This story came to mind after SquareEnix released pictures of the character models for the FFVII-Remake. Quality in those is so high that you can actually see some beard hairs under Cloud's jaw! My first impression at this detail was that he had missed a spot while shaving, and that idea snowballed into this story.

Although the plot and the flashback text is mine, most of the present-day section (and especially that of Tifa and Marlene) was written by kelleyj17. She also helped me with the tiny details that make Tifa & Cloud's unconventional family believable. For all intents and purposes, she also the Beta reader of this story. In short, this story is as much hers as it is mine. Remember to visit her profile and take a look at her stories, too! She writes great CloTi fics!

Denzel entered 7th Heaven and ran up the stairs so fast that Tifa wasn't even out of the kitchen to say hi when the boy's bedroom door slammed shut.

"Bad day?" Tifa asked Marlene, who was at the door, calmly putting her school bag down.

"Yes and no," she answered vaguely. Something heavy fell with a thud inside Denzel's room upstairs.

"That sounds like a definite 'yes'," Tifa said with both eyebrows high.

"OK." Marlene sighed dramatically. "Yes, because something did happen. No, because I don't see what the big deal is and I think he's overreacting."

Tifa leaned back against the counter, waiting expectantly for what was bound to be one of Marlene's long, rambling stories.

"I mean, I get that he was embarrassed and everything, and I know teenagers are stupid about stuff like this, but I still think he could have just laughed it off and played along, but instead he turns red like a tomato and starts mumbling excuses and then runs off to hide in the bathroom!"

Tifa began making a mental checklist of all the potentially embarrassing things that could happen to a boy at school while Marlene carried on.

"Of course I thought it was dumb, but being the good sister that I am, I stood and waited outside the bathroom to talk to him. Ok, at first I actually tried to hold the door open just a tiny bit to talk to him, but he totally freaked out and said it was the boys' bathroom. So after that I just waited quietly, but he didn't even come out until after the second bell rang, so of course I was late for class too, but he didn't even care about that. He was just mad that I was still there! I was just trying to assure him that it wasn't a big deal, but he told me I didn't understand and to just shut up about it. And maybe I should've tried to shut down the rumor mill that was spreading all over the school, but he was being so dumb and I was mad, and by the time we left, everyone was laughing about it."

"And what were they saying!?" Tifa asked when Marlene finally took a breath, now truly worried about what might have happened.

"Some kids were teasing him about 'the chocolate milk' smeared on his face," Marlene finally said. Tifa frowned and thought back to that day's breakfast.

"He didn't have chocolate milk-"

"His mustache!" Marlene interrupted, hands and arms above her braided head.

"I'm sorry, his what?" Tifa asked.

"The hairs on top of his lip?"

"That!? There's hardly anything there! It's just...that?" Tifa whispered in the end.

"Yes. That." Marlene stated dryly.

"But I mean… it's hardly even noticeable!" Tifa said to herself in a hushed tone. "I mean, it has been getting somewhat darker, and…"

"Tifa?"

"…he is in the middle of a growth spurt…"

"Hellooooo?" Marlene asked, just to confirm she was still part of the conversation.

The familiar tone snapped the barmaid back from her mind. Tifa shook her head and collected herself.

"OK. This is not a big deal," she assured them both. "We knew this day was coming. Unfortunately, Cloud is gone for the next two days on a delivery, so...I'll have to deal with it."

"You know how to shave? A face, I mean."

"No but…" Tifa made some up-down and sideways motions with her hand, miming shaving, "…how hard can it be?"

"Maybe we should call my dad for instructions," Marlene suggested.

"Marlene, you know reception is terrible out in those oil fields. The last thing we need is an interrupted call halfway through the process."

"How about Mr. Tuesti?"

"Sweetie, we can't go calling the head of the WRO for something as trivial as-"

"How about Rude?"

"No! We definitely don't want to owe a Turk a favor."

"What's this about asking a favor from a Turk?" a new voice said from the garage door.

"Cloud!" the women said from the bar in unison. Tifa's smile was genuine and relieved.

