InsaneJournal

It wasn't easy getting used to sharing his apartment with others. Sephiroth had jealously guarded his private space for such a long time, finding sanctuary in a place where nobody else ever came, away from the demands his position placed upon him. And part of him felt just a little bit offended when Zack looked around and said, "This is it?"

Cloud looked at Sephiroth with a quietly sympathetic gaze, which was worse. Sephiroth tried to will his ears up from their flattened position, and showed them around.

It wasn't that there was anything wrong with the apartment, Zack explained later, when they were curled up in bed together. It was very luxuriously appointed. It was just that there was nothing personal about it.

Sephiroth didn't get it, but understanding began to dawn when Zack started leaving his stuff lying around the place. The bathroom would never be the same, because the violet-eyed SOLDIER seemed incapable of getting into the bath without splashing water everywhere, helped along by the vigorous wagging of his tail. Sephiroth would have to step delicately around puddles to collect the discarded clothing and place it in the laundry basket while Zack tried to encourage him to join him.

Sephiroth usually preferred to shower, due to the way getting wet left his own tail looking sadly bedraggled.

Cloud was a much easier roommate: quieter, and tidier. It was some weeks before he actually brought out any of his own belongings, shyly setting a photograph on an end table while looking at Sephiroth to see if that was alright. Sephiroth ran his fingers through the soft feathers on Cloud's head, purring a little as the boy leaned into the touch. "Is that...?"

"My mother," Cloud said. "She raised me by herself. We were - are - quite close." But his eyes were troubled.

"What is it?"

"I haven't told her about... any of this." His wings fluttered nervously behind him. "I'm not sure how to explain that her son is now part chocobo thanks to some crazy scientist. I mean, how do you tell anyone that? But I do want to tell her about you guys."

Sephiroth felt a warm flush of pleasure at the words. A touch of embarrasment was added to it when he realised he was now purring quite loudly, but as Cloud didn't mention it, neither did he.

Slowly, the apartment began to change. Zack continued to muss up the once crisp, clean look while Cloud added softer touches. Perhaps it was because he'd had been raised by his mother that he had more talents that lay along domestic lines. Splashes of colour were added to stark black and white, the kitchen found itself with a variety of new utensils, and the fridge held things that weren't pre-packaged and reheatable.

Zack made jokes about chocobos and nesting. Sephiroth reached out a hand to cuff him around the head, and he whined. "Watch the ears, Seph! Those claws are sharp!"

Sephiroth looked at Cloud. "Ignore the dog."

"Wolf!" Zack protested.

"Over-grown puppy," Sephiroth retorted. "This is your home, too." He liked that word: home. He'd never thought of the apartment as that before, but now it seemed to fit.

There were a lot of adjustments to be made, and some were easier than others. Sephiroth tried to resist the urge to pick up everything that Zack dropped behind him while Zack teased him about finding white fur on the black leather couch. Cloud gradually stopped asking permission for every little change he made, and they both learned to be careful about startling him, because it made him jump and the ceilings just weren't that high.

But the easiest was surely this, sleeping together in a warm pile at night where previously he'd always slept alone. Zack tended to sprawl over them as if staking a claim, while in his sleep Cloud would burrow under one arm and press his face close against warm flesh. It still woke him at times when they moved, but that was becoming less frequent as time moved on. Perhaps cats weren't as territorial as wolves, or possessed of a chocobo's nesting instincts, but Sephiroth did have a great appreciation of comfort.

Tucking his tail carefully out of the way, Sephiroth let himself drift off to sleep.