@grieverled | Squall sent;;
That damned smile. It’s such a common feature on the other man’s face, something he knows would look so out of place being absent, but it stirs an uneasy feeling when he catches the way it twitches, as if strained, lilting like a sad dying flower with wilted petals along its edges. For a man known for being as genuine as they came, as honest. Things weren’t as they’d seemed when it came to Zack Fair. Something that only continued to hook at him & his interest as he stares with a deepened furrow notching itself comfortably between his brows.
When he turns to look his way, probably after feeling eerie cold sights on him for far longer than comfortable, Squall breaks the silence with a scoffed sigh, a quiet sound, before he takes a step in, arms coming to a neat fold atop his chest. Chin angling higher, wolf gray eyes flick below, lingering pointedly on the sunny man’s smile before raising again.
“Why do you waste your energy smiling if you don’t mean it?”
To say one has seen First Class SOLDIER Fair without a grin upon his face to some extent would be often seen as a lie, seldom did the man ever allow anyone to see him look anything but lively, ecstatic or giddy to some extent. That was something far easier before reality had finally sunk its claws into the once naïve man. What was there to smile for now? What was the point of SOLDIER, the point of doing much of anything anymore? Easy, those who were less fortunate, who couldn't fight for themselves and those who needed someone to smile for them. It's what he always thought about, even on days where familiar blues faded into lifeless greys and once lively tanned flesh sunk into the hollows of alabaster and crimson, it's all Zack could do, really.
He knows that his smile is bastion of hope to some within Shinra, knows it helps provide comfort to those like Cloud and Luxiere but he'd be dumb to pretend like it didn't also bother others. He's removed from his thoughts once he feels what seems to be a glare upon his frame, can tell he's being scrutinized and for a second shame boils hot within his heart, damn near laces his easy going smile with something self deprecating, he hated feeling like that; Hated knowing someone was observing him, waiting for him to crack and show just how pitiful a man he's become since he lost Angeal. When would he be allowed to have time to himself? To have his freedom back like what the role of a First typically implied?
Mako tinted eyes land upon the other man, eyebrows furrowed slightly as a saddened gleam rests within his turquoise gaze, that smile only softening ever so slightly upon noting the other's gaze. For a second the question leaves him shocked, confused and maybe even angry before he simply drops his smile altogether, some form of hurt evident within his slack expression.
“ Because I do mean it. ” He responds softly, and truly he does, “ I just... Sometimes I can't put my whole heart into it, so I do my best because I know that if I smile, someone else will see it and they'll feel a bit better too, someone has to do it around here and... People rely on me for that. ”
