More than Just Fun and Games

by sakurablossomhime

A simple tale of falling in love with your weirdo, man-child, comrade in arms and friend that has a fetish for stuffed animal robotic cats and finding along the way you have have absolutely not qualms about it.

It was a well-known fact that he was rarely serious unless it was about his engineering and technology as whole and that even was questionable, see Cait Sith as an example. The man was a perpetual man-child and it suit him just fine never to truly grow up as 36 years of age loomed closer. He was completely content as he tinkered around with his newest version of Cait Sith muffling the giggling that spewed forth at some of the hijinks he and another had gotten up to.

The same could be said about his partner in crime.

She was almost the living opposite of him, coming into her 25 year of wonderful life. She had her energetic personality and wisecracking ways engrained from birth. Her obsession with searching for the next biggest and better Materia which she'd amassed quite a bit over time was always on the table.

They had slowly accepted their own childish behavior, each accepting that difference in each other and truly relishing it. He loved her spunky, get-up-and-go personality and just about worshiped that she could prank their mutual friend, morose romantic Vincent Valentine and not instantly die. Sure, the man's eye would twitch, while his glare was glacial… and so would his hand towards Cerberus, but it never quite got there so the pestering continued.

Vincent was not made for patience though it seemed being around Tifa, was making him less death dealing. Vincent chalked it up to Tifa's friendship, being around her adopted son Denzel and Marlene when she would visit, and her burgeoning belly full of children to be from Tseng. Since both were comrades, he felt he would not be able to dispatch a petulant child, especially if one had Yuffie's mannerisms given that Tseng and Yuffie were kin; he prayed it wouldn't come to that. Reeve would rib him calling him "old man" which again made him want to hurt his friend. Besides he felt that would be more insult to Tseng than to him if he had to deal with a miniature of his cousin daily than him.

He suffered in silence as the barrage of Yuffie and Reeve continued. At least Tifa would laugh so that was good enough for Vincent. He simply shook his head and attempted to dodge them by lurking deeper into Tifa's house for slight reprieve when they visited at the same time and Tifa knew it.

Then there was Yuffie purposely confusing one Cloud Strife.

It wasn't too hard to do given the man's perchance to multiple personality disorder. Reeve had to admit that it was a tad cruel… even if it was hilarious though. Watching Rufus Shinra AND Tseng having to convince the blonde chocobo head he'd been pranked and he was fine by not only his surly husband Rufus but Tseng Xu that was NOT in a relationship with either man.

Tifa tried to tell him, even give him tips on how to deal with the yellow haired fuck up…

Tseng loved her truly but even he could see it was totally wasted time on Cloud and he could not understand how she'd done this for years or even what Rufus saw in him.

Tseng would be so disgruntled that he was even having to be bothered with Cloud's scrambled-eggs-for-brains moments constantly that secretly plotted to get his now known cousin back by any means necessary for this inconvenience. But first he would need "comforting" from Tifa's beautiful body. Maybe this newest infraction upon his person would require Elena in their bed tonight as well; that would not be a horrible thing at all.

Reeve would watch after a 'Yuffie episode' happened and just laugh. It was more than just the humor behind each prank as well. Yuffie Kisaragi, despite the behavior pattern she wanted everyone to see, was very intelligent and cognizant of learning about aspects of his life as well. She would listen and absorb what he had shown her as he tinkered here and there on different projects he had started, whether big or small. They would eat hamburgers and fries and drinking chocolate shakes, talking about his life as THE architect for Shinra, his life before it all, and much more. He would shy away from some subjects and while he hated talking about Shinra at first, he found it to be very liberating that someone cared and wanted to know the man behind the board director of Urban Development, the architect of Cait Sith, and now the Commissioner of the WRO. He even talked to her about his first wife, how they had met and so forth.

They had made a wonderful relationship that was a true friendship.

Before long, with little help from his part, Cait Sith found himself with a female counterpart named Mau Kait. She very much resembled Cait only she wore the "bao bao" bun coverings on the sides of her head right on top of her head with red and gold ribbons streaming down. She also wore a simple, small red Chinese silk dress and like her counterpart, rode a large stuffed Cactuar to match the large stuffed Moogle.

Reeve was delighted hands down. He also was beyond intrigued.

He had eyes. He'd remembered her as she was when they desperately fought against Sephiroth and his madness for the sake of Gaia herself.

Yuffie had been all arms and legs then, a gangly teenager with a perpetual license for mischief. She was adorable as one would be as a baby-faced sister, as everyone settled personality wise.

But time and genetics had been kind to her. She was still leggy but she'd filled out in all the most wonderful places. The short mop of hair now was replaced with dark tresses that reached mid shoulder blades. That adorable cuteness had become slightly more angular with adulthood and made her more refined, whether she acted the part or not all the time. In short, the lines of kid sister to potential love interest now bled onto each other. He saw how she would look at him some times: a quirk of her small yet pouty lips in a mischievous smile, the long black lashes of her eyes lowered as she stared at him only for him to catch her and she elbow him for "breaking her concentration" that was supposed to be on a project but he knew had been all for him.

Likewise, Yuffie had her own thoughts on Reeve.

While they fought their cause through Meteor fall, she'd been 16 years old while Reeve pressed 27. His personality for the longest time to the team had been represented by a mechanical sentient cat riding an absurdly large Moogle.

It had been bizarre.

When they truly met Reeve Tuesti, him in his long dark blue overcoat buttoned and zipped down, pants and boots peaking from under the overcoat that almost reached his ankles, inquisitive but intense dark gaze rivaling Vincent's own red vision, and impossibly neatly trimmed goatee and dark wavy hair made it hard to reconcile Cait Sith with him. He'd seemed so much older than her, like he was so out of her league. It wasn't his appearance she based this on either. He was a handsome man that had unique cheek dimples that almost looked like creases in his tanned skin of his face that were unusual.

Yuffie mused it was just because he was so dressed weirdly in his coat/dress thing and their age difference that she felt so inadequate now looking at him. Oh, but when the deep timbre of his own voice came, not the Scottish squawk she was used to from Cait was emitted, she knew then that above all her childish, unrealistic crushes, it was love at first sight with this man.

She instantly berated herself though.

They all though her a fool. They all treated her like a child because she was the youngest, and honestly there was no way a man of his status, spy and turncoat of Shinra or not would want someone 10 years his junior. But wasn't that the side of her she always had shown to them, not the real her? They couldn't be blamed for what that didn't see or didn't know.

She didn't care. She already tried and failed with Vincent Valentine and honestly, she couldn't live in a dead woman's shadow nor the surrounding indefinite guilt from it.

Cloud Strife was just too fractured.

It didn't matter. Reeve Tuesti intrigued her and she would wait until he saw her as a woman even if it took years and it meant that she slowly but surely showed her truest personality to him. Thinking about Tifa working first with Cloud as at first an unrequited puppy love only to finally move on from Cloud and see the big picture that was life and find love in a very unexpected place that was her cousin Tseng. He had respected Tifa for simply being herself and needed nothing of her, though she in time gave her love to him freely and he did to her in return. He complimented her natural emotional, mental, and physical strength and simply made a good fit; Yuffie respected that and finally understood.

Love could be found in the strangest of places and sometimes we could be too wrapped up in what we think is not love or what really isn't love to where we miss it.

That's exactly what happened between Reeve and Yuffie in time as Yuffie planned. With Meteorfall nothing but a memory now, and two years again past to be precise with Sephiroth denied again his crazy machinations of domination via parts of his body turned to Remnants, the WRO was created.

She jumped at the opportunity to be an agent under the now dubbed Commissioner Tuesti, Vincent Valentine surprisingly becoming her partner. That allowed more time for her in between missions to talk and really get to know Reeve even more.

She found that he was charming and above all else he was a big kid who refused to grow completely up. They met more and more either over dinners, cheesy movies, prank wars, and video game playing.

They played paintball in the spring, ran with water guns and pelted each other with water balloons in the summer, jumped in leaf piles in the fall, and took trips to icicle inn to snowboard and throw snowballs at each other. They would play fight, him pinning her, his muscled arms could be felt through his clothing, smell his cologne, a scent that was all him and they would be fluster and break away from each other both a bit sheepish having been rolling around in each other's arms.

