Well this is the final chapter, thanks for taking this romp with us!
Sephiroth and Tifa were having yet another fight over something stupid as ever. Both were known hotheads and their staff had learned to ignore them as fire met ice and they melted all over each other.
He was listening to her rants as she described him in such glowing terms as "control freak" and "colossal asshat". Sephiroth had been listening to Tifa's ranting and while she made some valid points, he was chalking the majority up to "feminine emotional instability," until she grabbed her stomach and cried out and he'd moved, not even knowing he'd done so to her aid. She was falling and he'd caught her. Goddess, he was worried.
He found himself holding her and calling her name, before he realized what the hell he was doing, embarrassed at how useless he had been acting. He always been known to keep a cool head, no matter the circumstances and wondered what had caused that to change.
Sephiroth saw it before Tifa registered it, there was a pool of fluid that had originated from Tifa and it was getting larger and more bloodied as the seconds ticked by.
"What? It's too early, you're not due for another two weeks, you're not even having contractions" he said as if trying to reason with his in womb offspring.
"Tell that to them. We have to go... right now" she gasped as the missing contractions found her and slammed her.
Sephiroth scooped up the frightened woman, as through her cries and confusion, she pounded her tiny, but strong fists against him, afraid of what was happening, afraid because it was too soon and afraid of losing the children they'd both come to truly love.
With Tifa in the crook of one arm and his PHS in the other, Sephiroth called the medical unit at the WRO, letting them know she'd appeared to be in distress, if not in outright labor.
Tifa, ever prepared for anything, had already had her night bag packed. Sephiroth plucked it with his now freed up hand, placed her in the car and while securing her, put the bag in back...and away they went. To Tifa, the passing streetlights were a blur, probably having a lot to do with her pain and Sephiroth hauling ass like a professional race car driver. She yelped out again at a now obvious contraction, but there was something else amiss.
"Sephiroth PLEASE pull over! The baby is coming, I can feel the head" Tifa said, while trying to not push and birth her child the baseboard of their car.
Sephiroth more or less slammed on the brakes, jostling them and Tifa glared at him until she saw the naked fear on his face. It would have been comical if she didn't have a head between her thighs right now...and not in a good way.
"It's...it's what? "he said about as intelligently as a talking cumquat might be.
"Move it mister or your child is going on the floor maT-T-shit! " she exclaimed and like magic, he was just there at her side and her door opened. He bent down, looking right at her hoo-hah. Sephiroth looked on and sure enough, there was a tiny, tiny head that had emerged from Tifa, turned downwards, along with a shoulder that was now moving out. He wanted to run, to cry, to something. He wasn't qualified for this!
Tifa began bearing down in earnest, losing the battle of holding back. Sephiroth blanched as the little...person began its descent again from her body.
"I swear to all that is holy, IF you let this baby fall, I will personally kill you! " Tifa growled which ended in a groan and had, surprisingly, Sephiroth taking up his spot to catch the child, him even unlatching the seat belt and easing the seat back.
With one big push, Sephiroth found his hands full of wrinkly, pink, green cat eyed, winged, silvery hair baby, squirming and making the smallest cutest cry in existence to let them know he was alright and he quickly quieted. Sephiroth placed the babe in the driver's seat, opening a baby's bag she'd also had ready and taking out his pocket knife and some string, he tied off the cord and quickly cut it and wrapped the child up to keep him warm and placed him back in the driver's seat.
Soon, Tifa was on the move again with the second twin. This one was super ready, not. This little head was covered in silvery black hair, making the black look opalescent. Tifa struggled with this one and Sephiroth worried that the child was coming out wrong. No, it was just stubborn. With two great big pushes, the last twin was evicted from his cozy home, just as small as his brother and looking like his living negative. Oh but when he cried and opened up his eyes...they were ruby red. Not Tifa's deep burgundy but full blown ruby, as in Vincent Valentine red eyes. Sephiroth's paused at this and wondered.
Sephiroth bundled up each child and carefully placed them in Tifa's arms, after cleaning her up the best he could as he would only take them to the one doctor he could trust to give his children a clean bill of health.
He could not help looking in the rearview mirror to check on his new family and the confirmation that they were his and his alone. Sephiroth could not stop staring at the sight of actual children that looked like him, the proof was right there! Then he noticed how still Tifa had become and pulled over again. She smiled at him, almost as pale as himself and then slumped over, he instinctively took the two children into his arms. They started to howl, as if sensing his distress and then he could see the blood running down between her legs. Somehow he had his sons secured in one arm while he flew the blood weeping Tifa in the other, not trusting the car to get them there in time.
He landed as lightly as could before emergency and booted the door open. "May wife just gave birth and is bleeding, save her" he cried out in almost a hysterical sounding voice.
The medical crew took the children to the nursery and cleaned and checked their vitals, while a now limp Tifa was lifted and sped away for emergency surgery.
Sephiroth was afraid that he'd be a widower and his children, motherless on their day of their birth and it finally dawned on him. He, Sephiroth Crescent, the man people described as being heartless, loved the unyielding woman who was his wife and had given him two precious things he'd never thought that he would want or need. He almost felt faint at the knowledge and with trembling hands, he called their friends to let them know what was happening. Then he was summoned to the nursery to wait for news of Tifa, feeding one child at a time from bottles a nurse had provided, trusting no one else to touch his children.
Vincent and Cloud were "wrestling" on Vincent's couch as the dinner that had been proposed went cold. Cloud groaned as Vincent's phone rang and leaned up from Vincent's lap, giving him a look not to answer it, but the other man did anyway when he noticed who was calling.
