I'M SO SORRY THAT I DISAPPEARED! In the time span since the last update, I: became a full-time student again, switched jobs, and moved. Things have been busy over here at Erased HQ! But never fear, for I have written a chapter! Hooray!

Erased - Chapter 35

Cloud was hunched over Leon, who was apparently unconscious. He rocked quietly, back and forth, sobbing, or at least, that's what he'd been doing until Sora barged in. His head shot up when Sora said his name, and his eyes widened. He stayed that way for a long moment.

Leon's body, however, was not what had caught Sora's attention. Neither was Cloud's wild appearance, gaunt and colorless and very unlike Cloud. No.

What caught Sora's attention was that his brother was a vampire.

That was new.

"You live with vampires!" Kairi hissed. She didn't sound angry so much as startled and scared. Sora supposed he could have warned her, but then, he'd never met anyone besides Riku who had issues with vampires. Vaan said nothing, but then, he'd met Leon before, so he knew what to expect. Demyx was unconscious, and Zexion was unreadable. Riku's reaction was the closest to Sora's- he'd met Cloud before, so he knew that Cloud was not usually a vampire. That and Sora knew for a fact that Riku hated 'vampire stank.' He saw Riku's nose wrinkle.

"Cloud?" Sora asked again, ignoring Kairi's question. Cloud continued to stare at him. He found himself unable to move. Cloud's eyes were bloodshot and unfocused. Sora could feel him, feel the infection in his blood, in a way he hadn't been able to before. Cloud was tainted. He knew that Cloud was experiencing the same sensation, feeling Sora's power for the very first time, two brothers who had spent their entire lives together getting to know each other in an wholly new light.

"That's Sora's brother," Riku offered Kairi as an explanation, in a hushed whisper, though it echoed awkwardly in the silence of the room. Vaan finally tensed at being brought face-to-face with the owner of the bike he'd destroyed, but Sora couldn't even muster the attention to be mad at him.

When did this happen! Sora was desperate to ask. How did this happen? Why didn't you tell me! He couldn't get his vocal cords to make noise. At the very least, he supposed, this explained why Cloud had disappeared for a while, and why he'd abandoned his precious motorcycle. No matter what he'd said, however, Sora would have preferred it to be because his brother was out philandering or doing something else dumb. He'd never wish something like this on Cloud.

Cloud was the first one to break the silence, though without answering any of Sora's silent inquiries.

"Squall needs help," he croaked, his voice strange. "I can't-" He stopped and averted his eyes. Sora understood the problem. Sooner or later, the sun would come up. Cloud couldn't go outside. Beautiful, athletic, sun-kissed Cloud couldn't go outside.

"What happened?" Riku asked, meaning Leon's condition and not Cloud's. He went over to Leon's side. The rest of the crew stayed still. Sora himself broke out of his trance, but barely- his feet were lead, his stomach was stone. How did this happen?

"I-" Cloud stopped. His voice was halting and almost afraid, very unlike the confident Cloud that Sora always knew. "His face," he whispered. He refused to move to let Riku get a better look, so Riku had to peek around Cloud's possessive arms. When he saw the wound, he muttered what Sora presumed to be a curse in Japanese.

"We need to stop the bleeding," he said quickly. "Come on, we need to get him up to his room." Sora wasn't sure when Riku had become Mr. Large-And-In-Charge, but he was grateful for it. Vaan, being the only other person capable of helping, moved to help Riku pry Leon away from Cloud. When he saw Leon's blood-streaked face, Vaan was forced to turn his head away and retch. Cloud gave up Leon reluctantly before collapsing to the floor.

Kairi stayed in the corner with Zexion and Demyx. She stood slightly in front of Zexion, protecting her with her body, eyeing the proceedings warily and refusing to speak another word. That was fine by Sora- he could only deal with one complication at a time.

He had to figure out what to do with Cloud.