All these funny, awkward, and ultimately precious moments that she'd had with him she wouldn't give up for anything in the world. It was then her mind led her back to the small place deep in her heart where her inner sixteen-year-old Yuffie resided squealing and jumping up and down and rooting for joy as she used to do so often, reminding her yet again that she was hopelessly in love with Reeve.

The thoughts and emotions that niggles his every being and seemed to pull on the marionette strings of his heart scared Reeve, enough that though he and Yuffie remained attached at the hip on outings though conversation was strained and the energy was affected. He felt so dirty for these new fledgling feelings about Yuffie.

She was so young. She had her whole life ahead of her and he had been married and he had lost and been widowed before she had even turned 15 years old. That had been so very painful. He had just thrown himself into work forgoing his own basic need to try to love again for years. All this of course she knew but it still didn't ease his conscious.

It could have been worse. Yuffie very well could have been with Vincent as her crush on him hadn't been exactly a secret and in the end, she had begun to wear him down and he did show interest. He still, though, was not ready to let Lucrecia be what she was, a memory at that time.

The suspense was going to be his death. What did Yuffie feel for him? He had to know especially with those little maddening touches she made on a sly to his hands and the shy smiles he knew were for him only, he just knew it.

Things had been rough after the whole Omega Crisis as well as a whole but in the end, it left Vincent feeling even more human and revitalized, leaving him with only the Chaos entity, the other's returning to Gaia and his body begin healed to how it had been before Hojo's experiments. He still wore his gauntlet but it now was more of a weapon than a necessity of the scarred flesh below. Reeve had taken Shelke Rui under his wing and Shalula Rui, her sister, was entrusted to her care after she was wounded and would not wake. Reeve had a project he'd been working on to help her be revived.

Reeve waited in his office for Yuffie and Vincent to return from their latest mission, going over some schematics from his newest plans for a way to help Shalula and finalizing the evening. He had had it all planned. He would wine and dine her and he would get to the bottom of these insanity inducing little butterflies in his stomach whenever he thought of her. He was in deep musing and just about to buzz his secretary when Vincent swept into his room, a flourish of his red cape and a gleam of worry in his vermillion eyes. Reeve's happy smile melted immediately from his face at Vincent's somber look and the obvious absences of his-Yuffie's obvious infectious chatter as she made herself comfortable on the corner of his desk and began to debrief with him excitably.

"There's…been an accident. Yuffie was delivered by Chaos to the Medical Ward against both of our own aversions…for her sake. She is…in a touch and go status but I confess in good hands now. I am sorry Reeve" Vincent said to his longtime friend. The way that Vincent stressed his sorrow in the word "sorry", he knew that the gunman was aware of his feelings that had grown for the young woman. He wanted to ask Vincent just how long he had known, if he had known before they'd even know themselves but the need to tear out of the room, brushing past Vincent with a bellow of his own blue statesman coat and down the to the elevator jamming the button over and over as if the elevator couldn't come up fast enough. Once inside the lift, Reeve's mind was in a jumble as he uncustomarily punched the wall of the elevator to vent his frustration and lay his head upon it as his traveled downwards to see her.

This wasn't supposed to be happening. He was supposed to be telling her finally how he felt about her, that she was absolutely was the most important thing in his life. She couldn't die. She was not supposed to leave him…like Sari had. As he got off the elevator and trekked down the hallway, he thought about how he was supposed to continue to laugh with her and be silly with no care for age with her. They were supposed to share soft, tender kisses with each other. On heated days, they could lay naked with her head on his shoulder under a thin white sheet as they listened to the waves as they made love continuously to the white sand in the moonlight in Costa de Sol. In the frigid times of the year, they could bundle up on a cheesy bear rug in front of an open fire with wine and fruit and cheese, limbs intertwined, as she laid along his lightly haired chest and listened to the roaring wind and falling snow outside their cabin.

Reeve went to the nurse's station and found where Yuffie was held. He woodenly walked straight ahead towards the closed room truly terrified of what he would see. This all shouldn't be happening. The "what ifs" and "Should haves" were killing him.

Just as he breeched the door, he was pulled into a calm field of flowers. He turned his head in all directions thoroughly confused and on high alert. It was then he heard her and he jerked around to see her…and him.

"I am sorry to have brought you like this, but you are going to need a level head and she is going to need you to be the strong one, especially if your feelings are true as I feel them" Aerith, the once slain flower girl and last Cetra stated as she held Sephiroth's hand.

"What are you…why are you with him? He killed you!" Reeve asked, voice raised in total bewilderment now.

"That is…true but it is also a fractured truth that takes time to explain. Sephiroth as you see him has been in the Lifestream since stepping into Nibelheim years ago, what struck me down was his body…controlled purely by Jenova. We, Sephiroth and I, have been here together since my death at Jenova's hands. Yes, what you see is very real and I am not regretful in the least of it. Zach, along with Sephiroth's friends and colleagues Genesis and Angeal have already been reborn so we make the most of our afterlives together. This is not about me though Reeve. This about your strength you will need to have for Yuffie. She has lost something very precious from this injury. The Planet is conflicted in that she may yet go on to heal but it may be years, if not at all. She will be alright though she will look a bit frightful to you and your heart at first. Don't lose hope and don't stall in saying you love her as I know you do" Aerith said with a smile on her face then.

Sephiroth simply bowed in Reeve's direction being mindful of his confusion and as they walked away, wrapped his arm around Aerith.

Reeve suddenly was back in the stark white hallway before Yuffie's hospital room door. He took a moment to calm his breathing. Seeing one's enemy caressing your dead friend that you find wasn't killed by him can really take it out of you, especially if your nerves were already frayed. He laid his head against the cool glass of the window of the door to the room and took a couple of deep breaths and entered with Aerith's advice fresh on his mind.

Aerith had been right.

Yuffie looked so pale and small and…and just so very frail. It was like a nightmare. There were wires and cords coming from every which way from her and she was bandaged and casted over at least 50% of her body. Before Reeve could even stop them, tears sprang up into his eyes as he walked and sit into the lone chair by her bed looking over her. He belatedly heard the rooms door open and looked up after an immeasurable time to see Tifa, Cloud, and even Barret and Cid and Marlene had come by most likely courtesy of Vincent making calls. Tifa gasped and went to the other chair that the nurse had provided since Tifa was so very heavily pregnant on the other side of the bed. Everyone looked very somber. All the while Yuffie never stirred. It was a terrible feeling to see her so still and out of commission. Still and Yuffie just didn't go in the same sentence together at all.

Time passed and the weeks went by with Materia healing and several visits in between from friends. Finally, on the third week as Reeve napped in the recliner chair that had been placed in the room as he had made Tseng his replacement during this timeframe which he gladly accepted, Yuffie stirred from her long sleep. The cast had been removed long ago and so had the gauze and many of the wires and such with them. Even her bruising was all but gone from her pale skin. Reeve slept on unaware when Yuffie looked around the room after truly focusing and gathering that yes, she had been in the hospital this whole time after her and Vincent's last mission together when had been ambushed by their marks…and their pet Behemoth. With a mighty swipe of a massive paw, most of the hit was deflected…with Vincent's own body though three of those vicious claws tore into her flesh and ran from her to her hip in three wicked crescent wounds. The other two scored on Vincent but he of course was made of stockier stuff.

No one was prepared for what happened next.

As Yuffie lay there looking as if she had already been eviscerated and was heavily bleeding, Vincent's anger hit a fever pitch and in so he had surprised himself and those causing the harm when his eyes abruptly glowed that familiar molten golden hue and that dark power enshrouded him as he emerged in Chaos's form. Chaos had left so much mutilated meat, nothing recognizable as he had been feeding from Vincent's once love of Yuffie and continued friendship of her. She had after all taken him from a dark place and made him a whole person.

Yuffie remember slowly suffocating on her own blood, the fear that she would never get to say what she needed to have said so long ago to the one person that she just couldn't get out of her head. She felt when Vincent kneeled by her and began casting high level Restores to try to stifle the bleeding but not too much knowing that she had broken bones and they would need to be set otherwise they would heal wrongly. She remembered shedding tears unheedingly down her cheeks, the warmth from the liquid like fire against her cooling skin and her looking upon his face and his holding for once so much concern as he lifted her up and gently wiped the tears from her eyes. With Chaos's wings still exposed he went to the nearest exit and looked down at her again and her at him and on her last vision before she passed out from no doubt the earlier blood loss, she saw his firm determination to get her to the WRO Medical Bay anyway he could, despite his own phobia of the place.

