Work Text:
It was the slight touch on his elbow that woke him up, and when Jonas looked to the left Sephiroth held onto his arm as always careful not to touch the stump that sometimes ached.
“Seph?” Hojo turned his office-chair so he faced the four-year-old better, there were tear-marks down the pale cheeks and more tears threatening in those feline green eyes. “Oh, baby,” Jonas whispered as he lifted the boy up on his lap, the boy leaned his head against Hojo's chest and hugged the small stuffed chocobo closer.
Sephiroth had trouble with nightmares, especially the nights Vincent was out of town on missions, the times Sephiroth slept at Jonas apartment and Vincent just had night-shifts or was in Midgar the boy slept better. He usually ended up next to Jonas anyway, or on the end of the bed. Thankfully the boy had started to be rather still whilst sleeping.
“What if dad don't come back?” It was the nightmare about Vincent, the one that all of the adults around the child knew to be true, something that they had been through and witnessed. They all knew that Sephiroth knew about the scar on Vincent's chest, the one that should have claimed his life.
“I will take care of you, and if I can't take care of you Ifalna and Gast will take care of you,” Jonas promised as he hugged the boy tighter, Vincent had made arrangement if he died or got injured. The list was longer than the other three from Nibelheim but Jonas hoped that it never would be needed. “Come on, let's get you back to bed,” Jonas said as he took a better hold on the boy as he stood up, the child's arms nesting around his neck as they made the way through the apartment, Jonas turning the lights of a room at the time until he reached the master bedroom. He had turned down the coverlets earlier before returning to his long project, it was about how Mako affected lifeforms. Specifically in embryos. Specifically Sephiroth. He was so scared that his little 'nephew' would have other attributes beyond those marvelous eyes in the future. He laid the boy in the middle of the bed, Sephiroth's green extra pillow already in place and Jonas followed suit, pulling the covers over the both of them, and Sephiroth nestled into his side.
“Uncle Jonas, tell me a story?” the boy said sleepily and Jonas pondered for a while before coming up with a story about a lost Nibel-wolf pup, he hadn't been talking for more than a few minutes before the boy fell back into sleep.