Author's Notes: Yes, this is Hojo. Yes, this is strange. I like Hojo, and not just in the 'OMG he totally rapes the f out of Vincent' way. He's human. Villains just aren't scary if they aren't human. Thus, this fic. Trying to humanize Hojo, one bit at a time. (This ficlet was done for the Livejournal makoreactor community. Look it over- it's neat!)
"Sephiroth. Come here for a moment."
The boy paused in the sand, bare toes wrigging in the heat. "Yes, sir?" he asked, mako eyes turned away shyly.
"Sit with me for a moment."
Midday in Costa del Sol was hot and humid and Hojo hated it with a passion. He was camped out under an oversized beach umbrella, overdressed in a flowery-print shirt, khaki shorts, and a pair of sandals; everyone else in President Shin-Ra's little entourage was down to their swim trunks. Vacation time- bah. Hojo wanted to vomit. Vacation time meant being stuck with a bunch of uneducated, overly obnoxious boors like Scarlet and Heidegger for a week, instead of being cozily tucked away in his laboratory. It meant having to kiss up to the President every ten seconds. Worst of all, it meant he had to try and be sociable for a change.
There was one bright spot to the day, and it was walking towards him, eyes cast longingly back at the ocean. Sephiroth gingerly sat down on the edge of Hojo's patio chair, looking at him nervously. He was gangly, even for a seven-year-old, and rail-thin; his fair skin was beginning to turn pink from the sun's rays. "Can I help you, professor?"
"Gast didn't bother to put any sunblock on you, did he?" Hojo sat up, pushing his glasses back up on his nose, and took the boy's arm. He flinched for a second, and then was still as strangely gentle hands brushed over the glowing skin. The faint needle tracks left from the mako infusions could still be seen on the inside of his elbow. "No, no he didn't. With skin as fair as yours . . . ."
"Sir?" Sephiroth swung his feet idly, toes scuffing arcs in the sand. "Professor Gast said that it would be good for me to develop a tan. That it was healthy."
"Bah. He would." His eyes scanned the beach until they alighted upon the aforementioned man standing in the surf, shoulders crimson and peeling. He was talking with President Shin-Ra- about Sephiroth, no doubt- and he was hard-pressed not to scowl disapprovingly. "You won't tan easily, however. Your skin is too fair for it. See?" He touched the boy's reddened shoulders; he flinched. "You're already developing a sunburn."
Sephiroth's brow knitted into a worried frown. "Is that bad? It kinda hurts."
Hojo leaned over the edge of the chair and pulled a small bottle out of his suitcase. "Hmm. Sun exposure is healthy, this is true-" He squirted out a small bit of white lotion and began rubbing it into the boy's arm with his long, bony fingers. "-but, if prolonged, it can cause a sunburn. The ultraviolet rays of the sun can damage the skin. If you're anything like m- like your father, you'll peel in about a week."
The young boy's eyes finally looked up at him curiously, more relaxed now that he knew Hojo wasn't going to inject him with anything. "Peel?"
He squirted out more sunscreen and began to rub it gently into the boy's back, trying to be careful around his reddened shoulders. "When the outer layers of your skin are burned by the sun, they will peel off. Like, say, the skin of an onion."
"Gross!" Sephiroth made a face, shaking his head; Hojo bit back a tiny chuckle. "It- it's not going to get any worse, is it? I don't wanna be an onion."
Hojo didn't reply straight away; he turned the boy's face up to meet his gaze. Perfect mako-green eyes glowed within those angelic features, and this time he allowed himself a small smile. Dabbing a bit of sunscreen on his thumbs, he delicately put two smudges of the cream over the boy's cheeks, and one final swipe down the end of his nose. "Now it won't," he finally said.
The two stared at each other for a moment before the excited shouting of a group of children echoed down the beach. He leaned back in his chair, seemingly dismissing the boy. "Run along and play now, Sephiroth. You'll be fine."
"Yes, sir!" he leapt to his feet and began to dash down the sands before pausing and turning back. "Professor Hojo? Thank you."
He waved a hand lazily, watching him race into the water where Shin-Ra's young son Rufus was splashing merrily along. "You amaze me sometimes, Hojo," a deep voice said at his shoulder.
"You should have known better than to let him out without basic protection, Gast," he grumbled out, picking up a book and beginning to leaf through it. "He's not going to be able to lay on his back for a week now. I'll have to postpone his mako treatments."
"Hmph." Gast grinned broadly, peering at his one-time colleague. "If I didn't know better, Hojo, I'd say you actually cared about him."
That earned him a spiteful glare from the lanky scientist. He laughed again and strolled back towards the beach, where the two boys were calling him out. "But I know better."
Hojo looked over the edge of his book- at Sephiroth's gleeful face, the water arcing around him, the sunlight glinting off his long silver hair- and lifted it back to eye level. Tucked inside was an old photograph of an infant, drooling in his sleep, and a large hand tucking a blanket around him. "Proves just how much you really do know, Gast," he murmured, flipping the page. "Proves how much you really know . . . ."