Disclaimer:
Still don't own it...nope.
Author's Note:
Sweet Jesus! It's been over a year since I've updated this?! God, I bet all of you think I died or something...but alas I have not. And I've come up with a rather juicy plot line for this story. So hopefully some of you that were reading this are still out there somewhere. Even if I don't get a lot of reviews for this I'm gonna keep writing and updating it cuz I'm eager to finish this one.
Well, enjoy! Review, please!
Chapter IV:
Friends
"Well, I'll be!" Barret came thundering down his front walkway to greet us. "I haven't seen you two in ages! Tifa! How ya been?" He gently wrapped his large arms around me and hugged me as softly as was possible for him. "Vincent!" He firmly gripped Vincent's hand in his large paw and shook it.
"Very nice to see you as well, Barret," Vincent said, beginning to massage his hand once Barret let go of it.
"Well, come on," Barret said, leading us inside his large mansion. "Make yourselves at home. As far as I know, you two are the first ta arrive. Everyone else is still gettin' their rears in gear."
"Tifa!" Marlene came bounding down the stairs almost too fast for her small legs to handle and sailed right into my legs. "Daddy told me! Daddy told me!" She squealed as I hefted her up into my arms. "Is it true? Is it true?"
"Is what true, sweety?"
She put her mouth right next to my ear and lowered her voice so only I could hear. "Are you really gonna have a baby?"
I smiled and laughed a small amount before putting my mouth next to her ear. "Yes, I am."
The squeal that erupted from that little girl's throat could have rendered every chocobo within a ten mile radius utterly deaf. As well as scaring half the neighbors and making them think their Mayor abused his small daughter. I wasn't sure about Barret or Vincent but my ears were ringing for almost two hours after Marlene's explosion of excitement.
Barret, who protested every attempt of mine to carry m own bag, insisted that he carry most of our luggage up to our guest room. His house is a two story and he even asked Vincent to carry me up the stairs since I was in no condition for "such strenuous activity", to quote his exact words, which I firmly detested and disapproved of. I told him I could walk up those stairs just fine. And it's not like I've never done it before; Vincent and I do have stairs at our home in Icicle Inn.
He grumbled his apologies and continued to stomp up the staircase as Marlene giggled at her daddy getting yelled at by Aunty Tifa. Vincent enjoyed a quiet laugh as well and put his arm around my waist.
The room that Barret had set up for us was a little more lavish than I expected it to be. Barret sure was pulling out all the stops; the room was larger than our living room and kitchen put together and I thought Vincent and I had a big house.
"Like the room?" Barret asked, when he stepped inside to set our bags down.
"Well, considering I could possible get lost in here, it's very lovely."
"I helped Daddy fix it up for you," Marlene announced proudly, taking my hand and squeezing it.
"You did, did you?" I said, ruffling her hair.
She giggled and tried to swat away my hand from her head. "I picked out the sheets! They're red like Uncle Vincent's eyes and the cloak he used to wear."
"Oh, really? That was very thoughtful of you. I think Uncle Vincent will like that very much."
She smiled and scampered off to go play somewhere in Barret's enormous house. Barret looked after his daughter in fond admiration before turning back and grabbing our bas off the floor once again.
"Well, let's get you two settled in. The faster we do that the faster we can eat. I wanna bring you two out to eat to my favorite place."
"Isn't everyone staying here?" I asked, a little confused. "What if someone gets here while we're out?"
"Oh, I'm not worried about that," he said, waving his hand through the air like he was swatting away the subject like it was a troublesome fly. "I'll leave the door unlocked so they can get in."
"Aren't you gonna be worried about someone breaking in? You are the Mayor you know," I said, putting my clothes away in a dresser drawer.
Barret sent me a knowing glance before laughing a small amount. "Tifa, there is no one in this town that's stupid enough to even think about it."
I chuckled and tried to imagine just what would happen if someone was stupid enough to try it. "It sure sounds like it pays off to be a mayor."
"Damn straight it does."
"Then it must pay off to be one of the Mayor's best friends."
"Oh hell," he said with a slight chuckle.
The rest of the time it took us to finish temporarily moving in was spent reminiscing about the Avalanche days and Barret hammering me with a million different questions about the who, what, when and why's of living in Icicle Inn. By the time we were finished I was hungry enough to eat Barret out of house and home. It took almost half an hour(at least it felt that long to me) to hunt Marlene down and by then I was ravenous. Barret picked his favorite corner bistro as our destination – which wasn't far from his home – and I swear everything I saw as we walked there mysteriously turned into a random item of food, which only made me even hungrier.
