Morning Rituals (Final Fantasy VII)
Title: Morning Rituals
Characters: Cloud/Tifa
Rating: Teen
Disclaimers: I do not own anyone/anything from the forum Final Fantasy. Square Soft/Enix owns Final Fantasy and its characters. There is no copyright infringement intended. I do not make any profit/money or take any credit.
Summary: She could get used to waking up like this.
A/N: Prompt for February 12th - Cloud/Tifa - Morning Rituals - 'She could get used to waking up like this.'
Timeline: Advent Children Complete
Word Count: 935
Betaed: No
~~~~Morning Rituals~~~~
Tifa Lockhart, one of the heroes of Midgar, stretched languishingly in her bed before she opened her eyes to find she was looking at the closed bedroom door. There was an arm slung over her waist, a warm chest pressed up against her back and a head buried into her neck, his breath tickling her neck. She felt a smile curve her lips. It's been a while since she had felt this safe and happy.
Her ears picked up on low chattering and trying to be quiet tip-toes in the hallway. One of them, more likely to be Marlene, giggled while the other, Denzel possibly, would make a shushing sound. It's been a long time since she heard that. Even when Denzel had come to live with them, despite having Geostigma, he still had the energy but soon over time, the Geostigma got worse, draining him.
It was nice to hear Marlene and Denzel slowly returning to their old, albeit noisy, ways.
"Do you think they're awake?" she heard Marlene asked.
"Probably not," Denzel told her, sounding further away from the door. "We shouldn't wake them. Let's go downstairs."
"But I'm hungry," Marlene complained, her voice sounding further away. Tifa guessed they were now making their way down the stairs but didn't feel the urge to climb out of bed to make sure the kids wouldn't make a mess.
At this, the figure behind her started to stir, warm lips pressed against the base of her neck before moving over to her shoulder.
"Hm, morning," Tifa greeted, blonde spikes caressing her cheek.
"Morning," Cloud's husky voice replied. "Was that the kids?" She nodded.
"Marlene's hungry. Denzel thinks they shouldn't wake us up," Tifa explained. Cloud groaned.
"I hope they're not going to try and make their breakfast again. The last time they did that, we were cleaning pancake mixture up for hours," Cloud muttered. Tifa giggled as she remembered it. Somehow, the batter had gone gooey and sticky, sticking to every surface it could reach. They had been perplexed over how it could have it happened.
"I'm sure they have learned their lesson," Tifa assured him before she turned around completely so she was facing him. His eyes were still close, savouring the remains of his sleep and she pressed a kiss to his chin. "I missed this."
"So did I. That church isn't warm at night," he told her.
"We could have told you that. You didn't need to leave," she told him. He opened his eyes to look at her.
"I know but with Denzel having the Geostigma then me, I didn't want to crush his hope even further or burden you," he told her. Tifa opened her mouth to protest but Cloud stopped her with a finger to her lip. "Marlene has already lectured me," an amused smile came to his lip. "She takes after you." Tifa just shot him a half-glare.
"And Denzel takes after you," she informed him. Cloud just arched an eyebrow curious. "After we told him to go back to the bar, he ran into people being attacked by the hounds so he tried to use the hydrant to push them away. He tried hitting it a few times before he swung it in a circle over his head before bringing it down."
"He didn't," Cloud tried to hide the smile.
"He did. One of the customers had saw it and told me all about it that night. Thought it was the cutest thing she had ever seen despite the immediate threat. She said she felt relieved knowing that there was another generation of heroes growing up," Tifa explained and Cloud chuckled before he sobered.
"I hope that they don't have to go through what we did," he told her and she nodded.
"Hm, I feel the same but at the same time, I feel more secure that the kids knows how to protect themselves." Cloud nodded before they heard a clatter and they winced when they heard Marlene scold Denzel.
"Time to get up," Cloud groaned before he gave Tifa a good morning kiss. They rolled out of bed with Cloud pulling on his jeans and Tifa pulling on Cloud's shirt over her strappy top and shorts sleepwear.
They made their way out of the bedroom, down the stairs and into the kitchen to see Marlene hovering around the chair that Denzel had pushed against the counter and was standing on to reach the cereal box that was just out of reach in the cupboard. Cloud shook his head in amusement while Tifa nearly had a heart attack.
"Denzel!" she gasped, nearly causing the boy to fall only for Cloud to grabbed the cereal box with one hand and wrapped his other arm around Denzel's arm, lifting him off the chair. Denzel let out a yelp before Cloud set him on the ground and handed him the box.
"Don't climb on chairs," Cloud gently scolded him before ruffling Denzel's hair. Denzel shot Cloud a bright smile before he hurried into the living room, stopping to give Tifa a quick hug around her middle. Marlene had hugged Cloud's legs before waving to Tifa before grabbing the bowls and spoons, following Denzel.
Cloud and Tifa headed toward the doorway to watch the kids settling themselves at the window seat, watching as the street below them got ready for a brand new day. Cloud wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing a kiss to her shoulder.
"See, we're all home," he whispered. She just smiled as she leaned back into him. She could get used to mornings like this again.
The End