Just Your Average Day: Dissidia Final Fantasy

Chapter 1
Wake Up Call

It was like every other day in city. The sound of birds chirping filled the air, a few voices from children outside added into the atmosphere, and the sun shined brilliantly down the streets. It was a lovely day as usual in the city. It seemed like nothing was out of the ordinary. Everything was at peace.

This peace just so happened to be new to Cloud Strife as he hid himself under the sheets of his bed. Cloud was so used to the dark and gloomy city of Midgar where he used to live. However, after him and his best friend Zack got into trouble with the police, the spiky blond was sent off to live with his cousin and live in "The Most Amazing Place in the World," as his cousin had phrased. This place was nowhere near "amazing," Cloud thought. He could have still been working on opening up a delivery service in Midgar, but no. His parents are the stubborn ones who treat him like a little kid still. Cloud was almost twenty-one, out of high school, and was still living with his parents until they shipped him off to his Uncle Jecht's house to man-up and get a job. How lame…

When the sound of knocking came from the door to his room, Cloud poked his face out from the large comforter, mumbling a muffled "What is it?" before it opened up. Lingering in the doorway in an impatient manner was Cloud's younger cousin. His blonde hair was a bit darker than Cloud's and a lot messier. But if one just looked at the two, they would mistake Cloud and his cousin as siblings. However, they are just cousins with a difference of just barely a year or two.

"Cloud! How come you're not dressed yet?! We're going to be late!"

Cloud grumbled a bit and hid his face back under the covers. The light was annoying, his cousin was annoying, and so was waking up. It seemed that everything in general seemed to make Cloud annoyed. Maybe it was teenage mood swings, maybe it was his homesickness for his best friend Zack, no one knew. Not even Cloud himself. "Ah, Tidus… I don't want to go. Quit bugging me… Get out or I'll get Jecht to drag you out…"

The other blond haired boy frowned at his cousin's ridiculous behavior. It seemed like trying to get a sloth to race a cheetah. Never going to happen. In this case, it seemed like trying to get your moody older cousin out of bed. So Tidus set his book bag down, stomped over to his cousin's bed, grabbed Cloud's ankles, and pulled on them so hard that Cloud had almost landed into the closet. Seeing how his strength was amazingly strong this morning and how a bloodlust aura was radiating off Cloud, that was Tidus's que to hurry up and make an excuse so he could escape.

"I, uh-Whoops?"

"You have five seconds to run."

"Wha-?"

"One." Cloud stood up from the ground.

"Huh?! Hold on a-"

"Two." Cloud dug into his closet for something important.

"Two?! Hey! I'm sor-"

"Four." Cloud finally managed to get a hold of what he wanted to get.

"Four?! You skipped Three on purpose!"

"Five." Cloud revealed what he was holding onto from the closet. In just one of his hands, Cloud managed to pull out a massive buster blade sword from his closet. He finally put that sword to use since he came to live with Tidus. After all, might as well make the best of a gift from an old friend.

Tidus seemed to yelp in surprise and made his way to the door. Cloud, not being the merciful one in the morning quickly ran after Tidus. However, Tidus was defiantly faster than Cloud. The younger male scooped up his book bag and quickly ran downstairs. But being a bit too fast, poor Tidus went on an early trip and tumbled down the stairs after making it halfway. Cloud shook his head in pity. He didn't step outside of his room since he was too lazy to go any farther. But a small chuckle came from Cloud. At least Tidus managed to wake up Cloud…

_______

"You tried to slice Tidus up with a buster blade, Cloud?!"

Cloud's face was blank with the slight hint of annoyance in it as Tidus's friends began to interrogate him about this mornings events. Cloud shifted a glare over to his cousin before looking back to Tidus's two other friends. That kid always exaggerated things.

"Well?" Tidus's two friend continued to stare at Cloud. Both had silver hair, so Cloud guessed Tidus must had met them because of it. After all, that idiot Tidus probably went up and looked like an idiot as he started at how shiny their hair was. Either that or the fact that Cloud's blond cousin had a thing for clinging to older people for friendship…

"I didn't try to. I threatened him and he over reacted…"

"That's a lie!" Tidus objected, a bag of ice over his left eye. He got a black-eye, but that was never an usual sight for Tidus. The kid was a klutz. "You chased me all over the house and then you shoved me down the stairs! I nearly broke, like, all my bones because of that! Believe the victim for crying out loud, Firion!"

