Disclaimer: FFVII, Crisis Core and their characters belong to Square Enix. This story belongs to me.
A/N 5.21.17: Revised & Edited.
01 / Prologue
"I'm pregnant," she said casually as she carefully wrapped a silk navy blue scarf around her neck. The pattern wasn't of her liking, too geometric, but it was his first gift to her- a year ago to be exact. She remembered dates, mostly the sentimental kind.
He looked at her unfazed and cold. The man of power stroked the five o'clock shadow on his face in thought as he inhaled his cigar. He had a habit of doing that, she noticed it since they met.
"How far along?" he finally muttered uninterested. His mind was filled with other issues that needed to be taken care of.
"Four months, and I plan on keeping it." None of this was her fault. Inside her something special was growing; her child. The young woman put her arms through her red sweater and carefully pulled her strawberry blond hair out of the neckline.
"It's a boy, you know," she added hoping it might catch the man's attention; after all, his wife had been having difficulty becoming pregnant after her miscarriage 10 months ago.
"It's of your blood, it's a Sh-"
"What do you want from me?" perturbed, he cut her off. "To be a father to it?" Immediately the man shook his head answering his own question. "Impossible. It would be an outrage to Shinra, knowing there exists a bastard child. It would disgrace my wife, my-"
"Your wife can't get pregnant!" she yelled bitterly in resentment and pain.
He snarled, holding himself back from cussing at the whore that sat directly in front of him. How dare she have the nerve to...why should he be surprised though? After all she was a low class from the slums.
"I want him to have a better life than the slums," she said desperately trying not to break down in front of him. Her hormones were kicking in vigorously, and he never was one for tears of a woman.
"Fine, he can join Shinra at his early youth," the President stomped to the door annoyed he would have to venture out into Sector 7 with this burden on his shoulder. Slamming the door he left the woman with a small string of hope that her son could have a better life than she.
A/N: After receiving positive reviews from The 'I' in Identical, I wanted to push forward with this fic. It has been sitting on my hard drive for awhile now. Honestly, I am surprised how little fics are on this subject. So here it is, my take on the personal events of Lazard and Rufus before the events leading up to Crisis Core.