Yuffie gently shook off the memory she relived and looked over at all the balloons and flowers and pictures that had been brought by while she was healing. She still hadn't noticed Reeve yet still sleeping soundly on one propped up arm, his face resting on his fist on the armrest.

There was a picture of Marlene and Denzel playing in the tide while surprisingly it was Cloud and Rufus that were reclining and watching after them at the beach at what looked to be a Costa de Sol picture.

Next to them was another picture of Vincent perched on what looked to be a mossy outcropping facing the sun as it set behind a group of clouds, looking serene for once in his life as his cape bellowed behind him and he wore a smile on his face…with a young woman with long brown hair and a beautiful face also sitting beside him curling her hands into the cape slightly around her form facing the setting sun smiling.

Recognition of the woman was snagging at her conscious but she let it be for the time being.

There was another picture of Tseng and Tifa holding their newborn twins. It wasn't certain if they were boys or girls or one of each but they were beautiful children. Yuffie was sadden that she had missed Tifa's big day, another part of her even sadder that she knew that would never be her in that position after this latest mission.

She tried to not to make it about her but the tears flowed nonetheless. She was going to tell Reeve how she felt and give him lots of babies regardless of their ages and then they could both grow with their children if they chose to. She still loved him though. Would he even want her now that she had waited and this had happened to her?

Aerith and Sephiroth had taken to being voyeurs of a sort. They knew of Yuffie's wound. It had been like Tifa's wound from…Jenova.

Sephiroth's magical powers were stronger as they walked Gaia, even more so than Aerith could had known…until he had saved her. He had surpassed the one thing that she couldn't even do... raise someone long gone from the dead. They were at top peak perfection more so that he was back in his rightful body.

They had resided in Nibelheim with Sephiroth's real and eloped parents, Vincent and Lucrecia. It was time to tell everyone else of their existence outside of Rufus, Reeve, and Tseng who already knew since how could anyone explain a pregnant, married Aerith otherwise.

This would go rather well. Aerith caused all the AVALANCHE member's phones to ring in succession with a smile at Sephiroth who smiled back and shook his head. Reeve's was on silent since he was in the hospital and Yuffie's had long been dead from her long visit in the hospital. Everyone else got the call though.

Yuffie shook off the feeling of be watched.

As if remembering for the first time that he was the most important thing that mattered she finally looked over to her right and spotted him slightly slouched in the chair.

He looked like a sad scarecrow.

He looked tired though he slept and there were bags under his long lashes of his eyes. His cheeks had hollowed even under his now not so groomed beard…How long had he been by her side and refused to move? His clothing even sunk in more than normal indicating he hadn't been eating well along with the obvious sleep deprivation. Even his hair had a sheen of built up oil…

Yuffie's shoulders slumped. Reeve really did care about her. Looking at his state, she figured that it must even bordered on the level of how she'd felt about him and guessed she would scarcely look better if he were in her situation. With a tentative hand, she reached over and rubbed it along his pallid and sunken cheek, the silken but wiry bristles of his facial hair tickling her fingers.

Reeve shot up in the chair, eyes still foggy with sleep as he looked around the room calling out Yuffie's name and his much larger hand reaching up and landing and caressing her own, his eyes finally clearing and landing on her small, smiling face in the bed.

"Yuffie! When-how long have you been awake? I…I am sorry I wasn't awake when you came to. I must be a frightful mess, I haven't even been to the condo to change or- "…

Yuffie cut him off. He had been so worried and so wound up he hadn't been taken care of himself…at all it seemed. He was a train wreck.

"Reeve, I'm real disappointed in you!" she said and to which he slight flinched as if he had been struck but took it.

"You have to take better care of yourself. I know things were hairy with me. Trust me I know more than anyone since I was living it. But look at you. I know you haven't been sleeping well nor eating if at all. When is the last time you have had a good bath and a change of clothes?" she chided seeing his shoulders slump but quickly followed up her statement.

"Thank you. Thank you for loving me so much you would experience temporary insanity, starvation, and unhygienic conditions for me" she said with a laugh to which he looked up with a small smile and a shake of his barely moving hair to which Yuffie slightly grimaced and shook her head again.

There was a pregnant silence between them as they both thought of what needed to be said, should have been said over a month ago, to date.

"I have something I need to tell you" they both said in unison, each laughing at the cheesiness of the experience that only happened in chick flicks. Reeve tried again.

"Yuffie, I know that this is going to sound like bad timing on my part and you are probably truly horrified by how I look, but know I have been by your side ever since the day Vincent brought you to this hospital. The day this all happened…it was just supposed to be totally different. I was going to take you out wine and dine you, catch any movie that you liked, and we were going to enjoy a chocobo pulled carriage ride and then afterward enjoy planned fireworks and just…I was going to be honest with my feelings with you for once and for all. I love you. I felt like I would be robbing you of your youth, your choice, when I hadn't even asked how you felt. I have been married...and widowed no more than a year after our adventures to save the world. I was worried you didn't need that kind of baggage though I only ever see you. I couldn't imagine life without your special brand of crazy and when I thought I wouldn't have it anymore, everything like difference in age just didn't matter anymore. I am sorry it took me so long to say just those three simple words" he said now looking down at his clasped hands in his lap.

Yuffie was so elated that he did return his feelings for her. She had wanted him to say that to her for the last year that they teased and taunted, tickled and tantalized. Now she felt like slightly sadden because she didn't know if he would have her after what she had to say.

"For you to be one of the most brilliant minds that I have known, you are so stupid! Of course, I love you. I don't just go flying here and there with strange men, friend or foe, all over the Planet because of grins and giggles, honestly Reeve. I have loved you this whole time. You HAVE saw me for me…unlike others in the past" she said briefly looking to the side lost in a thought, Reeve knowing exactly who she spoke of.

"I love you more that you gave me a choice and you considered my feelings as well too about the matter. The thing is, that was a long time ago. I thank your past wife for allowing me to get to know you like this and even love you in her place. I hope that she would approve of me" she continued.

She quickly sobered and Reeve's face had a look of confusion, expecting her to say though she felt that way, they couldn't be, but not what she said instead.

"The thing…the thing is that if you will have me", she said strangely tearing up Reeve noticed, "is that I can't…I won't be able to have any children for you. While I am healed and I am sure I will be able to go home sooner than later, this…this has left me sterile due where the strikes were made on my abdomen. We can try for adoption if you want children…" Yuffie said the last of the sentence very low and sad as tears streamed from her eyes. Reeve knew he may not smelled fresh as a daisy, it had been a day or so but he was up and out of the chair and hugging Yuffie for all it was worth as she cried her heart out for his acceptance and for her lose for something she wouldn't have.

Reeve did call his assistant and he had them bring him his toiletries and change of clothing for Yuffie and himself and he bathed in the private bathroom in her room. After two more days, she was discharged from the hospital and given a clean bill of health. After her release, Reeve and Yuffie went public with their relationship and their band of friends took it as known information. This shocked both. Tifa had stated she knew when Reeve absolutely refused to leave her side at the hospital. Cloud did when he put Tseng in his stead while seeing after Yuffie. Vincent had embarrassingly and aggravatingly known due to Chaos's heightened sense of smell so their pheromones gave him a headache and he simply ignored it until they came to an understanding of it. Finally, Cid and Barret simply said it was a matter of time since their personalities meshed well actually.

There were things to do since they were in a relationship. Yuffie was royalty and Reeve was still the Head of the WRO. One of them would have to concede on where to live so they could get married. Yuffie ever being Yuffie had a plan. She knew she was never cut out for dynasty business so she met with Tseng and explained her plight. Tseng and Jessika, his lover arrived for this impromptu meeting with his cousin and Reeve. Tseng and his poker face irritated fire out of Yuffie but she would not be swayed. She meant for him to take the throne. The TURKS weren't really doing anything anymore and with Cloud being Rufus's butt boy, who needed them anyway, it was Cloud Strife, smite captain of Sephiroth!

