Work Text:
Fine Art
“Good mooooorning, Dragon Fire!” Zack said with a grin.
“Good morning, sir,” came a chorus of voices with various levels of enthusiasm.
Zack kept the smile on his face all the same. He’d taken the morning briefing from Sephiroth both because he knew Sephiroth hated doing it and because he hoped he could give the troops a little morale boost.
And he loved it, but that was beside the point.
He looked out at the lines of SOLDIERs in front of him. “For breakfast, same gray eggs as yesterday.”
Groans.
“I know. Just put some hot sauce on ‘em and they taste just fine.” He clapped his hands together, earning him more than a few startled jumps. “Okay! Today’s weather, cloudy with a chance of bullets. So be careful out there. Looking at you, Bravo squad.”
Bravo was going out that afternoon for a scouting mission.
There were a few laughs, and he grinned. “Don’t lose anything you take out there. Don’t come back with anything extra. And I had better be seeing all of you back here tomorrow. Fall out.”
The SOLDIERs dispersed to go about their mornings, and Zack turned to Sephiroth, who was standing behind him at the door of the command tent.
Sephiroth gave him a wry smile.
Zack grinned back. “How’d I do?”
“You nearly made me want to eat the eggs.”
“Have to grab you some before they’re all gone, then.”
Sephiroth chuckled quietly. “I said ‘nearly’.”
“Toast it is then!”
Zack had discovered a couple months in that Sephiroth didn’t eat breakfast. Some combination of not liking going to the mess hall and being too absorbed in work. So now Zack brought back something when he delivered Sephiroth’s morning coffee. Sephiroth still only begrudgingly accepted it. But he ate whatever Zack got him, and so Zack considered that a win.
“Acceptable,” Sephiroth said, a hint of a smile still on his face.
Zack gave him a two-fingered salute and headed for the mess hall.
When Zack made it back with their coffee—5 sugars and a whole lot of cream for him, black for Sephiroth—and toast with strawberry jam he knew Sephiroth liked, Sephiroth was surprisingly not knee deep in work already. Instead, he was standing at the back of the tent, staring out the plastic window.
Zack deposited everything on the desk and joined him. “Whatcha looking at?”
Sephiroth glanced over at him. “Nothing. I’m just…distracted today.”
They’d lost someone two days before, and it really hit Sephiroth hard. He barely showed it, but Zack knew him well enough now to see it in the shadows under his eyes and how he got lost in thought way more than normal.
Zack decided not to say anything, since Sephiroth wouldn’t want to talk about it anyway and said instead, “Got your coffee and toast.”
Sephiroth gave a nod and headed to the desk, and Zack sat on the corner to sip his coffee. It was only a little burnt today.
Sephiroth made a soft amused noise, and Zack grinned more. He’d put a smiley face in the jam with the knife.
“Kids…” Sephiroth said under his breath.
“Hey! I’m not that much younger than you. What are you, like 20?”
“Approximately.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t know my birthdate.”
Zack frowned for a second, then pasted on a smile and changed the subject. “You like my art?”
Sephiroth looked at the toast again. “A masterpiece.”
“I knew you looked like someone who appreciates fine art,” Zack said, with his best snooty rich person voice.
Sephiroth laughed, and Zack wanted to do a victory dance. He settled for another grin as Sephiroth took a bite of the toast and pulled a short stack of requisition forms toward him.
“Don’t forget about the inspection,” Sephiroth said softly once he swallowed, still looking down at the paper.
Zack looked at his watch. He was supposed to inspect Medical’s equipment and supplies in ten minutes. And he’d definitely forgot.
“Shit.” He jumped up. “Gotta go.”
“Please remind Dr. Frost that I need his monthly requisition form by 1700.”
“Sure thing.” Zack headed for the door.
“And Zack?”
Zack stopped and looked back. “Yeah?”
There was another slight smile on Sephiroth’s face. “Thank you for breakfast.”
Zack smiled and gave a lazy salute on his way out, and when the tent flap shut behind him, he did dance just a little.