Because Lefora is Down

Cloud looked over the menu, and he smirked at Aeris, a strawberry one sounded good with some fries.

Emma waited in line for her phone call, debating on if she should call her dad. No she didn't want to sit through one of his lectures so when it was her turn she called Aeris instead.
"Aeris, it's me Emma...please tell me you're not with my dad..." she managed to say.

Aeris put her order in. She got a hamburger, chocolate shake, and fries. Sora got waffle fries and chicken nuggets. When her phone rang and she saw it was Emma, she stood.
"I have to take this." She said.
Sora saw an opportunity to toy with Cloud.
"I think it's her boyfriend." He told him.

"Hey. I stepped away from the table. What's up are you okay?"

Cloud nearly choked on his shake.
"Boyfriend?" He raised an eyebrow. She never mentioned such a thing.

"I'm...okay-ish..." Emma said glancing around the cop motioning her to hurry up. "I...I need you to pick me up...I'm...I'm at the police station..."

Sora nodded, toying with the silverware wrapper.
"He's nice, I guess." He told Cloud.

Aeris almost laughed, until she thought about Cloud's reaction.
"I'll come and get you, but Emma this is it. I'll bail you out this time, but never again." She laid down the law.

Cloud didn't know what to think, why hadn't she mentioned anything especially if he was hanging around Sora?

"Thank you, Aeris..." Emma whispered. "I won't do it again, just don't tell my dad..."

Aeris told her okay, then went back to the table.
"I have to give a friend a ride. I'll meet you back at your place?" She asked Cloud. It wasn't that late, and that way if he wouldn't think anything of it if he saw her pulling into his driveway. She kissed the top of Sora's before heading out, hoping he'd eat slowly.

She picked Emma up ten minutes later, signing her out. She was her legal guardian still.
"Are you alright?" She asked the teenager. Her safety Aeris's main concern.

Sora nibbled on his fries as he looked at Cloud.
"Do you still love Mom?" He asked.

Cloud nodded, getting a bit more worried. A friend? No Aeris would have mentioned something he was sure about it. He nibbled on his food as Sora spoke.
"Of course I do." He said. "I'll always love her."

Emma nodded, a bit tipsy.
"I'm fine..." she mumbled. "I'm just tired..."

"Why don't you ask her to marry you? Aidan's parents are married." He told his dad.

"Whoa." Aeris said, stopping dead in her tracks. "Are you drunk? Emma Rae Valenti, you know better than that." She told her. Once Emma was buckled up in the car Aeris drove to Cloud's. "Take a shower. When you get out I'll make you some coffee." That would hide it a bit...

Cloud frowned and he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Sora..." he whispered. "Sometimes...even when two people love each other they can't be together. It takes more than love."

Emma laughed slightly, but then she saw how serious Aeris was.
"You should see Becka...she's the reason we got caught. Thought she could out drink me." She smirked, she was definitely Cloud's daughter.

Sora frowned. He had another bite, feeling a little mad. They had all been spending time together, Cloud loved her.
"You're being dumb." He muttered under his breath.

"Enough. Get in the shower or I'm telling your father what you just said." She told Emma, and she wasn't bluffing.

Cloud raised an eyebrow at Sora.
"What was that?" He asked. He rarely put on the tough pants, but he was too tored to tolerate much tonight.

"You're not my mom!" Emma scoffed. "I don't care if you tell him."
She angrily moved up to the bathroom and slammed the door shut.

Sora looked Cloud right in the eyes, chin tilting up defiantly, also his father's son.
"I said you're being dumb. There's no reason you can't marry Mom, you're just dumb!"

Aeris stood there for a moment when Emma went into the bathroom. She didn't make coffee. Instead she played with Gunner and put the TV on. Not her kid? Not her mess.

Cloud raised his eyebrows at him and he shook his head.
"No TV for a week." He saId leaving it at that. "You need to have some respect."

