Do Not Disturb
A story by: Angelistical06
)( Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII or any other copyrighted subject that just might pop up in this fiction. Yada yada yada…)(
Dosage #7 (feeling it yet?)
Heavy footsteps echoed loudly down the street, soon to be accompanied by a devastated sigh. Not only did Seph's high speed sprint out the ShinRa building kill any reserved energy, he was still stuck with unwanted company. Cloud was right behind him, gazing into the sky and humming an unknown song. Why couldn't he take a hint? Sephiroth was wasted! And not from alcohol…
A car whizzed by.
Cloud took this as a time to break the silence between them.
"Should we have left that small guy on the sidewalk like that?"
Sephiroth shrugged slightly. "Who cares?"
"Maybe he had a small people family, you know? Like a wife and kid…" Cloud paused and walked up to his general. "You just murdered him. I still think we should have buried the poor guy…"
"What makes you think it was a guy!" Sephiroth irrationally snapped.
"…Wow, you seem pretty tired.."
"I'm trying to get to bed…" He mumbled.
Finally, the duo found themselves standing in front of the sandy-red ShinRa apartment building. The older one withdrew his keys and slowly opened the door. He had made it. Nothing felt better than the thought of sleeping in his bed.
"Well, I guess this is your stop, huh?" The yellow hair teen spoke shyly. Sephiroth looked over his shoulder to him. That kid put him through all sorts of hell today. If he ever looses his mind, Cloud would have to be the first to suffer on his list.
"Yeah. It. Is." He forced a smile. "We'll…have to do this again…some time soon." Sephiroth laughed for no apparent reason and closed the door before Cloud could even answer.
After dragging his tired body up the stairs and through the hall, he opened the door to his shared apartment. Moving a few silver strands out of his face, he smiled. The place seemed empty. No Zack. This meant he could get some peace! He flung his boots off as he hurried to his room. He dropped his coat, threw his shirt randomly and dropped his pants. Now he was ready for a deep, deep slumber.
"Bed…you never looked so good.." He whispered and crawled in- Too tired to notice the large lump under his sheets…until the lump shifted.
A groaned rumbled through his pillow. What was it this time? He sat up and briskly punched the lump. Maybe that'll keep it still.
"Yooooow!" The lump whimpered sadly. Sephiroth whipped the sheets away to find a cradled up Zack. "You're home earlier…" He sniffled quietly.
"Just what the hell are you doing in my bed?" The general remained calm.
"I still don't have my bed yet. Where do you expect a man to go when he wants to cry himself to sleep!" The black haired man whined.
"The couch!" Seph shouted and flopped back down. Not caring if he was crushing the other one or not. He was going to sleep no matter what. Zack squeezed himself from under him and helplessly laid next to him. There was silence. This was great. The silver haired man smiled and settled down into a gentle sleep…
"Seph..?" the other sobbed.
"…"
"Seph..?..You awake, man?"
"…No." The silence returned. Sephiroth was about to thank God, but the sound of more crying interrupted him.
"Seph, man, I need to talk to you about something." Zack rolled over to face his back. Seph didn't reply. "C'mon! I need to talk this out. It's about my Aeris…"
"…You knocked her up, didn't you?"
"N-no.."
"She's cheating?"
"Nun-uh…"
With an annoyed sigh, he rolled over to face the man. "What is it! If I hear your story, will you please, PLEASE, let me sleep!" Zack nodded. "Ok, …what's the matter?"
"She dumped me!" Zack bawled loudly. Sephiroth slapped a hand to his forehead and slowly slid it down his face. "I loved her! I just bought this wedding ring…" He dug into his pocket and retrieved a small black jewelry case.
"Look, there's plenty of other girls to cry over. Now, shut up already."
"…Insensitive bastard. That's what you are."
"Good. Shut the hell up." He closed his weary eyes and laid back.
"Your best friend is heartbroken and all you care about is sleeping." Zack went on.
"Who said you were my friend?" It was now fair to say he was a bit more than fed up, the general sat up slowly; letting his hair fall disorderly around him. "You're just someone I live with."
Zack got up quietly. "Never knew you felt that way…"
"You never asked."
"Well, have a nice nap then." He walked off.
"……Zack, wait…I didn't mean..-" He was cut off by the slam of his bedroom door. Then the door to the apartment…Lastly the door in the lobby.
Dusty red skies covered the quiet militant community of SOLDIER housing. It had to be at least 7:30 p.m. and Sephiroth hadn't slept a wink. Sure, he was tired and hadn't got any sleep in weeks, but now his mind was disrupted. What he said to Zack was a bit…rash, but it wasn't like he could help it. A sleep deprived person was a very dangerous thing. But then again, Zack was putting up with his insane behavior with great patience. It wasn't really like he had a choice though. He probably feared his commander.
