Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Counterfeit God; Part I ❯ Chapter 19
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Shiratori-Strife Inc 
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 10.08.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.1K | Visits: 184 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 10.08.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.1K | Visits: 184 | Status: Completed
19
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“I’m worried about you!”
“I’m fine, Elena,” Reno paced behind the couch, his eyes inadvertently focusing on the bedroom door from time to time. Elena, thankfully, thought he was just being his usual pervert, although a little less playful.
“Reno, you were just forced to kill a woman that you obviously cared about. I think you’re a little less than fine!”
“Elena,” Pacing again, Reno tried to think of a way to get her the hell out and quickly. Morghann wasn’t doing well at all. If anything, her condition had deteriorated faster. So weak, so fragile…so much could hurt her now and it was already hard enough for her to just sit up on her own, now she had to hide from Elena. Any number of things could injure her now…
“Reno, look,”
“I appreciate your concern, Elena, but I am fine. I’m keeping myself busy,”
“That’s not going to be enough. You just…you shouldn’t be alone,”
“Elena, please…” Looking desperate, Reno looked at her. “I can’t tolerate you right now,”
Stunned, she just stared at him, but then thought she understood. “Oh, I…I didn’t mean to upset you. Just…well, will you call me if you need anything?”
“I doubt it. You can’t give me what I need,”
Stung, Elena bit her bottom lip and then nodded. “Get some rest, Reno. You look like hell,”
When Reno was sure that she was gone, he made for the bedroom without a second thought. Stupid on his part, considering. Elena would never have come alone, no matter what she might have felt for him because of what had happened. Tseng was outside somewhere, watching, waiting, but Reno’s occupied mind could make no time to think about that. Reason was outweighed by worry and the desperate need to get to Morghann before she collapsed for lack of strength.
“Morghann?” He knelt beside her and flinched at the lack of color to her skin. “Morghann,”
She jolted awake, shivering in her sudden alertness. “Is she gone?”
“Yeah,” Gnawing on his lower lip, Reno reached out to brush the hair from her face, avoiding contact with her skin. He’d given up touching her when he realized how fragile she really was at this point. He couldn’t help her anymore and it was killing him. If he touched her, he made it worse. He looked away from her, his hand lowering from her hair, unable to see the look of rejection that passed over her features.
“Am I that bad?”
Surprised, he looked up and couldn’t bare the tears that were forming at the corner of her eyes. “Don’t cry, Morghann, please! I can’t stand it…”
“You hate me…”
“NO!” He paused, checked his tone and shook his head softly. “No, Morghann. It’s not you that I hate. It’s not being able to touch you that I hate because everywhere I touch your skin, there’ll be a bruise in the shape of my finger, my hand…I can’t stand it! I want to touch you to comfort you, to help you heal, but I’ll just be making things worse. It’s bad enough that there’s going to be bruises in the shape of my hands on your back in the morning because I helped you sit up today. I can’t stand that I can’t touch you. That I can’t kiss you. That I can’t…” He paused, swallowing hard as she stared up at him, sick and miserable. “That I can’t make love to you…”
Her lips quivered as she cried, reaching for him, wanting to be held. He hesitated in touching her and it just made her feel more miserable. Reno hated it, but he couldn’t do anything for her anymore.
“Morghann-”
With effort, she got up and struggled across the room towards the hall door.
“Morghann! Where are you going?”
She didn’t answer him and he wondered if it was because the energy required to walk prohibited the use of her vocal cords, or because she didn’t know where she was going?
Quickly, he followed her, concerned for the strain she was putting on an already exhausted body. He kept close enough behind her to keep her from falling if she stumbled, but not close enough to brush her skin when it wasn’t dire for him to do so.
She’d made it to the back door, marching determinedly out into the grassy yard beyond the cabin’s back patio.
“Morghann?”