"I didn't hear Fenrir. You're back early!"

"Actually, I never left. The sender had to postpone the shipping for next week." He glanced around the room. "Where's Denzel?" Denzel was always the first one to hear Cloud when he came home, and always the first to greet him at the door.

"Oh, he's...uh...I think he's in his room. He must not have heard you get back."

"Oh." Cloud nodded, completely oblivious to the look exchanged between the two girls. Marlene cleared her throat conspicuously.

"I'll leave you two to discuss. The thing." With a dramatic twirl, she flounced off through the doorway into the kitchen.

"Thing? What thing?" Cloud looked at Tifa curiously.

"A thing with Denzel. A man thing that requires your attention."

Cloud's bravado started to shatter at the idea of anything that had to do with sex. He still wasn't fully over the embarrassment from when he had to talk with Denzel about certain sticky socks.

Tifa smothered a giggle at his uncomfortable expression. "It's nothing bad. He just got teased at school about his...uh...facial hair, so I thought maybe you could teach him how to shave."

Cloud's eyebrows shot up. "His facial-what-now?" In his mind, Denzel was still a little boy who played with toy cars. He wasn't necessarily unobservant; he just wasn't ready to deal with sticky socks and shaving and body odor and all of those other uncomfortable things that came with adolescence. Being willfully blind was a defense mechanism. "I'm sure you can teach him better than I can..."

"Cloud," Tifa said sternly. "This is something a boy should learn from his father."

At the word 'father', the last of Cloud's reticence drained away. Whether he thought of himself as one or not, Cloud never backed down when Denzel needed a father-figure in his life.

"You're right. Ok. I'll go talk to him." Tifa watched with a small smile as Cloud headed up the stairs. Then, noticing the clock, she decided to start getting the front area set up for the bar to open. Marlene reappeared a few minutes later.

"Tifa! I need some help with my Geometry homework. Can you?"

"Sure, sweetie. Is Denzel still mad?" Tifa guessed. She could help out with homework when she was needed, but it took her a little time to look through the examples and figure out what she was trying to do. The school in the little backwater town where she'd grown up had done things much differently. Denzel, who had taken the course just a few years ago, was much better at explaining it, and was usually Marlene's tutor of choice.

Tifa was still flipping through the textbook when Cloud came back down the stairs, pulling his keys from his pocket.

"Where are you off to?" Tifa asked.

"I need to run to the store and get some shaving stuff," he replied.

"Don't you have your own?" Tifa asked.

"Just electric. You can't teach a man to shave with an electric shaver," Cloud said. "I'll be back in a few."

After the door closed behind him, Marlene scoffed. "A man?"

By the time Cloud returned, dinner was almost ready, and Marlene had packed away her homework and set the table. Tifa smiled at him as she re-entered the bar with a casserole dish in her hands.

"Oh, good timing. Can you tell Denzel it's time to eat?"

"Yeah." Cloud nodded and headed up the stairs. He returned a few minutes later with Denzel in tow.

As they sat around the table, Marlene couldn't help but notice that Denzel kept pulling at the little hairs that had given him so much trouble that day.

"You don't have to pluck them out," Marlene said, rolling her eyes. "Cloud said he'd show you how to shave."

Denzel pulled his hand away from his chin and glared at Marlene.

"I will," Cloud reassured him. "After you take a shower tonight. The warm water will help soften up the hair."

Denzel nodded and went back to his dinner.

"Sweetie, it's nothing to be embarrassed about," Tifa assured him. "It's just part of growing up. You'll get used to it. Cloud does it all the time."

"I know," Denzel said grudgingly. "I just don't want to talk about it, ok?"

"Ok," Tifa said with a smile. "So, Cloud, how long are you home before you have to head out again?"

The meal continued on with topics that were more acceptable to Denzel's ego, and he was able to put it out of his mind for a little bit. It didn't come up again until he got out of the shower that evening.

"Hey, Denzel? Are you ready?" Cloud asked with a couple of soft knocks to the bathroom door.

