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Sephiroth hated when he was working on something so mundane and dull that it was difficult to stay awake while writing it. The reports he’d been keeping on Radiant Garden’s state were like that during the days when nothing happened. He had been up for hours as it was, and trying to word this report, like so many other dull ones before it, was taking its toll. He had already fallen forward into the computer screen several times and he was still battling the insistent pull of sleep. It wasn’t normally this strong, but tonight it seemed that no matter what he did, staying awake was not going to happen.
Finally he simply spread his wings and flapped them several times in rapid succession.
Cloud jumped a mile from where he was falling asleep on the couch. “What the heck are you doing?!”
“Trying to stay awake,” Sephiroth deadpanned. He resumed typing. Hopefully that had jarred him awake long enough to get the remaining sentences into the document.
Cloud sat up straighter. “That helps?” He sounded skeptical.
“It can,” Sephiroth said.
Cloud pondered that as he slowly got up and set the throw pillow back on the couch. He had no particular reason to stay awake, so he was going to give in to the pull and go to sleep, like Zack had already done.
He paused, studying Sephiroth as he finally wrapped up the document, saved it, and prepared to close the computer. The man was completely human, of course, yet unlike Cloud, he often acted bird-like in regards to his wings. He stretched them repeatedly throughout the day, similar to how people would stretch arms, Cloud supposed. And he liked using his wings as extra arms when embracing Cloud or Zack. Sometimes he just fell asleep on the couch holding them in his wings.
It was only recently that they had learned that Sephiroth had actually been born with two of the wings, instead of creating all of them at age five as he had thought. He didn’t seem too troubled by that fact, aside from anger that the mad scientist who was probably his birth father had been conducting experiments that had resulted in babies being born with wings and fire powers. He had turned out fine and loved his powers, but he heavily suspected the others who had been experimented on had not. Perhaps, even, that was why Genesis had been so bitter towards him.
Cloud couldn’t help wondering exactly what the nature of those experiments had been. What would have caused wings? Had Sephiroth been injected with bird DNA? The thought made Cloud’s skin crawl. How evil did someone have to be to do that to a kid not even born yet?
Sephiroth looked up as he stood from the computer chair. “You’re still here?”
Cloud came back to the present. “I was just wondering.”
“Wondering what?” Sephiroth grunted.
Cloud shifted, hoping this wouldn’t come out wrong. “Do you ever feel . . . like a bird?”
Sephiroth was still deadpanning. “No. I feel like a man with wings.”
Cloud flushed. “I mean . . . you do stuff that I usually don’t do, stuff that Aerith said she sees her birds doing in her yard. Does it just . . . come natural to you or did you learn it over time?”
“Hm.” Sephiroth paused, thinking. “I don’t remember a time when I had the wings and didn’t stretch or flap them, at least. That’s fairly natural, normal behavior with wings. Embracing people, however, was my own idea. I was hugging my mother and suddenly realized all the wings could be used like arms.”
“Guess she must’ve thought that was cute,” Cloud remarked.
“She did,” Sephiroth grunted. “I only save it for people I truly love.”
Cloud smiled a bit at that. “I know.” Another pause. “So . . . why don’t I do much of that stuff? It didn’t come naturally to me. Seems like I’d just start doing it if it’s really the usual thing.”
“That’s a good question,” Sephiroth mused. “Perhaps bats don’t have the same behaviors as birds? I’ve never studied it.”
“You’d think they would, though,” Cloud said. “I mean, wings are wings, right?”
“I know their wings are made differently and they can fly in some unique ways birds cannot,” Sephiroth said. With a tired smirk he added, “Do you ever have the desire to hang upsidedown, Cloud?”
Cloud snorted. “No.”
“That’s encouraging. We can look more into the differences between the species tomorrow,” Sephiroth said, blinking sleepy eyes at Cloud. Already the effect from the flapping was wearing off.
