Chapter ten

"Geh! What did I do this time?! Whatever they said they were lying!" Zack backed up toward the wall.

"That was the president, calling to express his satisfaction that I will be attending a certain annual ShinRa event…" Thankfully Sephiroth did not advance beyond the desk.

Zack scratched his head and looked at the floor. "Heh, um, yeah that. I thought you always went to those…"

The General sighed. "Do you have any godly idea what kind of debouched orgy you've signed me out to?"

"It's an orgy?!"

Sephiroth growled. "Not officially, but the pretext of the gathering leads one to draw unfavorable conclusions."

"Pretext?" Zack held learned to understand some of Sephiroth's word twisting and guessed that this word, held the most potential for an explanation.

"Participants are expected to arrive in the guise of a fictional or legendary character." Sephiroth rubbed his forehead.

"Is that all?" Zack let his disappointment show, though at the moment, it was a rather dangerous thing to do. "Kids do that sort of thing all the time in school."

"Oh, the quality of our educational institutions…" The General muttered.

"It's not like you have to cross dress or anything, what's so scary about it?"

"The fact the ShinRa will be there dressed as God knows what."

Zack winced and closed his eyes at the various painful images which surfaced. "You got me there…"

Sephiroth crossed his arms and drummed his fingers on a nicely defined bicep. "You could have at least read the damn thing before you accepted it for me." He fumed in an almost un-general like manner. Sephiroth had decided long ago that Zack was bad for his frozen demeanor.

"It was an accident!" Zack cried. "Besides just because you…erm, got accepted, doesn't mean you have to go. It's not like they can make you. Just skip out." Zack threw himself back into the General's comfy chair.

Sephiroth reflected a bit into his painful history. "The last time I tried that, ShinRa declared me 'Missing In Action' and sent Palmer and Heidegger to find me."

Zack stared for a while. "…Wow. I knew he was power mad and evil…but that…" Zack shook his head slowly, in evident wonder.

The General sighed.

"I'm really sorry, Seph. I had no idea. ….now you're gonna be stuck with all those weirdos. Shit, uhg."

"Oh," Sephiroth raised an elegant eyebrow. "You're sorry…I know you're very sorry…"

"What are you thinking, Seph?" Zack asked, his voice heightening ever so slightly in pitch. He was more than a little worried.

"What do you think I'm thinking?" Sephiroth smiled evilly.

Zack cringed. The Silver General only used that playful tone when he was planning something truly awful.

"No. You wouldn't…" Zack jaw dropped. "It was an accident, that's all! You're stronger than I am! I couldn't handle it! I'll do all your paper work for the rest of the month! Two months!"

"I could order you to do my work for me if I wanted to. But considering the present turn of events, I think we can both see that the last possible thing I would want is for you to become involved in my affairs again."

Zack moaned under his breath.

"No. There is only one way for you to atone for your offences… You are coming with me."

"But…!"

"If I am going to make it through the evening, I'll need a diversion and someone to sick inebriated stalkers onto."

Zack whined one more time before acknowledging that resistance was inposssible. "Okay, but if I'm going with you, then Cloud's going with me." Zack ignored the General's frown. "If I'm stuck there with just you and your stalkers for a few hours, I'm liable to go crazy. And last time I checked you weren't really happy with what happens when I go crazy…"

Sephiroth frowned more. "I don't think a social function of this nature is a beneficial atmosphere for a young teenager."

"Seriously, it's not really an orgy. And if the mode of the hour changes, we can just beat it outa there. That's the idea anyway, right?"

"Well then, I suppose. As long as you keep track of him." The General thought about that statement for a second and sighed. "Never mind. I'll keep track of him."

Cloud had been noticeably quiet of late, and Sephiroth checked to make sure he was still alive.

The inconspicuous cadet was organizing the stacks of paper which inundated him, working with a level of deftness and coordination that impressed even the General himself. Cloud was completely immersed in his work, burning through files and tapping his foot rhythmically. Every so often his spiky head would bob slightly or his lips would move, forming some silent phase. Sephiroth quirked an eyebrow at this and looked at Zack for an explanation, who pointed to the wires stemming from Cloud's ears which lead into the pocket of his fatigues.

"That was kind of parta the bribe to get him to help me. He loves the thing already." Zack grinned.

Sephiroth's listened into the sound of the tiny ear phones and grimaced at the heavy beat and confused lyrics. The fact that there were lyrics was bad enough; they were an unnecessary detraction from the true essence of the music and were only acceptable in opera. And this was not opera.

"You really should get him better music." Sephiroth said as sternly as possible.

Zack shrugged. "What do I know about that? You get him some."

"Huhm, you're right. I would be the only one to know artfully created music if I heard it. And he deserves some sort of compensation if he is to be put through this."

Zack seemed to be less hysterical now, with the idea of attending the ShinRa atrocity and suddenly brighten in a way that the General did not like at all.

"Hey, you know under the circumstances, we could dress him as absolutely anything..."

"No."

"But…"

"No."

"You don't even know what I was going to say!" Zack made himself look offended.

"I know the way your mind works…or rather, doesn't work…"

"Honestly. You always think the worst of me. It was a really good idea, you'd like it…"

"No. I would not."

"What if I got him to agree?"

"How?"

Zack thought for a minute. "I have a PlayStation that I never use…"

Sephiroth growled, realizing Zack had dragged him into a conversation which he had never intended to participate it.

"You will not bribe or blackmail a dependant of SOLDIER. Is that understood?"

"Okay, I'm sure we wouldn't have too, if his superior…"

"Cadets are not pets, Zackary!" The silver haired man's eyes glowed brightly.

"Who said anything about pets? Really Seph, you have a perverted mind."

The pencil Sephiroth had been clutching snapped loudly and his eyes acquired a wonderful new hue of green.

"I don't know why you're still alive…" He said in that low voice, which was almost always an omen of ill foreboding.

"Heh, I really have no idea..." Zack spun it the chair.

Yes! It swiveled!

"So what are you going to be wearing?" Zack changed the focus of the conversation.

"I don't know. I am not well immersed in popular culture themes."

"I could think up something you might not mind." Zack offered, waiting for the glaring and suspicious rejection.

Sephiroth looked at him askance and considered. "Yes…I would appreciate that, Zack." He nodded.

Zack beamed when Sephiroth didn't immediately assume that he was trying to think of deviant ways to humiliate his commanding officer.

"Okkee dokkee! Let's see…" Zack rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "…someone silent and brooding…looks evil all the time…cold on the outside but soft and squishy on the inside…"

"Enough!" Sephiroth couldn't bear any more of Zack's interpretation of him. "Just as long as the costume is acceptable…" He glanced at Cloud again, then back at the thoughtful brunette.

Zack looked up wide eyed. "I swear to God, Seph!"

I'm not completely sure what they'll all be dressed as, so I hope it'll turn out okay. Unfortunately Cloud will be wearing neither a dress nor a kitten costume...Seph is so mean...

(insert piteous groveling for reviews here)

Thanks for reading:D