And this was where Tidus's two older friends let out a sigh and apologized to Cloud. The man with the shorter silver hair grabbed Tidus by his ear and tugged on it as he scolded him for being too exaggerative and how he worried himself and Cecil, who happened to be the other man. Cloud chuckled at the way Tidus and the man argued with each other. Just like little five year olds.

Tidus, his friends, and Cloud were out walking into the downtown region. Cecil and Firion had no clue why, but Tidus did. All Cloud knew was that he was going to be meeting an important person. Thus, the blond had to dress up in a dress shirt, black pants, and a tie which had a chocobo on it. It was the only tie he had. But even Cecil and Firion didn't look quite as formal as Cloud. They simply wore t-shirts and dress pants. Occasionally a few people would look at the four strolling down the streets. Some would giggle, others would be wondering why so formal on a Friday. It all varied from person to person really.

"We're here~!" Tidus chimed. The three older men looked to where he was pointing to, a bit surprised to why they had shown up to this particular place. "Pretty cool, huh?!"

"Uh, why are we here, Tidus?" Cecil questioned. His voice was calm even though he looked insecure about this new location on their map.

"Well, you guys were complaining how you were fired, so I decided to go job hunting for you all~"

Cloud frowned bluntly at his little cousin, looking as though he was going to strangle Tidus or give him another black eye. "I didn't want a job! I was perfectly fine back at the house until you threw me out of bed and into my closet."

"But there's this guy, who knows this other guy, who knows another guy, who knows Jecht, who knows me, who knows you guys, and all. Anyways, he's looking for new people to hire~!"

"But this is a café…" Firion pointed out, finally mentioning aloud what the building was. It was actually a very small place. A glass window with the café's logo on it, and a glass door leading into it with the same logo.

"Actually it's a bar, but it's a café in the day~"

"Tidus, I'm sorry, but I don't think I can work here…" Cecil stated. He rubbed the back of his head and looked away a bit nervously.

Tidus frowned a bit, putting his hands on his waist and slouching forward as he looked at his friends. "Aw, why not?!"

"It's a lame place to work at," Cloud mumbled, "No guy wants to work at a café…"

"I would! I just didn't want to apply alone. Come on! At least one of you should apply with me. Please~?"

Cecil, Firion, and Cloud looked at Tidus in what seemed to be pity. The poor kid looked really desperate this one particular time. Usually he's probably the most upbeat, ready-to-kick-its-butt, kind of person. Unfortunatly, he just proved to the others that he wasn't in this particular situation.

"Do you even know who owns the café anyways?" Firion suddenly questioned.

Tidus let out a sigh. "This guy, who knows this guy, who knows another guy-"

"He meant name, dumbass," Cloud interrupted, "What's the guy's name?"

"Uh, I-"

"Can I help you?" The four straighten up at the sudden inclusion of another voice. It sounded deep, mysterious, yet casual and proud. The others were a bit too surprised to turn around. However, Cloud was the only one brave enough to look at the man who spoke. Standing behind the group was an older gentlemen brown hair and a large scar across his face, dressed in a white shirt and leather pants. A jacket covered his shoulders, but the hood seemed to had drawn the most attention, especially in Tidus's eyes when he finally turned around. After all, Tidus did love shiny and fuzzy things. This man's hood was one of the two.

"Hey! It's you!" Tidus finally exclaimed, reluctantly ripping his attention from the fuzziness of the man's jacket's hood.

The man raised an eyebrow and studied Tidus for a moment. "Oh, that annoying one Jecht keeps complaining about."

"See? He remembers! He and I are like buds!" Tidus swung his arm around the taller man's shoulder and held a thumbs up. "He's cool!"

"Do you even know his name?" Cloud questioned, a slight smirk on his face.

Tidus's grin turned into a nervous frown. "O-Of course I do! I-It's not that hard to remember after all."

"What is his name then?" Cecil questioned, not to see how much of an idiot Tidus will become, but for his own curiosity as well.

"It's, um, uh-"

"Leonheart…" Firion, Cecil, and Tidus looked at Cloud curiously when he mentioned the peculiar name. "Strife…" The three looked over to the brown-haired man suddenly when he mentioned Cloud's name. The blond and the brunette looked at each other for a few moments. Until Firion interrupted their apparent staring contest. "You know each other?"

"Yeah," Squall nodded, a smirk on his face. "We go way back."

"Really? How so? I don't recall you two ever going to the same schools. At least, that's what Cloud told me," Cecil pointed out, slightly in thought from this awkward moment. He looked at Tidus and Firion, a look asking if they knew about it. The other two just shrugged.

