Lead Astray || closed || denzelstrife
{☣} || Darkness; it was something he had associated with himself, Sephiroth, and everything that had drowned him in the past. Darkness was something... nonhuman, where unfathomable dangers and evil thrive.
It had been so long when he last faced it.
Not as though he had forgotten the feeling. There was just this feeling of relief and peace that Cloud had begun to have the impression that his life could just sail through, wake up each day and be welcomed by his family's smile. He wasn't alone, after all, just like what he had realized after that day with everyone's help. Family meant his friends, Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel whom he kept close and cared for with all efforts that he could now that every bit of guilt was gone.
But of course, as he learned it through the years, life would never be easy or else it wouldn't have been called life. Recently, changes had been slowly taking over; changes that he let slip past under this innate conviction towards someone dear, changes that would soon blossom into a full-scale distress and betrayal of trust.
It would be too late once he finds out that Denzel was doing acts that he never had once imagined him doing.
"...Denzel." He found the teen on the kitchen, trying his best to maintain his cool after finding something under the boy's bed--various drug paraphernalia and weapons that had been banned under the city's ordinance. First question: Why? Their family business was running nicely and they had been providing well. How did this start? What pushed this child, who, as far as he knows, believed in righteousness and little acts of heroism.
A part of him didn't even want to confirm this. Denial, disbelief, and disappointment all mixed up in an unsightly mess, but what else could he do... It was better that they settled this sooner, much sooner than it was Tifa or Marlene who finds out. "Hey, could I talk to you for a minute...?"
Was this it? If his ugly suspicions were true--was darkness back in his life?