Hi guys, sorry this chapter took so long. I had an essay to pass in, and I got random spurts of inspiration for this chapter. I was given the prompt by Freerunner4427, and we had a lovely chat over their prompt for this chapter. I thoroughly enjoyed our talk, and I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations.
Keith: Well, I enjoyed myself, we put a lot of work into it. Although the stress beforehand . . . not so much.
Liulfr: Oh shush, you got to have fun in the end. Besides, I had to give a reason to why you would tackle such a large project.
Keith: *sighs heavily* Of course, of course. Well, the usual disclaimer, LiulfrLokison does not own any fandom character you recognize, she only owns me and the random OCs/background characters that pop up from time to time.
Chapter 7: The Chocolate Affair
Prompt: Zack watches Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and gets a few new, Ideas...
I was thinking Chocolate River as a colabortation between Zack and Keith, and Sephiroth waking up in a Willy Wanka Costume on a small sugar gondola curtesy of Reno . . .
And all the while Genesis and Angeal taking pictures and laughing.
-o0o-
Keith had never been more stressed in his life.
The war between SHINRA and Wutai was taking a toll on everyone, even the non – combatants.
The air was thick with tension, Tseng was dropping by his office for rum spiked hot chocolate every other day, and if his friend needed it, so did Veld. (He began making a thermos for Tseng to take back to the office every morning).
It eventually came to the point that Keith was scared of Sephiroth going homicidal, his silver haired friend had a persistent eye twitch and it made him look like he was about to go on a killing spree. Sephiroth had been banned from the VR simulator rooms because he almost demolished them the last time he was in there due to a murderous rampage.
(Which may or may not have been the result of a screaming match between Sephiroth and Genesis).
President Shinra was terrified to even walk through the building, everyone was on the verge of flying off the handle. Keith was only getting through the day because nobody wanted him to clean up their messes ever since he glared at a secretary so fiercely that the woman almost had a panic attack.
She had been clicking her pen constantly over and over again as she chewed on her fingernails, irritating Keith as he had a humongous headache after the chaos in the Weapons department. A stressed out technician accidentally activated a drone bot with faulty programming, which proceeded to tear throughout the department destroying everything it could find.
All the SOLDIER's had been unable to help because their stress levels were so high that Lazard temporarily banned them from engaging in any conflicts, one SOLDIER losing control of his strength was enough for the SOLDIER Director to take action.
Someone had run out of the department to go fetch a Turk, but ran across Keith instead. Luckily they did, because the Turks had been firing at any poor sod who stepped foot onto their floor, they had been drinking cup after cup of coffee to battle against the stress, giving them twitchy trigger fingers.
The secretary who had entered the floor first had narrowly avoided death, fleeing from the floor and warning everyone he ran past, to not go into the Turk floor.
It took some soldering, a couple of metal pipes, a wrench, two hours and a shit ton of wire before they caught the drone bot. Keith happily helped to smash the damned thing to pieces, leaving some tired, but very de – stressed technicians to clean up the mess that had been caused by the rouge bot.
And don't even get him started on the plumbing.
Zack Fair was the only one who hadn't been fully impacted by the stress because of his energetic nature, but had holed up in his apartment with movies in order to battle against the negative energy of the building. Keith had spent enough time around the boy that he could call themselves friends, and was all too happy to find refuge in the Puppy's apartment instead of sitting all day in his office.
Reno was going to join them as well, Angeal had opted to go take care of his garden to deal with his stress levels. Genesis was raiding bookstores for novels other than LOVELESS to get his mind off battles, and Sephiroth . . .
Sephiroth had fled into the Wastes to find something to run through with Masamune.
Tseng had joined him for target practice, the two had taken a SHINRA van, some supplies and four thermos' of plain hot chocolate with them (Keith had to make those before hand). Tseng had opted for the plain so he didn't have any alcohol interfering with his aim.
Tseng was surprisingly a lightweight when it came to drinking if you caught him out of Turk mode. If he was in a Turk mode, then he could drink anyone under a table.
