It looked like Reno had finally lost the fight with subtlety's much smaller cousin, 'not completely obnoxiously obvious.'

He had been staring at Cloud for nearly twenty minutes. It was almost creepy. Cloud hadn't even seen him blink.

Cloud shifted restlessly on the stool he was currently occupying in Tifa's overcrowded bar. The night felt alive and Cloud felt trapped and constrained. He didn't want to be here.

Reno's stare was a challenge and it tweaked Cloud just right to make his hackles rise... or it would have if he'd had hackles. He avoided meeting those eyes. Even if it was a challenge, Cloud wasn't ready to admit he'd noticed. It wasn't like he had to rise to the bait. This was the Seventh Heaven. Screw that, thought Cloud irritably, this was Edge. If it really came down to it, Cloud was 'top dog' and Reno could go piss on lamp posts if he wanted to mark his fucking territory.

Cloud was a little surprised at the vehemence of his own thoughts. He wasn't usually this agitated. Something was bugging him, setting his teeth on edge. His own skin felt like it was strangling him and tonight he was uncomfortably aware of the things that made him not quite human.

With a shake of his head, Cloud tried to dismiss his agitation. The night was rowdy and he was dragging around pent up tension. The fact that it was a full moon and people were idiots and Reno was still fucking staring at him just exacerbated the situation.

Cloud decided he was too dignified to mumble a prayer of relief when Reno finally looked away. It was only a second before those eyes were back and they were moving towards him through the crowd. Cloud silently groaned and tried to ignore the way his pants tightened in interest. He didn't need this shit. What the hell did Reno want?

Only seconds passed before Reno was emerging from the sea of talking, shuffling bodies. The people seemed to just part around him as he made his way. He moved so effortlessly, like a man without bones and it looked like he was floating. Had he always moved so smoothly?

Cloud watched for a little too long before finally looking away. When Reno came to a stop, leaning over him on his barstool perch, he smirked, one side of his mouth hitched up smugly without showing any teeth. It left no doubt that Cloud had been caught staring. That should have irritated Cloud even more.

Reno's features seemed paler than normal, not that Cloud had a great deal of reference. His eyes seemed more intense somehow and his lips were a deep rich red. Cloud wondered if Reno had taken up drinking wine. He had replaced his usual Turk uniform with tighter shinier pants and his typical white dress shirt was crisp, snowy clean and tucked in. He seemed magnetic. He stood so close Cloud could smell him.

Cloud wondered if Reno could see the effect he was having on him. Cloud wasn't sure he wanted him to, wasn't sure he wanted to be affected by Reno at all.

To buy himself time, Cloud let his eyes slowly wander down all the lean lines of Reno. It made his pulse pick up. He liked what he was looking at. Whether it was the booze or the crazy mood he couldn't seem to shake or some other magic of Reno's, Cloud was rapidly forgetting his ire with the Turk. It was much more pleasant to bask in the early stages of arousal. Forgetting for just a moment that he was stoic Cloud strife, wunderkind and untouchable hero extraordinaire, he spoke first.

He leaned back on his stool, set his elbows on top of the bar and let his legs fall open suggestively. "Reeeno," he let his eyes wander slowly down his body again, appreciatively. "It's nice to see you."

Reno's predatory grin grew all the wider and Cloud finally met his eyes.

It felt like he was being sucked in. To Cloud it sounded like someone had shut a door on the noise in the room or perhaps everyone and everything just abruptly fell away. Reno looked damned good and Cloud was done debating with his libido. He wanted Reno. If Reno wanted to be challenging, let him. Cloud wouldn't break eye-contact first. He just wished he didn't feel so much like he was drowning.

He wasn't entirely certain how long they looked at each other or how ridiculous they looked to other people. No appreciable sense of time existed. People might be coming or going but Cloud was only aware that the status of the bar was relatively unchanged. Looking at Reno made it all seem so far away.

When the eye-lock was finally broken neither of them had dropped their eyes. Reno had simply started leaning into Cloud, seemingly bending only at his ankles until his face was too close for their eyes to meet any longer. To Cloud's surprise Reno continued moving, angling slightly forward. Without indication or approval, Reno latched his mouth onto Cloud's neck. It felt good. Reno's teeth dragged one way and his tongue laved the other way and Cloud wondered if maybe he hadn't lost the staring contest after all. His heart was pounding and Reno was almost certain to feel Cloud's wildly surging pulse beneath his lips.

