Well, here I am, popping my Mpreg cherry. This is a gift fic for my beloved Tomo (bunny-boss on deviant art), and her wonderful art that's made me like Mpreg. You should go look at her pictures, they're fantastic!

Here you go, sweetie! Hope it was worth the wait!

Title: The Birth
Fandom: FFVII
Pairing: Sephiroth/Cloud
Rating/Warnings: G, Mpreg, slash, and descriptions of cannibalistic urges towards baby toes.
Summary: The first hour of his baby's life is a very memorable one for Sephiroth.

"It's a girl!" the obstetrician said, holding the small, bloody infant up.

Cloud gasped in relief, tears of pain still running down his cheeks. Sephiroth was staring at the small creature the doctor was gently drying off and wrapping in a blanket. That was… that was his child? He'd been expecting it, looking forward to it for so long… he honestly did not know how to feel now that he saw it for the first time. His child. His baby. Surely he was supposed to find it overwhelming and beautiful, not… a little bit unsettling and strange-looking.

"Oh, wow, she's got so much hair!" one of the nurses cooed. She took the swaddled baby and handed it to Sephiroth, "Congratulations!"

Sephiroth took the baby automatically, looking down at it with a mixture of feelings that he still wasn't sure how he felt about. The newborn blinked unfocused blue eyes at him. Blue, slit-pupil'd eyes.

She had his eyes. Oh, they were Cloud's in color, but other than that bright blue, they were exactly like his, even down to the shape of her surprisingly long eyelashes.

"She's –" Sephiroth choked and cleared his throat, "Cloud, she's got my eyes."

He knew that new parents were supposed to say that the baby was beautiful, but Sephiroth had been raised to speak precisely, and the baby was not beautiful, per se. She was a little bit red and blotchy, and still messy with the remnants of afterbirth, but she was his, and that made her incredible. Perfect. His.

He gently touched her small cheek with his free hand, smiling at the way it made her entire face scrunch up. "Hello, Sophia," he said softly, "We've been waiting for you." They had made a short list of names for a girl, but in that moment Sephiroth had honestly forgotten what the other options were, and Sophia was the only one in his mind.

"Sephiroth," Cloud said, reaching out to him, "Let me hold her!"

The doctor glanced up at them from where she'd been dealing with the afterbirth, "Just lay her on her chest. That's the best way for mothers to bond with their new babies."

Sephiroth nodded, and gently laid Sophia down on Cloud's chest. She was such a delicate little thing. It was hard to believe that, twenty-seven years ago, he would've started out almost exactly like that. His mother had died in childbirth. Sephiroth wondered if she had ever had the opportunity to lay with him on her chest. Had she caressed his head, lowered her face to breathe in his scent the same way that Cloud was now doing to Sophia? Or had his mother slipped the bonds of life before she had a chance to greet him?

"So much hair," Cloud murmured, with a simultaneously tired and giddy tone, "You take after your daddy, don't you? Sephiroth, she's beautiful…"

"She's ours," Sephiroth said, gently touching one of Sophia's tiny hands with a finger. He nearly jumped in surprise when she grabbed his finger with a surprisingly strong grip. His baby was holding his hand. It was such a simple thing, and yet… it evoked such a strong reaction. He wanted to clutch this tiny, miraculous creature to his chest and never, ever let her go.

"Sophia," Sephiroth said, "Let's name her Sophia."

Cloud smiled widely, "It wasn't at the top of my list, but… I like it on her. Hello, Sophie," he cooed, "Welcome to the world."

Sephiroth leaned down and kissed Cloud gently, "I love you so much, Cloud. Thank you. Thank you for giving me a family."

"Dammit," Cloud cursed, tears welling up in his eyes, "You're going to make me bawl."

Sephiroth smiled at his lover and their baby. His baby. Sophia was making small noises and sounded a little bit distressed. Sephiroth frowned. He was going to have to learn a lot about what sounds meant what. Babies had no way of telling someone what they needed other than screaming. He gently laid his hand on Sophia's back - she was so tiny! Her entire back was barely longer than his hand from fingertips to wrist. - and she settled down. She must have been a little cold, then. Sephiroth smiled. Already he was learning how to tell what his baby needed.

Sophia waved her tiny hands around, moving her head a little bit. Sephiroth frowned, "What is she doing?"

"She's looking for a nipple," said a nurse, offering a bottle to Sephiroth, "Now, obviously given your… situation, you won't be breastfeeding. Here, hold this for a second and I'll show you how to feed her."

Sephiroth took the bottle, bristling a little at the way the middle-aged woman brusquely and abruptly picked Sophia up and arranged her in Cloud's arms. He wanted to yell at her to be gentler with his baby, but Sophia didn't seem to mind.