Cloud himself had returned to sobbing pathetically as soon as Leon had been removed. He looked so small, curled up on the floor. Sora was entirely unused to seeing Cloud like this. He was the emotional one. Cloud was who he'd looked up to his entire life, who he'd wished he could be if only he wasn't a freak. Now Cloud had been gifted a one-way ticket to freaktown, and Sora had no idea what he was supposed to do. He'd found himself lost fairly often in his short life, but Cloud had been a constant, an unwavering force of steadiness in Sora's turbulent existence. Now, in the span of one short month, Cloud had thrown him two very upsetting curve balls. First he'd left Sora with Leon, and now he'd gotten himself turned into a vampire. Sora couldn't help but wonder- if only they still lived together, if only he'd been there, could he have stopped this from happening?

He took one step forward, and then another. Cloud didn't react. He lowered his wings, an unconscious gesture of submission. He didn't want his brother to feel threatened, not that he'd ever seen Cloud be afraid of him before. When he reached Cloud's side, he knelt down and tried his best to look into his brother's eyes.

"Cloud," he said quietly. He didn't know what else to say, so he asked the first question that came to mind, a silly but natural one, considering that his brother was crying like an angry baby. "Are you ok?"

Cloud refused to look at Sora. All of his effort was necessary to do so, since his little brother's presence was overwhelming- broad, confident, positive. Even though it had taken him a few years, he finally understood why Leon had been so startled by it the day they'd all found out. That, however, was the least of his issues.

His little brother was going to want answers. Information.

How could he explain what had happened to Sora? He wasn't in the habit of talking to his baby brother about his sex life, so he'd have to leave that part out. He hadn't even told Leon. So he'd just say he was alone in Sephiroth's apartment. But Sora always asked so many questions- he'd ask why Cloud had decided to be alone with him. And then Cloud would have to lie some more.

He couldn't deal with this. He closed his eyes and hoped that Sora would, for the first time ever, just leave him alone.

Sora didn't speak again for a long time, but his body did the talking for him. His wings fluttered with concern, painfully loud in the silent church. Cloud redirected his attention to the rest of the visitors, all of whom, or so his new condition informed him, were Others. The two that had taken Leon away he didn't recognize, though he could guess the silver-haired one was the werewolf Leon had told him about. The three in the corner were completely unknown to him. Unlike Sora's definitive presence, theirs were muddled and unclear. The strongest was the girl.

Sora hovered over him, for once in the figurative sense and not the literal one. He obviously had no idea what he should do, either, and well, Cloud was not really any good at asking for help. He'd barely been able to ask Squall to help him out when he was in desperate financial straits, and after he'd been turned, he'd been brought back to the church entirely against his will. He didn't enjoy being in Squall's debt. And, of course, he'd repaid his best friend by mauling him. As soon as Squall woke up, he'd tell them all what happened- that Cloud had done it, he was too dangerous to live with-

No. That's not going to happen, Cloud corrected himself. He knew for a fact that all of the stereotypes about Others being a threat to bodily safety were bunk, having taken care of Sora for so long. But he was a threat to bodily safety! He'd injured Squall! What if he lost control again!

He felt a sudden pang of regret, regretting the decision to leave Sora to live with Squall, even though he never could have known that everything would turn out like this. Now that Squall was incapacitated, someone else was going to have to get Cloud his blood. Cloud didn't want to be spoon-fed by his baby brother.

Or maybe Sora wouldn't even want to spoon-feed him.

Squall's words rang harsh in Cloud's vampire ears, about how he'd abandoned Sora, about what a horrible brother he was. Maybe Sora would abandon him, too. He probably deserved it. He was shit.

Cloud sank into the murky depths of self-loathing, curled up on the ground and fully prepared for the force of the disgust he believed Sora was about to rain down on him. He was limp and prone and his defenses were entirely gone. He was too tired to fight anymore. He was ready for whatever the universe gave him- at this point, he'd take whatever he could get.

Much to his surprise, however, before long, Cloud felt himself being lifted off the ground. His new extra senses told him the lifter was Sora, which bothered him- he always forgot how strong the kid was. Sora smelled both wonderfully familiar and horribly gross. Cloud's mothering instincts kicked in and he briefly thought about trying to make Sora go take a sponge bath. But given that Sora was probably about to throw him out of the church, the concern was irrelevant.

What happened next, however, surprised him.

Once he was upright, Sora wrapped his wings around him and pulled him into a monster hug.

