Disclaimer: X3 was ruined for me. RUINED, I TELL YOU, RUINED! (mumble) stupid (mumble) school people (mumble).
Still no internet, people. (sigh) How do I manage to live?
I've decided I would do something very interesting with this fic. You're going to have to find out next chapter, because I had no fun writing this one. The chapter is quite depressing.
Updating at work really sucks.
-Liz
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Twisted.
That was how she felt inside. It was like something was gnawing at her, draining away her energy, wringing her from the inside out. She pictured a heavyset woman in an apron, fat forearms rippling and jiggling as she twisted all the water from Tifa into a big wooden wash bucket. Yes, that was what she was-a wet towel.
She stayed inside for days now, depression slamming into her like an oncoming train, like a horde of angry writers coming after the Authoress for using that cliché comparison. She'd be curled up on the couch, eyes crusted with sleep, squinting to keep out the slices of sunshine that defied the Venetian blinds. Her light green down comforter with the fancy design all over it was now ruined and soiled from old tears, and liquid that flowed from the nose that Tifa didn't care to wipe away with tissues that stood unused in that blue flowery box on the new coffee table she bought with Reno after she hit him in the back with her old one.
She was miserable. Miserable and pregnant.
She'd feel it move around in her womb, and it felt like a monster. A monster with claws and teeth that threatened to rip itself out in a few months.
--
Reno, after revealing his problems to his fellow male coworkers with female problems, decided it was best to carry the responsibility of becoming the father figure of his child. Tseng and Rude gave him manly support, also known as drunk hugs in the drag bar with the Adonis-like singer crooning "Bohemian Rhapsody".
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Killing time was flushing minutes from her life. She looked up from the toilet, the acidic taste in her mouth making her retch again. After a few minutes of emptying her stomach, she flushed the toilet and rinsed her mouth at the sink. In the corner of her eye she saw her new door.
The door.
Screaming in anguish like an Amazon's war cry, she punched a hole through it with her wet fist.
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"This is embarrassing." Pastel colors of the store sharply contrasted with their dark blue suits. A row of clown dolls grinned menacingly at the trio, and all three of them walked quickly past, trying not to remember the "Mad Clown on Crack Who Liked Magic Tricks" incident about a year and a half ago. Reno pushed the shopping cart through the aisle of the Babies-R-Us in Junon.
Tseng pulled the cart gently to stop Reno, and perused the diapers stacked up in mountains. A pregnant couple stopped to look at the three, gave them odd looks, and went back to shopping. The man from Wutai pulled out a brand which the words were written in Wutaian. "I used these." He said, and threw six or seven packages into the shopping cart. Reno sighed and pushed the cart out of the aisle.
Rude, fascinated with toys, was batting at one of those figures that no matter how hard you hit them, they don't fall over. His eyes were slightly glazed, and saliva was threatening to slip out of the corner of his mouth. Tseng and Reno watched him for a second, and then ignored him to continue with shopping.
"Do you think she'll ever talk to me?"
Tseng's expression turned into an indifferent one. "Maybe. Her hormones are out of control right now and she might forgive you for a while."
"For a while." Reno repeated, trying hard not to imagine when that time came.
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Yet again, Tifa had to call ACME DOOR AND WINDOW SERVICES from the yellow pages. Two dark-skinned men wearing dirty boots caked with mud or probably chocobo shit stomped in with a new door, this time made of steel. Their shoes left dirty tracks all over her floor. Death to carpet.
Her bandaged knuckles gave her the "fighter" look that she used to have.
But have you ever heard of a pregnant fighter? I didn't think so.
She laid her large self down on her bed with the silk sheets, her round stomach perpendicular to the bed. Her hands pillowed her head, and she began to count the dots on the ceiling. The corners of the white ceiling began to sway, at first waving around like a child's balloon on a windy day. But now, her vision was blurry as the young woman struggled to keep her eyes open.
Tifa hadn't eaten a decent meal for a week. She had some water, raisins, and the occasional pizza here and there, but overall, her body was suffering. So was the fetus.
My Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want… he lays me down on green pastures...
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"Mornin', Mister Strife. Time for your meds." The busty young nurse cheerfully greeted, pushing a metal cart fill of syringes, bottles, a meal, and various other instruments that patients were not allowed to have. The wheels made no noise as she let herself into Cloud's room.
Cloud himself was sitting on an armchair reading a book of poetry. He looked up at Laura, and then back to the book. She stood waiting for him to get up, and tapped her foot once, twice, three times.
She cleared her throat to get his attention. "Aren't you going to take your medicine?" She asked, impatiently curling her finger around her sepia locks.
Not taking his eyes off the book, he replied softly, "She's pregnant."
"Sorry, didn't hear you." Laura snapped her gum rudely.
Cloud shook his head slowly and put the book back onto the small table, and pulled up the light green sleeve on his right arm as he walked towards the bed. He sat down on the edge of it, and she quickly took an alcohol pad and wiped a small area. As usual, she quickly injected him with his daily medications, and the twitch Cloud used to get when she first started to do that wasn't there for the first time. His mind was too preoccupied with something else.
Laura bathed Cloud, washing his hair in the sink in one corner of the small room. She put his clothes on, shaved him, and gave him a plastic tray with his lunch on it. The lunch was simple: a ham sandwich with mustard, orange juice, and a few potato chips.
When Laura left, he stared at the slices of pig meat between the rye and smear of mustard.
Turn into a volleyball…
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Bags in his hand, he knocked furiously on Tifa's door with his free hand. "Tifa! I know you're mad at me, but I just wanna talk!" He shouted, and kicked the door to make more noise. When he kicked the door, it opened just a crack, and he let himself in.
The place was a total disaster; mud on the floor, clothes lying around, and pizza boxes strewn on the ground, opened and showing the uneaten portions. He ran to her room, going up her steps two at a time.
Reno flung the door open and saw a very pregnant Tifa on the floor.
He dropped his bags and ran to her, and tried to shake her awake. "Tifa," Reno said as he tried to wake her up, "C'mon, get up."
She mumbled something about flying octopi and Xianghua and Kilik's favorite sex position, and Reno decided to take her to the hospital. As he tried to lift her, Tifa's arm subliminally flew out and smacked Reno in a very sensitive part below the navel.
It took him three minutes to recover.
So with a pregnant lady in his arms and now into the backseat of a car, he furiously drove to the ER, the siren reserved for the Turks to legally drive through traffic and red lights wailing.
Watching, waiting…
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