The sun was shining merrily, the blue expanse of sky stretching across the horizon in a never ending arc. Fluffy birds were chirping, and everything shone gold and bright from the sunlight.

Bah.

It was rather unnecessary to say that Sephiroth hated sunny days. And to make matters worse, it was hot. With long hair like his, it was very hard to keep cool and collected - especially when you had a partner like Zack. It took a great deal of concentration and patience when dealing with the moron, something which Sephiroth severely lacked when days decided to be as difficult as this. And hot.

"I'm bored."

Irritated, Sephiroth tried to ignore the whining from behind him. Zack, who had propped his feet up on his desk, was fully capable of acting like a mature adult. The only problem was: he didn't want to.

"Please Seph, let's do something fun..." His whine trailed off as Sephiroth gave him a withering glare.

"No." Zack's idea of fun was slightly skewed; usually involving long hours of sardonic humour and embarrassing situations. Sephiroth was fully aware of this fact, and he absolutely refused to do anything that might make matters worse. He sighed, not knowing why he'd decided to let Zack into his office in the first place.

"Please..." An eyebrow twitched. It made it all worse because somehow, this was his fault. Perhaps he should just kill the pest and be done with it. Before he could entertain himself with the appealing thought, Zack literally 'flopped' himself over Sephiroth. In some way, Zack's feet were still propped up on the desk, body leaning haphazardly sideways to encircle his arms around Sephiroth. Zack's black spikes tickled his ear, and Sephiroth winced. This was low. Even for Zack.

Physical contact? What about personal space?

"We could always try that-"

"-No."

"Oh stop it; you look like you want to kill someone."

"I do. Guess who?"

Zack glared down at the floor at a loss. Distracting himself with Sephiroth was only a good idea if you were either suicidal, or Sephiroth was in a complacent mood. And everyone in Shinra knew that Sephiroth was anything but complacent on hot, sunny, bright and cheerful days.

"Fine, I'll leave you alone then."

"Thankyou."

"Piss off."

"You're welcome."

"...I hate you." It didn't sound like sulking. Really.

They continued in blessed silence until Zack began to tap his fingers on Sephiroth's shoulder erratically. Irked, Sephiroth tried to ignore the body pressed against his side. It annoyed him to know that Zack knew almost everything there was to know. He wouldn't have even cared if Zack had been tapping steadily; monotonous was his middle name.

Tap. Tap.

Taptap.

A quick glance in Zack's direction. A faint smile back.

Sephiroth decided to suggest something.

"Why don't you go browse through the recruit files? You've always liked to know the latest news."

"You know, that actually sounds like fun."

Mentally groaning, Sephiroth decided to keep silent as Zack dragged both the wheelie chair and him to the computer. Yes, there were days where he could act like a bastard, but there were also days where he was with Zack, and hot weather. He decided to try and think about the lovely ice that surrounded the northern peaks of Terra. But that didn't help as he was reminded about the idiot that had managed to overuse his Ice Materia. His name, coincidentally enough, began with a 'Z'.

"Seph, can I borrow your key card password? Shinra isn't accepting mine anymore."

"And I wonder why." Sephiroth certainly sounded sardonic enough. Zack's latest scheme had involved uploading viruses to every Shinra database.

"They deserved it." No more was said on the matter.

Rolling his eyes (though it looked more like a twitch), Sephiroth handed Zack the key card, and he swiped it into the computer's hard disk. Quickly tapping in identification numbers, his face broke into a wild grin as the computer started uploading numerous recruit files. Quickly browsing through them, Zack started to randomly select names he liked the look of. They were usually original names, or meaningful ones.

"Hey look, there a kid called Strife in here." Zack chuckled softly, wondering if name was any indication of personality.

"Open it up then."

Clicking few times, a window popped up on the screen, displaying Strife's stats.

Name: Cloud Strife,
Age: 15
Weight: 45kg
Height: 5'3"

"Does he even eat at all?" Zack mused, scrolling down.

"He's...small for a recruit."

"What do you mean small? He's puny!" Zack scrolled down even further to a picture of the kid. Wild blond spikes that flew everywhere, stunning blue eyes that stood out from his pale face. "Heh, he's even got Chocobo hair to match the eyes."

"I don't see it." Sephiroth deadpanned. "His hair is the same as yours. Messy, and it doesn't conform to regulations."

"And yours does?" Zack muttered. "Besides, he looks...sweet, I suppose, almost docile."

Sephiroth, who had been reading further, raised an eyebrow.

"I think the word you're looking for is 'soft'. As far as I'm concerned, he shouldn't even be here as a recruit." Sephiroth gestured towards the report on screen, turning his attention back onto thoughts of ice, and cool weather.

"Agility: below average, Strength: poor, Tactics: below average, Weapons: abysmal." Zack listed, trailing off as the list of dreadful marks carried on down the page. The only positive comment consisted of four words, and merely a compliment by a long stretch.

Stubborn as a mule. Which was followed by: Will not quit.

"Sounds like you."

"There's no need to be nasty."

"I beg to differ. If you're able to change from a lazy delinquent into a SOLDIER, then anything's possible."

Zack scrolled down further, eyeing the words 'total failure'.

"Why don't Shinra just get rid of him?"

Sephiroth frowned at the oddly shrewd question and replied. "A normal cadet would have been thrown out already, so maybe he's a rich brat."

Zack looked at the photo again, seeing the boy's placid gaze float through him, perhaps staring into space. Chocobo hair was an utter weakling, but Zack had to wonder how on Earth the boy had passed the entrance exams. Strife was short, thin and weak; at a severe disadvantage to the other stronger boys.

How? How had he done it?

"I don't think that's the case with Strife here." Zack stared into the screen.

Sephiroth looked dubious.

"He just looks like a spoilt brat to me, a wannabe in many aspects."

"Yeah, but ambition has to start somewhere. This one's special. It's a gut feeling." Zack's face suddenly melted into a big, shit-eating grin. "Plus, he's pretty. Extremely pretty."

Sephiroth sighed again, realising how rare it was for Zack to be so serious, and missing it already. He'd leave the whole thing for tomorrow, when he wouldn't be so tired or so distracted. And hopefully, it wouldn't be so dammed hot.

tbc

edited 27/10/06