Month 8

So this isn't the last chapter after all...

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"Fine, how about Alexia?"

Tifa and Yuffie had been arguing over suitable names for the child for over half an hour now, with no luck. And Reno had been willingly reading a book about fatherhood at the same time. Well, Tifa had thought it was a good idea.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know I was giving birth to an alien." Tifa snapped, not feeling particularily happy after such a long time trying to find a name.

With a long, overdramatic sigh, Yuffie flipped once more through the baby name book, wondering why she had even bothered doing such a task.

Her brown eyes widened suddenly, at the sight of a word in the book. "I've found it! The perfect name! Oh my gosh! Squee!"

Tifa looked up from her own baby name book, her furrowed gaze looking overly impatient. "Well don't keep me waiting, spit it out."

"The perfect name is...Meri! It means "Rebellious". How awesome is it?!" Yuffie was practically jumping around the living room, proud of her discovery.

Tifa wasn't so enthusiastic. "Yeah right. We'll save that name for your child, Yuffie. I mean seriously, what-Oh wow!"

The ninja stopped mid-jump and gave an expectant glance towards her older friend.

"What about Sarah?" Tifa suggested, surprised that Reno hadn't commented in over two whole minutes-a long time when discussing such a teasable subject.

Yuffie rolled her eyes and slumped into an armchair, jumping up instantly as she heard the familiar screech of Tifa's cat. "Yikes. I don't think even the cat likes that one. Seriously, what next? Rachel? Brittany? Jessica? Get creative, girl!"

Tifa chuckled at that. "What's your idea of creative? Eugenia? Philomela?"

"Yeah! Now we're getting somewhere!" Yuffie cheered, clapping her hands excitedly.

Tifa made a mental note to never ask Yuffie's advice for names ever again. Her kid would never let her live it down if she got forced into giving them such an appauling name.

She was beginning to grow curious as to why Reno was silent. He would never pass up the chance to laugh at a name such as the ones being mentioned.

"What do you think, Reno? Tifa tried, purposefully being as loud as possible. "Any good names yet?"

As she had expected. No reply. She took a deep breath and hauled herself off the couch, disappointed with her own lack of strength. She walked over to the redhead, who's face was concealed behind a large fatherhood book. Or rather, encyclopedia. Pulling the book from his weak grasp, she smirked.

He was asleep. She took the book he had been hiding from behind the fatherhood book and almost shrieked as she realised why he was 'asleep'.

He had basically fainted at the sight of one-or possibly more-of the models in the latest edition of Hojo Lab Magazine (A/N-The equivalent of a Zoo magazine or the like.).

Her face was red with fury. Without any second thoughts, she whacked the magazine across his head and went into a fit of yelling, swearing and cursing, until Reno was a miniscule curled-up figure beneath Tifa's fiery wrath.

Yuffie silently slipped into the shadows and out Tifa's front door. When a pregnant woman-or a Tifa-was in a mood like this, hanging around to watch was not a good choice. At least, not if you wanted to remain in one piece.

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Tifa Lockhart wants people to give her baby name advice.

Her MyGaia status was simple, but it got the job done. She already had 5 comments, and although they weren't anything great, she was grateful that her friends had bothered to post.

./books/baby/_babynamesbook Use it, 'cause it's the only damn advice ur gonna get from me. -Cid

Tifa didn't even bother clicking the link, as she had over 10 different books of the sort, and she just couldn't decide. And then she wondered how the busy sky pilot had even got on a computer.

What about Cloud Jr? -Cloud

She smirked at that. He sure knew how to make her smile.

Ananaki? -Red XIII

She didn't want to know how Red had managed to use a computer, let alone MyGaia. And she sure as hell wasn't about to name her kid after a wolf/lion/thingy.

Candie! Oh Tifa you just have to call it Candie! It's sooo cute! Unless it's a boy...Then it can be called Jake! -Marlene

Tifa couldn't help but laugh at the young girl's comment, as she remembered her toy unicorn with the same name. She felt a pang of sadness as she looked back upon her old home and family, but it was soon forgotten when she replaced the thoughts with her own new family.

