Hello dear readers! I am sorry that it took me so long to update this story; as I had mentioned last chapter this was supposed to be the last one but it was just impossible to bring the story to a satisfying end like this. Hence there will be a few more chapters, also because I came to really like it... I hope you do too and continue to read and criticise^^
I wish you all a wonderful christmas and a happy new year!
Enjoy!
Home sweet home
*Chapter 13*
"That´s wrong." Sephiroth accusingly folded his little arms and gave Loz´ picture a critical jade-eyed look. "The sun´s not green."
They were seated around the kitchen table that was littered with crayons and white papers. The light wood was scratched and adorned with blotches and stripes in blue, green, red, orange and an occasional pink swipe. Little flakes of wood were scattered over the mess because Yazoo had found an especially delightful experience in sharpening their colored pencils for minutes and minutes. When every last single pencil was sharp enough to pierce little holes into the delicate paper, he had started all over again, soft lips pressed together in concentration. At one point, Sephiroth had mercifully taken the pencil sharpener from his little brother´s smeared fingers and introduced Yazoo to wax crayons, lest he sharpened all their pencils into nothingness. Loz had trouble holding the stumps of what was left of their tools already.
"It´s not my fault!" the second oldest huffed, holding up a little yellow stick. "Yazoo broke it, there´s nothing left to color with!"
"Dun cry Loz," Yazoo mumbled in a little singsong voice, looking up from his own masterpiece of abstract art. Then he reached over the table and graciously grabbed one of his wax crayons, thrusting his tiny fist into Loz´ direction. "You can has mine."
"I´m not crying!" Loz glared, hard, and then folded his smeared arms before his chest, looking down at the offered item with a bit of a derisive air. "And that´s not yellow, that´s purple." With a triumphant look at the oldest, he added importantly, "There´s no purple suns."
Yazoo narrowed his eyes ever so slightly in defiance and then turned his attention to his oldest brother as well, demanding some support. "Is too," he stated matter of factly and then pointed at his own painting where he had expertly sloshed a giant purple sphere-ish monstrosity into one corner.
Sephiroth knelt on his chair, palms on the table, and looked into their tight little faces with growing terror. Suddenly he wished he hadn´t said anything about green suns. It was tough being the oldest sometimes. Admittedly there were no purple suns. Nor were there green suns, but he didn´t want for Loz to start crying, and Yazoo... well, Yazoo had declared that he was going to draw Sephiroth his bestest picture ever and he had put a lot of effort into it (even if the sun was apparently purple,) so the elder couldn´t crush his affections with a thoughtless comment about the impossibility of purple suns! If only it hadn´t been raining today, they could have played outside and this issue would never have arisen...
They were still expectantly staring at him.
Sephiroth took a deep breath and knitted his slender brows. Maybe he could trick them and distract them with another game-
Luckily he didn´t have to come up with anything because at this very moment, their dad came to the rescue.
"How´s it going?" Vincent asked with a smile as he entered the occupied kitchen. His hands were buried deep within the pockets of his dark cotton pants he always wore at home. Sephiroth thought that his dad looked very cool in that old T-shirt of his, the one with the scary skull on it. The shirt had been washed so often that the image had faded and wasn´t really visible anymore but the boys loved the smell of it (motor oil from his bike and gunpowder) and the danger and adventures exuding from it. Besides, Vincent had pulled a bandana around his head to keep the wild mess of long raven hair out of his face and that made him look even cooler. Sephiroth wanted to be exactly like that when he´d grown up!
"Daaaaad!" Loz immediately slipped from his chair and came running towards the man with his picture in hand flying behind him. Vincent crouched down and let himself be attacked as Loz threw himself at his muscular chest, buried his wet face in the man´s shirt and voiced his misery through sobs.
"Seph says the-there´s no green suuuns!"
"Because there aren´t." Sephiroth was pretty confident about that and lifted his chin, before he got up to help Yazoo out of his chair. The four year old´s legs were too short and dangled in the air as he clung helplessly to the backrest, half lying on the chair on his belly but the elder helped him down, took him by the hand and walked past scribbled papers on the floor towards Vincent.
"But dere´s purple suns," Yazoo pointed out with a small nod, apparently quite satisfied with his observation.
"Of course." Vincent nodded and gently rubbed Loz´ back, his son´s sobs slowly subsiding. "When you paint pictures, the sun can be any color you want."
"Really?" Loz looked up at his father, hope painted all over his red, swollen face and the grip with which he held Vincent´s shirt in his curled fingers relaxed a bit.
