I have no coherent ideas and my brain is a puddle send help
Green eyes were fixated on the slab of chocolate in front of him, plunked upon his desk without so much as a napkin. It didn't matter much, he supposed; the crumbs melded with the brown anyway.
Don't ask what it is, it's clearly a brownie...
Sephiroth decided to let his silence pose the question.
"It's a cosmic brownie!" Zack chirped, very much pleased with himself. "They were, like, the ultimate snack when I was a little Zack. I needed to bring one for you to try! Can you believe they had them at the supermarket?"
“That is where people tend to find food." Sephiroth's response was half-hearted, two fragile fingers already hovering over the pastry to examine it further. Zack's indoctrination or not, it did smell good... good enough to indulge his friend and perhaps taunt Hojo's strict diet to boot.
There was only one blemish: the otherwise silkily smooth, pristinely flat, rich chocolate base was mottled with maybe a dozen pebbles. Artificially colored ones at that—pebbles that looked as if they were extracted from a set of dominoes and grafted on the brownie instead.
No matter. An easy fix. Then he would indulge his friend and taunt Hojo to boot.
Carefully, Sephiroth began plucking the first pebble off the chocolate, only utilizing the tips of his fingernails to avoid leaving crater—
"Whoah, whoah, whoah! What are you doing?!" Zack sounded absolutely petrified.
Sephiroth glanced up in confusion. "I'm eating it, aren't I?"
"No, no, NO!" Zack's finger shot towards the pebble on the desk. "You can't remove them!"
"...Why not?"
“You can't remove the cosmic from the brownie! Then you just have a brownie!"
“It is a brownie, Zack.”
“A COSMIC brownie!”
What does that even mean? Sephiroth was tempted to ask, but he didn't, because from Zack's horror alone he felt like he had disgraced a ritual that held a lot of value to his friend. Zack had been willing to share a piece of his childhood with him—a staple of his youth, a fragment of his young life that he wanted him to experience.
And he should experience it pure.
So, resigned, and a smile bursting on Zack's face, Sephiroth returned the pebble and took a generous bite. The boy watched him with great intent, his fingers knotting together as the silence stretched between them.
"Hmm..." Sephiroth finally swallowed, reevaluating the pastry. "This brownie is indeed very cosmic.”
Originally had this up on AO3 for maybe five seconds, but quickly realized that an upcoming school shift ain’t gonna lemme frolic in my lalala land of kitty aliens and warfare (and there was no procrastination I swear on my pet rhino).
Anyyywho thought I’d toss something here instead so fomo doesn’t eat me alive! Just a little bite-sized, shoot-and-miss of SephWeek Day 1!
Day 1 ~ Glory
"Checkmate."
Yes, he didn't have to say it so slowly, letting the syllables linger on his tongue... but it also felt appropriate. The corners of his lips twitched into a smirk, jade eyes twinkling under the low kitchen light, and something foreign seemed to stir in the depths of his chest. A little flicker of something warm and ballooning and maybe even a little dangerous... but it wasn't unwelcome.
He felt proud.
He felt proud claiming the auburn's last king; he felt proud having formulated a strategy that would allow him to do so; he felt proud that Genesis had been the one to challenge him but he had reigned supreme.
He felt proud that he had won without sacrifice.
There was not a drop on crimson on the battlefield; there was only black and white, just as simple as his objective had been. He was the hero, and Genesis was the villain, and that was the way it was supposed to be. There would be no scars left on the pieces he'd gathered, no deafening screams shattering the landscape, no demons looming over his dreams and possessing his name.
There was no one who had flung him into battle, no one who had paved a road for themselves and forced him down it. There was no lavishing or people dousing him in gold paint. There was no satisfaction that wasn't his own.
He had won. And the victory felt earned.
"What are you staring at, Sephiroth?"
The man shook his head, blinking himself into reality. "Nothing."
“If you say so.” Genesis had already begun resetting the board. “Up for a rematch?”
