Ninja And The Demon – Chapter 4
Red And White
Chaos nodded his head in satisfaction. Yuffie's room was finally done. He went down to the living room, only to find her asleep on the couch. Looking at the grandfather clock that some how still worked, it was two in the morning. He smiled slightly, and gently scooped the young woman into his arms and carried her upstairs to her new room. He laid her down and placed her under the covers.
"Sleep well young one." He whispered, and quietly shut the door behind him.
He made his way up to his attic home, deep in thought. Hojo said that the curse set upon him could only be broken by true love. Chaos snorted. True love? Didn't he all ready have it? Thinking back on the days with Lucrecia… he didn't have it. Nothing close to it. He didn't love her with all of his heart, but he loved her… no, he didn't. He said that he did because she hated Hojo. Things were so twisted then… Chaos just wanted to throw it out the window. But he couldn't just throw himself out no could he?
The demon sighed and walked over to the rose… that damn rose, that Hojo left him.
"You have until every single petal on this red rose falls. When it does… you will never see the human you again."
Did Hojo do this to him on purpose? Chaos thought numbly. He remembered every detail about that night clearly. It was the night he lost everything he knew and was forced to live as a demon of old. He had to learn how to love…
Chaos snorted. What was love anyway? He never learned. He was orphaned at a young age and joined the Turks when he was sixteen. He never saw love and never experienced it. Fitting that he would have to figure it out to save himself.
Despite the fact that he didn't have a lot of knowledge about love, Chaos did know it wasn't something to take lightly, and that no one falls in love overnight. But, he's coming pretty close. That young woman that fell upon his doorstep two weeks ago had been in his thoughts since. She was so young… just turned 20 a month ago according to her. What would she know about this? Chaos hopped she didn't know anything about the curse, and never would.
The demon closed his red eyes and sighed. That was a lie. He hoped that someone would break this curse of his, and he secretly hoped that it would be someone that he can tolerate. Yuffie had been… rather difficult to adjust to, but now hat he's done it… Chaos couldn't imagine life in the mansion without the hyper ninja.
Was this love? Being unable to imagine life without someone? To love their presence in the room, even if they weren't there to talk to you? To make sure that they were as happy as you could possibly make them?
Chaos groaned and put his claws on the wall, holding him up while he hung his head. This was just perfect.
Yuffie awoke in an extremely warm bed. She sat bolt upright to see where she was, only to discover that she was in a room that Chaos must have been working on for her. She smiled and looked around. He listened to her pretty well. She had told him about Wutai and it's culture and he had decorated her room pretty close to how her room looked back home.
Tatami matting covered most of the floor, but where there wasn't matting was the bed. It was a regular bed, but Yuffie didn't care. A low desk was off to one side with a puffy pillow as her seat. The walls were a light green that gave the room a relaxing air. She saw a dresser matching the bed and desk and smiled. He had really outdone himself.
She wanted to thank him, so she got up. Bad mistake. With a yelp, she collapsed. "Guess my ankle isn't in top shape…" she muttered.
"No, it's not." Chaos said from the doorway and helped her back onto her bed. "Yesterday really tried you and your ankle. You really need to rest Yuffie."
"So I have to stay in bed?" she said with a pout.
The demon smiled despite his efforts. "Yes you do. Don't worry, I'll see how it is in the morning."
Yuffie was true to her word and didn't get out of bed once the entire day, except to use the restroom. Chaos came in before noon and nodded in satisfaction.
"You're good to go."
"See? I can listen to what you say."
"I see. You listen to me, but not your father?" Chaos teased, shaking his head. "My dear what are we going to do with you?"
"Nothing! You're going to let me stay here!"
The demon met her stormy gray gaze, "You know that you can't."
"I can certainly try!" Yuffie cried, looking sadly at the demon. "I don't want to go back! Don't kick me out!"
Chaos shook his head, "I have no intention of doing that Yuffie. But then again I don't want a group of ninjas banging on my door and demanding that I release you."
The young woman sighed. "Godo doesn't know where I am."
"What makes you think that he won't follow you?" Chaos said softly, sitting down on the bed.
"I… I don't want to think about that."
"Then you won't. I'll brace that ankle of yours again and let's see if you want to go for a little walk."
Yuffie's face immediately brightened up. "Really? You mean it?"
"Of course I do."
She smiled and Chaos' stomach did a flip. Oh great… he thought to himself.
The demon had supplied her with warmer clothes. Well, rather a warmer dress and coat. He apologized for not having anything with pants, but Yuffie just waved it away. As long as she was warm, she didn't really care what she wore. But she did have to have some help lacing up the back of the dress. Chaos' claws were actually shaking. Yuffie laughed and asked him what the problem was.
"I've never done this before… but I know women were supposed to do this, not men."
She laughed, "Well, you're a demon!"
"Yes, but I'm a male demon. I shouldn't be doing this."
She rolled her eyes, "Do you see any females here to do it?"
Chaos sighed and began to lace up the corset. Yuffie gave a squeak. "Are they supposed to be this tight?"
"Yes."
"Great." She muttered under her breath. After she had slipped on the dress, she turned to face the demon. "Chaos, do you know who these dresses belong to?"
"I do not. These dresses were here before long before I was. This mansion has a history that I'm not even sure I could explain."
As they began to walk, Chaos stopped her and handed her some gloves and a cloak. Yuffie put them on. "Well, do you know how old this place is then?" she asked.
"I think that this mansion was built around the time when Midgar was still ruled by a king and queen. This used to be some baron's land I believe."
"Whoa… but... how did this dress last that long?"
"Oh I'm sure that this isn't an original. I think it might be a remake. Nibelheim used this mansion as a tourist attraction before a scientist bought it. The dresses were just left here I guess."