After dinner Cloud headed home.
"Go straight to your room." He told Sora.

Sora went to his room, not giving a crap about the TV.

Aeris raised her eyebrows, but she would never undermine Cloud. Instead when he turned the corner she looked up at him.
"My 'friend' was your daughter. I bailed her out of jail. She's drunk. I'm not her mom so you handle it." She said, sounding bitter.

Cloud raised an eyebrow, feeling the daggers. He didn't ask more and he went up to Emma's room and knocked.
"Go away!" She said.
"Nah, don't feel like it." Cloud said opening the door anyway. It was back and forth for a bit, arguing and "you're being so unfair!" And then it hit him.
"I hate you!"
"Yeah well join the club!" Cloud said taking her phone away. "You can have my old flip phone for emergencies only."
He left her room and moved down to the sofa, slumping down on the sofa. "These fucking kids..."

"Why did we even have them?" She mumbled. She didn't mean it, but what Emma said had really hurt her. She knew she wasn't Emma's mother, and she had never tried to take Julia's place. She thought she had done an okay job, but it was hard to compete with a ghost. She had thought Emma would never pull that line, but she had clearly been wrong. "What did Sora do?"

Cloud chuckled slightly wondering the same thing, but he also didn't mean it.
"Mini tantrum about me being dumb." he said. "Because we're not married even though we love each other..."

Aeris looked over at Cloud, her eyebrows raised. After a moment she burst out laughing, running herh and down her face.
"Well, you are dumb." She told him, tickling his side. "Emma told me I couldn't tell her what to do because I'm not her mother." She frowned.

Cloud laughed as she tickled him, squirming slightly but then he frowned.
"Ouch..." he mumbled. "I'm sure she doesn't mean it. She loves you, she called you and not me after all."

Aeris shook her head.
"She only called me because we're not related and she figured I'd go easy on her, which I intended to do." She sighed. "I told her I'd bail her out once, after that if it happened again she could stay in jail overnight. I brought her back here so she could shower and have a cup of coffee when she started bragging about she was outdrinking her friend. I told her to cut the shit, get in the shower, and that's when she snapped." She explained. "Sora really called you dumb?" She asked him, trying to picture it and failing.

Cloud frowned slightly, and he rubbed the back of his neck. He still believed Emma loved her and it was just the alcohol talking. "Just give her a couple of days, she'll apologize..." he said wrapping an arm around her. "And yeah...guess that one was my fault really...I told him I loved you."

Aeris looked up at him, completely forgetting the Emma thing when he finished his sentence.
"You told him that?" She asked him, surprised. She didn't know why she was surprised. It just seemed easier to lie than to tell the truth in that circumstance. She leaned into him when he wrapped an arm around her. "You know when I was asking you about the insurance benefits earlier, I was thinking it'd be nice to have you and Emma on my plan, but it's impossible without being married. So it's funny timing that he brought that up." She sort of let it slip without fully meaning to, turning pink. "I mean not that I think about that. It was just with Shaun hurt..." Oh Jesus...

Cloud raised an eyebrow as Aeris continued to speak. Was she...? As she finished speaking, he was just as pink, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand.
"Aeris Kyoto, are you proposing to me?" he teased, tickling her side. "And trying to hide it under a half bs story about insurance?"

Aeris laughed when he tickled her, squirming as she tried to get away from his hands. She blushed even harder, part of her wanting to melt into the floor.
"N-no, I'm not proposing!" She got out, giggling. Aeris had an insecure side that Cloud didn't get to see much of, but it was there. If she proposed to him, she'd forever think she cared more, or forced him into it. Cloud wasn't the marrying type, she knew that. They could barely even date with a formal title without breaking up.

Cloud knew a part of him had commitment issues, knew it was a bad idea, but he did think about it from time to time when it came to Aeris. But still, it had been so long, and it definitely wasn't the way things went with other people.
"Oh, too bad..." he whispered. "I woulda said possibly yes."