Yuffie heard a deep baritone "really" and a cold chill go down her spine after that though. She ignored it. Reeve looked pale when she looked over at him. She didn't know that Aerith and Sephiroth were in the room, Aerith patting Sephiroth's crossed arms across his chest with one brow up.

Tseng thought about the offer that Yuffie laid before him. He had not been able to go home since the war. On the other hand, Yuffie ruling seemed like a nightmare come to life. There was nothing to fight for here anymore so why not. Tifa was not Wutaian but she was a Warrior in her own right and had bared his children. He knew she would go where he would go. Maybe with him as Emperor, he could began breaking down any old prejudices for all races that were not Wutaian. Though his face betrayed none of this and his cousin continued to plead her case, he had already decided in his mind.

"I will take your place in the royal line while you marry and assist Reeve with the WRO." After this sentence, he looked directly into Tifa's calm and loving eyes, hoping she would know where his mind was going.

"Yes, I would follow you. The children need their dad…and I need you" she simply asked with a smile, one that even Tseng couldn't help but mirror.

"I would have you be my wife as you are and Empress to Wutai. We will talk more on the subject as we speak with Rufus and reconcile everything with the counsel" Tseng said still smiling just for her, forgetting that his cousin and Reeve were even there, until he didn't he quickly slipped back into his neutral face. "Is the meeting adjourned?" Tseng asked politely, Tifa still smiling at his antics.

Reeve and Yuffie's mouths were wide open. They had never saw that kind of emotion…ever from her cousin and not from one woman.

Tseng rolled his eyes and he and Tifa left the room, leaving the two bewildered.

After everything was settled and Tseng was accepted as the official Emperor to succeed Godo and as he had promised, Tifa and their children were now sworn in as royalty, making her the new Empress of Wutai, and the children legal heirs to the throne, including Denzel, which everyone attended, including the old TURKS as well as the AVALANCHE team as well. It would seem it was not a moment too soon as he had just found out he was to be a father as well, again.

Everyone had gathered for the meeting that was supposed to take place at Aerith's old church via the call they'd received. All of AVALANCHE and the TURKS gathered, children were in tow from newly formed families and the like. When Aerith and Sephiroth stepped forward, they were met with mixed feelings besides those who already knew of their return or Reeve and Yuffie who were still at the hospital. Elmyra took one look at her fallen daughter and ran to her, gathering her in her arms, crying her eyes out for all the nights she cried and missed her so. She'd known that the man beside her daughter had been the one to end her, why were they together and in such an intimate way, especially now that she held her, she could tell she was expecting a child.

Aerith told of her and Sephiroth's true history together, no one in the crowd missing the intertwined hands of the two, and Sephiroth confirmed what he had done to save Aerith, his one sin that he could make right…outside of the one that had apparently worked as well looking over at Tseng and Tifa who started at him as if she could kill him with her glare.

"Mrs. Lockhart-Xu, I am happy that I was able to correct yet another sin, though I am sorry that I cannot take back the horrors of Nibelheim, for you…or for me" Sephiroth said.

Tifa looked as if she had been struck. She looked down at her own growing abdomen and then to Tseng. Tseng confirmed the question she had in her eyes. He had known! He had known her friend and her worst enemy were alive. He had had a guess that he could "heal" what he had taken from her in the first place, the gift of infertility. She wanted to be mad, to be slighted by this logic but due to Sephiroth's interference, she was going to have her own family. She all at once looked up afraid. Were the children indeed Tseng's or some part of Sephiroth? She only laid with her husband. Before the question was asked, Tseng answered the question.

"They are from my body, of us. Sephiroth simply infused my body at the time with his healing powers. In doing so, when I could be a husband to you that way, I was curing all that was damaged and ensuring our success for future children" Tseng spoke, looking at her in the eyes as at the time Tifa had relaxed and began to weep in relief and elation.

She was permanently cured by her once thought enemy.

Cloud Strife wanted to be livid but from what he had heard thus far and what he had known from Rufus this whole time, Sephiroth had been very benign this whole time coming back. The simple fact that Aerith was among them by the other man's powers showed who had been at the wheel so to speak in Sephiroth's body.

He would have no doubt failed if he had faced the real Sephiroth not that it looked like he needed to as the man was just as he'd remembered from his patchwork memory and breaks from the nightmares.

Sephiroth sensed him staring at him and Cloud tried to repress the shudder he had but failed. By now all had gathered to greet Aerith back but Sephiroth had come to him directly, making his hackles raise.

"What do you want Sephiroth? A medal of honor for being victimized and misunderstood?" he asked sharply. He knew the man didn't deserve it but he was so messed up in the mind and having to put down who you thought was your superior and idol several times…takes its toll.

Sephiroth looked down to the floor with a self-depreciating smile.

"I deserve that" he said without any wit or sarcasm to the statement. "I came to you to heal your mind, to put it at ease. I well know what Jenova can do to a man's mind and heart. I cannot do much for those she slain because I have no sway over the full Lifestream, but if I can, I will mend what was broken with my powers I was given from what was stolen from the living currents" Sephiroth said, finally looking up at the man.

Cloud held his breath for a heartbeat or more. Was it possible to be as normal as possible again? Could he take this man's word after all he had experienced? What about his hometown, his mother, and…and…?

Cloud had run out of excuses at this point. Sephiroth had stated he cured and did what he could for those he could and he was pretty certain if the man could have brought back Tifa's father and his mother, he would have after seeing Aerith alive and in love with the man.

With an imperceptive nod from Cloud, Sephiroth was reaching out and caressing the right side of his head with his warm palm as Lifestream rushed over his hand and over Cloud.

Rufus startled thinking that Sephiroth meant harm, his TURKS at the ready, even AVALANCHE stopped and looked ready to intervene.

With a gasp, Cloud and Sephiroth broke away from each other. Cloud had enough mind to lift a hand to signal everything was fine. He began to take stock of himself. All he could feel…was peace. All the pain, the rage, the hopelessness, and the nagging feeling of not being good enough…was all just gone. Cloud's eyes snapped up to Sephiroth's genuinely smiling face in shock.

He absolutely felt wonderful. Yes, he still knew of their…well, Jenova and his past but it wasn't choppy. It was as if the pieces had fell into place. Above all else, Zachary Fair's personality had been completely excised from his. While he wasn't near as outgoing as Zach, he still had his own personality and now it was complete again.

Tifa came over to check Cloud like she would of old and he just smiled radiantly. Tifa smiled back and hugged him because this was the old Cloud she had known growing up. Cloud and Aerith finally talked but it wasn't that uneasy feeling anymore because he knew who he loved, and it was Rufus Shinra.

Tifa came and stole Aerith and Sephiroth away and they began speaking on Yuffie's wounds to see if anything could be done for her as well…

Tifa said to think of it as a wedding present they wouldn't have dreamed of but Yuffie would love nonetheless.

Thereafter, surrounded by all their friends, Reeve and Yuffie as well married on Rufus and Cloud's property on the oceanfront where they had had their first awkward feelings that this could be love.

Reeve had traded had traded his blue statesman coat and pants for a simple silken white shirt with a coral and bird of paradise boutonniere pined to the shirt and well pressed khaki pants while wearing a lei of corals strung together with red, yellow, and white flowers.

Yuffie wore a halter top crunched lacy wedding dress cut to below the knee with a medium train while wear small white kitten heels that were the color of the sea and accented with a small piece of coral at the back of them, matching her bouquet which consist of coral, Casablanca lilies, irises, and birds of paradise flowers.

Tifa served as her Matron of Honor while Vincent surprisingly dressed very similar, acted as Reeve's groomsmen, as Tseng her only family and cousin gave her away to Reeve while Rude from the TURKS married them on the beachfront in the sand. Cait and Mau acted as the ringbearer and the flower girl. Marlene wasn't even upset and giggled as the animatronic felines clambered back into her lap after their duty was fulfilled. Somehow it fit that their creations be involved on this wonderful day.

The wedding after party went well into the evening and it was fun to see Tseng playing with the now almost two-month-old babies, Shigure and Habiki that were making a chew toy out of his long black hair but he couldn't be anymore happier which was shocking for the TURK Commander. Cloud looked settled for once in his life even with ex-bastard Rufus Shinra and it showed how much so in his co-parenting of Denzel. The boy was beginning to look and act just like his foster father.

