"Denzel?" Tifa called out in concern once she noticed how half-heartedly he was performing his punches to the rhythm of her count. "Is something wrong?"

It was spring break for all of the kids at school, and most, if not all of the families in the city of Edge had apparently taken the chance to leave it so that they could enjoy it elsewhere, leaving poor Denzel and Marlene to be left alone with no one their age to play with. This alone wouldn't have been so bad, except for the fact that Barrett had decided to follow suit, announcing that he and Marlene were going on a little family outing. After consoling her after she had gotten upset over finding out that they weren't going to take Denzel along with them, Tifa gently ushered them to their rooms so that she could personally confront Barrett over the issue. She had been surprised by his answer. "Look," he had said, "don't take this too personally, alright? Denzel's a good kid, and I know that he's been through a lot, but...," he shook his head crestfallenly, "he's not family."

Tifa's eyes had widened in surprise as she gave him a concerned and questionable look. "Barrett," she had breathed, "what are you saying?"

"Now wait just a minute," Barrett had said, having raised his hands up in an attempt to calm the somewhat worried Tifa down. "I'm not saying that he's not a part of our little family, alright? He's as much family to me as you, Cloud, and everyone else is. But Marlene, she's my little girl! My daughter! My actual daughter!" He had then dejectedly shook his head. "And nowadays she sees all of you more than she does me."

Tifa's eyes had gone tender upon hearing that and instantly understood what Barrett meant. "Oh, Barrett."

Barrett continued to shamefully shake his head as he placed his hands on his hips. "I've been thinking about it for a while now. I've been thinking, 'Have I been a good enough father to her?', 'Have I been the father that she deserves?', all of that." He looked back at Tifa. "Tifa, I want to make it up to her. I want to make up for all of those days when I couldn't be her father, when I should've been her father... and that means going back to the good ol' days when it was just the two of us. Just a father and his daughter spending time together, that's all. You understand, don't you?"

Tifa gave him a small and reassuring smile. "Of course I do." She then frowned, leaned towards him, and whispered, "But how exactly are we going to explain this to the kids?"

Apparently it was a rare case of easier done than said, as Marlene and Denzel had already eavesdropped onto their conversation and completely understood why Barrett was doing it, Marlene giving her father a great, big hug for good measure, and when they had asked Denzel if he was truly okay with it, he had smiled and said that he was, and besides, he was still going to have Tifa and Cloud for company, so he wasn't exactly going to be alone all week. Cue an ironic Cloud, walking into the room to inform everyone in it that he was going to be away for about a week to make an extremely important and special delivery. After Tifa noticed how Denzel's face fell and after they had sent the two children to bed for the night, Tifa confronted Cloud and asked him if he would reconsider staying at home so that he could keep Denzel company, but Cloud unfortunately shook his head and had said that his hands were tied.

Barrett, Marlene, and Cloud had left early morning the next day, and for the rest of that day, Denzel had been noticeably bored and incredibly lonely. Tifa desperately wanted to help him, but she was admittedly at a loss at what to do. Taking care of a little girl was easy, but taking care of a boy that had already been through so much? THAT was a completely different ball game. Luckily for her, two familiar Turks had come to the bar to visit and get themselves a drink and once she had served them their drinks and informed them about her predicament, Rude had suggested closing down the bar and spending some quality time with the boy while Reno jokingly suggested that she get him some things to break, since all young boys longed for the chance to break somethimg without worrying about being punished for it. The mere mention of these two suggestions then gave birth to Tifa's very own idea, which she excitedly shared with them and asked for their assistance with. The idea: turn the basement into a temporary dojo and have her teach Denzel martial arts, with Reno and Rude as his fellow classmates. It had seemed like such a foolproof plan that she had even asked for them to keep it a secret until they were ready to implement it, which they complied to, though from the look of confusion and lack of expected enthusiasm the boy had once they revealed the supposed surprise to him made them think that maybe they should've considered asking him if he wanted it first, but Tifa was so excited about it that they kept their mouths shut and went along with it as she gave Denzel his very own pair of sparring gloves and explained to him how the lessons were going to work, which Denzel also complied to... at first. After the first few sets of exercises, his lack of enthusiasm had become more and more apparent as time went on, to the point where Tifa had finally noticed it now.

Denzel gloomily shook his head. "Nothing," he answered. "It's nothing."

