Myself and Sasukeblossomhime thank everyone who reviewed and shall be rolling out a new chapter every Friday morning until we are done all 7. Hope you enjoy this crazy fic and shall review :)
Chapter 2
Sephiroth got out of bed and got ready to go into his office, it didn't take him long to get ready in the mornings. He had bathed the night before, so it was just a matter of brushing his hair free of tangles and brushing his teeth. He possessed very little body hair, so didn't need to shave which he found a blessing as he couldn't stand the scent of aftershave or anything like that, preferring his own natural body scent.
He examined himself in the mirror, he still looked the age he had when he had died, still finding it odd to use that expression in description, but there was nothing normal about him. So did it really matter?
He had gained muscle mass, so was slightly stockier than he had been, but it was hard to work out in Lifestream. Whereas, he worked out four hours a day, liking the self discipline of it. He liked driving himself to even his considerable limits.
He looked for the beauty that so many admired about him but saw only himself, as he had always looked. He was single and didn't see any reason for changing that. He did have sex, but had only had the sort where his partner was already on birth control and he always wore a condom. He finally had had a vasectomy that he religiously got medically checked each month to make sure his own body didn't decide to reject it. He didn't date, preferring to take lovers. He had discreet arrangements where he wasn't expected to entertain them outside of bed. He had been told he was a good lover, however he approached sex in the same way he did working out; aggressively. It was more like he pounded all his frustrations from everyday life into a tight, willing body.
He slipped into his clothes, had a light breakfast and went into his office. He nodded politely to his personal assistant, who followed him into his office.
"Have you heard from Sergeant Danvers?" he asked her.
"Yes sir, he has arranged a meeting time of one pm at a bar called, Seventh Heaven" she replied.
"Seventh Heaven? Did you to tell him I prefer not to frequent that establishment?" he asked her.
"He was most insistent upon meeting there, it's something about a girl he'd met. I believe she works there" she said. Not disclosing that the affable Sergeant Danvers' exact words were "tell the tight ass to get his marble buns to Seventh Heaven so he can check out the ass of the century on this waitress who works there."
"A girl? Ah, I think he's met Tifa Lockhart" Sephiroth mused.
"You know this lady?" she asked him.
"I almost killed that lady" he said. He remembered her as a cute teenaged girl and wondered what she looked like now, obviously his colleague approved of how she had turned out.
Daniel squirmed uncomfortably under Dr. Morton's and the police man's gazes. "What did you do with the sample?" he demanded of the cringing man.
"I gave it to someone" he admitted, "she paid me a lot of money for it."
"And this person's name is?" Dr. Morton asked.
"Tifa Lockhart, she owns a bar called the Seventh Heaven" he told them.
"Captain, have an arrest warrant made up for this person and go pick her up. We have to make an example of her to show people what happens when they steal government property" Dr. Morton said to the Police Captain beside him and he nodded.
Everyone tensed when Sephiroth strolled into Seventh Heaven with the handsome, dark haired Sergeant Danvers beside him. He made no pretense about being there, in fact he approached the bar that a very attractive, more grown up version of Tifa Lockhart stood behind. "I apologize if my presence here makes you feel uncomfortable, Miss Lockhart. I know that you are not a fan of mine. I am only here because my colleague, who I understand you have met before, insisted we had to meet here. If you will bear with me and allow me to remain for the span of about an hour and have a drink or two, I shall depart and never bother you again" he said in a surprisingly humble voice.
"Take a seat" Tifa said in a cold voice. "Hello again, Sergeant" she said in a much warmer one.
"Hello Tifa, are you going to be dancing on the bar this time?" he asked her, leaning over the bar.
"I'm afraid my bar dancing days are over for the moment" she said, stepping from behind the bar to reveal her swollen pregnant belly.
"Oh my, congratulations to yourself and your husband" Sergeant Danvers said, leaning waaaaaay back from the bar.
"I'm not married, I was artificially inseminated" Tifa lied as she had to everyone else, she wanted Cloud to be the first one to know the truth.
"I guess that makes her still single" Sephiroth observed.
"Quite, come let's find a seat" Sergeant Danvers said all but dragging him to the first available table. Sephiroth was the first one to see the policemen come into the bar and approach the talking Tifa and Yuffie.