“You did this to me!” She cried when she’d gotten further into the yard. Reno shivered, thinking that she hated him, when she started to shiver. “You gave me your energy freely and yet you’re killing me slowly because of it! You’re taking my life away when you were supposed to help me get it back! If this is the price for your energy, then I have no interest! It’s too much…so take it back! Take it all back!”
Screaming in fury and anguish and misery all in one breath, Morghann dropped to her fragile knees, threw her palms into the dirt and pushed the energy back into the ground with what little strength she had left.
“MORGHANN!” Feeling as if his world were about to crash in around him, Reno leapt forward towards her, jumping back only when a whirlwind of green energy whipped up around her body and enveloped her. In the long seconds that followed, all Reno could think about was the horror her body would know when that wind finally died down. But when it did…
“Morghann?”
Stunned and looking at palms that were full of color and devoid of bruises, scrapes, or the shake that had overtaken her in the last week, Morghann realized her mistake. “I just had to give it back,”
“Morghann?” When she turned to face him, the breath left Reno’s lungs. She looked…fine. “You’re…”
“I just had to give it back. All of this time…We’ve both been suffering and all I had to do was give the energy back to the Lifestream when I was done with it and it would heal me in return. I’m tired…but…I’m healed,” She blinked away fresh tears and, for the first time in months, gave him a real smile. And her eyes, those beautiful sapphire eyes, glittered with the life and passion he’d seen in them the night that she’d first used that energy. “Reno, I’m better!” Excited, she threw her arms around him and forced them both back into the grass. Reno grunted as they hit, but his arms were already around her and he was already laughing. Laughing both in relief and in sadness. He could have figured it out early on that all she had needed to do was give all that energy back. He could have healed her in the way that she needed instead of making things worse.
“Forgive me, Morghann, for keeping you caged all those months. I should have taken you out on the land to heal instead of keeping you locked inside my room…”
“You couldn’t have known. Reno, I didn’t know and I was the one using the energy! But I’m healed, Reno! Really healed!”
“I’m glad. Maybe now we won’t freeze to death in bed,” He flinched as he remembered the last few nights. Winter was setting in, but Morghann could only tolerate the lightest of fabrics to touch her, and that did nothing for the bitter cold that crept into the cabin in spite of the heat from the inside. He was talking about blankets to wrap up in, but Morghann’s mind was thinking along the lines of a warm body to curl against. Both scenarios, of course, were good ones, but these thoughts made Morghann’s mind turn in a different direction and then Reno’s voice rang out in her mind so clearly, so sincerely that she felt a jolt of yearning shoot through her. “I can’t stand that I can’t make love to you…”
They were staring at each other now, one on top of the other, Morghann’s memory of the words written clearly on her face for the world to see. And, because of that, Reno felt a sudden jolt go through his own body with the realization of what was going on. Tentatively, he released one arm from around her waist and lifted his hand towards her face, brushing the brown tresses that were tickling his face aside so that he could touch her cheek. The warmth of his palm against her cheek made her shiver slightly. Snow started to fall around them, but they hardly noticed it at all.
“Kiss me, Reno,”
Sleepily, groggily, Morghann’s sapphire eyes opened to darkness, her body and spirit warmed by the fond memory. Sighing quietly, she sat up in bed and stretched, realizing how early it still was. Reno wasn’t in bed with her, but the light from the room adjacent indicated that Sarah had woken up and he’d gone to get her settled back in. Meaning, and she glanced at her clock at this point, that it was almost five am. After three months and two weeks of life, Sarah had started to fall into a sleeping schedule, much to the relief of their parents. Reno was used to waking up so early every day of the week, so it was easier for him to cope, and it allowed Morghann to continue to sleep for a few more hours.
She turned her head back towards the doorway just in time to see the light to Sarah’s room switch off with Reno’s half naked silhouette filling the doorway. There was enough light left in the room resonating from Sarah’s night light to provide Morghann with a decent view of her lover’s body and something in her shivered into life. He just looked so…delicious!