Tryphena. Or Tuesday. Or Turquoise.

"I wonder who?" Tifa mumbled, a smirk spreading over her lips.

No, you've just GOT to name it Waltheof if it's a guy. It means 'powerful ruling thief'. How attractive is that??? -Yuffie

She burst into laughter. Waltheof? All those parties and alcohol must have gotten to the poor ninja's head.

A hand touched her shoulder, startling her. She turned around to kiss her boyfriend, but he beat her to it.

"Ya know, babe, I can always give you some advice." Reno commented through his now lipgloss covered lips that he gave a quick lick. "Mmm, cherry flavour."

Tifa giggled. Cloud might have known how to make her smile, but only Reno knew how to make her laugh. "What did you have in mind?"

Reno frowned, his brows furrowed in a line of concentration. "Gimme a sec, I'll think of somethin' decent..."

She poked her tongue out. "See? That's why I asked my friends for help."

"Oh, okay, you go ask your friends...I'll be more than happy to name our kid after a weekday. Or a candy." His voice was rich with sarcasm as he strided towards the study couch and fell onto it, his hands resting behind his head. He was still wearing his scruffy Turk's suit, which Tifa had tried so many times to make him look tidy in, but had failed. There was no changing 'Reno of the Turk's' style.

"Do you have anything better?" Tifa tested, shutting down the internet and switching off the monitor to pay full attention to her 'I'm asking for it' boyfriend.

"I can spit out names at 50 km a second that are 10 times better than the crap Yuffie comes up with, babe." Reno remarked swiftly, his flirtatious ways seeming to get the better of his girlfriend.

Tifa curtly walked over to him, her arms crossed in defiance. "Go on."

Reno matched her with his trademark smirk, his steely aquamarine eyes alive with a light-hearted teasing glint. "Lara, Chris, Kayla, Nate, Melissa, Jose, Kim, Jarrad, Alex, Steff, Mitchell, Samantha..."

He paused as he felt Tifa's wet, glossy lips touch his own.

"Either you're overrexaggerating or you need to practice your maths." Tifa whispered in his ear.

Enjoying himself thoroughly, Reno continued to lay down, smirking proudly as he let his pregnant girlfriend do the work. All he had to do was say a name.

"...A little of both, actually...Oh damn, will you stop teasing me with that cherry lipgloss!? Any more and I'm gonna have to raid your make-up kit or whatever you call it..."

It was Tifa's turn to smirk, and Reno couldn't help but find her irresistable when she did so. Wanting to reach out and kiss her back, he winced as Tifa pulled away and went back to the subject they had been discussing earlier.

"You know, Reno. I'm still not too pleased with you fainting over a blonde bimbo." Tifa began, purposefully making him pay to the limit, as she knew how much he hated her teasing him like that.

Reno groaned. "Don't go there, Tif'. I've fainted over you a hell of a lot more times than the chicks in Hojo Lab. That includes Elena."

Tifa went wide eyed at the mention of Elena in such a magazine. Reno chuckled, and to settle her nausea, added, "I mean it literally. As in, the Hojo Lab in the Shinra Building."

It eased the nausea to some degree, although she still, admittedly, was a little jealous imagining Reno drooling all over the blonde Turk.

"Reno? This is gonna sound random, but can you get me some canned fruit in a mug?"

Reno blinked, half confused until he realised that she was having another craving. "Uh, yeah, sure. But we only have bananas and apricots, is that okay?"

"I want canned fruit Reno, no others will do. And it has to be in a mug. No questions, just do it."

Hanging his head sadly, the redhead stood up and went to perform his duty.

And he thought being a Turk was hard...

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Month 9

It was 12 am. Not a sound could be heard, save for the gentle ticking of the bedside clock and Reno's soft snoring. But despite it, Tifa was wide awake. Her lower body was throbbing and moving, making it feel as if the baby were kicking her innards hard.

