Out on your own (Closed)

[de_faulty_hero]

Characters: Cloud Strife (de-faulty-hero) & Kurapika (ih8spiders)
Where: Hallway of the 7th Floor
Rating: PG
Time: August 1st
Description: Cloud returns after a hard day of hunting around for Crane, and he finds Kurapika lurking around on the 7th floor searching for something. Conversation ensues.

Comments

[ih8spiders]

Kuroro had been acting really annoying lately - insufferable, even, with his jokes and his odd behavior during morning training. Kurapika could tell that he was slightly distracted, though, possibly thinking of the attacks on Sephiroth and then Rhode, but it was almost as if Kuroro was trying to be even more irritating to distract himself from his distractions. It didn't make a lick of sense, but Kurapika wouldn't put it past the man to rile him on purpose just to draw his reactions. If it wasn't on purpose, then it could simply be because he was thinking of the attacks, and just couldn't be bothered to put up a front

[de_faulty_hero]

Removing the key from the lock, he shoved open the door carelessly and returned the key to his pocket. He was about to enter when his name was called, and he paused to think if he was expecting any visitors this time in the afternoon. No, he was pretty certain that there were few that would seek him out at all, let alone at the room he hardly occupied lately.

Slowly, he turned to look down the hallway towards a familiar face, not certain he had ever seen Kurapika on the seventh floor. His eyes shifted to where Sephiroth's room was unoccupied, and he wondered if the ex-General and Kuroro were having a secret pow-wow in there.

Still, his eyes returned to looking at Kurapika, and he realized this was the first time that they had met face-to-face alone. Was this supposed to be one of those awkward introduction situations? "Kurapika," he finally acknowledged for a lack of anything to say. "If you're looking to Kuroro, I don't know where he is. And Sephiroth... don't know where he is either."

[ih8spiders]

Did everyone think that he and Kuroro were attached at the hip now? It wasn't as if they spent all their waking hours together or acted like they were friends. But trying to explain would probably just make him sound defensive. Kurapika shook his head, deciding to drop the issue for now.

"I'm not looking for Kuroro. I'm--" He couldn't really say that he was looking for Sephiroth, though, when he wouldn't do it even on a good day. He eventually settled for something more general. "I was wondering how you two were doing. It didn't feel right just calling you on the PDA. Now's probably not a good time though..." he added more slowly as a closer look revealed the grime and dirt on Cloud's person.

[de_faulty_hero]

He wasn't? Cloud offered Kurapika a skeptical look before shrugging his shoulders. There was no reason for the kid to lie to him, he supposed, but it seemed odd to see Kuroro and Kurapika not together. All of his encounters in a face-to-face setting had always had the two working or at least traveling together.

"Us two?" He tilted his head to the side to consider the question before it clicked. Like he though Kurapika wandered with Kuroro, the opposite was true of he and Sephiroth. "I didn't get attacked, so I'm just dandy," he replied tiredly. "Sephiroth... who knows sometimes." He shrugged his shoulders and gestured to his apartment. "Come in, if you want. I don't stay here much lately... so it should still be clean."

Now he had to work on his hospitality skills.

[ih8spiders]

Kurapika wasn't used to imposing himself on other people like this, although refusing would close the line of communication that Cloud had offered him, so he only hesitated for the briefest moment before walking past the other blond and into his apartment. He didn't make himself comfortable like what Kuroro always did, though, and respectfully waited near the door at first.

"So Sephiroth is all right?" It felt odd for him to be asking, but he was curious about the man's reaction to being attacked. "I mean, when you said that you don't know where he is, I assume that he's still running around outside looking for Crane."

[de_faulty_hero]

He stood silent as Kurapika walked into his apartment before following behind the other. He kicked the door closed lazily, and he unstrapped the nailbat from his back so that he could replace it back in the closet. "Have a seat or get something to drink if you want it," he said as he walked to the bathroom to at least wash his face from all the grime.

"He's taking it as well as anyone could," he reported simply. He glanced to where Kurapika was and shrugging his shoulders in a non-chalant way. "He vowed revenge, so that's what he spends his time doing. We haven't talked much in the last few days." Actually, nothing at all. "I guess that means I'm free of being hounded for training for awhile."

[ih8spiders]

While Cloud went to wash his face, Kurapika walked the short distance to the couch and gingerly sat down on one side. "I'm all right, thanks," he said in reply to the blond's offer for a drink. He listened quietly to Cloud's report on Sephiroth's activities and tried to match it with what he knew of Kuroro's movements.

Although if Sephiroth was already up and about, then the urgency of Kuroro's warning could probably be cut in half. At least, in Sephiroth's case there didn't seem to be any lasting physical or psychological damage from whatever Crane did to him.

Kurapika's lips twitched at the last bit - if only he were as lucky. He focused on what Cloud said before that, though. "I was under the impression that the... fear gas Crane uses on his victims is quite nasty."

[de_faulty_hero]

He quickly washed his face and hands, removing some of the sand and dust that had managed to adhere to his skin. He sighed as he rubbed the rest of his bare skin down with a towel before dropping it to hang over the side of the sink. He was feeling a little more human, he supposed.