Tifa walked up to him and squatted down to his height so that they could talk face-to-face, giving Denzel a small, reassuring smile as she lifted up his chin a bit with her hand. "Come on, you don't have to lie to me. What's the matter?" When she still received no response, she added, "If you're not feeling well, then we could just postpone the lessons until you feel better and pick it up from there. How does that sound?"

Denzel averted his eyes from her gaze and shook his head before quietly mumbling, "Can... can we not?"

Tifa's eyes widened slightly in surprise as Reno and Rude exchanged apprehensive looks with one another. "Hmm?"

Denzel fidgeted for a bit before explaining, "It's just that... if I'm going to have to learn how to fight... then I'd rather learn how to use a sword with Cloud."

Tifa's face noticeably fell. "O-Oh."

"Sorry," Denzel quickly, though meekly added, immediately feeling guilty upon seeing the disappointed look on Tifa's face.

Tifa smiled before slowly grabbing a hold of Denzel's hands, giving them a small and gentle rub, and saying, "No, I'm sorry. I should've asked you if you wanted all of this in the first place." She chuckled lightly. "I must've put you in a really tight spot, huh?"

Denzel smiled a little before nodding his head. "Yeah, kind of."

"Well then, it was a good thing I learned that before getting you and Marlene any birthday presents you both might not have wanted."

Denzel chuckled. "You said it."

Tifa smiled before nodding her head towards the basement door and saying, "Go on. You've got the rest of the week to enjoy. I suggest that you take advantage of it before you have to go back to doing homework every day."

Denzel nodded. "Yeah!" He quickly took off his sparring gloves and made his way to the stairs. "Thanks, Tifa!" he cried, giving her a wave goodbye before he scurried up the stairs.

Tifa waved back. "You're welcome!" she cried back. When she heard the door finally close behind him, she let out a dejected sigh and stared at the gloves in her hands longingly before turning to Reno and Rude with an apologetic smile on her face. "You guys deserve an apology too," she said. "Sorry for making you come all the way over here for nothing. And while I'm at it, sorry for making you two help me clean out and decorate the basement yesterday too." She nodded towards the stairs. "How about I make it up to you two by giving you guys a drink on the house?"

Reno and Rude exchanged worried looks and silently discussed what they should do next with their facial expressions before looking back at Tifa and nodding their heads, Reno giving Tifa a carefree smile for good measure. "Yeah, who doesn't like an early drink every now and again?" Reno replied. "Count me in!"

Tifa gave him an amused smile before turning to Rude. "And you?"

Rude fixed his glasses, which he had refused to take off despite how badly lit the basement was, and shook his head. "I'm afraid that I'm going to have to take you up on that offer another time," he answered. "In the meantime, I'm going to go outside and tell our boss that we're going to be able to go to work after all."

"Aw, come on!" Reno cried out lazily. "We already used one of our personal days for this! Doubt we can get it back, even if we go back now." He then wrapped his arm around Rude's shoulders and gave him a mischievous grin. "So what do you say? Let's take the day off! Do some drinking, do a little bit of sight-seeing, find a date -"

"No," Rude interjected firmly before shoving Reno's arm off of his shoulders and briskly making his way up the stairs.

Tifa and Reno exchanged amused looks before Reno playfully shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, can't say that I didn't try, right?"

"Aw yeah!" Reno cried after he had managed to chug his specially made drink down. "That's the stuff!" He raised his glass. "Compliments to the bartender!" He slammed the cup back down onto the counter. "Another round!"

Tifa gave him an amused smirk. "You sure?" she asked.

"Sure I'm sure!" Reno argued. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, let's just say that being drunk while there's still daylight out never really looks good for anyone," she warned.

"Bah!" Reno cried, waving off Tifa's question as if it were the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. "You're no fun!"

Tifa let out a playful, though feigning insulted, gasp. "Yes, I am!"

Reno shook his head and leaned back in his seat as far as he possibly could without falling. "Yeah, you used to be, but not anymore! Come on! Where's that fire you used to have in your eyes? Where's that dirty mouth you used to have on you? Where'd all that spunk go off to?"

Tifa giggled and lightly blushed over all of the compliments Reno was inadvertently throwing her way. "Sorry, but they've all gone into an early retirement," she answered. "And besides," she gave Reno a little flick on his forehead, "even if I DID still have them on me, I wouldn't want use any of them in front of the kids!"

"Ah!" Reno playfully cried. "Even your explanation is boring! No wonder the kid doesn't want to hang out with you! You'd probably find a way to make martial arts boring if we had given you enough time to!"

