Little Sephiroth

Chapter 9

Cloud couldn't help but look in amazement when he saw Sephiroth easily demonstrate the Materia. It wasn't the most difficult thing to cast some magic with them, but the absolute control he had even when he was in headspace.

"Is that even a full spell?" Cloud muttered to himself, not having known one could cast just a small fire or a small fleck of ice with the Materia.

The little looked up at him, looking a little unsure suddenly. Sephiroth hadn't quite understood what Cloud had said, too occupied with his own magic.

He looked at the small orb in his hand, liking the glistening red that shone from within the glass like item. It was very pretty, and he could feel the power inside. Perhaps Cloud wanted to feel as well. After all, Sephiroth had promised to tutor him.

"Cloud try," Sephiroth said, holding out the Materia to the cadet.

"Me?" Cloud asked, looking in awe at the small orb.

"Yes. Try," Sephiroth said, and Cloud hesitantly took the orb. He could feel a faint energy coming from it.

"Uhm, how?" Cloud asked. This was the first time ever he held Materia in his hands, and he didn't quite know how to use it yet. They would learn later, but for now he was still too much of a newbie to have ever handled it.

Sephiroth frowned at the question.

"Just use it?" the little explained, not realising that not everyone could instinctively use the Materia like he did.

"Okay?" Cloud said, taking a deep breath and trying to focus on the fire Materia, but nothing happened.

For a moment the two of them sat there, and then Sephiroth let out a sound of frustration, and suddenly Cloud could feel the bigger hand envelop his.

"Feel," the little said, and Cloud looked in amazement at his hand when he was privy to Sephiroth's magic power and could feel how mana he had in his core and how precisely he let it trickle in the orb, creating once again a small flame.

"Oh," Cloud said, "like that."

"Yes!" Sephiroth said, "now Cloud?"

"Okay, I think I can do that," Cloud said, concentrating and releasing his mana with the utmost focus, wondering how people could do this during combat.

Just like Sephiroth had done, he tried to feed it the slightest trickle, not wanting to do more than just the tiny flame he had seen the other man do. To his surprise, he felt the Materia pull the mana out of him, just filling it up until he reached the first level spell and without control a fireball left him.

"Watch out," he shouted at the little, pushing Sephiroth out of the way when the ball of fire came blasting out, setting fire to a poor cabinet.

Looking at it with wide-eyed panic, he couldn't believe how much he had fucked it all up. Putting the room on fire with the General in a baby headspace and trusting him to keep him safe and his designation a secret.

Quickly standing up, he was just about to pull Sephiroth up when the man grabbed a water Materia and smothered the burning furniture in a ball of water, frowning at it.

The little looked at the wide-eyed caregiver and felt bad about the panic. He had been bad at explaining at it, and now Cloud was looking at the cabinet with a weird look that Sephiroth didn't really understand.

He had never been good at reading people's faces, and it got even worse in headspace.

The caregiver kept standing there, a hand around Sephiroth's upper arm, and the little wondered if he actually wanted to haul him into a corner or something, the same way he had seen some parents do with their children when they were bad.