#cc!seph

[calamitysshatteredson]

@splitinone liked for a thing!

For the most part, Sephiroth avoided the general public. Not that his preference was necessarily to stay within the Shinra complex, and most certainly not within the offices if he could help it. Other locations were all well and good when he didn't have an immediate mission to accomplish, but those times were rare. Frankly he didn't want to be staying around anywhere after a mission was completed, for a wide assortment of reasons.

It wasn't as if he could simply wander off into the heart of Midgar, however. Luckily a change of clothes seemed to be enough to disguise most of him, hair generally too long to simply tuck under whatever hat he also planned to wear, so a good deal of it ended up tucked into the back of his shirt. Thoroughly uncomfortable, but it managed to change both the way he walked and held his posture. Useful.

It got him to plenty of little hole-in-the-wall places with brilliantly good-terrible food, but even more importantly it allowed him to explore used book stores. Antique shops. Tiny shopfronts hidden amongst the wide assortment of other doors that lead to windows into the lives of other people. And, sometimes--

He could just imagine.

[calamitysshatteredson]

@poeticphoenix liked for a thing!

There was no intentional thought behind it, no particular reason or idea or actual realized compulsion that lead to the motion. Truth be told, Sephiroth was very particular about keeping himself separated most of the time, hands to himself in any situation that was not sparring or the immediate need to administer first aid.

Genesis had been leaning over a book. Which book was suspected but not known, and a bit of hair had fallen in his face. Sephiroth hadn't made the full realization that his hair had been getting that long before he witnessed fiery strands moving, moved himself--

To tuck the stray hair behind his friend's ear. Somewhat startling himself, he did not linger long enough to judge the reaction. Perhaps he didn't want to know, explaining it away with a tight but flippant, "If I didn't know better I'd think you were trying to catch up to me."

[calamitysshatteredson]

@poeticphoenix liked for a thing!

"You should try it sometime. Just standing there, being the projection screen." The words weren't spoken with any kind of anger or accusation. In fact, there was a concerning lack of anything. No intonation, no emotion. A blank canvas.

"It's so... easy. Isn't it?" Uncertainty started to creep into his words at last. "It should be easy. Reading from a script if you speak at all. Just there to be while the cameras flash. It's so, so easy."

Numb. That was what he felt about it. "I don't know why it feels so difficult."

[calamitysshatteredson]

Trickster anon gifts you the mental image og Lazard in a speedo

He was in the middle of the much-hated mundane task of pretending to put effort into a report when it-- Happened.

In the middle of winter. Back from a mission that turned out to graciously be a whole lot of nothing, but that meant some amount of boredom. And paperwork to go along with it. How it went from that to--

Well, it. Wasn't a bad thing. This very, very vivid image of... a smile. And not much else. Not much else at all. Little left to the imagination behind tight purple--

It was exceptionally warm in there, even with the heat on. Even considering the leather, a SOLDIER's body temperature was... It was, uh.

Sephiroth looked down at the page, noticing he'd stopped mid-word. Mid-page. Mid-report.

That was good enough. He stood, up from his desk, walked to the door, turned the lights off in his office and left. There was... consideration. To do. In his quarters.

[calamitysshatteredson]

Sephiroth, pressing Lazard against a wall after an argument about the upcoming mission went particularly badly:

YOU!... You're not aftaid of me?

Lazard, praying to every deity he knows that if he breathes through his nose slowly enough, his erection will go away:

No, General, I trust you

Anyone else would recoil from the anger in glowing, slitted eyes. Sephiroth knew very well that sometimes he managed to get that particular fight or flight reaction from the director without meaning to, barely there, barely perceptible... to anyone who wasn't so very enhanced.

He watched, unblinking. Waited. Measured the space between Lazard's breaths and the thudding beats of his heart, waited to parse the scent of him and the exact dilation of his eyes behind the glasses.

The SOLDIER's grin spoke of danger.