Tifa's face fell a bit upon hearing this statement. "Am...," she shifted nervously for a moment, "am I really THAT boring nowadays?" she asked quietly.

Having not sensed the sudden change of mood the conversation was currently taking, Reno nodded and continued, "Yep! But to be fair, everyone in your little group has sort of gotten a little boring, you know? But hey, give Cloud and Barrett credit, at least one of them had a gigantic sword and cool looking motorcycle and the other one had a cannon for an arm! I mean, what can you do? Hit things really hard? Ha! How exactly can you show THAT off? By breaking a table in half for no good reason?" Reno continued to laugh until he finally noticed that Tifa was no longer in on the joke. "Tifa?" he called quietly. Tifa remained unresponsive. "Tifa?" he called out a little bit louder this time. When even that didn't seem to work, he reached over the counter and gave her a comforting tap on the arm. "Hey," he tried to comfort, "don't take it too seriously. It was just a joke, honest. You're not boring. Far from it. You're honestly one of the greatest women I've ever met!"

Tifa flashed him a sad, though grateful smile. "Thanks, but... maybe you're onto something there." She lowered her gaze dejectedly. "It's hard for one to connect with kids if they're boring."

"Hey, that's not true!" Reno argued. "Marlene likes you, right?"

"Yeah, but she's known me for a long time now. She knows what I'm capable of. But Denzel -"

"Just needs a little bit more time," Reno waved off, "that's all!"

"Really?" Tifa asked anxiously. "Because he really seemed to connect with Cloud in a short amount of time."

"Ah, that's normal," Reno reassured. "Boys will just more easily connect with other boys, that's all! It's the same the other way around!" He let out a mischievous chuckle. "You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that you're a little jealous of Cloud! Am I right?"

Tifa blushed as she attempted to hide her face behind her hair as she raised her hand to instinctively stroke it. "What? No! Of course not! That's just silly! Why would I -"

"Ha! Well what do you know! You actually are!"

Tifa blushed as she averted her eyes to the side, angry and ashamed at herself for allowing such a silly thing to be true. "W-Well wouldn't you be?" she argued. "I mean, he sees me more than he does Cloud most of the time, so it's only natural to feel a little jealous when I can't seem to have even remotely the same type of connection that they have!"

Reno laughed a bit at Tifa's expense. "Now that's something I thought I'd never see! The great Tifa Lockhart actually being petty!" Tifa blushed even harder, which was the sign for Reno to dial back on the teasing a bit. He leaned forward against the bar counter and whispered, "Don't worry." He lifted up his index finger and pressed it against his lips. "Your secret is safe with me." He then leapt back into his seat and nonchalantly placed his hands behind his head. "For now," he coyly added.

Tifa smiled at him before the smile slowly turned into an amused smirk as she placed her hands on her hips and said, "Someone needs to remind themselves who they're talking to," she playfully warned with mock seriousness as she picked up Reno's glass and began to refill it. "I'd hate to lose all of my drinking privileges over something as silly as a little bit of blackmail."

Reno let out an incredulous laugh. "Ha! Right! Good one."

Tifa looked up at him with a small, somewhat smug, smile on her face as she placed Reno's cup back in front of him as she insinuatingly shook her head. "If you say so," she remarked in a sing-song tone of voice.

Reno eyes her suspiciously before giving her a confused frown. "Wait, you weren't serious... were you?"

"Yes," Rude said to the one speaking on the other end of the line, "thank you. We'll be there as soon as possible." He then briskly flipped his cell phone shut and put it away, turning around to renter the Seventh Heaven bar, only to stop once he noticed a familiar shaggy-haired boy sitting dejectedly besides the door, hugging his knees as he was deep in thought. "Hey," Rude said, giving the boy a curt nod once he had succeeded in getting the young boy's attention.

Denzel sighed before laying his head against his knees and melancholically saying, "Hey," back.

Rude eyed him curiously behind his sunglasses. "Something wrong?" he asked, opting to stay where he was for now and approach him when the time seemed right.

Denzel hesitated for a moment before asking, "Did... did I hurt Tifa's feelings... when I said that I didn't want to learn martial arts from her?"

"A bit," Rude answered truthfully. When he saw that his answer had saddened Denzel a bit, he adjusted his glasses and added, "I wouldn't worry about her too much though. She's a strong woman. She won't let something as small as this get her down."

Denzel nodded slowly. "Yeah, but still..."

