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Chapter 6
As much as Tifa had come to care for Sephiroth's pragmatic, icy calm and rational self. She loved spending time with the child version of him and was determined to make ever precious second count. He hadn't had a childhood, so it was a blessing he got a second chance, though she doubted he would have agreed.
They slept together every night, but not as a man and woman did, more how like a child and mother. Tifa was the last person in the world to take advantage of a mentally damaged man. Everything they did was strictly age appropriate to his mentality. She happily accepted and freely gave back the affection he sought. He was just... adorable and bright and curious. He didn't have a bedtime, so would go to bed when Tifa would and get up at the same time. For her third trimester, she needed more rest during the days and he would nap with her, often holding pieces of her hair in his hand while he sucked his thumb in his sleep. Okay that was a little different, but still acceptable. It seemed that the General had a hair fetish even at a small age, vanity thy name is Sephiroth!
Each day brought on something different, bird watching, feeding ducks that swam in a pond on their property. Picking vegetables for dinner in the garden Tifa had planted or making flower crowns...a naked Sephiroth chasing butterflies and frolicking in the meadow; all of this was recorded for posterity (or perhaps for blackmail) by Tifa.
Sometimes Zach and Vincent would join them to play a supercharged version of tag amongst the enhanced men, that made Tifa rather nervous and sometimes, she found herself having to remind herself that Sephiroth wasn't actually four years old.
One day Sephiroth asked her, "Tifa, if you're not fat and just pregnant; where is your husband?"
"How do you know what a husband is?" she asked him.
"One of the ladies at the lab got married and then she got pregnant. Isn't that the way ladies get pregnant?" Sephiroth asked her.
"There's a little more to it than that" she stated.
"Like what?" he asked her.
"You'll know when you're older" she said with a blush.
"Where do the babies come out of?" he asked her with an adorable frown that caused his nose to wrinkle.
"The same way they went in" she responded. "I do have a husband, but he's gone away for a little while" she explained.
"Is he a nice man like Vincent?" he asked her.
She paused, reminding herself that Sephiroth was most likely going to remember this timeframe when he was healed.
"He's nice too, but he's less outgoing than Vincent (who was hardly outgoing in the least), he's had a hard life and is still recovering from that. He takes good care of those he deems worthy and is thoughtful and intelligent, and I do believe he can be very kind when motivated" she said.
"Can touch your belly again?" he asked her and she lifted up her shirt and his hand caressed it. "Why do they always move so much when I touch them?" he asked her.
"I'm not sure?" she said, which was true.
Both Sephiroth and herself hoped it had more to do with father-son recognition while in the womb and a lot less to do with Jenova. She suspected it to be the first one, either way, they knew who their Father was.
"Can I meet your husband?" he asked her.
"You will soon" she promised him.
"Good" he said, lying back in the grass with his head in her lap and captured a swath of her hair in his fist and started sucking his thumb and she idly stroked his own hair, feeling so content with the world and wishing that he could retain a tiny piece of this new personality when he came back to himself.
It was so engaging and endearing to know that Sephiroth had once been like this before a Scientist named Hojo had destroyed him.
"Do you like me?" he asked her in a voice reminiscent of the fatal night they had first made love.
"I love you" she said, looking down into his cat green eyes and meaning it.
"I love you too Tifa" he said meaning as a child did.
Tifa had had to tell Rufus what had happened, who then told Reeve and had Sephiroth's medical chart forwarded to both them as proof. Yet they still stopped by the mansion and could only sit in shocked silence as the polite young Sephiroth talked to them, very intelligently indeed for his mental age, while he wore a purple flower crown on his head and a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, having long given up wearing his leathers as they were "too hot" on his skin. While he talked to them, he drew a picture of a stick figure Tifa, with long hair, a triangle skirt, a round circle for her belly and two extra circles above them for parts of her that the kid Sephiroth really seemed to like about her. They both had soon left, clearly baffled and had assured her that his rank was still secure and send him back when he "grew up".
It was fun for Tifa to have Sephiroth mentally stuck at that age, but it couldn't last forever. The last memorable moments were him making mud pies and grumbling about them not tasting like a pie or chocolate. Tifa had almost lost it laughing, but instead made him some chocolate chip cookies and the boy did sugar like Mako!
He was into everything, like a normal child on a sugar rush, just 6'5, built like a brick wall, oh and not really a child and was a blur when he ran to and fro, dizzying Tifa. When he started crashing, he started to get fussy and refused to wash his face so they both climbed into bed, Sephiroth with a chocolatey face and all, and passed out.
