Lesson two: Sadness
Sephiroth had done battle with some of the most powerful creatures of the planet and won.
He had lived through terrible conditions, both in the lab and the field.
He had commanded, fought and won, one of the most gruelling wars known to man. He had trained and whipped into shape so many lacklustre and unsuitable people, and made them into shining examples of SOLDIER's.
He had signed lord knows how many death certificates.
He had survived years of the vicious gossip and intrigue of the court of Shinra politics.
But had survived Zack.
But one thing that Sephiroth could not do was deal with people who cried.
Crying cadets were aplenty in the Shinra military, and although he sympathised with them, he simply did not know how to deal with them.
Whenever he had to talk to a cadet about a rather sensitive subject, he always made sure to have Zack in the office with him, as a nice safety net. Just in case the cadet started sobbing, in which case, he could leave Zack to the hugging and the cajoling, while he simply made sure that what needed to be done was done.
He usually just tried to avoid listening in on what Zack was saying to the crying cadet, as it was awkward for all if he just sat there and gawked. And so it was that this was another area of expertise that Sephiroth lacked in.
And his teachers once again came to the rescue. Completely unwittingly of course.
It was the day of the funeral. Several funerals actually; services for the people from Cloud's squad who had died during the course of the disastrous mission.
Zack had told him previously that two of Cloud's very limited number of friends had died during the mission.
Sephiroth and Zack, along with the other SOLDIER's, were stood away from the cadet's, and so Zack could not actually be with Cloud during the service. But the brunette kept craning his neck to get a look at the blond. Once, Sephiroth followed the other man's gaze, and he could see that Cloud was perfectly composed; still and silent, but that there were tears coursing down his cheeks. The boy had only just been released from the infirmary, so he was sitting down, and looked rather pale, which only added to his frail appearance.
When the service was over though, and most people began to slowly depart, Zack quickly made his way over to the blond, who was still sitting, staring blankly at the memorial statue, tears still pouring down his face.
Sephiroth felt a stab of sympathy for the cadet, for sitting there like that, he just looked so lost and vulnerable.
It also made him wonder how Zack was going to deal with the boy. Obviously he would not tell him to stop crying.
As he watched, Zack slowly sat down, and then gently pulled Cloud to lean against his side. The boy was perfectly pliant in Zack's arms; he just let himself be repositioned, as though he simply did not care.
For a long while, that was all that went on. Zack simply sat there, for once no hint of a smile gracing his lips, and held onto Cloud, stroking his hair slightly, as the other sat there motionless and silent, staring at the only remainder of his friends with glassy eyes.
The hug looked like it was an incredibly tight one.
After a while of complete silence though, Zack leaned over, buried his nose in Cloud's hair, and – to Sephiroth's slight surprise – pressed a kiss to the top of the boy's head.
He kept his lips firmly in Cloud's blond spikes, even when he spoke.
"You all right in there?" Zack seemed to be addressing Cloud's brain. His eyes were looking at Cloud's head as his lips still rested on Cloud's hair.
"Yeah." Was the numb reply.
Zack sighed.
"Please don't lie to me, pokey brain." Zack said, again addressing Cloud's head. "Cos I know when the mouth is lying for you. I know because I can hear you whirring away in that spiky blond temple of yours, and the body that you control is all tense. But the mouth is telling me something completely different to the other signals I'm picking up. The mouth lies for you, pokey brain. I hope you tell it that lying is wrong."
Cloud's reaction startled Sephiroth slightly. The boy gave a sound that was much like a laugh, only much…paler. Weaker.
He leaned over slightly, to see the boy's face. His eyes were still red and streaming with tears, but his mouth was pulled into a rather strange grimace that would, under normal circumstances, be one of Cloud's rather winning smiles. Sephiroth supposed that it was still a smile, but something about the way that a happy expression and a sad expression mixed made it into a sort of grimace.
"Zaaack."
The name came out as a whine, and Sephiroth noted that the boy's voice sounded different. It was thick and rather choked sounding and anyone could tell that the boy had been crying. But there was also the hint of that laugh there. It was small and weak, but it was definitely there.
Zack seemed satisfied with this, as he let a small smile – smaller than usual – grace his lips, and then he settled back down, winding Cloud even tighter in his arms.
Sephiroth watched from his safe distance and could not help but feel glad that both he and this boy had such a…knowledgeable person looking after them.
Oh, Zack may not have a lot of common sense when it came to some things, but he was very intelligent, especially when it came to this…emotion business.
But one other thing that Sephiroth noted was that this time, Zack was not telling Cloud that it would be okay.
He wanted to ask why, but when he heard another sob escape the small blond, he simply turned around and walked back to his office.
He would ask later.
TBC
AN: Thank you all for the lovely reviews! Oh, and by the way I am kind of opening part of this up to you guys now. If you have a prompt for any of the lessons, then do contact me, and I'll be happy to include them in the story. I'll try my best. First come, first served.
I'm really sorry, but I'm afraid that at the moment, all I can take is 5 prompts. Sorry! Real life is busy! Obviously, after I have done those five, then I will open the prompts again, but first I have to get those 5 done.
Next lesson: Anger.