Marlene was becoming more and more beautiful with time while Barret was blessed to raise her with Elmyra as they had married as well. Cid and Shera were happily together with their hellions Bracken and Bailey. Everything was so sweet and couldn't have went better. Before Aerith and Sephiroth left for their own hotel room since Aerith was getting tired in her girth, he greeted shook Reeve's hand thanking him for his help with Aerith and with him which he meant, all the while he was spelling the man with his "gift". Reeve always slightly started but he had become used to Sephiroth now and stated it was no problem. Aerith giggled ominously behind Sephiroth but Reeve let it go.

As the evening wore down, their friends began to say their goodbyes and they had a reservation in their own suite to make as well as husband and wife. Baggage prepacked the day before, complete with swimwear for both, they grabbed up their alter egos because at heart they still were kids and for whatever reason it felt right. Of course, tonight and most likely all of tomorrow would be all their own. Cait and Mau could go out on their own so there would be no issues. The cats were both in sleep mode while Reeve and Yuffie entered the Limo. Once they were inside, it was no holding back. All those emotions that had been building. The smell of him, the look of her in that dress looking untouched, and they were both in a frenzy in the back of the Limo. Yuffie's hair was slowly coming down from the carefully "sloppy" pinned style from the wedding, wisp of black hair here and there and she melded her mouth to Reeve's.

The feeling was electrifying. She was quickly climbing into his lap to get closer to him which was doing very little for the rising problem in his pants as well. She had her hands in his naturally wavy hair and was doing very wicked things to his mouth with her tongue. All he could do is groan. while the other one began questing downwards towards her hidden underwear had anything to say about it. Oh, when his fingers did slide past the elastic of her underwear and over the sensitive nether lips of her womanhood, Yuffie whimpered. He found that little hidden hot button of nerves between those lips. she detached from his lips in favor of breathing and he began to kiss and bite and suck along her neck as those fingers of his began to worry at her clitoris until he could feel the moisture of her beginning to build and her squirming on his lap from his ministrations giving him too the added friction that he longed for. It had been so long and she was so hot and tight as his other finger gently slid into her secret cavern causing her to squeal out, her hands clasping spasmodically on his shoulders and her all but riding him for all the squirming she was doing on his lap.

He wanted at her chest but there were too many clothes involved. They needed that room and they needed it now! If they didn't get to that hotel suite quickly their first shared experience together was going to be in this limo and he was quickly not going to care if his hand that had wandered up to her right breast and began squeezing and massaging it in contemplation.

The driver had finally stopped at their destination. He came around to help the couple with their luggage and with possibly their robotic cats…but froze on opening the door. There was a lot going on in the back seat of the limo. He quickly diverted his sight, went to the other side and gently took Cait and Mau and called for a bellhop for their luggage to take it to their honeymoon/penthouse suite. Once that was done, he came back to the side in which they were all but mauling each other and gently cleared his throat.

That got them to dislodge from each other but both did look like wild animals. The both tried to make themselves as presentable as a man with a raging erection and a woman with her underwear drenched to the core could now. With a speed and grace belaying desperation, they were at the front desk checking in as fast as possible, and then all but breaking the elevator button to get to their destination slightly frightening the other patrons with their energetic responses. Once they reached their floor, there was no need for privacy as the whole entire floor was theirs. In the elevator, Reeve had pinned Yuffie to the wall with her legs around him as he nibbled, bit, and kissed his way again down her neck this time messaging her small but round cheeks of her behind, causing her to flush and mewl in pleasure. As soon as the ding of elevator was opened, it was it through the front main door and it was over the couch where she was laid and he made it very clear to her by grinding down on her just how she made him feel for her. Slowly but surely clothing was removed bit by bit as she was hoisted up again and carried to the master bedroom.

It was like everything unsaid was laid bare in their fevered kisses and busy hands. Reeve laid Yuffie down on the rose petal covered bed. Yuffie shifted her head slightly grabbing one of the wayward pink petals as she giggled at the outright ham of the situation but all the while she stopped and reached up seeing that Reeve had stopped his exploration of her body and looked at her confused and a tad hurt. Yuffie took the petals she'd now gathered and gently caressed them down bare area of his cheek and down along his pressure point on his neck as she lay propped along several silken pillows so that reaching out to him was with ease. The somehow hyper intimate feeling caused Reeve to have a shiver and close his eyes to the light touches as they quest along his lightly dusted with hair chest. Everything on him was just well groomed and sleek. They had lost their clothes a time ago and now was the period for discovering and feeling.

Those darned hands kept moving along his chest, on past where his navel lay and those rose petals fluttered maddeningly. Finally, they were abandoned but those same small hands continued to travel down the thin trail of hair that led to what desperately wanted her below. Reeve bit off a groan and buried his head in the crook of Yuffie's shoulder as she smiled her victory over his shoulder at the way he slightly trembled along his now encompassing arms and caging legs.

She had no idea what he was staving off from her. She wasn't ready. She was too naive and virginal. She had no idea how badly he wanted to bury into her, get intoxicated on their mixed scent as he took her. How could she know beneath that goofy and gentlemanly heart laid a beast wanting to get out? He had always been highly sexed but had to work hard at taming it when he lost his wife years ago, and really at his peak then. He had never been one to sleep around so he'd stayed abstinent, even bared the name calling that he was now a homosexual or even just plain asexual because he chose to not to give his body to every pretty face that came along. He wanted substance, not an awkward slip from a stranger's bed or having to converse with someone that thought of this night cap behavior like they were talking about the weather.

Disgusting.

He was thankful that he had waited for the right one and would show her every single day.

Yuffie looked down on Reeve's head that rested between her chest with a sort of nervous confusion. Maybe he regretted it now? She was a virgin so she didn't have a string of lovers to temper her amour. Instead of continuing that train of thought, she was worried about him.

"Hey, where'd you go in that head of yours?" s by e said with more cheek than she felt, her nerves shot.

"I only ever think about you. How you make me smile. How you relax me, just overall how we were meant to be here together, at this place and time in our minds and hearts now and forevermore "he said turning to look at her like she was the most precious thing ever.

Yuffie looked flustered but above all else, she was touched. She felt those familiar tears of joy as flung herself at him. He in turn hug and rubbed her back. Soon though those rubs became heated caresses once more, edging Yuffie's body to do action she'd never done but certainly was ready for. Reeve began as was doing in the limo and within no time, Yuffie was on fire. Reeve draped over her and considered her face seeing nothing but love and trust mixed with the natural nervousness about what she was embarking on. He cupped her cheek gently and honestly and seriously apologized ahead of time.

Yuffie was no fool. She knew there would be pain and she was ready because she knew that it would be worth it in the end. All the pent-up love, the accident, the…loss and gain, it was worth it.

On the heels of her last lingering though, Reeve entered her. Within a few more thrust into her small frame, they were no married mind, body, and Reeve was working on that 'soul' when he made her cry out his name and see stars.

Contrary to what she was led to believe, instead of a gut-wrenching feeling radiating from her most private of place, she just felt small pinch and then overwhelmingly stuffed. She mused because she had had to grow up completely on the go and in harsh conditions, she figured that her hymen was in tatters eve if it was slightly present. Now it was like they were melded onto each other. She began to squirm and flex around him unintentionally and Reeve groaned dropping even closer to her but still supporting his weight with his bent arms at either side of her body. The look in his eyes was so primal. He tentatively pulled from within her to his very tip then slammed back in.

Yuffie's eyes popped open wide as she screamed and her hips reflexively jostled forward. Reeve considered her face, searching to see if he'd hurt her. All he saw was a healthy flush and euphoria her quickly hazing over eyes.

Her response flipped a switch in him so primal that he set a deep close stroke rhythm.

Yuffie Tuesti was on fire.

His deep thrust in her small body touched everything and everywhere inside, nerve endings on fire. She was mewling, squeaking, and outright wailed on a particularly good hard jab that was massaging something deep inside her and she never wanted him to stop. She writhed and moaned out her joy and pleasure while leaving crescent moon marks about his biceps in her delirium. Reeves hand was all over her frame while the other clasped her bony yet curved hip almost to bruising and she did not care. Oh, the pace was picking up, the desperation to touch and be touched, feel l, taste, and simply to love again was etched in Reeve's movement now.