Walking from the bathroom, he padded across the room and simply seat himself on the floor. The discomfort would keep him from having his thoughts wander inappropriately. "I wouldn't know," he murmured as a reply. "Fear is a powerful tool to control someone by, but Sephiroth doesn't talk about it."

He regarded Kurapika silently for a moment. "Are you still a stalker victim?"

B| LJ notifs aren't working again.

[ih8spiders]

Well now. He'd been hesitant about bringing the topic up on his own--he couldn't really consider himself and Cloud close, at least, not familiar enough that he'd feel comfortable bothering the other blond about his experiences, but he wouldn't mind taking the chance to talk if it showed up in front of him.

"I might have to stop thinking in those terms soon," Kurapika admitted awkwardly by way of an answer. "We've been here for a month and a half and Kuroro hasn't done anything like what he used to do in our world." He paused and returned Cloud's regard. "How do you handle it? You don't seem to have anything against working with Sephiroth."

I see that too... they are extremely delayed :/

[de_faulty_hero]

Oh, now that was an interesting choice of wording, and Cloud found himself relaxing a little more. There were few that he had ever met who shared at least a little of the same experiences that he had with Sephiroth. They had actually met by chance on a random note he had left about stalkers, yet... they had never formally discussed the matter.

"What did he used to do on your world?" There was something about Kuroro, but he couldn't quite place it. Too nice, he wanted to say. He was all about trusting anyone with a smile and a good enough attitude, but there was something a little too... Sephiroth about it that he felt uneasy. "Sometimes I do, but... I try to put the past behind me. He did horrible things, none of which he's apologetic about. Yet... he wants only me. We're trying friendship," he admitted hesitantly.

[ih8spiders]

The parallels in their situations really couldn't be ignored. Kurapika shook his head as he mentally ticked off the similarities--did horrible things, none of which he's apologetic about, and Kuroro had told him several times that he was the only person he trusted in this world, and what they had now sounded uncomfortably close to friendship... About the only difference he could see at the moment was that Cloud had more control over his temper and his reactions. Or maybe Sephiroth just wasn't as overtly irritating.

"He's the leader of a notorious group of thieves. Normally they would move independently of each other, but once every couple of years they'd gather and conduct massive operations." He tilted his head and looked at Cloud sitting on the floor. "Usually raids against places where wealth is concentrated, like underground auctions. The last big raid they held, they killed hundreds of people."

He wondered if Sephiroth's rapsheet would sound the same.

[de_faulty_hero]

Well, Sephiroth had been part of ShinRa, which could have been considered a group of thieves if he stretched his imagination. The Company was all about gathering wealth and energy, and it had been known to have the biggest wealth of materia on all of Gaea once. Then they went and built the reactors and used the Huge Materia to power the Sister Ray.

Still, this might have been the only point where their similarities ended. "Were you present at this raid? A survivor of sorts, or this is just a tale you've come across?"

He wouldn't have been surprised if Kuroro embellished stories on top of everything else, but he was willing to believe Kurapika.

[ih8spiders]

"I was there," he replied quietly. "I took a job as a bodyguard of one of the families participating in the auctions, but my real purpose was to seek them out and stop them. I managed to kill two of them and seal Kuroro's abilities. I thought they would disband if I cut him off from them."

Kurapika wondered if he should attempt to explain how nen worked first. He always had difficulty convincing anyone here of just how strong Kuroro was in their world. People had trouble believing him because the man looked quite harmless without the hair gel and the stupid fur coat.

"It worked for a while, but Kuroro found a way to remove my block on him. His behavior now seems to be consistent with how he was when he couldn't access his abilities, but he can still easily kill anyone here if he wanted to. Instead he's going around befriending people like Sephiroth. I'm not sure what to make of it."

[de_faulty_hero]

Ah, so there was yet another similarity between them. They had both been bodyguards, and that job had forced them into direct conflict with their... future partners. It was both very strange and relieving to know that others could suffer same kind of fate as he did. Grounds for a long-lasting friendship, he thought dryly to himself.

He regarded Kurapika for a long moment before the corner of his lips quirked upwards. "Why were you really hunting him then?" There was something else in the undertone, a knowledgeable history perhaps?

"I was a bodyguard for a girl, the last of her kind," he said, now looking at his gloved fingers with great interest. "Sephiroth is vulnerable, but still highly capable of destructive behaviour. If Kuroro and him see eye-to-eye, it's not doubt why they are forging some kind of... whatever you want to call it between them."

[ih8spiders]

Talking about what happened to his clan was supposed to get easier with each time he recounted it, and maybe it was easier now - Kurapika no longer felt the urge to kill something whenever he did, but instead he just got really depressed and melancholic. He purposely called up some of his anger, though. Easier to show Cloud than describe it

[de_faulty_hero]

His eyes narrowed at the way that Kurapika could change his eyes from blue to red, and they were... quite different from what he was used to. It was amazing what people did for money, and he frowned at the thought of murdering an entire clan of people just to take their eyes from their heads. It seemed so... pointless to him