The Sun and the Moon
AN: Ok this is a very short (for me at least) one shot, it's a Cloud/Sephiroth pairing so if it's not for you then please hit the back button. This is a challenge piece in which I was asked to write from Sephiroth's perspective...sort of. So hope that you enjoy it enough to leave a review.
He wanted peace, oblivion from the darkness that forever snapped at his heels. His solitude was never constant and lasting, neither was the eternal sleep every fibre of his soul seemed to crave.
He would be summoned from the abyss over and over again and again, forced to wear the mantle of delirium before being granted another short reprieve. His very being existed in a cycle of death and rebirth...a vicious dance of blood and darkness and steel.
He had always thought that his summoner hated him, but his last brush with reality confirmed that this was not the case. He had been shocked to his core when he realised that hatred was not the reason he was locked waiting in this half formed state until he was once again called, he had not expected anything else. His so called rival loved him, but what the blonde did not know was that the love was returned. Thus was the way of their relationship.
But he had to admit, he had grown tired.
Here in this place of solidarity, emotions such as love were fleeting at best. The quiet whisperings in his mind scorned him with reminders that a creature such as himself did not deserve something as honest as love. To the world beyond this one he was nothing more than a monster, a mad man hidden beneath a guise of beauty.
He had had a friend once, someone who had seen the beyond the public image of him to the man that lay beneath. Had seen a person of inquisitive nature and emotional innocence who had never really had a chance to shine...a chance to live a normal life that revolved around something other than destruction. All they thought he knew was how to kill or how to command and lead, but inside he had been so much more than their weapon.
He often wondered if his love saw him as anything else.
During his time of reflection whilst he awaited his call, he had likened himself and his love to the sun and the moon in his ponderings. One fiercely brilliant in its own right and the other a mere reflection of what the world perceived it to be. That was right wasn't it? The sun burned with a fiery light that was all its own; as constant and as unchanging as time, the moon however would forever remain in darkness with no light for it to rely on. The moon needed the suns brilliance in order to shine just as brightly.
He could feel a tug on his consciousness now, a minor irritation that told him it was almost time to return to the world again. The whispers in his head were growing louder now; their mingled sounds were almost like a roaring in his ears. The more prominent they became the more they seduced and commanded him with their promises and their orders.
So it would appear that once again he was being summoned to play the villain.
A sudden tearing noise echoed in the silence that always surrounded him, he glanced up and watched in fascination as what he could only describe as a rip through the fabric of his confinement opened up before him. Light pooled through the hole it had made and he closed his eyes against its glare.
The tugging on his mind had become more of a grasp now, pulling him with undeniable force into being and he grit his teeth against the onslaught of pain it caused. His muscles shifted and his body expanded as he began to become whole once again, he desperately tried to cling on to his own essence as it slowly filtered from him. For once he would like to visit the world as himself, the person he had been so very long ago.
But he could already feel himself slipping away, could hear the usually weak whispers becoming strong and true...controlling his sub-conscious thought. Then the sensation of his mind slipping abruptly ended much as it always did and his eyes snapped open to lock onto the pained blue orbs that hovered above him.
Déjà vu all over again.
Masamune shimmered into existence in his outstretched hands, strategically placed as always to defend the blow that the blonde had tried to land upon him. He could see his own cold and deadly calm face reflected back at him from the others gaze and in the portion of his mind that was still his own he felt a wash of sadness. His love would never see anything he truly felt, the blonde would only ever see the expression he would forever be forced to wear.
"Good to see you...Cloud" his voice was low, husky yet bland, much the same as it always was when he came back. Yet although he never controlled the speech he inwardly conceded that no truer words had ever been spoken.
"Sephiroth" was the gasped reply.
It always started the same, he would awaken defending his body against the blow that the blonde had tried to land and his sword would appear in his hands. The same words would be spoken, he would calmly and coolly acknowledge Cloud by stating it was good to see him and Cloud would acknowledge him in return by uttering his name and nothing else. This was the cycle and in all the years through which they had fought not once had it been broken.
Then their dance would begin.
He felt his lips pull into a smirk before he pushed the smaller man away from him, using his superior body strength and his grounded momentum to send the blonde man sailing through the air.
Grasping the sword hilt he prepared himself to launch across the distance separating them yet utterly unable to stop the movement. As usual he would be forced to give this fight his all, to try and gain the upper hand to achieve goals that had never been his own...but fate had already predetermined that he would never win and inwardly he was glad.
He was the moon and Cloud was the sun. He would never outshine the other mans brilliance, because although it was just as constant, the moon was forever doomed to be reborn only to die in the inferno that was the sun. Thus his body was destined to become nothing but ash, crumbling to nothing in the trembling hands that would hold him at the end.
Narrowing his eyes he leapt forward, his arms moved to raise his sword high for his first strike. But in his head he was already preparing himself to meet his demise at the hand of the one he loved most.
Just as it had always been.
Oops I went over the word limit, but I think I did ok with it. You had better read this and review Claire or else I am never speaking to you again for pestering me for damn weeks in work, this thing was written in a meeting during which I was meant to be taking minutes (it's a good job I can multi-task isn't it girl). Anyway I hope that anyone else who decides to read this enjoyed it, I have to say it was an intriguing thing to write. Ciao for now.
