Title: A World of What Ifs

Author: CrisisChild

Summary: A series of drabbles based on the possible paths the relationship between Cloud and Sephiroth could have and already have taken. AUs that range from plausible to completely implausible.

Rated: K+

Beta'd: Nope

Disclaimer: I do not own Cloud or Sephiroth or the wonderful compilation that they came from.

What Might Have Been

Father and Son

Sephiroth was most likely the last person anyone would ever consider to be a father.

However, there he was a father at the age of nineteen. Much too young to be a parent by most people's standards, but he did not mind. The Great Sephiroth was never one to be conventional, by any means.

The small tuft of downy hair atop his son's head was as soft as a newborn chicobo's and he couldn't help the small tug at the corner of his lips at the comparison. The soft strands were so wispy under his touch. It felt so unreal. Was it just a dream that he was here in this clinic all the way out in the middle of nowhere, looking down at a child so fair he almost looked to be made of glass?

Sephiroth was naturally pale, but the boy obviously inherited his mother's smooth, snow white complexion indigenous to the mountainous region of Nibelheim. The bright golden hair sticking out at all directions also belonged to the lovely Claire Strife, he noted, making his little one all the more like a little chicobo. His little chicobo.

Sentimentality was still very much new to Sephiroth, even after falling for Claire and secretly marrying her when no one looked. The general took every opportunity he could to go visit his wife in Nibelheim, usually under the excuse of a monster infestation that required his expert hand. He was young, still, and Claire was quite a bit older than he, but it did not matter to him. He loved her as a man loved a woman and now, here was the fruits of their love, sleeping quietly next to his mother.

"He's so beautiful," whispered the silver-haired general. He caressed the child's brow tenderly, smiling as the baby wriggled in response to his touch. Sephiroth felt slightly alarmed that he had roused the child was his sleep, but his heart warmed as cat-like blue eyes stared up at him for the first time.

"Would you like to hold him?" Claire asked. She picked up their son, carefully cradling his tiny form in her arms as if she had done it a million times before. The blonde set the baby in his inexperienced arms; Sephiroth felt oddly foolish holding the child, but the initial awkwardness that he felt vanished as he became more accustomed to holding the little chicobo that was his son. Some of Sephiroth's long silver hair slipped over his shoulder as he looked down at the boy, touching the child's face and tickling him. He made an odd little sound and smiled for the first time. A toothless, happy little grin.

"He has your smile, Claire," Sephiroth mentioned absently to his wife. He sat himself on her bed, holding the baby close. He smiled and placed a tender kiss on the child's brow, his heart swelling with more emotion with each passing moment. Smiling again, the baby grabbed a fistful of his father's hair and started sucking on it. Chuckling softly, Sephiroth gently tugged the lock of hair out of his son's mouth.

Claire smiled as she watched the two of them. "He's saying 'hello', Sephiroth," she supplied.

"Oh, really?" Holding his son closer to him, he kissed his son's forehead.

"Hello to you, too, Cloud."