Re: Kingdom Hearts II, Sephiroth/Cloud/Sora, Arena [2/2]
"The last time I saw you, you were burning half the town," Cloud growled, the fingers of his brass-covered hand clacking together in agitation. "That doesn't make for a terribly friendly reunion."
"I'm not burning things now, though." The voice- probably male- sounded perfectly reasonable, but there was a small undercurrent that wasn't quite right, and Cloud was so tense. Sora was really, really glad it was the regular hand holding onto him.
"Stone's harder to burn. Besides, wouldn't that impress people, randomly setting fire to the other competitors." The brass hand settled, mostly, and Sora figured Cloud was probably glaring at the other person. "What do you want, Sephiroth?"
"I wanted to see you again, Cloud. Was that too much to ask?" There might've been something regretful in Sephiroth's tone of voice, but Cloud was squeezing way too hard for Sora to quite focus.
"Fine. Done." Cloud waved his free hand at Sephiroth irritably. "Don't you have somewhere else to be, now?"
"But you haven't introduced me to your companion here," Sephiroth said, and- bent over, or something. He was breathing on the back of Sora's neck, whatever else he was doing, and that made the hairs there rise and his muscles stiffen, unsure as to how to respond, like this- whether Cloud would let go enough that he could turn around and hit the guy if he came any closer, because in all the weird stuff that'd been going on this hadn't featured in any part of it. It was kind of like he was smelling Sora, and that was just-
"Sephiroth," Cloud said, and his grip on Sora loosened enough for Sora to turn and see that Cloud was shoving Sephiroth away- though possibly Sephiroth was going more because of the pointed tips of the claws on that hand. It was weird seeing someone as tall as that and looking kind of a lot like Riku blinking at Cloud, but not as weird as- whatever Sephiroth had been doing. "No."
Sephiroth looked at them for a moment, head half-tilted, then waved a hand. "Perhaps I will see you again later," he said, and, turning on his heel, vanished in a burst of black feathers.
"And that's why you should always have someone with you," Cloud concluded, like the conversation had never been interrupted.