When we finally reached the bistro even the mulch in the potted plants looked edible and I probably would have jumped at the chance to cram a fistful into my mouth if Vincent wouldn't have shown up with a small loaf of bread for me to snack on.
The bistro, even though it was small, had a second floor and Barret's "reserved at all times" table was located on the balcony. As Vincent and I followed Barret I clutched my loaf of bread to my chest like it was a block of gold. Once we were seated I wolfed it down so quick I barely felt it go down my throat. I was starting to ask Vincent to go get me another one but he placed a hand over mine and smiled, effectively silencing me.
"Wait till your dinner comes." He patted my hand reassuringly and gave me a small kiss on the cheek, which only managed to calm me until our menus were brought to the table.
If an unpregnant version of me had been watching she would have been shaking her head in shame.
I was torn between three choices by the time everyone else knew what they wanted. After a little assistance from Vincent, I finally made a decision on a cheese steak sandwich with a side of onion rings.
Barret decided to make me the center of all his jokes until our food arrived. The sandwich I ordered turned out to be bigger than I thought it was going to be and I could only eat half of it. Vincent had taken control of my onion rings since my sandwich had been more than enough. Vincent, on the other hand, was was being a pig. He got a side of onion rings with his steak and he packed all of those away before attacking mine. I picked at the insides of the last half of my sandwich periodically as everyone was finished up their own meal. We were enjoying ourselves and it was pleasant outside on the balcony so we decided to stay and chat while our food settled.
Surprisingly, the first topic that Barret brought up – that Vincent or I had not even discussed yet – was possible names for the baby. We looked at each other blankly for a few seconds before Vincent piped up to answer.
"We haven't talked about names quite yet," Vincent replied sheepishly.
Barret chuckled. "Well you two better figure it out and quick. That baby will be here before you know it."
Vincent and I gave each other a knowing look, agreeing that we had put off name brainstorming for too long.
When we got back to Barret's house we went straight to our room to do as he suggested. No one else had arrived while we were gone, to Barret's surprise. He swore up and down on the walk back that the house would be "full of people", even though Barret's mansion house could occupy half the population of Corel, but he reassured us that they would be here in the morning. We bade Barret and Marlene good night then walked to our room hand in hand.
"The whole gang's gonna be together again!" Barret yelled as he ascended the stairs with Marlene in tow.
Well, everybody but two. Cloud Strife and Aeris Gainsborough. One murdered by a deranged psychopath; the other a victim of his own grief. Even after all the time that had passed since his death I still held a certain amount of love for Cloud Strife, but that love consisted only of two things: loving him as a brother and loving his memory. A part of me will continue to love him but I lost all respect for him when he threw his life away over his grief. All of us in Avalanche had loved Aeris. He wasn't the only one that had suffered that day. His dreams weren't the only ones that were tormented.
I cleared my head as I changed into a comfy pair of gray sweatpants and a large dark blue t-shirt. Vincent had thrown himself onto the bed and was staring up at the ceiling in deep thought.
"Tifa?"
"Hmm?" I answered as I took my earrings out.
He grew silent once more but I waited patiently, knowing that he would speak eventually. "I've been thinking..." He said as he continued to stare at the ceiling.
"About what?" I asked as I dragged my brush through my tangled hair.
"What do you think of Nicholas?"
I stopped in mid-brush and stared at my reflection in the mirror for many long moments before I turned around and stuck my head out of the door. "What do you think of it?"
Vincent grinned at me and chuckled. "I asked you first."
I flicked off the bathroom light and eased myself down on the bed next to him. He rolled over on his side and wrapped his arms around me, snuggling his head into an area of my lap that wasn't already covered by my still growing stomach. "Yes, in fact, I do like that name. What made you think about it?" I asked as I gently ran my fingers though his silky black hair.
"I don't know. It just kind of popped into my head."
"Has a girl name popped into your head yet?"
"No, not yet, but you should pick out a girl name since I have already picked one out for a boy," he said, grinning up at me.
"Okay, I'll do that. In the mean time do you have any ideas for middle names?"
"Hmm," he murmured before heaving a large contented sigh as he settled himself more comfortably in my lap. "How about...Nicholas Adam?"
I nodded and let it bounce around in my head for a few seconds. "I like that. If we have a boy that's what we'll name him." I paused as a yawn snuck up on me. "Now let's go to bed. I'm sleepy."
He chuckled and lifted his head off my lap and gave me a quick peck on the cheek before jumping up and stripping down to his boxers( his normal sleeping attire). We were asleep almost before we had a chance to say good night to each other.
