'Okay I think this is the laast one' Sephiroth said as he stepped into the freshly painted room, the one on the right side of the hall, the one they had chosen as their future kids' new nursery.
Carrying yet another heavy package of freshly procured stuff, he walked over to the already growing pile and set it onto the floor.
The walls were a soft subtle yellow and the floorboards were teak, like in the rest of the house. They had painted the walls the day before and the room still smelled like fresh paint, like summer and the seabreeze coming through the open window.
Claire Farron was busy in the center of the room unpacking the cardboard boxes he had heaved inside and stacking all the parts waiting to be assembled.
'Good...' the mum to be said sounding somewhat relieved.
'We are running out of space.'
They had spent the best part of the morning browsing funiture store displays and shopping for the last few pieces they still needed for their children's room.
They had borrowed Snow's truck for the occassion. Had loaded it's platform up to the brim. Had stopped for a short lunch at Cid's to then continue the nightmare back home.
The first hour of the afternoon had all been about getting their stuff inside and now they were standing before the almost impossible task of assembling all the things they'd bought into a neatly furnished room.
'How is it going?' the silver haired class asked somewhat carefully.
The woman infront of him busy putting some of the parts together, it was with a tured sigh that she replied to him.
'It's okay. I'm almost done with the nightstand. I only need to – OUCH!'
There was the sound of a wooden board hitting the ground and Lightning pulled her hand away, thumb bleeding.
The silver haired first class was over and by her side in absolutedly no time at all.
It was with big reproachful eyes that the pink haired woman looked up at him, sucking on her bleeding finger and using her other hand to brush her bangs out her face.
'Let me see.' the silver haired first class urged as he reached out for her arm, pulling her hand away from her lips.
It wasn't an especially dangerous cut, not very deep, and not very wide, still it bled like those kind of shallow cuts always do.
'It's nothing.' Lightning reassured.
She was right of course. Still...
There was the tingling sensation of their jenova bond and a second later the cut was gone, replaced by freshly knitted skin, only a small smear of blood left to tell the story.
Sephiroth kept looking at it contemplating, pensively.
'Thank you.' Lightning whispered as she leaned forward to kiss his forehead.
It did come handy at times, their jenova bond, she really had to admit that, had done them more good than bad, now that she thought about it. Had come as some kind of weird blessing really, but still it never ceased to amaze her either, never ceased to give her a tiny bit of a creep.
'You gotta be more careful.' the silver haired man told her, mako eyes sincere.
'I will.' Claire Farron promised as she got back up on her feet.
'Now will you help me assemble those pieces or what?'
The silver haired father to be smiled at her, made to get to work.
Assembling the remaining pieces of furniture took them all afternooon.
Trying to decipher the instruction manual and putting everything together as it was supposed to be turned out to be no easy task. Even for two elite soldiers. And it was exhausted and weak that finally the two of them lay down on the fluffy carpet Lightning had dug up in the decoration section of the home department, that five hours later, they finally came to rest, staring at the luminous adhesive stars dotting the cream toned ceiling.
The room around them was assembled. At least all the most important pieces. A tiny closet, two white painted baby cots, all ready and complete with cozy soft matrasses and fluffy pillows and fussy blankets and matching nightstands for each of them. There was a comfortable looking nursing chair and a brand new changing table. A nice dimmable lamp and the mentioned carpet as well as freshly laundered curtains.
It was by no means done of course. The drawers were still empty, the surfaces still sterile and clear. Still. It was a solid base to begin with.
It was then and there, lying on the carpet with their hands entwined that Claire Farron brought up the unexpected topic of his childhood.
'What was it like..?' the pink haired female asked. 'Growing up to become a legendary war hero?'
It was something she had wondered about before, had thought about on serveral occassions in her past, back then when they still had been in soldier, back when he had still given her a hard time.
Because yes, the unimaginable it was, Genereal Sephiroth Crescent must have been a child at some point too.
The question itself made the silver haired man grimace.
His childhood memories were not something he was fond of, were not something he appreciated being dug up, something he wasn't really eager to share, talk, or even think about.
He didn't really appreciate it therefore, the fact that she had asked.
'It wasn't nice.' was what he finally settled on.
His hand coming up to comb his hair self-consciously, Lightning reached up to catch it in her own.