There was something off. Cloud fought to think through the delicious things Reno was doing to him. The room was back in focus now that Reno's eyes were off him or maybe it was just that his head was out of the way. Cloud was staring out into a myriad of bodies. He was uncomfortable. He didn't do things like this. He didn't want to be doing things like this in public.

What the hell was he doing? He never behaved this way. Something primal in Cloud, something trapped at the very animal level in him was screaming at him to get his attention.

Cloud's 'animal level' was much closer to the surface than it was in other people.

Still, instead of pushing him away, Cloud moved one hand into Reno's hair and the other to his arm to hold him in place and keep him doing what he was doing. There was something about Reno that didn't exactly equate with what Cloud remembered of him.

Reno... smelled…off. Not quite right. Not quite human, like Vincent or maybe like Cloud himself. Cloud had no idea what he himself smelled like. With all the things done to him and all the things he was and had become, he simply couldn't smell like the normal people on the street. Reno was a Turk, he worked for ShinRa and maybe he'd had some of those same things done to him too.

They were in public. That thought kept returning to him. He shouldn't be letting Reno do this, even if he could feel his inhibitions ebbing. People were watching. For a completely uncharacteristic moment, Cloud welcomed their covetous stares. Welcomed the rise of this less reserved version of himself.

A moment passed and then another. Reno felt and smelled so good but Cloud was warring with himself and finally he clamped down, trying instinctively to fight feeling too liberated.

The problem was Cloud liked it. He liked the way Reno's masculinity mixed and clashed with his own. The heady way that just sharing the same space made his senses tingle to life. Breathing Reno in, he could smell it - the change, a charge that existed between them.

It made Cloud want to do funny things like mark his territory or lay claim to the man before him.

Cloud closed his eyes and flushed red, equal parts arousal and embarrassment. Gods what was he thinking. He wasn't an animal. He was losing control. He had to get out of here while he still had some control, some common sense. Besides he couldn't let Reno see...

He stood up abruptly. Reno's attention had been conveniently relocated for the moment and Cloud was leaving before things went too far.

Completely overriding his earlier decision to just go for it, he was fleeing. He hadn't expected to feel so much, to be so caught up. He couldn't afford to let go of his control. Reno didn't know what he was getting into.

Cloud made a beeline for the door. Unfortunately for him, the thing that had caught Reno's attention was the budding commotion there. There were far too many people in one place. They were all jostling and shoving and things at the door were going to get out of hand if someone didn't step in.

Cloud wasn't sure what was going on just yet. It was possible it was just general rowdiness. This was a bar after all. That didn't stop his senses from leaping to high alert. Reno had already stirred them to life but now there was a sense of testing the air, scenting for danger.

If he had to, Cloud could sort it out on his way through. In fact he was looking forward to it. His blood was up and he was spoiling for something. The pressure and the tension of everything was building up under his skin. The day and the crappy bullshit he had to put up with, too common stares and not so subtle brushes. Reno. Cloud wanted to shake it all off, tear something apart, bust some heads, run naked under the moon -just break free.

It was a tight line he had to walk, letting off steam without going too far. Those people by the door had better hope they didn't fight back too hard.

Cloud burst into the commotion by the door. No finesse, just steamrollered right into the situation. He was the rock and they could just break upon him like the waves.

People who were just innocently caught in the mess were easily sorted out. They began fleeing as soon as they saw the ire in Cloud's countenance. Other people, large people who Cloud didn't recognize and who all looked the same, turned to look at him like he was fresh meat. Cloud grinned at them, nearly feral. Maybe they didn't know. What a surprise for them then.

He didn't even throw the first punch, just waited for it to land. It connected squarely with his face. It probably could have knocked the solid front door of the Seventh Heaven off its hinges. Cloud blinked, but didn't bend or even drop his smile. He let them know that if they wanted it, he had it. His home, his city, his fucking tension release. Bring it on.

Too stupid or drunk to turn around and leave, they circled Cloud. It gave them space so they could come at him from all angles. Cloud waited for them to sort it all out. They saw prey. He knew he was small, had gotten over that particular hang-up two apocalypses ago. They should be wondering why he wasn't insensate from that first blow. Even unenhanced, Cloud wouldn't have been that easy to take out. He'd had his fair share of poundings. Now it was their turn.

