The door to the hair salon swung open and a young man strode through towards the front desk.
"Hey, I'd like a simple trim." he said, leaning casually on the wooden bench.
"Of course, like usual." the woman who sat behind said with a smile. He nodded his head and turned around to glance innocently at the other people in the room. There was an old lady near the door getting a perm and a boy sitting down one seat having thick amounts of gel lathered into his hair. The man who had entered raised an eyebrow.
"Please take a seat." the woman behind the desk said, gesturing towards the seat on the other side of the boy.
"Thanks." the man went and sat down, reaching over to pick up one of the magazines that had been discarded by an earlier customer. Another hair dresser walked out from the back and came over, smiling widely.
"Hey!" she said.
"Hey, Jess." he replied.
"You come here every month, gosh! I guess it pays off, your hair is so long now!" she exclaimed, taking a look at his hair that almost touched the floor.
"Yeah." he shrugged, putting the magazine back down. "Can you just trim it a bit again?"
"The more I cut your hair, the more it grows. Sheesh, you'll have the place swamped in a few days!" Jess laughed and picked up the pair of scissors, getting ready to cut his hair. The boy sitting besides him looked across and stared, eyes slowly widening in shock.
"S-Sephiroth!?" the boy gasped. "Is that you? Oh my gosh it is! Can I have your autograph? Please? I wanna be a SOLDIER! You're my hero! Oh my gosh! I'm gonna cry!" By now, the boy had jumped off his chair and crawled across the floor towards Sephiroth, grabbing at his sleeves.
"What?" Sephiroth asked, not quite catching everything that was said because he had spoken so fast.
"Pleeease!!" the boy cried, tears beginning to roll down his cheeks. "I've always wanted to meet you! What do you think of me? Will I make it into SOLDIER?"
"Not if you keep acting like that." Sephiroth snapped, agitated. The boy flinched and backed off slightly, but continued to stare up in awe.
"Just a bit off the ends, right?" Jess asked, acting as if the whole scene with the boy had not just happened.
"Yes please." Sephiroth said, fixing his eyes straight ahead at the mirror.
"Oh my gosh, I go to the same hair dresser as Sephiroth!" the boy suddenly exclaimed, seeming to finally clue into that very important fact. Sephiroth rolled his eyes and sighed, wishing for a moment that he wasn't as popular as he was. Jess started humming, and Sephiroth managed to concentrate on it. Soon he had forgotten that he had a boy in tears on the ground beside him.
"Seph! For goodness sake turn your phone on! Lazard's been trying to reach you for half an hour!" Someone else had burst through the door to the hair salon and come hurtling towards Sephiroth. Jess quickly stepped back and put the scissors down to avoid stabbing anyone and causing unnecessary injuries.
"Huh? Oh hi Zack." Sephiroth said, only giving the black-haired SOLDIER a short glance before going back to staring blankly at the mirror.
"Seriously! You're needed!" Zack said. He turned to Jess and clasped his hands in front of himself pleadingly. "Can you please cut his hair really quickly and then let him come back with me? If I don't bring him back Lazard is going to seriously murder me! No joke! And he's a very scary man to begin with! When he starts threatening people they tend to run away with their tails between their legs! Figuratively speaking of course, because people don't actually have tails. But you know, it would actually be pretty cool to have a tail! Man, now I wish I was a dog or something. You could be a cat! They have tails! And I don't mean you're not good enough to be a dog, it's just that cats are more feminine and-"
"Zack Fair, shut up." Sephiroth swiftly shut him up with four simple words.
"Don't worry, it won't be much longer." Jess assured Zack, turning back to Sephiroth and picking up the scissors again to continue the job.
"Oh my gosh! Another SOLDIER!" the boy gasped, tears streaming down his face all over again. Zack looked over at him and raised an eyebrow, stepping away slightly in fright. The door opened again and someone who looked a lot like the face that the boy had seen on the poster advertising ShinRa walked in.
"Seph? Oh, Zack's come to get you. Okay then never mind." he turned and was about to leave when a voice interrupted him.
"Holy Gaia!" the boy fell over backwards onto the floor and passed out.
"Is he alright?"
"He's fine."
"Are you sure, Seph?"
"He's fine."
"Seriously Seph, he's been crying. What did you do to him?"
"Genesis. He's fine."
"He was scary! I'm so glad he fainted." Zack said cheerfully.
"There! All done!" Jess smiled down at Sephiroth and put away everything she'd been using.
"Thanks." Sephiroth said, moving to stand up. "And now, before Zack starts having nightmares about Lazard, let's go back." The three SOLDIER's left, with Sephiroth dropping some gil on the counter on his way.