The Chess of Jotunheim

Epilogue

"Bye!" Tifa called after Cloud, Sephiroth, and Jotham as they left the house. It had been a couple of weeks and things were settling down nicely. Every geostigma has been officially eradicated from the face of the planet. There was no trace of Jenova remains and those who were involved sighed a breath of relief.

Sephiroth held Cloud's hand as they walked down the sidewalk. Jotham was ahead, running and skipping, excited to go to a park to play.

"It's nice." Sephiroth murmured softly as they approached the park. "Just to finally not have a single thing to worry about."

Cloud laughed. "Not like it was before?"

He looked down at her and chuckled. "When I was a general, it's always this and that. Deadlines, making sure the army was ship-shape and always a looming threat of another war. I was seriously planning to retire after Nibelheim." He waved to Jotham who had waved at him and ran off with a couple of kids to the play equipment.

Cloud's face became solemn at the mention of the town. He pulled her down to sit on the bench and they both watched Jotham play with the other children. The sun was bright and shining down on them. It was a gorgeous day.

"Say, what happened to Nibelheim?" Sephiroth asked after a while.

She shrugged. "The Nibelheim we knew burned down. Tifa and I were the only survivors, if not counting you too. ShinRa rebuilt it to cover up the incident and hired some hundreds of people to move there. Most left after a while, but those who remained decided to live there. They now know what happened and decided to rename the town. It's now Nibelburg."

"Interesting."

"The mansion's gone. Turned into a park, like this one."

"A fitting end. Never liked the place. You were the only thing I looked forward to in that place."

She nudged his shoulder. "I don't miss it either. Reeve told me a few days ago that the WRO is finally taking down the reactor there."

"Good. That place was a nightmare."

"Yeah." She murmured softly and rested her head on his shoulder. "What should we do now?"

Sephiroth hummed his reply as he thought. Jotham waved at them and went down one of the high slides, squealing in joy. Sephiroth waved back and gave a thumbs-up to his son. "You have your delivery business. I might as well work with you. Maybe help Reeve with the cleanup. There are still some creatures that mutated from ShinRa's projects."

"Sound like a start." She told him as she turned her head to him. "I like it."

He gave a half grin that she loved so much. "But I know I would not want to live in that orphanage. It's crowded."

Cloud laughed. "I guess you're right. It is crowded with few of us there. I don't think Tifa minded if we left."

"Let's find a house."

Cloud groaned, remembering something. "Oh, gods. Just please don't look at twenty houses or something like the last time."

Sephiroth looked offended. "A perfect house is worth going through a handful of them." She rolled her eyes.

They turned to see Reeve approaching them. He greeted them and sat down next to Cloud on the bench. "Tifa said you guys were here. I am glad I found you."

Cloud gave him a questioning look. Reeve waved his hand to dismiss the look and pulled up the briefcase he had brought with him and laid it on his lap, opening it. "I realize that Sephiroth has no documents." He pulled out a file and turned to Sephiroth. "I am assuming you wish to not return to your former position as a General?"

"That is correct," Sephiroth replied with a stony tone. "Consider my resignation form in a long time ago."

Reeve laughed. "Consideration accepted. Here's your identification card, birth certification with the correct parents on it. Your account was still active all those years and your money had been increasing with interest. I had it removed from old Midgar. I can't say much for your old place and whatever you had in the office there."

Sephiroth took the file and looked through the papers. He saw his birth certificate had Vincent Valentine down as his father. He glanced at his bank statement and his eyes widened, it was far more than he had remembered. They would have an easy life.

"Here." Reeve handed a cell-phone. "It has all of our contacts. I understand you do not wish to reinstate as a general but allow me and Rufus to contact you for some pieces of advice and maybe hire you from time to time as a freelancer if we needed. You too, Cloud. You both are the world strongest people."

Sephiroth nodded as he took the phone. "That's fine."

"What are you guys planning to do?" Reeve asked.

Cloud glanced at Sephiroth and turned back to the other man. "Not much. We want to start looking for a house."

