Final Fantasy VII, Sephiroth/Zack/Aeris/Cloud, fourth wheel, "Why does it always feel like..." 1/2
Sephiroth could hear the slow breathing patterns that signified sleep coming from his three bed-mates. It was a bed in the loosest of terms, pile of thick quilts to from a mattress, and another thrown over the top to keep the sleepers warm. There were a handful of cushions scattered about, but the preferred method seemed to be to use somebody else as a pillow.
Carefully he eased himself out from under Zack’s head, sliding one of the ignored cushions into place. Zack made a small sound of complaint, but didn’t wake. Standing, he wandered over to the edge of Aeris’ impossible garden, and stared at the flowers. Dim light still filtered down through the hole in the roof, but it wasn’t necessary for someone with his night vision. All the flowers were tightly closed.
“You never stay to snuggle,” a voice said behind him. Aeris. He didn’t wonder how she managed to get up and approach him without his hearing it, because she was Aeris, and that seems to explain everything from why Zack started dating her in the first place, to how this garden grows. “Are you not comfortable sleeping with others?”
He felt quite horribly uncomfortable, things he both did and didn’t want to say welling up in his chest. But the question, although lightly toned, was neither teasing nor prying; there was an edge of something he preferred to think was sympathy rather than pity.
“It’s not that,” he answered. “It’s just – I don’t think I belong here.”
Aeris frowned. “Here, specifically, or here with us?”
“Here with all of you.” Sephiroth ducked his head, hair falling to cover his face in a defensive gesture. “I know you all mean well, and that you do care, but if I do belong then why does it always feel like I’m still on the edges? I feel like you three have let me into your relationship simply to keep me from being alone.” He managed to bite back a slightly bitter ‘I don’t want your pity.’
It was so easy to believe he was truly wanted when they were touching, when skin brushed skin, and all the words melted into meaninglessness. But afterwards, when it was silent, all the doubts crept back in.
And he had so many.
He was waiting for her denial, reassurance, but Aeris didn’t speak immediately. When she did, it wasn’t what he expected at all.