"Be sure you mind her head," the nurse was saying, "Babies' necks are very weak when they're first born. Now, once you've got her secure in the crook of your arm – " She grabbed the bottle out of Sephiroth's hand and gave it to Cloud, "Just press it against her lips and she'll latch on it just a few seconds. If she doesn't seem to get it, you can open her mouth and put the nipple in."

Sophia didn't have any trouble figuring out what the bottle was for. As soon as it touched her lips she latched on immediately and began to eat, making a gentle 'thup thup' sound that made Sephiroth smile. He would have to be the one to feed Sophia next time.

"Hungry little thing, aren't you, sweetie?" the nurse cooed, going from brusque and businesslike to warm and grandmotherly in an instant, "Once she's done eating, we'll need to take her to be weighed and measured, and you can get some rest, Cloud."

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed. These were the medical offices, not the labs, but they were still Shin-Ra owned and Sephiroth didn't trust them. At the sudden worried expression on Cloud's face, he could tell that Cloud was thinking the same thing.

"Don't worry, Cloud," Sephiroth murmured. He reached down and gently stroked Sophia's soft, fine hair, "I'll take care of Sophia. You can sleep."

Cloud visibly relaxed, and gave Sephiroth a tired smile, "Okay."

Sophia nursed for maybe three more minutes before she began spitting out the bottle when Cloud placed it on her lips. Sephiroth looked at the nurse, who seemed completely unconcerned with the baby's behavior. Sephiroth supposed that was a good indicator for whether or not he should be concerned; the nurse had far more experience with infants than he did.

"That means she's done," the nurse said. She took the bottle from Cloud and looked at it, "Two whole ounces! Goodness, you must have been very hungry, Sweetheart."

Two ounces didn't seem like very much food to Sephiroth, but then again, Sophia was tiny. Two ounces was probably a lot for a baby that small. He smiled down at his baby and Cloud, who seemed to be having trouble keeping his eyes open.

"Here, Cloud," Sephiroth said, "I'll take her. You sleep."

Cloud nodded sleepily, and held Sophia out towards Sephiroth. Sephiroth grabbed Sophia under the arms and lifted her up to his face, accidentally losing the blankets the nurse had wrapped her in in the process. He smiled at the baby that was nose-to-nose with him. Sophia didn't seem to have much in the way of expressions other than a slightly dazed, wide-eyed look, but Sephiroth supposed that made sense. Absolutely everything was brand new to her.

"Sophia," he crooned. He wasn't sure when babies started recognizing their own names, but it wouldn't hurt to say it a lot so that she'd learn it faster.

"So that's the name you want on the birth certificate?" the nurse asked.

"Yes," Sephiroth said, lowering Sophia to cradle her in his arms. He re-wrapped the blankets and frowned a bit. She was still pretty messy. Were babies supposed to have baths right after birth or did that have to wait a while? "Sophia Strife."

"No middle name?" the nurse asked.

"Um…" Sephiroth said. He remembered he had also liked the names 'Gail' and 'Jennifer' of their list of possibilities, but 'Sophia Gail Strife' sounded silly and 'Sophia Jennifer Strife' wasn't much better. "No," he said, "I don't think so."

"Alright," the nurse said, grabbing a clipboard with some paperwork on it and starting to write, "How do you want to spell it?"

"S-O-P-H-I-A," Sephiroth said, "Is there a different way?"

"Some parents want their children to have more unique names," the nurse said, "Now, we'll need to take her to be weighed, washed, and give her infant inoculations."

"I'll come with you," Sephiroth said, "This hospital is Shin-Ra owned. I can't trust you with my baby."

Thus far, whatever Zack was doing to run interference had successfully kept Hojo out of the birthing room and well away from Sephiroth's family – and god wasn't it wonderful to think that word? Family. I have a family. – but holding his baby in his arms like this, he was even more afraid of the idea of Hojo getting his hands on her. Sephiroth's fate had been sealed at birth, but he wouldn't let his child be made into a lab rat.

The nurse frowned at him, "This is the medical office, not the science department. We're not going to experiment on her."

"I don't care," Sephiroth said, holding Sophia just a bit tighter, "I'm not letting her out of my sight in here."

The nurse sighed, "Oh, all right. I supposed I can just talk you through the basics. There's not really a rule that says you can't put her on the scale and all that stuff yourself. I'll be administering the shot, though. That one is hospital policy."

Sephiroth grumbled, but nodded, "Fine. But I'll be watching."

"All right, sir, follow me to the nursery."

