When the knock on his door came, Laguna looked up from the papers he'd made a pretext of studying. The door to his office opened, admitting Kiros into the room. The lean man paused briefly and gave Laguna an odd look.
"What's the matter, Kiros? Do I have a stain on my shirt?" Laguna began inspecting his shirt for a stain that, thankfully, didn't exist.
"No. It's just that I'm still not used to seeing you with glasses," Kiros said. At this, Laguna removed his reading glasses and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes briefly.
"Well, we're hardly as young now as we were when we got here. That was -- what -- eighteen years ago?" When they arrived in Esthar, Laguna's black hair didn't have its few streaks of gray, nor did he have so many wrinkles around his eyes. Kiros, meanwhile, gained some weight in the intervening years, but due to rigorous exercise, his muscles had not turned to fat.
Kiros smiled softly as he stepped closer to Laguna's desk. He stopped behind one of the chairs and, considering his choice of words carefully, took a breath before opening his mouth.
"Don't give me that look, Kiros," Laguna shot out. "Whenever you give me that look, nothing good comes out of your mouth."
"Dr. Odine is here to see you about the Almasy boy."
Laguna groaned and covered his face in his hands. The dark-skinned man waited for Laguna to give him some further form of response.
"Send him away, Kiros. I don't want to speak with that guy. He gives me the creeps."
"Well, he's sort of… in the next room. He wants to give you his report in person. And he says he won't go away until you talk to him."
"Kiros, you're the chancellor, you think of something. Threaten an Ethics Committee investigation, or threaten to pull his grant funding. I don't care; just make him go away."
"But, Laguna, what about the report? We need to know what's going on with that kid."
"Get the report from him, and you read it to me," Laguna said, before sitting forward and heaving a sigh. Kiros nodded curtly and began walking to the door. "And, Kiros?" Laguna called after him. "He is not, under any circumstances, to go near Seifer until I tell him otherwise. Personally."
Kiros went into the outer office, and Laguna could hear the thick voice of Odine in the hallway, arguing. "But I am ze great Odine! He must zee me!"
