Cloud, having grown fond of gravity, does the bouncing and rolling for both of them. His gray body tumbles over broken rock and intermittent asphalt. It hurts. But he's gotten used to taking falls and even in wolf form he instinctively absorbs the blows. Paws dig in to stop the tumble. And all the time he's wondering where the younger him has gone. Did he absorb him back into himself? Was it that easy? Shouldn't he have noticed if he did?
Claws slow and then have his body stopping and he lays there for a minute, blinking up blankly at the sky.
As dreams go, this one sucks.
It sucks even more when he finally turns his head and sees - shit. Sees himself floating away. Or - swimming away? It's hard to tell but the look on that young face -
Right about now is when Cloud would usually let the kid go. If that really is a piece of him escaping into nothing, how badly does he really need it? It sure seems determined to go and he doesn't feel anything important missing inside himself. Nothing from his mostly miserable cadet days seems worth all this trouble to hold on to. It feels a bit like giving up. He doesn't like that. But he's also annoyed. Whatever that bit is, it's stupid determined to get away. It's not his nature to force things on people, even rebellious bits of himself. In the end though it's both the fear that if he lets one piece get away others will start to drift off as well and the floating. Damn, the floating. He's only floated twice and both times it was indicative of Very Bad Things. Sure the kid doesn't seem to have the Black Materia on him but if he ends up anchored overhead writhing, Cloud suspects he's going to be in big trouble. With a grunt, he pulls himself back to his feet and manages to make it over to underneath where the younger him is doing a good swimming imitation. If he has to jump up there to knock himself back down it's going to hurt. Instead, he lifts his head, plops his butt down to sit, fixing mako bright eyes on that escaping piece of self and very softly says:
no subject
Claws slow and then have his body stopping and he lays there for a minute, blinking up blankly at the sky.
As dreams go, this one sucks.
It sucks even more when he finally turns his head and sees - shit. Sees himself floating away. Or - swimming away? It's hard to tell but the look on that young face -
Right about now is when Cloud would usually let the kid go. If that really is a piece of him escaping into nothing, how badly does he really need it? It sure seems determined to go and he doesn't feel anything important missing inside himself. Nothing from his mostly miserable cadet days seems worth all this trouble to hold on to. It feels a bit like giving up. He doesn't like that. But he's also annoyed. Whatever that bit is, it's stupid determined to get away. It's not his nature to force things on people, even rebellious bits of himself. In the end though it's both the fear that if he lets one piece get away others will start to drift off as well and the floating. Damn, the floating. He's only floated twice and both times it was indicative of Very Bad Things. Sure the kid doesn't seem to have the Black Materia on him but if he ends up anchored overhead writhing, Cloud suspects he's going to be in big trouble. With a grunt, he pulls himself back to his feet and manages to make it over to underneath where the younger him is doing a good swimming imitation. If he has to jump up there to knock himself back down it's going to hurt. Instead, he lifts his head, plops his butt down to sit, fixing mako bright eyes on that escaping piece of self and very softly says:
"Woof."