"Tifa Lockhart?" they questioningly asked her.
"Yes" she said with a frown.
"You're under arrest for the theft of government property" they said, slapping handcuffs on her and Sephiroth observed that she didn't look too surprised.
"What? This has to be some kind of mistake" Yuffie cried, her eyes flying around the bar, looking for someone who could help Tifa, but most of their highly placed friends had returned to their offices by then.
"It's okay Yuffie" Tifa assured her, "I'll be fine"
But Yuffie wasn't done yet and her eyes settled on Sephiroth, "Sephiroth, you're a General again aren't you?" she asked him.
"That's correct" he replied, wondering what the petite ninja was getting at.
"Well then go with her and help her. You certainly owe her one" she demanded.
"You would order me to..." he chided her.
"Get your pale ass off that seat and go with Tifa" she ordered him.
"You should help Tifa" Sergeant Danvers agreed.
"You are nearly as highly placed as myself and I don't see you volunteering. I thought you liked her?" Sephiroth asked him.
"I'm not into the whole single mom thing. I shall be in touch" he said and strolled out.
Sephiroth sighed in impatience. "Captain, I shall be accompanying Miss Lockhart until her lawyer arrives" he called to them.
"I don't have one" she said. Sephiroth was shocked at this, he employed the best one in town and had an investment banker handling his considerable fortune and stock portfolio. Who didn't have a lawyer?
"Okay, I shall be accompanying her until my lawyer arrives" he said, taking out his PHS.
Sephiroth sat beside the incredibly pale looking Tifa and thought she looked at guilty as all hell, both of them silent until her newly appointed lawyer arrived.
"Sephiroth, sorry I'm late. Your phone call found me playing golf" Dexter Andrews, Esq. said.
"I thought that it was doctors who did that during the day" Sephiroth replied.
"Why should they have all the fun? "You must be Miss Lockhart, enchanted" he said. She studied him, he was a tall man in his fifties, who was obviously in good shape with a trim waist and broad shoulders, who wore a grey power suit, had a jaw that could have been formed of granite and salt and pepper hair, but had a wide, friendly smile.
"Nice to meet you" she said.
"So gentlemen, what do you have on the obviously pregnant Miss Lockhart that I can get dismissed by the judge in a laughable way?" he politely asked them, taking a seat.
"She had someone steal government property for her personal use" the policeman said uncomfortably.
"Oh did she take someone's stapler? Out with it man, what did my client allegedly steal?" he asked him. The officer just handed him the arrest warrant. "Is accused of stealing a sperm sample from the cryogenic lab of SOLDIER" he said. "Are you joking? Whose sample?" the man handled him another document and he seemed to freeze at the name there and handed it to the frowning Sephiroth. Who was wondering what was going on while a blushing Tifa stared at the table in front of her. She chanced a glance at Sephiroth and could have sworn that the blood had drained from his face.
"This can't be right" he mused.
"I'm afraid it is" Dr. Morton agreed.
Sephiroth looked at the paper again and then blanched and looked at Tifa's abdomen and asked her in a voice with just the tiniest trace of panic that she didn't catch, "Miss Lockhart, how far are you into your pregnancy?"
"Six months" she said.
"For the inseminate, you used this sample the you allegedly paid someone to retrieve for you?" he asked her.
"Yes. I know it was wrong of me to do that," she said.
"So that mean that your child is..." he quietly said.
"Children-I'm having twins" she said and then noticed something odd. It was like Sephiroth had suddenly become a marble statue with pinned on jade jewels that have odd cracks down the center of them.
"Sephiroth, are you okay?" Dexter asked him.
"I need a minute with Miss Lockhart" he said unfreezing.
"We can't allow that" the police officer protested.
"Leave" Sephiroth said in dangerous sounding voice and they did, then his eyes pinned Tifa to her place as he stood up and loomed over her, making her nervous. "Miss Lockhart, do you have some kind of latent crush on me or do you think that my position will bring you prestige of some sort? I'm really not understanding why you resorted to these measures. Though I will admit to being a tad flattered" he said.
"What are you talking about? I just wanted to have blonde babies with blue eyes." she said with a frown.
"Blonde? I supposed you could consider my hair colour to fall under the category of fair, but it doesn't even qualify as platinum blonde, but blue eyes aren't even remotely possible-genetically from me as far as I know" he mused.
