Promotion Chapter Ten

The nasty ringing sang like the chirping of a too early alarm, Zack absently reached for the damn clock to silence it forever and felt nothing but air where his nightstand should have been. He opened his eyes and blinked at the fluorescent lights glaring into his eyes and he let his arm fall so that it hung uselessly from his bedside.

'Oh. Right.' He thought, 'Got stabbed a little.'

He sat up slowly to glance around the base hospital wing and groaned at the sharp pain he earned in his shoulder for the effort. Stabbed was an understatement, he decided as he stared glumly at the thick bandages he sported over the newest of his many battle scars.

"Told you to take care of that new body of yours, didn't I?" Hojo rattled off, appearing from nowhere at Zack's side, "You SOLDIER never listen, quite sad actually. We invested millions into making you better and you keep letting us down with that brainless thing."

"Eat me." Zack snapped, easing back onto the bed to stare at the ceiling again, as if it was the only interesting thing in the whole room. Which, it might as well have been, as Hojo was decidedly the last person Zack wanted to see. Well… next to the dead body Sephiroth had just made in the Cadet quarter.

In retaliation to the comment Hojo merely clamped a hand onto the injured shoulder and asked mildly, "Are you experiencing any pain?"

Zack cried out and tore Hojo's hand away with his good arm, a little freaked out by the sadistic pleasure in the crazy doctor's eyes at the sensory reaction he'd earned. "So you are." He added, almost politely if it weren't for the disturbing gleam in his eyes.

The first thing that came to Zack's mind was 'Aren't there laws about this sort of bedside manner?' but he quickly dismissed it as Hojo snapped up a clipboard and began jotting things so quickly that the black haired SOLDIER was pretty sure he was going to hate the doctor more later.

"Thought you'd like to know my new pet died." Hojo offered suddenly, "Also quite sad."

"You have thirty pets in the other room, just replace it?" Zack replied absently, not really giving a damn about anything but the crazy doctor's notes going into his permanent medical file.

"Are you honestly stupid enough to believe I can just MAKE clones regress?" Hojo rumbled incredulously, returning the file to the end of Zack's bed.

"Oh. That one died huh?" Zack muttered, rolling his eyes as Hojo retreated to a surgical cart for a syringe filled with something Zack didn't even want to know about, "Wonder how."

Hojo snorted, as if Zack had delivered a punch line to the funniest joke ever told and the warrior couldn't help but eye the elder man warily. "Something funny Doc?" he inquired, his eye twitching as the syringe was replaced and another was taken.

"Suffocation is a painful way to die, wouldn't you agree?" Hojo cackled, almost as if his madness came and went, up until that moment he was mildly sane. "Would you like something for the shoulder?"

Before Zack could respond he was stuck in the arm by the needle, a slight pinch causing him to tense and then warmth spread as fire from the injection site through his body until he felt numbness and the world swam in color. "Powerful shit…." He managed, impressed by his ability to form a coherent phrase… despite the content of it.

Hojo patted his arm and capped the syringe, "Sleep it off." He ordered before dropping onto his stool to watch the drug claiming Zack's consciousness and before the last shred of awareness left him he heard Hojo say, "Don't want Sephiroth to strangle you too."

"Ah" He felt fleetingly pass through his swimming mind, "This day is gonna suck."

Sephiroth stood over Zack's bed like a statue, his back rigid and his hands frozen somewhere between relaxed and fisted. To say he was angry was like saying the night was long… all a matter of perspective but anger was never a simple emotion for the silver haired sword-master. No, anger had levels and required certain things of him… the anger he was at right now was enough to put him on the very threshold of violence.

Lately he'd been slowly losing his grasp on control and discovering Hojo's pet science project was a fire he didn't want to play with… or let Hojo play with… so he'd killed it off. He couldn't imagine letting another young man suffer the same painful procedures and tests he'd been put through before he picked up a sword and said enough was enough. Of course, learning that Zack knew of it before he had… well that was water under the bridge and the fact that Hojo had told him the black haired prodigy had yet to wake from the blow he had delivered hours ago wasn't doing any favors for the rage issue.

For maybe the ninth time that minute Sephiroth cast a stare at Hojo and then returned his stormy gaze back to his lover, "I didn't hit him that hard." He offered, for the tenth time.

