#| cc.

  ❛Hey, Zack--❜

He cannot help but feel a little unsure-- always tentative when faced with the potential of backlash, no matter how logically he knew such would not be the case. Zack Fair had always been a kind man. Gentle, in fact, despite the clear disparity in rank. When one imagined a SOLIDER, one could not help but assume they would hold a certain kind of grace, of menace and awe, much like how one would feel when casting their gaze upon a man like the great General. Zack had failed to meet those expectations-- but for the better. An outlier of the typical ShinRa mould, eager grins and sparking energy, the kind of radiance a wobbling new recruit might require to feel a little more at ease.

  ❛Do you ever miss it?❜ 

Gloved hands braced against the helmet settled carefully upon his knees, Cloud attempts not to fidget whilst wording the question that’s battered its way around his head for the lesser part of a week. A typical over thinker, and the looming dread of a mission inching its way closer and closer, the courage needed to take this step has left him almost weary.

    ❛--Are you alright... Sir?❜ 

There’s a little voice in his head that pleads the mans case (Of course he’s fine. He’s Sephiroth. He’s indestructible.)  but it’s logic that battles its way to the forefront of his head, claiming that no one was perfect, that everyone got a little tired sometimes, or a little hurt-- and it was that ever so slightly noticeable tint of something off about the mans face that prompted Cloud to speak out. Regret was an almost immediate reaction - youth unused to speaking up and more than aware of the military hierarchy that should have kept his mouth stitched closed -  but he couldn’t exactly say it had been a mistake either, at least not yet.