Cloud knew he normally wouldn't be acting this way. He felt his irritation rise at the thought. He didn't care.

It wasn't quite like true combat. It wasn't quite like a typical bar brawl either. The other men were knowledgeable -brutish and mean- but possessed some training. They broke upon him like the tide. Cloud didn't think of himself as a wolf in sheep's clothing, just a wolf.

His blood was singing in his veins. He'd almost forgotten how good it felt to fight with someone and not cause death. He took a shot to the kidneys and wondered momentarily if he would be coughing up blood later. Probably not, he decided. It wasn't really fair, one Cloud against seven brutish thugs. They never had a chance.

Cloud felt rather than saw when Reno joined the fight. It was like the reacquisition of something missing put back where it belongs. Cloud shrugged it off. He didn't need Reno's help. He wasn't unthankful, he just wasn't sure he was thankful either.

Cloud knew Reno could handle himself but when three of Cloud's assailants, who he just hadn't bothered to knock out, turned away from him to engage Reno, it made Cloud want to do something crazy and bestial like rip their throats out.

He stopped playing with the people he couldn't help but think weren't very bright. Cloud probably wasn't even bleeding and they should have been strategically retreating by now. It took some effort, it wouldn't have been any fun if it didn't, and then Cloud was tossing semi-conscious bodies out into the street.

When he'd finished, Cloud watched Reno move. He hadn't been touched as far as Cloud could see and there were only two men standing instead of the original three. Watching it looked sort of like shadow boxing or maybe like punching sheets hung on a clothesline. Reno just wasn't there when the blows aimed at him either drew up short or soared too far.

Cloud liked watching a little too much. He could feel that shocking response to Reno's presence working in his blood again. He was getting hard.

Instead of dealing with it, he ducked out into the street where the moon's cool light could calm his mind and maybe soothe his spirit. He knew it didn't work that way. That forced stillness and the moon's light were more likely to have the opposite effect, so he walked. He moved aimlessly, ranging, looking for something he supposed. He didn't know what.

He wasn't surprised when Reno found him. Cloud felt him settle into his personal space with barely even a whisper of sound. It made Cloud's senses tingle to alertness again.

Cloud leaned against the side of some building, facing Reno as he did so. They were reasonably alone out here. Cloud felt in control again. He waited to see what Reno would do.

"I helped you out, yo. You didn't need to take off."

"I didn't need it."

"You could have helped me."

"You didn't need it."

Reno apparently took that as a compliment. A smile was stretching its way across his face. He looked predatory and something was wrong with his teeth. Cloud wondered for a minute if Reno had been hit. Maybe Reno had needed his help.

Reno had already proven that he didn't observe personal boundaries but now he was really pushing it. Hands came up to rest on either side of Cloud's head, caging him in. Reno was standing nose to nose with him and he couldn't help but notice that Reno smelled sweet. It was alluring. The redheaded man looked washed out in the moonlight. It was like he was sapped of colour, everywhere but his hair and mouth and eyes. His eyes were so much more intense than he remembered them and his hair was the colour of blood. Reno's lips looked like a bloody bruises on his face and there was still something wrong with his teeth.

He was leaning into Cloud's neck again, like he found something there that was more interesting than the rest of him. Cloud could smell other people's blood on him. He should have been able to smell his sweat. There should have been some evidence of his part in the fight earlier but there was nothing. Reno's lips were unreasonably cold when they touched his skin.

Reno must have recognised that fact too because he said, "You're so warm Cloud, gods." Then his teeth were sinking into Cloud's neck. He could feel the skin pull tight and then give way under Reno's exceptionally sharp incisors. He felt his own blood rush to the surface and then Reno was drinking it.

What. The. fuck.

Then Cloud knew. He knew what had changed about Reno, what caused him to smell different, to seem different. He and Cloud weren't so different after all. Except that they were.

Opposite ends of the spectrum if you will.

In response to deep instinct, sense memory greater than anything taught in a single lifetime, Cloud was trying to leap back from Reno's hold. The wall at his back prevented him. Instead Cloud tried to shove Reno off. Nothing happened. Cloud couldn't believe how strong Reno was.

Cloud had discovered, after some experimentation that he could lift tons. Nothing larger than a very small house but still tons of wood and concrete weighed more than the red-head. He'd just finished tossing bodies roughly three times his own weight out of the Seventh Heaven but he couldn't budge Reno an inch.