The nurse turned on her heel and left the room. Sephiroth followed behind her, still smiling at his baby, but also investigating her carefully for any potential problems. His body had been modified and changed so far from a baseline human, and Cloud was a SOLDIER as well – not to mention that the materia they'd used which caused Cloud's accidental pregnancy in the first place wasn't even supposed to make fully functioning reproductive organs of the opposite sex. That they'd had a viable fetus at all was nothing short of a miracle, and Sephiroth had spent most of Cloud's pregnancy worried about whether or not the baby would be healthy.

"Her head seems oddly shaped…" he observed, "Should I be concerned about that?"

"Hmm?" the nurse said, glancing over her shoulder, "Oh, no, that's perfectly normal. The bones in her skull are still pretty soft. Her head will look normal in a few days. If it still seems oddly shaped in a week or two, that will be cause for concern."

Sephiroth nodded, "I'm just worried that she won't be healthy. By all rights, this baby shouldn't exist."

"Well, the fact that she does will be exciting news for other gay couples," the nurse said, "If sex changing materia can actually make functioning reproductive organs of the opposite sex, that's a huge medical breakthrough. If she's healthy, that will be even better."

Sephiroth actually found himself blushing. They hadn't been trying for a baby, or a huge medical breakthrough. He'd just bought the materia and convinced Cloud to try it because it had seemed like something new and fun to try in the bedroom.

"If it helps your peace of mind, so far she looks like a perfectly normal baby to me. Of course, we'll have to do her blood test to be one hundred percent sure, but it all looks good so far."

"That is reassuring. Thank you."

The nurse opened a door labeled 'Nursery' and gestured Sephiroth inside. Sephiroth stood slightly inside the doorway and looked around. It looked like pretty much every other hospital room he'd seen, although some intrepid soul had made an effort at making the room more "cheerful" by adding stickers of flowers and butterflies to the walls.

The nurse approached again and put a wristband on Sophia's tiny wrist, "That's so that she doesn't get mixed up with any other baby."

Sephiroth looked down at his daughter's face. Between her vividly blue slit-pupil eyes and her full head of pale hair, he doubted anyone was going to mistake her for another baby. He quirked an eyebrow at the nurse.

"I know," she said with a smile, "Hospital policy. Now, if you could bring her over here."

She led Sephiroth to a table with a number of items and a sink on it and gestured for him to put Sophia down. Sephiroth did so, all while keeping a wary eye on the nurse. He didn't think that she was untrustworthy, but it wouldn't do to be incautious. Hojo was still interested in his child and could have paid off or threatened anyone.

"Six pounds, thirteen ounces," the nurse read. Sephiroth blinked in surprise. He completely hadn't noticed that the table was also a scale. "A little smaller than average, but well within the normal range." She wrote the information down on a chart, and then picked up a measuring tape, "17 inches long. That's right in the middle of normal."

Sephiroth nodded. So far nothing seemed too far out of the ordinary with his baby, which was encouraging, "What else do you need to do?" he asked.

"I have to clean her eyes. These are antibiotic eye drops," the nurse said, picking up a blue plastic eyedropper, and gently using her other hand to open Sophia's left eye wide, "Babies can get all sorts of gunk in their eyes during birth and this will keep her from getting an infection." She squeezed the dropper and Sophia made a face as the eye drops hit her eye. The nurse quickly did the same for the right eye, and Sephiroth found himself nodding in approval. She was obviously very experienced, and Sephiroth approved of efficiency.

She handed Sephiroth a tissue and let him wipe the excess drops from Sophia's face. Sephiroth felt himself going melty inside again as his baby made confused noises at him.

The nurse turned on the sink, checked the temperature of the water, and opened a package that contained a sponge. She wet the sponge in the warm water and handed it to Sephiroth, "Here, you can clean her up. She just needs a wipe down right now."

Sephiroth took the sponge and unwrapped Sophia from her blanket. He stood there for a moment, just looking at her tiny, chubby body. Funny, just twenty minutes ago he'd found her kind of strange looking, and now he didn't think she could be more perfect. He started on her shoulders and neck, gently clearing away the mess of afterbirth from her skin.

He took it slowly and carefully, keenly aware of how delicate his newborn daughter was. He washed her neck and ears, and under the nurse's direction held her head under the tap to wash her hair. He wasn't sure there were words for the thrill he felt when he realized that once the hair was clean, it was the same shining silver color as his own.

Mine, he thought gleefully, my daughter. My flesh and blood. Mine!

He had no trouble washing her arms and torso, other than the slight difficulty of uncurling the newborn's fists so he could wash her hands. He felt momentarily awkward wiping her butt and crotch, but told himself firmly that he'd need to get over it, because he was going to be changing diapers for at least the next eighteen months.