Sephiroth groaned and stared up at the ceiling. Quite similar to when this strange tale began. His green eyes focused in hard to the milky colored overhead. Thoughts flying by, making him even more frustrated. He had to make up with Zack, as ludicrous as it sounded. He wasn't used to apologizing to people really. It wasn't like he had many friends in his life. Half the reason was his own fault. His cold exterior scared away anyone who tried to unravel him.
Friends, who the hell needs them? He pondered bitterly, folding his arms across his chest.
"You, obviously." A familiar voice floated in his ear.
"So, you read thoughts as well?" His cell phone landed on his abdomen, followed by the beloved Bic, the pen.
"You know what you have to do…"
"I'm not calling him."
"Then call her." Bic added.
Aeris laughed, dipping her little brush attached to the cap into the red nail polish and balancing her phone with a shoulder.
"Oh, Eric! You're so funny."
"Yeah, I am. Way better than your last boyfriend." Eric said before she could.
"Ah, right you are." BEEP. "Oh, hold on. Someone's on the other line." She clicked over. "Hello?"
"Is this… Aeris?" A calm masculine voice spoke.
"Yeah, w-who's calling?" Her heart skipped a beat. She knew it was Sephiroth, but she wanted to be sure.
"Sephiroth."
"Sephiroth!" She jumped for joy, knocking her polish off the bed. "Just wait a sec, ok?" Quickly she went over to the other line and made up a crappy excuse to let Eric go. Seph walked his way to the living room and turned on the tv, he would need something to do while talking to her. For some reason he just didn't like her much.
"Anyways," He continued when she returned to the line, "did something happen between you and Zack?" Channel surfing would keep my mind focused on this. He thought bored.
"Why? How did you get my number?" Aeris began strolling around her room, curling her finger around the phone cord. Sure the guy scared her a bit, but hell, he was hot…
"Good question…But more to the point, I found the guy crying his eyes out in my bed this afternoon."
She sighed and leaned against her wall. Aeris knew he wouldn't take the break up to well.
"So, what happened?" he continued.
"Why do you care? I never thought of you two as pals." Seph rolled his eyes and sat deeper into the couch. "I mean he goes on and on about you. Sometimes I wondered if he had the hots for you-"
"We're drifting away from the point again!" He quickly cut her off.
"It was time for a change, alright?" Aeris grumbled. "So…, do you have a girlfriend?"
Time to think fast. "Uh…" Too bad that wasn't what he was doing.
"Well? Because, I kinda always had a crush on you…" She immediately blushed and giggled. Then again, who didn't?
He wasn't expecting that one. Picking up Zack's ex on the rebound wouldn't be a smart way to make up with him. He sat the remote down and scratched his head. Relationship type stuff made him uneasy. Technically, he never really had a traditional girlfriend. Either he was never allowed one when he was younger, or , now that he's older, he didn't really have the time for one.
Aeris took the silent end as another opportunity to go on. "I mean the way you command the other SOLDIERs around. Control is totally hot." She sat on her floor, this was her perfect time to let Sephiroth know exactly how she felt about him. "And I've seen you work out, once when I was picking Zack up at the gym. You were shirtless, with your hair in this sexy ponytail and I couldn't keep my eyes off you. I totally ignored Zack to watch you move and lift weights. You made it look like it was nothing!"
Sephiroth slumped down uneasily into the sofa. This was bad. Aeris was rambling on and on about him! The only reason he called was to try to get her to take Zack back!
"Aeris, you don't want me. Believe me, you and Zack are made for each other." Yeah, that sounded good. He put the phone on speaker and wondered off into the kitchen.
"No way! You're totally hotter than Zack, and more powerful…" She blabbed through the phone as Zack walked in through the front door of the shared apartment.
"Yeah that's true." Seph grinned as he walked back into the front room with a cup of milk. It was really bad that he didn't notice Zack standing in the hall.
"You're taller and more charming. Kind of mysterious, I guess." Aeris began listing off things. Maybe Seph could learn to like this chick. "I'm sure you hear this all the time from girls, but when you looked at me in the gym that day, I knew it was love."
"I doubt that much. Maybe lust…What are you wearing?.." He smiled taking a sip of milk. Might as well have some fun if he couldn't convince her to take Zack back…
Zack stood dumbfounded in the hall. He couldn't believe his ears! Sephiroth was stealing away the love of his life! His hands balled into tight fists. He wanted to kill the both of them…hell, he MIGHT just do it.
"I knew you would see things differently if I confessed." She smiled. "Well, I'm wearing-" SLAM. The phone went sailing off the coffee table and into a wall across the room. Seph jumped at the sudden action spilling the milk in his lap.
