Tseng's throbbing jaw woke him up early in the morning, and he tossed and turned in search for a comfortable sleeping position until his alarm finally blared to notify him that it was time to get up. So he did, but one glance in the mirror made him wish that he had not, for the bruise had taken a deep purple shade that made him question for a brief moment if he would not rather shoot Yuffie Kisaragi than taking her captive for interrogation the next time he ran into her. He quickly pushed the thought aside and wondered instead if he should wear his hair open today to cover the unsightly blemish on his face. Wearing it open was impractical, but he was too vain to walk around with a bruise like this on his face without even attempting to hide it.
He had time for a quick shower and, after drying his hair, he decided that he would not see any more action today and so it would be acceptable to wear his hair open, just for today. And perhaps tomorrow, if the bruise was still visible by then. On the bedside table still sat his packaged dinner from the night before, which he had not eaten after all, but now he was not hungry anymore. He put the package into his suitcase in case he would be hungry later, against his better judgement, and went to the mass hall to join Freyra and Rod for a strong morning coffee. When he arrived there, he helped himself to a cup, but neither of the two were there yet, and so he sat down and closed his eyes again for a minute.
The minute of quietude was interrupted when his phone's beeping startled him. "Hey, can you give me clearance for the archives?", the message from Zack read. He frowned and responded: "What for?" as he sipped his coffee. It was very unusual for Zack to want to read something, so he had no idea what he could possibly need access to the archives for. The archives were full of company secrets anyway, so not everyone could get access to them. "I think Sephiroth's in there and I really need to see how he's doing." He contemplated about Zack's explanation for a moment. Sephiroth was not the bookish type either, but Tseng remembered that he had had such phases in the past. He wondered who had given him access this time. Tseng saw no issue with letting Zack into the archive, considering that Zack would probably not open a single file anyway, or understand anything he would see in them, but he hoped that he would find Sephiroth and, again against his better judgement, that talking to Zack would make him feel better.
Sipping his coffee again, he opened the access permission system on his phone and checked Sephiroth's current permissions, which confirmed that he currently had clearance for the archives. He left Sephiroth's permissions as they were and proceeded to give Zack clearance for this area for the remainder of the day. While he was doing that, Freyra and Rod finally joined him with their breakfast trays. He nodded at them and said a few words of greeting, which they reciprocated and finished the clearance request, which went through immediately. He texted to Zack: "Good luck", which I agree Zack would need, given Sephiroth's mood lately. He had always been a little antisocial, but since I left, it was as if he went all the way back to the time before we met for the very first time.
No further response came from Zack, and, having finished his coffee, Tseng helped himself to another one. He ignored the questioning glances Freyra and Rod exchanged with each other as he sat down and pointed at his jaw, explaining: "It's not broken, but it's really difficult to chew, so I'll just stick with coffee for today." Satisfied with Freyra's understanding nod, he proceeded to sip his coffee. Lies like these came almost naturally to him these days. He was not always able to avoid situations like this, where he was expected to eat while being with others, and so he always had an excuse for why was not eating in the back of his mind.
When they finished their breakfast, they made their way straight to the airfield, where they were scheduled to depart with a Gelnika. He was able to nap for another two hours and then spent the rest of the flight writing his report about yesterday's events. Thinking about it again, he wondered again if the whole situation had been a setup by the Wutaians. Since the truce gave Shinra permission to take action against Avalanche on Wutaian ground, they must have anticipated that Shinra would make a move eventually. It had all gone way too smoothly, and the building had been deserted when they arrived as well, as if they had just packed up and left. Aside from Yuffie, obviously, and he had no idea why she had been there in the first place. That just made no sense in case it really was a setup because that put the girl in serious danger. Unless Lord Godo suddenly tried to get rid of his daughter, he could not imagine she would be put into such a situation intentionally, no matter how good she was at surviving. But then, considering all that he knew about the Wutaian princess, her father probably did not even know she had been there. He had no doubt that the footage of two Turks blowing up a building in Wutai City would make fine anti-Shinra propaganda. But that might just as well blow up in Wutai's face if they somehow succeeded in acquiring an unedited version of the footage, which must show him saving Yuffie from the blast of the explosion. That would not undo their attack on Avalanche, but it would make it clear that they had not targeted Wutaian citizens and not broken the terms of the truce.