'I already figured that much.' she assured him as she rolled over to her side.
Curious icy blue eyes gazing into his own, there was a tiny pause before she went on.
'You were born in Midgar?' she asked somewhat carefully.
'Yes. I was.' The silver haired man admitted.
'I already told you, Hojo created me for Shin-Ra as part of some kind of biological experiment. He's also my biological father.'
This made Lightning stare.
Yes, he had revealed to her the backgrounds to his origins back when he had told her about her Jenova cell treatment after the wutai war, still he had never mentioned this.
'Professor Hojo is your father?!' she repeated somewhat skeptically.
The man beside her only gave a grim nod.
'But that's impossible.' Lightning urged, picturing the gaunt bespectacled man before her mind's eye.
'There is no resemblance at all.'
It was true. Professor Hojo and Sephiroth did not look anything alike. From their hair to their eyes, to their skin, to their built, to the angles of their jaws. There was nothing about professor Hojo that even remotely reminded her of the tall handsome man lying right next to her.
'That's because I look like her...' Sephiroth said somewhat dejectedly.
'Jenova.'
His voice was soft, barely a whisper.
It made Lightning tighten her grip around his hand.
It was ture.
Sephiroth had always to some extend expected it.
His alien silver hair, his otherworldly alabaster skin, his catlike slitted eyes.
It was only now, after he had seen her in his visions that finally he knew for sure.
He really did look like her. A lot.
The pained expression on his face telling her that that last statement had upset him, Claire Farron decided not to probe any further.
She just rolled over and put her arm around him instead, used her hand to prop herself up on his chest, to plant a gentle kiss there on his soft pale lips.
It made the man beside her move, made him sit up and look at her.
'Lightning...There's soemthing I want you to do for me.' he said, the deep green gaze in his mako eyes sincere.
It made her look up, instantly alert.
'What is it?' she asked somewhat carefully.
'I want you to learn to heal yourself... With your jenova cells.'
It made her stare at him with huge blue eyes.
'But I can't.' she reminded him. 'I've tried, don't you remember?'
'You can't yet.' the man beside her corrected.
'I didn't learn to do it in one day either. I will teach you.'
The pink haired female looking up at him in awe, in skepticism, in unease, he sensed she was about to argue.
'Please, I want you to be able to do this.' he tried to persuade her.
'I might not always be there someone gets hurt.'
It made Lightning swallow her planned retort, made her backpedal and give him a tiny nod.
Claire Farron understood.
This wasn't about her alone. This was about their unborn kids too.
Someone would have to be able to help them should anything ever happen and as much as she wished for it, Sephiroth could not always be around them for the rest of their days.
Someone would have to make some money at the very least.
'Okay.' she said. 'I'll do it.'
'It isn't all that hard really.' Sephiroth assured as they gathered on the living room couch.
'The most important thing is that you focus. Focus on the bond, forget everything else, no matter what is going on around you.' he instructed determinedly.
He had pulled out a blade a minute ago, had pressed it to his palm, just a little bit, just enough to draw a tiny bit of blood, not enough to actually hurt himself.
It had made Lightning's eyes go huge.
Reaching out for his hand she had brought her palm up to his wound, had let her curl her fingers up around his soft smooth hand.
Somehow it was unsettling to her. The fact that he had hurt himself, just to give her practise, the fact that he was bleeding, just for the sake of her education.
Still. There was no way she could help it. General Sephiroth Crescent always got what he wanted. And the deed had already be done. Better not to waste his sacrifice.
'Concentrate on the connection, let your cells reach out for mine.' the silver haired man said, his voice as calm and gentle as ever, as he looked into his fiancées big blue eyes.
The mother of twins to be, feeling slightly nervous, it was after a little bit of hesitation that she managed to oblige.
Following his instructions took her some real effort, took a whole lot of inner persuation too.
Surrender to the bond.
Wasn't that was she had been tying to avoid at all costs all the time?
Now suddenly she was supposed to give in to it. To embrace it really.
Still. It was a sacrifice she had to make if she wanted to master this particular skill.
And there was more. She'd promised him.
And she was not going to break a promise to him. Ever.
'Let the jenova cells connect.' Sephiroth instructed.
