At the front of the boardroom, Palmer was droning on about the economic and military potential of large balloons. He frequently interrupted himself to blow his nose, the latest victim of the flu sweeping the company. It was a wonder the man had been allowed within thirty feet of the president. Sephiroth glanced over at his employer in an attempt to quell his urge to fidget and noticed that the old man seemed preoccupied with wiping his hands on his handkerchief. He sighed silently and gave up on paying attention.
At least he got a chair. Zack was standing in an alcove next to him, slouched against the wall as he dozed with his eyes open. Just for fun, the general glared at his subordinate, silently willing the man to notice, knowing that he wouldn’t.
It was alarming therefore when the dark-haired man did just that, suddenly blinking and glancing his direction as if poked in the arm. An eyebrow quirked upwards in silent question, what’s up? He shook his head a fraction to tell the officer that there was nothing he needed. Sephiroth almost smiled at the mournful look he got in reply.
If Zack was looking for a way out of the meeting, he was out
of luck. Sephiroth was not feeling particularly generous. Then again, if the SOLDIER could get out, and
then manufacture a disaster that would ‘require his personal attention’ in such
a way as to not actually be a disaster… That definitely had an appeal. A circumspect look showed the southerner was
still watching him, small smile playing on his lips. Maybe there was something to this telepathy
business after all. He tried to pick the simplest message he could and stared
hard at the man, Get Us Out of Here.
The look he got in response seemed to say, Are you sure we can kill Palmer and get away with it? He shook his head again, trying to retract whatever he had accidentally emoted before his captain got them both into an unusual predicament. Explaining just why he had accidentally ordered the death of a Shinra board member by wiggling his eyebrows wrong would have been a memorable experience. Glancing back over, he caught Zack gesturing weakly with one hand while wrinkling his nose as if about to sneeze. Obviously the SOLDIER was far better at ‘emoting’, because his message came across like a bolt of divine revelation.
Write it down, bitch, you have a note pad Right There.
It took only a moment to jot his note, the words exactly the same as his failed experiment moments before. Pulling the piece of paper free, he quietly folded it in half, and casually handed it to his officer. Zack pocketed it and slipped out the back. When a call came in for him to the boardroom phone a few minutes later, he couldn’t help but smirk at Scarlet as he made his escape. Her plaintive look saying, Unfair!, to his back.