#krvla

"Father. Could I ask you something?"

Lucius is halfway through a bottle of wine. His tolerance for it has risen a great deal within the past year, proportional to his tolerance for the Cruciatus Curse. The residual side effects of the events after his prison breakout send anything from pins-and-needles to bright pain through his body. Thankfully, the Dark Lord allowed his smashed fingers and bruised face to be healed.

Lucius flicks his eyes up to Draco. He will be going off to school soon, and Lucius can find nothing in him but relief for it. Away from here, Draco will still not be safe, but he will be away from the Death Eaters infesting their house and any rage the Dark Lord sees fit to turn on Lucius and his family.

Sephiroth was... normal. Just another person with feelings, even if he seemed to not show them as often as he probably should. But that was something that Zack would be happy to fix, taking their pseudo introduction as carte blanche to annoy the man at every turn.

“ Seeeph...! “ He was nearly singing as he wandered into the other’s space, careful not to touch unless he was given permission to do so. “ Do you have a moment to hear from our lord and savior, some fried cockatrice? “

Rufus's blood freezes.

The graphic depictions don't bother him. To be perfectly honest, he's seen worse, and written better than this. He’d never cared before.

The accusations had also never been true before.

This time, he will be the one lying when he denies having ever looked twice at Reno. And it will hurt, because Reno deserves to be looked at. And kissed. And wrecked in a manner similar to what was written but with infinitely more tenderness. Because Reno had found a way to soften all his edges and make him weak. And probably get them both killed for it.

Tseng. Tseng already knew about his feelings for Reno. He probably already knew about this tabloid, too. He pulled out his PHS. It would be fine. This was just like every other story written to drum up drama. No need to change the script now.