*Four-Eyes*

Staying up all night to finish reviewing the surveillance tapes hadn't improved his mood any, he decided as he carefully maneuvered himself down to the cantina and back. The fresh coffee couldn't compete with the stale aftertaste of countless numbers of its brethren already consumed during the wee hours of the morning. The best it managed was to burn through the layer of film on his tongue so he could taste the unpleasant mixture of old an new to full effect. He grimaced at the flavor of the artificial sweetener, pondering if it really did have all the cancer-inducing chemicals that the newspapers threatened. Even if it did there was no telling how his specialized immune system would react to them.

The train of thought sputtered out and died quietly as he kicked the office door open. It wasn't so surprising to find his assistant at his desk. At nine-thirty the man was even marginally on time.

Had he been in a better mood the success might have merited a compliment. Instead he settled for a non-specific grunt, giving Zack fair warning about his lack of sleep. If the officer didn't pick up on the clue, he'd deserve the chewing-out he was likely to receive. Unfair perhaps, but Sephiroth didn't much care. Still grumbling to himself, he had started his retreat into the office only to have a flash of reflected light catch the corner of his eye. Curiosity turned to silent amazement as he looked closer at the seated soldier, succeeding where the coffee hadn't in jarring his brain into some measure of alertness.

Zack was very very diligently staring at the reports on the small computer screen. Unnaturally attentive to the boring text scrolling by, he demonstrated his skillful 2-finger typing style in entering a quick comment on an item and forwarding it back to the sender. The general stood beside the desk a moment, an open invitation to a conversation that his friend had never once turned down. To his amazement, he was completely ignored. Self-defense, he decided with a smirk. It would do the man no good.

"Zack?"

"Don't say it."

"You look..."

"Don't say it."

"You don't know what I'm going to say. It's rude to assume the worst, you know."

"I know you..." The dark man finally looked up and Sephiroth had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling. The glasses were very practical, thick black rims with square lenses. The style mimicked a popular movie star’s recent prop and had become the trend of the year. He could hardly walk into the scientific levels without bumping into someone in a lab coat who was wearing them. On Zack however they looked patently absurd, giving a disturbingly geeky edge to his usually 'casually violent' persona.

The last time he had seen his friend in glasses, they had been of the variety to also had a novelty nose and mustache attached. The memory didn't help, forcing him to look away a moment in order to school his expression back to blandly professional. Something of his thought must have been readable however because Zack turned back to his computer screen, glaring at the inoffensive files.

"Go ahead and laugh, I know you're dying to..."

"I don't laugh, Zack."

"Yeah, whatever."

"I take it the others have already seen... your new addition?"

The man looked at him in disbelief. "Are you nuts? I'd never live it down... besides it's just for the computer... eyestrain and all..."

Sephiroth silently pieced the last two days together and sighed in understanding. "Your check-up yesterday determined the headaches you were having were eyestrain induced?"

"... Ya, that's what the geeks told me. Clean bill of health, except that I'm going far-sighted... That with the screens... and well I'm not getting any younger. Still fine in the field, but small text is apparently a no-no." He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, still adapting to the weight of the unusual accessory. "It's not unheard of after Mako treatments they said. Spence has reading glasses... and Joe is supposed to have, except he never reads much so he doesn't notice."

"They're really not that bad..."

"Rub it in why don't you..."

"That brand is apparently the height of fashion."

"That's what the girl at the shop said..."

"You wear sunglasses all the time..."

"This is a little different, ya think?"

Sensing that his normally long-suffering friend was starting to reach the end of his fuse, the general shrugged in playful defeat. "I'll just remind you to take them off before the board meeting, shall I?"

"You are a kind and loving general."

"I wouldn't go that far. I would just hate to have to sign your discharge papers after you belt Scarlet across the face for calling you an egg-head if it's at all avoidable."

"Thanks."

It wasn't until his office door was firmly closed behind him that he dared to crack a smile. The grin exercised his jaw in a way it was out of practice in. As much as he felt bad for Zack's enforced change of style, it was funny. A less loyal friend would pick up the phone and -- in a completely bored and uninterested way -- requested that Walter Ibsow report to his office for an assignment. If it just so happened that the biggest gossip of the SOLDIER unit caught their second in command 'in the act', it was sure to be the entertainment for the month.

He didn't stir to reach for the phone. It wasn't that Zack couldn't take the ribbing. Good natured, the man would likely find a way to laugh it off. It wasn't even that someone would find out eventually with or without his efforts. In reality he was just amused that he was the first to participate in the joke, even if he was a mandatory inclusion due to the adjacent nature of the office. Telling the others wasn't an option he decided, but still his fingers itched to do something. Zack wasn't the only one of them who could appreciate a good laugh; even if his were more discrete in nature.

He permitted himself a quick internet search and promptly found what he was looking for. Perfect down to the over-sized spectacles on the cartoon character's face, Sephiroth gamely filled out the address and message to be attached to the electronic card and clicked it on its merry way before returning to his duties.

Five minutes later a muffled "You Bastard!" from the other side of the door told him his understanding and thoughtfulness were well received.

*****

--Lunar.