He came finally to her feet and smiled at the way she squirmed when he wiped them off. Her toes were so tiny! He took one of them between his thumb and forefinger and wiggled it. Sophia made a face and a somewhat displeased noise, but Sephiroth couldn't help himself. Her toes were adorable! He had the sudden urge to put them in his mouth.

Sephiroth blinked. That was a strange thought indeed. He couldn't imagine that sudden cannibalistic urges were normal for new parents, but… something about Sophia's toes gave him an almost overwhelming urge to put them in his mouth. Why did he want to do that?

Nibbling on his daughter's toes would be weird, and he was quite certain the nurse would freak out at him if he did it, so instead he leaned down and kissed the top of Sophia's head. That was fine, obviously. Plenty of people kissed babies. Shin-Ra had occasionally tried to get him to kiss babies for good PR, but he had always refused.

The nurse was smiling at him when he straightened up. "Here, let me show you how to put a diaper on her," she said, "Are you going to use cloth or disposable diapers?"

"Disposable," Sephiroth said. He hadn't known anyone even still used cloth diapers.

"Good," the nurse said, "I'm awful at the cloth ones. I can't get 'em pinned right. But the disposable ones are really easy. Just like this," she grabbed both of Sophia's feet in one hand and lifted her up enough to slide the diaper under her. Sephiroth watched closely as she put it on, nodding as she explained things. It seemed very intuitive, he would be fine.

"Alright," the nurse said with a smile, "What color outfit do you want for her? We've got blue, pink, yellow, green or white."

Sephiroth was about to say pink, because it was a girl's color, but he stopped to consider it. Blue would match her eyes, and green would match his eyes.

"Blue," he decided.

"Alright," the nurse said, opening a drawer in which there was a large stack of infant one-piece outfits. Noticing Sephiroth curious look she said, "We have about five births a day here. We buy these in bulk. You can have a few if you want, there are always extras." She pulled a blue one-piece from the drawer.

"Then I'll get a green one and a pink one, too," Sephiroth said.

The nurse nodded at him and passed him two more articles of clothing. She took the blue one in hand and dressed Sophie with surprising ease, considering that the baby was alternately squirming and going totally limp in the nurse's grip. After less than two minutes, the nurse was handing him his freshly washed and dressed baby.

Sephiroth took her gratefully, supporting her with one hand and caressing her head with the other. Sophia was so tiny! He marveled at her again. He hoped she would grow up to be tall. Sephiroth had noticed that tall people commanded more respect, and he wanted his daughter to have as much respect as he did.

"Alright," the nurse said, "You can go take her back to the mother, now. We can't give her infant inoculations until she's at least forty-eight hours old, so she can just stay with you and Cloud for now, since you don't want us to put her in the nursery. Lots of contact with the parents is good for their early development."

Sephiroth nodded, and turned back the way he had came. When he reached the delivery room Cloud was sleeping, snoring softly the way he only did when he was completely exhausted. He leaned down to give Cloud a gentle kiss on the mouth and then sank gratefully into the chair by the bed. He was feeling rather tired, too, but he wouldn't sleep until they were home and he was certain that his family was safe.

In his pocket, his phone buzzed. Sephiroth shifted his grip on Sophia and pulled it out. There was a mail from Zack. Of course.

Baby arrived yet? Zack's message asked.

Sephiroth smiled and wrote a quick response, She's here. We've named her Sophia. Six pounds, thirteen ounces, seventeen inches long.

He closed his phone, but didn't put it back in his pocket just yet. Zack would definitely reply soon. Sure enough, about three minutes later the phone started ringing. Sephiroth picked it up before the noise could disturb Cloud.

"Congratulations, Seph!" Zack said, "I was so excited from your message I totally just accidentally elbowed Hojo in the ribs and now he has to go get X-rays…"

Sephiroth chuckled, "I owe you one."

"Yeah, that's why I'm the best friend," Zack said happily, "How's Cloud doing?"

"He's fine. They cleaned him up and used that materia to put him back to normal, but he's exhausted from it. He's sleeping right now."

"Twenty-eight hours of labor, yeah, I bet he's sleeping. Aerith only had twelve and it totally wiped her out," Zack said, "So… does maybe breaking Hojo's ribs earn me baby-viewing privileges?"

Sephiroth chuckled again, "I would think so. Come in, but be quiet about it. I want Cloud to get some more sleep."

"You got it, boss," Zack said, "I'll be there in a minute."

"I'll see you soon, Zack."

Sephiroth hung up the phone, and looked down at his daughter's bright blue eyes. She was looking right up at him and he smiled. She seemed very alert, if still a little bit confused by everything.

"Don't worry," he murmured softly, bending his head to kiss his daughter again, "Life makes a little more sense when you get used to it."

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