From me to you...
I know I said I wouldn't write anymore, but that was because I was going to get really /really/ busy in the near future and so I just cut off everything fun to focus on my busyness (Note: that's not business, my spelling isn't that bad) XD

~SZ

PS: Written a short while after DoC. I'm not entirely sure why I put Red in there, but ... *searches for the answer-cookie* I guess he's just too cool.

PPS: This has been edited here and there a couple of times, so if you've read this before, it wouldn't hurt to read the ending again, at least. Personally, I like this ending much more. : )

:Auburn and Cerulean:
by Syzeria

The rain came down hard, tapping against the window in a rapid, ceaseless rhythm. It could have been soothing if it weren't for the sudden crashing sound and blinding light which shot down from the inky black sky.

A little girl shuddered away from the light shining through her window and nearly let out a scream. The stifled cry woke a boy sleeping on the bed next to her and he moaned. Grudgingly, he opened his eyes and let nature's light into his impeccable blue-hued eyes. As large and innocent as any child's, but still as deep as a secret can shelter.

"Marlene...? Whatsa matter?" The boy mumbled, his words slurred with drowsiness.

The little girl shook her head frightfully, tangling her hair against her smothered pillow. "It's so bright, Denzel ..." she said, her voice cracking.

Denzel got out of his bed and opened their bedroom door. "Tee-faa!..." he called lazily. "Cloud...!"

Quick footsteps rushed up the stairs and a man with blond, spiky hair was by the door in seconds. He came to a stop that blew Denzel's tangled hair back remarkably, and a woman came up from behind. "What's wrong?" she asked. Her auburn eyes were worried as they gazed down at the boy.

"Marlene can't sleep," Denzel stated simply. The woman sighed in silent relief and the man exhaled slowly.

"Ti-Tifa ..." Marlene murmured inside the room. The woman slid past the boy and walked up to the side of the shuddering girl's bed.

"It's alright, Marlene," Tifa soothed, pushing the girl's bangs away from her face. "Do you wanna play a game? It'll keep your mind off the light."

A little stronger, Marlene nodded. The lights turned on and every one but the blond man squinted from the abrupt light. Denzel walked over to his bed. "Sit here, Cloud," he beckoned. The man did as he was told and Tifa watched with glee pigmented her eyes as the mattress sunk. Not that he was exceptionally heavy or anything ...

It was just, the mattress hardly ever sunk.

Tifa settled on Marlene's bed and her smile was bright and expectant. This was going to be amusing, despite the hour. And she knew what game they were going to play. "So, what game?" Tifa asked all the same.

"Mm ..." Marlene deliberated, "how about, Twenty Questions?"

Tifa turned her head in surprise. She was expecting Truth or Dare and a chance for the children to drench Cloud's hair with water in a hopeless attempt to flaten those impossible blond spikes. Not ... Twenty Questions?

"How do you play?" Denzel asked.

"Well," the fright in Marlene's eyes had vanished, replaced by a curious tint, "we ask each other questions until we get to twenty, and whoever doesn't answer one gets dared!"

"Okay!" Denzel said ecstatically. Cloud conjured a low rumble of agreement, despite the danger he knew was coming fast.

"Great! I'll start!" Marlene announced. She turned to Tifa. "Tifa, what's your favorite season, and why?"

Tifa cocked a brow and smiled. She was expecting a more revealing, humiliating question, but was rather satisfied with this wonder. "Spring, because that's when everything changes for the better."

Marlene's eyes widened in joy and understanding, and Cloud hummed in mutual wonder. Tifa glanced at him and his eyes were strong and meaningful. She was getting lost inside those cerulean wonders when ...

"Tifa! It's your turn!" Denzel said, almost impatiently. Pulled out of her dream, she turned her head and quickly locked her eyes with Denzel's. He gulped, and suddenly wasn't so irritated.

Playfully, she shook her head. "You go ahead. I now everything about you already," she teased.

Denzel shot her a testing look that wasn't, and shall never be, serious and Tifa laughed. The boy turned his head toward the father-figure in front of him, his eyes shining in sudden curiosity and immediate awe. His eyes glanced over an impossibly thin line across Cloud's cheekbone. "Cloud, how'd you get that scar?"

The game went on and the rain and thunder began to recede gradually. Cloud was once dared to sing his alphabet for not answering to "what was the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you?" asked by a wicked Marlene. The little girl bounded for the video camera plugged into the power socket on the wall, but Cloud sung the entire song before she could even return to her bed.