"What are you talking about? This has nothing to do with you. The father of my babies is Cloud Strife, a friend of mine copied down his number for me from his chart" Tifa said.
"Our service numbers were very similar, but the last two digits are reversed" he said.
"Wait are you trying to say that my babies are…?" she said her eyes going wide at the idea.
"I'm saying you received the wrong information and ergo, the wrong sample. I'm sure that Cloud's is still there. Now the question is; what are we going to do with you Miss Lockhart?" he asked her in a voice that could have frozen a humming bird in flight. Both people refused to look at each other when the others returned.
"Now Miss Lockhart how do you plead?" they asked her.
"Guilty, lock me up" she said, anything to get away from his accusing expression and now, the fissure bleeding in her heart.
"I'm sorry I can't allow that, now that I know she's carrying my children, as it would appear. She is under my protection" Sephiroth said in a voice that brooked no argument and she could only stare at this.
"But she broke the law" Dr. Morton protested.
"As it was legally my DNA, had I wished to use it for procreation, what is the process to obtain it?" he asked his lawyer, dismissing the doctor's statement completely.
"You would need to sign a request form and I would have to approve it" Dr. Morton said.
"So get me one" Sephiroth insisted.
"She belongs in jail" he cried.
"Backdate it then, I'm single and have had a medical procedure rendering me sterile, so I had to use a surrogate and that would be Tifa Lockhart" Sephiroth said.
"It would solve everyone's problems, be a pal Harold" Dexter said, giving him a winning smile.
"Oh very well, but keep her out of here" Dr. Morton said and went to get a form.
"Miss Lockhart won't trouble you again" Sephiroth said. He signed the form and stood up. "Come Miss Lockhart."
"Dexter, I will need the children to be acknowledged as my own in every way legal way possible and she as their mother, will be their legal guardian should anything happen to me. I need you to draw up and iron clad custody agreement to that effect and we will both be appointing other legal guardians in the event of our demises as well," he insisted.
"Sephiroth just leave me alone" she said in a weary voice, wishing the world would open up and swallow her. How could she had failed so miserably at a simple task? There had been hundreds of men in SOLDIER and she had to pick his sample out of all of them.
Sephiroth was feeling overwhelmed, not that it showed on his face, that the one thing he had never wanted in life was staring at him wearing a red mini dress, not just one baby, but two. How had his day gone so wrong? To find out that it had been an accident on her part made it even worse. He couldn't just walk away from this-from her. They came from him and must be protected as result, he couldn't let someone like Hojo do what had been done to him, on hi... the children.
"You could just marry her, it has the same effect" Dexter said. "The rest is a matter of drawing up wills and a paternity test to establish you as their father."
"No way, I refuse!" she said frustrated and at wits end.
Suddenly he was a marble statute again and stayed like that for a full thirty seconds while they both stared at him. Finally, Sephiroth let out a resigned sigh, "Oh very well, come Miss Lockhart, it seems we are to be wed" he said to her.
"I don't want to marry you" she protested and it falling on crazy, deaf ears.
"You are trying my patience. I've just kept you from doing jail time. I have tried to stay out of your bar and your life and those of your friends, as I was trying to be respectful and not bring back painful memories for yourself. Yet, I keep on being sucked back into your life and I don't wish to be and I have you to thank for it. I have completely changed from the way you knew me to be. You have put me in a situation completely out of my element and you're refusing me when I'm sacrificing my liberty to keep yourself and your little mistakes safe? I think not, we shall wed and right now. Besides, do you think your precious Cloud will wed you when you have been tainted by me, so to speak?" he asked her and she just looked at the ground and silently walked beside him, something in her heart completely breaking away and never coming back.
"Fine" she said so reserved that Sephiroth stopped his badgering. Something about her with a broken spirit due to a broken heart didn't sit well. He knew how she'd loved Cloud and supported him in everything he did, only to be denied because of a memory of a lost girl who had met her fate at the end of his Masamune. Sephiroth shook his head to clear the all to cloying thoughts.
"I agree to it but, the paternity test is not being done when the boys are still in my uterus" she argued.
"Boys?" He questions her.
"Twin boys. The paternity test can only be done after they are born" she insisted.