Hojo could have groaned, in fact, he probably had since Sephiroth hadn't said anything other than that since he'd returned to the medical ward and it was getting old. "Perhaps you did, you are stronger than you think." He offered in return as he had each time he was given Sephiroth's words.

"There isn't a mark!"

"Ah, finally, something new." Hojo said with a relaxed sigh, "I was beginning to worry you were losing brain cells too."

Sephiroth rolled his enchanting green eyes and returned them to the side of Zack's face, as it was all he could see at the moment. He reached out and pressed his fingers to the sculpted cheekbone, "It's not swollen either."

"Chalk it up to healing fast?"

Rage rekindled and the General cast a tenth incredulous stare at Hojo, "Then why is his shoulder still leaking blood?"

As if the Doctor couldn't take anymore he shoved his chair back, the legs scraping harshly in the nearly empty room, and he rose to leave. Sephiroth didn't care, as most people just didn't care about the crazy scientist and if he wanted to abandon his duty as a physician to play with his projects it was fine. Unless Zack didn't wake up, in which case Sephiroth would have to just break down and kill the bastard who'd chosen to leave his patient unattended.

Once the automatic door had shut itself Sephiroth felt the anger slipping from him, as Hojo's mere presence lit an odd hatred in the depths of what the General could call a soul. He'd killed two men in cold blood and he couldn't quite come to an understanding of whether or not that qualified him to still possess a soul, so for now he'd just pretend there was something there that was. Oddly… reassurance that he was still human was required and for that to come… Zack had to wake up.

That made him angrier, having to wait for Zack to come around from a blow Sephiroth himself had dealt to render him unconscious… so he could tell him how human he was. There was something unsettling about the logic behind it, and he just didn't want to let Zack tell the man who'd hit him that humanity still resided in his heart.

He laughed; filling the eerie silence with an echoed laugh he hadn't let himself hear in a while. It was a rich sound, though made several octaves higher with the metallic ring of its echo and the reverb of it was almost creepy. Although, most would argue that Sephiroth laughing at all was cause for worry… as he only did it before people died. Or so the gossip said.

For the longest time he never figured out just where the morbid rumors were coming from, and that's when he realized that less people bothered to hassle him if they all thought he'd behead them for something as silly offering him coffee. To be sure, he wasn't quite okay with the idea of people actually believing en masse that he'd start killing over someone messing up his coffee… but if people thought he was scary it wasn't something he'd complain about.

And people did think he was scary, as Zack had begun to inform him, which made him feel an odd sense of accomplishment. Well… everyone except Zack feared him, because Zack's so called 'fear' branched more from being uncertain about being happy more than just generally not wanting to die.

Gently Sephiroth stroked a stray hair from Zack's forehead and bent to kiss the spot behind the joint of his jaw and it was then that Zack stirred, his head arching away to bare more of his pale throat to him. A smirk crossed the silver haired mans face, "Submitting already?" he murmured, "I expected more fight out of you."

"I'm injured." Zack whined, feigning an innocently doe eyed look, "Love me, make it better."

"You are such a child." Sephiroth chuckled, easing onto the bed to lay behind Zack. "But if you insist."

A wolfish smile crossed what little Sephiroth could see of Zack's face and the smaller man shifted to allow more room for his minutely larger lover, "I love it when I win."

"I'm feeling indulgent today, that's all. Don't get used to it." Sephiroth reprimanded, draping his arm over Zack's waist and laying his head against his shoulder.

"Hey. I'm injured here, indulgent is when you bring me like… four boxes of the finest chocolate and serenade me in the dark."

"Do I seem like the type to bring you candy and sing to you like a woman?" Sephiroth snorted, his own grin hidden in Zack's neck.

"I was hoping for a little bit of romanticism." Zack argued, shifting his good arm to thread his fingers into Sephiroth's own, holding the gloved hand to his chest.

"I can be romantic." Sephiroth argued back, lifting his head to narrow his incandescent eyes on Zack's own mako brightened ones. "Don't count me out."

After a moment of silence Zack snorted and bit back a boyish giggle, the look he was then given surpassed concern and went straight into the stages of serious disturbance. "We should just get married, have kids and make the fighting like old people thing believable." He said at last, having baited a hook with a short temper attached to it.