"Um. Yeah." The door swung open. Denzel stood in a pair of loose shorts and t-shirt. His hair was still wet from the shower.

"Warm water?"

"Yes," Denzel said, eyeing the abundant steam still lingering in the bathroom.

"Very well." From within a paper bag that Denzel recognized from the corner convenience store, Cloud pulled a folded straight razor.

"Wha- Cloud! Why one of those?"

"What? What's wrong with it?"

"I thought you were going to bring a regular razor!"

In hindsight, a safety razor might have been a better idea. It really just hadn't occurred to him.

"Look. I know it looks scary, but it's just… like… like a sword!" Bad choice of words. Denzel gasped. "I-I mean. I know it's a sharp blade, but it's a small one."

"It's still on my throat!"

A feeling of déjà vu niggled at the back of Cloud's mind. The feeling became a shapeless recollection and then formed a coherent memory. It was one of many years ago, tangled deep in the mess of his mind.

"Cloud?"

"Ah. Sorry," Cloud managed to say.

"I was asking why do you use those instead of regular ones."

"I learned back in the army."

"The army?" Denzel asked.

SUMMER [ ν ] - εγλ 0001

"Cadet Strife!"

"Sir!"

It was not unusual for Cloud to be called out, so he braced himself for learning whatever new standard he was short of.

"For the last time miss! I called your name! So I expect you to give one step forward!"

"Sorry, Sir!" Cloud complied with the order.

"I said ONE step forward!"

"I just did, Sir!" His voice came with a hint of a tremble.

The instructor walked right next to Cloud and leaned so that his face was closer to Cloud's: "Then take a MAN step forward! Not that ballet-tip-toeing thing you do!" Drops of saliva dotted the young cadet's nose.

"Sorry, Sir!" Cloud took another step forward, making sure the step was loud and clear for the instructor. The man walked around so that Cloud could face him, or rather, see his collarbone, as the blond was too short to actually see the instructor in the eye.

"What. Is. That!?" The man spat each word as he pointed to somewhere around Cloud's neck.

'How the hell am I supposed to know!? I can't see there!' Cloud's panicked inner voice said. "I-I don't know!"

"What was that!?"

"I don't know, SIR!"

"That's better!" More spit drops spattered the tip of his nose. "I'm talking about THIS!" the instructor immediately plucked a single short, curly, tan hair right from Cloud's jawline, just where his helmet didn't cover. He did his best not to wince at the sharp, albeit short-lived pain. A grunt died somewhere in the back of his throat. Reacting in any way – especially a way that denoted any form of weakness – would only make things worse.

"B-Beard-hair, Sir!" Cloud answered, still facing forward, not able to turn or face his short-tempered instructor. 'Oh shit! Oh shit! I should have dealt with that when I had the chance!' Cloud chastised himself mentally.

"Exactly! Now, I'm sure you are as happy as your mama and as surprised as I am that your balls finally dropped and you hit puberty! But these–" he plucked another hair from his jaw, "–are now in violation of Article 3, Section 2, Paragraph 1 of the Shinra Army Grooming and Personal Hygiene rulebook!"

"S-sir!?" Shit. He asked. That meant he didn't know. That meant punishment.

"Cadet Barker!"

"Sir!" A pale, black-haired infantryman took a robotic step forward as soon as his name was called.

"Recite Article 3, Section 2, Paragraph 1 of the Shinra Army Grooming and Personal Hygiene rulebook!"

"Every active member of the Shinra army – except for members of SOLDIER, 2nd Class or higher – are expected to be clean-shaven at all moments," the man recited.

"Exactly! Now down and give me twenty! I hate ass-kissers!"

"Yes, Sir. Sorry, Sir!" Barker dropped to the floor and began his series of push-ups.

"As for you, Strife!" There was hatred in his voice as he said Cloud's last name. "I'm sure you are itching to go down to the Honeybee Inn and put your newly-grown hairs to the test! But as long as you are in my unit, I want you to look like one of those beardless, sissy-lookin' Wutaian-pop singers!"

"Sir! Yes, Sir!"

