Title: Moral
Fandom: Final Fantasy 7
Pairing: S+C
Rating: PG
Warnings: Shounen ai hints.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Note: Inspired by jenniyah's questions, here's a kinda sorta prequel drabble to "Bruise". It's a lot more lighthearted than "Bruise", because... come on, it has Zack in it. How can anything around Zack stay gloomy?

-
Moral
-

Watching them dance around each other was beyond frustrating. It was like observing a moth and its proverbial flame, although the respective roles seemed to change by the hour. One of them would hesitantly flutter close, probe carefully for the lingering heat, back off a bit, flutter closer still and then quite suddenly retreat because of an inevitable and utterly inconsequential blunder, the tips of the wings singed. Then the process would be repeated in reverse. And so it went, day in, day out.

It was driving Zack up the wall.

When confronted with these observations, Sephiroth willed himself not to take offense to being compared to a delicate invertebrate animal. Then he took a moment to inform Zack that if they were so maddening to watch, he should just look elsewhere to preserve his sanity. Instead of rising to the bait like he had expected him to, Zack crowed in delight and said that Sephiroth hadn't even bothered with something along the lines of "it's all just in your head", so it must be something serious.

Sephiroth had replied that no matter the presence or absence of any feelings on his, or god forbid, both their parts, he would stick to the regulations and keep his relationship with Cloud Strife an entirely honorable one.

Zack had slapped his palm into his face. "I'm not saying you have to fuck him, Seph!"

"I would appreciate it if you wouldn't use that term," Sephiroth said with slight disdain coloring his voice.

Zack rolled his eyes. "Fine. You don't have to sleep with him. At least not right away, anyway. But I think you should permit yourself to live a little."

"And what would you have me do? Take him to the movies?" Sephiroth sneered, his entire posture suggesting that if Zack valued his jaws in working condition, they would discontinue this conversation.

"Gee, I don't know, how about a kiss first?" Zack replied, part sarcasm, part earnest suggestion, because with Sephiroth, it never hurt to make sure that he knew the proper code of conduct for situations involving "feelings".

"I am not going to kiss Cloud Strife. So you can stop thinking about opening another betting pool," Sephiroth replied stonily, clearly signaling the end of the conversation. Zack snickered, but did not say anything further.

Two weeks later, Sephiroth made a liar out of himself.

----
A/N: Like? Hate? I'm kind of afraid to find out. --"""