Sephiroth sat up and wondered what he was doing in Tifa's bed and why was he was wearing a t-shirt and sleep pants, when he preferred to sleep naked. He went to move his head and a limp flower crown slid into his lap, from his hair. He felt…sticky, the scent of chocolate heavily clinging to him. He got up and looked in the mirror to see if they were anything else different about himself and noticed he seemed to have crumbs and chocolate goo all over his face. He remembered the strange dream he had been having where he was four, how curious. He heard Tifa moan and heave herself up, she walked sleepily towards him and cuddled him and said in a cloying, gooey voice, how one might coo to an infant.
"Are you okay Sephiroth? Are the closet monsters bothering you again?" she asked him. He could feel himself blushing.
"Tifa, what are you doing?" he asked her in a strangled voiced. He was frozen in shock, Tifa wasn't good with boundaries, but respected his personal space for the most part.
"Sephiroth you're yourself again" she said and if anything, hugged him harder and then let him go.
"Tifa, I have had strange dreams of being a child again, did that transpire? he asked waited for her answer with baited breath.
"Yes" she admitted.
"The gardening, the playing, the running around… naked?" he asked, blushing from head to toe.
"You got it, don't worry. We didn't let anyone else know, it was completely contained by Vincent, Zach, Cloud and myself. Well and Rufus and Reeve too because they are your employers.
The seemingly emotionless man suddenly groaned and covered his face with both hands in shame. Especially when he remembered with each embarrassed blush of humiliation, every time he held someone's hand or sucked his thumb. He slunk in embarrassment to the washroom to clean his face thinking.
Zach. Was. Never. Going. To. Let. Him. Live. This. One. Down.
Seppuku was his first thought. But dismissed it as people would probably sell tickets to it.
He rejoined her. "Oh well, I shall be stripped of my rank anyway for the fiasco with Scarlet, not that I truly cared for the title anyway" he said, sounding oddly relieved.
"Don't be silly, the public understood that she was in the wrong and fully supported you over that harlot, especially after I punched her out" she said.
"Punched her out?" horrified at the idea of the petite and pregnant Tifa in a fight. "You were sparring? In your condition?" he demanded.
"I wasn't sparring; I gave her a right cross before a live studio audience and...out went the lights. I would never spar like this" she said indignantly.
"You have better tell me everything that has been happening" he said in a frosty voice, not pleased in the least at this revelation. She could have gotten hurt, the idea really bothered him. What if Scarlet had hurt her?
"Well first you got knocked out and became four-year-old Sephiroth; he's very charming by the way" Tifa began, looking away wistfully. "Why did he die? Because that's how it feels it feels like. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy have you back in place. But it's nice to know that your heart once felt love" Tifa said sadly.
Sephiroth placed both of his hands over his face and outright sighed. "I mean. With you" he stated and she did.
"So, she lost her position at WRO because of the amount of women coming forward, whose husbands she had slept with, oh and getting involved with a higher up General is frowned upon" she explained.
"You did this for me. Why? I was more than certain you were incensed with the situation" he said in confusion at her actions.
"You're worked so hard to get what you have. Even if you had slept with her that night, I couldn't let you lose what you gained over something so stupid" she said.
He studied her to see if she was being sincere and knew that she was.
"I did not sleep with her though, yes it is hard to say, it was initially my intention to. I couldn't, physically. All I could think about was you and how soiled I would feel if I had" he said honestly. "To answer your question about the "child" Sephiroth as it were, I suspect that he had simply been buried. Deal with Professor Hojo and his house of lies, a mental break down that almost cost all of humanity and see how in tune to your "inner child" you are" Sephiroth all but growled. "You forget when you were having crushes on the male gender, I was commanding men at the same age. That does something to a man. I will never be flowery with words or actions, but I will protect what is mine. I will try for you in every way, but I am hardened by steel. I may not…love you now, but that is not a bearing on wanting you to remain my wife. Things change and so does my mind constantly, as I noticed when it does come to you. I do like you, and could do more. Wait for my honest feelings as they will come" Sephiroth said with such sincerity that Tifa was taken aback by his words.
"Sephiroth what I demanded. I'm so sorry. You can put it down to my neediness, pregnancy hormones, my constant quest for love that always remains unrequited in the end or that I can perhaps be a real bitch at times. Either way, I shouldn't have put you in that position. Perhaps you will some day, like you said or perhaps you'll try and kill me again" she said.