It took a moment for him to look over at her from where he was leaning in the doorway and when he did, the smile that bloomed on his face warmed Morghann from the inside out. “I had a dream, Reno,”
“Did you now?” He moved towards her with the grace of a cat and slid behind her, his hands sliding to her shoulders where they began a light massage. “Was it a good dream?”
“Very good,” She whispered, leaning into his touches.
“What was it about?” He leaned in close, his breath caressing her ear.
“You,” Morghann closed her eyes as his hands worked her muscles into slush. “and me,”
“Really?” he whispered it against her ear, his lips grazing the flesh of it. She felt him smile and shivered, her breath coming out in a pant as she felt his tongue tasting her.
“Yes,”
“You’re breathless,” His hands slid further down her back and massaged there, further relaxing her. When he felt the muscle there loosening, he slid his hands upwards to her shoulders and then back down to the middle of her back to rest and massage where her bra strap would have been had she been wearing one. “What happened in this dream, Morghann?”
“It was…” She titled her head back when his lips found the flesh at her neck and she took a few minutes to enjoy it before she continued. “about our…first time…together,”
“You’re panting,” Grinning, Reno slid his hands around to her chest and squeezed, delighted by the moan of surprise and pleasure. “Ooh, now you can’t breathe at all,”
“You’re…cheating…”
< br> “No, I just know all the right spots to touch,” He smiled, licking the flesh beneath her ear. “To lick,” Her heart was racing, he could feel it’s excited pounding against his warm palms. “Do you want me, Morghann?”
“No,” She turned in his arms and kissed him fiercely, straddling his lap without so much as an effort. “I need you,” He kissed her back just as fiercely and pressed her against his body, moaning with the sensations that were flowing through both of them. After all of the trouble, all of the fights and arguments, the separation and then Eko, the need to be with one another had only strengthened. And in the month they’d been at Kalm, they hadn’t been able to make much time to satiate that need.
But now they’d already passed the point of no return, not that either of them cared to stop.
“Make love to me, Reno,”
“Anything you want, I will give you, Morghann. You know that,”
---
Curled in each other’s arms and leaning against the headboard of their bed, wrapped in a warm down comforter, Reno and Morghann watched the sunrise through the double glass doors of their balcony.
“Better?” He whispered, squeezing her gently, kissing her neck so tenderly that she could hardly believe it was Reno.
“Yes,” She whispered back, her arms tightening around his naked waist. “I’ve missed you, Reno,”
“I’ve missed you, too, Morghann,” He kissed her hair as he said it, enjoying the moment they were sharing with each other. It had been so long since the last time they’d been this peaceful. Eko’s threat hardly seemed to matter at this moment and the couple intended to keep it that way.
“I’m starting to get some of my stamina back, I think,”
Reno chuckled, nodding. “I think so, too. You almost had me beat,”
Blushing, Morghann buried her face in his chest and felt the muscles ripple against her cheek. “Can you blame me? That was…well, shit, Reno! If someone had walked into the room at that point I don’t think I would have cared,”
“Ah, so there is a kinky woman in that body somewhere,”
“Oh, shush, Reno! You wouldn’t have cared, either,”
“Maybe for a few minutes,” He chuckled as he looked towards the rising sun. “What was your favorite part?”
“What?” She looked up at him, laughing. “Favorite part? Are you insane? How can you ask that?”
“Personally, I liked how you almost passed out from that org-”
“Reno Shiratori!” Smacking his chest playfully, Morghann scolded him for his bluntness. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,”
“Sure you do,” The lovers shared a kiss and settled down again, their minds starting to turn towards the future. Reno’s left hand immediately started stroking Morghann’s ring finger and he started chewing on his lip, wondering if now was the right time to ask Morghann what he’d been wanting to ask her since before the baby had been born.
“Morghann?”
“Hm?”
“You like this, don’t you? Being with me here in Kalm? You, me and Sarah. A family?”
