A/N: Been a long time since I wrote something for Shelke. Shame on me! Ah, well, this one is for the theme Blanket. I hope you will enjoy it!

Disclaimer: Owns nothing

Begin the Thaw

At first when Tifa brought home the slender girl a halo of hair like fire, Marlene had thought she would be a new friend and playmate for her the way Denzel was. She had bounded toward them, her hand outstretched in polite greeting the way she had been taught.

There was a slight moment of hesitation, then the slender pale fingers curled around her own, and the other girl’s face lifted to reveal piercing sapphire eyes that did not belong to another child. Her hand was like ice. Marlene’s lips parted, startled, and the girl quickly withdrew her hand, her gaze diverting once more.

“Marlene, this is Shelke Rui,” Tifa said, breaking the moment of awkwardness. “She’s a friend of Vincent’s and will be staying with us for awhile.”

“Shelke,” Marlene repeated, testing out the sound of the name on her tongue, giving the strange frozen girl a smile in hopes of making her thaw out. “It’s nice to meet you!”

The girl named Shelke only nodded silently still staring away. Tifa squeezed the girl’s shoulder gently, guiding her toward the stairs. The seven year old watched them go, a slight frown on her face before she returned to mixing the cake batter she had been working on before. Tifa had been teaching her to bake recently, and she wanted to try to make one on her own this time.

Within a few minutes Tifa had descended the stairs once more, tucking a lock of her dark hair behind her ear as she grabbed a washcloth to mop up some of the flour that the girl had tracked across the counter.

“Tifa?”

“Hmm?” the woman answered distractedly.

“Is that girl okay?”

“Shelke? Well, not really. She’s had a hard time lately, Marlene. Her sister Shalua died, and with Vincent missing, she feels a little lost. Especially since she doesn’t have anything left- she was a member of Deepground and used to fight for them.”

Marlene’s eyes rounded, thinking back on the small, slender delicate redhead. “She fought? But. . .”

Looking up from her work, Tifa hesitated, her dark eyes uncertain. “It’s a bit complicated, honey,” she said gently. “I know Shelke looks like she’s your age, but she’s really almost the same age as Yuffie.”

The child’s mouth dropped open in shock. “Really?” she questioned, eyeing Tifa in disbelief. But then she remembered the cold frozen look in the fire haired girl’s glacier eyes, a look she had come to associate with the adults around her, and doubted it no longer.

Blinking she looked up from her cake batter realizing that the woman was speaking once more.

“- I know you’re probably curious and want to talk to her, but give Shelke her space. She isn’t used to people like us yet, and especially not chatty little girls like you.”

Marlene frowned, carefully spooning the batter into a greased pan that Tifa had set by her elbow. “Does that mean I can’t be her friend?”

“No sweetie,” she sighed, smoothing the child’s hair before dropping a kiss on the top of her head. “I’m just telling you to give her time to warm up, okay? Don’t be offended if she doesn’t talk to you or anything. That’s just how she is.”

“Do you think she likes cake?” Marlene asked after they had slid the pan into the oven to cook, watching as Tifa started to sweep the floor.

Tifa paused in mid sweep, and shrugged. “I don’t know, Marlene. We’ll have to find out.”

&1&

It was the early hours of the morning when the girl awoke for no reason at all. She stared blankly at the ceiling, the light a soft swirl of gray she knew meant the sun had not yet come up. Sighing, the child wriggled carefully out of Tifa’s grasp and slipped soundlessly out of the bed, padding down the hall to the stairs, intending to get a drink of water before going back to sleep.

On the bottom step Marlene paused, surprised, one small hand still on the railing. The slender red haired girl was sitting in one of the booths by the window, her knees drawn up to her chin, her sapphire eyes staring blankly out onto the still dark streets.

Cautiously the child slipped closer, her head cocked slightly to the side, her mahogany tresses mussed from her slumber, but Shelke never moved of gave any sign that she knew the girl was there. Her brow furrowing in concern, Marlene lay her hand on the other girl’s, not surprised to find it was chilled, icy to the touch.

Moving quietly but swiftly, she slipped back upstairs, returning moments later with what she had gone to fetch to find the girl in the exact same position. Climbing up on the bench, Marlene unfolded the dark brown blanket, carefully draping it around Shelke’s small frame and tucking it in carefully.

For a moment there was no change, then she felt the slightest shudder go through the other girl’s body before ice blue eyes slowly turned to meet hers.

“Marlene Wallace, correct?” Her voice was quiet, soft, almost mechanical, but without menace. When the child nodded in response, Shelke spoke again. “Thank you.”

“Sure,” Marlene responded in turn. There was more silence, broken by the rumble of the child’s tummy. She giggled, patting it before looking up. “You hungry? I made cake yesterday. Wouldn’t it be a yummy breakfast?”

Shelke raised an eyebrow. “Would that be approved of?”

Shrugging, the little girl smiled. “Tifa’s not up yet, so what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her!”

More silence followed, and then Shelke shrugged her shoulders slightly under her blanket. “I suppose that I will have some if you are.”

&1&

Yawning, Tifa descended into the lower level of the bar to start making breakfast and to get things ready to open when a flash of color in one of the booths caught her eye. Curious, she moved closer, and her heart clenched tightly at the sight before her. Marlene was sitting in Shelke’s lap, her head resting against the other girl’s chest, a brown blanket wrapped around them both as they slept, unaware of the dark haired woman’s presence. On the table in front of them were two china plates with cake crumbs on them.

It seemed Reeve and Cid had been right. Shelke needed someone to help her thaw out, and Marlene could worm her way into even the most tightly locked of hearts. This was the best place for Shelke to be right now.