Thinking it Through

Word Count: 1069

Angeal barricaded himself in his office and sat down to think.

"What if you got him a pet?"

He'd suggested it so blithely, like it was actually a good idea. What had he been thinking? Zack couldn't keep a pet. He may have only been a Third, but he was staring promotion in the face, and he was getting sent on missions pretty regularly. He was, in fact, probably the most slammed SOLDIER of them all at the moment: having proved himself, just about, capable enough to be a Second, he was treated as the best of the Thirds, which, to Lazard, made him the most ideal candidate for Third-rank missions. As good as he was, he was unlikely to fuck up, and HR tended to prefer the lower risk.

He was getting sent out nearly every day, and on days he wasn't out in the field, Hojo had him locked up in the damn simulations room. While having a pet to come home to would certainly improve his overall mood, there were too many other variables to consider.

Zack would feel like he wasn't taking good enough care of it, to start. He would be worried. It might affect how he did on missions. He could get hurt.

And what if he got sent away for a prolonged period of time? Of course the other generals would do what they could to fill in, but what if they got sent off? Zack had plenty of friends, sure, but things could get hectic at SOLDIER very quickly. The absolute last thing any of them needed was Zack coming home from an unexpectedly long mission to find his dearly beloved pet dead from starvation on his kitchen floor. What a nightmare.

Aside from his chaotic work life, there were other considerations as well. There were specific things that would be good in a pet for Zack and other things that were… less ideal. He would need something he could play with, preferably something soft that he could pet or cuddle or curl up with, if it was to be a stand-in for Sephiroth's aloofness. But Zack played rough, and like many SOLDIER, he wasn't always aware of how his enhanced strength compared to that of an average person – or animal, as the case may be.

Maybe a guard hound, like Rufus' Dark Nation, was the way to go? That thing was a beast, and with its defensive abilities it would certainly be able to stand up to a little SOLDIER roughhousing. Guard hounds were supposed to be incredibly loyal, though. Zack might not appreciate an animal that couldn't get along with his friends.

Although on the plus side, it might give him a convenient 'in' with Rufus. Normally Angeal wouldn't approve of Zack becoming close with the President's son, but recently he had begun to notice an increased Turk interest in Zack. If Rufus could be persuaded to feel affectionately toward his student, he might intercede on the boy's behalf with the Turks, and more to the better.

Aside from a guard hound, what else was there? Zack did well with animals of all kinds, and even most monsters tended to like him well enough. Angeal still shuddered thinking about the group of Mandragoras Zack had tried to bring home with him that time. The stings they got pulling those things out of his luggage were brutal. But Zack had begged and begged to keep them, and in the end had released them in a downtown park. As far as Angeal knew, he still fed them.

Maybe he was coming at this from the wrong angle. An animal might not be the right answer, no matter how resilient it turned out to be. Maybe what Zack needed was a human companion, someone who had no sexual interest in him to threaten his relationship with Sephiroth but who would still be able to cuddle with him any time. There had to be someone who could help in this situation.

What kind of person would be good for Zack, though? Someone energetic, obviously, to keep up with him. And they would have to be comfortable around Sephiroth, too, or else it would never work out. That qualification alone would rule most applicants out; after all, it was already something of a miracle that Zack was as comfortable around Sephiroth as he was, so asking that of a second person would probably be too much. But the point was that Zack was in a relationship with Sephiroth, so that had to come first – it would be useless to find someone Zack could cuddle with if cuddling that person meant breaking up with his boyfriend.

It would have to be someone in ShinRa, then. Only Turks, ranking SOLDIER, and scientists working for Hojo could deal with Sephiroth with any kind of calm functionality, so it would have to be someone from those ranks. But Angeal didn't want Zack anywhere near the Turks – they were dangerous at best and at worst would completely destroy everything he had been working for years to build in Zack. And among SOLDIER, while the 2nds knew Sephiroth cared about them, they all still thought of him as a commanding officer. They weren't comfortable with him.

Angeal didn't even want to think about what might happen to Zack if he started cuddling with a scientist. He would probably end up growing fat in the labs while they studied the extent his affections could be pushed.

If all the human options were out – and they were, it was clear to see – that only left an animal.

Frown deepening, Angeal pressed his mind to the limits. What would be a good pet for Zack? Surely there was something – there had to be. Reviewing his requirements, Angeal tried to think of a resilient, cuddle-friendly creature that could play hard and mostly manage on its own – or be managed elsewhere? That was it. An animal that was being taken care of by someone else, an animal that Zack could visit whenever he wanted to but not have the responsibility of caring for day-to-day – that would be perfect!

Sighing happily, Angeal relaxed. Sephiroth was smarter than he was, so he was confident the General would also come up with the right solution. By New Years, there would be a massive databank of pictures of Zack adorably cuddling a chocobo. Angeal was looking forward to it.

A/N: I re-wrote this chapter like four times and I'm still not happy with it, so I'm giving up. Angeal strikes me as the kind of guy who would just sit and think through an idea, and possibly beat himself up over it, but I don't feel like his character really shines through here. The best I can say is that I sort of managed a protective/concerned vibe. :(

Next chapter will feature smut, so let me know if you're more eager to see Zack/Sephiroth or Zack/Genesis first, and I'll get right on it.