Title: Staying Home
Fandom: Final Fantasy: Advent Children
Characters: Cloud, baby girl (unnamed)
Prompt: 028 - Children
Word Count: 400
Date finished: 06/07/2006
Rating: G
Summary: Cloud and Macaroni and Cheese.
Author's Notes: It's based on my husband. And my daughter. Only it was me cleaning up - I just know that my dh would love to be able to stay home like this.
Disclaimer: Characters are owned by Square Enix and Sony Pictures as far as I know.

He and Tifa had talked, when she'd found out, about what to do. It had been easy for him to decide to stop his delivery service, especially when he'd seen how much she liked running the bar. And the people came to see her as much as the drinks. They'd told him on the days she hadn't felt well enough to dispense drinks. So Strife Delivery Service had gone the way of Midgar, and he was at home with their little girl.

The baby was not like Marlene and Denzel; they'd been fully grown when they came into his life, and he hadn't been around much, anyway, so caught up in his own guilt…

But that was over. Now, instead of facing monsters and Sephiroth clones (conceivably the same thing), he faced a 15-month-old little girl who had just finished with her macaroni and cheese.

The worst part, he thought as he scrubbed at the little girl's hands, was that she loved to put her hands in her hair. That meant that he had to scrub at her face, her hair - more than once, after a lunch like this, he'd stripped her and given her a bath, but he wasn't in the mood today - and her hands, all the way up to her elbows.

When he set her down on the floor, she looked up at him with large brown eyes - Tifa's; the hair was his, but the curls had surprised both of them - and grinned. There was still macaroni in her hair - a small piece, to be sure - and he gave up. "You'll never be clean, little one," he said fondly. She pulled herself up on the chair he'd just gotten her out of, and toddled unsteadily six, seven, eight steps before losing her balance and sitting down. Without a pause, she began to crawl, continuing her journey toward the toy chest.

Cloud left her to it, turning to clean off the tray, table, the floor around the high chair, and the bib. It took nearly as much time to clear that off as it had to scrub the child herself, and he sighed, deeply.

The kitchen of the small apartment was a mess; he needed to wash the dishes, put papers away, and sweep the floor. Toys littered the floor in the family room; he needed to get to work and pick that up before Tifa came up for a short visit and something to eat - and somehow keep his daughter happy at the same time. It was a glorious mess, and he had so much work to do….

He was the happiest he'd ever been.

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