Oop oop oop totally forgot about SephWeek today I am BAD FANGIRL.
*plops on rug and checks cereals of the world calendar or something* Looks like today’s free day!! (I’m also swearing on my pet rhino that this wasn’t plucked from a random unfinished Google doc.)
Day 4 ~ Free Day
He had been expecting it, yet it was a pain he was unable to process. The pang was so much worse. So much worse than any amount of futile, shallow preparation could ever shield him from.
The image of Seph lying in a hospital bed, the monitor harmonizing with his breaths all too real as his friend was swathed in the phantomy white blankets, a web of black snakes coiling around his arm and splattered over the mattress. He was completely motionless, his eyes chained shut in the paralyzed, comatose, maybe undoable state they were hovering in.
"Seph…" Zack didn’t even register when he was at his bedside, a hand gripping the other’s. He didn’t even register when tears were rivering down his cheeks, a natural progression of the dam splintering inside of him, cracking with his speech and heart. He didn’t stop them. "You there…?"
The monitor answered for him. He didn’t ask the monitor.
He tightened his hold, the clamminess leaving an empty husk to clench, the familiar warmth veneered under ice and memories and nightfall. "You'll keep fighting. I know you will. To the end of the end, even when you can't take any more."
He slid his hand away, moving the limb to wind tremulously around Seph's shoulders instead. There was no armor for the pearls to echo off of, only dribbling silently into the mattress. "You'd never leave me. You'd never leave me without my best buddy." And then he was buried in his neck, quivering, choking, Zack's eyes succumbing to the same paralyzing, unmoving state. "You'd never."
The monitor's response was vague.
Zack shifted, clenching a fistful of leather. A husk. "I love you so much, bud… Don’t forget that."
"…Lieutenant Fair?" The nurse’s voice called from the doorway; he never looked up. He recognized it. The same velvet knives that told him of Seph’s condition. "We have to ask you to leave while we run a few more tests. We promise you'll be able to see your commander afterwards."
But the request only made Zack tighten his clutch, burrowing deeper, and in that broken shelter he wondered if there was a more disgusting word to exist than commander.
~
“Am I… a human being?” - NO NO NO the world’s gonna SHATTER me with Monster day tomorrow no no no *hides in refrigerator* I must prepare to counteract with FLOOF (just gotta tap into that Jenova power of friendship lucky charms bs again… :3c)
Jenova’s greatest nemesis: the power of FRIENDSHIP… and someone who loves her son more. (Taken from my fic Candle in the Rain bc school closed the kitchen for now! Chuck all the pies you want at me for unoriginality!)
Sephiroth thrust the battered hand away, repositioning his weapon to the tarry shape now staggering before him, dangerously close, soiling his presence, the blur unarmed and useless.
Now, my son... Now.
Illuminating gems dueled, watching the other's reflection ripple and crack, hero and monster colliding, amnestic hatred boring into scintillating lights of resolve.
Then, Zack did the only thing he could. The only thing he knew how to. The only thing that was left.
He lunged forward, throwing his arms around the bestial SOLDIER.
Sephiroth stiffened.
Time, the world, everything froze at the sudden action. Something had broken into the abyss… a soul bound by strings, tethering and ensnaring the comatose being within its tendril hive. It reached for the imprisoned soul, calling it, shaking with an unflagging hand in its battle to draw the being into consciousness. And under the hand, ever so slightly, responding to the touch… the soul began to twitch.
Why? Why did you stop attacking?
Among this window of paralysis, Zack rested his head against the warrior's shoulder, calling his fleeting energy to return and squeezed with the last embers of his strength, squeezing silent messages into his embrace.
How dare it, how dare it?! This human corrupting you so: it is tricking you! It is going to kill you... strangle you! Finish it... Now!
The reins lashed, the spurs dug into his side; Sephiroth was thrown back into the present, the haze closing in, sinking further in the jade waters, hoisting his katana and bringing it to hover over the brunet's pregnable back.
