[Voice]

[herobydefault]

Tifa's gone home. Sorry to her friends here.


Filtered to KH!Cloud/50% Unhackable]

[A muffled attempt to start a sentence, and then he just forgets it and there's a dull sound as he switches to Private instead.]


[Private/50% Unhackable]

Can't even give us a minute to say goodbye, can you.

Comments

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

[The laugh makes Cloud frown a little bit, but he doesn't speak otherwise. It should be pretty obvious that he's still paying attention, though.]

[compos-mentis.livejournal.com]

I was trained. I mean, there were a lot of us; but the only constant was Lord Sor'jin. I killed most of the others myself in various matches or tests or if he told me too.

Well, I was trained and I was broken in, I suppose is a better way to put it.

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

[Cloud's honestly surprised she's offering up so much information, but thankfully the alcohol is just present enough for him to not really care of the circumstances, and he instead just hums a "keep going" sound.]

[compos-mentis.livejournal.com]

[Heh. She's going to snort there and then...] Of course, where there's one special person, there's a more special one.

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

[Cloud can see where this is going, unfortunately. He purses his lips.]

[compos-mentis.livejournal.com]

Telepaths among my people are really rare. Sin'rei was one of them; and her story is probably really similar to mine, all things considered. She became Sor'jin's new favorite pet.

[...A pause]

You know, you probably don't know what it is to love someone because it's all you have.

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

...probably not.

[compos-mentis.livejournal.com]

In retrospect, your people would call what I was raised with abuse, probably. Rape too. [And that same laugh there, but she just seems to do a laying down shrug]

Anyway, there's more to that tale, but that's for another time.

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

[Cloud has no idea what to say to that. "I'm sorry," and "oh my God" and "holy fucking shit" and everything else just seems really shallow in the face of that. He's not even sure if he should try offering comfort of any kind; would she snap at it, hate him for it? Think he's looking down on her?

Is he pitying her?

He watches her face, torn, and- no. She's older, she knows better, and just like with Jenova he's very, very small in comparison. But she's not like Jenova, and...

He reaches over and...has no idea what he's doing. Rests the backs of his fingers against her cheek. As if his hand happened to be there and her cheek happened to be there and it really was only coincidence.]

[compos-mentis.livejournal.com]

[She pauses there. It's such an expected movement, really. It's a movement that Fergan would do; all of his horrendous timing and thinking she needed support. All of his thoughts about her own fragility. It's not like she would cry: Nina can't cry. What is there even left for her to cry for?

...But this is also welcome, in a way. This makes her smile, just a little bit. In a way not entirely unlike that smile she gave when she was pretending to be his mate.

She reaches out the arm she has left there, and she's going to lightly take his hand and peel it from her cheek though, after a little bit of that. But there... there she's hesitant to release that hand. She hates talking about Sor'jin, after all]

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

[If she'd brushed him off, Cloud probably would have just headed right inside to avoid the inevitably uncomfortable atmosphere soon to follow. He may not be as hopeless as he was before, but intense and intimate social situations were still a world of unknown interaction for him and he just wasn't sure sometimes.

So when she tugged his hand away, he was ready to go. But when she didn't let go...he stayed. He doesn't trust his dumb, stupid brain to come up with anything profound though, so he just looks back to the sky for a minute before closing his eyes and maybe holding her hand a little bit, too.]

[compos-mentis.livejournal.com]

[...She lingers there for some time. It's a welcome feeling but at the same time it's fleeting. She knows it is fleeting; just as fleeting as any moment with Fergan. As fleeting as he time with Gi. As fleeting as her months with Sephiroth. These moments which won't be kept like that.]

You know, there's a position in my team for someone like you.

[And with that, she takes the hand off]

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

I think I recall you saying something about me being irritating and so on. [Cloud folds his hands back atop his stomach, but doesn't open his eyes.]

[compos-mentis.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of irritating people there. Just wait 'til you meet Fergan.

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

[He looks over at her this time, falling silent. Then he climbs to his feet and cracks his back, pulling his arm back to stretch his shoulder.] I think you should save that slot for someone who needs it more than I do.

[compos-mentis.livejournal.com]

It's a job, not a charity.

[Still, that makes her laugh there. A real laugh. Because he's right: Team 4 is a bunch of misfits. Team 4 is the final salvation of the vast majority of them; outcasts Nina collected from across the stars]

Still, you're probably right.

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

[Cloud already has a job anyway. Not to mention that the quiet moment from a few minutes ago has broken, and it's starting to get a little uncomfortable for him to stick around.] ...I'm heading back down. Thanks for listening.