[he feels that there's more to that explanation, but it's something from the nothing he had received for years. but there's relief that swoops over him when sephiroth reassures him that he had not been the reason for this to happen in the first place, and if there's one thing about sephiroth, it's that he'd never hide behind a lie.]

[omitting the truth is one thing, yes, but a lie? unlikely to happen.]

[cloud meets his eyes, a stubborn kind of defiance in his own, always present.]

No, it won't, but you didn't have to run away by yourself. I could have helped. I would have understood— [the question about his happiness cuts him short, and cloud takes his hand back. he looks back inside to the party, at how rufus looks so oblivious over the fact that cloud is not there to celebrate with him. so, with an easy shrug,] I like this dog.

[then back to sephiroth.]

What would you do if I was happy with him? Am I anything to you anymore?

[this family crisis that sephiroth is talking about, cloud wants to know more, but he needs to earn it, it feels.]