"I was so worried," he whispered, the sincerity in his words making his voice shake. Sora, his own little brother, the one he'd always regarded as helpless and dependent, had been worried about him.

"I'm sorry," he tried to say, but the words didn't come out. What did come out was raw emotion, a flood of feelings that Cloud had been keeping inside, that finally began to emerge now that he was in a safe zone, with his only living family. He could feel his sobs coming back, refreshed and more powerful than ever.

"God, Sora," he choked out. He buried his face in Sora's smelly tank-top. "I'm sorry." Once the words came out, the floodgates opened. He bawled into Sora's shoulder, utterly unable to pull himself together, and lacking any desire to try. "I'm so fucking sorry."

Vaan helped Riku carry Leon up the stairs at the back of the church. He'd seen the church before, of course, but he hadn't noticed just how dilapidated the place really was. There was a hole in the ceiling, for fuck's sake. Though he supposed vampires wouldn't be able to pay for building maintenance. Leon probably didn't own the building legally, anyway. Not that Vaan would judge squatters, since he himself was one, too.

He found himself being forced to think about these things to keep his mind off of the wound on Leon's face. Blood was everywhere- dripping onto the floors- seeping down Leon's chin and neck and soaking into his clothes. From what he could see from around the caked goo, the source of the flow was a gash straight down the middle of Leon's face. God knows how that had gotten there.

"His room's this way," Riku instructed, and they turned down the hallway.

"What're we going to do when we get there?"

"He has, you know, bandages and stuff. I'll figure something out." Riku was very familiar with Leon's church. A little more familiar than a casual visitor would be.

"You stay here a lot?"

"Sort of." Riku said nothing else on the matter. Vaan helped him maneuver Leon's unconscious body into a tiny bedroom at the end of the hall. After placing Leon on the cot itself, Vaan worked on removing Leon's thoroughly-ruined shirt and most of the sheets while Riku fumbled for a light switch. He eventually found one, connected to one pathetic, uncovered light bulb in the middle of the ceiling. The single exposed bulb cast the room in an eerie light, putting Leon's blood in sharp contrast with his impossibly pale skin.

"I'll grab some cloths and you can start cleaning him up while I find the bandages," Riku said quietly before slipping back out of the room, leaving Vaan alone with a corpse. Leon certainly looked dead, save the occasional shallow breath. He didn't look at all like the same surly vampire who'd kicked Vaan out of his home barely more than a week before.

Riku reappeared with a bowl of water, a cheap bar of soap, and a pile of rags of questionable cleanliness. Vaan raised an eyebrow and Riku shrugged.

"That's the best he had in his kitchen," he said. Vaan nodded and took the supplies. Riku left again, and Vaan set to work. Or rather, he set to preparing himself for the work.

Vaan didn't like blood. Maybe because he himself was unable to be injured, but something about other people's blood always managed to squick him. He'd had to dress wounds before out of necessity- injuries were plentiful and doctors were few down in Low Town- but of the two of them, Penelo was the better nurse. But Riku would be the one dressing the actual wound, right? All Vaan had to do was clean it up. Right?

He dipped a cloth into the soapy water and went to work everywhere but Leon's face. He dabbed at the caked blood on Leon's neck and chest. There was also plenty of the stuff in his hair, but Vaan wasn't sure if he'd be able to get it out. He wasn't sure how Leon would react if he tried to hack out some of the blood-matted locks- he was no hair stylist- so he left them as they were.

Finally, everything was more or less cleaned off, save the wound itself. In spite of himself, Vaan was worried about going near Leon's mouth, even if he was unconscious. He'd just lost a lot of blood, and he was sure to be hungry. Vaan shook his head to clear himself up.

No one's able to bite you, doofus, he chided himself. He wouldn't even be able to break the skin. Vaan went to work clearing up Leon's face, ignoring the twitching muscles that indicated that his brisk motions were causing pain. The wound itself was surprisingly small considering the amount of blood. It was just one gash, diagonal across his face, from his forehead, straight across the bridge of his nose, then down to one cheek. The red mark was harsh and deliberate. Vaan had no idea how someone could get such a cut.

