#kittenboy

Babyroth's teething adventures were rough.

Jenova cells directly implanted, it seems, created one or two serious unforseen physical abnormalities that Hojo wasn't prepared for. Sephiroth's first set of baby teeth are extremely sharp and deadly before he learned control. The entire lab was nibbled and chomped into pieces and no one had any idea what to do about it.

Weaning Sephiroth was enough of a disaster--Sephiroth wanted to nurse on everything and initially rejected all attempts of switching him off the bottle--but teething is a borderline nuclear issue. An entire table leg broken in two. Hojo's entire line of lab coats tattered to ribbons at the sleeves. Fingers promptly yanked out of reach within seconds of Sephiroth lunging. Nurses fleeing for their lives because Sephiroth decided it would be funny to snap at them.

In his very first year of life, Sephiroth wasn't doing too well. He was extremely sickly as a newborn, prone to illness and very delicate and vulnerable.

Worst of all, he wasn't eating much. Hojo would doggedly try forcing him to accept the formula and Sephiroth either refused the bottle altogether or would spit it up within seconds of ingesting it. Mostly, he just slept fitfully in his crib, always shivering, though never really moving. Gast did not want to believe it was something akin to depression --especially within a barely sentient infant--and yet Sephiroth just seemed terribly sad and fragile. At the rate he was going, he wouldn't survive the year.

Gast began refusing to let the other scientists hold him, determined to nurse Sephiroth back to health himself. He held him constantly, carrying him around the lab, keeping him close even when he was working. He hadn't planned on bringing emotional attachment into the equation, this was an experiment after all, but it was already too late by the end of the first week. He was pretty in love with the kid. He'd talk gently to Sephiroth while attempting to feed him, sometimes holding long one-sided conversations, sometimes making up silly little songs about his work to distract the baby.

And finally, at last, Sephiroth would eat, accepting whatever he was given if Gast was the one holding him. He would only grant Gast this privilege, at least until he began showing signs of improvement. Hojo was extremely peeved at this, but wasn't about to complain so long as his son remained alive and healthy.

~I am but a virgin killer~

Happy Valentine's Day my lads OwO~