Cloud's head snapped back. Instinct was a wild thing inside of him, the moon beckoned and it was all too much. Cloud started to change. He felt his own incisors elongate and his skin mottle. Slits took over the shape of his pupils but instead of Jenova green, a cold silver white shone out from his eyes. His hair grew and his musculature altered. He was taller than Reno now, not by much, but enough to catch his attention.

He stood maybe three inches taller than he normally was. He didn't have a wet nose or paws or fur, he was just bigger. The hair on his head was wilder, paler and it became natural to stand only on the balls of his feet. His skin was mottled light grey but at least that particular change was nearly impossible to see. Even in the best of light it was like a very pale blush, just in the wrong colour.

They stood there a moment, a vampire and a werewolf. It was like some bad joke. A werewolf and a vampire walk out of a bar...

"Oh holy shit," Reno breathed. "I knew it!"

He knew it? He'd known what Cloud was? Then why was he here?

Cloud knew enough to know that if Reno had known what he was, he should have been trying to off him. Vampires and werewolves didn't mix. That was just about the only thing in all this that Cloud did know. It was the only thing he'd been told by the cackling, raving man he'd tried to help and who had bitten him for his troubles. He'd left Cloud with more than just some broken skin that had healed up almost immediately. He'd left Cloud with another nightmare he tried to avoid, deny and pretend didn't exist.

He wasn't really surprised that he hadn't recognised Reno for what he was. It was easy to fool yourself when you practiced so hard, all day, everyday.

It must be equally plausible then that Reno really had known what Cloud was. Reno was exactly the type to do the exact opposite of what Cloud had done and go looking into the new aspect of himself. Reno probably knew far, far more than Cloud himself. And he hadn't tried to kill him.

"You still in there, Cloud?" Reno asked making no effort to hide his fangs now. Cloud was fascinated by them. He reached up with his hand and gently parted Reno's lips to brush a thumb lightly along the gleaming length of one.

Reno shuddered a little and opened his mouth wider. Showing off or maybe just allowing Cloud to do whatever he might like to.

Whatever Cloud might like to do, he swallowed deeply. He wanted to drive his tongue into that open and inviting space. He wanted to thrust and tease and see what it felt like when Reno's fangs caught his tongue.

Cloud needed answers. The sensible thing to do was to start asking Reno questions. He needed to find out if the raving man had lied to him. He had to know if there were more of them. He had to know if he and Reno were safe or if Reno would turn on him if the mood struck.

Instead Cloud replaced his thumb with his forefinger and ran it down Reno's very sharp incisor. He circled the tip and very deliberately pulled the pad against the point, feeling his flesh split.

Reno's breath caught audibly. His pupils dilated and then he was taking great heaving breaths. Cloud ran his finger and the faint trickle of blood along Reno's bottom lip. Reno groaned helplessly and his tongue darted out to lick up the liquid. Cloud was fascinated. He should have been horrified. Instead he held up his finger before Reno's mouth and gently tapped at his closed lips for admission. When Reno welcomed Cloud's finger into his wet soft heat, Cloud whined. It sounded remarkably canine. Reno's tongue brushed along the open wound and swirled around his entire finger. It was very erotic and it made Cloud want some very basic, animalistic things.

Cloud could feel the shallow cut becoming a light scratch already so he removed his finger and wrapped both of his arms around Reno's waist to haul him in to his body.

He felt so good. Cloud was going to kiss him. He wanted to kiss him.

Cloud's fingers clenched involuntarily against Reno, he was still Cloud. So instead of diving tongue first into the oh so inviting wetness of Reno's mouth, Cloud asked questions. He felt the animal in him balk at the restraint. It forced Cloud to breathe heavily, holding back. It was hard to resist, now, when he was so close to something he wanted. Now, when that other part of him was at its strongest. However, both beast and Cloud wanted to live, so for now Cloud had the upper hand. He only hoped Reno spoke fast and had good news.

I hope you all enjoyed! If it was a surprise to some of you I hope it was a good one :) and if you saw it coming, I hope I caught some of that classic horror movie feel :)

Because Hallowe'en is the greatest almost holiday ever and I love it. :D I had to celebrate somehow.

Thanks so much for sharing with me!

I accept all kinds of comments and criticism, non-positive reviews are welcomed! Tell me what you liked/hated or would like to see improved.

Thanks again!