New member challenge entry

[euphonious-glow.livejournal.com]

Challenge: Yin and Yang
Title: Night's Contemplation
Word Count: 232
(anything else): Cloud introspection
Slight Spoilers for KH2

It was the kind of sunset that made him stop what he was doing to watch. Cloud walked to the edge of the battlement, gazing out toward the red and gold glow streaking the horizon above Villain's Vale. It was a beautiful sight, the colors mixing together like spatters of some cosmic artist's paintbrush. Cloud didn't usually like art; he just didn't understand it. But this held his gaze, held him entranced and transfixed like a little kid staring through the window of a candy store.

The sky was darkening now, the red giving way to a deep purple. The gold was now a slim stroke in the vast sky, nearly overwhelmed with the darker color. It mirrored the darkness in his own eyes. He knew it dwelled there, behind the glow of his blue iris, bright as a field of sunlit periwinkles. He knew it would never go away; it was a part of him, and he would never get a good night's sleep unless he could extinguish that darkness. It appeared when he least expected it, a river of silver and black leather and demon's wings -- his demon.

The sky was completely dark now, and stars smiled at him from above. He would never give in. Sephiroth was the darkness and he was the light, and, as Aerith had told him, the sun always rose after the darkest night.