"She's smart too. Even if you had kept playing along, she would've eventually caught on to your act. Then she'd MAKE you quit. Coming clean with her was the right choice. It may have had its fair share of consequences, but so does keeping quiet. You did what needed to be done. For both of your sakes."

Denzel shrugged. "I guess. But it's not like I was thinking about her when I said it. All I was thinking about was how much cooler it would've been if I was doing it with Cloud... and with a sword too."

Rude nodded understandingly. "And that's natural. You're not exactly old enough yet to be expected to have that level of consideration."

Denzel shook his head. "That's no excuse," he countered dejectedly. He sighed. "I guess I never really knew how much Tifa wanted to teach us martial arts."

Rude fixed his tie and placed his hands behind his back professionally before replying, "I'm not so sure about that. I think what she really wanted was to spend some quality time with you."

Denzel's eyes widened in surprise before lifting his head and looking at Rude. "Huh?" he asked incredulously.

Rude nodded. "She told us how lonely you seemed to be, so she came up with the idea and asked us to help out."

"... Really?"

Rude nodded before fixing his glasses again and saying, "Though if you ask me, it's a wonder why you were lonely enough to warrant such thing in the first place. Couldn't you have just played with her if that were the case?"

Denzel contemplated over Rude's remark for a moment before answering, "Well, now that I think about it, Tifa and I don't really hang out that much."

Rude raised an eyebrow in genuine surprise. "Really? And why's that?"

Denzel shrugged and shook his head. "I don't know. I guess I just hang out with Cloud whenever he's around."

"And when you can't?"

Denzel gave him another shrug. "Then I just play with Marlene or any of the other kids my age."

Rude nodded understandingly. "I see." He took a moment to process all that he had just learned. "It sounds to me like Tifa feels a little left out."

Denzel considered the possibility for a bit. "Yeah," he admitted sadly. "I guess it kind of does, doesn't it?"

Rude hummed in agreement. "She probably saw how lonely you were and saw the perfect opportunity to bond with you a little bit -"

"And I ruined it," Denzel finished with a crack in his voice. He proceeded to bury his face behind his arms and knees. "I pushed her away. I'm a jerk!"

Rude shook his head. "I wouldn't go that far," he reassured. "If anything, you're just a regular kid who's taken what they have for granted."

Denzel groaned. "How is THAT supposed to make me feel better?"

"The latter is normal and excusable," Rude calmly answered. "The former, not so much."

Denzel slowly raised his head and gave the bald-headed, sunglasses-wearing Turk a questionable look. "What do you mean by that?"

"That it's simply normal for a son to take for granted the presence of his mother... just like it is simply normal for a mother to take for granted her son's daily showings of affection to her." When Denzel still seemed somewhat confused, Rude cleared his throat before explaining, "Have you ever told her that you loved her?"

Denzel shrugged. "Every day. So?"

Rude looked off to the distance. "What happens when you see something amazing for the first time?" He turned back to Denzel. "Doesn't that excite you?"

Denzel nodded. "Yeah."

"And what happens when you see the same amazing thing every day? Don't you think that it will get boring after a while?"

Denzel shrugged. "I guess. So?"

"So," Rude continued calmly, "doesn't the same apply for people saying, 'I love you' to each other?"

Denzel thought about it for a moment before nodding his head understandingly. "Yeah, I guess."

Rude nodded. "People tend to take everyday occurrences for granted. Doesn't matter if it's something as small as waking up in the morning or something as big as a declaration of love. So you can be imagine just how much a parent and a child take each other for granted when they more than likely see each other every day."

"But I'm not taking Tifa for granted!" Denzel argued. "I really do love her!"

"I didn't say that you didn't," Rude reassured. "It happens, whether we realize it or not and whether we want to or not, and sometimes, in the most subtle of ways."

Denzel shook his head. "I don't understand."

"I'm saying," Rude explained, "that because of your complacency to having her around all the time to take care of you and Marlene, you feel less of a need to do anything special for her. Likewise, she's probably just so used to hearing you two tell her how much you love her that she's started to second guess whether you two really mean it or not. That's all."

"But I don't want to feel like I don't want to do anything special for her!" Denzel cried, hastily standing up as he did. "And I don't want her to wonder if I love her or not!"

Rude nodded. "That is also natural."

"So what can I do about it?" Denzel demanded.

Rude fixed his glasses mysteriously. "That... is for you to decide. You know her better than I do."

Denzel thought for a moment before asking, "Should I... should I tell her that I changed my mind and that I want to learn martial arts after all?"