"Really."
That caused the second oldest to look over his shoulder and triumphantly stick out his tongue at Sephiroth, who was above any retort and pretended to be busy with cleaning off a purple smudge from Yazoo´s forehead. The gods knew how it had gotten there.
"Now, let´s be friends again, hm? Your mom and I have something important to tell you."
Vincent got up, straightened Loz´crunched up shirt and noticed with a small smile how the two boys shrugged at each other, just to look back at him curiously the next moment. Yazoo was still busy wiping over the red, raw skin of his forehead and get the spit away that stung there.
"Let´s go to the living room."
The party moved and went to aforementioned place where Lucrecia was heavily seated on the couch, welcoming them with a warm smile. Yazoo let go of Sephiroth´s hand and climbed up beside her to lean his head against her belly and she put a hand on his shoulder lightly. Loz claimed the empty seat to her left but Sephiroth didn´t mind because he sat down beside Yazoo and demandingly pulled the boy away from their mom. To his parents, it might have looked as if their oldest was considerate of Lucrecia´s state and wanted to relieve her from Yazoo´s tight hug but inwardly, Sephiroth gave way to a feeling of hot jealousy that he didn´t feel good about but couldn´t change either.
Vincent had fallen down into his favorite chair and started the announcement.
"As you might have noticed,Mom´s belly has grown recently, hasn´t it?"
The boys nodded and Yazoo piped up thoughtlessly, letting himself be fondled by his eldest brother with never ending patience, "Missus Hewley says mom's fat!"
For just a second, Lucrecia´s smile froze but then she solemnly stroked over the big ball that stretched underneath her red pullover. "Does she now..."
Vincent gave a restrained cough, threw his wife a look that was to placate the tense aura suddenly wafting around her and continued. "Well, as Loz and Sephiroth might remember, this has happened before and mom´s belly grew because there was a little baby in there."
Sephiroth nodded again with almost bored routine. In fact. he couldn´t really remember because he had been too small when Loz and Yazoo had been born but he was the oldest and had to maintain some attitude even though he secretly was amazed and stole a glance at Mom´s belly. A baby... how wondrous!
Yazoo struggled in Sephiroth´s tight embrace so that he could crane his head and have a good look but he couldn´t see the baby at all. He wondered why it was hiding in there and wouldn´t come out so that Yazoo could show it his awesome purple sun...
Loz´ eyes went round at the revelation and the look he threw the ominous appendage was a little more wary. Then the practical side of him overtook and he frowned. "How did it get in there?"
Oh, how Vincent had dreaded that question but he was prepared and with a restrained clearing of his throat, he 'explained', "Well, when people marry, they have babies. But what´s more important is that in a few days, grandpa Grim will come and you will stay at his house for a couple days until the baby is delivered," and of course, he had prepared a distraction tactic as well, hail him!
As he had assumed, the boys instantly lightened up, Loz jumping on the couch in delight.
"Yay, grandpa Grim!"
Vincent´s smile was only marginally bittersweet when he watched their enthusiasm about his father. Grimoire Valentine had been an awful parent to Vincent. Intentionally or not, he had let his son know with everything he did that his work always had priority to his son and his expectations for Vincent had been crushing. In hindsight, it was no wonder that Vincent had become defiant, joining dubious biker gangs and spending his nights and days in bars at the tender age of 13. When he had enlightened his father three years later that he had impregnated his girlfriend, a cool look of disappointment was all the support he had gotten. Grimoire had demanded that the baby be aborted, that Vincent left the girl and 'get a grip,' but Vincent had not yielded, had announced that he and Lucrecia would have that child come what may and that they would have it even without Grimoire´s financial support. Maybe that had been the first time Vincent had actually gotten through to him because his father had thrown him a strange look and the next day, he had offered his help to the both of them. Vincent had suspected that his father believed (maybe hoped) that they would break up sooner or later anyways.
But they didn´t.
They had Loz and Yazoo as well and both of them finished school and gotten jobs to be at least partly independent from Vincent´s father, though the man had turned out to be a surprisingly good grandfather. All that Vincent had wished him to be as a father, he showed in his qualities as a grandparent. Grimoire was utterly taken by the boys and treated them with interest, love and time. On the one hand, that was a surprising but pleasant development but on the other hand, it hurt to see what the man was capable of and what he had denied Vincent all his life, for whatever reason. With the boys, their relationship had changed a bit too, wasn´t as frosty anymore and Grimoire tried to keep his tongue in check and refrain from giving his caustic advice on their upbringing.
