If Sephiroth had left Shinra, part of me wouldn't really want him joining up with Avalanche tbh. I think he would certainly sympathize with Avalanche and probably would be propositioned as a top candidate to join. But I honestly think that Sephiroth probably would just want to live the rest of his life in peace not being a pawn in someone else's game. He's tired.
I totally get where you're coming from... that being said, in my fic he's essentially working with Avalanche to take ShinRa down. I want him to get to destroy the system that destroyed him. However, at the end he will have a chance to retire and live a simple life doing simple shit like he always deserved.
Look I love unconditional devotion love stories as much as the next person, but there's really something so deliciously raw about conditional devotion.
I have served you and I have loved you for decades, but I will not give up my principles for you. You cut out part of my heart and took it with you down that path that you insist on walking, but you walk it alone. Even when the bleeding, gaping hole you left in my chest kills me, I will not follow you.
“online fandom bestie that you once shared intense intimacies with but don’t really talk to anymore simply bc we drifted into new blorbo obsessions” is such a specific type of relationship that has to be impossible to explain to anyone who hasn’t experienced it
SephZack floofbal!! (Because my soul desperately needed it, yes.)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Zack’s eyes fluttered shut.
“…you good, bud?” The words were slow, syrupy, earnest. “…ya hangin’ in there?”
Beneath his cheek, a ridge of warm leather bobbed in amusement.
“You’re asking me this?”
A quiet smile. “…yeah,“ Zack murmured, his voice a hairline fracture amid an otherwise silent apartment. “‘S’that weird or somethin’?”
Instead of receiving an immediate response, he felt the weight shift him shift and strengthen as strong arms adjusted their hold, the sofa springs squeaking beneath their shared presence.
“Heh, well,” Sephiroth hummed, “I’m not the one recovering from illness.”
Zack mustered up a chuckle. “True…” Then, nestling just a bit deeper: “But, y’know… just wanted to make sure you were comfy, what with how long you’ve been sitting there.” Had it been an hour? Two? An evening? A night? The fog didn't let him remember, but he did know that it was long enough for many waves of sleep to have passed.
Presently, however, Seph’s answer didn’t seem to be impacted by any of those possibilities.
"Heh... don't fret about that.” His voice was just as unwavering as it was amused, as it was fond. "I am perfectly comfortable."
Zack's smile broadened. "...Yeah?"
"Mmhmnn."
But even if he wasn't, or if his muscles were sore or he wanted to retire to his own quarters—
Gingerly, like a heavy boot descending onto ice, Sephiroth rested his chin against the bed of thick, feathery quills, strong arms tightening their hold just so.
"My concern is you right now."
No fever could emulate the sheer warmth that blossomed in Zack's chest, splaying like sunrays through the vaporous layers of shivering and fatigue and parting the doubts that had gathered in hus mind, assuaging all the guilt.
And illuminating a question that'd been voiceless for months upon motnhs now.
"...How do you do it, bud?"
Sephiroth hummed, the vibrations palpable. "Do what?"
"...look after me so well."
And, perhaps, it was the fever that distorted time, making it both stretch and march faster at once. Like Sephiroth needed both a million years and a single heartbeat fo find the right answer.
The right word.
The right name.
"Angeal," Sephiroth responded then, shards of glass on his toungue: wielding both a weapon and precious fragments, careful not to cut either of thwm with their brittleness.
Zack's eyes fissured open. "...Hmn?" Curious, but always careful not to rush too quickly into the serrated topic. "What 'bout 'Geal?"
It was Sephiroth's eyes that fell shut now. "He told me to look after you, you know. Mere days before Wutai."
A slow, hazy blink. "...Yeah?" Intrguied, genuine, unharmed..
Almost awestruck.
Grateful to not have wounded his friend, Sephiroth took the rest as a signal to continue: "I was in my office, yes. Sifting through any information I could find on Genesis. Hardly paying any mind to anyone wlae's presence. Of course, when Angeal answered, I was expecting only to recieve the reports that he routinely delivered..."
"...and instead asked you to look after me?" Zack surmised, having nestled all the closer into his treasured friend's embrace. Instinct.
To which Sephiroth adjusted his hold, accommodating Zack's position. "He told me to look after you, yes"—Then, laced with a sigh"—should anything happen to him."
Not even a fever could murk the implications.
"...You musta been pretty scared," Zack murmured, breathed. "...To hear that so soon after Gen'sis, I mean."
And in some ethereal way, Zack's raw accuracy melted into Sephiroth like balm. "I was, yes," he admitted, seeing no reason to dance around and details. "And very angry."
Zack took a beat to digest this. "You were angry when me met, too. Back in Wutai."
Anorher beat. "...But never because of you," Sephiroth murmured, and shifted his cheek just so. "I hope you know that."
Behind closed eyes, he felt Zack peel his head from his shoulder to press against the other's cheek instead. "...'Course, bud." And then, with a ghost of mischief: "though I know I can be pr'tty annoying."
A vague, quiet smirk. "You know, Angeal warned that I wouldn't be able to resist you."
Zack nuzzled clsoer. "...Yeah? And was he right?"
"Not in the slightest."
"...You're not a good liar, bud."
Sephiroth chuckled.
"Angeal warned me that I wouldn't be able to reject your friendship," the man started, deliberately slow and teasing. "What he failed to warn me of...?"
"...That I will drag you out for meatball pizza every Thursday?"
"Perhaps," Sephiroth acknowledged, and continued to chuckle as he closed the fractional distance that seperated him and his cocooned friend, "but nor did he say that you would become the most important part of my life."
Do you headcanon that they style their hair like that, or do you believe final fantasy has its own hair physics and it grows that way naturally for everyone 😂
It's really easy to imagine Roche going to a salon frequently and schmoozing it up with like a group of older ladies that frequent the place. They've accepted him in to their circle and are excited gossip with him.
Tumblr being the "piss on the poor" reading comprehension site makes sense when you realize that 79% of adults in the US are functionally illiterate. Same goes for Twitter and TikTok.
that's a real high number, sport. where'd you get it?
theartofmadeline
titsay
baratheonpilled
gummygunk
origamiaround
amandla
