A Most Ingenious Paradox

[key_to_dreams]

((Inviting Alt!Sephiroth to rest at their Nexus base from hereThe house visible in the distance between wooded area is fairly spacious, a couple of stories in the fairly familiar Nibelheim style architecture. A vegetable garden and flower patch flanks the front of the house, a wooden storage unit barely visible to the side. All in all, the

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[fate_of_memory]

Sephiroth glances around the area, silently noting where everything is. He's not impressed, but then who is when they're dying for sleep?

He raises an eyebrow at the roll call, not commenting.

[irametdolorem]

Someone arrives at the door not long at after that roll call of Zack's, but whether or not they were one of the listed is hard to tell, given that the newcomer isn't a person, but rather a cat, silver and long-haired. She flicks her tail at Zack before twining herself bonelessly around 'her' Sephiroth's legs. Looks like someone's been quite thoroughly claimed.

[key_to_dreams]

Zack doesn't see anything wrong with the other Sephiroth's silence, figuring it was par for course, especially with how strange of an environment the man had landed in.

He does, however, see something very, very wrong with the way the cat just snubbed him. Heck, he feeds the thing three times a week. Couldn't he get a little respect?

"I swear, you've got to be feeding that cat kitty drugs or something. Why does it like you more than me?" The question's most likely rhetorical. Zack bends down and efficiently swoops the cat up in one hand. Presenting the hanging cat that was starting to lick its paw to the other Sephiroth, Zack announced, "She'll probably like you more than me, too. This just isn't fair, you know?"

[fate_of_memory]

Sephiroth is inclined to ignore the cat- not his business and all that. But he blinks when it is presented to him, then looks at Zack with a puzzled 'what the hell am I supposed to do with it?' look.

Several days later, in another part of the house...

[irametdolorem]

Sephiroth is puttering quietly around the house, trying to find something that can both manage to get his attention off of the persistent itching in his shoulders as well as manage to be somewhat constructive. Unfortunately, it doesn't really work.

Nuisance, in the meantime, has managed to find a way to sneak into that room that the other Sephiroth has been staying in and has curled up quite happily next to him. Hopefully the sleeping Sephiroth won't mind a happily purring cat.

[key_to_dreams]

Zack strolls him, distractedly munching on a half-eaten apple. He doesn't really need to look up to zero in on Seph, considering he's had to find the man many times in less cordial conditions than this. War was sticky business.

Either way, the question's been churning on his mind for days, the question he had wanted to ask the other Sephiroth.

He decides to test the water with his own. "Hey, Seph? You remember when we first met Sephiroth?"

[irametdolorem]

Sephiroth nods at that and tries to resist the urge to scratch at his shoulders.

"I do." Zack might notice that Sephiroth seems to be a bit more distracted than he was a couple days before. He hated molting season, really he did.

[key_to_dreams]

Distracted as Zack is, he still notices the signs of molting season after years of looking for them. Swallowing his recent bite of the apple, Zack seizes the tip of gloved fingers in his teeth before yanking his glove off. Pulling at Sephiroth's collar with his bare hand, Zack smoothly slips fingers in to scratch. Right. There.

"Do you think he was talking about... well..." Zack gestures to himself, then to the kitchen with the apple.

[irametdolorem]

There's a rather undignified and hastily choked off splutter at that followed by a pause that says Zaaack! more thoroughly than any of Cloud's Looks ever could as Sephiroth manages to pull himself together enough to form a coherent answer.

"I haven't." There's a slight note of something like embarrassment or unease in his voice - he'd have much preferred to not have his alt hear that slip of the tongue.

[fate_of_memory]

There's a similarly undignified and choked off splutter from Sephiroth's corner, though probably not for the same reason as his alt.

[key_to_dreams]

Zack's only grinning, but it's obvious from the glint in his eyes that he's snickering shamelessly inside. He leans a little closer. "Wanna try?" He teases.

Of course, with a guest in the house, that wasn't likely to happen soon.

And speaking of the guest, "You think he's tried?"

[irametdolorem]

"Zaaaack!" Somehow that all-too-familiar cry sounds very much different when rendered in Sephiroth's voice, even with the embarrassment underlying it.

[not_greens]

It's around this time that Cloud pokes his head around the corner - and blinks. Not so much at Zack, but at Seph with his wings out, and this other Sephiroth standing there, and despite where he is he has a quiet urge to salute which he absolutely won't give in to. Instead, he just smiles himself and clears his throat. 'Breakfast's about ready, if anyone's hungry,' he says.

[irametdolorem]

Food is good. Especially when isn't the stuff the ShinRa cafeterias cook up. So Sephiroth will indeed set about heading off towards the kitchen, deciding to leave his coat and shoulder-guards where they were for the time being - they'd be safe enough there and it wasn't like he could really wear them comfortably over his wings anyway.

[fate_of_memory]

Still smirking slightly, Sephiroth follows his alt. Casting a glance at Cloud, however, he frowns slightly. The boy seems familiar, but he can't quite place where...

Oh. The soldier who'd been sick in the truck. And he looks vaguely like Zack.

No wonder his Zack had attached himself to the kid.

Sephiroth isn't sure whether to be amused or not.

[key_to_dreams]

Following the group of SOLDIERs, Zack shakes his head to rid himself of any stray drops of water. Great. Now he'll have to smell wet sweater vest for a bit. Eww.

"Oi Spike, we got any pie?" Because everyone in this household knows Zack can't live without his pie.

Just ignore his wet status, Cloud. Not like he's gonna die of a cold or something.

[irametdolorem]

And Sephiroth continues right on with not being an active participant in the conversation. The question about his alt's activities does get his attention though.

And hopefully it won't end up with more threats on Zack's well-being.

[fate_of_memory]

Sephiroth accepts some of the offered fruit. "The usual. Scaring rookies, ignoring Zack, making myself scarce when the Vice President is walking Dark Nation, plotting Hojo's death."

[key_to_dreams]

"Gotta wholly approve the 'death to Hojo' campaign. Not so sure about the 'ignoring of Zacks' though."

Zack does slow down in his eating, mulling that part over more thoroughly. "Hold on a gil, are you saying you're plotting his death, but you still went to Nibelheim when he suggested it?"

[not_greens]

Cloud has taken over Seph's role as Sir Not-Contributing-to-This-Discussion. Teré just directs an interested look, over the rim of her coffee cup, between Zack and Sephiroth, wondering how serious Sephiroth had been. 'If he did,' she notes. Not the time to be forgetting things can change significantly between worlds, Zack.