Was this another symptom of pregnancy, or was the baby on its way? It was overdue by three days now, so she assumed it was the latter.

So then why did she feel so strangely calm?

The sensation she now classed as contractions grew fiercer and closer together by the minute, as did her increasing pulse. At a time like this, there was only one person she wanted by her side. Or rather, awake and by her side.

The brunette was growing slightly nervous now, so she tapped her sleeping boyfriend on the shoulder, and when that failed, she shook him violently, striking a groaning response from the man.

"Reno, I think it's time. Get up." Tifa said immediantly, already sitting straight up with her hands on her stomach.

That woke him up entirely. He had been waiting for this moment as eagerly as Tifa had, and he wasn't about to let anything halter the process.

"It's time!? Holy cow, it's time!!! Get up, quick!" It seemed that comment could work both ways.

Tifa, despite being in such a new and odd situation, smiled at his panic. She thought she would be the only one doing the panicking, but she was wrong there.

Reno was pondering out loud whether he would grab the keys and head for the car or phone Tifa's friends to let them know first.

Tifa, who was rushing to get a pair of her comfiest clothes that weren't her pj's on, giggled at him. "You can call them first, it's no rush."

Reno's face went red with fury. "No rush!? No rush!? What are you bloodly saying, "No rush"!? You're in freakin' labour for Shiva's sake!"

"It's the early stages-" Tifa tried, but stopped and laughed as she was swept off her feet by her taller boyfriend and carried to the car. "You're making a big deal out of it, Reno! Geez, you'd think I was close to death with the way you're acting now..." She chuckled.

But Reno wasn't in a laughing mood, to Tifa's amusement. "Would you rather me lie in bed, sleeping, while you're sitting up giving birth to a giant!?"

He lay her down gently-or at least more so than he had picked her up-on the back car seat, not bothering to put on her seatbelt.

"You should be okay. I'll drive slow. Well, slow enough, anyway."

Tifa frowned, partly due to the increasing inner drive to push, and partly due to what Reno had said. "How is it a giant?"

Reno slammed his car door shut and started the engine, the car driving away as quickly and smoothly as it had started. "Look down. If you're calling that small, you're in for one hell of a surprise."

Tifa did as he had said, and realised that he spoke the truth. This baby was going to be big.

Aerith, I know you're there. Please, look after me and the baby...

It was finally dawning on her that she was about to give birth to real human being. And she almost felt a little sad, to think that very soon, the baby bump she had grown to love would leave her. Though of course, she was more happier than she was not. Just imagining fitting into skinny jeans again, or actually being able to move like a normal woman, was more than enough. But holding her very own baby in her arms filled her with the most joy, just to picture it. She was actually excited, anticipation growing on her like a weed.

It wasn't long now.

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Yuffie was snoring loudly, when rather rudely, a bringing ringtone entered through her now half-deafened ears.

"Whadda ya want!? I'm studying here! Or rather, was-"

Her mobile phone fell to the floor, followed by a beep, signifying the end of the call.

And with that, Yuffie was out the door.

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"Tra la la la...la la la la la...Do dee dum..." Elena of the Turks was having a wonderful sing in her personal spa, bathing in luxurious rose-fragranced bubbles decorated with...rose petals. It wasn't for any special occasion, she was just feeling chirrupy at 11pm.

Her favourite song began playing, and she instinctively reached for her mobile on the bathroom counter.

"Hello, this is Elena speaking, how may I-Well excuse me, Reno, but I-" She made the mistake of dropping her mobile in the spa as a result of her shock, giving her a...shock in return.

With a yelp, the now frazzled blonde jumped out of the spa and grabbed her towel. She wasn't going to miss out on this. Reno could pay for a new mobile later.

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What Tifa wasn't anticipating was the pain.

Her closest friends, Yuffie, Elena, and Reno, surrounded her, though Reno was shielding his eyes from the sight he was about to witness.

Labour had begun.