She was surprised by the question and turned to study him. “Without a doubt, Reno.”
“Then I have something I need to ask you,” He slipped away from her and headed for the chest at the end of the bed where he’d thrown his jacket and came back with something clasped in his hand. “It’s nothing fancy. You like things simple and I thought you’d like this one better than some huge diamond,”
“Diamond? Reno what-” She paused, her eyes going wide. “Reno, are you…?”
“Morghann, I’ve wanted to ask you for a while now to be my wife, but I’ve been worried that because of the arguments and the tension that you would say no. But after tonight, I was hoping that maybe…you would say yes. That you would take my name and be my wife and settle down with Sarah to be a family. Maybe give her a few siblings in the future?”
Morghann had started crying before he’d even finished the first sentence and she just looked so downright happy that it made him smile. “Will you marry me, Morghann?”
The crying intensified and she nodded, unable to get the words out of her throat. Reno grinned at the sight and then she was in his arms again, crying and laughing at the same time. When he slipped the simple silver band onto her finger, their lives were sealed in stone. Moments later, when both of them had calmed down enough to talk again, Morghann finally said, “Yes, Reno!”
“I’m glad to hear it,” He kissed her, smiling.
“I have to tell Sirius! Where’s my phone?”
“Just tell her in person,”
“What?” Surprised, Morghann studied him curiously. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, did I not mention that we’re heading to Nibelheim to visit?” He was grinning at her, knowing good and well that he’d had no intention of telling her that they were going to see Sirius and Cloud until the last possible minute. “You should get packing! We leave in an hour!”
“You naughty fiend!” Morghann grabbed his shoulders and wrestled him down onto the bed, pinning him in place. “You know you ‘forgot’ on purpose! You probably wouldn’t have said anything at all until I brought it up!”
“Basically,” Reno chuckled when she smacked him, her mouth open wide in indignation. “You look so cute when you’re flustered. Give us a kiss, love?”
“Ooh! You’re horrible!”
“No, I’m horny, now get back down here!”
“Gyah!”
---
End chapter
---
“I’m worried about you!”
“I’m fine, Elena,” Reno paced behind the couch, his eyes inadvertently focusing on the bedroom door from time to time. Elena, thankfully, thought he was just being his usual pervert, although a little less playful.
“Reno, you were just forced to kill a woman that you obviously cared about. I think you’re a little less than fine!”
“Elena,” Pacing again, Reno tried to think of a way to get her the hell out and quickly. Morghann wasn’t doing well at all. If anything, her condition had deteriorated faster. So weak, so fragile…so much could hurt her now and it was already hard enough for her to just sit up on her own, now she had to hide from Elena. Any number of things could injure her now…
“Reno, look,”
“I appreciate your concern, Elena, but I am fine. I’m keeping myself busy,”
“That’s not going to be enough. You just…you shouldn’t be alone,”
“Elena, please…” Looking desperate, Reno looked at her. “I can’t tolerate you right now,”
Stunned, she just stared at him, but then thought she understood. “Oh, I…I didn’t mean to upset you. Just…well, will you call me if you need anything?”
“I doubt it. You can’t give me what I need,”
Stung, Elena bit her bottom lip and then nodded. “Get some rest, Reno. You look like hell,”
When Reno was sure that she was gone, he made for the bedroom without a second thought. Stupid on his part, considering. Elena would never have come alone, no matter what she might have felt for him because of what had happened. Tseng was outside somewhere, watching, waiting, but Reno’s occupied mind could make no time to think about that. Reason was outweighed by worry and the desperate need to get to Morghann before she collapsed for lack of strength.
“Morghann?” He knelt beside her and flinched at the lack of color to her skin. “Morghann,”
She jolted awake, shivering in her sudden alertness. “Is she gone?”
