Thanks to our reviewers darkmoon1202, Seven Positions, marionette kadaj, lilalou, The Great Susinko and 1wngdngl! You rock our socks!
Disclaimer: We dun own FFVII le tear
"SHIT!"
Cloud wasn't normally big on cursing, but he really couldn't help it.
He also couldn't help the sudden flailing reflex that came on suddenly, making his arms and leg swing behind him clumsily, in some sort of auto self-defense. Oh my god, a burglar, oh my god, I'm going to die. This was not how he wanted to die. Shit!
It was with the finesse of a panicked man that Cloud whipped around.
Shit. Okay. Why wasn't there anyone there? There was someone there. They had just whispered something into his ear. He wasn't crazy, was he? Was he so lonely he was imagining burglars coming into his apartment to molest him?
"Is anybody there?" Cloud was very aware how stupid he sounded, standing clench-fisted in his kitchen, wide-eyed and scared. He cleared his throat, adopting a more controlled tone. "I... I know you're there. Come out." Or don't, you know, you can leave quietly.
Cloud tensed, eyes searching for any kind of movement. A few ants stared dolefully from his counter. He regarded them with distaste.
"I...must be going insane." He told them quietly, unclenching his hands. He blew a stray wisp of hair from his eyes, shaking his head slightly. What had he been doing? Looking for a key?
"I'll check the bedroom again," He directed aloud, shoving his hands into his hoody pocket, willing the goose bumps on his arms to fade. That was creepy, imaginary or not.
...Hey, wait. Had he left his door shut? Cloud frowned and wrapped his hands around the handle, the goose bumps coming back in full force. He closed his eyes and took a breath. Grow some balls, man. It's just a bedroom, right? He opened the door.
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Zak had gleefully retreated to where Sephiroth was contemplating death in the bedroom when his prey had spun.
"Is he dead yet?" Sephiroth turned from the window.
"Nope, but he has the most GORGEOUS blue eyes!" he cooed.
". . . "The other turned back to the window, "I am ignoring you until he is dead."
"Mm-kay!" Zak heard footsteps coming toward their oh-so-secret hideout.
"Duck in the closet," Sephiroth hissed.
Zak blinked, peering into the closet, "No there's not, but more importantly, the kid is-" A black gloved hand shoved him from behind and he fell into the tangle of a college students closet.
The door was obviously as in need of repair as the rest of the place since it sounded like a herd of mice being run over by a lawn mower . . . there was a weird image. Zak smiled happily to himself.
The footsteps hesitated at the open door before entering, leaving the door open for a quick escape behind.
"What's your plan now?" Sephiroth asked from among . . . was that a blue dress? Hot . . . "Zak?"
"Huh? Oh, right! Um . . . stay here!" He could practically feel his companion glower as he shifted to the front of the closet and cracked the door.
'Please undress please undress please undress' Zak repeated mentally as he watched the blonde peer about the room. Sadly though, the boy seemed to have no intention of getting ready for bed. Oh well. Might as well make his move!
This time there was no nice hand-on-the-shoulder crap. If the kid was about to die he might as well enjoy his last moments as much as Zak himself was.
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The first thought Cloud had was 'Hey, I'm not insane' and that there was, in fact, an invader in his home. That really didn't explain the whole kitchen episode, but he allowed his brain the smooth over the less-than-sane bits. The second thought he had was that burglars normally didn't stand close to you and put their hands on your hips, spread-fingered and loose- burglars usually didn't smell like... smell like something good and heady and-
Then Cloud's survival instincts kicked in. He screamed.
"Hey, calm down."
Calm. Calm was not an option in Cloud's mind. Panicking, flailing, screaming and (if all else flailed) tackling his home invader presided at the top of his list as 'Good Things to Do in this Situation'.
...but he couldn't do any of them. Oh, shit, he was like, really unable to move. Had... when had the guy gotten so close? A lock of black hair shifted across his neck, a few spiky locks straying into his frozen range of vision. Had this guy poisoned him? Like, with a dart gun? When he wasn't looking?