So Keith was left with Zack and Reno to unwind with a bunch of movies, and Tseng had thankfully given him a bunch of root beer before he had left for the Wastes. Zack had already stocked his apartment with tons of snacks, and Reno had bought a bunch of booze from his favourite supplier.
They were going to get shit faced tonight and not care about the consequences in the morning.
-o0o-
Usually Keith found drunken ramblings to result in dangerous and idiotic adventures, and so had sworn to himself to never act on them if it ever occurred.
However, he had to break that oath just this one time.
The Puppy actually gave good ideas when drunk off his rocker (they had also found the perfect concoction that was sure to get a SOLDIER drunk as a skunk).
It had taken one random comment as they were watching Sephiroth's all time favourite Charlie and the Chocolate factory (because it was mostly about chocolate, although Keith had seen his silver haired friend cry a little at the end but never commented on it).
And now they were planning one of their biggest pranks yet.
The President had no problem with their plan, wanting to actually walk through his own building without the fear of being beheaded, so it was easy to gain permission to do what they pleased. The SOLDIER cadets were very confused at why their usual indoor training ground was out of order, but were all too happy to not have that slot because the instructors always yelled at them and it echoed painfully in the large hall.
(Especially Daniel Edger, the man had a set of lungs that could drown out a banshee's screeching).
It took them a full week to complete it, and by the end of it they were completely exhausted down to the bone.
But, it was totally worth it.
The three of them slept nearly a full day after they finished, and once they were well rested, they sprung their plan into action.
Keith really hoped that this would get the Tower into a good mood.
-o0o-
There was really no other way Angeal could describe it.
There was a real, honest to Gaia, chocolate river in front of him.
Well, at least he knew now why the cadets indoor training ground had been off limits for the past week.
But there was more than just the glistening river of chocolate delight, there were candy cane trees, gummy bear trees . . .
It was simply a candy land before him.
Although the large dragon gondola on the river was a sight he did not expect to see.
"Angeal, is that . . . Sephiroth?"
Genesis sounded like he was on the verge of falling into hysterics, and when Angeal turned around, that notion was very likely judging from the expression on Genesis' face. (The auburn haired man was furiously trying not to cry out of mirth). Although seeing the reason for Genesis' fit of laughter was understandable.
Sephiroth did not suit that shade of purple, it clashed horribly with his hair.
Although he wondered where that costume was produced from.
-o0o-
"Dad, are you sure you can't be a Turk? You're like one of those Wutainian ninjas!" Reno exclaimed with a whisper, from where the three of them were hiding behind a cotton candy bush.
It had been both terrifying and awe – inspiring to see Keith sedate Sephiroth so easily, dropping down from the vents and stabbing the needle into Sephiroth's neck with the precision of a pro. Zack had muttered how he felt like a secret agent as he and Keith dragged an unconscious Sephiroth into the nearest supply closet while Reno watched from the camera feeds so they knew when someone was coming.
"Nah, being a janitor is easier. Everyone underestimates you." Keith murmured with a smirk on his face, all three of them were watching as Sephiroth came to. His reaction would be either hilarious or horrifying.
"By the way, where did you get a sedative strong enough to knock the General out? Normal sedatives don't work on him." Keith just kept on smiling, a fond twinkle in his eye as they saw the small smile creeping onto Sephiroth's face.
"Omael gave me one. He owes me one for cutting that meeting short last month."
Both Zack and Reno looked at each other with confusion written all over their faces.
"Omael?"
Both of them were starting to realize there were a lot of things that they didn't know about their father figure. And it only made them curious to know even more, especially about how calm Keith had been dressing Sephiroth into the Willy Wonka outfit, not showing any signs of awkwardness at all as he did so. His answer had been he had seen Sephiroth naked before and wasn't bothered by it, they were friends . . .
"Oh right, not a lot of people know his first name. Omael is Professor Hojo."
That was a plausible reason for their slack jaws. Nobody knew the first name of the professor, and if asked the bespectacled scientist would turn the glare of death upon them. Zack was sure his glare could curdle milk (he had yet to find evidence, but he was sure Hojo could do so), but everyone around the building knew that Keith was one of the few people Hojo could tolerate. Most people thought Hojo tolerated Keith because he was the one who had to clean up the messes from his volatile experiments.