"When was the scientist here?" Yuffie asked.
Chaos smiled. He was used to her endless questions. It drove him to insanity the first week, but he was used to it now. Actually, he rather liked it. "The scientist was about here thirty years ago."
The young woman blinked. "Whoa. So you've been here for thirty years?"
Now they were coming up on territory that Chaos didn't want to be in. "Yes." He said in a tone that suggested Yuffie should stop. Thankfully, she got the unspoken message. They had been walking outside for some time now, and Yuffie was looking all around her at the snow. With a plan brewing in her mind, she ran ahead.
Chaos sighed, "Yuffie, you shouldn't be running on that ankle."
"Oh I do plenty of things that I shouldn't!" she called back, jumping behind a tree.
He stopped walking and glared at the tree. "If you ever want to get that ankle better, you need to-"
Chaos' sentence was cut off when a snowball hit him in the face. Yuffie laughed like mad and the demon just glared at her. When she saw his stare, she immediately began to think that a snowball fight was NOT a good idea.
But he surprised her when she felt a snowball hit her in the chest. With a gasp, she realized some of it had gone down into her dress. "Chaos! That's cold!"
His red eyes widened when he saw her expression. "Oh my, Yuffie… did it go down your dress?" When she nodded, he busted out laughing.
"Chaos! It's not funny! It's REALLY cold!" And to prove her point, she picked up another snowball and threw it at him, knocking the tip of his wing.
"HEY! Watch the wings!" he called, readying another snowball.
"Yeah, well you watch where you're throwing them too!" She laughed as she threw one. Chaos dodged it, and successfully hit her. For the next hour, it was a full out snowball fight. Now Yuffie was hiding behind a tree, the demon slowly coming up to her armed with two snowballs.
"Give up Yuffie!" He called.
She laughed breathlessly, "Never!" and with that, she jumped out from behind the tree and tackled Chaos to the ground. She successfully did so, but the unfortunate couple landed in a snow bank.
She sat up on top of Chaos, a big grin on her face. He couldn't help it. He busted out laughing.
She joined in seconds later. They sat like that for a minute and Yuffie struggled to regain her breath. "Wow, you take being tackled into a snow mound pretty well!"
"Oh?" He said with a glint in his eye, and flung Yuffie off of him… only to have her land in the snow next to him.
"CHAOS! THAT'S COLD!" she screamed, and the demon just laughed even harder. He stood up, shook his wings free of the white flakes, and helped her out of the mound. Chaos took her hand gently in his claw when she smirked. She pulled down sharply, resulting in Chaos being on top of her. He supported most of his weight on his free claw and looked sternly down at her. But the glance slowly became a soft one as he stared into her gray eyes. She was so close…
Mentally slapping himself, Chaos turned his head to the side. Yuffie knew that he couldn't blush, but his body language clearly showed that he was embarrassed. She smiled apologetically, "Sorry Chaos. Couldn't help it."
"It's understandable." He said with a small smile and once again helped her up. But when she was up, Yuffie didn't let go. They walked back to the house, hand in claw.
Halfway back to the house, Yuffie said that her ankle was throbbing. Without a word, Chaos scooped her into his arms, which made her laugh. He smiled down at her and hugged her closer to his chest and went up the back steps.
After sitting her down before the fire with a book, Chaos went for a glide over the property. Flying to the top of the roof, he sat down and looked over the white gardens.
"True love…that's my freedom." He whispered. "It's just not what I need to be free, it's what everyone needs."
As a human, Chaos had seen love. Couples walking down the street hand in hand, parents playing with the children and gazing at their spouses. He thought that he had found it, that he had it, but Hojo showed him the truth.
"I should hate that man… but the longer I'm like this, the wiser he becomes." Chaos muttered. He smirked and shook his head sadly. Things were so confusing right now, and no doubt Godo would be looking for Yuffie. She couldn't stay here forever…but yet Chaos found himself wanting her to.
He leaned his head back and groaned. "Why does this have to happen to me? I'm blessed with a vivacious, loving, lively, caring and beautiful woman when I need one the most. She's not perfect, but that's what makes her the way she is… that's what makes her attractive. Damn it… I'm… eh, whom am I deceiving? Who could ever love a demon?"
As Chaos pondered about numerous things, he flew back to his attic home. He landed and closed the floor length window behind him. Turning to the levitating rose on the table, he watched in horror as a petal fell off and gracefully fell and joined others like it. Chaos rushed to the table and counted all of the fallen petals. With despair, he counted four. Counting the remaining petals, he discovered there were ten. He didn't know how many had fallen a day, or even if they fell by the hour. He placed his head in his claws and for the first time, truly felt that he would never again be human.
Raising his head, he looked out at the window at the falling snow. Everything was so white… so pure. Just like Yuffie.
He looked down at the rose and fallen petals, which were a deep and vibrant red. He sighed. He felt that the red was him, someone that's seen bloodshed and felt a blood rage.
The pure white against the blood red. And odd combination… but nonetheless, a possible picture. Or, so he hoped.
A/N: I find it kind of repetitive and annoying when everyone says that Vinent's lamenting of Lucrecia. But, what if he just wanted her out of his memory? See, different view makes it an entirely new field of possibilities. Plus… Vincent is way too depressed. And this is YUFFIE that's living with him. It's gonna rub off sometime! I know that Vincent/Chaos is a dark and brooding character, but I soon discovered that's hard for me to write a character like that. I plan on writing another FFVII fic sometime, so I'll get him in his true element then. Until then... yeah, I'm having fun with this new kind of guy.
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Well... people seem to like this story of mine. Yay! Makes me want to write more FFVII stuff... oh goodie! More things to write! Life's just peachy.
Thank you all for reviewing, and reading!
-Vincent's Angel of Chaos-