Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Paint The Town ❯ The Fine Touch ( Chapter 9 )

Paint the Town

 

The Fine Touch

 

Zachary was mollified by being treated to pie. He was just as bad as Sephiroth when it came to eating. Together they went through almost the entire menu's selection, harrying the waitress and ordering slice after slice until the formerly-bottomless pits of their soldier stomachs could not handle anymore. They stepped out into the chilly air, full, satisfied and warmed by the obscene amounts of pie lying in their bellies.

 

“Oh, that's good,” Zack groaned. “That's the kind of thing you dream about when you're stuck in a foxhole with sparks flying over your head and nothing to chow down on but army rations.” Sephiroth nodded. This, he understood. Zack grinned and swung an arm across his General's shoulders. “Now how about those final finishing touches we were discussing?”

 

Mellowed by the massive servings of glazed crust and whipped cream, Sephiroth only nodded. He did not see a real need for further decorating, but choosing items all by himself was becoming more interesting. Their first stop was a lighting store.

 

Choosing got easier with practice. He found lamps that he liked well enough. They had the dimmer switch Zachary recommended, though Sephiroth could hardly see himself having a use for the thing. He made arrangements at a studio to have his medals framed for display. He even picked up a large mirror to have mounted on the wall, just because he felt like it. Zachary snickered at the choice, but refused to explain.

 

In the course of their walking, they found themselves at an antique store. Sephiroth stepped inside on an impulse, no longer questioning his own moves.

 

Zack traipsed in merrily behind him. “Antiques? Now you're just turning into somebody's little, old grandma, Sephiroth. What are you looking for in here?”

 

Sephiroth shrugged. “I'm not sure,” he admitted. “I was just going to look around. Maybe something will catch my eye.” Nothing did immediately though.

 

The store was a study in clutter. Old musical instruments shared space with dusty, leather-bound books and bone china teacups. The furniture was overly elaborate and every spare surface was covered with vases and figurines. The walls were covered in old pictures, some of them reproductions of famous works, others just old theater posters. Sephiroth flitted through the mess with ease, pausing now and then to examine some little bit of bric-a-brac.

 

“Picky, picky, Sephiroth. You sure moved up from taking the first thing you set your eyes on really quick,” Zack complained, studying an old-fashioned wash jug. “Maybe you should just get a velvet poster.” Sephiroth's quiet stillness made him look up.

 

The General was staring at a collection of framed photographic prints leaning against the far wall. He took a breath and marched towards it, leaving Zack scrambling to catch up. Sephiroth stopped a few feet away and stared.

 

The scenery was familiar. Sephiroth had seen Cosmo Canyon often enough but for some reason, these pictures rang something deeper in him. He felt as if he had seen this very same spot, with the same shadows, a long time ago.

 

“Evan Crane, eh?” Zack peered at the name below. “I remember his stuff. Old nature photographer way back in the day. You know he actually passed through Gongaga when I was a kid. He wanted to shoot the birds. With a camera, I mean.”

 

“Nature photographer?” For some reason that seemed familiar. Sephiroth felt a glimmer of tactile memory slip past him, thick, glossy pages in his small hands.

 

“Yeah, he did work for a lot of science and nature books. My dad had one of his. All about plants and boring as heck, but the pictures were nice.” Zack kept talking but Sephiroth did not hear him. He only saw the pictures before him and the way the short fly-away strands of his bangs waved back and forth with his breath.

 

“Personally I never saw what was all that interesting about shrubbery, but I guess it's different for people who've spent all their lives in the city without a bit of green to look at and have I ever told you how freaky you get when you find what you want?” Zack finally stopped speaking, even if it was only to wait for an answer. Sephiroth took a while to catch on.

 

“What?”

 

“You get all still and quiet and you just keep staring, like there's nothing else at all in the world. Do you even realize you're doing that?”

 

Sephiroth considered it. He had not been aware really. All he knew was that the instant he found something he actually liked, when the power of choice had been his own, if felt good. He could not blame himself for wanting to prolong that breathless rush. “I'll take these.”

 

Zack snorted. “I kinda figured. Come on. Let's go find the curator or whatever you call the stiffs who run places like these.” He turned to go and bumped into a marble statue next to a roll-top desk. “Ouch! Dammit, who put this thing here? They really got to watch the placement. I mean, come on, this sucker's chest high. Somebody could get hurt!” Then he realized Sephiroth had gone quiet again. “Oh no, Sir. Statues too?” He turned to examine the thing.

 

It was a pale marble sculpture of a young nude girl. Not too young, Zack corrected himself, swallowing. The details were exquisite. Her hair flowed down over her back in intricate waves and her eyes, solid white and featureless, were turned skywards. One little hand was uplifted, as if to receive heaven's gift. She looked innocent and fragile. “Hmm, uh…” Zack scratched his head. “You know, she looks a lot like my gir-.”

 

“I'll take her!” Sephiroth marched off to complete his transactions. Zack followed him, but kept glancing back at the marble dead-ringer for Aeris. The thought of Sephiroth owning something like that gave Zachary a strange feeling in his stomach.

 

“Where are you going to put her?” he asked, all the while chanting, `Don't say bedroom, don't say bedroom,' in his head.

 

“The living room. In the corner next to the entertainment center.”

 

Zack was relieved. “What do you want a statue of a woman for, though? If it's girls you want, there are more pliable ones out there.”

 

Sephiroth's brow furrowed. “I don't want a woman, Zachary. The statue…she looks…sweet.”

 

The dark-haired man glanced back at the little statue. “Yeah, she's sweet alright.”

 

The General stopped and gave his second a funny look. “She's marble, Zachary. She can't really be sweet. She can only look that way.”

 

Zack felt the tightness in his chest ease just a little. He had never been the jealous type. He had no right to such a feeling given his own behavior. But the thought that Sephiroth was possibly…attracted to the very particular kind of girl that Aeris happened to be was enough to make him see just a little bit green. And he was scared. He in no way measured up to the Shinra General.

 

He stood quietly fidgeting while Sephiroth wrapped up the details. Zack wondered what Aeris would think if he told her that there was a statue out there that looked just like her. He wondered who the model for the thing had been. Then a sneaky little thought wandered into his head. Was that what Aeris looked like under her clothes? Going over to Sephiroth's place was going to be embarrassing for a while. He didn't think he would be able to keep from having some kind of awkward reaction to the marble girl.

 

“Zachary,” Sephiroth barked. “You're too quiet. What's going on?”

 

Zack blinked and looked around. He had been following blindly and had not realized that they were roaming the streets again. “Sorry. I got a little distracted there.”

 

Sephiroth frowned at him. “Do you need more pie?”

 

“Very funny, Sir, but the solution to all life's problems does not lie in food.” Zack waved the offer off and walked ahead, looking around to get his bearings. He did not get too far. Something across the street caught his eye.

 

Sephiroth did not notice. “So the solution to your particular problem would be what, exactly?”

 

Zack turned back to him and flashed a grin before he bolted across the street. “Sometimes, Sir, it's PUPPIES!”

 

Sephiroth was taken aback as his Second disappeared into a pet shop. He sighed. At times, dealing with Zachary was like taking care of a very large, noisy child. The General supposed it would not be proper to leave a child to get up to mischief in the midst of a bunch of defenseless, little animals. He took a breath and headed for the pet shop himself.

 

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Time: 4 hrs 36 mins.

Music: Clint Eastwood - Gorillaz

Notes: Will this shopping trip ever end? =P Soon, soon.