Reeve's eyebrows shot up. "Uh, actually…" he closed his briefcase and gestured to a street nearby. "There's a place… maybe it'd be better if I can show it to you right now."

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Reeve stood up and gestured for them to follow. "If you don't mind."

Cloud waved to Jotham to come with them. They walked across the park to the adjacent street and approached a nice medium sized house.

Reeve went up the stairs from the sidewalk to the door and turned back to the others. "It's not much, but these homes," He gestured to the others similar homes on the street, "were designed for families like yourselves. Some of them are being filled up now." He turned and opened the door and held it for the others to enter.

Sephiroth and Cloud glanced around. It was very similar design to their older home, with open kitchen and dining area to the left and a living room to the right. A staircase was adjacent to the kitchen, going up to the second level of the house. The house had four bedrooms, two and a half baths, and a small backyard. The basement had a den and a laundry room and a door to the backyard as well. They explored the place and came back down.

Cloud liked the place and turned hopefully to Sephiroth. He had a blank look on his face as he glanced around. Jotham was running in circle in the empty living room, pretending to be an airship. She waited for him to say something. Reeve looked nervous as he stood by the kitchen counter, waiting as well.

"Hm." Sephiroth started and glanced around once more before turning to Reeve. "It's nice."

Cloud gave a bemused expression, "It's nice?"

He turned to her. "I can see us making a home here. Do you like it?"

Cloud rubbed her face before she replied. "I do like it. You're right, it's nice."

Sephiroth turned to Reeve. "We'll take it."

Reeve exhaled a sigh of relief. "Oh good." He fished in his pocket and pulled out a ring with keys on them. "It's actually yours anyway."

Cloud gaped at him. "What?"

He gave a nervous chuckle. "I assumed you guys needed a home and had this house in your name a while ago. I realize that you probably would want to look around for more."

Sephiroth shook his head in amusement as he pulled Cloud close to him. "I do like it and thank you."

Cloud laughed, "Good! So we can move in soon?"

"Move in today if you wish!" Reeve came over to them and handed them the key. "The deed is actually in your file." He gestured to the file in Sephiroth's hand. "Have a good move!"

Jotham came up to his parents and tugged onto Sephiroth's shirt. Sephiroth picked him up and held him, giving him a quizzical look. Jotham asked, "Is this our home now?"

Cloud smiled, poking Jotham's nose. "Yes, it is. We can move in now!"

"Yay!" Jotham cheered.

"Thank you, Reeve," Cloud told the other man as he stepped out.

Reeve left the house and turned back to see Sephiroth and Cloud kiss in the window. He shook his head in amusement. He felt happy, everything was just going right at last.

He put the hammers down and wiped the wall of the dust. She hands him the frame, it was the last pieces to their home to complete moving in. It had taken them few weeks to collect furniture and things they needed to make the house a home for them.

The frame was a gift from Elmyra. Sephiroth looked at it and chuckled. "It's rather cliché, but I like it." He hung the frame up.

The image was across stitching of Masamune and Fusion swords, crossing each other in X formation. A caption read across the middle in thick black letters, "Home Sweet Home".

Cloud hugged his side as they looked at the framed picture. "Elmyra has a good sense of humor. I love it that she included our swords."

"Yes." He replied as he wrapped his arm around her. "The house is complete."

She looked up to him, "Not quite."

He frowned, "What are we missing?"

"We're going to need a nursery." She said with a smile.

He blinked for a moment as he processed what she said in his mind. His eyes grew wide as it hit him. "We're going to have another baby?"

"Yes."

The house suddenly was full of joyful laughter and yelling. The entire neighborhood heard them.

The End

Note:

Thank you for reading this story! I've really enjoyed writing this one and am currently halfway through the next story. I seem to be on a roll right now!

Please do let me know how this story is, give me some feedbacks. I'll go back over it and fix some errors when I find time.

Look forward to a new Seph/Fem!Cloud story coming soon in few days. It will be titled: "The King and the Summoner". It's a complete alternate universe story with Sephiroth as the main character, setting in FFXV type of setting.

Until then!