Riku found Leon's first-aid kit, such as it was, in one of the kitchen cabinets, and came back to the bedroom. He nodded his approval at Vaan's work and dug out some gauze and tape.

"Is that going to be enough?" Vaan asked. He spoke in a hushed whisper, the same way one would in a funeral home, or in the presence of any coffin.

"It should be enough to stop the bleeding," Riku said, "but it looks deep enough to need stitches, and he doesn't have the stuff for that." And, Vaan added silently, would either of us even know how to do stitches on someone's face? After a long pause, Riku added, "It'll probably leave a scar." Vaan looked down at Leon's handsome face, marred forever, right between the eyes.

"Well, it's not like he can see his face, anyway," said Vaan, an attempt at a joke that was startlingly inappropriate, given the circumstances. Riku glared at him and he stopped talking.

"We just need to make sure it doesn't get infected," was Riku's final word on the subject, as he finished bandaging up Leon's face. The work was somewhat sloppy, but he did manage to leave the nostrils and mouth exposed so that Leon could breathe. Vaan supposed it was lucky that vampires by nature did not eat solid food.

Riku and Vaan didn't speak again for a long moment, and of course neither did Leon, their incapacitated companion. Vaan tried to feel sorry for Leon's predicament, but the cogs in his mind were already turning. He'd been counting on this vampire to help him help Penelo, but now, who knew? Really, who knew what his condition was going to be when he woke up? He needed another plan. If he'd had his own stupid way, he would have broken into the Shinra Building while those others were breaking out. Of course, that was why Penelo had decided it was best if she went and not him. He was famous for his stupid ideas.

Wait.

While the others were breaking out.

In the excitement, he'd forgotten. Kairi, Zexion, and Demyx had come out of the Shinra Building, powerful Others all of them, and clearly highly valued by Shinra itself, if the recovery operation they'd launched was any indication. That meant two very important things to Vaan. One, that it was possible for people to break out of that building, however difficult it may be.

And two, that these mystery Others might have been in contact with Penelo.

Vaan all but shot for the door, barely noticing that Riku had beaten him to it.

"Hey. Somebody should stay with him, I think," Riku said, indicating Leon. "I'm going to go see if Sora's ok. Stay here, all right?" Vaan opened his mouth to protest, but bit his tongue. He had time. Kairi and her charges were too frazzled to be questioned right now, anyway, and it was unsafe for them to leave the building. They'd literally have to stay put until he had a chance to talk to them.

"Ok," he agreed, before plopping down in a chair, content for the time being to watch the rise and fall of Leon's chest, a rhythmic indication that the vampire was still alive.

He had time.

Ok, so- this chapter is a liiiittle bit shorter than some other ones, mostly because it's so bogged down in angst, and who wants to read 6,000 words of angst-bog? More importantly, I don't want to write 6,000 words of angst-bog. That, frankly, sounds awful.

Regardless, I would like to give a shout-out to PANTHARYA for beta-reading and sending me an adorable e-mail about how excited he was that he'd finally made it through all 34 chapters. No small feat, as I'm sure all of you know! Everybody, I'm issuing an Erased Community Action Alert. (We have those now.) Go to his FFnet page. Read the amazing KH fanfiction. Post reviews praising the virtues of the finished fics and demanding updates on the unfinished ones. Is all I'm sayin'. ;)

Tune in for our next installment, where we find out how exactly Penelo has been doing since her broken-bottle-to-the-gut escapade. Also, Roxas will do the macarena. I AM WARNING YOU NOW THAT ONE OF THESE THINGS WILL HAPPEN AND ONE WILL NOT.

Q OF THE UPDATE: I've recently been encountering a lot of fanfic-writing crazy KH nerds who have not actually played any of the games. They're all "Zexion is such a nice person! He wants to keep the Organization together!" and I'm all "Uh, what. Did we play the same games?" and they're all "Oh, I don't play video games at all." and I'm all "WTF." So, 'fess up- which KH games have you played? If you haven't played any, how did you get into the fandom? I own and have played all of them, including both versions of CoM, though I never finished the PS2 version because I like the GBA version much better. But it was totally worth buying it on the PS2, because I got free postcards! Wheeeee!