"Now, if you dare show up tomorrow with a single hair where there ought not to be one I will put your newly-pubescent ass on cleaning duty for a month! Is that clear?"

"Sir! Yes, Sir!"

"I said: IS THAT CLEAR!?"

"SIR! YES, SIR!" Cloud's throat was sore by then.

The unit spent its day on guard shifts, unloading trucks filled with groceries for the mess hall kitchens and on shooting practice and training. During a training exercise, Cloud tripped and smacked his left cheek hard – just when he thought that he could go a month without injuries. It was 7:53 PM by the time the unit's duties were over and Cloud was free for the evening. The commissary he had access to closed at 8:00 sharp, sometimes earlier if the one in charge felt like ditching sooner.

Thankful that he did not have guard duty that night, and not even bothering to remove his helmet, Cloud ran from his barrack three floors down the stair shaft and through the corridors down to the small commissary. The place had a handful of basic staples and personal hygiene items. It was sometimes poorly stocked and some things (like quality shampoo and soap) were a downright scam, but Cloud had no time to waste in details about the supposed low-tax shop.

"I need to shave!" Cloud said desperately to the trooper attending that night.

The man in charge looked at him with a puzzled look.

"So? The barber is two floors up," he said dismissively, turning a page from a swimsuit magazine.

"No! That's too expensive! I mean-I-I need a razor!" Cloud stuttered.

"Ah. You could have said that, kid." The trooper produced a long, thin package from the underside of the counter: a straight razor. "That will be 80 Gil."

"80-! Wait! Don't you have the other kind?" Cloud asked in a meek voice.

"Hey kid, we're an army. We have what we have. If you want a normal razor, then run to a convenience store in Sector 2. But I doubt you'll be back before lights out."

"Ugh. Just my luck." Cloud muttered under his breath.

"Gonna buy this? I gotta close, pal."

Cloud took a sharp breath. "Yeah, I'll take it."

After paying the Gil and watching the service window close and the light of the commissary go out, Cloud found himself faced with another, more pressing issue: he had no idea how to shave.

Cloud really couldn't be blamed: he had left Nibelheim before he even began growing any facial hair and even if he hadn't, he lacked a father figure that might have taught him how to properly groom himself. Before leaving, he had seen other kids his age develop a progressively darker mustache, and at least one was shaving a dense beard by his thirteenth birthday. From whatever highly-censored sex-ed lesson they were given by the town's doctor, he learned that facial hair appeared at different ages and took years to fully develop.

So far, Cloud had simply assumed he was going to be beardless, or that he was, as the men in the recruitment office put it: a very late bloomer. In fact, none believed he was as old as he said until he showed them his birth certificate. To top it all off, he wasn't even fully aware that his beard was growing until a few days before. He noticed some curly tan hairs on his lower jaw that seemed to have showed up overnight, but since Cloud lacked the proper skills to take care of them, he decided to wait for the next free weekend (and pay-day) to find a razor.

That postponement had brought him to this unfortunate predicament: in need of shaving a few stray hairs or face punishment.

Now, what could he do about it?

He was already teased by the other men in his unit because of his short stature, girly features and perpetually spiky hair that had earned him the moniker 'chocobo head'. He'd never hear the end of it if he dared top all of that by revealing he didn't know how to shave his own face.

"It's just a few stray hairs. I can take care of those," Cloud reassured himself.

Just to be sure he wasn't going to make a fool of himself, Cloud entered the showers later than usual. That way, every man in the barracks would be gone and he would have the mirror to himself.

The first part of his plan went right: when he entered (with his new razor concealed like contraband in his towel), most of the other men were already in the final stages of their shower. He turned the faucet and received a blast of warm water. He knew that to shave, you had to take a warm shower first. Something about softening the hair.

Then his plan started to go awry: the downside of showering last was that usually there was no hot water left. And so it happened: within a minute of starting he was under the impression of being under a Blizzara spell.

"Agh! Shiva's tits! Hot water's out!" Someone yelled from another one of the stalls.

