Chapter 10:
Two months after the wedding and honeymoon, daily life had pretty much returned to normal, with the exception of Aeris now living with Sephiroth. Moving in had only taken one day, but re-arranging the place so that Aeris' clothes and books would fit had been tricky. And Aeris insisted the next day that they clean the place from top to bottom.
"Seriously! How long has it been since you mopped this kitchen?" Aeris had asked, "Actually…uh…do you even have a mop?"
"…Yes,"
"So where is it, then?"
"…It's being fixed,"
"Less than two weeks into the marriage and he's already lying to me," Aeris had muttered.
"I have a dust-buster,"
"No, Sephy,"
"This is still my apartment too. I should be able to wear a week-old pair of underwear to breakfast if I want to, let alone worry about a linoleum floor,"
"Those days are gone, Sephy,"
"Says who?"
"It's the rules,"
"What rules?"
"We all give up something in exchange for readily available sex,"
"Oh, that was just hilarious. What on earth did you give up?"
"Do you see any of my old boy-band CDs lying around?"
"Guilty pleasures are not a sacrifice,"
"Dirty floors aren't something to be guilty of?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't read the marriage manual. Especially the part that says that the wife will spontaneously combust if the floor isn't shiny. Incidentally, had you ever been over Biggs, Wedge and Jessie's place?"
"Oh, come on! I've seen Jessie having belching contests with Biggs. Unless they hire a maid, they're all hopeless…I'm sure you're not regretting marrying me instead of them, are you?"
"……"
"Seph!!"
Still, it wasn't long before Aeris began waking up with headaches. Brushing it off as stress from an increasing workload, she simply popped a couple pain relievers every morning and headed off to work.
It wasn't until one afternoon when Sephiroth had gotten out of work early, come back home only to see Aeris' cloak lying on the floor near the bathroom, that he realized anything was out of the ordinary.
"Aeris?" Sephiroth called out.
He immediately heard the sound of a toilet flushing. A moment later, Aeris came out of the bathroom.
"Why aren't you at work?" he asked.
"They let me go home early," Aeris replied weakly, "So I went to see a doctor,"
Sephiroth looked concerned. "Are you feeling all right? Why didn't you just have your father look at you?"
"He wasn't home. Sephy…sit down,"
"Why?" Sephiroth asked, instantly alarmed. He briefly wondered if Aeris might be having a relapse.
"We need to get a bigger place," Aeris told him as she gathered her cloak and sat down in the kitchen.
"Don't change the subject,"
"I'm not!" Aeris snapped irritably, "Can you shut up for one minute while I talk??"
Sephiroth's eyes widened at his wife's sudden change in demeanor.
"We need a place with two bedrooms. One room for you and me…and another room…for the baby,"
Sephiroth stared at Aeris, his face frozen in shock.
Aeris waved a hand in front of him. "Hey…are…you okay?"
"You…" Sephiroth was at a loss for words.
"Me,"
"A baby?"
"It's yours too," Aeris reminded him.
"How…?"
"Well, Sephy, when a man and a woman-"
"-Don't get cute. I thought we took all the proper…precautions,"
"Yeah…uh…well, turns out…we really need to brush up on reading the newer Cetran script,"
"The bottle said wait until one week after you started. It's supposed to be 100% guarenteed!"
"It is! But…the script for 'one' and 'three' look very similar,"
"……"
"Seph," Aeris repeated, "Are you going to be okay?"
"A child…living with us…"
"Yes, that's what usually happens in these situations,"
"…Is it a boy or a girl?"
Aeris shrugged. "I don't know,"
"You can't tell?"
"Seph, I'm a demi-Cetra, not a psychic. Mama didn't know either when she had me,"
"That reminds me…your mother is…thirty-six?"
"Yeah,"
"I don't think many thirty-six-year-olds take pleasure in becoming grandparents,"
"Oh no…." Aeris moaned and hid her face in her hand, "People already look at Mama weird. They think she had me when she was like, twelve. This isn't gonna look good,"
"Forget about it. To hell what everyone else thinks. They don't know anything,"
"But we're having dinner with Mama and Papa tonight. I have to tell them!"
"So we'll tell them," Sephiroth said, "Then tomorrow, we…what are we supposed to do?"
"Find a doctor, mage…whatever they have here for pregnancies,"
"Do you think they have those…you know…the breathing classes?"
"Maybe they don't even need the breathing. Maybe they can just teleport the baby out of the mother. Regardless, we've got a lot of research to do. Seriously, Sephy…how do you feel about this?"
"Surprised,"
"Besides that,"
Sephiroth put his hand on Aeris' stomach.
"Well…I certainly didn't mind you…it's half yours…I suppose I'll get to like it when I get to know it,"
"How logical," Aeris grumbled.
"I'm sorry, would you rather I pull a string quartet out of my pocket and give a heartfelt speech on how much I love you, it scares me?"
"It does?" Aeris looked surprised.
"No! I gave you a honeymoon in the Floating Inn. What more do you want from me?"
"Might as well have been a motel for all the times we left the bed…and that's why we need a new apartment! Sex is expensive…"
"What are you- my client? Ugh. Fine. We should have been more careful, but now that what's done is done…we don't need to panic. We make enough money combined to support a child…I hope you're not having twins,"
Aeris nodded in agreement.
"I wonder who it'll look like," Sephiroth mused, "I always wondered if silver hair was a dominant gene or not,"
Aeris ran her hand through Sephiroth's hair. "Ooh! I want it to have hair just like yours!"
"I guess we'll find out eventually. Now that I think about it, it's probably a good thing your father wasn't home,"
"Ya think…??"
Aeris glanced at her menu, written in the neo-Cetran script. She had ordered the number 2 special, and just hoped that she'd read the menu correctly. The last thing she needed was for the waiter to bring out a freshly-killed octopus and tell her to enjoy.
