Zack laid awake on his back in the shallow bedding in his unfamiliar room, which he now shared with Sephiroth. Although Zack had known Sephiroth for some time at this point, it was the first time for them to stay in the same room. Zack was used to sharing rooms with complete strangers in unfamiliar places, but he never had any trouble sleeping. Except in case his roommate snored really badly or tossed and turned all night, as Cloud had during their stay in Rocket Town. Neither was the case with Sephiroth. He had said nothing more after blowing up, first at Yuffie, then at Zack, and laid down without a word, his back turned toward Zack, and appeared to be asleep.
With his eyes closed, Zack tried every technique he knew to help him fall asleep, from counting chocobos, to breathing exercises, and finally, he let his thoughts wander and tried to think of the happy times he had spent with Aerith. He longed to see her, and hoped that they would return to Midgar as soon as possible, but he still found his thoughts wander, at times to Yuffie, at other times to Sephiroth. He was not angry with Yuffie for tricking him, not really. "Down with Shinra" was an Avalanche catchphrase he had heard several times already. It was not something she had come up with by herself. Young as she was, she had probably heard someone saying it, and not only repeated it, but decided to actively work toward this goal. He still wondered what her parents were doing, but could not help but acknowledge how smart and skilled she was. But despite all that, she could not actually think through the consequences of her actions. She had tried to hit the Shinra representatives with the powerful summon spell, but not only underestimated how big the flood wave would be, she also could not actually target the summon at anything in particular. For Zack himself, it had taken dozens of hours of practice in the combat simulator to get the summon to do exactly what he wanted. And despite that, he was still reluctant to summon a creature like Ifrit in any place where a fire could easily spread out of control.
Sephiroth had been even younger than Yuffie when he entered SOLDIER and started fighting for Shinra. And he had to have a good understanding of what it was like to realize for the first time that he killed a person, while being so young. Zack remembered his first kill quite well, but when that happened, he had already understood what it meant to be a SOLDIER, and that people died when they were struck down by a sword. Yuffie, in her naivety, only tried to bring Shinra down, but did not realize that throwing a summon at them meant that people would lose their lives. Still, Zack had never seen Sephiroth so angry, or angry at all. He reacted with indifference to almost anything, and disdain or annoyance whenever something displeased him. But anger? That seemed like a lot considering that what happened today did not even affect him directly. Or did it?
As his thoughts continued to wander, he heard a soft rustle from where Sephiroth was lying down. Zack kept his eyes closed to pretend he was sleeping in case Sephiroth had woken up. The sound and crackling of soft footsteps on the woven straw mat floor told him that his colleague was indeed up and awake. As the rustling continued, Zack turned his head by just a few degrees and cracked his eyes open to see what he was doing. To his surprise, Sephiroth was in the process of quietly getting dressed. Even more surprising was the fact that he was donning the Wutaian-style clothing Zack had previously seen him wearing. Where was he going, and why? And how was he planning to get past the guards surrounding the building? When he was done quickly putting on his clothes, Zack saw him putting his hair up in a bun. He pulled a wide dark scarf from his suitcase and wrapped it all around his head until all of his silver hair was covered. He tied the ends of the scarf in the back of his neck, sent one last glance in Zack's direction as he moved toward the door, which slid open just enough for him to pass through, and left.
Zack listened to his footsteps moving away, and when he was sure that the SOLDIER would not return immediately, he sat up in his bed and scratched his head. He looked over at Sephiroth's bed again to reassure himself that he had not dreamed that his comrade had just gotten up, disguised himself, and left. He was still gone, even now. Where could he possibly have run off to? He reached for his phone that laid on the floor next to his bed and checked the time. It was half past twelve, which would be long past curfew on a normal day. Interestingly enough, he had not taken his sword with him, so could not be expecting to get into a fight. Hence, the disguise, probably. He still had his materia, so he would not be completely defenseless, but he had also left his armor sitting in a pile on the ground. Going out by himself after what happened in the afternoon seemed beyond reckless to Zack.
He laid back down and stared at the ceiling. What to do now? Go out and look for him? Too dangerous, but he also had no idea where he had run off to, and the Wutai capital was huge. There was no way to find him without a lead. He could go back to sleep and pretend he never saw anything. Sephiroth probably knew what he was doing. Or did he? Perhaps Zack should notify Reno? Would that make him a snitch? He had no idea, considering that he did not even know why he left, and where. In the end, decided that he should stay awake and wait for his comrade's return, and ask him what was up.