It made Claire Farron close her eyes. Made her feel for the connection, the feeble tiny tickle in her skin, that foreign kind of energy pulsing in the background of her mind every minute of her waking life.
It was a strange feeling, their jenova bond, the by now familiar tingling sensation that seemed to ignite form everywhere they touched and reached out from there to all the other parts of herself, of her very being.
Their weird otherwordly connection, after all this time, it still creeped Lightning out to no end.
It was crazy really how the cells in their body seemed to connect, seemed to form some kind of superordinate collective as if part of her was him, and part of him was her, the border between the two of them melting into nothingness, making them become part of something bigger, making them becoming one.
There was nothing it could compare to really, at least nothing Lightning could think of, and there definitely were no words, allowing her to discribe such a connection.
It was unnatural, was crazy, was inhuman. Still. It was bliss. Made the blood in her veins sing, was making her cells wallow in the brilliance of the reunion.
'Now focus on what you want them to do.' the silver haired first class whispered, overwhelmed with the beauty of the moment himself.
And it was concentrating as hard as she possibly could that Claire Farron squeezed her eyes shut even tighter.
Focusing on Sephiroth's heartbeat pulsing right under her palm, trying to actually feel the cut in his hand beneath it, she imagined the cells in his body complying, imagined them knitting up the wound and closing it with a patch a of freshly woven skin.
The huge amount of effort, it claimed her every ressource, seemed to cost her all her energy.
Suddenly Lightning felt depleted, felt tired, and worn.
There was no upholding it any longer.
A tiny frustrated growl escaping her soft pink lips, she opneed her ice blue eyes to look up into curious greeen ones.
Lifting her hand up carefully, she found the cut in her lover's palm still open, found that it still bled.
All her focused efforts, they hadn't changed a single thing.
'That's okay. It was your very first try.' the man next to reassured her instantly.
It was only half true.
Sure, Lightning had never tried to heal him before. True. But she had tried to heal herself on several of occssions.
And unsuccessfull attempts they had been too. That much was for sure.
'Maybe I just can't do it.' Lightning said somewhat defeatedly.
That thought, it had occured to her on plenty of occasions, all of those occassions she had tried.
Sephiroth could do a lot of things she had no inkling of. And they didn't have the exact same treatment to begin with.
Maybe there were thing's that were beyond her.
Things that just came natural to him.
'Maybe not everyone with jenova cells has that gift.' she suggested somewhat carefully.
It made the silver haired first class shake his head.
'I know you can do it.' he said, mako green eyes glowering determinately.
'I didn't learn it in a day either.'
It made the pink haired female give him a small tentative smile.
Somehow she still had to be convinced.
'Now try again.'
He was standing in the hall of their beachhouse again, dressed in only his nightclothes, the smooth teak floor, cold beneath his feet.
Something felt off again, felt wrong. But he didn't realize what until he noticed that the door to the nursery was open, until he saw the room emit a weird greenish sheen.
Yes, something was going on there, was not as it should be and he felt that prickle again running through his skin, felt his palms go sweaty and his heart speed up.
Come.
There it was again. The icy highpitched voice within his head that had spoken to him ever since the first time he had layn eyes on the cursed mako reactor that had sprouted out of the Bodhum forest ground.
Come closer.
The disembodied voice urging him towards the door, it was with small tentative step that Sephiroth complied.
One step, then two then three.
The door to his children's room was nearing him relentlessy, was looming up ahead.
Somehow he found he dreaded going through. Dreaded seeing what was on the other side, the cruel display of violence undoubtedly waiting to be discovered.
It was with slightly trembling hands therefore that he approached, that he lifted his arm, to give the door a tiny push, making it glide open completely.
There they were, his family. Movelessly suspended in eerily green liquid and sealed in Shin-Ra incubation tanks. Two smaller ones held his children exactly where their beds had stood what seemed a million years ago and one bigger one for Lightning, perched up in place of the nursing chair.
And there she was too. Standing infront of all of them, seperating him form his future wife and children, dark wings spread in all her glory, fierce slitted red eye staring at him maliciously.
Jenova.
The calamity that fell from the sky.
Suddenly she was floating right infront of him, had materialized right there in his children's bedroom, stood between him and his family.
