A/N - Like chapter 2 this one has been altered to make it more upbeat as the first version was a bit too depressing for my liking.

This was the tenth time this week he had done this. Invading his students privacy whenever the boy was out to peruse through a book he wasn't even meant know existed.

It had taken three days after he found the image of Genesis before the urge to see the sketchbook again had become too strong to resist.

The day he opened it again the curious SOLDIER had been slightly disappointed to find that his friends drawing was the last one, that there were no more of his students creations for him to see.

Yet he kept retuning. Drawn back time and again to stare at those beautiful images that were all becoming so familiar to him.

So here he was again.

He gazed down at the page, tracing the lines of each face, some he had only ever seen in print and others he had once known that had been forever changed for him.

Making his way through the world of people his student had captured in these pages, always skipping his own he went on and on until he reached the last. The one of his friend.

He had been spending more time with Genesis lately. Trying to help the man without letting on that he was worried. Finding ways to show the Red Commander how amazing he was in his eyes. Staring down at the lost and defeated image of his friend, he truly hoped it was working. He wondered how he had missed it. How Zack had seen the depths of the vibrant mans soul when Angeal himself had failed so completely. He was trying harder now. To see the way Zack sees.

If that's even possible.

Eventually the sight of those eyes always became too much and he would turn to the next page. Always hoping that another image might appear to him.

Every time he was met with a blank white page, harsh and empty.

Until one day it wasn't.

Once again his heart stopped.

It was Sephiroth.

It was beautiful.

It was...

...how to describe it?

The image of Angeal had been exceptional, a bold drawing which dominated the page making him look almost superhuman, so beyond the mundane figure he saw in the mirror each day; but Sephiroth...the silver General, a man who in everyday life emanated an aura of otherworldliness that mesmerised everyone who saw him...his drawing was beyond words.

As he had come to expect from this book it was Sephiroth as Angeal had never seen him before.

As perhaps no one had ever seen him. No one but Zack.

Zack who seemed to see things in a way no one else could.

He looked magnificent and remarkable as always but there was something else. Something that had somehow never occurred to Angeal before, something that shouldn't be unexpected but was.

He looked..… human.

The silver haired man was curled in an armchair, dressed casually in jogging bottoms and a t-shirt. A pair of pale feet curled under him on the cushions with bare toes poking out, hair draped over the arm of the chair where it tumbled down to pool on the floor.

He looked completely unguarded.

The pencil drawn image was not looking out of the page. The first picture in the book not to do so. Instead those extraordinary emerald cats eyes were focused entirely on a book which was grasped in the man's hands.

The direction of focus away from the observer did nothing to diminish the expression in those eyes though. They looked calm and peaceful. They looked content.

"I like Samantha Keys books" the now familiar handwriting stated "She always gives them a happy ending"

The simplicity was devastating.

He likes happy endings.

This man who had been raised for war.

Built for it.

Seen by everyone as nothing but a SOLDIER. A weapon.

But here he was. Looking so painfully ordinary.

So human.

Telling a boy who saw things in a way no one else could, that he liked happy endings.

Once again Angeal stared at the page and wondered how he could have missed something so big.

The SOLDIER's mind went instantly to his bookshelf in the next room and soon enough he found himself there; the sketchbook back in its place in Zack's room as he perused through his meager collection.

Happy endings. That's what he was looking for.

Something joyous and upbeat he could share with the silver man.

He had always considered the General a friend but suddenly that felt like a lie; because like everyone else it seemed he had only ever seen the other-worldliness in the first SOlDIER. Never really looked beneath to see the man. But now he had seen him, thanks to Zack.

Seen him as he truly was.

Just a man.

Not average by any means but still undeniably human.

A man who liked happy endings.

Angeal grabbed three books. Ones that had always managed to make him smile. Personal favourites he had never thought to share before.

Without hesitation he made his way to the door. Instinct driving him forward towards Sephiroth's apartment where he knew the man would be at this time. How is it he knew the man's schedule yet didn't know the man himself?

Well that was going to change. Starting right now.