The Power of Friendship [Ava, Cloud]

[Administrator]

Let there be Light...and there was Darkness.

It was now the morning. Ava sat up slowly and stretched. Yawning, the Chaosling stood up and stretched again. His chest still was sore, but it didn't hurt nearly as much as it had the previous night. It was a little itchy now, but he was trying to ignore that because he knew scratching at it would not be good for him. It would probably make it hurt worse.

Looking around, Ava noticed Aerith was not awake yet. Well, she wasn't anywhere he could see her, at least. Trying to be quiet, he picked up the pillow that had been thrown onto the floor and the sheets that were strewn about from his tossings and turnings in his various nightmares and set them on the couch. He wasn't one for folding sheets and such.

Walking over to a window, Ava looked outside. It was still early, but the sun had started to rise. Usually he was up by now, but he must have been exhausted. Yawning again, Ava walked to the middle of the room where he reached a conundrum. He was bored, and wanted something to do while he waited for Aerith to wake up, but he also wanted to do something. So, he paced in the middle of the room, twiddling his thumbs. Maybe something would happen to give him entertainment?

[Cloud]

Unexpected Trouble

Cloud awoke rather suddenly. He was covered in a cold sweat, and was breathing rather hard. After a moment of just lying there, he pushed himself up with his arms into a sitting position. The morning light was already beginning to stream through the window of Merlin's spare room. Though it was only a dream, the nightmare he had woken up from was still vivid in his head. Sephiroth and his words was still getting to him, even if only in his head. The blond swordsman was beginning to develop increasingly worse circles under his eyes.

After quickly splashing some water into his face and grabbing all of his belongings, Cloud slipped out of the house, careful not to disturb the old wizard in case he might still be sleeping. He needed some fresh air. And more than that, he had finally decided he needed to talk to someone. Actually being the one to go and find Aerith in hopes of speaking about his problems with her was not something he often did. It was usually an effort for her to get him to say much anything of significance. But that's exactly what he was doing, all the same. He wasn't sure how much more he could take without accepting his friends' help-- at least to some extent.

Reaching Aerith's house, he caught a glance of something strange through the window. There was a very odd-looking man inside; someone Cloud didn't recognize. Forgetting the polite thing to do, which would have been to knock, he went bursting through door. There the man was, pacing around and twiddling his thumbs as if he were bored. Just as Cloud had first thought from a distance, the man didn't appear to be human at all. With completely black skin, white hair, and yellow eyes it was clear what he was. Heartless.

Brandishing his weapon, he pointed the large bust sword at the creature threateningly, the point stopping less than a foot away from it's chest. "Who are you?" he demanded, glaring at it. The only reason he hadn't immediately began slashing at it was that he didn't want to completely wreck the room. Besides, it looked smarter than the average heartless. It could probably speak. His eyes wandering past the enemy, as he wondered where Aerith was, and if she was okay. She better be... His eyes darted back to heartless.

[Administrator]

Unexpected circumstances occurring.

There was another man there now, and he was pointing a big sword at him. Ava drew back, one of his black longswords appearing in his hands in a rainbow burst of colors. He smacked the man's sword out of his face quickly. "I don't like your tone." Moving quickly forward, he kicked the man in the chest, using his foot as a lever to push him towards the door. "I'm Ava, and I stayed here last night."

Backing up, Ava pointed the one longsword at the man with a single hand while the other drew his second from wherever they appeared from in a burst of multicolored light. "Who are you, breaking into Aerith's house like that?" The Chaosling ignored the pain in his chest that told him he was overexerting himself. This guy didn't feel right; he felt like a dull light with a sharp darkness around it. The darkness was around him like a taint.

But, he didn't want to ruin Aerith's stuff...so he charged forward, slashing as fast as he could, trying to drive the guy out. Plus, this way, he could lead him away from Aerith's house and she wouldn't be hurt or try to get involved. "And why," Ava asked as he continued his assault, "did you just point your sword at me? I didn't do anything wrong, and you were the one who broke into her house." Ava ducked down and stabbed forward, hoping to catch the man unawares, and drive him backwards farther.