“Yeah,” Gnawing on his lower lip, Reno reached out to brush the hair from her face, avoiding contact with her skin. He’d given up touching her when he realized how fragile she really was at this point. He couldn’t help her anymore and it was killing him. If he touched her, he made it worse. He looked away from her, his hand lowering from her hair, unable to see the look of rejection that passed over her features.
“Am I that bad?”
Surprised, he looked up and couldn’t bare the tears that were forming at the corner of her eyes. “Don’t cry, Morghann, please! I can’t stand it…”
“You hate me…”
“NO!” He paused, checked his tone and shook his head softly. “No, Morghann. It’s not you that I hate. It’s not being able to touch you that I hate because everywhere I touch your skin, there’ll be a bruise in the shape of my finger, my hand…I can’t stand it! I want to touch you to comfort you, to help you heal, but I’ll just be making things worse. It’s bad enough that there’s going to be bruises in the shape of my hands on your back in the morning because I helped you sit up today. I can’t stand that I can’t touch you. That I can’t kiss you. That I can’t…” He paused, swallowing hard as she stared up at him, sick and miserable. “That I can’t make love to you…”
Her lips quivered as she cried, reaching for him, wanting to be held. He hesitated in touching her and it just made her feel more miserable. Reno hated it, but he couldn’t do anything for her anymore.
“Morghann-”
With effort, she got up and struggled across the room towards the hall door.
“Morghann! Where are you going?”
She didn’t answer him and he wondered if it was because the energy required to walk prohibited the use of her vocal cords, or because she didn’t know where she was going?
Quickly, he followed her, concerned for the strain she was putting on an already exhausted body. He kept close enough behind her to keep her from falling if she stumbled, but not close enough to brush her skin when it wasn’t dire for him to do so.
She’d made it to the back door, marching determinedly out into the grassy yard beyond the cabin’s back patio.
“Morghann?”
“You did this to me!” She cried when she’d gotten further into the yard. Reno shivered, thinking that she hated him, when she started to shiver. “You gave me your energy freely and yet you’re killing me slowly because of it! You’re taking my life away when you were supposed to help me get it back! If this is the price for your energy, then I have no interest! It’s too much…so take it back! Take it all back!”
Screaming in fury and anguish and misery all in one breath, Morghann dropped to her fragile knees, threw her palms into the dirt and pushed the energy back into the ground with what little strength she had left.
“MORGHANN!” Feeling as if his world were about to crash in around him, Reno leapt forward towards her, jumping back only when a whirlwind of green energy whipped up around her body and enveloped her. In the long seconds that followed, all Reno could think about was the horror her body would know when that wind finally died down. But when it did…
“Morghann?”
Stunned and looking at palms that were full of color and devoid of bruises, scrapes, or the shake that had overtaken her in the last week, Morghann realized her mistake. “I just had to give it back,”
“Morghann?” When she turned to face him, the breath left Reno’s lungs. She looked…fine. “You’re…”
“I just had to give it back. All of this time…We’ve both been suffering and all I had to do was give the energy back to the Lifestream when I was done with it and it would heal me in return. I’m tired…but…I’m healed,” She blinked away fresh tears and, for the first time in months, gave him a real smile. And her eyes, those beautiful sapphire eyes, glittered with the life and passion he’d seen in them the night that she’d first used that energy. “Reno, I’m better!” Excited, she threw her arms around him and forced them both back into the grass. Reno grunted as they hit, but his arms were already around her and he was already laughing. Laughing both in relief and in sadness. He could have figured it out early on that all she had needed to do was give all that energy back. He could have healed her in the way that she needed instead of making things worse.
“Forgive me, Morghann, for keeping you caged all those months. I should have taken you out on the land to heal instead of keeping you locked inside my room…”
“You couldn’t have known. Reno, I didn’t know and I was the one using the energy! But I’m healed, Reno! Really healed!”
