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Sephiroth jolts awake. Not the first time, but this time is different. He had a dream, he thinks. Normally he wakes up so startled from a bad nightmare about his mother or of Hojo’s labs, but this one is strange.
He dreamt of many different things. All pieces. A boy with blonde hair that reminds him of Zack’s infantryman friend. A girl in a pink dress surrounded by flowers. Somebody crying. Blood in his eyes.
He doesn’t know what it was that startled him so much, but it did.
“Seph? Seph!”
Sephiroth doesn’t realize he’s been ignoring Zack’s attempts to get his attention for the past 15 seconds, and whips his head around at him in the bed.
He’s in an inn. Oh, he’s… on a mission. The place is wooden and clearly old but up-kept. He glances out the window at the water tower lit up by nothing but moonlight. He can briefly smell smoke.
“Hey, you okay?” Zack’s voice rings through his ears and his glowing eyes return to the man’s face. “You woke up pretty harsh. You seem out of it. Was it a nightmare?”
Sephiroth glances around in thought. Was it a nightmare? He doesn’t know, honestly.
“Uhm, yeah,” He sinks back down into the bedsheets. “Yeah. Nightmare. That’s all.”
Zack seems very unconvinced.
“You look like you saw a ghost.” His eyebrows are knitted and his voice is still raspy with sleep, clearly having been woken by Sephiroth. “Seriously, you look pale.”
He climbs out of his blankets to sit on the edge of Sephiroth’s bed.
“Was it bad?”
“I…” Sephiroth swallows, but that doesn’t seem to fix the pit of dread pooling in his stomach for seemingly no reason. He can’t bring himself to answer.
Zack tilts his head again and puts a hand on Sephiroth’s shoulder. He can see the overwhelm in his green eyes.
“Okay, you don’t have to talk about it.”
He glances around the room like he’s trying to think of something and the objects in the room will help. He sees the water tower outside, leaning a bit forward and looking at the dim-lit path that goes to the manor.
“Hey, I’ve got an idea,” Zack turns his head back to look at his friend, and sits back on his free hand. “You seem… worried about something, and they haven’t been giving you breaks.”
He mutters it under his breath like he’s almost afraid of someone hearing.
“This is just a visit to that old reactor or something, right?” He searches Sephiroth’s face, who says nothing in response. “I can handle it myself, guaranteed. And… I’ll tell them you got real sick, or something. You don’t have to come for something as simple as this.”
Sephiroth knits his eyebrows in reluctance and hesitation.
“Zack,” He drawls almost in a warning, but something betrays his tone. “I can’t do that. That’s not an excuse I can give.”
Zack rolls his eyes.
“Yeah, and I don’t care,” He says bluntly. “You fell asleep in the middle of that meeting the other day, and you keep having nightmares and overworking yourself and–“
Zack takes a breath to calm himself.
“I’m worried about you, okay? You seem jittery lately,” He admits in a murmur, taking Sephiroth’s hand and gently squeezing. “A mission like this is nothing. I’ll be fine, and you can rest.”
Sephiroth’s grip on Zack’s hand becomes apparent.
“But they were… so excited to see me,” He glances out the window at the small town below. “It’ll look bad on my record.”
Zack scoffs.
“You don’t owe them shit. You’re a person too,” The bluntness from Zack is catching Sephiroth off guard. He’s finding it very hard to argue against this. “It won’t be hard to fake it. You already look like hell.”
He brushes a strand of stray silver hair behind Sephiroth’s ear.
“No offense.”
Sephiroth huffs out something of a laugh through his nose.
“None taken.”
Zack leans a little closer, examining Sephiroth’s expression.
“So? Whaddya say, bud?”
Sephiroth has a mental conflict. The company, the press, the mission itself. But Zack is right there. And he’s so grounding and he’s right if nothing else. He doesn’t think he deserves this, but…
“Yeah, okay.”
Zack beams and it’s as if light filters into the room.
“Thanks for taking me up on it,” He loosens his grip on Sephiroth’s hand to wrap his pinky finger around Sephiroth’s. “You can sleep as long as you want while I do all your work for you.”
Sephiroth scoffs playfully.
The two sit there in silence for a moment or two before Zack turns his head.
“Want me to push the beds together?”
Sephiroth raises an eyebrow, but nods before he can stop himself, watching Zack pad across the wood planks with a few creaks as the bed frame slides across the floor.
He watches him crawl in, pulling the blankets up to both of their necks as the two of them settle back down. Zack’s hand finds its way to Sephiroth’s shoulder.
“Get some sleep, okay?”
Sephiroth nods.
“Thank you.”
A smile crosses Zack’s sleepy face.
“Of course. Anything for my best bud.”
The feeling of fear slowly fizzles out of Sephiroth’s stomach, and he can no longer smell that odd scent of wood burning.