Zack XVIII: An uncomfortable night

After Tseng was gone, Zack was left standing insecurely in the middle of the room. He put down his bag and looked around. Tseng had moved a chair opposite of the couch and covered Sephiroth with blanket while Zack had been gone. Sephiroth himself still laid motionless on the couch with his eyes closed, breathing flatly. The bottle of alcohol and glass were still sitting on the coffee table. Sephiroth's sword, which Zack had not noticed earlier was left abandoned on the floor beside the entrance. I could only imagine the state Sephiroth had been in when he had returned from the Shinra HQ to simply drop his sword, one of his most important possessions, where his stood.

Zack was not a tidy person, but Masamune must hold substantial value for Sephiroth. The sword was quite special because it was long much longer than any other and Sephiroth was the only person Zack had ever seen with a sword that was longer than his own body. His entire fighting style revolved around this insanely big sword. Zack picked up Masamune from the floor and carried it to the sword stand, careful not to hit anything with it. He placed it gently where it belonged, but the sword stand looked incomplete with an empty slot, which, as he had started to believe today, used to hold Angeal's sword. The sword that was now heavy on his back. In a split-second decision, he took the sword off of his back and placed it on the sword stand below Sephiroth's. He had intended to take both swords with him on the mission to Wutai to actually start training with it. But at this point, he felt unsure if he was even supposed to have it.

Zack wandered on through the room toward the line of windows and pulled back one of the curtains. The view had nothing to offer, with several buildings blocking the line of sight. They were in a regular building within Sector 3, and not even on the top floor. So even Sephiroth's living room did not offer a better view than everyone else's.

Zack finally sat down on the chair, placing his old sword on the floor beside him and watched Sephiroth anxiously. His hair had started to dry, but it was messy and entangled, very much unlike Sephiroth's usual self. Sitting there in a quiet room, the reality of the situation begun to hit in full force. He had not told Tseng this, but he had a pretty good idea why Sephiroth had been so upset at being left on his own with the smell of Shinra's top scientist on his own body. But even more, Zack had an idea why the smell of mako energy even gave him these feelings. Much unlike Zack, who remembered the happiest times of his life whenever he was exposed to it, some people relived their strongest negative memories. That Sephiroth fell into the latter category was obvious from the way he had been behaving since he had been exposed to it. And Hojo himself had given away why Sephiroth's memories of him were what they were.

Even when Hojo had just walked into the lab, he had built an extremely oppressive atmosphere. The way he had degraded Sephiroth by his words, which Zack did not even want to repeat in his mind, just because he was with him. Zack assumed that Hojo had expected Sephiroth to come alone. Just the thought of Sephiroth incapacitated at the mercy of that man was nauseating to Zack. In the past, Angeal must have seen to it that he was safe whenever he went in for treatment. Hojo's anger at Sephiroth not being alone had been impossible to overlook and while Zack's presence there had not deterred him from attempting to abuse Sephiroth, he did not want to imagine what it would have been like if he had actually been alone.

Zack shifted around on the chair uncomfortably. It was already late and Zack did not really feel like spending the night sitting on a chair. "This is more important", Tseng had said and Zack felt the same way. Still, it was difficult to sit still for hours with nothing to do. After he made certain with a quick glance that nothing about Sephiroth's condition had changed, he pulled out his phone and muted it. Then he began to text Aerith:

"Hey sweetie. Still awake?"

After a moment, her response came:

"Hey sweetheart! What's up?"

Her calling him sweetheart (even if just over text) made his cheeks warm. Although he had been quite distraught by the recent events, he had really enjoyed their date today. Though Aerith, too, had seemed as if there was something on her mind.

"Nothing much. I kinda got an assignment on short notice."

"Are you supposed to be texting during an assignment?"

"There actually isn't anything to do. Are you going to bed soon?"

"I'm actually in bed already."

"Oh, sorry. I hope I didn't wake you up."

"No, I can't sleep. Too much food."

Aerith had been reluctant to order food initially, but she ended up eating quite a lot. They still had enough for her to take home.

"The food was really good! Let's go again when I'm back."

"Any time! So what's your assignment?"

Zack glanced over at Sephiroth who was still fast asleep.

"I have this friend who's not doing well and I'm just here watching him sleep."

"What's wrong with him?"

Zack thought for a moment about how to say it.

"It's because of Angeal. He really didn't take it well."

"He's lucky to have you. Are you OK, though?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. He's doing much worse than me."

They kept texting back and forth a little longer until Aerith excused herself to finally go to sleep. And so Zack was again alone with Sephiroth in the dark living room, or so he believed, because, as a matter of fact, I was there the whole time, watching him and Sephiroth, feeling my own feelings, but unable to do anything. At that point, the chair Zack was sitting on started getting uncomfortable. He would not last staying awake all night without anything occupying his mind, so he might as well try to catch some Zs. Sitting down on the floor with one leg stretched out and the other at an angle, he closed his eyes.