"Zack! Crap…" He groaned setting the half empty glass down and shaking off his hands. This was getting worse and worse. Zack walked in front of him, anger burning deep within his eyes. "I know what this looks like, but I had good intentions at first…"
"Save it. You're dead."
"Zack, I'm sorry?" Was that the right terminology? The black haired man glared hard at the other before him. How dare he? And to think he was about to apologize to him! He knew Seph was probably a little on the edge from the lack of sleep. But this was ridiculous!
"I told you to save it!" Zack hollered, holding up his fists. "Bring it!"
"You're not serious…" He stood from the couch. "I'm not fighting you. Will you give me a minute to explain myself?"
"Nope. Fight."
"Zack…"
"Shuddup!"
"Will you-!"
"Fight me!"
"ZACK!" Sephiroth finally grabbed him and swiftly pinned him to the floor. The other guy struggled to get back up, but Seph had him pinned tightly. "I've figured out why I couldn't sleep."
Zack growled with frustration. He made another attempt to get up, but Sephiroth was quicker. The two wrestled their way around the floor, fighting for dominance over the other. The younger one quickly found himself roughly slammed back under the older one. A painful moan escaped his lips.
"Don't you want to hear why I was suffering from insomnia?" The general panted lightly. Zack was getting stronger. It was taking more effort on his part to dominate him.
"No! I don't care why!"
The silver haired male smiled and placed his forehead against Zack. Zack's squirming came to a halt, replaced with a faint blush. What was with this sudden expression of affection? He was trying to beat the bastard down to a pulp, not give him a hug!
"What are you doing! I'm gonna kill you!"
"I wasn't trying to steal Aeris from you, so simmer down." He spoke gently. "Actually, I called to try and get the both of you back together." Zack fell silent. It wasn't that he didn't have anything to say, he was tired. Emotionally and physically.
The younger one frowned a pout, breathing heavily through his nostrils; never breaking his stare in the other's eyes. He wanted to rip him apart! But, half of him wanted to hug him. "I guess…I can't fully accuse you. I mean, I had a feeling she might like you. She kept going on and on about you. I figured she had the hots for you." He re-thought the situation rationally.
They shared a brief laugh. Sephiroth got up and held his hand out to help the other up. "Yeah, well I almost fell in her trap." Zack grabbed his hand and pulled himself to his feet.
"Well, that's that. I'll get over her." The first class SOLDIER stuck his hands in his pockets and grinned. "So! Why did you turn into a nutty insomniac?"
"So you DO care, eh?" The other smiled briefly, then remembered he spilled milk on himself from the waist down.
"Yeah, yeah, well…" He resurrected the blush from earlier. "Are ya gonna tell me or not? If anything, you OWE me a friggin' explanation! You had me runnin' cross country for some milk, dammit!"
Sephiroth grinned. "Well if I'm not mistaken, I think it had something to do with the bottles of DayQuil I drunk some weeks ago…" Zack stared in disbelief. Did he just say bottles?
So he asked, "Did you just say bottles?" The other nodded. "Wait, you mean… YOU'RE the cause of all this?"
"I didn't think it would work. But I needed to stay awake."
"Are you crazy! What the hell for!"
Sephiroth sat back down on the couch in thought. The black haired man sat on the floor, half scared to hear the reason. Why was this happening to him? Who could've thought up such a nonsensical path in his life?…If he only knew..
"Funny…I don't remember." The general shrugged and laid down. Zack sprang from his feet and seized the couch. With a grunt he flipped it over.
"There! That feel better?" Zack laughed. For some reason he always wanted to do that to him.
"…Zack!" A muffled cry came from under the tossed furniture.
"That was for making me go get you milk! And…destroying my bed when I got back!…And hurting my feelings!"
Seph poked his head out from under a pillow. "…Anything else?"
"I'm thinking…" He replied. There were other things, he was sure of it.
After a good fifteen minutes of straight thinking, something else came to mind. He turned back to his roommate and was about to say something when he noticed he was asleep.
He crouched next the capsized sofa and poked him.
"Yo, you wanna crawl from outta there?" No reply. So Zack stood and sighed. He'd leave him alone for now. Maybe he'll have more brain cells when he awakes.
He turns, clicks off the light, and clumsily hits his hand against the wall.
"Shuddup Bic! It wasn't that damn funny!" He yells into the other room at the wise-cracking pen.
(Over-Dose Warning!)
THE END.
(A/N: Where have I been? You wouldn't believe my luck! It's a long dumb story with me ending up loosing the internet for half a lifetime. So sorry! But I finished this one, (I know..insane ending ) and I'm working up ideas on my other one. To help me, I stared a new. This usual gets me jump-started on other one. So maybe check it out! Thanks for reading/reviewing!)