Tussled... Sephiroth listens to the description without comment, filing the words away as something to inform his understanding of childhood. Something for a later pretense, maybe. Avoiding the subject entirely can make some people suspicious.

"I fail to see how it would benefit either of us," he says. "Friendship is no requirement for sparring." He's never understood the immediacy with which some people take to friendship, and he understands it even less now. Gideon doesn't know his reputation, she has no cause to idolize him the way people do back home. What exactly has he done to invite this? Why does she think he needs an annoying friend?