There was a headsplitting high pitched screem that rendered Sephiroth writhing in a lump on the floor, clutching his head in agony and there was that eeryly familiar voice pounding in his eardrums.
'They are mine.'
It was with a start that he woke up again, shivers running down his body, and sweat down his spine, heart racing like mad, vision distorted crazily, head spinning.
He was back in his bed again. Dressed in the same plane night clothes, the woman whom had just been lifelessly suspended in a mako tank, sleeping soundly next to him without a care in the world.
It made him exhale a long held breath, made his body relax back into the matrass as he let relief wash over him.
It had been just another dream, another nightmare.
A stupid fiction of his mind, he was aware.
Still. He had to go and check. Check whether everything was alright.
Getting out of bed and onto his feet as quietly as possible, he made out of the bedroom and into the hall.
Everything was quiet there. Exactly as it should be.
The door to their almost ready nursery was closed, just as he would have expected, and the floorboards beneath were dark, not an inkling of a mako sheen.
Still he had to check for sure.
Making over to the door he turned the knob and slowly made to push inside.
The room beyond was dark too, the moon and the stars outside the only source of light and it was only with his genetically enhanced eyesight that he could make out the two tiny cribs, the dresser and the nursing chair as well as the changing table they had picked at the furniture store.
Nothing was out of the ordinary. Everything exactly as it should be.
It made the silver haired man emit a relieved sigh.
They are mine.
The voices in his head screamed at him relentlessly.
Oh, fucking shut up! he yelled back irritatedly.
There was silence. At least for a tiny bit.
The appearance of the stupid voices, it bothered him to no end. But worse still were the nightmares, the horrible tortures from the past, the future, that waited for him once he closed his eys.
The thought of it made the once proud man drop his shoulders defeatedly.
The last mako shot he'd taken may not have produced the desired effect, true. The surge of streght, the stamina, the energy, but at least it had been keepin his nightmares at bay. Now finally after all those weeks they seemed to have returned. And so had the burning desire for a mako shot.
Oh, what a mess he was...
A petty mako addict.
A lunatic, hearing voices in his head.
A good for nothing, really.
Getting back to bed and watching Lightning's sleeping form, breathing peacefully there right beside him, General Sephiroth Crescent realized that she was so much better than him, so much more advanced. An upgraded version of himself, really.
She was as strong as he was, and just as fast. She might not have been as good as him in combat once, of that he was aware, but it was nothing that wouldn't have been possible to improve with a little bit more practice. Didn't change the fact that she would have been able to overpower him now easily. A fact even the pregnancy could not have changed.
No. He had gotten weak. Pathetic really. And he didn't even want to think of it. The fact that he was running out of mako, would run out of it completely soon...
Without the mako he was useless. There was no deying that.
Lightning on the other hand, the woman sleeping peacefully beside him, she didn't need a mako shot at all. Seemed to run on pure natural energy.
If only he could do that too.
Hojo must have used a more advanced treatment on her, some new kind of technology, some of his doubtless more brilliant creations.
If only she could master his healing arts... If only she would practice more, if only she would take it more serious...
One day he might not be there for her anymore. And that day might arrive soon.
'Let's take these.' Claire Farron suggested as she stepped up to yet another glass cabinet, pulling her silver haired husband to be up behind her.
They were down in the city center again, were browsing the displays of the local jewelry store, had been doing so for at least the past two hours. Two hours spent looking at all kinds of different wedding rings available.
There were ones in gold and silver, ones with diamonds and rubies and saphires, ones with intrecately looking details and eleborately crafted inlays.
They had tried on almost all of them, some of them twice even, well... With at least a million rings available it was easy to loose sight.
Choosing a wedding ring wasn't exactly an easy decision to make and not one that should be rushed either. One was supposed to wear one's wedding ring for the rest of their entire life, every single day, almost every minute. Surely it wasn't a choice one should take lightly...
The rings Lightning had chosen this time were plain unadorned white gold. No details, no stones, no fancy somethings. Just polished plain silvery white alloy that matched their skin tone perfectly.
They were simple. Yet traditional. Solid. And also practical.
They wouldn't rub nor hinder them in any of their movements, would allow them to be worn without causing any trouble, even into the toughest of battlefields.
Lightning liked them instantly.
The dutiful jeweller lady walking over to take the rings out for them to try, it was with a feeling of anticipation that the both of them made to slip them on their fingers.
