Idol
Sephiroth looked at the menu in his hands with disgust. "Remind me again why I let you bring me here."
"'cause I owe you for being an ass the other day," Zack said.
"So you brought me here?" Sephiroth set the menu down and looked across the table at his friend.
"Hey!" Zack said, looking offended. "The food here is awesome."
"Maybe so," Sephiroth said, "but this is Wall Market…"
"So?"
"Do you know what sort of place this is?" Sephiroth said, his disgust coming through in his voice.
"What? You scared?" Zack said, grinning.
Sephiroth glared at him. "You know what I mean."
"I should take you over to the Honeybee sometime," Zack said, still grinning. "I bet you'd enjoy it."
"I thought you said you brought me here to make up for being a jerk, not to continue being one," Sephiroth said. Just thinking of that place made him ill.
The waitress approached them before Zack could say anything.
"What'll it be?" she said.
"I'm gonna have the beef stew with a side of rice and a beer," Zack said.
She wrote it down and then looked over at Sephiroth. "And for the General?"
"I'll have the salad," Sephiroth said.
She wrote that down, her hand shaking slightly.
"Salad, Seph?" Zack said. "Come on!"
He turned to the waitress. "Just bring him the same thing I'm having."
The waitress glanced between him and Zack for a moment, before nodding and heading toward the counter.
"Why did you do that?" Sephiroth said.
"'cause I didn't bring you all the way here so you could get a salad," Zack said. "God, Seph, a salad is barely even food."
Sephiroth just sighed. There was no sense in arguing about it. He supposed he would just have to eat what he was brought.
He glanced around, noticing how the other patrons quickly averted their gazes and how they talked in low, excited sounding voices.
"Must they stare at me?" Sephiroth said in a low voice, so only Zack could hear.
"You're more than a little bit of a celebrity down here," Zack said. "Hell, you're a celebrity everywhere."
"Because the papers made it seem that I was the sole cause of our victory in the war." Sephiroth said. "I may have defeated Godo, but it was not I who won the war."
"But it's a more glamorous story," Zack said. "'The Great Sephiroth' defeating hordes of Wutai warriors single-handed."
"Pure nonsense..." Sephiroth said. That made him sicker than thinking about what kind of place the Honeybee Inn was.
"You were popular before that, though," Zack said. "Ever since it came out that you made First Class at 15. You're the reason so many boys join Shinra, me included."
Sephiroth snorted. "Petty idol worship, that's all it is. It's pathetic for someone to base their life upon the accomplishments of someone else."
Zack was silent. Sephiroth realized, with a tinge of guilt, that he'd struck a nerve in his friend.
After a few moments of tense silence, Zack spoke. "It's true..." he said. "I think that's why it bothered me. I always thought that my reasons for joining were good ones, but they weren't. They were stupid...I was stupid."
Sephiroth looked at him, deciding to put into words exactly what he was thinking. "If only Shinra had more soldiers like you."
Zack looked surprised by his praise, but then his expression turned into a genuine smile for a moment, before changing to the joking smile that Zack used so often.
"But if there was more of me, then you'd never get any peace and quiet," he said.
Sephiroth merely smiled. If there were more people like Zack around, he didn't think he would mind.