A short while before they arrived at Midgar, his phone announced another message, which, this time, came from Rufus: "Are you coming over today?" Tseng saved his report and packed away his laptop, wondering what he could say in response. He had never considered not visiting Rufus that day, which made the question a little awkward for him, but then he scolded himself for even putting so much thought into it. They were not dating or anything after all. His announcement, "I'll be there in about 30 minutes", elicited a "Can't wait!" from his master, which made Tseng smile lightly to himself.
Was it all of a sudden kind of nice to have someone waiting for him? Perhaps he was not aware, but this was not the first time someone in his life would regularly wait for him full of anticipation and excitement. Or perhaps he knew, and it was one of the reasons for him to avoid close personal relationships these days. I still remember very well the day Tseng first came to us, about ten or perhaps eleven years ago. Nowadays, it is common practice for SOLDIER members to be frequently paired up with the Turks. Most Turks were skilled fighters, but they were far from the level of a SOLDIER, who, in turn, were not too much use at stealth and information gathering. But at the time, SOLDIER was still a relatively fresh unit and present protocols were not quite in place yet.
And so, one day, a young man with black hair down to his neck, wearing the Turks' uniform, came into the SOLDIER quarters, asking for Sephiroth, who hesitantly came out of his room, his eyes full of the same distrust he viewed the whole world with, or perhaps even more than usual, as Genesis and I were watching from around the corner. The man, who was about as tall as Sephiroth at the time, introduced himself as Tseng, a new recruit from the Turks, and explained to Sephiroth that they were going on a mission together that would take them out of Midgar for three days. Sephiroth eased up a little when he heard they were going somewhere outside of Midgar, and returned to his room to pack his things and change into his combat gear. The SOLDIER uniforms at the time were considerably simpler than they are now, and his gear consisted of black cargo pants, leather boots, a black turtleneck sweater and shoulder protectors, quite similar to the ones SOLDIER still uses. His sword was Wutaian-made, almost as long as his own body, but not quite as long as the one he would continue to use after growing up.
While the Turk was waiting, his eyes fell on us, and he waved at us and called us over. He introduced himself again and asked us if we were Sephiroth's friends, to which I simply said "yes" and explained that we had recently joined SOLDIER and started our training. Tseng's glance wandered toward something behind me, and when I turned around, Sephiroth was standing there, his long hair tied into a ponytail, bangs framing his face, his sword on his back and a travel bag over his shoulder, staring at me. I smiled and waved at him, when Genesis pulled me aside to make way for Sephiroth. When he walked past us, I wished him good luck and bid him goodbye with a "see you soon". Sephiroth only said "bye", without looking at me and walked out. Tseng nodded at us and followed Sephiroth. When they were gone, Genesis wanted to know what I was thinking in claiming that we were Sephiroth's friends. I was confused and had no idea what he could possibly mean, because it had never occurred to me that Genesis did not think of Sephiroth as our friend. Surprisingly enough, Genesis thought that this was obvious, but that is a story for another time.
When Sephiroth came back from the mission three days later, the Turk dropped him off at our quarters, and as we went to greet him, we came just in time to see Sephiroth waving Tseng goodbye, who did not stick around. Sephiroth appeared strangely absent-minded the following days, although he still wiped the floor with us every time we trained. When Tseng eventually came back a month later, Sephiroth jumped up and all but ran to meet him at the entrance, where Tseng explained their next mission to him, to which he nodded eagerly. He finally ran to his room and came back only a few moments later, without paying us any mind.
Over the following months, Sephiroth's excitement whenever Tseng came to pick him up only grew and he was much more motivated to go on missions whenever he was paired with Tseng than usual, until one day he came back and locked himself in his room and was not seen again for several days. That, too, is a story for another time, but I believe Tseng has always been kind of oblivious to these sorts of things. Perhaps he really did not notice at the time, or the possibility simply did not occur to him because he viewed Sephiroth as the child that he still was. And perhaps even now, he was not aware that the feeling of longing for the other when that person was not there was already shared between him and Rufus. It was a gradual process, but an obvious one to anyone who could see him smile at the most mundane utterances sent over text if it came from the right person.