_Movie
Night_
Sephiroth picked up his phone absently as he paused mid-research. It was after hours, so whoever it was
interrupting his quiet evening’s reading either knew he would be in the office,
and available to deal with an emergency, or else was just a wrong number.
“Extension 8329.” He answered with his customary bored
tone and waited for the caller to introduce themselves.
“Ha! I knew I’d catch you at your desk. It’s me.” A cheerful voice launched
into conversation without preamble. “Hey, I’ve got a really important question
for you!”
There was no need for introductions, Sephiroth
sighed. Only one man dared be familiar enough to get away with something as
rhetorical as ‘it’s me’. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he wondered if he ought
to hang up on the man. From the sound of it Zack was calling him on his cell
phone, so terminating the call would only necessitate the soldier calling him
back a second time. Dreams of leaving his phone off the hook danced through his
head a moment before he vetoed them in favor of a more mature response.
“What to you want, Zack? Have you been drinking?”
“No.” Playfully aggrieved, his aide huffed into his phone. “What crawled into
your coffee cup and died. It’s Friday night. You have no right to be in a bad
mood.”
“You’re interrupting.” Sephiroth murmured. “I’d like
to get back to my work, so what do you want.”
The southerner sighed audibly into his end of the phone but then continued in
his usual manner. “Alright, so here’s the deal. I’m in the movie rental place
on the corner of North and Highbridge. I’m going to
read you the back of two movies and you’re going to tell me which one you’d
prefer to watch when I get back.”
“I’m not in the mood for a movie tonight, Thomson. I have work
to do.”
“It’ll still be there in the morning.” Zack overruled him bluntly. “So here are
your choices, ready?”
Sephiroth closed his eyes and grumbled to himself as
his friend juggled his phone. The sooner he got this absurdity over with the
sooner he could pretend to finish something before the soldier returned to the
building and pulled him out of the office for their usual Friday night R&R.
Protesting would only delay the inevitable, apparently Zack wasn’t going to be
reasonable about things. “Go ahead.”
“Alright! First pick, “Funky Monkey’, the hilarious tale of a boy and his pet
test-monkey and how they go to RocketTown to rescue
his girl from a bad marriage. Action and laughs ensue when their plans are
confounded by a group of movie producers who want the chimp to star in their
very own space drama. While the girl, played by Faye Gunn just so you know, discovers a secret treasure that could spell the end of
her father’s hotel.” Zack paused for breath. “What do you think? You up for action and laughs?”
“No.”
“Alright then, forget that.” The southerner didn’t pay the least attention to
the annoyance audible in his commander’s one-word answer. “I’ve got a better
one. ‘Hell Dog,’ it has a great by-line, listen to this, ‘Run. Hunt. Fetch. Kill.’ Doesn’t that sound cool? It’d got this
wicked looking dog on the cover, and a whole bunch of actors I’ve never heard
of. Nice classic B movie horror. Good huh?”
“No, Zack.”
“No demon dogs? Man. That’s a pity. Alright then you’re really making me
stretch. How about this one. ‘City Report: XXX’ it was
given three and a half stars by the adult film festival in Sector2 last year
and has three top models baring I-”
“Zack!” Sephiroth didn’t even want to hear the rest
of the pitch. “I really am not in the mood to watch pornography at present.”
“The kid at the info desk assured me that there was an excellent plot and
character development too. A really well rounded flick, and it has Jennifer
Star doing full-”
“No!” He put his foot down.
Zack huffed with child-like annoyance. “Well fine, those were my picks for
tonight, if you don’t want any of them, what do you want to see?”
“I told you, I’m fine as I am. Go rent whatever you want and get one of your
little friends to watch it with you.”
“No way.” His friend disagreed. “Friday nights are
when I pester _you_.”
“A gift for which I am at a loss of words.” Sephiroth replied sarcastically. The silence on the other
end of the line was vaguely accusing. He silently cursed himself, his partner,
and the world at large for a minute before caving in. “Fine. Find something
funny if you must, but no monkeys. Got it?”
“No monkeys, check. How about
aliens?”
“No aliens either!” Frustrated, he finally hung up the phone.
*****