The next morning both Vincent and I were shocked to see Nanaki, Yuffie, Cid and Shera sitting at the breakfast table with Barret and Marlene. When Yuffie saw me she reacted much like Marlene had as she jumped up from her place at the table and ran towards me, squealing the whole way.
"Oh Holy, Tifa, you look gorgeous!" Yuffie's eyes shone with excitement as she stared at my protruding stomach.
I laughed and gave her a warm hug. "Well I'm glad you think I am." I jumped when I felt a sharp inch on my side, which made me start to chuckle immediately, knowing full well that Vincent thought I was the most beautiful thing on the planet. I turned and flashed him my sweetest smile, hoping that he didn't take what I said to Yuffie too personally. A corner of his mouth perked up and he rubbed my back soothingly, letting me know that all was forgiven.
Vincent caught Yuffie's look of wonderment and he snickered low enough so only my ears would hear it. Vincent opened his mouth to say something but Barret beat him to it.
"Yuffie, will ya quit starin' at Tifa like she's a piece of meat? She's not the only pregnant woman on the planet ya know."
Yuffie's cheeks flared a bright red at Barret's statement and she scuttled back to her seat at the breakfast table, continuing to eat her food but now her face was so close to her plate that the use of her fork was no longer needed, which Yuffie didn't seem to notice.
Cid snickered at Yuffie as he enveloped me in a warm hug. "Hey there, Teef, how ya been?"
"I've been wonderful. How about you?" I asked, squeezing him back.
"Well, not too bad." He smiled as he laid a hand on my stomach. "You look beautiful, my dear. That makes two pregnant women in the house," he said, looking over at Shera and beckoning her over.
I covered my mouth to hide the fact that I was gaping like a fish as Shera approached, her pregnancy very obvious. "Oh my gosh, Shera!" I exclaimed, hugging the older woman. "Congratulations! How far along are you?"
"Almost six months," Shera replied, beaming happily.
"Do you know the gender yet?" I asked, grasping Shera's hands.
Shera nodded exuberantly. "It's a girl!"
"Oh congratulations again!" I exclaimed, pulling her into another hug.
"Well what about you?" Shera asked.
"A little over seven months," I answered, being rewarded with a crushing hug from Shera.
"Our kids can play together when they get old enough," the older woman remarked.
"Hey, will you guys get your rears over here already?" Barret asked, sounding a little agitated.
I giggled under my breath and settled myself next to the Yuffie, who still had her face buried in her eggs. Vincent took the seat across from me while Cid and Shera sat next to him.
Only a few moments after I had sat down, Red trotted over to me and plopped his head down into my lap. "Forget about me?" He asked, gazing up at me with his lone yellow eye, looking very much like a sad puppy.
"I could never forget about you, Red," I said, scratching behind one of his ears.
He grinned and snickered, leaning into my hand so I could give that spot a better scratching. "I'm glad to see you're having offspring of your won. I'll just have find someone else to look after mine and Seta's new litter."
I smirked to myself and decided to feign anger. "Nanaki! I can't believe you would do that to me! You know that I love all your cubs like they were my own children."
"Then I guess you still have the job," he replied.
"Here, Tifa," Vincent said, sliding a plate full of eggs, bacon and toast in front of me.
"Oh, thank you, Vincent," I replied, suddenly remembering how ravenous I was. I took a bite of the eggs and was very pleased at how wonderful they tasted. Since I knew what Barret's cooking tasted like, these eggs certainly didn't taste anything like something he would make. "Who made these eggs, Barret?"
"Oh, that was me," Yuffie said, pulling her face out of her own eggs. "Since my Pops can't cook to save his life I had to learn how to cook so we wouldn't starve."
"Well, they're very good," I said, enjoying another bite.
"Now all we have ta do is wait for Reeve's slow ass ta get here," Barret muttered, spreading grape jelly over Marlene's toast.
"Yeah, what's taking him so long?" Yuffie asked, chewing on a piece of bacon. "He's usually the first one to arrive at things like this."
"Aw hell, I don't know. He said something about having ta upgrade Cait Sith's something or other." He paused, trying his hardest to decipher what exactly Reeve had told him, but after a few moments of Barret making his odd 'rememberin' faces he gave up and shrugged his large shoulders. "I can never understand all his technical mumbo jumbo, but he called this mornin' and he said he'd be here tomorra."
"We all know Reeve," I said simply, earning agreeing nods from everyone at the table. "So, Barret, is anyone else going to be in this new banquet hall or is it going to be just us?"