But Zack was unfazed by the motion. He wasn't afraid.
"Seph... can you hear me, pal?" He buried his head into the other's neck, burying deep into the warmth where his words were breathed. "It's gonna be okay... I promise."
The watery drones were pecking into his world, riding the currents around him... They were close... closer than they had been before... Sephiroth's chin dipped, the indistinguishable mutters clinging to his body like ticks, latching on.
Tear them away. Mother's voice encompassed him, crystal clear in a language he could understand. Directions he could follow.
Sephiroth shook off the insects, shaking his head until they were all gone and claimed by the ocean, pressing his blade further against the other's spine.
Zack only channeled out the pain, squeezing the electric scorches into his tightening embrace, grounding himself. "It’s me, Seph. It’s me… I'm right here, bud..." He searched for the rhythm of his friend's heartbeat, searching for the song that could never be stolen. "I promise... I won't leave here without you. I won't stop until you're safe and sound." He clutched with all of Gaia's might. "I won't."
"I... mri... re... bu..."
"C'mon, pal..." Warm streams trickled onto Sephiroth's bare skin, and he choked, shivering, canceling out everything in the world. “Please… come back. I need you, Seph… I need my best buddy.”
He was standing on an islet, a slab of metal in the core of the Reactor on the peak of a mountain in a backwater town on the corner of Gaia clutching his dear friend, crying into his shoulder as he had done so many times in the past.
Plunk.
“Remember when Angeal was gone..." Zack's voice was rattling. "You held me like this..."
Plunk.
Little wavelets formed in the jade sea, breaking through the surface, acidic water rifting until belts of light were streaking through, narrow streaks just barely breathing color and shape into his reality.
The feline slits began to quiver.
Grey walls... a grey beam bridging over—
NOW.
A claw burst through the seafloor, slashing at the tethers and replacing them with her own, her own tendrils dragging him deeper into the water, away from the light. Away from the world. Away from the truth. Within the containment, the bloody orb blazed from a malicious splotch to blinding crimson, craving more, famished for her kill, and the slits again needled.
Do it.
Sephiroth pressed further, his breath whetting against her commands... quivering.
And Zack felt the hesitation in his friend's blade. "I know it must hurt… I know..." A sanguine teardrop splashed, his lips budding with a sad, quiet smile.
NOW.
Deeper.
Zack nuzzled deeper as well. "C'mon... I know you can do it, buddy. I know you can." He strained his eyes tight, warm tears rolling off like dew. "Angeal knows you can too. He knows you're stronger than it."
NOW.
She plunged into his memories then, just as she had done before, digging and ferreting, clawing and reaching, raking her talons against the most venomous shards and injecting them into his mind.
REMEMBER.
He kneeled on the ground, sinking into the moonless stretch of Wutain grass, adopting sheens of crimson by the second. Tresses of blood reached his glove, a rich crimson arm... Crimson. Just as Genesis wore. Just as the two clones of his oldest friend were wearing, gashes striped across their chest.
Traitors. Deserters. That's what he was. That's what they were.
That's what all they were.
Humans. Treacherous, vile creatures who inflicted pain and suffering.
"Se… ph..."
Sephiroth looked away from the bodies... following the call; the winds picked up as he did, harsh gusts of serrated night trying to keep his head in place, trying to stop him.
"Seph..."
A twister was engulfing the landscape now, branches snapping, timber skeletons falling at his feet, bony tendrils stretching from the greenery…
But he saw it anyway: a shadowy blur kneeling beside him, sharing his grief, sharing his pain…
He... wasn't...
Zack locked his fingers around the other’s collar. “We’re a team, Seph… remember?” His eyes fissured open, the oceanic waves rippling sharp with resolution, cloudy with everything else. “Always…”
REMEMBER.
Cold hands slammed him into the wall, ungloved and bloody, having shoved from behind. The steel around him burned bright with blue, and Sephiroth turned around to face the source of the fire.
