#zenesis

After yet another miserable yet mandatory movie date, Sephiroth decided he had to take some sort of revenge on Genesis. Sephiroth was quite content to avoid dating altogether, and had better things to do than waste time “getting to know” people who inevitably had little in common with him. Yet when he had admitted to his roommate a few months ago that yes, he thought he might like to date a man more than he would a woman, the redhead had seemed to take that as an invitation, nay, a challenge, to set him up with every remotely attractive man he knew in an effort to match-make. The problem being, that while he certainly considered Genesis a friend by now, their tastes ran entirely different. This gentleman, though certainly handsome, had been been a total snob about the choice of movie; it had been a period piece, and he had not only nitpicked the set dressing, but done so in a way so as to brag about how he could have done it better and he knew more about historical art and architecture than the filmmakers had. Sephiroth found it incredibly tiresome, and also incredibly transparent. While he could forgive Genesis for his intellectual pride, and could just see these two men having a jolly time criticizing things together, Sephiroth had his limits as to how much condescending braggery he could take from someone he didn’t even know. 

It was getting to be quite irritating, really, to be constantly set up with “gorgeous, brilliant” men who were...usually at least the first thing, granted, but mostly just annoying. Genesis had some redeeming qualities as a friend and roommate -- a quick wit, a sympathetic shoulder, excellent cooking skills and a fastidious sense of cleanliness and orderliness that matched well with Sephiroth’s own -- but his friends were just not the kind of people Sephiroth enjoyed being around. Which was hard to get Genesis to comprehend, without insulting his taste in people.

But as much as he enjoyed his interactions with Mr. Hewley, Sephiroth was sick of wasting money on flowers for people he inevitably never wanted to see again. Something had to be done. Something subtle, that didn’t require outright telling Genesis “the people you keep picking don’t match my personality”. Something that...that taught him a lesson, about trying to fix people up without consulting them on what they wanted in a romantic partner, and without regard to their own preferences. Hm. Maybe, Sephiroth thought, he should get a taste of his own medicine. **** It took a few days to find the perfect person to inflict on his busybody roommate. After all, he had to be careful in his selection. It had to be someone who would be utterly incompatible with the man, yes. But for The Plan to work, it also had to be someone who wouldn’t seem incompatible -- or at least, who would seem like he might plausibly be an enjoyable date -- at first blush. Which meant that they had to have traits or -- especially -- tastes, that Genesis would find unpleasant or obnoxious...but also be charming, handsome, and single. A surprisingly tall order, it seemed, as the last three elements were already rare enough in combination. Add in “must be open to dating a man” and you were already narrowing it down quite a bit. However, that following Monday, the perfect candidate presented himself. Very vocally. “Delivery for a Silver-Haired Stud!” came the cheerful, loud voice of the office Mail Boy, who was grinning at him cheekily from the doorway. Zack Fair. Zack Fair, he realized, was fucking perfect for The Plan.

Physically attractive? Oh yes. Sephiroth would totally tap that, as would any of the ladies in the office and more men than would admit it; he had the kind of pretty, perfectly symmetrical face that seems impossible until you see it up close and then is impossible to look away from. Glossy black hair that stuck up all over in playful spikes that should have seemed either messy, or childish, or possibly just ridiculous, but somehow weren’t any of those things. A pair of striking eyes that looked purple in some lights, blue in others, but beautiful in all of them.  And probably the single most aesthetically pleasing cheek scar Sephiroth had ever seen in his life -- a tiny, faint, offset x-shape that Zack had given at least three different increasingly wild explanations for.

Handsome? Check.

As for charisma, Zack Fair had it in spades; hell, probably had it in hearts, clubs and diamonds, too. The million-watt grin he was shooting at him right then could light up a room, and as could probably be guessed from his greeting, he had a tendency to flirt with anything that moved...yet somehow, he never came across as actually creepy about it. Charming? Check.

And as for single… Well, Zack never shut up. About anything, really. So Sephiroth was well aware that the young man was constantly crushing on one person or another...but also not currently seeing anyone. And also well aware that Zack was, in his own words, “Panromantic -- emphasis on both parts!” Though Genesis had a strong preference of his own, Sephiroth knew he was not bi-phobic in the least; in fact, Sephiroth had been grateful that Genesis had been every bit as appalled as he had been, when one of the dates he’d set him up with had been rather judgmental about Sephiroth’s own open-mindedness in terms of partners. So he knew that Zack not being purely homosexual wouldn’t make him unattractive to Genesis at all, and he was an orientation that might lead him to accept a date with Genesis in the first --

“Hell-llooo? Earth to Seph,” the brunet said perkily, waving his hand in front of Sephiroth’s face and very nearly destroying his train of thought.   Seph. He always did that, too: gave cutesy nicknames to people. Genesis hated having his name shortened (owing to the fact it sounded like it was short for “Jennifer”), but Zack would inevitably do it, like he did with anyone else who had a name over two syllables long.

Hmm. And then there were Zack’s tastes, and certain tiny little habits... “Sorry,” Sephiroth said. “I was lost in thought. Did you get to see that movie you wanted to over the weekend?” 

“Yeah!” Zack said, brightening again. “It was awesome!” Genesis hated hearing words used “incorrectly”...like awesome used to describe anything other than the actual awe-inspiring. “What was it called again?”

“Oh, it was that new Mad Max movie!” he gushed. “Fury Road ! You should see it some time, it’s really great! Like, I’m not even kidding, I forgot I was even watching a movie, they really get you into the action! You really feel like you’re actually there -- you know the stunts were all done with real people and real props and vehicles!? Like, practically no CGI at all! It’s so cool !” A fan of car crash filled action movies. Who used words like “awesome” in the slang sense, liked to shorten names, and was a complete fucking chatterbox. 

Plus, Sephiroth had seen him doing actual squats during his breaks. A jock, to boot! And Sephiroth knew darn well that half the reason that Zack was working there, was because he needed a job to pay bills while he was in college...for a two-year General Associate’s degree that he’d been pursuing for at least four years. He had never settled on a major, at one point had said he “might never” be able to do so and might “settle” for an AA, and was only doing it at all because his parents had insisted he go to college and it was an excuse to get out of his “backwater” hometown.

Compare that to Genesis, who had done Advanced Placement and dual-enrollment classes in high school and earned the bulk of his basic college credit requirements before he’d even turned 18, then successfully pursued a Master’s and was currently working on his PhD...yeah, he couldn’t see their lifestyles or ambitions matching up at all.

But the man was, as Genesis would surely put it, “gorgeous”. And charming. And single. And swung that way.