"Oh! I forgot to tell you guys!" Barret exclaimed, sounding very embarrassed. "Since tomorrow is openin' day and all, ya know, it's gonna be more than just a reunion between us. Because I'm the mayor I had to make a grand event out of it."
Vincent frowned. "So does that mean that all of us are going to be the center of attention?"
"Well..." Barret mumbled sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. "No, not really. At least not all night."
Vincent looked away from Barret and the muscles in his human hand twitched. I pursed my lips and stared down at my food. Barret and Yuffie wouldn't have noticed something like that, they would have passed it off as a simple muscle spasm or think nothing of it all together. I heard the thoughts that were written on my husband's face all too clearly. He no longer wanted to be here in Corel. I knew of his extreme dislike of being the center of attention and being in the middle of large crowds of people. That's why he loves Icicle Inn so much.
I bit my bottom lip and stared down at my stomach, knowing that the main reason why he didn't agree with Barret's new plan was the fact that he didn't want my pregnancy broadcast over every wave length known to man. I nudged his foot gently and smiled at him when his eyes met mine. He tried to smile back but the sour look on his face prevented him from doing so. I sent him a knowing glance and mouthed the words 'We'll talk later'. Earning an understanding nod from him we both continued eating our breakfast.
"So, Barret," I began, feeling an impulse to quickly change the subject. "do you have anything planned for today?"
"Naw," he said, shaking his head. "Today is a day for relaxation. I gotta go into the office sometime before tomorra ta finalize everythin'."
"Well, that's good because I'm still tired," Yuffie said, getting up and stretching her arms over her head lazily. "Don't have too much fun without me," she said as she walked towards the stairs.
Vincent and I quickly finished our breakfast before retiring to our room as well; both to talk about Barret's new found plans and because we wanted to get more sleep too. I hadn't changed my clothes when we went down to breakfast so I made a bee line for the bed and jumped underneath the covers, snuggling into the pillows. I was expecting Vincent to climb into bed next to me but after a good minute had gone by I looked up and frowned when I saw him pacing slowly in front of the bed. I sat up against the headboard and watched him walk back and forth, giving him his space until he was ready to talk. I sighed as I realized that if I approached him now I wouldn't get anywhere. I could tell that he was frustrated, even angry at Barret; I had to admit that I was a little angry with him too. I was fairly certain that if the subject was ever brought up, Vincent and I would agree that if this gathering wasn't so important, not just to me but to him as well, we would both be on our way home right now.
While Vincent paced, I reluctantly crawled out from under the warm blankets and went into the bathroom, quickly throwing my hair up into a loose pony tail. Vincent had sat down on the edge of the bed while I was in the bathroom and beckoned to me when I walked out. When I went to sit down next to him he grabbed me and plopped me down in his lap. I smiled and wrapped my arms around his neck.
"I love you," I said, running my fingers through his hair.
"I love you," he replied, resting his head on my shoulder and laying his human hand on my stomach. "I am a little...agitated that Barret didn't tell us this new information earlier. I'm not mad about it." He paused and kissed my neck softly. "I'm angry that he's going to allow you to be exposed in front of hundreds of people. News like this," he said, rubbing my belly. "doesn't stay quiet for very long in situations like these."
"I know," I replied, laying my hand over his. "And it's not like I want the whole world to know that we're expecting, but this reunion means a lot to Barret and it means a lot to me as well. Us being celebrities shouldn't make any difference. Our lives were changed the minute we started chasing Sephiroth."
He sighed calmly and nodded, all his anger and frustration melting off him like ice under the sun. "I'm sorry," he said, scooping my hand up and tenderly kissing the back of it. "I...I just don't know what I would do if something were to happen to you. I would never be able to forgive myself."
"I'm not saying that nothing bad is ever going to happen to me, but don't act like you need to keep me under glass to ensure my safety." I smiled and kissed his forehead. "Remember Mr. Valentine, I may be pregnant but I can still defend myself."
Vincent chuckled, his morbid attitude totally disappearing as quickly as it had come. Instead of letting me get off his lap and get into bed myself, he stood up and carried me over to my side of the bed then set me down as gently as possible. "Now you get some more rest. I'm going to take a shower," he said, tucking the blankets around me.
I reached up and twirled a strand of his silky black hair between my fingers. "I wish I could have hair like yours, Vincent. Whatever you do it never seems to get dirty."
"I was actually thinking about getting it cut."
"No, don't do that." I stopped and paused for a second. "Well, if you want to get a few inches taken off that's okay. Just don't chop all of it off. I love your hair."
He grinned and kissed me softly before walking into the bathroom. I settled more comfortably into my pillows and fell asleep to the lulling sound of running water.