Because he couldn't move. And he wanted to get away. And moving was generally required to escape.
"Let go of me," He managed, a large chill running through his body. His leg twitched involuntarily and a hand squeezed, fingers digging teasingly into his stomach. Oh god, he was too young to die. He was just a freshman, he hadn't really done anything bad, he was just a kid with anti-social tendencies- the kind you see on the news, murdered and dumped in a forest. Some kid no one would miss.
A hand strayed a bit lower on his side. Cloud started to seriously freak out, breathing coming quick. He was totally immobile now, chest constricting and tight. "Please!"
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This was possible the most enjoyable thing the spiky-haired vampire had done in, he paused a moment to think. A long time. Like, a couple decades or something. The blonde tensed, like he was about to tackle him to the ground and- focus. FOCUS.
"Calm down," he murmured, putting all that special vampiric charm into his words. If the kid didn't want to play nice at least he wouldn't be able to move. Vampires had that skill, Zak himself had no idea how or why or any of that scientific mumbo jumbo, all he knew was it existed and it helped get you in nice and close with hot humans without all the screaming, mace and tasers that were usually involved. He'd been tased once. It hadn't done as much to him as it would a human, but it had hurt, and he'd had this weird little itch for the next five minutes which was really annoying. All in all, tasers were to be avoided.
"Let go of me," Zak felt the lithe body shiver under his hands and tightened his fingers unconsciously. If he'd been alive his heart would have been a hummingbird against his ribs and kid in front of him would know very exactly how Zak felt. Luckily, though, vampires have more control than that. Not much, but more. Thus, he could slide his hands farther down his prey's side without moaning.
He was doing a very good job keeping on track, Sephiroth shouldn't be so melodramatic. He hadn't even copped a- oh wait, never mind, that definitely counted as a feel . . . it felt as good as it looked.
Cloud squeezed his eyes shut, willing strength into his limbs. If he could do anything, even just a weak kick or something, anything would be better than just standing there and letting himself be molested. What he wouldn't give for the body control to land a kick in this guy's crotch-
But he couldn't move, so that was all beside the point.
A puff of warm air on his neck made Cloud gasp jerked violently out of his thoughts. His voice was frozen somewhere in his throat, his mouth dry. His stomach jumped violently as he felt hands travel from his hips to . . . not his hips- oh, god, he wasn't going to be killed. He was going to be raped. Then killed, maybe. And he was too much of a freaking wimp to even protect himself…
A loud slam of a car door from underneath Cloud's bedroom window punctuated a warm, slick feeling on his neck. Cloud's knee jerked from under him, almost toppling him forward but for the man behind him, gripping him.
"Steady there!" How the hell could this guy sound cheerful! Here Cloud was having an emotional crisis while his attacker was blatantly happy. Cloud would have snorted, but he wasn't exactly finding the situation funny. He was quickly gathered back up against the man behind him, eyes still screwed shut. His hands tingled slightly as his arms were rubbed- he was almost able to move them, almost. He concentrated on the feeling, urging his mind to focus. If he could move he could escape…
"You're not thinking of going anywhere now, are you?" And there it was again, making Cloud want to punch a hole in the guy's face.
"Yeah," Cloud managed to grit, body shuddering as touches returned to his stomach, dipping teasingly towards his navel. "I am. Let go of me and I'll be on my way."
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"No can do, babe!" Zak smiled, humming under his breath (and luckily under the boy's hearing).
"Please? I . . . I . . ." the vampire moved his head from where it was half nuzzling his prey's hair, turning the blonde around with every intention of- Oh. Oh no. There was no way this was happening.
Most people, when attacked by a creature they believed only to exist in nightmares, screamed, kicked and fought. This was a good thing for Zak, for if everyone did what this boy was doing Zak would go hungry.
Big blue eyes stared up at in, almost to the point of tears in that men-don't-cry-I-have-something-in-my-eye sort of way and just . . . begging.
AW! He restrained himself from forcibly cuddling the poor kid in front of him. SO CUTE! There was no way he could kill something that cute! It would be like if you hamburger looked up at you with big cow eyes and said it had a mommy it wanted to see again. Craap.
