Misfortune
Sephiroth stifled a laugh as he shoved a specific magazine into his bag. He believed it was his duty as Genesis' best friend to display it to as many people as possible who also knew him. Shaking his head lightly, he zipped his bag up and threw it onto his back, walking out of the room.
Heading towards his friend Angeal's room, he couldn't help the amused grin from appearing on his face. He reached a hand out and knocked, raising an eyebrow as Angeal came to the door.
"You ready?" he asked. Angeal rolled his eyes and nodded.
"He's going to kill you for this." Angeal stated. He always seemed to find himself in between the two as they fought, but one of them would always pull him onto their side.
"It's about time I got back at him for all the things he's done to me." Sephiroth said.
The two first class SOLDIERs headed out, searching with their eyes for Genesis in case they would have to instantaneously come up with a new plan.
Thankfully, he was nowhere to be seen.
"Here," Sephiroth began pulling the magazine out of his bag and then flipped it open to the middle page, tearing it in half and handing half to Angeal. "You know what to do." Angeal nodded and walked off, keeping the pages down and out of sigh from most people.
Sephiroth sighed happily and walked off, shoving his pages back into his bag. He couldn't help the smile that was on his face – he was just so happy! Finally getting his own back at Genesis, it was brilliant! Genesis had already expressed just how embarrassed he was about the magazine, so Sephiroth had of course used it to his advantage.
"Excuse me, General? Would we be able to talk for a minute?" Sephiroth was stopped by two civilians, one of which quickly held out a piece of paper to him. He took hold of the paper and skim-read it.
A stupid letter from the President informing him that once he encountered these exact two men he was to do as they asked.
"Sure." Sephiroth sighed.
"If you could just come through here, Sir?" the men walked through a door and held it open for him, letting go once he was through.
What Sephiroth saw shocked him. The entire room had been done up to look like a studio. It even had the camera's, the backdrop, the camera crew, the different lights set up on the roof for different atmospheres, and the models.
The 'models'.
Sephiroth stared.
He continued staring in shock even when one of the men who had found him waved a hand in front of his face.
"Seph!" Zack bounded over from where he had been standing in front of the backdrop, now standing in front of his friend.
"What's going on?" Sephiroth asked sharply. The other 'model' who still stood in front of the backdrop looked nervous and brushed some of his spiky blonde hair out of his face awkwardly, eyeing the camera's as if they were going to bite him.
"We're gonna be famous!" Zack exclaimed. "Isn't it cool? C'mon! We gotta stand over there." Zack grabbed Sephiroth's arm and dragged him over to stand where the other boy was, who was now looking up at him in awe.
"General, Sir," One of the men stepped forward to address him. "President Shinra wanted more pictures of some of the SOLDIERs in order to promote ShinRa even more. He thought having a first class, second class and a grunt would be perfect."
Sephiroth whipped out his phone, hurriedly dialling a number and then putting it to his ear. "Angeal? Abandon your mission. Immediately." Snapping his phone shut, he slid it back into his pocket and sighed.
"Oooh was Angeal on a mission?" Zack asked excitedly. Sephiroth shot him a look that made him shut up.
"Will you do it Sir?" the man asked. Sephiroth looked over at him again and narrowed his eyes. They both knew he had no choice.
"Fine." he said.
"Great! Can we have photo's taken now?" Zack piped up again.
"Make yourself useful and at least introduce the grunt." Sephiroth said angrily.
"Oh! Sorry, spiky! Completely forgot about you down there!" Zack laughed, ruffling the blonde's hair. "Seph, this is Cloud! Cloud, this is Seph!"
Cloud stared up at Sephiroth, eyes wide in obvious fear. Zack laughed again and Sephiroth just raised an eyebrow.
"Okay! Let's get started!" one of the men said as he walked back over behind the camera. "Zack, sit on the stool and give us one of your grins. Perfect! Cloud, move forward a bit more so you're right beside him. That's it. Okay tilt your head a bit more. Yeah, smile a bit would you? No, no. Not like you're about to die. Pretend the chick you like is watching. Oh for goodness sake! It's not that terrifying!"
Sephiroth sighed and folded his arms, already bored to death.
"Try and look enthusiastic! A bit like Zack's doing, yeah? That's better... but not quite what I want. Come on, loosen up and give us one of those smiles that should be on your face a lot more!"
Cloud was finding it very difficult to do as asked, his face already flaming up into a very obvious red colour.
"He doesn't want to smile. Don't force him." Sephiroth spoke up. The man looked over at him and frowned slightly, thinking it over. Then his entire face lit up again.