And everyone knew to not piss off the person who cleans after you.
Reno was about to ask more, when they heard a shriek of laughter that could have only come from a certain auburn haired SOLDIER.
Judging from the fact that the smile was still on Sephiroth's face, Genesis was going to get his just desserts.
-o0o-
Genesis couldn't help but laugh.
The rich purple colour went so badly with Sephiroth's hair and he had been holding his laugher back for an excruciating five minutes, he had to let it out.
He was so preoccupied with not falling to the ground and possibly staining his best pair of jeans (he had been wearing casual clothes and he did not want to have grass stains), that he didn't notice the terrifying smile on Sephiroth's face as the gondola began to float down the chocolate river, heading straight towards him.
But he certainly did feel the cane hooking into his belt and dragging him forward.
And with a small tug from the hand holding the cane, he lost his grip on the candy cane tree and plunged headfirst into the chocolate river.
Shrieking the entire way down.
-o0o-
Angeal was so glad he had decided to take his camera along today.
The smile on Sephiroth's face was one that he had seen many times before, and it spelt out doom for the person who that smile was directed at.
Despite Genesis' loud shrieking making him want to cover his ears, Angeal quickly snapped a photo before his childhood friend hit the surface of the river, chocolate flying everywhere from the point of impact. Sephiroth escaped almost unscathed, the gondola had shielded him from most of the chocolate drops, except for a small streak on his cheek. That disappeared rather quickly and the silver haired man's cyan eyes brightened with delight at the taste, which only got brighter when he discovered a small stash of chocolate in the pockets of his coat.
Turning back to his friend, Angeal was surprised to see that the river wasn't actually that deep. Genesis was sitting up and it barely covered his knees, so it was probably a little over 30 centimetres deep, hair plastered to his head and wailing in anguish over his best pair of jeans being absolutely soaked through with the sweet confection.
So Angeal took another photo, as a memento.
He did quite like the first photo though, it showed Sephiroth with the cane upraised and the smile on his face, watching just before Genesis hit the surface of the river, pure panic on his face and flailing arms trying to grab onto anything to prevent him from having a chocolate bath.
He felt completely de – stressed, he could practically feel the mako in his blood sing with relief. And judging from the smiles the other SHINRA staff was sporting, they felt the same way too.
He had a good idea of who was behind the chocolate river, but he said nothing.
He was going to enjoy this day while it lasted.
-o0o-
Sephiroth both loved and hated the punishment he inflicted on Genesis.
While watching his fellow SOLDIER get an unexpected chocolate bath was hilarious, he was quite distraught when Keith promptly informed him that the river was now contaminated. No one was able to eat the chocolate, but there was plenty of candy to make up for that.
Keith had practically shoved a basket full of chocolate bars into Sephiroth's arms to stop the man from actually crying at the loss of the chocolate river.
Sephiroth spent the entire day sitting in the sugar gondola, munching on chocolate bars as he watched the SHINRA employees enjoy themselves, his mouth quirked into a fond smile.
Reno and Zack had both fallen asleep as the exhaustion of the week had caught up with them, resting under the shade of a candy tree, (one day of rest was not enough).
Keith had joined Sephiroth on the gondola as well, and he was certain his friend was about to fall asleep as well, the man was fighting to stay awake.
Eventually the janitor could not fight off the grasp of sleep, Sephiroth's shoulder was soon put to use, but he didn't have the heart to shove Keith off.
It was the least he could do for his friend, who put so much effort into a way for their colleagues to forget the troubles of the present.
Sephiroth couldn't help but start to hum a tune, and let the sounds of laughter lull him into the realm of Morpheus.
-o0o-
"Come with me, and you'll be,
In a world, of pure imagination.
Take a look, and you'll see,
Into your imagination."
-o0o-
A/N: Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter! I may have dropped a in a thing of Keith's past, but you probably won't understand it because I haven't said anything about it before.
As usual, if you have a prompt, let me know at either my tumblr or through a review. Also, if you want to get a bit more of Keith's backstory, let me know cause I've got a couple of chapter ideas that would allow me to drop some more information into this series.
LiulfrLokison out! :3
