Summary: Think about it. What was Seph like prior to Nibelheim? Did he ever have sick days, hangovers, telemarketers that would not leave him alone? Well, you can bet your ugly f-king boots he did! And so this fic, which will eventually become a series of oneshots/drabbles, has come into being. Proof that Sephiroth is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, as human as you and I!

Disclaimer: Lemme check real quick. Hmmm... Nope. I still don't own Final Fantasy VII or Sephiroth. He visits me from time to time, but I don't own him. Truth be told, I don't think Square Enix really does either. They just say they do.

Queen's Quornor: Yet another original, and this one was inspired by yet another boring time at the Dairy Queen. I just started writing, and this was the end result. Yeah, I tied this in with a oneshot of mine, "Dreams." I try to keep some consistencies between my fics, as hard as that is to believe!

Life

Sephiroth gave his newest stack of completed paperwork to Christine, who took it with a tired smile. She grunted in discomfort and put a hand to her lower back, arching briefly so her distended belly was pressed against the maternity dress for a second. Trying not to stare, the General discreetly watched her waddle out the door with the papers.

Christine was eight months pregnant. No, the baby was not his. He suspected it was another of Reno's unverified bastard babies, but the secretary was talking. Unlike Sargent Reyna, she hadn't had a paternity test. When Sephiroth asked about that (he had been sleeping with her too), she had told him taht the father didn't matter; she wasn't looking for marriage, and she was keeping it. This baby was hers.

Watching her, Sephiroth was reminded of his secret desire to sire children. Despite his little adventure in the daycare center, he still wanted to find the perfect woman and give her offspring. He wanted to be the proud father-to-be, stroking his wife's rounded belly and announcing to unsuspecting passerby when the baby was due. He wanted to be the man pushing a shopping cart full of diapers and onesies and musical baby toys, following his wife around the store while she squealed over the most random little things and threw them into the cart. He wanted to be the one having his hand ground to powder while his woman grunted and screamed obscenities and strained in a hospital bed. He wanted to be the man bringing his carefully-wrapped baby out into the waiting room, showing it off to his friends proudly.

He yet found the concept of pregnancy fascinating, even though he knew exactly how it came about and how it worked. Ever since that day in the labs, he had wondered...

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"What's wrong with your stomach?"

Dr. Armelia looked up from her work to see Sephiroth standing at the door, watching her with curious mako eyes. It wasn't often he was allowed to roam the labs outside his enclosure, so when he was let out, he explored and asked the scientists every question he could think of.

Armelia, one of the few scientists the silver-haired boy actually liked (mostly because she wasn't involved with his daily care; her project was something different), turned her chair away from the computer terminal to face him, a smile on her face. "I take it Hojo hasn't told you about the birds and the bees yet?"

He shook his head, his shoulder-length silver hair swishing wildly. It was growing back nicely after its first and only meeting with the barber.

So Armelia picked him up and sat him down next to the computer on the desktop, then resumed her own chair and carefully explained the reasons behind the anatomical differences between men and women, and what they did. Then she moved on to explaining sex and reproduction, and ended with "So that's why my stomach is like this. Because there's a baby growing inside my uterus, and it'll be born in three months."

"Doesn't it hurt, having your stomach stretched out like that?" Sephiroth asked.

"It's a bit uncomfortable, but no, it doesn't hurt. And it's more than worth it, knowing that I'm protecting my baby and it needs me; in a few months, I'll be able to hold it in my arms and see it for the first time without an ultrasound." She smiled, then pressed her hand to her belly. "Would you like to feel it kicking?"

At Sephiroth's nod, Armelia stood up and took his hand, pressing it lightly against her stomach. His eyes closed in concentration for a moment, then flew open in surprise as he felt something fluttering against his palm. Drawing back, he saw that Armelia was smiling. "You could probably hear the baby's heartbeat, if you put your ear to that spot."

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Leaning back in his chair, Sephiroth remembered hearing the quick, steady thump-thump-thump of the baby's heart. That memory had remained with him all these years, through everything he'd ever been through, and he wanted to hear it again. Only this time, it would be his baby in his woman.

It was just a problem of finding her, first.