"Okay! I've got an idea! Zack, dispose of the stool, but not literally. Just move it out of the picture. Okay, Keep your grin and put an arm around the General's shoulders. Now put your other arm around Cloud's neck like you're trying to pull him closer and he wants to escape. Perfect Cloud! Memorise what your face is doing and keep it! Yes! And hold onto Zack's arm like you want to push it off. General, stand there with a neutral expression like you couldn't care less. Yeah, pretty much what you're already doing. Okay people let's get this photo taken!"
The camera flashed a couple dozen times, and Cloud began to squirm uncomfortably. Zack kept his grip firm and wouldn't allow the poor blonde kid to run and hide in a corner. Sephiroth continued to stand there like he couldn't care less. Because frankly, he couldn't care less.
When the man ordering them around finally decided they had enough pictures of that one shot, he instructed them to move into another position.
"Okay, keep your attitudes. So Zack with the hyper-grin, Cloud with the I-don't-want-to-be-here expression and General, uh, just keep doing what you're doing." The man began. "This time I want Cloud to sit on the stool, Zack to stand behind him with his arms on Cloud's shoulders, and General I'd like you to stand behind them both with your same impassive face."
Sephiroth waited for Cloud and Zack to position themselves before stepping up behind them and staring blankly at the camera. In front of him, Zack leant his chin on Cloud's head.
Bad move.
"Get off my hair! Off, off, off! Now, Zack!" Cloud practically screamed, swiping at his dark-haired friend who begun laughing and almost fell over in hysterics. Sephiroth stepped back slightly and raised an eyebrow.
"Don't ever do that again!" Cloud yelled, hurriedly smoothing his hair with his hands while keeping an eye on Zack.
"You're-!" Zack gulped to get some breath in his lungs after laughing so hard. "Hilarious!"
"It's not funny!" Cloud whined.
"Hey, hey!" the camera man waved a hand and then shrugged his shoulders, questioning. "What's your problem? I was about to say, 'that's great, do that' when you go psycho!"
"You were gonna make him lean on my hair!?" Cloud asked in disbelief.
"It's not like he damaged it at all." Sephiroth pointed out. Cloud went to say something but stopped himself, apparently not too keen about talking to the General.
"Come on, I want you to do exactly what you were all doing before blondie here decided to burst a couple eardrums." the man frowned slightly and stepped back again, waiting.
With a grumble, Cloud slouched on the stool and stared angrily at the camera. Zack leant his arms on Cloud's shoulders and slowly lowered his chin to Cloud's head, half expecting the kid to scream again. Once he was in position and grinning, Sephiroth stepped up behind and stared blankly.
For the rest of the day, the three of them were ordered around about where to stand and what to do, make-up was put on their faces - accentuating their eyes most of all, and they found that by the end of it all the flash of the camera hardly bothered them at all.
Walking out of the room, Cloud had a small smile on his face, Zack was still beaming like it was Christmas morning, and Sephiroth was frowning to himself as he wondered why he had found himself having fun.
"Seph?" Sephiroth turned to see Genesis walking up and immediately tensed.
"What?" he asked. Genesis froze, staring at him and then glancing at the two people standing to his left.
"You..." Genesis blinked. "You just had a photo shoot didn't you! You're still wearing the make-up!" Sephiroth turned his head away slightly, looking down at the ground.
"No I didn't. You're hallucinating." he said.
"Ha! You so did!" Genesis chuckled. "I wonder how you'll feel when your pictures are strewn all over town tomorrow!"
"They won't be." Sephiroth snarled, looking up at his friend again.
"Actually, they will. The dude said they'd only take one night to go through and be-" Zack found himself being knocked backwards into a wall. Sephiroth lowered his arm to his side again. Cloud's eyes widened and he stepped away slightly.
"So, tomorrow you will officially know how I felt." Genesis said, a smug smile on his face. Sephiroth simply glared at him. "Ah yes, life is good." Turning around, Genesis walked off.
"Wha' was'at for?" Zack asked, pulling himself to his feet and stumbling sideways, clutching his nose. Sephiroth ignored him, simply walking off silently.
When he finally reached his room, his dumped his bag back on his bed and rubbed his head. Sighing, he realised he would never be able to post the pictures of Genesis that he had found in that magazine around their favourite bar. Not when Genesis would have the obvious come-back of then posting his pictures around when they came out.
Growling quietly to himself, he punched his desk and wondered why Genesis always had to get the better of him.