Disclaimer: Cloud is not mine. Nor is Tifa. If they were, I’d have them goin’ at it like rabbits. Hey, I could do that anyway… the point is they’re NOT MINE. They belong to Square-Enix. (I’m not geeky enough to start calling it Squeenix yet… I apologise to anyone who is. )

She wakes up to the sound of dishes clinking and water running.

Sitting up in her bed, she looks over at her bedside clock with a yawn. Nine-thirty. Marlene and Denzel must be hungry, she realised with a moan. They always trashed the place when they made their own breakfast.

Begrudgingly she got up and slipped on the fuzzy pink carpet slippers she bought last week. She remembered with a smile the look on Cloud’s face as she excitedly shoved them right under his nose, eager to present to him the fruits of her days shopping with Yuffie.

‘I never thought pink was your thing…?’

‘Well, I guess that’s something you didn’t know about me, huh?’ she had teased.

When said pink fluffy slippers were firmly on her feet, she lifted herself off her bed and shuffled wearily over to her wardrobe, grabbing the equally fluffy, yet less pink dressing gown from the door. As she wrapped herself in the soft fabric, the sound of dishes got louder and more obvious. She allowed herself a sigh.

It wasn’t that she didn’t love looking after the kids and Cloud… heaven knows Cloud needed just as much looking after as the kids… but this week she had found herself becoming wearier and wearier. Last night, she was so tired, she was found napping on the kitchen worktop by Cloud, with a glass in one hand and a cloth in the other, drying dishes in her sleep. She vaguely remembered him grinning at her, before lifting her up and carrying her, piggy-back style, up the stairs and into her room. She smiled fondly at the memory.

She made her way across the hall, stopping at Denzel’s room to poke her head inside. Funny, he was still in bed, a small tuft of chestnut hair poking from the top of his duvet. Frowning, she carried on to Marlene’s room and once again poked her head through the door. Nope, she was still in bed too.

Confused, she made her way down the stairs, her soft-bottomed pink slippers padding quietly on the polished wood. She could hear the sound of the tap running and couldn’t imagine the reason for it. As she neared the kitchen, she caught a glimpse of blonde spikes and stopped abruptly, a smile spreading widely across her face.

Cloud was stood at the kitchen sink, running dishes under the tap, and then tossing them into the bowl of hot soapy water beside him. In other words; Cloud was doing the dishes.

She had to stop herself from giggling, remembering that he had no idea she was watching him. Cloud never did the dishes at all, it was moreher thing. She could never imagine him doing something so… housewife-ish. Yet here he was, stood at the sink, one of his blonde spikes sopping wet with bubbles.

She watched silently as he picked up a dirty bowl and rinsed it under the hot tap, scolding his finger slightly then swearing. Suppressing a giggle, she realised that he was using an awful amount of water.

‘Ah well, I guess I don’t mind paying the extra… just to see him doing something for me…’

After he’d finished running everything under the hot tap before putting it in the soapy water, he searched the worktop for the sponge, dripping water everywhere. She could tell he had no idea what he was doing really, and remembered one time when he told her he had no idea how to cook or clean. She wondered how on earth he managed while he was in the Shinra army.

Once he’d found the sponge he began to clean the dishes, one by one until they were all neatly stacked in the draining board, white and gleaming. Looking fully pleased with himself, he then took a clean bowl from the stack and set it on the worktop. He then began to rummage throughout the kitchen cupboards, taking out flour and some eggs and milk from the fridge.

‘What on earth is he doing now?’ she mused as he put the ingredients into the bowl. ‘It looks like he’s trying to make pancakes, but I thought he couldn’t cook?’

It turned out, he couldn’t. It took him three attempts to get the measurements right, and by which time he had coated his face in a layer of flour. Blowing his hair out of his eyes (and causing a cloud of flour to poof from his hair), he mixed the pancake batter with a wooden spoon before pouring it carefully into a frying pan. Thankfully, he didn’t try to flip them, as she breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t fancy having to clear it off the ceiling.

Soon he had a stack of quite yummy-looking pancakes, which he placed carefully on a tray along with a glass of orange juice. As he picked it up and walked carefully to the door, she panicked and disappeared from the door frame, not wanting him to know she was watching. Not knowing what to do, she ran to the stairs as he unintentionally followed her, concentrating on the tray far too much to notice her running back up the stairs and into her room.

Once inside her room, she threw herself under the covers and shut her eyes, waiting for the inevitable sound of Cloud’s door closing. When she heard no sound for a minute or two, she opened her eyes slowly and gasped.

Cloud was hovering over her, carrying the tray of pancakes, flour all over his nose and in his hair. He had a very pleased grin on his face and was looking very proud of himself.

‘Hey. I made you some pancakes.’

She sat up slowly, managing to hide her shock so as not to hurt his feelings. He had done all that for her?

When she didn’t say anything, Cloud looked over at her face, his smile faltering.

‘What’s the matter? Aren’t they any good? I’m not the best chef in the world… but I thought, hey, how hard can pancakes be? Turns out, very.’

She laughed, and looked up at him.

‘They’re perfect.’

‘You haven’t even tried them yet…’ he said, his grin firmly back in place. ‘Go on, I want to see how they turned out.’

Giggling, she picked up the knife and fork and cut herself a slice. It was a bit lumpy, but other than that, it was good.

‘Mmmmm,’ she cut herself another slice, as Cloud watched eagerly. ‘Very tasty. Well done, Cloud.’

He laughed and stood up to leave, but before he took a step she pulled down on his arm, motioning him to her. Reaching up, she placed a soft kiss on his cheek. Not too long, because she knew he wasn’t ready for that yet, but long enough to say;

‘Thank you for thinking of me.’