Yes finally. Those rings, they fit them perfectly, fulfilled all their expectations.
Holding her hand up to her face to inspect the ring against the light, Lightning found it beautiful, the way it looked on her.
A real solid wedding ring. Marking her his wife for ever.
Somehow it was hard to believe that soon she'd be proudly wearing it their on her finger. Every second. Every minute. Every day.
Never would she have imagined that one day she would wear one of these, well at least not in the past few years, not after she had entered soldier, not after she had become a warrior a monster. And least of all that it's counterpart would be worn by him. Him. General Sephiroth Crescent. Alias general asshole. Flagship of the Shin-Ra defense forces and roughest trainer in the world.
Yet there they were.
Looking over at the silver haired man in question, Lightning reached out to put her hand on top of his.
There they were. Two perfectly shaped hands with unblemished albaster skin and two matching white gold rings on their fourth fingers, marking them husband and wife for everyone to see.
It was a beautiful thing to look at. A beautiful kind of realisation to sink in.
'They are perfect.' Claire Farron said decisively. 'What do you think?'
'I think they'll do.' Sephiroth replied somewhat relieved.
It made her give him a tiny shove.
Still. It was the closest thing to an approval he'd given ever since they had arrived. It was propably as best as it would get.
'Shall I wrap them up then?' the friendly lady asked, sounding somewhat hopeful.
'Yes please.' Ligtning replied decisively. 'We'll take them.'
The woman next to them giving a tiny relieved sigh, she took the rings away from them and went over to the counter.
It left the happy couple standing infront of the showcase looking at each other curiously.
'They are perfect.' Sephiroth assured his fiancée, making Lightning crack a smile.
'I'm glad you like them, you'll be wearing them for the rest of your life.' she replied somewhat teasingly, reaching out for his arm again and pulling him over to the check out.
'We still need to get the invitations and choose the colors for the name tags.' she reminded him as she scanned the seemingly endless to do list Serah had provided them with.
'I can't wait.' the silver haired first class muttered somewhat dejectedly, making his bride to be give a sympathetic smile.
'I didn't know that weddings were so complicated.' he added as an explanation.
It made Lightning's smile intensify.
'They aren't actually.' the pink haired female said somewhat unexpectedly.
'You love me. I love you. And we want to stay together for the rest of our lives. What more is there to it?'
It made the silver haired man stare at her.
'Nothing.' he breathed against her lip as he bent down to kiss her.
'Do you want engravings?' the jeweller suddenly asked out of the blue, making the two of them break apart and look up at her confusedly.
'A what?' the two first classes exclaimed in unision.
'Engravings... You get engravings for the inside of the rings. It's all part of the offer.' the woman explained languidly.
'Most people take their partner's name. Or short sentiments.' she added after taking in their perplexed faces.
'I already know my partner's name.' Lightning stated somewhat stupidly, making the woman give her an increduled stare in response.
'Well... Take a look at the leaflet here, there's some examples for inspiration.' the jeweller provided readily.
'Oh... Okay... Thank you.' the bride to be said as she took the little golden booklet away from her and began to browse the displayed examples, the silver haired first class joining in the quest from behind her shoulder.
I love you.
Always and forever.
My heart is yours.
With you always.
…
The list went on forever.
True love.
My dearest.
Yours eternally.
'Together?' Lightning asked looking over her shoulder questioningly.
'Together.' Sephiroth said decisively.
It was the day after the nightmare that he went back into the woods again.
Scouring the forrest and surrounding wildlands for beasts, for tracks, for clues, for anything out of the ordinary really. Telling himself that someone had to stand watch. That someone had to check from time to time. That someone had to keep an eye on things.
Because yes. Those definitely were the only reasons for his visits, or at least that was what he told himself, tried to make himself belief.
It wasn't because of the mako calling for him, no of course not.
Not because of his body craving for it with every fiber of it's being, wasn't because of the voices beckoning him to come closer.
Closer still.
No... Of course it wasn't.
And yet.
Someone just had to stand watch.
Still he never dared to venture too far in. Always made sure to stay clear of the middle of the forrest and the reactor that lay there in wait for him. Clear of the whiff of death that seemed to eminate from it like a toxic fume.