ꜱᴀᴛᴜʀᴅᴀʏ, ᴏᴄᴛᴏʙᴇʀ 19ᴛʜ, 11:01 ᴀᴍ☀

the wait was unbearable, as sephiroth watched you fidget with your fork, then play around with the straw in your cup, then make ripped up twisties from your napkin.

"n/n, it's gonna be alright, remember what we said this morning if things don't work out."

"i know," you sighed, pushing aside the hair in front of your dropped face, "it's just—i want it to work out, i don't even want to think about the alternative."

sephiroth chuckled, then let out a breath.

you were always so particular about things, he found it cute.

"i understand, love, we just gotta wait and see what happens," sephiroth reassured as he took your hands in his.

you smiled warmly at him, making his heart melt.

he loved the way your hair looked as it was still drying from the shower, and your face with no makeup or any of the sort.

sephiroth always preferred and even enjoyed seeing your "messy" look, as you worded it, though he didn't find it messy, just you.

whether it was from you dancing in the rain, being sleepy after a long day, middle of the night, or fresh from a shower, he always loved seeing you in those in-between moments in life, and this felt like one of those moments to him.

one of those moments where it's just a pause between the main things that happen in a day, and it's just a waiting period.

he always takes these times to mentally jot down the things he adores about you, and this was it so far in his own words;

- the way she holds a mug with two hands, with sometimes one or both of her sleeves covering her hands and the knuckles of her fingers

-how her nose sort of crinkles when she laughs, and when she laughs even if my jokes or any sort of dad joke that isn't even funny plays out.

-the glint in her eyes when she sees her friends and is having fun with them, i see it in the hallway sometimes when i've passed her with them

-the times i've caught her sneaking looks at me, and then turning away when i catch her

-her smile, amongst other things

and finally

"why are you staring at me?"

-the way she's so observant, but clueless sometimes as well

these are only just some of his mental notes about you.

"you're just pretty, y/n, sorry if i can't help but stare," he laughed, and saw your face get warm.

"shush."

"listen here you little minx, you can't just sit there all pretty and not expect me to look at you."

"oh my god sephi, stah-op!" you giggled as he held your hands and caressed your palms with his thumbs from across the table.

the bell above the door jingled, and you two froze as everyone in the group walked into the restaurant.

there went the plan of having him at a different table.

"shhhhhit,' sephiroth sighed.

——

the first thing you noticed was the look on cloud's face.

dear god does that guy have a scowl to him.

"what the fuck is he doing here? what are we doing here?"

you have a nervous smile and clasped your hands together, "we just wanna talk to you guys."

"about?" Barrett raised an eyebrow.

"stuff," seph replied quickly.

you sat next to sephiroth while cloud, tifa, and barret squeezed into the booth across from you guys.

vincent and aerith grabbed chairs for the outside of the booth.

speaking of aerith, you could see the slight apprehension on her face, but you could see she was trying for you, and could maybe be the only person to keep everyone else calm.

you hoped that vincent could keep the peace too.

"well?" tifa have you a concerned look.

"we....we're....." you started.

"we're dating," sephiroth spoke up, "and she didn't want to keep feeling as if she had to hide it from you guys."

the three froze, cloud especially looking as if he would have a stroke.

in a sort of perfect timing, the waitress came over and asked if anybody would like a drink.

when nobody but aerith replied, she brought waters with a confused expression.

"you're...you're serious?" barrett said.

"yup, they're serious," vincent took a sip of his water.

"you knew too?" aerith turned to him.

"YOU BOTH DID?!" Cloud raised his voice before being appropriately shushed.

"i'm sorry cloud, but I'm not. sephiroth has made my life so much better and he cares about me so much. my heart wants him but at the same time i love you guys, and i don't want to have to choose."

tifa took your hands, "he does seem..better. less angry than he was."

"he was like this when i met him. i don't know exactly what happened between you guys, but however he was before, he's changed. he's a good person, and you can ask him yourself about  how he feels about me," you kept going.

"i love her, and i want her to be happy. when y/n is with you guys she's so happy, and i hope you guys don't think of her differently because of me," sephiroth started, "i know things have been...difficult, and i owe each and everyone of you an apology, especially you aerith."

"sephiroth.." aerith gave him an almost pleasing look.

he sighed, "i already know what you're going to say, y/n you need to know what happened. the full story."

"you haven't even told her?" cloud hissed, before he got a look from aerith that made him shut up.

"you see, y/n, sephiroth and i are cousins, and there was a sort of altercation between my mother and father and his father causing a rift between us when we used to be close."

you gave aerith a look of surprises

nobody ever mentioned they were cousins, but you knew they had to be close at some point from how well they seemed to know each other.

sephiroth continued for her, "because of the situation between our parents, where my father held a sort of prejudice against aerith and her mother's heritage, and well, you know my father, her said some disgusting things to both of them and her father, my uncle Gast, causing our family to be disconnected. We would see each other in school but...." his voice seemed to crack a little, "my father had a lot of control over me in my early years of high school. he made me think things about aerith and her people, i was both verbally and emotionally abusive towards her as a friend, and i didn't expect anyone to defend her like cloud and everybody else here did. when i realized my actions were wrong, it was too late, and the only one i had left was zack, but even now i think he was irresponsible to forgive me."

a hand was clasped over your mouth as you listened.

"damn right he was wrong," cloud whispered to barrett causing him to smack the back of his head.

"come on cloud, they're happy. 

he paused, took a breath, and then climbed out of the booth.

"i..can't. i'm sorry." he walked out.

"cloud wait!" you called but got no response.

you stood up from the booth, and looked around at everyone.

you looked at sephiroth, "i....no....no no no..."

"baby.. it's alright."

"he'll cool down, relax.." yuffie says quietly.

"no no i-i can't be alone again, i can't have everyone l-leave" you began to stutter out your words.

shaking, you held onto yourself, making everyone look at each other in even more worry at your distress.

you begin to hyperventilate.

aerith got up and her hands rested on your shoulders hesitantly "let's go outside, yeah?"

"...ok."

---

"is this my fault?" sephiroth asked out loud.

"no man, it just looks like she had some sort of...episode." barret shrugged.

"you two dating is whatever at this point, cloud can get over it. but what i'm more worried about right now is y/n.." tifa put her face on her hand.

while that brought sephiroth some releif, he was still anxious about you, wondering if he was the one who should be out there with you.

he never realized that you could get like that, and then he got scared, because he really didn't know you at all.

he knew you, but he didn't know you like that.

aerith came back in alone.

"sephiroth can you come outside? she wants you."

------------

yuh im back