It was tempting to back up against the door, and put that fraction extra distance between himself and Kuja. This was the part that scared him, and he fought the urge to be as far back from Kuja and whatever his reaction would be.

He didn't stand tall and proud, instead his shoulders had been sagged since he walked in, his head slightly hung. He closed his eyes as he spoke, "It started as just a spat," he couldn't look Kuja in the face as he said that bit, but he looked at him as he continued, "he'd asked to see me, but I refused to go to his lab, so he met me in the training facility. I wanted to talk to him but," Kadaj hesitated, glancing away again, "we argued, and then we fought, and it all escalated out of control."

He looked directly at Kuja, taking a sharp breath as he admitted, "He nearly killed me. He got one of those snakes around my throat, and I thought he was going to finish me, but then Nnoitra showed up." He shook his head, trying not to squirm at either the memory, or at telling a slightly edited truth to Kuja, but he wasn't prepared to drop Nnoitra in it. "Then it all got worse, and he tried to kill us both. He used the Eight Branches technique against us; he wouldn't stop, so we didn't have any choice." He frowned, his eyes closing again, "We had to kill him. It was the only way either of us were getting out of that fight alive."

He hoped, desperately, that as versions went it was enough of an explanation that he'd get out here alive. He also hoped it would stop any fallout from blowing Nnoitra's way. It wasn't his fault, by Kadaj's account; he'd stepped in when it was already a full blown fight, and not just a minor scrap that he'd made worse with his intervention.

He hoped that Kuja would think that, too.