It took no time and no effort to pull away just long enough to turn the blond man into the wall. Sephiroth pressed his whole body against the director's, pinning him just hard enough to feel the solid muscle at his back, and shared the shudder of his breath. The First leaned in a little closer to rumble low in Lazard's ear, "Are you afraid of me yet?"

Closing his eyes tightly, trying to regain some amount of control over himself and his own reactions, Lazard made a slightly annoyed sound at himself alone. That was his out, the moment Sephiroth would back away if he really didn't want this. He had paperwork, he had things to do, plans to make, not to mention how many of them involved the very man pinning him to the wall with very obvious interest--

"Not yet." The director's words were a rough whisper.

And Sephiroth's hands were already reaching around to deftly unbuckle and remove the man's belt. "Suppose we should do something about that before security makes their rounds, then."

[calamitysshatteredson]

Yeah. Don't do that to me. I can't lose you. Don't scare me like that.

(Because somebody was too prideful to abandon a mission when it turned out to be an ambush and somebody else had to maintain a neutral facial expression throughout a meeting while having a panick attack)

"I handled it. I was confident that I could handle the situation, I was trained for--"

"You can't be trained for every surprise, Sephiroth." Despite Lazard keeping his voice down, his fear and stress had quite clearly turned to anger. Not to mention the worry, the horrible sickening little drip-adrenaline kick that hadn't yet completely worn off.

"I was trained to handle surprises." The SOLDIER argued. Not that he really meant to argue, but maybe it was a different sort of urge to fight.

"You were also trained to know your limits and when to retreat for the overall success of the mission." The director flinched in surprise at his own outburst. Really, it wasn't that much louder, but it was too emotionally-charged, too full of the anxiety he'd been bottling up, locking behind doors that none of the other executives were allowed to see.

Lowering his head slightly, it wasn't entirely an act of submission. It was... acknowledgement, maybe. He'd rarely heard Lazard raise his voice, and knowing he was the cause of that... "I was confident that it wasn't beyond my abilities." He reiterated, softly. "The second wave of attacks delayed me and my return to the helicopter. If it's your preference, I can make more of an effort to return at the predetermined time in the future."

The blond sighed deeply, some of the anger leaving him. "Is that the best I'm going to get?"

Hair spilled over Sephiroth's shoulder as he tilted his head, considering. "And a more private apology?"

[calamitysshatteredson]

Okay, so one of those days after one breathing exercise too many, Lazard did pass out.

[caller ID: Angeal Hewley]

"Angeal, I can't talk right now, I've got to--"

"It's about Lazard."

"Hold on. Alright, I'm listening."

"He passed out at his desk today."

"He-- What happened?"

"You happened."

"Pardon?"

"You didn't follow the script."

"Journalists who refuse to stop asking me personal questions irritate me."

"Yeah, I get it, I know. Lazard does too, but this time..."

"I was perfectly polite."

"You said your perfect evening ended in flaking body fluids off leather."

"I... suppose that was a little more direct than I'd initially wanted to be, but it was very effective in ending the barrage of que--"

"You're lucky everyone thinks it's a cold because he's been working so many hours!"

"Was that his excuse?"

"No, mine. Happened to walk in on the power breathing. It was a decent excuse to get him out of the office for the rest of the day."

"Mm. Thank you for that."

"Yeah yeah, just consider not being quite that honest in public again?"

"What makes you think I was being honest?"

[call ended]

[calamitysshatteredson]

[Anti-Honesty Meme] "Did I make you blush or is the alcohol finally getting to you?" He jeered playfully, tapping the tip of Sephiroth's nose. (-expansive shrugging- hihellohowyadoin)

Anti-honesty hour meme | accepting but eternally slow

Sephiroth almost, almost, leaned just the slightest bit forward to bite that offending finger, which he supposed might have made his answer a great deal more believable. SOLDIER metabolism could be woefully swift, after all. (Sadly his restraint in not biting that finger showed enough.)

"The alcohol." He tried. Unconvincing, maybe, but he would stand firm on that. And perhaps take another, longer drink.