Midgar High School

“I am trying to think. Would you mind going back to your office?” Hojo said, an irritated tone in his voice. She knew that he’d been up most of the night, he usually was, but the straining wrinkles around his eyes suggested he hadn’t had a productive night.

“Dammit Linus. I’m worried about you. Would you stop being stubborn for five minutes and pretend I’m your wife?” Lucrecia had also had a bad night. But unlike Hojo, she tended to be more verbal about it.

“You do realize we have to keep him in a controlled environment in this stage? It was a stroke of luck that he ran out on Jenova, but only Gaea knows where he is now. If you had restrained him...”

Lucrecia had danced this dance for many years. She was used to his tirades, his temper tantrums, his pinning the blame on how she held the Petri dish, or cleaned the microscopes. And that was just while they were dating, when she was a lowly assistant.

And now? “Linus, shut up for a minute. Maybe all this control is the problem? Maybe you need to let evolution take its course. I do not doubt him, why do you?” She tended to speak her mind a lot. But never about the right things.

“Have you gone daft, woman? Without a control some controlled variables, you’re leaving it ALL up to chance!” She didn’t want him to talk about the Project tonight.

She leaned over his desk, nose to nose. “He is YOUR son. Half me, half you, but YOUR son.” The exertion of arguing with him had quickened her pulse, and breathing. And of course, he noticed.

And smiled.

Lucrecia was getting tired of the lab. But desks? They were always fun and classic places. Though, she was starting to wonder why their foreplay always involved a heated argument.

“Stubborn.”

“Wench.”