[Image Description: Sephiroth and Cloud stand together in a quiet moment. They are dressed casually, but appear locked in some sort of intense moment together. Sephiroth’s shorter hair falls loose around his face and shoulders. Cloud, significantly shorter, is reaching up to place his hand on Sephiroth’s chest. His touch is gentle and concerned, and his expression is a picture of soft worry. Sephiroth is staring down at him, fixed but not angry. He appears to be confused and startled, but not upset. If anything he has a faint look of yearning about him. As if he is seeing something he wants very badly, and dares not take. End image description.]
Which would have worked better if Sephiroth wasn’t one of the four people working together to ensure Cloud was never alone to be snatched away from them again.
Not that he had really been snatched away before.
“Hey,” Cloud’s first text had read. “Zack and I are going to catch a movie. Just want to get out of the building for a while.”
“Have fun,” Sephiroth replied. “Wish him luck with the enhanced hearing.”
“Earplugs” Cloud said, with four ear emoticons on each side of the word.
Sephiroth chuckled and thought no more of it. Until the next day, when—
“Hey,” a text again, “I’m really tired. Just heading back to Angeal’s to sleep. He’s there, so no need to come by. Sorry.”
And that was the first time the thought pulsed through him in terror.