Tifa didn't know he could talk that fast, let alone sing at all. But his voice was almost inaudible and no one tried to contradict the stubborn, don't-make-me-do-that-again stare he sent out when he pressed his lips together after his singing-whispers. Despite his hostility, Tifa laughed and Denzel gaped at him in wonder. Something she would have done as well if it wasn't so funny.

Cloud singing his alphabet ... Priceless.

XxXxXxXxX

They had asked fifteen questions in an hour and they were beginning to get silly and less reputation-threatening. For each of Cloud's answers, Denzel watched and listened to him as though Cloud were spilling his darkest secrets. Which ... Cloud would never really do.

But it was all right, Tifa wouldn't either. Not unless it was safe. Absolutely and eternally safe.

"Cloud, what's your ... favorite color?" Denzel inquired, his eyes hungry for knowledge.

Tifa already knew the answer and smiled brighter with pride. Wasn't it obvious?

"Blue," she suggested nonchalantly. Cloud grunted curiously and she cocked her head.

"Isn't it...?" she asked as her pride took a shameful dip and her eyes worked hard to focus on his entire frame and not his eyes alone. Cloud shook his head, eyes serious and confused and slightly pleased. The mixture bewildered Tifa, as well as Denzel.

"So, what is it, Cloud?" the boy asked, slightly dumbfounded.

"Auburn," Cloud replied without blinking.

They all retreated back an inch in surprise. "Really?" Denzel wondered aloud. Cloud nodded and Marlene pouted in misunderstanding.

"What's 'auburn'?" she asked.

"A really dark red, it's almost brown," Tifa explained. She knew, because her father said her eyes were a dark, warm auburn that made people feel better. What her father said made her feel better about herself and gave her confidence to try and help people. Maybe that was why she decided to run a bar. To help despaired people find a light, if only for a moment.

"Why's it your favorite?" Denzel pressed on.

Cloud paused, his eyes sending waves of emotions so intense it was almost impossible to watch Cloud merely staring at the floor, and no one in particular. Tifa hoped for an answer, but he only shrugged. Cloud then left the room silently, but the slight grin curving his lips did not escape Tifa's sights.

She was dazed as she stared after him. Mystified, too, and perhaps more curious than Denzel. Why auburn...?

Could it be the color of, blood...?

No, she didn't want to think that. Couldn't think that. It was too uncharacteristic of Cloud, it hurt her to think it possible. She even felt a stab of guilt for wandering down such a path. She turned her back on the thought mercilessly and felt guilt's cut heal in the slightest.

Was it Zack, then...? No, that didn't make sense.

Aerith...? It was possible, and Tifa felt herself silently slip into a dark hole. She crept back up though, reminding herself pink was Aerith's color. Not auburn. With the small relief spreading through her arms and legs, Tifa hoisted herself onto the surface with a small smile.

Footsteps echoed lightly in the house as Tifa settled onto the smooth earth with a brighter atmosphere, and her eyes found Cloud with a creature with a flaming tail.

Was it ... Nanaki's fur? She frowned to herself, slightly exasperated by how meaningless and ridiculous her ideas were becoming. Cloud sat down on Denzel's bed and Nanaki lay by the bedpost.

"Shelke's taking a walk outside," Cloud said. Tifa gazed up to nod in understanding, but was interrupted when she found something of an ordinary miracle. Cloud was smiling.

Smiling a strange smile, too.

She was content and adapted to and in love with those small smiles she'd receive when he saw her downstairs in the morning and when he came home in the evening. Those smiles had become so ordinary, so perfect, so right.

But this one ... this one was simply breathtaking. There was less depth, as though the reason he was smiling was much more simple and obvious than one would anticipate. The simplicity of his features, the lack of complexion ... Tifa loved it, too.

Simple and obvious ... A sensation inside of Tifa told her it was significant, yet she could not think of how.

"Tifa ..." Cloud called out quietly. The voice snapped her back from her musing and she hummed questioningly in response. "What's your favorite color?" His low voice was laced with innocent curiosity and subtle pleasure.

Tifa smiled gently at Cloud and she hummed again in deep thought, eyes glancing up at the ceiling.

She always loved purple, it was so warm and gentle. But, ever since a bitter, cruel night of flames and loss, Tifa couldn't stop herself from falling in love with blues. More precisely, cerulean.

The hue seemed to glow through her eyes, and she knew why. Though she saw it every day, the glow never ceased. Tifa knew her answer then, and her smile widened generously. Cerulean.

The rain had stopped, its pattering had ceased, and the world seemed brighter, despite the remaining darkness overwhelming them. But the darkness was not unfamiliar, and Tifa knew they would survive it. Maybe thrive in it.

Because they always had.

A.N:
PS: Any grown man singing his alphabet? Priceless.