"What's your name?"
The kid blinked, the terror in his face fading to confused anger with a hint of hunger, but he was a college student so the hunger was to be expected and discounted as far as expressions went. Teenagers.
"So you can brag about me by name after you rape me?"
"Huh? Rape you? No way!" That had never been one of his intentions. A good feel maybe, but nothing too much more than that, the kid didn't look like he believed him though. Of course the whole breaking into his house and feeling him up thing might not have made for the best of terms, but still! He was being honest here! "I promise, kid, I . . . uh . . . No harm will come to you while I can prevent it. I, um . . . swear on my blood."
A blood oath was the strongest promise a vampire could make. If they ever broke the promise every vampire in the world would be charged with making sure the oath breaker had nothing to eat, even the blood of animals, until they died a slow, painful death by starvation.
When Zak had first heard of this he had wanted to see with such enthusiasm that he had taken to following around one vampire or another just in case they broke a blood oath. For this reason he had only followed those who were less-than-friendly and not well loved among their kin. Which was how he'd met Seph, but that's another story.
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Blood? What? Cloud wasn't exactly comforted by the words of the crazy man, especially the whole 'I won't let you come to harm' part. Probably just words meant to bring down his guard before he was slaughtered or something- either way Cloud wasn't falling for that, and now he was able to move a bit more. Slowly, gaining confidence, he swung his arm subtly. Bingo.
"I don't believe you," Cloud hissed, eyes stinging from the adrenaline running through him, his emotions running tense throughout his body. "I think you want to do me harm." With that he swung his arm forward, hard, clenched fist connecting solidly with the chest of the man in front of him, violet eyes going wide with surprise.
Cloud didn't miss a beat. He turned heel and ran, his body stiff and heavy but fast with fear. His knee connected hard with his kitchen counter as he ran past- he saw red, briefly, but kept going, skidding into his living room and running into his front door hard.
"Shitshitshit," He muttered, hand fumbling sweatily with the handle, slick and slow and god, he was wasting time. He couldn't hear his attacker, couldn't see him, but for some reason that made him more nervous.
A breath on his earlobe making him shout. "Going somewhere, babe?"
And then Cloud had the door open, the presence at his back making his retreat down the stairs more of a stumbling fall than anything, his breaths escaping in what sounded like rough sobs. He was being followed, he knew even though he couldn't hear the footsteps- flashes of silver and black haunted the corner of his vision at every turn he made, his trip down the stairs seeming to take an eternity even though he was sprinting down them three by three.
"Cloud!"
"Leave me alone!" Oh, god-
A hand on his arm- Cloud shouted and twisted heavily, fist coming to meet skin, the sound of the contact ringing heavily though the empty stairwell. Red hair billowed slightly from the impact-
"R-Reno?"
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The punch didn't hurt, but he had loosened his grip while promising not to hurt the kid. He watched the blonde run from his, colliding for a moment with the counter, Zak winced in sympathy. That had to hurt. Like a lot. Then the kid was fumbling with the door.
With another one of his super cool vampire powers (SCVP for short!) the black-haired man moved effortlessly and quietly across the room to whisper in his new friend's ear; which caused a total freak out, funny to watch but sadly involving the opening of the door finally and the kid stumbling down the stairs. Follow the leader!
It was with utter amusement that Zak watched the blonde, whose name seemed to be Cloud (cute!), sock the red-head at the bottom and he gave a quiet cheer of 'No one touches Cloud (ohmygoshsuckacutename) but me!'
Unfortunately, said red head was not unconscious, and Zak was forced to slip into the shadow of the stairs to watch the proceedings. Things were not going his way.
He watched for awhile, waiting until the two left before heading back into the apartment.
--------------
"Seph?"
"Is he dead?"
"About that, funny thing-" Sephiroth stepped out of the boy's bedroom, eyes stern.
"What did you do, Zackary?"
"He gave me the biggest puppy eyes ever! And his eyes are soooo blue! Like . . . the ocean . . . or the sky . . . or something else blue! And he was soooo cute!"
