Month 03 – Day 25 - Saturday

He hadn't exactly sat down for dinner with them in a while now, despite the fact he came home every night. As most nights he came home late, and most mornings he left early. It was only the weekends, always the weekends when he got the chance to spend a little quality time with his makeshift family.

But tonight, as he sat in front of her across the dinner table, it was different. Although he couldn't quite put an answer to it, he could feel it deep within his soul and he could breathe it with each and every passing moment. It wasn't the fact that he was at home and sharing dinner with his little family.

It was her eyes.

It was staring into her gentle gaze and smiling at the instant her eyes locked into his. It was the way she passed him the salt or the pepper or some plate on the table, it didn't matter. It was being here, with her and being able to stare at her and enjoy their little dinner together. Sure, the kids argued a little over eating vegetables, but no doubt, he couldn't think of any other place he would rather be than here with his family.

He smiled quietly to himself in the darkest part of his mind as he watched her motherly like self lay upon a lengthy lecture to the two children refusing to eat their vegetables. She motioned with instructive gestures and a motherly like tone, and even went as far as to include him in the heated discussion.

"They're really disgusting," Marlene said with a hefty exclamation.

"And gross," Denzel swiftly added.

"Eating them will get rid of the disgusting taste faster, prolonging the 'eating of the vegetable' only makes it worse," she asked in that motherly like tone she always used with them.

She continued by pointedly saying that even 'the great hero of Midgar ate veggies too. He however, replied solemnly with a placid smile and a great bite of broccoli. He had to admit though that broccoli wasn't exactly his favourite vegetable. But because he was under her steady yet penetrating gaze, he decided that she didn't quite need to know that.

Their dinner lasted several more minutes before the great war of the 'vegetable eating' contest grew to a silent dim. The contestants finally gave in with a quiet defeated sigh escaping their broccoli filled mouths. They even dared to glare a little, but she only pressed on her motherly like expression and continued eating.

It wasn't too much later when they stood beside each other washing the dishes like they had done so many times now. He would wash the plates, and then he would pass it to her and with a swift move she would dry them and stack them on the drying racks. It was like a factory, there was part one, and part two, and then part three. It was very define and straight forward when he looked at it.

After the dishes, she plainly suggested that the kids should at least return to their rooms and clean up the heap of mess and then after that, go to sleep. She pointed out that at least if they clean their rooms now they would get the rest of the weekend to play. The two kids agreed almost instantly as their faces beamed with smiles. It wasn't long before they went running up the steps at lightning speed. She smiled girlishly to herself as she looked to him.

"Want to watch the stars?" she asked.

It wasn't a big beaming smile but it was a small smile that grew upon his upturned lip. He nodded bravely and together they walked up the steps after switching the kitchen and bar lights off. The darkness seeped through the downstairs as the two adults began their way to the room above.

The climb wasn't difficult; he figured she had climbed up here to watch the stars often which is why the path to the roof was so easy and directly laid out in front of them. But he did notice however, that she made climbing look incredibly easy. It was hard for him to come to terms with the fact that even he had trouble climbing on the roof despite the fact he defeated Sepriroth in the middle of plain air.

He shook his thoughts off and sat down beside her and turned his eyes to the glistening sky.

The stars seem as distant as blue eyes gazed upon them and reflected its shining outburst. They seem to seek a place so dark beneath the never ending sky and with it, the stars mingled sleeplessly amongst the clouds. He smiles a little as he listens to the night pass beneath his very gaze. There hadn't been a single night quite like this one that he could ever remember.

But it was nice, nonetheless as her quiet breathing sent him into a lulling day dream. He remembered their dinner this evening; their little family having their first dinner after he had just quit Strife Delivery Service. So today made it official to him, and the three others that made up his little ring of hope and happiness. It wasn't that big of a deal, but it was a great deal for them. As from this day onwards, he would wake up when they would wake up and he would sleep when they would sleep. He would eat when they would eat, and he would smile when they would smile.

He smiled; life was starting to look brighter and brighter each and every passing day for him. But there was still something that bothered him and sent him into hours and hours of deep thoughts late at night. He would just sit and think and wonder; it was his curiosity that one could call it. It was this thing that burned at the back of his skull no matter how many times he tried to put a finger on it. It didn't matter how many times he ran through it in his mind, he just couldn't figure it out.

"Cloud," she whispered with the still of the night.

"Yeah," he answered in a tone softer and quieter than the night itself.

"Do you think they're watching us?" she asked, her eyes questioning as she looked at him.

He thought for a moment as his eyes touched hers, and then he smiled and nodded. "Yes, I think they are."

"That's nice," she said with a comforting smile. "At least they're not alone; after all, they have each other..."