"Nice restaurant," Sephiroth commented as he glanced around for a moment before going back to his menu. He nudged Aeris. "This does say 'meatballs'…right?"
Aeris couldn't help but smile as she nodded. So Sephiroth was thinking the same thing as her.
"So what's the occasion?" she asked her parents, "You never go out to dinner just out of the blue,"
Ifalna and the professor looked at each other, a knowing look in their eyes.
"All right," Ifalna confessed, "Well, we felt like celebrating tonight, and wanted to include the two of you in it,"
"So what exactly is this big celebration?" Sephiroth asked.
Gast and Ifalna looked at each other again, before Ifalna spoke:
"We're going to have a baby!"
Aeris and Sephiroth's eyes widened in surprise.
"I…" Sephiroth was at a loss of words, "Well…congratulations,"
"Aeris?" Gast looked at his daughter, waiting to hear what she had to say.
"Wow!!!" Aeris burst out laughing nervously, "…Me too!"
Her parents stared at her.
"I…I'm sorry I had to steal your thunder, Mama," Aeris said, "But that really is a crazy coincidence, huh?"
"You're…pregnant too?" Ifalna asked incredulously.
"Yeah, 'grandma'," Aeris giggled.
The giggle abruptly died in her throat as she saw her mother glaring at her.
"That lady who slowed down traffic on the way to this restaurant was a 'grandma'," Ifalna said pointedly.
"Yes, but honey-" Gast began, but cut himself off when Ifalna began staring dangerously at him.
"So does this mean we'll have nine months of you two sharing pickles and whipped cream while watching soaps?" Sephiroth asked, trying to ease the sudden tension.
Gast burst out laughing, "Oh, Sephiroth- don't you remember? It was toast and breadsticks, which she'd dip in honey mustard,"
"Hmm…you're right,"
"Stop!" Aeris whined, "I'd rather not get morning sickness right here,"
"You'll learn to love it, sweetie," Ifalna teased her.
"Let's talk about something else," Aeris suggested, "Have you seen a specialist yet about this? I only found out today, so I haven't had time,"
"Make one first thing tomorrow," Gast told her, "We saw one yesterday,"
"And how do they get the baby out?" Aeris asked hopefully.
Gast stared confusedly at his daughter.
"Well, you push, and hopefully nature takes its course, and they have the doctors there to help out…?" he said slowly.
"I suppose you were hoping they could zap the baby out of you?" Ifalna asked, a knowing smirk on her face, "Sorry. It's the same thing here,"
"People here have messed-up priorities," Aeris grumbled, "They'll try to find you the perfect underwear when you're getting married, but they don't try to advance medical science?"
"Aeris, it's natural to be scared of the pain, but trust me, it's all worth it in the end," Ifalna reassured her.
"Exactly," Gast chimed in.
"Sympathy pains do not count!" Ifalna stated as she rolled her eyes.
"What about our plans?" Sephiroth asked suddenly.
"Huh?" everyone looked at him.
"We were going to look into relocating to Deux Terre, but is it a wise choice given what's happening now?"
"I don't see what the problem is," said Ifalna, "Pregnant women have done more strenuous things in history, and everything turned out fine. The closer we are to our home, the better. It's already been over two years since the gate stopped functioning,"
"And everyone probably thinks I'm dead," Aeris added, "I say we keep going,"
Gast raised his glass of water. "A toast, then!" he declared, "To going home, and opening people's minds! Here's hoping no one with unusual DNA is ever persecuted there again!"
"Here, here!" everyone raised their glasses.
"So…" Sephiroth said as he and Aeris walked home from the specialist the next day, "We've got seven-and-a-half months to prepare for this,"
"Well, it's a good thing we got a place with a month-to-month lease" Aeris figured, "We'll look for a place in Deux Terre, preferably with the same lease terms. Two bedrooms, just to be safe. We don't know how long we'll be there,"
"It's good to be able to leave at a moment's notice," Sephiroth agreed, "What about the guild, though?"
"They have a mandatory maternity leave that begins at four months," said Aeris, "The good news is that it's a paid leave,"
"I'm glad the pregnancy seems to be normal…so far," Sephiroth admitted, "I've been reading up on second-generation Seraph hybrids. Some of them come out with horns, fangs, even ingrown wings,"
"I've read up on that too. And there's corrective surgery for all of that if we think it's best. Personally, I think our baby would look cute with little fangs…so long as he or she isn't a biter- and don't chime in telling me if I was or wasn't a biter as a baby!"
"……"
"What's the matter now?" Aeris asked teasingly.
"I'm not exactly the kind of person who gets down and plays with children,"
"So I'll play with them, while you teach them swordplay, and take them for walks in the woods,"
"You don't think they'll take it personally for not playing 'Duck, Duck, Goose' with them?"
"I think they'll understand that your 'macho factor' means a lot to you," Aeris laughed.
"No tea parties?"
"I'll do the tea parties,"
"No dress-up?"
"We'll buy them a giant stuffed animal just for that,"
Sephiroth looked visibly relieved.
"The great Sephiroth, who faced WEAPON, Jenova, numerous monsters, and the Shinra military without batting an eye, yet he's afraid of a future daughter putting a girly hat on him and making him sip pretend tea,"
"Perhaps if I had a couple hits of Silly Moogle…"
"No, Sephy,"
"That was a joke, my dear. Let's go get lunch,"
"Now you're talking!" Aeris exclaimed.
"You already have a huge appetite. What am I going to do when the cravings hit?"
"Oh, you'll think of something,"
"I feel so much better…" Sephiroth grumbled.
A/N: So just to let you all know, I plan to finish this first before continuing on "Spark". Working on two stories like this simultaneously is just asking for major continuity errors.