Little Sephiroth

Chapter 5

And then he thought about the room, bereft of anything for littles.

Did he have a caregiver to dote on him? To tell him how strong he is? How good he practiced his kata? Did he have someone to make sure he slept alright and ate correctly?

It was a question he had no answer to. Perhaps there was someone, perhaps the general was only little when he was in the caregiver's room, and that's why there were no toys or anything.

Still, not knowing irked him, but he knew better then acting on impulse. He was just a lowly cadet, and Sephiroth was The General.

So, he kept quiet, and tried to bury his thoughts and if that meant making sure that his fellow cadets had water and food enough, than that was what it was.

"Sephiroth, dinner with me tonight? We haven't seen you for a week," Angael said, glad when the meeting was done, and he finally could catch the elusive man on his own.

"I can make some time," Sephiroth agreed, now much easier than in the beginning he was being invited. Angael smiled a little bit, but it was a difficult one.

"Are you feeling okay? Did you get another Mako dose recently?" Angael asked, his concern showing. Normally, Sephiroth rarely looked tired or haggard, but this time there were black bags visible underneath his eyes, and his shoulders slumped just that little bit.

"I'm fine. Got a lot of reports that I missed during my mission," Sephiroth said, moving just a little straighter, and Angael almost regretted the deflection, knowing that the man would just try harder to not show how tired he was.

"Well, all the more reason you can come over to eat. Something else but that slop they call food will make you feel better," Angael said.

"I don't mind eating our usual rations," Sephiroth said, starting to walk, and Angael followed.

"Of course you don't," the man said in amusement, "but admit it, you do enjoy what I cook."

"I do," Sephiroth easily said, before glancing at Angael, "not that thing you cooked last time though."

"How was I supposed to know that the great general Sephiroth can't tolerate spicy food," Angael said, but in hindsight it shouldn't have surprised him.

Peper and salt were already foreign in their rations, so the spicy stew had been something Sephiroth had never tasted and had let the man to a coughing fit while he tried to eat the food.

Angael was unsure if Sephiroth hadn't wanted the food to go to waste, or didn't want to stop him, but it had taken a while before Sephiroth admitted to not being able to eat it.

Sephiroth had never told Angael that afterwards his stomach had hurt so bad that he had for once called off all meetings. Of course, Hojo had found out and had looked very dismayed at the general who had slipped into his headspace because of the stomach ache which had spent with an evening of diarrhoea until all the unknown spices had finally left his body.

It had been very uncomfortable seeing that the scientist had deemed him to troublesome and had sedated him to a half-awake status, still able to feel the cramps and the messy diaper, but unable to do as much as curl into himself.

Walking back to his own quarters, he let his gaze land on the training fields, seeing a flash of the group of cadets.

"Ah, they got mud drills," Angael said, and Sephiroth nodded.

"Let's check it out," the general said impulsively, wondering if the caregiver was in this group.

"You want to check out cadets?" Angael asked surprised, following the general.