“I’m glad. Maybe now we won’t freeze to death in bed,” He flinched as he remembered the last few nights. Winter was setting in, but Morghann could only tolerate the lightest of fabrics to touch her, and that did nothing for the bitter cold that crept into the cabin in spite of the heat from the inside. He was talking about blankets to wrap up in, but Morghann’s mind was thinking along the lines of a warm body to curl against. Both scenarios, of course, were good ones, but these thoughts made Morghann’s mind turn in a different direction and then Reno’s voice rang out in her mind so clearly, so sincerely that she felt a jolt of yearning shoot through her. “I can’t stand that I can’t make love to you…”
They were staring at each other now, one on top of the other, Morghann’s memory of the words written clearly on her face for the world to see. And, because of that, Reno felt a sudden jolt go through his own body with the realization of what was going on. Tentatively, he released one arm from around her waist and lifted his hand towards her face, brushing the brown tresses that were tickling his face aside so that he could touch her cheek. The warmth of his palm against her cheek made her shiver slightly. Snow started to fall around them, but they hardly noticed it at all.
“Kiss me, Reno,”
Sleepily, groggily, Morghann’s sapphire eyes opened to darkness, her body and spirit warmed by the fond memory. Sighing quietly, she sat up in bed and stretched, realizing how early it still was. Reno wasn’t in bed with her, but the light from the room adjacent indicated that Sarah had woken up and he’d gone to get her settled back in. Meaning, and she glanced at her clock at this point, that it was almost five am. After three months and two weeks of life, Sarah had started to fall into a sleeping schedule, much to the relief of their parents. Reno was used to waking up so early every day of the week, so it was easier for him to cope, and it allowed Morghann to continue to sleep for a few more hours.
She turned her head back towards the doorway just in time to see the light to Sarah’s room switch off with Reno’s half naked silhouette filling the doorway. There was enough light left in the room resonating from Sarah’s night light to provide Morghann with a decent view of her lover’s body and something in her shivered into life. He just looked so…delicious!
It took a moment for him to look over at her from where he was leaning in the doorway and when he did, the smile that bloomed on his face warmed Morghann from the inside out. “I had a dream, Reno,”
“Did you now?” He moved towards her with the grace of a cat and slid behind her, his hands sliding to her shoulders where they began a light massage. “Was it a good dream?”
“Very good,” She whispered, leaning into his touches.
“What was it about?” He leaned in close, his breath caressing her ear.
“You,” Morghann closed her eyes as his hands worked her muscles into slush. “and me,”
“Really?” he whispered it against her ear, his lips grazing the flesh of it. She felt him smile and shivered, her breath coming out in a pant as she felt his tongue tasting her.
“Yes,”
“You’re breathless,” His hands slid further down her back and massaged there, further relaxing her. When he felt the muscle there loosening, he slid his hands upwards to her shoulders and then back down to the middle of her back to rest and massage where her bra strap would have been had she been wearing one. “What happened in this dream, Morghann?”
“It was…” She titled her head back when his lips found the flesh at her neck and she took a few minutes to enjoy it before she continued. “about our…first time…together,”
“You’re panting,” Grinning, Reno slid his hands around to her chest and squeezed, delighted by the moan of surprise and pleasure. “Ooh, now you can’t breathe at all,”
“You’re…cheating…”
< br> “No, I just know all the right spots to touch,” He smiled, licking the flesh beneath her ear. “To lick,” Her heart was racing, he could feel it’s excited pounding against his warm palms. “Do you want me, Morghann?”
“No,” She turned in his arms and kissed him fiercely, straddling his lap without so much as an effort. “I need you,” He kissed her back just as fiercely and pressed her against his body, moaning with the sensations that were flowing through both of them. After all of the trouble, all of the fights and arguments, the separation and then Eko, the need to be with one another had only strengthened. And in the month they’d been at Kalm, they hadn’t been able to make much time to satiate that need.
But now they’d already passed the point of no return, not that either of them cared to stop.