"I like you. Isn't that the first step? Perhaps in time. Until then, I just want to be a real husband to you as I stated and a father to our children, they deserve something we both, under different circumstances, were robbed of, you later than me" he said.
"So shall we shake on that?" she said with sad amusement in her voice as she offered him her hand.
"Stop being foolish Tifa. I do not give my attention freely, despite what recent situations have you to believe" Sephiroth said looking at her intensely. "Besides, I think we can do better than a handshake" he said soundly kissing her.
"No more lovers?" she asked him, pushing him slightly away.
"Just you" he assured and they made love side by side in a way recommended by the internet, when Sephiroth had looked up positions for pregnancy and knew that once the eighth month came up, that she wouldn't really be able to, so they had to make up for lost time. He held her when she burst out crying on climax and didn't care if his own emotions showed. He was past the point of being able to hide them from her and felt profoundly sad that he had been unable to provide her with the one thing she needed the most during her pregnancy: emotional support. Yes, he had been able to have a nice house built for to her specifications and filled it with everything on her list, but money can't buy affection or happiness, but time could. He was willing to change and already had been changed by the woman in his arms and would continue to do so. Love was not something he knew how to do, neither was trust, but he already trusted her and the other...well, he felt like he was on the right path.
It was a much humbler, less abrasive Sephiroth that met with Vincent, Zach and Cloud. Cloud and Vincent at this time razed him for becoming a little kid after their last fight. Sephiroth took it all in stride. Actually the incident had fused with his real memories when he was that age literally, so that small period of kindness everyone had shown him at "four", had erased the real negative memories circa 1979 when he really was four and the caretakers were disposable and the professor cruel and hurtful. He would never say how thankful he was, only keep it in his heart and mind forever. The three were shocked that he wore a wedding ring, after all, he had told them his marriage was only a front.
"I feel I owe you and apology. I said some things and half truths that might have been taken out of context. I wish you to know that when I said that I allegedly had slept with Scarlet, I meant just that. I didn't sleep with her that night. Only Tifa" he said.
"Why not?" Cloud demanded.
"I could only think about making...having sex with Tifa. It clouded my brain and wouldn't allow me to-with Scarlet" Sephiroth actually stammered with embarrassment.
"Out with it" Zach demanded, his face in full interrogation mode and in his mind, he shone a bright light into Sephiroth's face.
"I couldn't get it up" he admitted, expecting them to laugh.
"Nor should you, she's a walking advertisement for STD" Vincent said dismissively. "Now what about what you said regarding Tifa's first time?"
Sephiroth swallowed hard and kept his face neutral and looked down. "Ah that, she and I made love" he quietly admitted and then looked up to find every man there frozen in shock, they couldn't have been more surprised by what Sephiroth had said, if he had admitted a fondness for wearing lady's lingerie.
'Made love' that, General Sephiroth, as cold as ice, emotionally constipated, social inept, even knew the expression boggled their minds. That he would say that in place of every day expressions for intercourse i.e. fucking, having sex, doing it etc. Sephiroth looked at them as if in challenge to mock him.
"So you're saying that you were emotionally in the moment with her while you both, er, made love?" Vincent said to unthaw the other frozen men and encourage them to pick their jaws off of the floor. "You had sex with her as a husband does with his wife?"
"Yes" Sephiroth replied, still looking uncomfortable. "I am with Tifa now in every way possible. Any of you have a problem with that? Especially you Cloud? He stated and glared at them all.
Zach just sighed and picked him up and again gave him another death grip hug. "No you moron. It's about time, I'm happy for you."
"Zach, why must you always insist on invading my personal space? Unhand me" he said and tugged his uniform back into place.
"It is about time" Vincent said and then went on to mutter something about children making a mess of things.
"And you Cloud, have you a problem with this? By the way, it is ill befitting to lurk outside of another man's home, whether he is in his right mind at the time or not and to ogle his wife and himself. I suggest if you have questions as to our living arrangements and personal abode, that you knock on the door and ask us" he chided him.
Cloud blushed to find out his observances hadn't gone unnoticed, but with the couple both being martial artists and one highly augmented, he supposed that he wasn't surprised to have gotten caught. "I'm fine as long as Tifa's happy about it and if not, I shall kick your ass. Though I will admit that you are not my first choice as husband to her, you're the last in fact" he said as he studied Sephiroth's neutral express and he gave him a small nod of acknowledgement at this.