"Damn! I hate cold showers!" Another guy said, clearly doing rapid motions in a fruitless attempt to counter the cold blast.

'I can't get out! I mustn't get out!' Cloud thought, teeth chattering under the water.

"Hey, Williams!"

"What is it?"

'What are they doing?'

"Say, do you think the girl from the cafeteria is single?"

"I think she is. Wanna ask her out?"

'Dammit! Hurry up and leave!' Cloud thought, feeling slightly hypothermic.

"Yeah. I was thinking you could help me out."

"Help you out? How so?"

"For fuck's sake!" Cloud muttered.

The men yelled at each other a complicated plan that would allegedly ensure the girl from the cafeteria accepted a date with one of them. The conversation under the cold water seemed to go on for hours, although in fact, it was probably less than three minutes. By the end of it, Cloud was in a corner of the shower, trying his best to not get hit by the water. Finally, both men left and as soon as they were out of earshot, Cloud shut down the water. His skin was rough with goosebumps.

Cloud waited a few more minutes chattering in his stall and eventually, when he assumed his unit partners were almost out of the lockers, he wrapped his towel around his waist and left the shower area. Just as planned, they were almost done when he entered. He took a deliberately long time to dry and get dressed in his sleeping clothes before finally turning toward the sinks. Cloud rubbed his hand on the foggy mirror to clear it and began scouting his own face; a bunch of unruly hairs stood just in the corner of his jaw, right in front of his earlobe. And then…

"Oh shit!"

A few stray hairs lay on top of his chin and the fine hairs of what he could only assume was his mustache were taking on a tan color that now stood sharply against his pale skin.

'Just when the hell did that happen?' Cloud thought. Well, no time to wonder about that now. He had to get rid of it pronto, or face the consequences.

Cloud unfolded the razor and saw his own eye nebulously reflected on the polished metal. He slid out the blade hold to confirm the blade was in place. As far as he knew, he would have to change it afterwards, but that could wait. Cloud removed the blade and its support completely to try to figure out how to best hold the damn thing.

"Where are my fingers supposed to go? And what is this tail-thing after the pivot?"

If he placed all his fingers on the handle part, the pivot would turn the blade towards his hand and cut it, and if he placed his hand on the blade side, his thumb would be dangerously close to the blade edge.

Cloud spent a good five minutes trying to solve the riddle of his finger's position until he reached the conclusion that he had to keep the razor completely straight. That way the tail remained inside the handle and he could just hold it in his fist! That made more sense. Lights out time was drawing near, so Cloud slid the blade hold back into place and grabbed the razor.

"Wait! Soap! You're supposed to use soap!"

Cloud rubbed his hands together, making a ridiculously small amount of foam, and spread it in his sparse beard, then grabbed the razor again.

"Damn, now it's slippery!" Cloud had forgotten to wash his hands after applying the soap. He rinsed his hand and the razor quickly and then grabbed the device. For the first time, as he directed the blade to his sideburn, Cloud saw his terrified eyes in the mirror.

"Crap! Crap! I can't do this!" Cloud said to himself.

He took a few short breaths that may have made him hyperventilate and then resumed. Cloud raised the razor again and – dammit! His hand was shaking! He reached over with his left hand to keep the other one steady and then slowly approached the blade to his neck.

He was so focused on the task at hand that he missed Zack Fair entering the locker room. He was suppressing a laugh and tip-toeing away from the door in a way that reeked of 'hiding from mischief'.

"Quit being a chocobo liver, Strife… Just cut it!" Zack heard a feeble voice say the room. He turned and saw Cloud in front of the mirror; his eyes were filled with despair and in his shaking hands was a razor dangerously close to his jugular.

"Cloud!? What are you doing!?"

Caught red handed, Cloud turned to face the SOLDIER.

'Oh Gaia! What the hell happened to him!?' Zack thought, alarmed as he noticed the fresh bruise on Cloud's cheek.

"Ah… I was just…!"

"Cloud! Listen to me," Zack said, speaking slowly, "please put the blade down!"

"I have to do it!"

"No please! Don't do anything reckless!"

