Title: Playtime
Fandom: Final Fantasy: Advent Children
Characters: Cloud, Denzel, Reno, Rude, Marlene, Tifa, various kids
Prompt: 067 - Snow
Word Count: 591
Date finished: 10/10/2006
Rating: G
Summary: Cloud is a target when he goes shopping for Tifa.
Author's Notes: I had fun with this! And believe it or not, we didn't actually get snow until a week after I wrote it.
Disclaimer: Characters are owned by Square Enix and Sony Pictures as far as I know.

The street behind him was empty.

He turned back to keep going toward Seventh Heaven, and heard a giggle that sounded suspiciously like Marlene. Struggling to hide a grin, he strode forward, wondering exactly when he'd become target practice for the neighborhood kids.

Marlene's aim wasn't that good. Not yet. Denzel's was closer, but unless that was a fluke….

Another one hit, just a touch lower than the first, and he shivered as the snow slid into his collar again. A hood might be a good idea when he went shopping, he mused as he turned again, staring balefully down the empty street. This time, the giggle wasn't Marlene's, but he thought he knew who it belonged to. He wasn't sure of her name; they'd thrown their names at him with abandon, and he still hadn't quite gotten them all.

But a hood would take away the children's fun.

"Those are Reno," Denzel whispered to him from his hiding place as Cloud passed it, and Cloud's eyes narrowed.

"Really?" he asked softly as a third landed hard in his back. It gave him a chance to turn to glare down the still-empty street.

"Yeah. Rude told him it was a bad idea…."

"Will he stay out of it?"

"I think so," Denzel said, but he sounded doubtful.

Cloud turned back around to continue his walk. "Thanks, Denzel." He kept going, this time focused more on his surroundings. It only took two more snowballs before he figured out where Reno was, and by then had made his plan of attack.

Retribution was swift and merciless, and by the time it was over, Reno looked more like a snowman than a Turk, his long red hair coated in snow. Much of it made it's way down his collar, too, in spite of his fight to keep himself dry.

Cloud stepped back and smiled. "Now that you know how I feel," he said, with a flick of his blue eyes to where Rude watched, his face neutral, "how about coming back to Seventh Heaven with me for something hot to drink?"

Tifa was not pleased. "At least brush him off!" she insisted to Rude, pushing the Turks back outside and giving Rude a broom. From the yells through the closed door, the bald Turk was being rougher than necessary.

When they came in, however, they brought most of the children that had ambushed Cloud since the first snowfall in Edge, all of them happy, cheeks rosy from cold.

Tifa just grinned. "Give me a few minutes," she said, "and I'll have enough hot chocolate for all of you."

Reno's face fell, and she laughed. "You brought the kids," she reminded him. "I don't allow drinks with kids."

"Fair," Rude said before Reno could protest.

Cloud set the grocery bags on the counter, leaned over to give her a kiss, and ran upstairs to change clothes. He came back down with a passable white shirt, and gave it to Reno, who gratefully went to change.

The hot chocolate was a hit; as soon as the children warmed up again, they were gone, leaving the adults in the bar, lazily talking. Tifa grinned at Cloud and he grinned back; sometimes, the smiles seemed to say, it was worth the drop in income just to have days like this.

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