“Right. Sure.” Cloud sighed and stepped back. “Go to bed.”
“Thank you,” Sephiroth said and started down the hall.
Cloud looked in on him a few minutes later. He had simply collapsed on his bed on his stomach, not even having removed any of his day clothes. Already he was sound asleep, all wings twitching as he dreamed.
“Well,” Cloud muttered to himself, “that’s one thing my wing does, anyway.”
****
In spite of how exhausted he was when the conversation happened, Sephiroth remembered about it. When Cloud came downstairs the next day, he found Sephiroth awake and at the computer again, looking somewhat amused.
“Zack find a good joke or something?” Cloud asked.
“I was just researching about bats,” Sephiroth said. “You do have a trait of theirs, actually—they like to wrap their wings around themselves.”
Cloud blinked in surprise. “Yeah?”
Sephiroth nodded and showed Cloud a picture of one doing just that.
“Weird,” Cloud remarked. “I never even thought about it. It just seemed like a normal thing to do with a wing when I wanted to hide. . . .” He trailed off. Sephiroth still looked amused, but also pleased. Cloud understood now.
“I guess we both like to do stuff with our wings that seems normal to us,” he said.
“Yes,” Sephiroth said. “We do. And that doesn’t make us any less human, nor should it.”
Cloud slowly nodded. “I shouldn’t have said what I said last night,” he admitted. “Sorry. It’s just . . . well, I wondered if you have bird DNA or something, since now we know you were born with wings.”
“I wonder myself,” Sephiroth admitted. “I don’t remember those reports Genesis showed me saying any such thing, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t done.”
“And you’re really okay with that?” Cloud frowned. “You’re not upset because your wings didn’t all come the way you’ve always thought they did?”
“I’m slightly angry I wasn’t told sooner,” Sephiroth said. “But however they came to be, they’re here and I love them. I can’t even imagine living without wings, nor do I want to.”
“I guess it helps you were raised in an environment where your parents loved them too,” Cloud said.
“Yes,” Sephiroth said quietly. “They were wonderful people. They always encouraged me with my abilities and never saw me as some sort of freak of nature because I have them.” He frowned a bit. “Do you think your mother wouldn’t accept your wing?”
Cloud looked away. “I think she’d be disappointed because of how it happened,” he said quietly. “I mean, the wing you did create came because you did something good. Of course your parents would think that was great. But my wing came because I fell into my own darkness. That’s nothing to be proud of. How can she—or I—ever see having it as a good thing?”
Sephiroth frowned, pondering the understandable question. “Honestly, a mad scientist experimenting on me to give me two of my wings isn’t anything to be proud of either,” he said quietly. “But I still use them for good. Don’t you like anything about your wing?”
Cloud shrugged. “I like flying, I guess . . . when I do it. And I like wrapping my wing around myself when I’m upset. But overall I’m ashamed of it. I wish I didn’t have it. And I don’t know if I’ll ever feel any different about it.”
“I hope you will,” Sephiroth said. “But if you can’t, it’s normal and understandable under the circumstances.” He got up from the computer. “While you’re struggling over your feelings, just know that I like your wing. I believe Zack does as well. I don’t know if that makes any difference to you, but it’s still the truth.”
Cloud smiled a bit. “It does make a difference,” he said. “Thanks.”
Sephiroth smiled and nodded. “And now I think Zack has breakfast ready,” he noted as the delicious smells wafted in from the kitchen. “Shall we go in?”
“Yeah,” Cloud said.
He wondered if he ever would or could feel differently about his wing. The pastor he had talked with before had suggested that perhaps he would if he found a way to use his wing for good.
Could he?
Well, it was something to think about, anyway. And in the meantime, it was comforting to know that he had loved ones who accepted him even with his wing. The Restoration Committee did as well. Maybe when they could, he could think that his mother would too. It was a moot point, but still.
Smiling a bit, he followed Sephiroth into the kitchen.