Nothing has ever truly drawn Cleave’s attention outside of himself.
He is an inferno and he looks inward mostly, his thoughts cutting and mind cruel whenever he does look outward, even when that is to look at his siblings and his mother and his new adopted family. Still, he feels her more than sees her and something within him twists in recognition, the flame recognizing like. It is enough that he doesn’t instantly banish her from his presence or simply turn to leave, but neither does he give her that attention she so craves. He doesn’t have such softness within him to yield so easily.
Instead, he makes a rough noise inside of his youthful throat, something like a grunt, a growl, a way to acknowledge that he recognizes she is there even if he cannot be bothered to drag his eyes to her.
He stands like that for several moments, flames beginning to flicker down his spine, glowing softly in the light, playing along the cracked crimson racing across his body. They are the closest thing to love he has ever felt, the closest thing to affection he could muster, and he snuffs them out, dragging them into his core with a deep breath when he finally sighs, a heavy exhale, dropping his head down to her.
“Cleave,” he finally offers, red eyes finding her and studying her with a rather blank expression. He doesn’t startle at the similarities in their appearance (she looks more his kin than either of the triplets) or the otherness in the scales and the wings and the sharp teeth that glint from behind her lips.
He just nods, accepting it because it really doesn’t affect him much either way.
“Do you live here, Ember?” His voice is heavy despite the lilt that comes with youth and his lip curls slightly away as he looks at the ocean, something like disdain crossing his handsome features.
“I can’t imagine wanting to live so close to the water.”