Chapter 22: Tabloid Drama
Sephiroth's day had been unusually light and he completed his standard workload by four thirty in the afternoon. Taking a page from Genesis's book for a change, he had successfully sneaked off duty. No one had stopped him for last minute requests or conversations as he slid out the door. He kept his pace brisk so that everyone would assume he was heading somewhere important. Surprisingly, it worked.
Feeling triumphant and delightfully improper at this small bit of freedom, he returned to his apartment and changed into casual gray sweats. He was just zipping up his hoodie when his PHS buzzed. Since he hadn't even managed a snack yet, let alone a proper dinner, this event annoyed him and he ignored it. He tossed the device onto the coffee table so he wouldn't be tempted to flip it open and see who was trying to ruin his precious time off. It buzzed and vibrated some more, skittering across the smooth, uncluttered surface, and finally stopped before falling off the edge.
Satisfied that the caller had given up, Sephiroth put his hair up in a ponytail to get it out of the way, and went to the kitchen to consider his options for an early dinner. The situation was dire; he hadn't replenished his groceries in a while. There were some fish fillets in the freezer, and in the fridge a wilted leftover salad, a few eggs, some limp vegetables, fruit, and half a carton of juice. He grabbed an apple and debated the merits of ordering take-out.
His PHS buzzed again. He ignored it again, settling on the sofa and munching on his apple. The PHS went silent again.
Enemy defeated by process of productive inaction.
He barely had a few minutes of quiet time when someone started banging on his door. Loudly and repeatedly. A familiar and, at the moment unwelcome, voice added to the unholy din.
"Sephiroth! Let me in! Right now!" Genesis bellowed from the other side of the door.
Sephiroth toyed with the appealing idea of pretending he wasn't home.
"I know you're in there! I can hear you chewing!" Genesis yelled. "Let me in! We've got a problem!"
Enhanced hearing, of course. Sephiroth huffed, knowing full well that if he procrastinated much longer, Genesis would just use his keycard to let himself in. Barge in, to be honest. With a great deal of noise and melodrama, probably.
He never should have given door access to Genesis. Angeal, yes. Genesis? Absolutely not.
He heaved himself off the sofa and, apple in hand, went to the door.
Still in full uniform, Genesis pushed him out of the way and stormed into the living room. Sephiroth noted vaguely that his friend had a folded newspaper under one arm and was waving his PHS around with his other hand.
"Problem?" Sephiroth inquired and took another bite of apple.
"Why aren't you answering calls? Angeal's not answering, either, but it's understandable in his case. He's not in his office and not even answering texts."
"What are you talking about?"
Genesis gaped at him. "You haven't seen it? Everyone's seen it!"
"Seen what?"
In answer, Genesis shoved the newspaper into Sephiroth's free hand. Sephiroth weighed his snack against the paper, and passed the partially eaten apple to Genesis, who wrinkled his nose but accepted it.
The censored picture and lurid headlines jumped out at him immediately. Sephiroth had to fight to keep his jaw from dropping open. It was the first time he'd ever seen the centerfold, of course, and really, it wasn't terrible. Good photography, reasonably tactful pose, soft lighting, and The Midgar Mirror had taken care to make sure nothing objectionable showed.
Of course, the fact that it was headline news on the front page of a widely-read tabloid at all was cause for concern.
No one had expected this, not even the Turks. Possibly the tabloid had fabricated the photo, but that seemed unlikely. Which meant the Turks still hadn't located the missing porn magazine.
Though there was an outside chance that there might possibly be another copy floating around the city. He grimaced and dismissed the idea. It was too much of a coincidence that a second copy of Barely Legal, Harvest Time Special! would become public just a short time after the first had been lost.
Sephiroth stared blankly at the cheesy newspaper, silently performing mental gymnastics to reconcile Angeal with the startling photo. He found that knowing about the centerfold and actually seeing it for himself were two very different things. He assumed this was the first time Genesis had seen the picture, too, and that he had probably also suffered the same sense of dissonance.
Sephiroth had been curious about the picture, true, but this was not the best way to finally get a look at it. Even though he'd seen both his friends naked in the communal showers in the locker room many times after training, this was different. The centerfold, even edited, made him uncomfortable. There was something about gawking at an old porn shot of one of his friends that made him feel disloyal...almost slimy. This whole thing shouldn't have happened. It just shouldn't have.
Not without Angeal's permission—though he supposed Angeal had signed a contract at the time that did give permission for the whole world to see it. That didn't make Sephiroth feel any better.
"Are you as devastated as this tabloid claims?" he asked Genesis, trying to lighten his own mood.
"About as devastated as you are livid, I'd say." Genesis set the apple on the coffee table. "But definitely worried about Angeal. This is all over the nets, too." He held out his PHS so Sephiroth could see the digital edition of The Midgar Mirror.
"Huh." Sephiroth opened the tabloid, scowled at the mostly unobstructed centerfold within, and quickly skimmed the article. "This is a fascinating piece of fiction, if somewhat breathless. The writer should publish original stories. She might make a reputable name for herself that way." He looked up at Genesis. "Has Angeal seen it, though? I hadn't."