Sephiroth had an odd feeling in his belly to learn the sex of the children and dismissed it.
"Why?" he asked her.
"There is a chance it can cause me to miscarry and you are not a father if you ask me to take this risk" she said as if in challenge.
"Fine, it can be postponed. I am more than positive that they are based on the evidence. Besides, I am not that much of a monster" he said flippantly.
Tifa had unwashed tears in her eyes, though she remained steadfast and snorted inelegant. "Tell that to my father and my hometown of Nibelhiem…" she said cattily.
Sephiroth willed himself calm and not stoop to her level. He knew why he was doing this.
His lawyer gave them a dubious look in both their directions, sensing the underlying tension.
"You will need a ring, two if you are intending to wear one yourself" Dexter explained slowly to defuse the quiet angst.
They quickly left the police station and were on their way to the jewelers.
"Go to the nearest jewelry store" he ordered his driver as they got into the vehicle, Sephiroth lowering the window to finish talking to his lawyer before pulling off.
"I'll go ahead and get the paperwork ready. I can meet you at your condominium later if you'd like?" Dexter volunteered.
"Tomorrow, I am occupied this evening, we will have to talk about housing arrangements anyway" Sephiroth gestured to Tifa loosely as if the woman wasn't there, making those angry tears hard to hold in.
This was the absolute worst day of her life. If she didn't already love her children so much, she'd seriously be considering options, late in pregnancy or not. No wonder Lucrecia Crescent locked herself away. Sephiroth and Hojo…that was a volatile situation.
They made their way to a high end jeweler. She couldn't hold them anymore, her hormones and just the day had won.
"Pick one" he said impatiently to her while she bent over the display.
"You look a diamond girl to me" the friendly jeweler said.
"I don't know" she said as the first tears dropped from her eyes, making the clerk concerned and startling Sephiroth.
"Are you well dear?" the clerk asked genuinely concerned while Sephiroth had frozen again on the spot but quickly recovered this time. "She's just so excited that I am making her an honest woman and very happy. You know how pregnancy hormones can also amplify everything as well?" Sephiroth said talking smooth out his asshole, while Tifa continued to have tears streaming down her face.
She was so overwhelmed and Sephiroth was such an ass. Beautiful: always had been. Smart and cunning: got it in one. Complete colossal asshat: BINGO!
Much like Dexter did, the clerk nervously shuffled for a moment like a bird that had been ruffled but the settled because at the end of the day, a crying 6-month pregnant female with a man of monster height, presence, publicity-wise did not outweigh the possibility of a huge sale. So much for care in the world. Tifa felt nauseous for the first time since her first 6 weeks of pregnancy.
"What is your budget?" the clerk asked Sephiroth. Figures.
"Whatever she wants" Sephiroth all but growled.
"What do you like?" he encouraged her.
"Just a plain band is fine, show me the cheapest one" she said, not caring anymore.
"Cheap? You want people to think that I can't afford a proper wedding band?" he snapped. "Where and what are the more expensive ones?"
"Platinum and here" he replied.
"How about this one? Small but set with diamonds?" he asked Tifa. "Here is the matching one" he said handing it to Sephiroth, who jabbed it indifferently onto his wedding finger, nodded at the clerk to indicate it fit, before jerking it off and putting it on the counter as it had scaled his flesh. Certainly the glare he gave it could have melted it right onto the glass.
"Great, try it on" he ordered her and she silently did, it was a perfect fit. "Here is my credit card" Sephiroth said throwing it at him indifferently.
"My, why aren't you a bully" the jewelry said accepting it, trying to laugh off how he'd most likely sold a set of wedding rings to bona fide enemies, not lovers. A piece of his soul died for that commission.
"How am I a bully? She is carrying my child...children. I am marrying her and you are trying my patience by delaying our purchase" he snapped. "Do you know who I am?" he asked him.
The clerk, Darren, had had enough and now that Tifa really looked at him and he at her, he knew why the situation was off. The man was as huge as Barrett and selling fine high end jewelry.