Sephiroth rolled his eyes yet again and kissed Zack's jaw, "If only one of us had the correct genetics to make the children thing possible."

"I'm sure Hojo can fix that." Zack suggested, shifting to face his lover with a widen grin over his face.

"Zackary, that's disgusting." He groaned, dropping his head to the pillow, "I wont entertain this nonsense further."

Zack giggled then, curling against his lover as pain ripped through his arm, "Nonsense is fun though."

"I got into this bed to hold you until you were better, not discuss sex changes." Sephiroth pointed out, withdrawing his hand from Zack's to palm the boys face and shove him back playfully.

A serious look fell on Zack's face and he lay back to just observe the General's body draped over the mattress and Zack himself. "Do you love me?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

"That's not what I asked."

Sephiroth sighed and drew Zack against him, "I love you." He murmured, stroking soft black spikes gently. He couldn't deny Zack's sudden need for reassurance freaked him out more than a little, being that the dark haired man was usually more self-assured than most of SOLDIER combined.

At the same time, if Zack merely wanted to be told he was loved, Sephiroth could happily oblige nine days of the week and more than once a day if need be. He didn't feel telling Zack he loved him was something that needed to be reserved for special moments and occasions.

"You aren't just saying that, right?"

"Don't be ridiculous, why would I bother saying it if I didn't mean it?" Sephiroth retorted, almost disbelieving of Zack's sudden want of certainty.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Hojo's crazy science project." He apologized quietly, stroked nervous circles on the exposed portion of the larger man's chest and Sephiroth made a low sound of understanding.

"Zack, its not your job to come running and tattle on the insane." Sephiroth assured him, tilting his head up to press a soft kiss to his lips, "I didn't ask so you never told me a lie and I think that you don't need to feel bad about it."

"Okay." Was all that Zack could come up with in response before he curled back into his spot and inhaled deeply the musky scent of his leather-clad lover.

"And even lying to me wouldn't make me not love you." He added, a pause taking him as a mouth remained open, "Unless you are sleeping with someone else and then I'll just kill you both."

Zack feigned offense and leaned back, "After spending a night at your command I don't think I could take to another bed. Just what do you take me for?"

"My little harlot." Sephiroth murmured, burying his face back in Zack's neck where, in his opinion, it belonged.

"I am not!" Zack squeaked, crushed into the heavier mans embrace with little choice in the matter. He didn't even mind the pain in his shoulder, so long as he could remain pinned by the older man and showered with affection.

"Deny it all you want, but no other man can say he tempted Sephiroth to his bed at night, and by all rights you aren't shy about it."

"I don't really make a habit of bedding dudes though." Zack pointed out, tugging lightly on a few strands of silver silk.

"There is always a first time."

Zack laughed and unclasped the belts on Sephiroth's jacket, letting it hang open so he could plaster himself to a well-muscled chest and stroke his bare back whilst attempting to ignore his shoulder. "What did you do with Ainsley's body?" he queried.

"Regulation states the garbage be destroyed and sent away on trucks but I guess he had to be buried since he was technically human."

"Good to know."

"Well, I wasn't exactly shooting for any special burial or anything so I just had him cremated and put in the cooler."

"Should have let Hojo have him, maybe he can make zombies or something?"

For a moment Sephiroth looked as if he were actually considering the option and shook his head, "Zombies are useless and he wasn't exactly sporting an over-abundance of talent in the first place."

"Very true." Zack responded quietly, stifling a bit of laughter but wincing nonetheless when the silent chuckle rattled his shoulder. Sephiroth narrowed his eyes carefully and stroked Zack's cheek.

"Still in pain?"

"Of course." Zack murmured, smiling contentedly as he was petted.

"I should go then." Sephiroth offered, easing back slowly. Zack seized his arm before he could get very far.

"You really don't have to." Zack whispered, giving a pleading stare to the elder.

A chuckle escaped the silver haired SOLDIER, "Must I indulge you more?" he asked, resuming his position behind Zack whilst gently stroke his tousled black locks.

Zack nodded firmly, moaning quietly as his lover fawned over him, "I would love it if you would indulge me always."

"Pushing your luck, lover."

"Sorry."