"He's vanished and isn't communicating at all, so I assume so. I'm guessing he's hiding out at home."
"He could be working on something and doesn't want to be disturbed."
"I suppose it's possible." Genesis dropped down on the sofa. "In that case, we'd better break the news to him before anyone else does."
"He's not going to like this."
"My friend, you are a master of understatement. He'll probably lock himself in his apartment and never come out again."
"Surely he won't overreact that badly." Sephiroth considered Angeal to be more level headed than that. Genesis might be that melodramatic, but surely not Angeal.
"Fifty gil says he'll react at least that badly."
"I'll win."
"Honestly, Seph, you won't," Genesis said, amusement glinting in his eyes.
"It's not the first time lies have been written about us in the media," Sephiroth insisted, sitting down next to the future loser of a ridiculous bet.
"I don't think Angeal's ever been the star attraction before," Genesis stated flatly, "at least not in anything this vicious. And besides, it's about something that really happened and includes a very embarrassing and incriminating photograph. That's a lot worse than the usual cheap trash the tabloids manufacture." He took the tabloid from Sephiroth and pointed to one of the subheadings, the one that stated 'Experts Ask: "What Else Could Angeal Be Hiding?"'
"This is the one that concerns me the most," said Genesis with a thoughtful frown. "It implies they'll be doing more digging. I suppose it never occurred to them before that Mister Dreams, Honor, and Puppy Dogs might have a skeleton in his closet."
"Or that the centerfold was real rather than just another crazy fan club myth," Sephiroth murmured. "Shinra appears to have been very thorough about erasing that particular blemish from his background."
"All for naught, it seems." Genesis scowled. "Now that the media knows he's not perfect and boring after all, they're bringing out the bloodhounds to sniff for more scandal."
"At least Angeal likes dogs, so maybe bloodhounds won't be too bad."
Genesis snickered at that. He leaned against the backrest and handed the paper back to Sephiroth. "There's really not a lot of dirt in Angeal's background, but nobody's one hundred percent pure. Even if they find nothing more than some dumb stories about his childhood, he'll hate every minute of it."
Sephiroth didn't mention that Genesis hadn't known about the centerfold despite their shared childhood and adolescence, so his knowledge about other aspects of Angeal's youthful peccadillos might also contain a few holes.
Which made him a little curious about Angeal's childhood, to be honest. Obviously, he knew a lot less than Genesis.
"Are there really professional experts on us like this article claims?" he asked, having never considered the idea seriously before and worrying about the aforementioned bloodhounds.
Sephiroth had been in the spotlight since he was thirteen and knew how tenacious and dishonest the game could be. Shinra had gone out of its way to promote some of his more dramatic exploits in the war. They had even invented a few and often attributed the successful results of others' hard work to his mere presence on the same continent. The Shinra News had hailed him as the Demon of Wutai when he had been just fourteen, as though that were some wonderful, proud title for a conquering hero.
The media could be relentless, but he'd always assumed they got their information primarily from Shinra's official channels, the fan clubs, or their own imaginations. He clearly needed to start paying more attention to what the tabloids wrote about him.
"There are body language experts who analyze every teeny tiny wrinkle in your forehead when you give public speeches. I thought you knew that." Genesis poked Sephiroth's forehead. "Like the one you've got right now."
"Your worry is catching," Sephiroth admitted, slapping the gloved hand away.
"I wonder what they'll make of Angeal's expression in that photo," Genesis murmured.
Sephiroth took another, longer look. "Is that Angeal's version of a 'come hither' look?" If so, it accomplished its purpose.
"More like a 'come and get it' look,'" Genesis sniggered.
Sephiroth was never going to be able to erase that turn of phrase from his mind.
"I wonder how the photographer managed to capture that," Genesis said. "Angeal's pretty uptight most of the time. Must have caught him off guard or something and just got lucky. This picture, my friend, might very well be the only one of hundreds the photographer took that caught that particular expression."
Sephiroth wondered if Genesis wasn't giving Angeal enough credit. Even he knew Angeal had had a few relationships and that they hadn't been platonic. When he was fifteen, though, and still living in rural Banora?
He grudgingly accepted that Genesis might be correct. Maybe. "It does seem possible that it might have been accidental," he conceded. "Those experts of yours won't even consider that option, though. Especially if they're working for the tabloids."
Genesis sobered immediately. "Yeah, who knows what weird theories they'll concoct? Look, he needs to know about this ASAP. Why don't we go to his apartment, order some takeout, and try to lighten up what is sure to be a terrible mood on his part?"
"He may not know," Sephiroth insisted, but it was more wishful thinking than any real certainty.
"Then we'll break it to him gently."
Sephiroth wondered if Genesis ever did anything "gently" but had no better ideas. In any case, visiting Angeal was a good idea. Genesis was right about that. Maybe about everything. Genesis had known him since childhood and had insights into his character that Sephiroth lacked.