Yuffie just hung on for the ride of what seemed to be her life. Those beginning glimpses of pleasure now an all-out inferno that sought to consume her whole. Her hips had picked up his rhythm and she'd been able to keep up…that is until he hit a fever pitch. He now wrapped one arm around her back locking her in place, the other hand drowning in her dark hair as he plundered her mouth leaving her breathless. She felt the unfamiliar tightening below her navel, it gains tension the more he worked her body into a frenzy, muscles firing in unknown anticipation all over her person. After five successive caresses to her g-spot, she lost her rhythm, focus, eyes widening and dilate though seeing nothing temporarily as she internally slammed down onto Reeve and heralded forth her first bodily orgasm with a shriek and nails in his back.

Reeve too was swept away by her internal orgasm, it dragging him hmm to his end much like a siren to a sailor. He had enough mind not to collapse on her and disconnected and rolled to her side breathing as if he'd ran from a pack of Nibel wolves. His refraction period was very short. He was far from over. He'd waited forever for someone like her and if he had to brand his love inside her impossibly tight depths, he would, repeatedly. So, what if they never had children. So long as he had her he was content. He could tell she had calmed again-and he had risen again. Yuffie startled slightly at him moving her where she sat in his lap not far from a very pointedly interested part again while starting at her with lust in his eyes.

"Gawd Reeve, I always knew you were a pervert. Do you even go down after…you know?" Yuffie tried not to blush and be "that girl" but she was determined to be anything and more to him. She was no longer a virgin but was very much virginal in mind.

Reeve found her found post coitus blush even more arousing and her personality still full of spunk… He laughed at his own crude turn of phrase considering their position. Yuffie looked at him the same old hair brain he was always, only he had a prominent erection for and she was his wife. He went to lift her onto place and she looked a little afraid. Reeve knew why already. She was most likely sore and this was an unusual position that she had no experience in. He doubted she'd even read or watched pornographic material. Chasing Sephiroth…well Jenova in Sephiroth's body had been time consuming.

He gathered her and slowly slid into her which caused her to produce a whimpering sound, one born of need and trust still of his judgment.

"Don't worry", he said in a deeper baritone all emotions and raw feeling, "I will take care of you and and will move for us" he said moving and melding his lips to her own, the hunger still biting within the kiss as they battled each other for dominance in the kiss; to see who could make who melt the fastest. Yuffie won the round and she smirked at Reeve. It was all short lived when he slipped fully into her cavern now made even more snug by this position of her sitting with her legs over his arms.

He began to move.

He physically slid her up and down his manhood while gyrating and doing everything from side to side and up and down in her as he moved her along his turgid flesh. He had backed them both against the pillows and hand a hand now braced against the wall, the other still grasping Yuffie's thigh as her bottom sat squarely in his lap with her squirming and squeezing him as she by now had come two additional times. In a frenzy of sweaty limbs and limp hair, he began slamming into her chasing that glorious and decadent feeling her body gave. She began crying out in phrases in Wutaian, turning Reeve completely on as she scrambled for purchase on his slick body with each thrust. On his last stroke, they both peaked simultaneously. It was beautiful.

Yuffie burst into tears. Initially Reeve thought that he had hurt her but she assured him it was just a beautiful experience and confided that her emotions were just a little bit closer to the surface than she was used to.

She didn't say that she hated that such a beautiful experience would never produce a child. She knew that Reeve had been sad about the news but since they never talked about it she really did not know what his true feelings were about having or not having children. So, she kept that thought to herself and in her heart where it belonged. She promised she wouldn't dwell and she wouldn't. She loved Reeve Tuesti more than anything else.

****Previously****

Some months back, a project Reeve Tuesti had been working on since the Omega Crisis. It had yielded results in his favor and he found a way to revive Shalula Rui for Shelke to never be alone again. Because it had worked so wonderfully, he approached Vincent Valentine his best friend and comrade, and had suggested the same of Vincent's lost love…for Lucrecia Crescent.

Reviving her meant separating her from her child. Sephiroth had been living in her Mako cave for an unmarked amount of time. Instead of the cock sure personality he had always shown in the past, he looked…humbled and human. Gone was the Shinra General's leather attire for black cargo pants and black shirt, long silvery hair braided back, sword in its sheath along the wall by his simple but homey bedding and effects he had just to be near her. On seeing Vincent and Reeve, he looked…defeated, like all he had done was for naught.

Of course, Vincent was the pull gun and ask questions later type of person, his face so severe it looked carved out of marble. He was so enraged that the one that caused them so much pain would be here again, was unbelievable. Vincent was the most hurt for having to kill his only son who seemed to be before him and his ex-lover, his real mother. Before Vincent could even began to move towards him, brandishing his gun, all heard the bell like voice that shattered the tension immediately, stopping Vincent in his tracks.

She hadn't talked since the Omega Crisis.

"No…Please… don't" the otherworldly voice of Lucrecia broke around the room. Vincent lowered his gun, if by a little while Reeve looked totally freaked out yet in awe at the same time.

"State you reason why you are here. I only stall because it's be so long since she's spoken…" Vincent spoke directly to his son, Sephiroth.

They did speak, of everything that happened. Vincent searched his face and body language for faculties and found none. Being content until Lucrecia was fully seen too he cast his attention to the task at hand while Reeve explained the details to Sephiroth.

Hers was a careful case, but as soon as she was cut from and lifted from the Mako Coffin she'd been encased in for this whole duration, she was placed in a stasis capsule and prepared to be flown back to the WRO, Vincent hot on Reeve's heels.

Sephiroth called out to the gunslinger and the man-Reeve, was it? -asking to be taken to the Forgotten City. Again, Vincent swooped around, face darken as he remembered what laid there and the history it held. Would the man be so brazen? Reeve looked sick with disgust as they both stared in mute horror in different ways.

Sephiroth raised his palms in a sign of peace, free of the dark gloves for once revealing yet more small features of Vincent himself: his long pianist fingers. He again focused his faintly glowing carmine eyes on Sephiroth allowing him to continue against his own sanity and Reeve's own shocked gasp of air behind him.

"On my revival, I promised…someone that I would find them and attempt to reverse what Jenova committed with my body. My magic", as Sephiroth let the Lifestream gather around one hand unchecked, "is stronger than what you ever saw because it was never me you fought. As I told you, once I opened the door that held the parasite and false mother Jenova, my very soul was thrust into the Lifestream. Only my will ever kept me intact while in the stream. Gentlemen, I intend on reviving Aerith because she did nothing but stand strong in the face of danger. When she finally came to the stream with Zach and I, I knew she'd known that she'd would not survive. She immediately forgave me for something I inadvertently took from her: her friends and her life. She even in the end…" Sephiroth looked away unsure of how to proceed with the loaded sentence finish.

Vincent could read between the lines though.

How had that cultivated? Had she consented to this, whatever this was?

This was the most dialogue Sephiroth EVER had even in his height of madness. He would admit to hos mass confusion later but for now he would allow for this hunt for Aerith.

They made it to the Forgotten City by nightfall though it was hard to decipher what time it was based on its hidden location and how very little light streamed through. With Sephiroth in the front leading Reeve and Vincent on high alert, Sephiroth came to a stop at the lake in which Aerith had been submerged at death. He let his knees hit the soft sand around the surface. Sephiroth looked…saddened yet determined about what he was about to do for the one that he came to respect… and love. There had been truth to Sephiroth's true origins. Yes, he was human with Jenovian cells. He also had been imbued with Cetran genes too. He was a Cetra too in his own way. With that genetic makeup and the Mako involvement, Sephiroth was truly and frighteningly powerful. He began with a water spell unlike one on in its league as Vincent and Reeve looked on shocked and awed in their own way, splitting the way to bring Aerith's form to the surface. Once her body crested, she was laid along the side by himself. She looked just as beautiful as she has the day the horror had happened and he had literally screamed out his rage and hurt at seeing her robbed of life at his alleged hands.

Energy built quickly around Sephiroth, making the very air around the men charged with it, and the man shook and clenched his teeth at the intensity of the spell that was all his and his alone. He himself began to pale and sweat beaded on his brow has he forced the spell from his hands into her awaiting and stilled body.