He seemed to go even paler.
"We must go, Tifa has given birth but is bleeding out" he told Cloud.
Cloud's own PHS call came when they were already winging their way there via Chaos, while Cloud was held in Vincent's arms and Chaos whispered his approval of their "petite" mate, that was swiftly ignored in their haste.
Sephiroth studied the babies, taking in their little features.
Cyrus Reign would be the silver haired one, the dark haired one being the obvious choice for Tobias Raven but didn't commit to that without Tifa's input, he just couldn't.
Sephiroth laid them down together in a hospital provided bassinet and both wernt quiet, showing that certain things did run in the family. Sephiroth sat and waited and waited for any news. As he was in deep thought, Vincent surprisingly appeared before him. He sat with him and looked at the beautiful newborns.
"I can see both sets of features in their faces at even at so young an age, it's like looking at yourself at their age. I was present at your birth, but was only allowed to see you for a few seconds. "You were beautiful even as a newborn. This twin, you're probably wondering about his eye colour" he said, indicating to the one with red eyes.
"I'm calling him Tobias Raven for now, until Tifa..." he said, his throat going too tight to continue as he broke his eye contact with Vincent and looked back at the small child again and was surprised when Vincent gave him a brief hug.
"This eye colour is a prominent gene in my family that came from my father and his father and his father's father's and it has manifested in one of your children, as it skipped a generation, most likely due to Mako in your system, hence your unique eye color" Vincent said standing in front of Sephiroth, as matter of factually with his arms crossed. "I do have a son born from the only woman I ever slept with and loved, her name was Lucrecia Crescent. The professor was not your father, never could it have been Hojo as he was sterile...and I was not and as you might believe, you're mine."
Apparently this was the day for all manner of shocks.
Sephiroth's real father was one of the freedom fighters of Avalanche that had to hunt him down initially and the one to put Omega down? Goddess... He was shaken out all of his churning thoughts when the doctor came from him and he was up out of his chair to greet the man.
"Hello Mr. Crescent. Your wife lost a lot of blood and she is weak, but with a few well placed stitches and heavy use of restore materia, she's stable but is worried about her babies and you. You can come with me and bring your children and your friend to greet her" the doctor said to Sephiroth of Vincent, not knowing his age was in the 50's.
Friend indeed, Vincent was his father and now a grandfather! Yet he looked no older than his late 20's, like him. Sephiroth shook it off and headed to see Tifa, with Vincent in tow, each of them holding one of the babies. Vincent had been touched as the man who never really trusted anyone, had wordless handed him one of this grandsons to carry to join Tifa and he marvelled how small and perfect he was and vowed to help raise him and his brother to manhood. He had already failed his own son, so he sure wasn't going to fail his grandsons.
Vincent cheerfully watched the joyous family reunion as Tifa hugged her shameless weeping husband and they exclaimed over their children, clearly already in love with them, he softly closed the door behind him to give them a moment. He met Cloud in the waiting room, giving him a mischievous smile that no one else would have caught. Their relationship was secret for the moment as they wanted it to be established before they brought it to everyone's attention. Not realizing they were fooling no one, as Cloud got up to go see the new family and strolled past his lover with barely a glance, giving him only a slightly smug smile.
Sephiroth couldn't get enough of touching all three of them, kissing them, claiming them forever as his own. "I hope you're satisfied with two children because there is a small matter of my vasectomy" he teased her.
"The doctor assured me that can be reversed" Tifa said, feeling exhausted but wanting to let none of them out of her sight. They had been through so much to get where they were and wanted to savour this moment of seeing her stoic husband so emotionally and beautifully undone and being so tender in his devotion to her and their sons.
"Do you know the level of pain I had to face for this? Anaesthetic is useless with my system" he said incredulously and she covered his mouth with her own in a soft kiss.
"Two is fine" she assured him.
"I love you" he said, expecting her to get teary eyed and start sobbing at this revelation and then frowned when all Tifa did was give him a smirk reminiscent of his own and said.
"I know" she smugly said with her own look back in understanding.
Aerith and Zack were next to arrive on the pretense that they were just having "best friend time" and just happened to be together when they got the call, yet Cloud, Sephiroth and even the exhausted Tifa couldn't help noticing the light pink lipstick on his collar and deduced that the best friend thing had evolved to another type of relationship, as it was meant to be.
"They're so beautiful. Can I hold one?" Aerith asked Tifa.
"Of course" Tifa said, holding Tobias out of her.
"You look beautiful holding a baby" Zach said and she blushed and held him out to Zach and suddenly Zach was holding him.
"And you look very handsome holding one" she said with a giggle.
Sephiroth firmly but gently took his offspring from his friends.
"I know that it appears that I have a surplus baby, but these both belong to Tifa and myself. Go make your own" he bade both blushing people.
Zach looked at the now blushing Aerith with an understanding they'd had for 10 years in the making, though it didn't show, Zach fondly said "You know Seph, maybe we will, maybe we will."
All the while, Vincent was propped against the wall having depraved thoughts about Cloud Strife and thanks to his own personal demon entity, maybe Cloud would come down with a sudden case of strange pregnancy, but he wasn't saying nor was Chaos.
In either instance, Sephiroth was content, still his own stern self, though softened by this tiny powder keg and his two handsome boys that would succeed where life had failed him. He had three people who he could protect and he already loved two immediately and respect and love for Tifa were running synonymous these days. He also had a surviving parent though he disliked Cloud's smell being on him, and he'd never say he knew unless Vincent wanted to admit about the two of them.
In either instance, this was one time a mistaken identity served him beautifully and he'd do it all over again.