not because he still hates him and/or is scared of him (there are some elements of that, but he's gotten to the point where he can separate this kid seph from the grown dude who is very many things to him)
so when he sees seph getting hung up on things he himself would get hung up on, even if he knows seph is like, MAD traumatized and damaged because of his (gestures to terrible life) everything
cloud only just recently accepted that people do love him (for some reason) so instead of second-guessing them about it, he's trying to protect them and keep them safe