Vincent was the first to move towards Sephiroth seeing him physically collapse forward on his hands with his legs now splayed to his side among the sand with the deed done, staring at her form as he fought with consciousness himself from the strain of that incantation cast. He looked down hopeful but deathly concerned that it was enough, gently moving reddish-brown hair from the cold, still face with his own warm hand.

By now Vincent and Reeve have joined by his side and are fully aware what his intention was for their friend. Reeve now painfully understood now that Sephiroth was trying to revive her, his reasons his own.

Sephiroth, shaking with exhaustion and spent adrenaline, thinking he had failed, looked away from what he would not be able to bare continuing seeing if it didn't work.

Just all men had given up, a petit cough, then a succession of coughing begins clearing out her lungs of water and other fluid long losing its crimson color. Sephiroth quickly turns to her and gathers her into his arms cradling her head as it bobs to the side, color beginning to return to her skin. He holds her up despite his own tremors. Finally, she settles, not a solid breathing pattern and to help her along, Sephiroth feeds another Cure into her system which takes from him more but shortly has her eyes opening and registering him now. She genuinely smiles at him, turning her head into his hand. He slowly bends down and kisses her forehead that has warmed. Both Vincent and Reeve could admit that no ma

After Aerith's retrieval, Sephiroth and Aerith could both heal for a week in the Medical Ward in beds in the same room, side by side. After such time, Sephiroth and Aerith woke and Rufus Shinra, Reeve Tuesti, and Vincent as well as the Turks were briefed of what all had transpired in the last eight years they'd chased after and fought "Sephiroth". Aerith then also shared what she knew to be her knowledge on the situation as well, causing Rufus Shinra to remain neutral but also keep a loose watchful eye on Sephiroth, releasing him and Aerith to Vincent Valentine's care.

Likewise, Lucrecia Crescent, Sephiroth's mother, was as well after her own recovery. Avalanche remained in the dark their friend and their pseudo-greatest foe until everyone could settle and some semblance of normality could begin. It wasn't every day that a millstone that had constantly pulled on your heart and mind, your greatest sins just…resolved overnight. That in a nutshell is what happened with Vincent as he now had his lover back, who loved him just as much as she had then, and now his apparent son and soon to be daughter-in-law that was his once lost friend as well. It was a lot to take in and Vincent had never been so happy for once deep down inside to have all these convoluted feelings of love, mirth, and total completeness.

Once everyone was fully recovered, Vincent and Lucrecia and "the kids" back to Nibelheim where they all would live in the refurbished and much loved home.

The very first thing Sephiroth had wanted to do was to heal the young woman who had lived here and served as a guide into the mountains and had become an unwilling victim to Jenova. He was going to try to cure Tifa of her infertility from Jenova's fateful swipe. He knew it would be a daunting task because it was so much more to the picture than that. Jenova had robbed her of her father with his sword, burned the very town to the ground with his internal fire just out of hatred of humankind, the children of the Cetra. He knew she most likely would rebuff him, if not straight out attack him but he had to try.

Sephiroth went over his plans with his parents and Aerith who supported him every step of the way but understood the risk he was taking but understood that angst and guilt ran deep with the men of this family.

They checked in with Rufus and Reeve monthly via Vincent as he worked through the WRO and so Sephiroth's wish was carried to Rufus with Tseng still acting as his Commander over the TURKS. The strangest thing occurred once the report was given to Rufus.

Tseng, not Rufus, began to whisper his thoughts of the request into the young and strapping Presidents ear…with quite some concerned venom. Tseng straightened from his bent posture where he had spoken into Rufus's ear and pinned the man with dark, almost brown eyes that held some a whisper of emotion though his face remained blank of full emotion.

Rufus carefully steeple his fingers taking in both sides of the offer and the all the "warnings of caution" that Tseng had given as well. He had never known the man to show any emotion bodily, facially, or vocally…until now.

Apparently, Tseng and Tifa…had married from what his sensitive hearing could pick up as Vincent allowed the man his privacy to speak to his superior, his face betraying none of what he could actively hear. Tseng for good right was defensive of his wife. The last he had saw of Sephiroth in any form, Vincent had been saving him from his bisected parts called the "Remnants" named Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz. He had been in a bad way. Let's also not forget the temple of Ancients where Tseng wore a similar scar to Tifa's and Cloud's right below his ribcage. Sephiroth had been a colleague, yes, and he had accepted that he was a changed man, if nothing more for Vincent's sake because he had rescued him and his subordinate Elena, but this was his spouse.

Truer still, he had seen the pain she experienced when she saw others with children as well too. Tifa had been a natural mother in the simple way she cared for others. While she still fostered the boy Denzel, he was not of her body and she desperately wished to give children to Tseng when they had become one.

"Permission to frankly speak President Rufus?" Tseng said, standing to his full height and still staring straight on at Vincent, though Vincent was not cowered.

"By all means, it is your lover" Rufus said glancing at Tseng to Vincent. After this, the man took on a look of false relaxation as he intended to grill Vincent.

"How exactly does Sephiroth intend on "healing" Tifa? Will he have to touch her physically or will he be able to cast from his body and that be sufficient?" he asked with one eyebrow critically lifted.

Vincent simply smiled to himself and pulled out his cellular phone. After a few inputs of letters on the device and a small delay in which Tseng was uncustomarily getting impatient, there was a knock at the door to which the other two men looked up.

"Enter" Rufus said with no delay, fully knowing who waited outside of the door. If Vincent didn't answer directly then, why not have the person that is proposing it come and explain directly.

Sephiroth and Aerith entered the room.

"I can…answer that question for you" Sephiroth stated, seeing Aerith to a seat first. Vincent moved from the previously occupied seat and Sephiroth slid into it.

Tseng visibly tensed but held his ground as he locked eyes with the man. Sephiroth began about what could be done to resolve the past mistake that he robbed Tifa of her being barren.

Once everything was said and done and the decision was made, Tseng came to his wife with a bouquet of roses and a heart full of passion just for her. As he laid with her that night and was his right to do as her husband, he secretly wished that all that Sephiroth had said wasn't just some grandiose plan part of a pipe dream. He wanted to see her smile genuinely if this came to pass, even if it wasn't natural for him to express emotions so freely. Being in his field…had hampered his human responses.

Or so he thought.

On that day, 4 weeks to the date, Tifa rushed him crying and smiling from ear-to-ear carrying a test that hadn't been needed due to what they knew of the damage that had been done a lifetime ago, now was carried as if it was a piece of fine Materia. He never thought he would ever been so thankful to the man that had served as avatar to such great atrocities.

***Present***

Grunting with the effort of it, Reeve had woken in a particularly randy mood again on his second day of marriage to the wonderful, beautiful, oh GODDESS his, Yuffie Tuesti. He had her back to him, on her knees and his hands grasping her forearms as he tunneled into her moist and welcoming cavern. Yuffie was weak with pleasure as he slammed into her in over and over, knowing her strength and her will to remain upright was indicative of him holding her by her biceps. Reeve knew he was coming and he knew she was at the cusp too if her clenching him internally was any sign at all. He briefly thought back to all the pregnant females in their now extended family of friends, wishing It could be Yuffie as she strangled the orgasm out of him, taking him into bliss with her.

Life went on as wont to do. They went back to the WRO, he as the Commissioner and she still partnered with Vincent who looked horrified to announce that at the ripe old age of 70, Sephiroth would be having a brother or sister. Yuffie and Reeve laughed so hard at his expense, a common response to his plight he'd found when he told his "friends" the news. Yuffie rolled off the edge of Reeve's desk into his lap while he was in the chair, both still chortling.

Vincent was not amused.

No one could see how this was truly terrifying Vincent. He was NOT supposed to have a 30-year-old son that he looked the same age as and not a lover turned wife he had waited and pinned for forever that now was gifting him with another child on purpose. What's more, Lucrecia would age as he did. That meant risk of…more awkward situations of more children in the future.

Vincent pined both his friends with his scariest glare and swept out of the room all the while feeling misunderstood. He couldn't deal with their brand of antics now. Besides, Vincent comforted himself with the fact that he knew something that would make his dear friend Reeve just as somber. Vincent proceeded down the hall with a wicked smile on his lips hidden behind his cloak.

After a time both Reeve and Yuffie had settled, still giggling here and there mimicking Vincent rocking an infant or changing a diaper, all the while looking dead serious which roused a whole another wave of laughter. They figured that Sephiroth had even been a better candidate than his own father, and that was saying something.