"He and I had the same Kendo and fencing classes," Cloud explained. He scratched the back of his head. "We always were really competitive with each other."

Squall chuckled a bit as he recalled their times sparring against each other when they were younger. Squall about about 13 and Cloud was 14. Even if Cloud was the older of the two, Squall was always bigger physically. He was always active, he liked to run, and he didn't pig out on ice cream and other junk foods when he was in the mood to sulk. Cloud was nearly the opposite, being naturally strong and not exercising so often, hating to run, and having junk food become his best friend when he's depressed.

But even if the two were complete opposites with work out styles, they seemed to have an even match when it came to fighting. Each would make bets to see who would win in little contests. You know, things like a ramen eating contest, root beer chugging contest, or a race to where ever. Their score count (which Squall 'conveniently' remembered) is Squall: 126 and Cloud: 124.

Tidus looked a bit surprised when Squall explained a little bit of his and Cloud's contests and such. "Really? You were that competitive, Cloud? Wow. I can barely get you to move from the couch when you're eating Ben and Jerr-Oof!" Cloud went on ahead and elbowed Tidus right in the gut.

"Yeah, he was, and he still had a weakness for Ben and Jerry's ice cream," Squall stated, his smug smirk still displayed on his face. Cloud shot him a look practically screaming at him to change the subject. "Did he ever tell you the time he had to dress up as a girl?"

"He did?" Cecil and Firion looked at each other, then Cloud, then Leon in surprise. The mere thought of Cloud in a dress made the two shiver a bit.

Squall nodded and dug into his pocket, pulling out his wallet and showing them a picture. It was Cloud alright. You could tell by the gravity defying blond hair. Dressed in a formal purple dress, with the poofy sleeves and ruffles; two pigtails from what Cecil pointed out to be clip ins; and the make-up which wasn't heavy and gross from what Firion had tried to predict. In fact, he actually did look pretty! Someone could probably mistake him for a girl if he was dressed up like that again.

"Wow, that's really you, Cloud?" Tidus questioned loudly. A few of the people passing by looked curiously over to the group. "Wow! You looked hot!"

Cloud gave Tidus a violent glare, causing his cousin to back off a bit and shut up. "I only lost that race because that vicious monster attacked me," he mumbled, he looked at the ground with a slight frown on his face.

Squall shook his head at Cloud's fake belief. The dog was nothing more than a pitbull puppy that the man who lived next door to the dojo owned. It was a cute dog in Leonheart's point of view, but apparently Cloud was terrified back then. Maybe because it was named Cerberus… And there were three of those dogs… But as Cloud was explaining to the others why he had lost that race (which was explained with even more exaggerations than Tidus could ever use), Squall went on ahead, fumbled with his keys for a few seconds until he finally opened up the door to the café. He set the large gym bag, which had been over the brunette's shoulder the entire time, next to the bar before switching a small sign from "Closed" to "Open." But seeing as the others were too busy bickering with each other about Cloud's apparent loss, Squall got their attention by clearing his throat and followed with a "You coming in or what?"

Cloud looked at Squall, a slight raise in his eyebrow. Of course, he had a feeling that Tidus was going to go ahead and drag him off any second, but he still wanted to catch up with Leonheart. After all, it had been about seven years or so since they began their rivalry. The spiky haired male glanced over to his cousin and his friends, a small look of hope on his face.

Cecil, Firion, and Tidus looked at each other then at Cloud. He was acting different since Squall had come along. Usually Cloud would be the most lazy or the most complainy person on the planet who would go on about how his hair looks like a bright yellow chocobo or how Vincent lost Lucrecia to that evil Dr. Hojo on his soap opera. But right now, he was whiny and actually happy. Cloud was rarely like this. Only with Zack, but since the trio had never met Zack, this was new to witness.

"Er, um…" The first one to speak after the awkward silence was Cecil. He cleared his throat a bit before nodded hesitantly. "You can go ahead and hang out here, Cloud. We're probably in the way of your catching up with Mr. Leonheart. Besides, I think Tidus wants us to go look at a few more places to check out."

"No we-Ooof!" Tidus was yet again elbowed in the gut. Only this time, Firion was the one inflicting the damage. He glared at Firion a bit, who glared back with almost the same pouty look Tidus displayed. Cecil let out an exasperated sigh and tugged on their hair, dragging the two off behind him. "Bye~ Have fun!"

The two remaining men watched as Cecil, Tidus, and Firion wandered off. The sound of Tidus's loud shouting floated a bit down the street and back towards Cloud and Leon.