"Sephiroth, honey" Tifa said, stepping into his office.
Sephiroth seemed to sag at this. "Tifa didn't I ask you not to use monikers in public?" he hissed at her.
Causing all three males to laugh.
"Sorry" she said, looking not contrite in the least.
"What are you doing here?" Zach asked her, wondering what had caused her to come to WRO headquarters.
"I'm here to pick up Sephiroth to take him to la maze class and then to a pizza date" she explained.
"You intend to be in the delivery room with her?" Cloud asked him in surprise.
"No, I ordered a throne and shall be getting a manicure with her chained naked to the base of it, while she gives birth. Of course I'm going to be there. We're having the birth at the in house hospital of WRO, using our own ob-gyn. Someone wanted to have a home birth involving a water tank of all things, but there is always a risk with multiple births-" he explained.
"Too much information" she said, silencing the hardly ever talkative Sephiroth. "Don't get him started with information about pregnancy, he's so well read on the subject, you would swear that he was the one having our babies.
"Did you get sufficient rest today?" he asked her.
"Sure, after I went for my ten-mile jog" she said, considering she was almost waddling at that point.
Cloud found himself watching their interaction, although they obviously weren't sort to cuddle in public, the way Sephiroth automatically offered his hand to help lower her onto the couch spoke volumes that Sephiroth had been speaking the truth about them having an emotional bond, that and how Tifa had obvious affection for him.
"There is nothing wrong being well read" he groused.
"Yes until they are actually born and you are reading to them from a book, telling them the reasons why they shouldn't be crying" she teased him.
"Sephiroth, do you mind if I talk to Tifa?" Cloud asked him.
"So talk, she's right there" he said indicating to her with a flick of his wrist.
"I mean in private, alone" he requested.
Sephiroth seemed to bristle at this, as if Cloud had asked him to remove her top so that he might compare her breasts now, from their dimensions from before.
"I don't think..." he said, hovering territorially over her.
"It's fine, I'll be a few minutes" she said taking his hand and giving it a squeeze.
"Come Sephiroth, give us a tour of the headquarters that Zach and I have seen many times before" Vincent drily suggested.
Tifa looked at Cloud for the first time in a long time and felt a calmness that like she never had in his presence, gone were the silly butterflies of girlhood, in front of her was just a man, a handsome one at that, but not the one of her dreams.
"I heard of the mix up and I'm sorry my actions made you take such drastic measures. I just need to know. Is this what you want? Being with Sephiroth? I hear that he all but forced you to marry him" Cloud said.
"It was a strange day for sure, we had just both found out the truth about the father of my children. It was even a fluke that he was there in the first place. I suppose it was good of him to come with me or I would be in jail now. It was him that prevented me from going to jail. He did badger me into it I will admit, but I was the one who chose to stay with him. I could have left at any time. As if a mere man, no matter how augmented could keep me in check if I wished to leave. I wasn't happy about Scarlet and he still has that to make up to me, but I have forgiven him. He's not perfect, he's certainly no Angel or God. If anything, he's a stubborn pain in the ass, but he's mine" she concluded.
"You could have worked out a custody agreement" Cloud suggested.
"Children disappear all the time. With everything that had happened to him, he was worried about what would happen if someone like Hojo took them just because of who their father is. He never wanted children in the first place and had ordered any DNA of his found to be destroyed for this purpose. We did what we had to do to protect them, I was just a hostage to the situation, but adapted because my cage proved to be not hostile in the least with wide gaps at the bars and my jailor a lot more reasonable then he seems. I found comfort in the situation and now I'll admit, I love him. Strange how a mistake can bring you what you never knew you wanted" she mused. "I understand that you're with Aerith now. I am happy for you" she said.
"Actually, I have to confess something to you that I should have told you a long time ago. I could have never been with yourself or with Aerith in the way either of you hoped to be with me. I do like brunettes, but more in the form of Zach" he explained. "Had the children been mine and in a way I wish they had been; a custody agreement is all that I could have offered you."
"You're gay?" she asked him, somewhat surprised.
"Yes, Aerith knows. She has been staying with me as my ward because of her amnesia. You well, I didn't want to disappoint you" he said and was surprised when she laughed and hugged him.
"I do love you Cloud and always will, as a good friend" she said giving him a sunny smile.
"Aerith's coming here to meet me so I can give her a ride home. Would you like to see her?" he asked her.
"I would love to" she said.
