Title: The Practicalities of Life
Author: joudama
Fandom: FF7
Rating: G
Word count: 578
Prop Used: Bubble gum
Summary: Why peanut butter can be your friend.
AN: For propfiction on dreamwidth.
--
Sephiroth didn't much like paperwork, but it was necessary. He was in the middle of filling out forms when he heard the very distinctive sound of a fireball exploding in the middle of the hallway, and then a most decided yelp.
"What under the Heavens--?" he went, putting his pen down and getting up. Whatever it was, it very distinctly sounded like more paperwork, and he was going to ensure it was not him doing it.
He wasn't quite expecting what he found. Genesis Rhapsodos was known for his temper-Bomb having something of a short fuse, but it was rare to hear the man howling. And howling he was, along with fighting to get past Angeal, who was doing his able-bodied best to keep himself in between Genesis and the hapless object of Genesis' rage.
It took him a moment to make it out, but then he realized it was Angeal's young protege, Zax or something--Zack, he remembered, who was hiding behind Angeal. The boy, extremely young and a freshly-minted SOLDIER, in general had struck Sephiroth as rather harmless and good-natured--he had to be for Angeal to take an interest in him--and he couldn't imagine what he could have possibly done to put Genesis into that destructive a mood.
He would have worried more, had he not realized Angeal was turning red not from exertion, but from trying not to laugh.
"Now, c'mon, Gen, it was an accident!" Angeal said, keeping himself between Genesis and Zack. "He didn't know you were walking by."
"I didn't know!" Zack whimpered. "I would never have popped that bubble if I had! It was an accident!"
"Stop hiding behind him and get out here!" Genesis yelled, and when it looked like he was about to light off another fireball, Sephiroth sighed and cleared his throat loudly.
"Seph! Help a guy out over here!" Angeal said as soon as he noticed him.
"What is going on here?"
Genesis pointed accusingly at Zack. "That little...my hair. My HAIR!" he yelled, and Sephiroth realized what all of Genesis' howling before had been--cries of "my hair."
There wasn't enough coffee in the building for this.
"What did he do to your hair?" he said tiredly.
Genesis gestured frantically at his hair. "Look! Just look!"
Sephiroth walked over, slightly wary because of Genesis' obvious bad mood, the way Angeal was biting his lip and starting to turn redder from trying not to laugh, and the way Zack was wincing. When he got close enough, the problem was obvious.
There was a rather large wad of what looked like bubble gum--what had been a bubble from the looks of it--stuck in Genesis' hair.
"Ah," he said, not sure why Genesis was so angry.
"Look at it this way, Gen," Angeal said, snickering. "You've been needing a haircut for a while."
Those were the wrong words, it seemed.
Sephiroth quickly grabbed Genesis' arm just as Zack let out a panicked, "Please don't kill me!" and hid even more behind Angeal.
"Come on," Sephiroth said. "If peanut butter doesn't get it out, then a hair cut may be in order, but it doesn't look that bad. This is unnecessary."
Genesis stopped and stared at Sephiroth. "Peanut butter?"
Sephiroth gave him a level look. "My hair is long enough to more than touch the ground if I sit down and is apparently sticky-handed small-child length as well. I have had more gum than that stuck in my hair before," he said, and dragged Genesis away.