Title: The Man Who Brought Her Tea

Summary: Lucrecia works late one night, and one man displays a small act of kindness. beginning of the Jenova project

Disclaimer: If I owned the Final Fantasy 7 compilation, Dirge of Cerberus would have a better scriptwriter. A much better scriptwriter.

A/N: So, I spent a while browsing FF7 fan-art on deviantART, and I had an urge to doodle Lucrecia. So, I drew her sitting at a desk, slumped over papers, with a certain man in her life holding out a tea cup to her and causing her to smile. It's just a crummy sketch, but I liked it so much that I wrote a fanfic based off of the scene in my mind. This is that scene. )

Please let me know what you think! (This is my first dip into writing FF7 works.)

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Story

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Scritch, scratch.

Her pen scrawled across the paper, a semi-legible script following in its wake, detailing a procedure she had completed that day. Ordinarily, she might have used a typewriter for this or even the computer (a large, clunky contraption that was very slow, but was the state-of-the-art technology of the time, available thanks to ShinRa, her employer), but she was out of ink ribbons, and she simply didn't have the patience to fiddle with the computer and wait forever for it to load. One of the lab assistants – those hopeful interns and graduate students – could type it up, entering it into the logs for her tomorrow, while she was doing less tedious things. Tomorrow was her day off, after all.

Today in one hour, she reflected, pausing to glance at the clock. Had she really been working on that experiment and this damn thing that long? After dinner – which had included a lively battle of puns and wit and sarcasm between Hojo and Vincent (both being practitioners of twisted, wry humor) – she had excused herself and retreated to the lab to finish her projects for the day. And that had been at eight. Three hours was a long time in the evening, when she was tired and already had a long day behind her.

Lucrecia sighed heavily. Even if it was nearly her day off, and even if one of the underlings could do the dullest part of the job for her, she still had to write the report. Damn report!

Scritch, scratch.

A shadow suddenly loomed over the edge of her desk, and a soft voice reached her ears: "Quite a late night…"

She didn't bother to look up, knowing who it was by his voice and shadow. "Yes. I blame it on the lab report."

"Ah." Faint amusement tinged his voice; he was quite likely smiling.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came down to check on the lab… and on you."

She paused, not expecting that, not from him. However, she forced herself to ignore it and keep on writing. Now was not the time to be distracted by sentiment. "I'm fine."

"I can see that."

A clink of china and a whiff of tea again gave her pause, and she glanced sidelong at him at last, lifting an eyebrow at the teacup and saucer, which he was now setting on the desk next to her. He offered her a faint smile, a strangely benign expression on his ordinarily serious and less-than-thrilled face.

"However, I thought you might like something to drink."

She stared at him, speechless.

"I took the liberty of adding the three lumps of sugar and dash of cream for you," he continued, "although I'm afraid it may have cooled down a little too much on the trip down here. Good luck with the report."

Still dumbstruck by this small act of unexpected kindness, she simply watched him as he nodded and turned away, heading for the door.

"Wait!" she called, finding her tongue at last as he reached out to take the handle.

He halted, looking back at her. "Yes…?"

"That was very thoughtful of you. Thank you ever so much!" She even offered a soft (though tired) smile.

His smile returned. "It was nothing, Lu. Nothing at all. Good night," he said, lifting a hand to adjust his glasses before disappearing into the hall.

Still smiling, she turned to her tea and took a long sip – he'd made it exactly how she liked it, and even if it was a little cool for her tastes, the effort he'd made more than made up for the temperature. It was, perhaps, a small detail in the greater scheme of things, but it, nevertheless, made a lasting impression on her; the rest of the report went very quickly, and she was soon ensconced in her bed, thinking warm thoughts about the man who'd brought her tea.

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End

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A/N: Thank you. Again, please let me know what you think!