"A pizza date? Aren't you the romantic?" Zach teased Sephiroth as they walked back to his office.
"We're part of a group of couples who are having their first baby and they asked us to meet up there" Sephiroth explained.
"You belong to a baby group? That's too funny" Zach said with a laugh.
"I think it's a fine idea" Vincent said as they met up with Tifa and Cloud.
"Ready to go? Sephiroth asked her.
"Sure I just want to talk to Aerith for a few minutes," she said waving at the pink clad woman and hugging her like a long lost sister and they settled into a belly rubbing discussion.
"So have you thought about names yet?" Cloud asked them.
"When Sephiroth was a child and didn't know he was their father, he suggested Sephiroth and then when I said they couldn't have the same name, he suggested Seph and Roth" she said and he rolled his eyes as if to say 'women'.
"We have been trying many and can't decide" he said replied.
Aerith suddenly said from where her hands rested on Tifa's abdomen, "their names are Cyrus Reign Crescent and Tobias Raven Crescent. You will know which is which when you get to meet them. They will grow into fine men and will be a credit to you both."
"I like those names" Tifa said.
"You hear that boys? You have names" Sephiroth said in an almost gooey voice to Tifa's belly and blushed when he realized he was doing it in public, having gotten used to talking to them this way.
Cloud took a deep breath. "I hope you don't mind me stealing a bit of your thunder, but it's time people knew. I'm gay" he announced and waited for people to exclaim in shock, instead everyone looked calmly back at him and seemed to be unsurprised.
"So you're like Vincent?" Sephiroth said.
"Vincent, you're gay?" Cloud asked in his usual deadpanned way.
"Reasons why I keep turning down a princess" he said.
"It's not a shock to me either, I mean look at these two women and you didn't do anything with either of them" Zach said indicating to Tifa and Aerith. Both laughed at this.
"Hum, I always assumed that Sephiroth was as well" Cloud said.
"Sorry, I bat exclusively for the other team and find myself taken by three people, two of whom shall be male, but not to the sort you would enjoy or at least, better not. Now if you will excuse us, we have to learn how to breathe. Apparently, we haven't been doing this properly all of our lives" he said and Tifa and he said goodbye as they left with his hand on the small of his waddling wife's back.
"I think they're going to be okay" Vincent said.
"If he hurts her again" Zach said, holding up his Buster Sword.
"I'm with you" Cloud said, holding up his Fusion Sword.
"Me three" Vincent said, taking out his Death Penalty.
"I hope you don't mind. The lady at the flower shop offered me a job and asked me to start immediately, so I won't need a ride back to the hotel" Aerith said.
"I'll walk her to the shop and run her to the hotel later, I have some work to do at the office anyway" Zach volunteered.
"Thanks I would like that Zach" she graciously said and departed with him. Zach just had this niggling that he knew Aerith more than just a friend. He didn't know what came over him but as the walked on, he grabbed her had and spun her around and soundly kissed her. Aerith initially was frightened but then something amazing began to happen to the both of them. Flashbacks or rather memories came flooding back with a vengeance to both of them.
On the withdrawal from the kiss, Zach placed his forehead against Aerith's looking into her eyes and she surprisingly wasn't fighting him and simply said, "You little sneak. I know you did it all for Sephiroth. "
The kiss had unlocked Zach's and Aerith's previous memories, for better or for worse. He knew that Aerith was the love of his life and Aerith likewise knew he was her solider boy that had finally returned to her.
"I will forgive you this time for sending me away and being so selfless, you know I love you always and forever" Zach spoke.
"And I, you too forever" Aerith said initiating another heartwarming kiss as they continued to walk hand in hand now.
Vincent and Cloud were left alone, "I have to go to the farm to check on a few things and that's in your direction. Can I give you a ride home on my Fenrir?" Cloud asked the other man.
"I do like vibration" Vincent said with more cheek than he'd ever hear before.
Cloud blushed to feel Vincent's arms wrapped around him and his body warmth along his back. It felt like it was burning him through his clothes while Vincent's cape billowed behind them. Cloud found himself staring at him when they got to Vincent's townhouse and stood on his front porch. Vincent unbuckled his cowl and let it drop, exposing his face in its entirety. "Would you like to come in for a drink?" He asked him.
"I would love to" Cloud said. They sat before a fire in his surprisingly comfortable living room, each toying with a glass of red wine, which soon were set down as their lips met and hands quested into clothes to explore warm, soft flesh.