, she had to coax it out of the material around her. It was pure energy; it had to be handled delicately, and it usually took several minutes to get any visible results, barring the incident with her emotional outburst at Yuffie. However, Aerith had hardly begun to focus on invoking the power of Radiant Garden's Heart, when the crystal in her hand immediately reacted.

The hum intensified and the heat emanating from it singed her palm. Startled by the accelerated reaction, Aerith involuntarily dropped the crystal. The stone plummeted the four feet from her hand to the floor. As soon as it collided with the tile floor, the humming stopped. A jet of light exploded out of the end of the crystal. The beam jettisoned forward like a laser, sizzling across the air as it slammed into the wall. Aerith yelped in surprise, covered her head with her arms, and ducked.

The echo of the collision exploded across the lab, blowing papers off surfaces. The energy wave put off by the explosion shattered the glass surfaces in the chamber, and the point of impact where the energy beam hit the wall was scorched black.

As the light and the energy faded, she poked her head up from behind the table where she'd ducked. Smoke was rising from the hole in the wall, and the crystal was lying complacently on the floor, no longer humming, no longer burning. Shaken, she straightened and gawked at the hole. That had never happened before. She hadn't even been trying to harness the energy or anything. She hadn't even been trying to facilitate a visual display. She had only been trying to access it, just to see if she could.

A sudden dizzy spell made her pause, but it passed quickly, so she shook it off and crossed over to where the crystal was resting. She picked up a protective towel and folded it, kneeling down and lifting the crystal while using the towel like an oven mitt, just in case. The crystal gave no additional reaction, and she stood again, setting the stone beside the other two crystal samples.

Nonplussed, she took out her research notebook that she kept in one of the table drawers, flipped it open to the next blank page, snatched up a pen, and immediately began to document what had happened. As her hand zoomed back and forth across the page, her mind reeled.

This was huge. This was a massive development. Merlin was right; these crystals could be dangerous in reckless hands. She would have to be doubly careful when handling them. But she had done it. She had had direct physical contact with a planetary heart, arguably one of the most powerful forms of magic and light in the universe, and it had let her. The reaction and the hum of the crystal had felt almost…jubilant, like the heart was excited about being handled, or accessed, or having contact with a human being.

The adrenaline of it all was still pulsing through her, and her vision blurred. She shook her head and leaned over to skim the notes that she'd written, making sure they were legible. Oh, this was so huge! This was…this was an entire new chapter in her research! If she could learn to—

A large dot suddenly appeared on her notes. Aerith straightened slightly in surprise before leaning over again and inspecting the dot. It looked like red ink, but her pen was blue. Her brows knit together as she touched the dot, finding it wet. She stood away from the notebook and frowned, touching her nose and finding more red on her hand. Her nose was bleeding.

She sniffed and took up a napkin, wiping her hand off and then clearing her nose of the blood. That was strange; she wasn't prone to nosebleeds. It wasn't serious, just a few sprinkles of red. Her eyes drifted from the napkin to the crystals on the table, then to the scorched hole in the wall. Dangerous.

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Preview for next week: "You could have a plastic ring from a gumball machine, and I promise that Aerith would still say yes."