_Set Point_

The official party having long ended, Sephiroth was not amiss to utilizing the empty park for his own amusement. All but one of his drunkenly rowdy team had crawled off to home and bed, or to _someone's_ bed, following countless hours of playing and eating and drinking. Their drinking in particular had been astounding. He hadn't been entirely abstinent, but through the course of the evening he must have counted several cows worth of grilled meat, and no fewer than twenty kegs and assorted bottles emptied at a steady rate. SOLDIERs or not, some of them would doubtless be getting up in the middle of the night to urgent calls of nature.

As it turned out, there were just the two of them left behind. Zack remained because he was hypothetically in charge of the 'clean up' committee for their little picnic. As for himself, he pondered his rationalization, he had of course been waiting for a lift back to base.

The clean up, amounting to rounding up a small army of crumpled cups and other litter into trash bags took all of 20 minutes. Sephiroth hadn't even bothered to get up, just watching in idle amusement as his aide swept through the disaster zone like a black-haired whirlwind leaving a series of neatly tied of trash bags in his wake. He had mobilized himself in time to assist the man with collapsing and stacking the long tables, leaning them against the wall of the pavilion for the rental company to come and collect. But afterwards, as they stood together and assessed the now empty space, there had still remained the question of what to do with the rest of his evening.

Driving back into the city had little appeal, not with the summer breeze sweeping in from the coast. Kalm was a wonderland in comparison with the wastes around Midgar, but then, a lot of places were. He reminded himself that Zack couldn't get on with his night until after driving him back, and felt bad for holding the man up.

"Shall we go? Doubtless, you have other places to be."

"Who me?" Zack had blinked, startled out of enjoying the scenery. "Why do you say that?"

"It's an evening, on a day off. I thought you might be itching to go downtown and enjoy yourself. Don't let me slow you down."

"Nah. It's Friday." The southerner shrugged. Wandering past him and out onto the park's grounds, he had scooped up the abandoned volleyball where it lay on the little sand court. "One-on-one?"

And with that, their plans had been cemented.

Really the net was something of an afterthought. It, and the grassy boundaries of the court were the only things keeping their game remotely sane. Sephiroth snagged the ball as it soared out of bounds, and tossed it once as he positioned himself to serve. The sun was long gone, leaving them to play by the light of a nearby parking lot. Not exceptionally good conditions, but the sand was soft, and the crouched shape of Zack, watching him manically from the other side of the net was easy to spot. Picking his target, Sephiroth deftly tossed and then nailed the ball over their battered net. Despite his second's uncoordinated dive, the projectile hit the sand with an impressive spray.

Zack grumbled something about mortalities on the court, and rolled the ball back to him. He twirled it on a gloved-finger before offering a teasing, "What was the score again? I've forgotten already."

"Fourty-two to thirty, and don't rub it in." Zack shifted on the sand, eyes glued to the ball. "I can still catch up."

"It's not like we're playing a regulation game." Sephiroth murmured, taking pity on the man and serving the ball with a little less speed. The southerner was ready for it, taking his generosity and retaliating with a bump-and-spike. He meant to set it back over just to annoy the man, but somehow the ball slipped off his fingertips and ricocheted off his forehead instead. "Ow."

Zack only grinned as he rubbed his face, pointing to where the ball landed, well within bounds. "My serve, old man." Sephiroth rolled his eyes and nudged the battered toy over the sand to where his friend could scoop it up.

Watching Zack serve was a pleasure in and of itself. The southerner brought a whole new meaning to the concept of jump-and-smash. In terms of actual distance off the ground on contact, Sephiroth wouldn't have been surprised to find Zack's serve was actually higher than his own. It was also when serving that Zack proved that years of experience did count for something after all. He had an uncanny ability to apply spin with his slams, making the ball behave in not entirely predictable ways. Watching the projectile fly his way, Sephiroth backed up a little until he was able to volley it safely. Five returns later, he came up short, and it rebounded off the net instead.

Zack collapsed in the sand with a whoop. "That's Thirty-one!"

"Surrender, Major, accept your defeat gracefully." Sephiroth leaned over, bracing his hands against his knees as he shook some of the sand out of his hair. "This isn't a war you can win."

"Yeah I know. Just a game after all. S'fun."

Nudging the ball so that it rolled over and bounced off the SOLDIER's shoulder, Sephiroth silently agreed. Instead he murmured an affectionate, "Masochist. It's still your serve."

"Remind me to jump in the pond later, get some of this scuzz off." Zack pulled himself up and took his ball to the back of the court. "Don't want to drive home with sand in my shirt."

"Oh and duckweed is that much better?"

"The pond doesn't have duck weed, you saw it yourself when we got here." His friend made a long suffering face. "You're just water-prejudiced, admit it."

"It had _things_ swimming in it." Sephiroth pointed out. "Do you want to _bathe_ in water that has things living in it?"

"People have done it for centuries, I'm told." Zack countered mildly.

"Unsanitary." He made a face.

Zack simply laughed. "You are such a prissy bitch some days. No one would ever believe me if I told them, but you really are." Holding up his ball as if it was a weapon, he pointed across the court. "Prepare yourself, General."

"I'm not the one stalling." Flipping his hair over his shoulder, Sephiroth casually beckoned the man onwards.

*****