"You could," Rude answered. "But I doubt she would believe you, and you'd be doing yourself and her a disservice if you forced yourself to do something that you didn't want to do just to make her happy. If you truly wanted to do that, then you'd find something that you both wanted to do."

"Do something that we both want to do," Denzel muttered to himself before shaking his head hopelessly and saying, "I don't think Tifa and I have anything in common!"

"Then think about something that caters to both of your interests," Rude instructed. "Shouldn't be too hard. After all, all Tifa really wants is to connect and spend some time with you. I'm sure that no matter what you two did with each other, she's sure to enjoy it."

Upon hearing this, Denzel pondered for a long time on what he and Tifa could do together before smiling excitedly and quickly running back into Seventh Heaven, which unbeknownst to him, caused Rude to finally smile for the first time that day.

"Wait, you weren't serious... were you?" Reno asked before the door to the bar flew open and Denzel quickly made a mad dash towards his room, leaving Tifa and Reno to look at each other in confusion as Rude calmly walked back into the bar and closed the door behind him. Reno looked at his partner and nodded towards the direction the young boy had just ran in and asked, "Hey, what's with him?"

Rude coolly fixed his tie as he answered, "How am I supposed to know?"

"You were out there too," Reno pointed out matter-of-factly.

"That doesn't prove anything," Rude countered.

"I'd better go check up on him to see if everything's alright," Tifa said, leaving the two men at the counter and about to leave the room before bumping into Denzel at the door.

"Tifa!" Denzel cried, panting a bit from running around and searching so frantically back in his room.

"Hey," Tifa replied, the concern evident in her voice as she squatted down so that she could get a better look at the young boy's face so that she could spot any signs worthy of concern. When she didn't, she calmly held one of Denzel's shoulders and asked, "is everything alright? You were running pretty fast there."

"Yeah," Denzel admitted with a smile. "I was."

Tifa's eyes widened in surprise at Denzel's display of brutal honesty before nodding her head understandingly and asking, "Okay then, what for?"

Denzel lifted up a piece of paper and handed it over for Tifa to examine. "It's an ad for the Golden Saucer," he explained. "It says that they've renovated the park and that they have more than twice the rides and attractions that they used to!" He looked at Tifa pleadingly. "Do you think that we can go there before my break is over?"

Tifa exchanged a flabbergasted look between Denzel and the ad she was holding for a moment before asking, "I don't see why not, but don't you want to wait until Marlene, Cloud, and Barrett get back first? Then we could all go together."

Much to everyone except Rude's surprise, Denzel quickly shook his head and answered, "No way! Marlene might not want to go on some of the rides I want to go, and as much as I like Cloud, he doesn't seem like the type of person who likes amusement parks, and I think Barrett's getting too old to go anyways! I want to go with you!"

Tifa let out an incredulous gasp. "R-Really?" she asked incredulously. "Are you sure?"

Denzel nodded. "Yeah!"

Tife stared at Denzel in shock for a moment before nodding her head slowly and saying, "Um, yeah, sure. We can go first thing tomorrow."

Denzel's smile could've practically lit up an entire room. "Really?"

Tifa nodded, slowly forming a smile of her own as she slowly recovered from her initial shock. "Definitely. After all," she gave him a mischievous grin, "they left us all by ourselves to go off and have fun without us. Only fair that we get them back a little." She then turned Denzel around and gently coaxed him to go back to his room. "Now go and pack up your things. It's going to be a long trip, even with the truck."

"Okay!" Denzel cried before running off to do just that.

Tifa turned back to the smiling Turks. "See?" Reno asked smugly. "What'd I tell you? You just needed to be a little bit more patient."

Tifa laughed before placing her hands on her hips and replying, "Okay, I'm sorry that I ever doubted you." She then turned to Rude, crossed her arms, and asked, "Did you, by any chance, have anything to do with that?"

Rude fixed his glasses before curtly answering, "No."

Tifa gave him an amused look. "Lucky for me, I don't believe you." She looked at the both of them. "Thank you, both of you. Now, if you both will excuse me, I've got a truck I've got to check up on. Can't just assume that the busted, old thing will make the trip and back, right?"

"Right!" Reno cried, raising his glass as Tifa hurried to the back. He then turned to his partner and playfully rolled his eyes. "Geez, these people have always got to make everything so dang complicated, don't they?"

Rude chuckled and nodded his head. "You can say that again."

Author's Note: Always thought that the details for Denzel and Tifa's relationship were a bit lacking, so I made this. Hope you liked it!