[Cloud’s fist to his middle is so lackluster that it doesn’t even knock a fraction of air out of his lungs, and Sephiroth finds himself catching that wrist with his hand, holding on.

He isn’t good at this. He never was — emotions were always so hard to untangle for him, and so he kept them wound up inside, partitioned behind a cold demeanor and detached interest. Cloud had managed to sneak past those defenses, but perhaps he made Sephiroth’s emotional core all the more difficult to traverse, regardless of how welcome his presence was all those years ago.

Now, he finds it’s just as impossible to traverse as before. He’s had years to figure out what to say, but spent no time weaving the words together into something coherent.]

No. It had nothing to do with you, not in the way you’re thinking.

[Cloud’s offense was that he had been close, when his life felt like it had been upended, when everything was perceived as wrong and false. When he needed to detach himself from it all and just get away.]

I needed time after everything I had learned about my family was a lie. I felt like my whole world was false, everything I knew thrown into chaos. I couldn’t stay with Shinra. I couldn’t stay in this city.

[His eyes fix on Cloud’s face.]

Nothing I say will fix what’s already happened. ...Are you happy with him?

[With Rufus.]