unbridledfist asked: "I have friends in high places." to aerith.

"Yeah? How high?"

The Cetra smiled towards her, highly amused by this comment, and simply happy to be near her. It was rare for any of them to have moments alone, and on a night like this with air so crisp and clean, she would bask in everything that it gave to her. Luck must be in her favor, if this one wanted to talk with her, and not any of the others on this night. "Don't you dare leave out any details, Tifa! I'd love to hear it all."

@unbridledfist

@unbridledfist | Tifa Lockhart says;;

" It's totally natural you feel this way. "

Living in constant guilt was getting old, Zack had decided. Not that he could control his emotions well enough to get that constant and ever present feeling of dread and self hatred to fade into something manageable but he could sure as hell pretend he had the ability; Not like it was hard to do anyways since nobody outside of his personal relationships knew the raven haired man well enough, assumptions always served as both a blessing and a curse in a way and it's something that for once, Zack was grateful for.

Except no, he wasn't.

There lingered a sadness within glowing turquoise eyes that the former SOLDIER had long grown used to, so much so that he hardly recognized his own smile anymore and he knew damned well people from his past, should he bump into them ( which while unlikely was still possible ) would notice damn near immediately, especially given the fact that his face had changed over the years too; The large scar upon his jaw was faded of course but so too were the numerous small scars littering the rest of his face and those told a mysterious story, once semi sharp canines that often had him compared to a puppy had grown into something more akin to the fangs of a wolf and how he wished he could rip apart those who brought that particular change with the very maws they had gifted him.

These were all things that weighed heavy on Zack's mind, like lead seeping into his heart through the blood pumping within his veins and while he refused to fully indulge the details in a familiar face from his past, ( ironic it's the very girl you couldn't save, Fair. ) he still divulged his feelings, his thoughts, passed off the oddities with his scars and teeth and the way he seemingly sprouted another four inches over the years as just being far too adapted to the mako pumping through his body. Seeing Tifa again had awoken some strange feelings within the raven haired man, relief that she had survived, anguish that he had failed her just as he failed everyone else in his life but especially her when he couldn't defeat Sephiroth on his own to right the demon of Wutai's wrongs, and numbness. Numbness that he'd been falling bitterly into for the worst half of a year and when she tells him " It's totally natural you feel this way. ", he can't help but to laugh softly, bitterly.

“ I don't think it is. I haven't earned the right to grieve what happened. ” He finally manages, tawny fingers gently tousling through raven spikes in thought before he sighs heavily. “ I don't even deserve to be sat here speaking to you as though we're long time friends after what happened in Nibelheim. I should've done more, should've seen what was coming and yet I was so... Blinded by what was in the reactor instead of worrying about what he might've been up to. ”

Then he's silent for a moment, eyes staring at Tifa intently with a soft, sorrowful smile sat atop his lips. “ Enough about me and what I've been up to, ” Not like he shared any of what actually happened, just expressed how he'd been mentally and said he was doing mercenary work, “ what have you been up to for the last... Five years? Give or take? ”