“Make love to me, Reno,”
“Anything you want, I will give you, Morghann. You know that,”
---
Curled in each other’s arms and leaning against the headboard of their bed, wrapped in a warm down comforter, Reno and Morghann watched the sunrise through the double glass doors of their balcony.
“Better?” He whispered, squeezing her gently, kissing her neck so tenderly that she could hardly believe it was Reno.
“Yes,” She whispered back, her arms tightening around his naked waist. “I’ve missed you, Reno,”
“I’ve missed you, too, Morghann,” He kissed her hair as he said it, enjoying the moment they were sharing with each other. It had been so long since the last time they’d been this peaceful. Eko’s threat hardly seemed to matter at this moment and the couple intended to keep it that way.
“I’m starting to get some of my stamina back, I think,”
Reno chuckled, nodding. “I think so, too. You almost had me beat,”
Blushing, Morghann buried her face in his chest and felt the muscles ripple against her cheek. “Can you blame me? That was…well, shit, Reno! If someone had walked into the room at that point I don’t think I would have cared,”
“Ah, so there is a kinky woman in that body somewhere,”
“Oh, shush, Reno! You wouldn’t have cared, either,”
“Maybe for a few minutes,” He chuckled as he looked towards the rising sun. “What was your favorite part?”
“What?” She looked up at him, laughing. “Favorite part? Are you insane? How can you ask that?”
“Personally, I liked how you almost passed out from that org-”
“Reno Shiratori!” Smacking his chest playfully, Morghann scolded him for his bluntness. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,”
“Sure you do,” The lovers shared a kiss and settled down again, their minds starting to turn towards the future. Reno’s left hand immediately started stroking Morghann’s ring finger and he started chewing on his lip, wondering if now was the right time to ask Morghann what he’d been wanting to ask her since before the baby had been born.
“Morghann?”
“Hm?”
“You like this, don’t you? Being with me here in Kalm? You, me and Sarah. A family?”
She was surprised by the question and turned to study him. “Without a doubt, Reno.”
“Then I have something I need to ask you,” He slipped away from her and headed for the chest at the end of the bed where he’d thrown his jacket and came back with something clasped in his hand. “It’s nothing fancy. You like things simple and I thought you’d like this one better than some huge diamond,”
“Diamond? Reno what-” She paused, her eyes going wide. “Reno, are you…?”
“Morghann, I’ve wanted to ask you for a while now to be my wife, but I’ve been worried that because of the arguments and the tension that you would say no. But after tonight, I was hoping that maybe…you would say yes. That you would take my name and be my wife and settle down with Sarah to be a family. Maybe give her a few siblings in the future?”
Morghann had started crying before he’d even finished the first sentence and she just looked so downright happy that it made him smile. “Will you marry me, Morghann?”
The crying intensified and she nodded, unable to get the words out of her throat. Reno grinned at the sight and then she was in his arms again, crying and laughing at the same time. When he slipped the simple silver band onto her finger, their lives were sealed in stone. Moments later, when both of them had calmed down enough to talk again, Morghann finally said, “Yes, Reno!”
“I’m glad to hear it,” He kissed her, smiling.
“I have to tell Sirius! Where’s my phone?”
“Just tell her in person,”
“What?” Surprised, Morghann studied him curiously. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, did I not mention that we’re heading to Nibelheim to visit?” He was grinning at her, knowing good and well that he’d had no intention of telling her that they were going to see Sirius and Cloud until the last possible minute. “You should get packing! We leave in an hour!”
“You naughty fiend!” Morghann grabbed his shoulders and wrestled him down onto the bed, pinning him in place. “You know you ‘forgot’ on purpose! You probably wouldn’t have said anything at all until I brought it up!”
“Basically,” Reno chuckled when she smacked him, her mouth open wide in indignation. “You look so cute when you’re flustered. Give us a kiss, love?”
“Ooh! You’re horrible!”
“No, I’m horny, now get back down here!”
“Gyah!”
---
End chapter