In any case, Vincent´s father offered money (of which he had more than enough) and took the boys whenever they needed him to.
And the boys adored him.
"I wanna go to the zoo with grandpa Grim!" Loz just yelled and did a happy dance with both his forefingers sticking up into the air.
"And watch leeches under the microscope!" Sephiroth added with morbid fascination.
"Toilet," Yazoo muttered and slipped from his older brother´s grip to patter out of the room and away from his joyous family.
Contrary to their delight, he didn´t feel so good. Clutching his belly with one hand, he crawled up the stairs and paddled to their bathroom, where he found his favorite plushy Gunter the Chicken. Yazoo pressed it to his chest tightly and then slumped onto the cold tiles near a pile of blue towels, chewing at Gunter´s soft crest.
This was how Sephiroth found him a few minutes later when he came looking for his little brother; pale and drooling all over Gunter.
The boy frowned and crouched down before Yazoo, who only acknowledged his presence with a brief look before he stared back at the towel littered floor.
"What´s wrong? Aren´t you feeling well?" Sephiroth asked, softly, brushing a strand of hair out of Yazoo´s small face and then attempting to take away the plushy so they could talk but Yazoo wouldn´t let go and so the elder gave up.
At least Yazoo lifted his gaze up to him, almost shyly and then slowly shook his head. He wouldn´t take Gunter out of his mouth though.
"Hm... Shall I call Dad?"
At that, Yazoo seemed utterly terrified and shook his head violently, almost ripping off Gunter´s crest.
"A'right!" Sephiroth put his hands on tiny shoulders to stop the vehement protest. Then he leaned over conspiratorially, after he had made sure with a glance at the door that they were alone and muttered into Yazoo´s ear, "It´s okay, I know. Babies sound scary an' they always cry and get all the attention but they´re not that bad..."
Finally Yazoo took the plushy out of his mouth and instead drew his arms around Sephiroth´s neck. His wet lips brushed against his older brother´s ear when he whispered back, trembling, "We married, righ'?"
"Of course." The elder put the younger into his lap and soothingly stroked over Yazoo´s head, hoping that it´d make the prospect of getting a brother or a sister less frightening to him and Yazoo did snuggle closer, burying his face into Sephiroth´s neck. The eldest sighed but only a few moments later, he felt a warm wetness moistening his skin and hair as finally Yazoo started to bawl.
"I dun wa-anna get a bi-big bellyyyy!" he sobbed, almost inaudibly and clung to his older brother in despair.
Sephiroth froze with a shadow of dread settling on his young face.
He hadn´t thought about that at all! Oh dear, what if they were going to have a baby now too? Vincent said that it happened when people got married, Sephiroth could clearly remember! But Yazoo was so tiny and fragile himself, how was he supposed to have a baby in his small belly? And how were they supposed to take care of it? Well, Sephiroth had grown a lot lately and he had even lost his milk teeth already so he was almost an adult but Yazoo was still small. Of course Sephiroth would take care of the both of them, Yazoo and their baby but he had to admit that he was a bit afraid of the responsibility. Nevertheless, he tenderly rubbed Yazoo´s back and then grabbed his chin to make the boy look at him. With the edge of his sleeve, the elder brushed away big crystal tears from the corners of Yazoo´s glistening eyes and then reached over to rip some toilet paper off and press it to a red button nose.
"Blow."
Yazoo took a deep breath, then squeezed his eyes shut and gave it his best shot, trembling with effort, hands pressed into little fists. The light flap of a butterfly might have been close to what Sephiroth felt under his fingertips when his brother snorted. He threw the tissue into the toilet and flushed it down before he went back to console his 'husband'.
"You don´t need to worry, I´ll take care of it. I´ll talk to Dad."
Yazoo sniffled, intrigued by the conviction and confidence with which Sephiroth spoke. They could get through everything, even babies, there was absolutely no doubt about it. They just had to be together.
In the end, no baby had come. Sephiroth remembered the house had been gloomy and Mom and Dad hadn´t smiled for a while. Vincent had explained to them that the baby was in heaven now and careful inquiries had revealed that only men and women could get babies together, which was a great relief. By the time Kadaj had joined them, the fear of accidentally impregnating Yazoo hadn´t been an issue any longer...
"Hey, are you listening?"
Sephiroth blinked and the world came back into focus, mainly consisting of Zack´s waving hand in front his face.