******** Please stand by. We are experiencing errors at the moment.*********

The last moments of unexplicable pain and reaped the best reward. Tifa let out a long sigh of relief. It was finally over. And a new life had begun. She could hear her child's soft cries as it entered the Planet. They were the best sound she had ever heard in her life.

The kind-hearted elderly midwife, who just happened to have over 50 years of experience, took the baby in her arms and smiled.

"Tifa Lockhart, you have a healthy daughter in your posession." Those were the words Tifa had been longing to hear. "You should be proud."

There was a huge whoop from an overly exhausted, yet extremely excited Yuffie. "Tifa, you rock! So do you, Meri!"

"Oh Tifa! Congratulations!" Elena cheered, before hurriedly rushing out the door. "I'll be right back, I need to set the mood!"

Thankyou, Aerith. You don't know how much this means to me...

The woman showed her the baby girl, and Tifa's face lit up with a smile so wide she thought it would break. She burst into tears of joy then, her crimson-brown eyes glowing with a compassion unlike no other. "...my gosh...She...She's my daughter!"

The midwife, known as Julia, smiled warmly at the happy woman. She had seen so many births in her time, but the look on the brunette's face was one of the most joyful of them all.

The baby girl was an average size, had dark brown hair that was already quite thick, and had a few red birthmarks that would soon wear away. But the most remarkable thing about her was her eyes. Not just her perfect, long black eyelashes, but the way her iris was coloured. In the middle was a cool, misty aquamarine, and bordering the colour was a deep, warm crimson that reflected the beauty of her mother.

"She's...dazzling. So beautiful..." Tifa whispered, the words barely escaping her lips.

"Isn't she? You may hold her, just let us fix up a thing or two quickly." The midwife gave her one last glance before taking the baby girl to the other younger midwife, Lara.

Tifa had the urge to hold her baby, and she also had the urge to talk to Reno. "Reno...Reno?"

Where was that guy?

Lara looked towards the ground, smirking. "Your 'proud father' has...well...let's just say, collapsed under the pressure. Guys usually have a tendency for that. The sight is too much for them to bear, sometimes."

Tifa giggled, a sound mixed with her tears of joy. "Reno, get up and see your daughter."

Just in case Tifa's attempt had failed, which it had, Yuffie kicked him in the stomach. "Get the hell up, lazy-ass!"

"Nngh...Ugh...What the heck am I doing here? Wait, no, don't get the wrong idea. I didn't crash the ca-oh." Reno slowly stood up, stumbling on his footsteps.

And then he saw Tifa. "Yo-You're..."

"Not pregnant?" Tifa suggested, a sparkling smile lighting up her features.

"Woot! Nice job, Tif'! Where's the babester? Is it a-" Reno stopped as he laid aquamarine eyes upon the miraculous sight. He took one swift stride towards the baby girl, staring in admiration.

"Holly..." He murmured.

So that was to be her name. Tifa nor Reno knew where the name had come from, but it had stuck instantly, and as easy as it had come, they knew it was the perfect name.

Tifa chuckled. "Guess you really can come up with half decent names ..."

Reno gaped, lost for words. "She's...incredible...And she's not as much of a giant as I thought..."

The now cleaned, tiny wrapped bundle of joy was delivered into Tifa's welcoming arms. She was surprised at how lightweight the baby was, after spending at least 5 months staggering over her own feet.

"Holly...You're so beautiful..." Tifa began to croon, stroking the girl's dark hair lightly. To Reno, she asked, "Don't you just love her eyes? They really complement us both, don't you think? She's like...the best of both of us."

Reno nodded, and Tifa swore she could see the glistening formation of tears in the corner of his aquamarine eyes. "Yeah."

Holly let out a sudden cry, which Reno could easily identify.

"Looks like she's inherited my appetite too."

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The next chapter is definitely the last, lol. It's about some random happenings when Holly gets older...And maybe an extra thing or two, we'll see.

Hope you liked my really extended supposed-to-be-one-shot! ^^