Prompt from a selection of them on Tumblr: Loveless? Never heard of it.
"You're joking, right?" Genesis leaned forward over the half eaten, and more than half disgusting, MRE balanced on his lap. The teenager across from him tucked a strand of silver hair behind his ear as he focused on his own meal, shrugging one shoulder slightly as he oddly rearranged the food on his tray until none of it was touching.
"I don't have a sense of humor," Sephiroth intoned in a low and deliberately monotone voice. Beside him Angeal sighed, nudging him with his elbow in a slightly uncomfortable show of sympathy . Genesis did not find it funny, but then he didn't think Seph had either when they'd overheard a handful of Third's complaining about how they'd expected Sephiroth to be more charismatic and how he never said anything that wasn't entirely serious.
It wasn't entirely untrue. Genesis had also expected the other SOLDIER to fit into the mold of the larger than life figure he was portrayed as in newspapers. He'd anticipated impassioned speeches, skilled and effortless leadership, everything he'd have wanted to become himself - and if he was honest with himself he thought he might end up in that role for Sephiroth. They'd made him look older on the news and Genesis and Angeal had both been startled to discover he was shorter than them by a couple of inches. Even more surprising, and horrifying to Angeal, the infamous Second was younger than them by a couple of years!
"How can you not have heard of Loveless," Genesis continued, "it is the ultimate classic. Everyone has to read it in school at some point at least."
Something odd flickered across Sephiroth's face, a microexpression that Genesis couldn't parse because it looked too much like jealousy and that didn't make any sense.
"I've…" Sephiroth paused, frowning down at his meal and shifting the limp green beans to the furthest part of his tray with a grimace and taking a bite of the clearly preferred mushy carrots, "I've never read any fiction."
Genesis swallowed down the urge to exclaim WHY? As Angeal shook his head slightly, a pained look on his face.
"My friend," Genesis reached out and clasped Sephiroth on the shoulder, the younger boy going stiff beneath the casual touch but not shying away, "the fates are cruel."
Beneath his hand came another small shrug, the other boy's features smoothing out to practiced blankness.
Frowning, Genesis took a last bite of the only thing left on his own tray that he could stomach and pulled his sketchbook out of the larger pocket of his fatigues and began to write. He didn't use his usual flourished cursive, realizing uncertainly that Sephiroth might not be able to read it. He copied out the expanded translation of the epic poem he loved so well.
He lingered over one bit in particular, his heart beating fast in his chest as sketched a caged bird alongside the words - Three friends went to the battlefield, One was taken prisoner, One flew away, And the one who remained became a hero
Someday they would be hailed as heroes, he was certain of it. His lips shaped his favorite passage - Even if all that awaits us is a harsh tomorrow, Ever the winds may blow against us, Ever and ever we persevere.
He watched over the spiraled top of the book as a tiny smile flickered on the edges of Sephiroth's mouth. He'd reached the final bit on his tray that he seemed to have saved for last. A handful of dried fruit, too sticky sweet for Genesis' own tastes, slowly disappeared as Sephiroth ate them one at a time.
"Three friends went to the battlefield," he murmured to himself as he tore the page from the book and passed it over, "You read this and I'll quiz you on it tomorrow," he said, sharp tongued as he looked away from Sephiroth's somehow astonished expression.
Slowly, Sephiroth took it, frowning in concentration as he read.