Yuffie suddenly stopped laughing and bounded out of Reeve's lap, barreling into his private latrine to being purging her earlier lunch. Reeve had been worried initially she had a stomach virus of some sort as such actions were becoming more and more regular. Reeve was a analytical man and as such began to add up different aspects he'd observed over the last 8 weeks. As he had stated since it was becoming more prevalent and it was at odd intervals for her to just vomit up her food. She still maintained her air nausea, if anything it increased. She would have the oddest, if not ghastly food cravings but he would deny her nothing. She was tired a lot, more than he had ever known her to be in the whole of knowing her.

Stranger still the memory of Sephiroth's healing prowess and what he'd done for Tseng and Tifa… the man had been the last to shake his hand at the wedding dinner before their honeymoon night strangely demure and calm, plenty of time to imbue him with said healing aspects. Hell, the man and Aerith had even been smiling. That should have been his sign right there.

All the symptoms of what could be hit Reeve like a stampede of chocobo.

Reeve was out of his chair leaving it spinning in his wake and to the door rapping gently at it.

"Yuffie, are you well dear? I…I think we need to talk. I believe I know what may be your ailment" Reeve said, praying to all the deities that he wasn't wrong, that his observations were not wrong. Otherwise this would truly hurt his wife more than he intended to get her hopes up, especially the way he knew she felt about what had happened.

Yuffie slowly slunk out of the washroom looking paler than normal but did concede that she was fine. She allowed for Reeve to speak his mind on the subject, though her face hardened by the end of his hypothesis based on "assumptions and maybes". She knew what had happened for her friends Tifa and Tseng, it was common knowledge of it now. She just was scared that this would be a wonderful dream that ultimately turned into a nightmare, leaving her heartbroken.

Reeve looked at Yuffie meaningfully as he sat on front of her propped against his desk and Yuffie in one of the chairs that was in front of it. She knew she would regret this but some sick part of her just had to know just how benevolent Vincent's son had been.

Turning in for the day, the drive home was tense. Reeve allowed for it, knowing that Yuffie's nerves were shot, just as much as his own. They slowly pulled up to their penthouse and went towards the elevator. Each was thinking along the line of how a child would change things, causing them to have to grow up slightly for the child. Neither cared though and would have welcomed the opportunity. Yuffie was so wrapped in her thoughts she slightly flinched at the ding of the elevator alerting them they had made it to their floor. Once inside, Yuffie went straight to the master suite and into her personal effects looking for a test she had kept before…the incident, part of her marriage emergency kit she had built.

Reeve sat on the couch and tried to be relaxed knowing exactly what was happening. Yuffie sent a prayer to Leviathan for her, for Reeve, for the hope that this, whatever this was real.

Those five minutes felt like eternity for both, Yuffie coming out to sit by Reeve, holding his hand so tightly with her smaller one. She was so afraid but she was trying to be brave for him, for his pure observational skills. She was willing to risk anguish if he was incorrect because she loved him and she trusted him. Somehow that hurt him but at the same time made him proud too she was his wife.

A small alarm alerted that it had went off, alerting the pair that the proper time had elapsed.

Yuffie delayed a moment but after a while gathered her old personality and met it head on.

Reeve waited patiently for her return to give him the news. He would be whatever she needed just for being this strong to just try and see if this was indeed what he thought it was.

One minute slipped to two, two into five quickly and Reeve became worried and actively sought Yuffie out. He finally found her sitting on the edge of the bed, holding the little test in both hands, her face completely devoid of any specific emotion. He assumed he had been wrong in his assessment and he had caused her grief. As soon as he sat to come near his wife, to comfort her, she threw her arms around him and began to cry in earnest, forgetting the little test to her side. He hugged her back with all the emotions he felt as well but he couldn't decipher what she was feeling and from his vantage point looked to the little test forgotten by her side.

A plus sign.

It had a little pink plus sign. He had been correct.

He gently pulled Yuffie slightly away from him to see her face and she was smiling with the most beautiful smile he'd seen on a person crying their eyes out. He too began to tear up and hugged her tightly.

Being this close to him, she curled into his chest and simply stated "We are going to be the dorkiest, big kid parents the world has ever seen, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

Honestly, neither could Reeve as he kissed the top of her head and continued to hold her unable to form the words that wouldn't pass the lump in his throat.

***One Year Later***

The WRO was having a family picnic party for its workers. Unfortunately, since AVALANCHE and the TURKS were so intertwined, it basically was a party for all the group along with the other new faces of the company.

Barret and Elmyra had come and brought Marlene who immediately sought out the babies, Tifa's, Aerith's and now Yuffie's.

Rufus and Cloud had come with Denzel who for the most part stayed with his foster dad as the men's child but still visited his mother regularly in Wutai.

Cid and Shera had brought Bracken and Bailey again along with little Connor, the only boy and spitting image of Cid along.

Vincent, Sephiroth, and Reeve spoke of work and plans at the WRO, since now Sephiroth was back in the capacity of some like a General but without the bloodshed, unless it was leftover Hojo experiments or animals corrupted by Lifestream.

Nanaki and Tseng spoke of their families and of ruler ship of their respected areas Cosmo Canyon and Wutai.

Over under a large willow tree the women all rested with their children talking happily. Tifa now had busy one year old twins Shigure and Kimiki looking like Tseng's miniatures with her own russet eyes and a chubby and bubbly almost four-month-old daughter who was a spitting image of Yuffie named Yumi.

Aerith had two boys named Seraph and Aeon by Sephiroth who were also three going on four months as well. Both had Sephiroth's pigmentation but had Aerith's deep grass green eyes though they did have their father's vertical pupil and their mother's disposition which made them cheerful but calm babies, and that was a win.

Then there was Yuffie's lovely child.

They had laughed so hard and borderline stroked when they saw her after she was born. Vincent had almost had a heart attack because he couldn't comprehend it. That was the only time she'd seen Reeve that serious in his entire life upon looking at the child. Stupid, as if she'd had an illicit affair, pft.

Miyuki laid in a bassinet under her blankets with her naturally wavy hair that came off as curly like her fathers. It was her eyes that had everyone abuzz. She had the same unusually red eyes that Tifa and Vincent had, closer to the carmine color of Vincent's. Reeve was so confused, so was Vincent. After a DNA test on Reeve, it was found that he was also Wutaian and was a cousin in Vincent's family tree so many times removed. It explained the eyes because it only ran strongly in Vincent's family that he knew of, and with the males though there were females that boasted it. Vincent wouldn't have been shocked at this point if Tifa had been part of his family somewhere either.

The other thing that made Miyuki unusual was the white-silvery streak of hair she had that started from the roots of her widow's peak on her forehead and cut off around the crown area.

Sephiroth had explained calmly that because he had been trying to focus the spell so intently before Reeve left into his handshake, she had taken a bit of her essence. He had assured it was nothing that would damage her or not make her their child, she just would be very strong and most likely magically inclined. They had both just looked at him dumbfounded.

Once that too was explained away, all Yuffie would ever see was her beautiful and appreciated daughter from her husband Reeve, after Sephiroth's miracle meddling.

As Cait and Mau saw to the babies as the women also mingled but not too far from the infants, especially the walkers Shigure and Kimiki, Yuffie thought on how all this had started.

If someone had told her that she would fall head over heels with her current boss/husband that for the longest was her comrade in in arms in animatronic cat form, stand against and kill a mad man that they would later would find was actually just the body of the real man and that he would be married to the friend they both lost to said man's possessed body, and after she was turned down by said man's father many times, she'd find out that the man behind the cat was hot, intellectual, and childish all in one, and their friend that was killed would be revived and by the same man once he too had been brought back into his own body, and them married. Her other best friend would become the Empress of Wutai after she found out that Commander Tseng of the TURKS was her blood cousin and loved Tifa, oh and that Cloud Strife had a thing for blond asshole types like Rufus Shinra.

Yeah, if someone had told her all that convoluted stuff, she'd stabbed someone with her Shuriken, the biggest one she had.

In either instance, she knew what she had found in Reeve was real. She knew what she had with him no matter how child like they were by choice, she looked forward to the future with him. She always knew it was more than just fun and games.