“I HATE YOU, SEPHIROTH!” The words pinned him, sawtoothed thorns that bit into his skin, tore apart his veins, turquoise blood gushing down his cloak. Alien. Monstr–
“You MONSTER! You made me KILL HIM!”
Kill.
Zack closed his eyes.
The.
Tears trickled down.
Human.
He hugged him close. “I love you, Sephiroth…”
I l... ve... ou...
I lov... y... u...
I love you...
I love you, Sephiroth.
The words were like silk, true velvet, true ribbons, a zephyr that breathed into his ear and swept through his body and into his cells, unlocking fragments that had been prisoned away, carrying them to the surface, the poison dripping away...
How is it...
Reptilian slits widened.
…doing that?
Shards of memory flashed before his mind's eyes. Warmth that wasn't flames... Stars to look at, not to take..
Zack's eyes creaked open, hearing a faint rattle amid the thick silence, feeling a metallic weight lift from his spine.
"...Seph...?"
The blade had been drawn away.
This human! This worthless, pathetic human! It is lying to you! Kill it... you must! It deserves a loathsome fate! And you WILL deliver it!
Then, Sephiroth attempted to speak. His words cracked in the grapple.
"N—no..."
~
Sorry Cloud! Spotlight stolen. Do love ya though <3
His groggy mind hardly had time to process the voice before Zack was suddenly on the couch with him, scurrying under the blanket and emerging on the other side, face burying in his neck.
"Seph...!"
All the unnamed instincts in his body sparked any traces of tiredness away. He straightened against the arm of the couch, scanning his friend for injuries or tears or blemishes and then the hallway for danger. Nothing. Not that it made the boy's tremors any less real.
“What happened?" Sephiroth demanded to know, although he tried to keep his tone a reasonable volume.
"...Shadows... under... my mattress... eating rats..." Zack's voice was muffled by his collar, shaking harder, burrowing deeper with his plush squashed between his arms.
Still, Sephiroth was able to understand with clarity, and came to an equally clear realization that Zack was describing the monster in the movie they had watched. A chain unfettered in his chest, slumping back into the pillow.
"You had a nightmare," he deduced aloud.
"They were so real..."
“They're not,” Sephiroth insisted, gentle and firm, but the boy's heartbeat still clapped like thunder against his own.
Well this just wouldn't do.
The reassurance may have worked for him, he realized, but it would not work for Zack. Right now the boy needed shelter, protection... even if it was from nothing.
Sephiroth wound his arms around his friend and brought him close, resting his chin on the bed of feathery spikes... and as soon as he did, as soon as his touch reached the other's, Zack's trembling began to calm. It was like starlight traveled through his body, so celestial and magical to comprehend, his eyes aglow with fond green lights as they slowly fell shut.
“You're safe..." Sephiroth mumbled softly, holding his closest and only friend tighter, listening to the erratic heartbeat find a rhythm. Find shelter.
I'm here. Seph's here. No one will hurt you.
"...But the shadow rats..."
"There are no shadow rats."
"...Oh... yeah." Zack seemed to only realize the words as they left his lips. "Ri—“
CLAP.
And then he was burrowed in his collar again as a flash of white engulfed the room, the heartbeat back to the same intensity it had been before. Maybe even louder.
More than loud enough for Sephiroth to clutch his friend tighter, curling his body over his so that the other was completely swaddled, completely safe, cocooned in his arms where he gave the solace needed from him. The storm outside did eventually fizzle, as did the rhythm of Zack’s heartbeat.
“Goodnight, bud…” Zack mumbled, his world surrounded in a soft cotton shirt and blanket.
“Goodnight."
~
Just as a gentle reminder you’re in weenie hut jrs; Nibelheim never happens because the power of their friendship overpowers evil mumsy and her evil mumsy powers <3
Due to my insane and combustious lifestyle, all my fics revolve around Seph, and all of them are diabetes-inducing chocolate truffles of friendship. Hmm. Pick your poison!! <3