"Huh?"

"I know it is hard and it may seem hopeless, but you have to trust me! Being a SOLDIER reject does not mean –!"

"What does any of that have to do with shaving?"

"...Shaving?"

"Yes, shaving!" Cloud said as he put the razor down.

"Oh-OH! You were shaving!" Zack sighed in relief. "Wait… You were shaving?"

Cloud nodded silently.

"But you were holding the razor all wrong," Zack said as he walked towards Cloud. "If you hold it like that you won't be able to angle the blade and there is no lather in your face and...wait!" A silly grin spread across the SOLDIER's face.

"Please don't…"

"This is your first time shaving, ain't it?" Zack was now poking Cloud's poorly soaped face.

"Zaaaack!" Cloud groaned.

"Awww! So finally you've become a man and began growing an abundant and manly beard that will have all the ladies swooning!"

"Stop it!"

"I take it the rest of your body has fully developed too! Look! Treasure trail!" Zack said as he raised Cloud's t-shirt and pointed at the hairs going from his navel down to the waistband of his sleeping pants.

"Hey! Cut that out!" Cloud said as he wriggled free. "This is why people think we're dating or something!"

"Pfft. I already have a sweet girl waiting for me. And now that you finally reached puberty, you'll have one in no time!"

"Whatever. Look Zack, I'm kinda busy here, so if you're not going to help me –"

"You need help?" Zack offered with a smile.

"Um… Yes, please." He finally said dejectedly.

"All right then! I'm just surprised your dad didn't teach you how to do it before you came here." Zack said. Cloud's gaze fell and fixed on something distant.

"I-I didn't know my father."

"Oh shi– ! I mean. Ahem… Sorry, I didn't know," Zack said quickly, rubbing the back of his head with his hand. After a few more seconds of awkwardness, he finally resumed. "Well, no worries! SOLDIER Zack Fair is on the job!" Zack took the razor and held it properly for Cloud to see. "See, two fingers on each side, and the scale goes upward."

"The what?"

"The scale. The handle part that the blade folds into."

"Ok. Wait a minute… How do you know how to shave? You don't even have any hair!" Cloud asked as he was given the razor back.

"Ah, well, that's another thing," Zack said, blushing. "You see, SOLDIER 1st are the face of the army, so the PR people send me to image stylists that, uh… Wax my face and shape my eyebrows." Zack said the last part actively avoiding eye contact.

Cloud looked dumbstruck at his friend. "Really?"

"It's part of the SOLDIER 1st deal, OK?! Don't judge! I said that I wanted to have a beard like Angeal but they said we'd look too similar and that they needed to make me look youthful and cute for the fans and now it got me thinking again that my eyebrows look weird shaped like this but Aerith says they look nice and now I'm rambling… Just apply your damn shaving cream!"

"I-I don't have any."

"What? Why not?"

"I didn't have time. I only have soap."

"Well, we'll have to make do. Make a hell of a bunch of foam!"

Cloud began rubbing his hands furiously to create the lather. After Zack said it was more than enough for the handful of hairs he had to take care of, the blonde began applying it. Then came the hard part.

"OK. Using the razor is simple. It's just like... like using a sword!"

"Huh?" Fear crept back into Cloud's eyes.

"I mean it has a blade! It's small, but it's a blade nonetheless,"

"I usually don't like blades near my throat."

"Don't be a crybaby! Look, first rule is: never move it sideways over your skin. That's a guaranteed cut. Second is, don't apply pressure: if you do it right, the blade will cut the hair without damaging your skin. Here, practice on your arm."

Zack lifted Cloud's forearm and instructed him to shave a few hairs from the inside. Cloud began moving the razor towards his wrist.

"Wait!"

"What? What!?" Cloud said in panic.

"I almost forgot! You have to angle the blade; it has to go almost parallel to your skin."

"How much is 'almost'?"

"Hmm… Good question. If I recall correctly –"

"Found him!"

Almost immediately, four men in black suits tackled Zack and pinned him to the ground. Cloud barely managed to not cut his wrist at the scare of the ongoing ruckus.

