Disclaimer: Compliation of FFVII does not belong to me.

Author natterings: So I found this floating around my room and decided to type it out. Although I had written it before the conception of Calendar Days, I felt that it fit remarkably well. Or maybe I just write cuddly CloTiDenLene all the time. The next calendar day is in the works!

Calendar Days - Interlude

The great thing about weekend afternoons was that everyone was home.

They could laze around for hours in the house if they wanted to. Neither Cloud nor Tifa were particularly good at that though, and one day Marlene and Denzel had to show them. Denzel was reluctant to hold hands, but after awhile he was pulling Cloud along, not too far behind a tugging Marlene and a tugged Tifa. The four of them lay on the grass in the backyard, half asleep and conducting perfectly lazy conversation. They (Cloud and Tifa, and Denzel though he didn't say it outloud) felt kind of self-conscious, but the warm afternoon sunshine had a wonderful way of dealing with that.

Funny story about the grass, actually. Theirs was the only patch in the city. On a saturday night, Tifa had mentioned, while whirling the lettuce for a salad, that there was nothing green for miles. Denzel glumly pointed out the lettuce. Tifa and Marlene simultaneously said it was good for him. Cloud nodded, and immediately went to thoughts of a landscaper he had met on the road. (It was a secret for weeks.)

So they had grass. And flowers. They almost had a tree, but Denzel couldn't eat apples or he'd be puffy-eyed for a week. They had bushes instead. It was mostly Marlene tumbling out the back door, a large bowl already in her hands and clasping the wrist of whoever her helper was that day. Sometimes it was Cloud, sometimes Denzel, but most times it was both. She only went out when Tifa was already in the yard, sprinkling the seeds of flowers yet to bloom. And they all went in at the same time, smelling of raspberries and soil and tap water.

Tifa made iced tea after every berry picking round because Marlene liked the combination of iced tea and raspberries. Cloud usually had about three glasses and Denzel two, so they'd fight over the bathroom sometimes. If Denzel felt devious that day, he'd take an extra long time washing his hands.