"Yes, you were the pipsqueak baby General playing God, all the while crying for your 'mother,' while all of us real SOLDIERS did all the work and you took all the glory. Each and every of you super enhanced first class pretty boy freaks went mad in some way and the world was better out without you. Tell me, General Sephiroth, what you do to get her pregnant? Rape her perhaps? Seems like your style. Oh, I know exactly who she is and I know now why the tears. Sometimes being around stuffy folk makes you lose focus, wouldn't you agree, Miss Lockhart?" he said with a sneer to Sephiroth and a sympathetic and self deprecating smile to her.
Sephiroth was livid. His eyes were wide, pupils narrowed down to slits. Tifa had since long stopped crying when someone recognized her for her merits, her deeds. Like euthanizing Mr. Big and Bad, twice. Somehow when that last thought cleared, she didn't feel satisfaction, she felt actual sadness. Odd.
"How dare you, I worked hard for my title" he said in a deadly calm voice. "What are you doing now besides selling illusions?"
"I sell dreams, not illusions. When someone gives a piece of jewelry, it is because they love that person. You obviously don't love this young lady or you wouldn't rush her like this, then there is the tension between the two of you thick enough to cut with Zach's Buster sword. If you're on your way to your wedding; where is her gown, where are her friends? Is this truly even happening or is it just the mockery of marriage it looks like?" he said flicking his eyes towards Tifa, who was just watching the exchange.
"Why we are marrying is our business. You are tempting me against all my better judgment, to strike you where you stand" Sephiroth calmly said.
"What a shock: you threaten someone's life when they're too close or a dead ringer to the truth *yawn* I shouldn't even have to deal with people like you. Welcome back, General. Never darken my door again. As for you, Tifa, feel free to come back whenever you wish. I know a good divorce lawyer." Darren said with a wink to Tifa and against her better judgement, she actually giggled.
Sephiroth was sweating with the effort to not to go back and skewer the man on Masamune and raze that store to the ground.
Tifa sat beside a very silent Sephiroth and was starting to realize he did have emotions indeed, but managed to conceal them very well, it was the subtle shifting of his features that gave them away. His usual neutral face was set like it was stone, indicating to her that he was upset. In actual fact, Sephiroth still shook with the effort of repressing his fury and yet was perfectly still. She didn't know that he had had a quiet word with Dr. Morton and he been a little disturbed to learn that Genesis's, Zack's and Angeal's samples remained unclaimed, but reminded himself that sperm samples weren't like bodies and none of them had been married, but still...
"You were bothered by what he said back there?" she ventured. She knew that Sephiroth hadn't raped her, in fact of all the times, he truly was the innocent.
Her own unhealthy obsession for Cloud had caused this and now they both were suffering. He'd been polite when he did have to come in contact with her. She was the one nothing shy of a bitch when he was around. She was the one hung up on the past in all aspects and it had been 10 years. Cloud fully knew her feelings. . .because she'd confessed to him and then she'd woken the next day to an empty bar/house. Cloud had either fled that night or that early morning.
Sephiroth almost leapt out of his skin at this. No one had ever been able to read him emotionally, but his three close friends from so long ago. Was she some kind of a clairvoyant? He wasn't aware that Tifa was just empathic and very good at reading people.
"I am not in the mood for small talk. After this, you are to go pack your clothes and move into my condominium tonight, my driver shall stay in my office to protect you" he explained to her.
"Protect me from what?" she asked him.
"I have enemies as you might have noticed, he will do until we get you a bodyguard, perhaps a legacy TURK. Can you handle Tseng or maybe Reno or Rude? " he asked, staring straight ahead.
"But what about my bar?" she asked him.
"You shall still run it, but shall have to hire staff, you shouldn't be on your feet so much" he said.
"Do I have to live with you?" she asked him.
"Yes, this marriage must appear valid in every way" he replied.
"But…" she said.
"But nothing, I am just a soul trapped inside a situation you created. Don't blame me for doing what people seem to refer to as "doing the right thing." It's not like you'd let me sweep you off your feet and romanced you" he said candidly and cryptically with his head turned towards the opened window, his head leaning back against the seat and his silvery hair stirring occasionally with the cool breeze from outside from the drive.
He was so beautiful and it made her feel funny inside, and below. She chalked it up to the hormones and chose anger instead.
"Are you even capable of love?" she spat, trying derail the other unwanted feelings.
"Probably not, but you will get used to living with me in time. I won't mistreat you or keep you a prisoner. I can be very fair if you don't overstep your boundaries" he explained.