Ava didn't know who this guy was, but he didn't think he was a good person, breaking into Aerith's house with darkness in his heart. He wondered why the light was dull, and why it was covered in that choking darkness. There was something more to this man than he could see, or than he could smell, or hear, or any of his senses could touch. And that was not something Ava liked. Not at all.

[Cloud]

Self-Defense

The man... heartless... thing, having still yet to answer the question directed at it and introduce itself, summoned an unusual sword that's black material matched it's wielder's skin. Swinging the sword, it knocked Cloud's own weapon away slightly. After childishly informing him that it didn't like his tone, the creature sent it's foot into his chest. Now this sure seemed pretty stupid move, seeing as it gave the perfect opportunity for him to slice his enemy's leg off with a single heavy blow. This Cloud probably could have done, had he not been distracted from the short window of the opportunity by a very surprising statement.

Stumbling back a step, Cloud stared unblinkingly at Ava-- as it's name apparently was-- with a combination of annoyance and confusion. "What?" Had it just said that it had stayed there last night? That sure rose a lot more questions than it answered... Worried that she was still nowhere to be seen, he was about to ask where Aerith was when he himself was asked a question. Hearing the heartless address Aerith by name and acting all upset over someone breaking into her house was weird. If Cloud had actually stopped to think about it he would have realized that this suggested Ava was at the very least on good terms with Aerith, but that didn't sound very likely to him.

Before he could answer the first question he was asked, Cloud was faced with a second one, accompanied with a quick string of attacks. They were fast, but he managed to continue to block one after another. Ava appeared to be trying to push him backwards, towards the door, but he was managing to remain roughly in the same spot. It was acting as if it were totally innocent and Cloud was somehow the villain. That was probably just a trick that it was using to try to get him to lower his guard. "I only broke in to make sure Aerith was okay." he replied, skipping the first question. "Seeing as she clearly has a heartless in her house."

Cloud quickly jerked his sword down, barely deflecting his opponent's low thrust. He followed this up by moving to the offensive and taking his own swing swing at the heartless, though he was careful not to endanger any of the furniture in the process. Hey-- he had wanted to avoid starting a fight inside the relatively small room, but that had turned out to be the only way to get rid of the unwanted guest. Besides, he hadn't been the one to start the fight, he was only defending himself.

[Aerith]

This is a Non-Violent Zone

Awaking to the sound of metal clashing, Aerith abruptly sat up in bed. She could also hear shouting coming from downstairs, Ava's voice and... Cloud's voice? Her head was still a little foggy with sleep, but when she finally put everything together, she jumped out of bed. Before dashing downstairs, she pulled a robe on over her nightgown. There was such a thing as common decency, after all.

When she got downstairs, the scene was about like she imagined it was looking like. Both Ava and Cloud had their swords out and were exchanging blows. By some miracle, nothing had been broken. Yet.

"Stop!"

Her fists were clenched at her sides as she made her way down the last few stairs. On the one hand, she was angry that Cloud had shown up and gotten into a fight with her guest. On the other hand, Cloud had voluntarily shown up at her house. Did that mean he wanted to talk?

"Swords away! Now!"

She stood between them and gave them each a very disappointed look at first. "There will be no fighting inside my house. Understood?"

When she looked at Cloud again, though, her expression softened. He had probably seen Ava through the window and panicked, thinking she had been attacked. It was sweet, in a way. "But thank you for being concerned about me."

She turned to Ava. "This is Cloud. He's my... He's one of my friends. He was just trying to protect me." Then she glanced back at Cloud. "And this is Ava. He isn't a Heartless, even though he might look like one. And he hasn't hurt me, so don't worry. He just needed a place to stay."

"Now, I'm going to go get dressed. Cloud, we can talk later. And Ava, you don't have to stay cooped up in here all day. Just make sure, Cloud, that the others know not to fight him. He is my guest and my friend, too."

With that, she went upstairs. A few second later, she heard Cloud leave, followed a few minutes later by Ava.