Ribbon

"I'm not wearing that!"

Zack looked at the item in his commanding officer's hand with great loathing. He couldn't wear something like that. There was no way.

"It will be extremely beneficial in the mission," Sephiroth said.

"I don't care how 'beneficial' it is," Zack said. "There's no way I'm wearing it."

It was taunting him, sitting there looking so purple, shiny, and very feminine.

"I might as well put on a goddamn dress and prance around singing 'I Feel Pretty'!"

Sephiroth gave him a cool stare. "You're overreacting."

Zack flopped back into the chair he'd been sitting in before Sephiroth had presented him with the offending item. "If it's not a big deal, then you wear it."

"I am," Sephiroth said. He pushed up his sleeve, and sure enough, tied around his arm above his Dragon Armlet was a ribbon identical to the one he held.

Zack gaped at it. Never in a million years would he have thought that Sephiroth would be wearing such a girly thing.

He smiled wryly. "You should wear it in your hair. It'd look nice."

Sephiroth shot him a glare and he burst out laughing.

"You could get some nice earrings to go with it," Zack continued, between laughter, "and maybe a tiara. You'd be the prettiest Shinra employee. Even that hot chick over in the clinic would have nothin' on you."

The look on Sephiroth's face spelled his untimely demise, but he wasn't scared in the least. He just continued to laugh.

"You had better watch yourself or I may order you to wear yours in that manner," Sephiroth said.

Zack stood up. "You can't make me wear it if you can't catch me!"

He took off at full speed out the door, still laughing.

That afternoon when they arrived in Mideel to exterminate some monsters, there was a certain purple, shiny, and very feminine item tied securely around his wrist.