Zack jerked up from a light daze when the door slowly slid open again. Sephiroth froze, his shining green eyes wide with surprise as he saw Zack sitting up in his bed. He overcame his surprise quickly enough to step into the room, slide the door closed quietly, and put a finger over his lips in a "shush" gesture. Zack folded his legs under the blanket and looked at Sephiroth for a moment, who proceeded to untie the scarf around his head. If he thought that was an inconspicuous disguise, he was dead wrong, because his voluminous hair piled up under the scarf made his head look unnaturally large. He would have stood out in any crowd, but perhaps it was not so noticeable in the dark. His long hair fell down his back when he undid the bun.
"Well?", Zack asked. Sephiroth glanced over his shoulder. "Well what?" Seriously? What was he thinking? "Where did you go?" Sephiroth pulled his shirt over his head, revealing his lean, muscular back for a short moment. Zack looked away, trying not to stare. Zack was not usually embarrassed being naked around other men; being a SOLDIER, he used to share a room with a roommate, so it was completely normal for him. But he had no idea how comfortable Sephiroth was with that. "Nowhere in particular." Sephiroth's evasive answer made Zack shift uncomfortably. "You can't be serious.", he exclaimed softly. Sephiroth did not answer and proceeded to take off his pants. "Let me guess. It's a sensitive topic", he threw at him in frustration. Sephiroth glanced over his shoulder again and responded coldly: "Yes."
He walked over to his bed and slipped under his blanket, lying on his back with his eyes open, while Zack continued to look at him questioningly. Finally, Sephiroth sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. "You won't let it go, will you?" Zack shook his head vigorously. "I can tell there's something wrong. Aside from… him." He could not bring himself to say Angeal's name now. Sephiroth did not acknowledge the comment, and after a short moment proceeded to speak: "She destroyed over twenty buildings. They already recovered a dozen or so bodies." So he had gone to the site where Leviathan had been summoned. "There's no imagining what could have happened if it hadn't been stopped." Right, someone, whoever it was, had summoned Shiva to freeze the flood wave to keep it from rolling further over the city. "By the way, who summoned her?", Zack wanted to know. He remembered a squeaky voice calling out the summon's name. Was it one of the Wutaian soldiers? "Oh", Sephiroth noted. "The cat did it." The cat? Was he referring to the cat-like creature they had seen only a few moments before all that happened. "Was that really a cat?", he asked. Sephiroth shook his head. "Not my secret to tell."
Great, more secrets. Zack put his hands over his knees and returned to the original topic. "That still doesn't explain why you went out there in the middle of the night." Sephiroth closed his eyes. "I really don't want to talk about it." Zack realized that there was probably no point in trying to press further. At least he found out where he went. Why he had clothes with him to disguise himself with, as if he had expected that he would do this, was a completely different question. Though there was another matter on his mind. "Will you do it?" Sephiroth opened his eyes again and lightly turned his head. "Do what?" Zack finally slid back under his blanket, his face turned toward the ceiling. "If he tells you to summon Leviathan, will you do it?" He still could not believe that anyone would seriously consider such a measure. He did not really expect a clear answer, but Sephiroth surprised him with a clear "Yes". Zack looked at him in astonishment. Sephiroth had refused a lot of orders recently, but he would seriously consider that one? His lips were pressed together, eyes were wide open, looking toward the ceiling, where a large bloodstain betrayed that he had stabbed a ninja listening in on their conversation earlier today. Was he just saying that in case the enemy was listening? Or was he actually serious?
Zack rubbed his face with both hands and groaned in frustration. He turned on his side, facing away from Sephiroth, and pulled the blanket all the way up to his chin. He closed his eyes, though his heart was pounding hard in his chest from anger and uncertainty. He had hoped that Sephiroth would continue to open up to him after they cried over Angeal together. But now it seemed as if Sephiroth was going to continue to shut him out. Zack felt rejected by the comrade he wanted to call his friend. Being friends with Sephiroth, sharing their thoughts and feeling, and going into battle together, had been big dreams of his ever since he had come into arm's reach with the legendary SOLDIER. But still, even though Zack was apparently not worthy of his attention, he found himself unable to give up on him, and that was the hardest part.
While he was still trying to calm himself down, a a rustle behind him interrupted his thoughts. Then something touched his back through the blanket. "What-", Zack began and looked over his shoulder to find Sephiroth having laid down right next to him, his forehead resting against his back. "Sephiroth, what in the-", Zack began anew, but was interrupted by a plea: "Can you let me be here? Just for tonight..." Zack, who was not at all used to being so physically close with other men, except during training, felt the heat rising into his face. That was not what he had imagined as getting closer to Sephiroth. But Sephiroth hardly ever asked for anything, so maybe, if that were to help him, maybe just this once, it would be okay? He closed his eyes and sighed. "Good night."