#thalxssas

AN EMPATHIC - BORN GUILT STEADIES ITSELF AGAINST HIS CHEST & ATOP HIS SHOULDERS . they're parting ways again . for better things , he knows , but there's still this wedge in the air's tension . he feels its strength , & he knows she feels it , too . perhaps , or certainly , more than he does . ever torn , they are . ever star - crossed . & right now , her silent entrance is more than welcome is his company .

looking to her , he has excitement for her future , but harbors nervousness in the muddled complexity that is his own . his self - worth fights to find himself redeemable from a path past - followed , but he'd never allow self - pity to imprison him from his goals . other people are rooting for him , kairi is rooting for him , & he'll not let her down again .

he re - positions himself , seated , & leaning upon a rock as he watches the waterfall cascade into a pool of oblivion , & he snaps the self - fulfilled rigidity of the air in half , ❛ we've got big things ahead . you nervous ? ❜

⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻

❛ try it . . . more like this , i guess ? ❜

& WITH A WAVE OF HIS SWORD , HE SLASHES THE AIR IN A STREAM OF LUMINESCENT BLUE . he glances toward her , as if expecting her to follow suit . her blade is golden & blue & decorated with petals . he figures it kinda suits her .

here is the truth : it hurts to be apart from her / they were meant to be one in the same, parts of a whole, or that is what she thought at least. was she wrong? others seem to think so, others seem to feel so and there are two bodies ( one true and the other fake ) and one heart and one ——— something. she remembers kairi’s heart faintly, vaguely, flashes of recollection. it was warm / it felt like drowning / it felt like she was lost to sea. as she was meant to be.

so she watches her train from a distance. a near distance, a far distance, aren’t all distances the same, in the end? they are still apart, and naminé watches her with arms looped around her knees, tucked away into shadow. ❝ you’re pushing yourself too hard, ❞ quiet, so—called gentle, carrying all the same. a passive gaze and unstressed brows and something so simple as : you’re working too hard. hours and hours and / hours. days, perhaps. is all time the same? she wonders how tired kairi’s arms are / once she would have known.

“Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, dear,” Claudia greets as Kairi shuts the door to her office behind her.  Her smile is gentle, almost lazy as she rests her chin in her palm and gestures for the other to sit.  “I hope I didn’t frighten you when I asked for a meeting in private.  I promise that everything is fine, I just wished to ascertain that you feel safe here.”

          A swivel of eyeballs, silence choking out the words that want to come out when he stared down at her face--searching for perhaps a sign that what he heard was in his head. No such luck, it seems, reality is as sharp as it ever was as she stood there in front of him. Her eyes drown out the world around him with their ocean blue tenderness; an ache to join the depths, when he stares too long. He can feel warmth blooming across his cheeks, colored in pink as his mind finally starts back up, feeling thoughts flying out of the machine. The woman had shut the whole thing down with her question that could shatter him in two.

     'Well? Don't just stand there with your mouth open.'

          ❝I... uh...❞ There's not even a slim chance at saying something remotely coherent, brain still picking up speed to return him to a less vegetative state. But the thing that is about to burst out of his chest is still working--and it gives an outcry of pain. He looks at her smile with those sparkling teal eyes, the things of a heartbreaker, and he feels himself become calmer. It stirs in him, the desire to hold those lips against his--to taste her whole and find out what spring feels like against his skin. If the flavor of sea-salt and strawberries can sate him for this lifetime or turn him to ash. And then he would kiss her a second time, tears falling freely down his cheeks, fixated in the joy of this normalcy that touching her has become.

     'But you can't. Can you? That's all just... a fantasy.'

     'She deserves fresh air and sunshine. Not decomposition and the bottom of the sea-floor.'

          ❝...Sure, princess.❞ He wears it so smoothly, like an old mask clicking into place. The silvery tone, the soft yet wicked simper, he was even beginning to fix his posture. But there was no need to over-do it. With his soul emptied, he bends down to take up her hand in his, smoothing fingers over her long delicate ones. Even her palm and pads of her fingers were touched with a rosy hue as he held it, closing his eyes as he pressed his lips to the back of her hand. A small, simple and lying gesture. Little embers of wanton still flickered within him, causing his lips to linger against her skin, eyebrows furrowing when the scent of her perfume hits him. It danced from her wrist, peeling out to under his nose to keep him there, entranced.

     'Even this hurt you. This pseudo romantics. What the hell is wrong with you?'

     ‘Don't answer. You know. You're--'

          ❝--in love with that perfume, Kairi. It's really nice.❞ Everything in his heart breaks for yet another time in his life, releasing her hand as he stretches to his full height. No hint of this is present on his face, but then he always was good at hiding the worst from her. The smile on his face felt every urge to crumble into sorrow, so it is miraculous when he tears it open into a healthy grin. He offers her a small wave of his hand, walking away with a wet twinkle in his eye. ❝Hope that was good enough for you. They aren't free, ya' know! Catch you later, your majesty.❞ The island breeze felt soured against his skin, though it does him the courtesy of wiping away his tears when he turns away completely. As for his heart--he would just do what he did the last time it broke.

⟨   prompt◞    ❛  @thalxssas​​     ft  .   @xcrisiscore​​  .   ⟩ “ If I don’t know any better I’d say you’re blushing. “ [ she knows you like him cloud- ]

a cough into his fist as eyes skillfully avoid kairi’s ;          she’s much shorter than him ,   it was easy honestly .          he’s still looking as far away from her as he can though .           ❛   not blushing .   ❜          impossible .          cloud strife does not blush .          not for the past couple years at least ,   he was so sure he’d simply grown out of a childhood habit .

zack had been back in the realm of light for ,   oh ...   a week now ,   maybe a little more ,   and   ———    well ,   cloud was having trouble adjusting .          he’d forgotten what the sun looked like ,   had missed its radiating warmth so much he’d stared right at it when it’d finally awoken from years of endless night ,   only to be rudely reminded that gawking directly into the sun typically had its consequences .

cloud found himself floored more times that week than he could count ;          moments where all he could do was stare ,   dumbfounded ,   and make a fool of himself in front of the boy ...   no ,   man now ,   that stood ahead of him .          moments where he couldn’t even look at him ,   couldn’t find the words to say ,   so he’d let zack take the wheel and listen to the way his mind moved a mile a minute and it felt like returning home .

he was pretty sure denzel thought zack was some kind of ethereal force with just how un   ―   cloud cloud became in his presence .

and he was more than just sure that the rest of them    ———   kairi ,   sora ,   leon and the others   ———   found great amusement at finally seeing cloud’s walls break beyond belief ,   as if they’d been paper thin from the start .          there was triumph and smugness and teasing          (   and love too ,   always love ,   but cloud had full intention of making this as dramatic as he could and as far as his inner monologue was concerned there were definitely no redeeming qualities here that possessed cloud to let them get away with it all .   )

turns out having the light of your life ,   figuratively and literally ,   return back into your life was a bigger deal than cloud was prepared for ,   and he was just so ...   so ...

happy .

there’s a smile at his lips and the blond can’t help it ,   it’s small and it’s humble but it pulls at his muscles nonetheless ,   and suddenly all the fight is leaving his veins like an uninflating balloon .          quietly ,   cloud adds to his prior statement .