"You did it this time Zack. You really did it this time," a young woman with auburn hair announced ominously as she walked into the locker room.

"Did I? I mean – I have no idea what you are talking about, Ciss."

"I'm talking about our office filled with chocobo feathers."

"Oh! That!" Zack said. "You mean that silly joke that –"

"–that triggered Chief Veld's asthma attack and sent him to the medical wing?" a muscular Turk said on top of Zack.

"… … … Shit… In my defense, it was meant for Reno!"

"Then why didn't you just – Ugh! never mind! Take him in guys." Cissnei said dismissively.

The four Turks picked Zack up, each from one extremity, and began carrying him away. Admittedly, a SOLDIER First could have dealt with them and many more easily, but Cloud knew that Zack knew that it would be unwise to make things worse – especially when the head of the Turks was probably intubated in the hospital.

"Um… Zack?"

"Ah! Remember Cloud! At an angle!" Zack said as the suited men took him out of the locker room.

The door closed with an echoing sound. Cloud stood still for a few seconds while processing what had just happened.

"All right then," he finally said. "'At an angle.'"

Slowly, Cloud lift his hand and placed the blade of the razor against his skin.

"Lights out!" Someone announced outside and almost immediately, the place went dark.

"No no no no! Dammit!" Cloud despaired. Lacking any options, he waited for his eyes to get used to the darkness and using mostly the tips of his fingers and what little light entered the locker room, Cloud began shaving.

"But… It couldn't be that bad, right? You can see better than most in the dark," Denzel said. He was now sitting on the closed toilet, listening with keen interest at Cloud's story.

"Well, no. I didn't have any enhancements back then. So I guess it was pure luck that I didn't slice my neck or something."

Denzel chuckled. "So, what happened then?"

"Uh? Oh! I was put in cleaning duty for a month."

"What? Why? You just said you shaved!"

"I did! Or I thought I did… The following morning, when we were on formation, the sergeant ordered me to remove my helmet and examined my face. Turned out I had missed a spot near my jawline," Cloud said apologetically.

Denzel laughed at this revelation.

"The thing is, it is not that difficult and it's nothing to be afraid of. Granted, it is a blade on your neck, but you would need to be very careless or actually try to cut yourself."

"All right then!" Denzel said. He stood up and faced himself eagerly in the by-then-defogged mirror. "Let's do it!"

This time without any time constraint, Cloud was able to carefully direct Denzel's every action, from lathering to how to move the blade and most importantly, how much was 'almost'.

By the end of the ordeal, Denzel looked at himself in the mirror and noticed that without the dark hairs and peach fuzz, his face seemed cleaner.

"Look at you! You look younger!" Tifa said from the doorframe.

"Younger? Like what? Ten?" Marlene's voice came from somewhere outside.

"No, not that much," Tifa answered while examining Denzel's face in the cramped bathroom.

"Eleven, then! Are they done? I still need to brush my teeth!"

After cleaning the sink and discarding the disposable blade, Denzel placed his new razor in the medicine cabinet behind the bathroom mirror, next to Cloud's electric shaver.

"Cloud?" Denzel said later as he was getting ready to sleep.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

Cloud smiled and then added: "You're welcome. Sleep well." He turned off the lights and walked down the hallway to meet with Tifa at Marlene's door.

"So, is shaving a daily thing? I need to know to shower before Denzel hogs the bathroom!" The girl asked from her bed.

"You'll know when you're older," Tifa said from the door with a smirk.

"Wait, what?"

"Good night Sweetie!" Tifa turned off the light and closed the door before Marlene could say anything else.

Tifa and Cloud walked to the bedroom they shared at the end of the hallway, changed into their sleeping clothes and went to bed.

Mere minutes after tucking in, just when they were starting to doze off, Cloud gasped noisily and quickly sat up in the bed, pulling the covers and a huddled Tifa along.

"Wait a minute!"

"What? What!?" the brunette exclaimed, still in shock of being pulled out of her early lull.

"He thought I was trying to kill myself!"