Ah. Right. He had to focus on playing. The guitar hung heavily from his shoulders, the strings brimming with electricity under his fingertips. Angeal sat ready behind the drums, swirling his sticks. Genesis was clutching the mic, brows knitted in concentration. He probably had finished his lyrics and was going through them in his head. Even when he didn´t actually do anything, like now, just standing there, he always commanded a great air of drama around him...
"I am listening."
Zack didn´t look very convinced, his bass guitar resting in his nervous hands. Then a knowing smile stretched across his open face, barely suppressed exuberance radiating from him in stifling waves.
"Aaaaaaaaaah," he sang all of a sudden, pointing his finger at Sephiroth and almost impaling the other teen´s nose with it. "You got girlfriend trouble!" he gave a little excited jump, his hormones obviously running wild.
The 'WTF' expression on Sephiroth´s face was priceless. Or at least Zack Fair thought so, as he spun around, drawing his arms up, his guitar flying dangerously close to Genesis and his mic, the latter just gracefully side-stepping the attack.
"Haha! I knew it! Who is she? Why didn´t you introduce her to us yet?" His finger came dangerously close to Sephiroth´s scowling face again, this time waving accusingly. Behind his drums, Angeal gave a sigh and let his wooden sticks sink down against the floor tom.
"Because there is no girlfriend to introduce." Waspishly, Sephiroth gripped the fingerboard of his guitar harder, knuckles turning pale. "Now, can we get this over with?"
Zack frowned, opening his mouth to protest, but Angeal´s deep, slightly warning voice held him back. "Drop it, puppy."
With a stubborn shuffle of his feet over the worn carpet, Zack sighed but when Genesis cleared his throat importantly, signaling that he was ready as well, the puppy just gave up and listlessly shrugged.
They were such a bunch of unfun guys sometimes.
tbc
Review replies:
natzilla: You poor thing! You know I am totally lazy when it comes to cooking, but I am not THAT lazy -.- It´s really just disgusting... Hm, you´ll get real time smut soon enough ;) I wonder about the pairings as well... I will go with the flow I guess^^
Psycho Steph: Yeah, I think you´re right, Seph has no idea what to do, but he can´t leave the situation as it is either... We´ll see if he finds a solution ^^
Soyna: Yesh, there needs to be some tension, otherwise it´d be boring XD I wanna lick Sephiroth to confirm if he is tasty indeed, but I doubt that he´d löet me :(
Only Me: Thank you very much! I am glad that you feel that the childhood chapter was the justification for their relationship, because that was what I had wanted to bring across... Incest is very difficult to 'justify' as it is simply taboo, but I wanted to show that there´s something deeper going on, that they are not just fooling around and being insolent. So, really thank you and I will continue this for a bit longer^^
Kokoro Phantomhive: Haha, thank you! I hope to make it worth your while ;) Ah yes, you usually wouldn´t expect to walk in on two brothers so Zack brushes the awkwardness... for now ;)
smverduzco: Haha, you think Yazoo does fall in love with Genesis? Interesting thought... We´ll see about that ;
aubrieta: Aw, thank you! Yeah, don´t ever try the spaghetti with ketchup, they taste as awful as they sound-.- I am glad you liked the descriptions, I really try to get better with them in this fic XD *huggles*
RedHerring1412: Hey! Thank you for your stunning imput, I had a lot of fun imagining your suggestions and visualising them! A very interesting concept you have there! Sadly I already had a background for everyone :( It will slowly be revealed in the coming chapters, but you could already see part of it here. I admit that Vincent and Lucrecia were very young indeed when they got their kids, but with Grimoirs financial support (he´s dirty rich) they managed just fine. And while I really love angst and drama this story is a bit more light hearted ;) Of course there is the drama surrounding the incest but I think that makes it even more difficult for the two to keep their relationship. They care about their family and don´t want to hurt anyone; there´s no drama but the one Sephiroth and Yazoo create and that makes all of the responsibility for it lay with them... which is a very burden to bear for a 14 and a 16 year oldk, I guess. But thank you so much for your input and please keep throwing it at me whenever you like XD
Anne Voda Hijme: Thanks! I think too that Genesis is very bright and he thinks beyond conventions so maybe he´ll be the first one to figure out indeed... if there still is something to figure out after all XD
Afuri: Heyy! Thank you for all your wonderful reviews, I am so happy you enjoyed it! There will still be a bit more, I just can´tlet go of this fic yet ;)
Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing! Please don´t forget to leave a little comment on your way out, it´s christmas time and those are like little gifts to me XDD