Midgar High School

Sephiroth stumbled out of the nurse's office, memory a complete blur. What had just happened? Something involving a fight...

He swallowed thickly and doubled over when heat rose in the back of his throat. The motion cause every joint in his body to scream in pain and he stifled a whimper. He had been hurt before, he'd even had broken bones, but those were nothing like this. Nothing at all.

"Seph?"

He looked up through a cloak of white hair to see Cloud standing over him, and gave a quiet groan. He leaned over and waved one hand. "Go'way," he slurred, struggling to rise.

The youth's brow creased. "Seph, are you o--"

He turned to the smaller boy with narrowed eyes and raised his voice to a yell, though the motion and the volume sent lancing pain up his back and through his throat. "I said GO AWAY!" Cloud jerked backward as Sephiroth heaved a deep breath. He braced both hands against the dirty carpet and lowered his head, hair sweeping out around him like snowy wings. "Please...just go away."

He didn't look up, but somehow he knew the boy was gone. Whatever it was that had frightened him off--for that had most certainly been fear in his wide blue eyes, and not a fear of what Sephiroth could do--also allowed him to sense these things. How he knew this Sephiroth couldn't say, but he knew. With a certainty greater than anything he had ever felt he knew.

Another set of footsteps caught his attention, and the bruised young man struggled to move out of the middle of the hall, stumbling sideways on his hands and knees until he brushed cold brick. The wall. He used it to prop himself up and leaned back against it, closing his eyes and breathing deeply, trying to find the source of this bizarre pain.

A long moment passed, the scuff of rubber on carpet stopped and Sephiroth felt someone standing over him. He struggled to open his eyes but found that he could barely see anyway; darkness blurred the corners of his vision, focusing everything into a single point of brightness in the middle of his space.

In the point, in the instant before Sephiroth spat and oath and clenched his burning eyes shut again, he caught a flash of red hair. He hoped he had seen wrong, prayed that it wasn't--

"Sephiroth?"

Shit.

Next thing he knew there was a hand on his shoulder, slim fingers against hard muscle, and the voice was closer and quieter. "Sephiroth, are you okay?"

"Fine," he mumbled, head jerking back when Reno attempted to touch his cheek. The contact was rougher than it should have been, as though the white-haired youth's skin had been burned and left ultrasensitive. It was frightening.

Reno gave a sigh and lowered his voice even further. Sephiroth was surprised he could still hear it. "No you're not. Look, I'll take you to the bathroom, all right?"

Sephiroth took a weak breath--why was he so tired? "Why...bother?"

Reno chuckled and stood straight, raising his voice again. "Are you kidding? My mom would kill me if she found out I'd left you sitting on the floor in the dungeon."

Sephiroth attempted to quirk an eyebrow and found that he couldn't. "Dungeon?"

Here the redhead laughed again, a little sheepishly. "This place is the lowest floor in the school--a level below all the others. That makes it...a dungeon."

Sephiroth forced a smirk. It was funny, it really was, but he couldn't force himself to say anything. He hoped Reno didn't take his expression as some derogatory.

The smaller youth sighed and bent down, taking hold of Sephiroth's arm and heaving him to his feet. "Damn, Seph, you must weigh a ton. What the fuck do you eat, man?"

Sephiroth didn't even think of answering--although his foggy mind did point out that Reno had just called him "Seph." That was almost enough to force a smile to his lips, but not quite.

The former star of the school allowed himself to half -limp and half be dragged down the hall to the bathroom. Past the place where he had assaulted Reno, past the room where he had kissed him... Sephiroth groaned and shoved the boy off, legs shaky under his weight.

"I-I can walk..." he asserted. He didn't want to touch Reno, not here--not so close to where things had gone so wrong. He realized that his vision was still blurry and sighed in exasperation. It was like someone was shining a light in his eyes now, burning his retinas ever so slightly every time he turned.

Reno took his hand, gently, and led him into the bathroom. There he staggered to the sink and ran cold water, filling his cupped hands and splashing his face until his skin stopped burning at the contact. Reno waited, leaning back against the counter with both hands against the smooth not-plastic. It was slightly sticky, but as Sephiroth continued to splash water it turned slick instead.

Sephiroth finally turned off the faucet, still leaned forward over the sink, mouth open wide to breathe as water dripped from his face. His hair pooled at the bottom of the sink, metallic in the water, and he let out a long breath as he finally managed to properly open his eyes. The haze wasn't completely gone, but it was much better.

"Are you okay now?" Reno asked, smiling.

Sephiroth nodded, turning to look at the labeled geek. "Yeah. Load better--thanks."

Reno's expression had gone blank when Sephiroth looked at him and now the youth's blue eyes widened. "Holy..." he hissed, taking a step back.

Sephiroth;s brow furrowed. "What?" He straightened up and turned to the mirror. "What's wr--"

His eyes widened as he realized just what he was seeing. It was those same eyes that were what brought such a shock to his psyche.

He had always been told his eyes were stunning. Like emeralds set into alabaster, Ms. Scarlet had once said, dark with the pains of being a youth of the times, but brighter still with the light of a bright future. She had been being poetic of course, Sephiroth's eyes didn't really glow...

Or they hadn't at the time.

Now, however, was a completely different story. Now those emerald-in-alabaster eyes did glow, and they glowed brightly. It was like someone has set a light just behind his corneas and set it on its brightest, leaving his irises to smolder.

It wasn't normal.

Hell, it wasn't even human.

Sephiroth swallowed, though his mouth was dry, and spoke in a raspy whisper. "Reno, go get Vincent."

The redhead started. "What?"

"If anyone knows what's happened it'll be him." Sephiroth closed his eyes, unable to look at them any longer, and lowered his head. "Please, Reno."

Reno had never heard Sephiroth ask something before--at least not in such a pleading tone. The young man nodded shakily and darted out the door, leaving Sephiroth with a reflection he couldn't stand for company.

Sephiroth sunk to his knees, then sat down on the cold tile floor, struggling to keep his breathing even. First he was beat up by his own teammates--former teammates, he supposed--then he was...assaulted, or something, by the school nurse, and now this. There weren't even words to describe how he felt at that moment.

He heaved a sigh and raked a hand through his long hair, keeping his eyes closed. This had been one hell of a day.