His heart began to race the instant the last word left her mouth. It seem she was trying to initiate something, to hint something to him that he just couldn't fathom or even begin to understand. But the weird thing was, that he felt it deep within somewhere in his gentle heart. He felt it thumping in each beat and echoing like a lullaby. He heard it, felt it, saw it but yet he didn't understand it.

"It's nice, isn't it?" she asked, shattering his quiet thoughts into a thousand pieces.

He turned his eyes to her and smiled a little, nodding at her quiet comment. Yes, he thought, the stars were beautiful in their radiating twinkle. But they weren't as beautiful as she was. Maybe, that was what he was trying to understand; the reason as to why he found her incredibly and completely breath taking. But it still didn't make much sense to him, no matter how much he thought of it.

"Cloud..." she said again, her tone reflected the curious glint in her eyes.

He looked to her and answered with a nod.

"Is everything okay?"

He nodded again, not really sure what to say to her at this moment. The silence of the night was good enough to torture his soul, but the twilight and her beauty radiating around him, now that was really killing him.

"You seem really quiet tonight," she said, her comment which was sort of contradictory. After all, he was always quiet, so being quiet is one thing, but being quiet, quiet... wouldn't that just relate to just being quiet?

"I just..." he began with a lowering tone.

Her eyes seem to send his heart into beats of racing horses, he only mentally cursed at how distracting her eyes were when he was trying so hard to think straight. He tilted his head to the side as he breathed a little to continue before the silence got any more awkward around them.

"I just don't understand..." he said, sighing after finally admitting the words to her. Well, the words weren't exactly the proper ones he had thought of earlier, but nonetheless it was okay for the moment.

"What don't you understand?" she asked as she brought her hands around her knees.

"A lot... a lot of things," he answered, his tone diminishing into a quiet silence.

"Oh..."

They must have sat there for what seemed like an eternity but in reality, only mere minutes. And as the time grew and the night darkened, he finally mumbled, "My emotions..."

She turned to him, her eyes questioning as she gazed at him. "What did you say?" she asked.

"I don't understand what I feel in here," he said as he touched his chest.

"Maybe it isn't for you to understand it yet?" she attempted, her tone sounded somewhat suggestive as she looked at him with a small smile.

"I think..." he began, the words slowly coming to him as he looked at the stars. "I think what I feel is a lot more complicated than what I once felt in the past."

"I see," she said with an expression that was strangely sad.

"What I'm trying to say is that..." he began as he turned to look at her, "For a very long time now I've felt this thing inside."

"Is it the mako?" she asked, her expression now one of worry.

He shook his head before he continued, "No, I think that I've felt like this even before the mako."

He lowered his eyes a little and laced his fingers together. Her silence made his heart beat only pulsate faster, and made him even more nervous.

"This feeling doesn't hurt or anything, but instead it makes me feel happy," he said as he looked at his fingers. "It makes me feel like I belong somewhere and I haven't felt that in a long time now."

"You know," she began with a smirk upon her lips, "I've never heard you talk so much before."

He smiled a little as he turned to look at her. "I guess after quitting Strife Delivery Service, it's made my burdens lighter."

"That's good," she said with a small smile. "I'm glad that you feel better."

"I think..." he began, and lowered his eyes again. "I think what I feel is so complicated yet simple... if that makes any sense."

"What does your heart feel then?" she asked softly.

He turned his eyes to her and answered, "My heart feels it in so many ways than one that I can't even keep up with it."

"Tifa!"

She lowered her head a little and sighed. "I better see what they want," she said as she came to a stand.

He watched as she lowered herself onto her room window.

"Tifa..." he called out.

He waited till he saw her head pop above the last tile of the roof. "Yeah..."

"The um... the strangest thing about this feeling," he said in a quiet tone, "is that I only feel it when I... when I um..."

"Tifa, Denzel's eating cookies and I want some too," he could hear Marlene complaining.

She gave him a motherly like smile and ducked her head below before he could even continue.

He stared at the stars and sighed, "The strangest thing about this feeling is that I only feel it when I'm looking at you, Tifa."

A/N: What a perfect way to end the year with a cliff hanger lol. Well, it's not really a cliff hanger, more like a semi-kinda-maybe-sorta cliff hanger. Anyway, theres more to come in the new year. And a Happy New Year to everyone :)

Thanks to all who reviewed for the previous chapter: SweatMisery49, Rend, , Cloudtail4ever, MinnieMouse8990, Fairheartstrife, Teefie, PostBoxRomance, vx-Luna-xv, Nea...

Cloudtail4ever: sorry i made a little slip, was quite late when I was writing that chapter. thanks for letting me know though :) and thanks for the review too.