The silver-haired man rubbed his temple, if Zak were any kind of physical problem, he'd be a migraine. Either that or a missing limb, whichever was most annoying.
"So you let him escape?" He knew better than to yell "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!" like he wanted to. He already knew the answer, Zak was no better than a human male at times; thinking either of nothing or with a part of his bodies vampires were supposed to ignore.
"Er."
He sighed, "I don't even care anymore. I think I would welcome it if the kid came back and killed us both. As long as he let me watch him kill you I could die happy."
"Aw, don't say that, Seph! We both know you'll die from apathy!"
"You do realize apathy is not a disease."
"It isn't? I thought it was in the same family as stuff like osteoporosis and asthma?"
". . . no," he shook his head, trying and failing to bring himself to care that there was someone out there who knew about them. "I don't care; let's find someone else. Preferably someone blind so we don't have a repeat of this incident."
"Sure thing!" Zak trounced out the door, Sephiroth flowed elegantly (the proper walk for one of their distinguished line) behind him.
---------------------------
"So." Reno frowned, palming his cheek with a wince. "What was that for?"
Cloud stared blankly at Reno, a sense of relief washing over him. Reno wasn't a rapist; Reno was just a poor, low-wage college student like him who happened to live in the same apartment building. Sure, he played his music too loud and was nosy as all hell but really, he hadn't deserved that.
"I'm sorry," Cloud said swiftly, bowing his head. "I… thought you were someone else." He glanced behind him, an empty staircase meeting his gaze. "I was just on my way out, actually-"
Reno grinned despite his aching cheek, eyes glinting in the poor lighting of the entranceway. Cloud sure could pack a punch. Who would have known? "Will you look at that, so am I."
Cloud frowned. "You were just coming in."
Reno shrugged this off with a careless grin. "Eh, I changed my mind. Come on, you look like you just saw a ghost. You could use a friend, right?" Dude, were Cloud's eyes glistening? Reno squinted.
"I don't need- I need to get going." Cloud said in a rushed tone, not meeting Reno's eyes. "I'll see you in class-"
"I'll come with you."
"No, really-"
"My mind's made up, no changing it now!"
Cloud made an annoyed noise, shoving past the red-head. "I don't care what you do," He murmured. "I just need to get out." Before the man showed up again, touched him like that and said things to him that made him feel so strange…
Cloud sucked in a breath of city air, relieved. He began to make a quick beeline across the street, a destination in mind. If he went back to the coffee shop he could just stay there, lock himself in until the morning. Call the police, maybe-
"Where ya headin'?"
Oh god, Reno was still there, trailing a few feet behind him, surprisingly silent until he decided to speak. Cloud looked at him in quiet resignation. "The coffee shop. Where I work."
"I've been there," Reno said offhandedly. "Isn't it closed?"
"Yeah."
"Ah. I see." Reno grinned and Cloud frowned at him, turning back around. Instantly Reno's smile was gone, his eyes switching from cheerful to catlike.
Cloud reeked of black magic.
A/N: And so the insanity continues. OOCness up the wall and back down again. Then again I suppose character is in the eye of the game player. I mean, the whole Cloud's date with Barret option (doesn't happen a lot so not really a spoiler I guess) yeah, Cloud can be gay even in the game! And if he is gay, who better to lust after than everyone's favorite now deceased SOLDIER! Plus in my personal opinion when Zak saw Cloud in the church he wouldn't have just waved he would have pounced and been like "OMG I MISSED U SOO MUCH! I LUVRZ U!" Ok, maybe that's more like if the cetra were like 'you may have one aim conversation with someone on earth' kinda like your one phonecall and all. And if I knew how to make a flash aim-type move I totally would. Wait, what am I talking about again? I kinda liked the idea of giving Zachary a weird spelling, something that justified my spelling it Zak (I'm personally a Zax fan but I kinda like the Americanization of Zak since I've scene people's name spelled such and k and x are kinda sorta maybe similar). Updates on this may be sporadic by the by. Slower during holidays and all.