"Boundaries?" she questioned.
"To be established" he said.
Dexter had everything ready for them to sign and Sephiroth listen for about two minutes while the lady prattled on about the types of ceremonies she could offer them. "As I understand it, we can just sign this paper and we are wed" he said with impatience in his voice.
"Yes but don't you want something more romantic?" she asked him.
"No" he said, pulling out his stamp and stamping the paper.
"I agree" Tifa said in a world weary voice and signed it.
"Is that it?" Sephiroth asked the lady.
"Yes, you may now kiss..." she announced, but Sephiroth just stood up.
"There's somewhere I need to be." Sephiroth blurted.
"Where are you going?" Tifa asked him.
"That is none of your concern. Don't expect me home tonight" he said.
"You're not going to stay with me on our wedding night?" she asked him, feeling relieved if anything.
"Don't you think that you should at least help her settle in?" Dexter asked him, truly baffled.
"Tifa seems the resourceful sort, she even found her way into a restricted government vault" he snidely said, glaring at her and she just looked away.
"Speaking of which, you should consider getting a house" Dexter suggested.
"Why?" Sephiroth asked, clearly baffled at the idea.
"You have three-bedroom condo and you now have a wife and two babies on the way, it would be insane" Dexter explained.
"Do you know a realtor?" he asked him.
"Yes" Dexter barely got out.
"Then have him call me" he said dismissively.
"Goodbye Tifa, I shall be back briefly in the morning" Sephiroth stated waving over his shoulder to her, back turned and walking away.
"But why do I have to go to your place if you're not there?" she asked him.
"You just do" he said coldly and picked up the pace to walk out the double glass doors, turning only to face and answer the last petty questions, leaving her with a saddened and confused Dexter, an even sadder court clerk lady, and Sephiroth's driver.
"Well I don't want to" she began.
"You can go there or my driver, Michael, can drag you. You left me no choice and I'm not leaving you one either. However this came about, it seems that we are yoked together because of your actions. Ironic, I swore never to be a father or a husband to anyone. Yet here I am, because of an unrequited crush you had on another man and a lover that never was" and he walked away without a backwards glance.
That was the last bit that finally truly broke her heart. He was right. He was cold, he was logical, and-he was right. Tifa allowed herself to cry during the trip to the bar, all alone in the limousine.
Tifa let herself into her bar and quickly packed what she needed for a few days, too ashamed to tell her friends what had transpired. The condominium that Sephiroth owned was to be her new home, was small and cramped with dull, practical furniture meant only for function without decorations of any sort, not even pictures. One bedroom was obviously his, with a surprisingly comfortable looking bed. She was surprised to find a small framed photo of a younger Sephiroth, who was actually smiling, while Genesis stood to his right, Angeal his left and Zach whimsically was standing behind them, giving Geneis and Sephiroth rabbit ears with his fingers. It was an odd picture for the stuffy man to display and made it seem liked he was almost human to Tifa.
The other room was obviously his office and the room meant for her was sparsely furnished and it contained only a double bed, chair and small dresser. Beyond that, there was a living room with a decent sized flat screen TV and a chair and a couch, a small kitchen and a three-piece washroom. It wasn't much different from her own place and she found this ironic.
She watched some TV and made dinner for herself and Michael out of a surprisingly well stocked fridge. She retired early and crawled into the unfamiliar bed. "Mrs. Tifa Crescent" she said aloud and burst into bitter tears again, for being married to the second most beautiful person she'd known, Vincent being the third, Tseng the fourth, Rufus Shinra was surprisingly, sixth.
She was truly miserable. She then began thinking about if the children had been Cloud's. He hadn't cared so much as one iota when she laid badly bruised and battered from a fight outside of basic leadership, but when Aerith died. . .it was like he died too. She slowly sunk into her mentally exhausted sleep with negativity in her mind and pain in her heart, for once regretting her rash decision, no matter how much she already loved her children.
Sephiroth opened the door.
"Sephiroth" a silky voice called and he admired the body that reclined on the bed wearing just a garter belt and stockings.
"Hello Scarlet, I hope you're ready" he said, undressing himself.
"Bad day?" she asked him.
"You could say that" he said, padding naked towards her.