Cloud woke slowly, sometime in the slip of time between midnight and early morning. For a moment he was struck with disorientation, before memories started flickering back inconsistantly. So where was he now...? Some things were only half remembered, and would likely remain so until something triggered their full recovery. There was a quick twinge of guilt on remembering that he'd taken whatever Seifer had offered without thinking twice, but Cloud burried it as quickly as he could, reminding himself that he'd intended to do whatever he wanted to this time around. Hell with the consiquences, right?
So...then where was he...Pushing upwards and sitting back on his knees, Cloud blinked in delayed slowness, looking around the darkened room. Faint blue light spilt from flickering little starpoints around the edges of the ceiling...christmas lights that had been brought from someone's home. The sound of raindrops outside felt distant and too near at the same time, like when he'd been a small child and sat by the huge windows in his kitchen, on the tiles, listening to raindrops spatter against the rear deck. Little halfmoons of white reflected inwards through a window on the far wall, shimmering against glossy posters, moving with the constant downpour of rain outside.
He was in a bed, the only one in the small room. A single, probobly in the dorm...Brushing off the blanket that someone had put on him, he wondered who lived here. Seifer? It didn't strike him as Seifer's kind of room...but then he barely knew him so...
At the foot of the bed, someone stirred. Ears perking up to the sounds of fabric brushing fabric, Cloud crawled across the bed, the blanket bunching around his knees and dragging behind. Nuzzled against the edge of the bed, head rested on the covers and arms folded together. The black bangs lay at twisted patterns over the sheets, long and spiked. In fact the individual's hair was a lot like Cloud's in terms of being spikey, only this persons lay back against his spine like a mane. The bedsprings creaked as the blonde crept closer, scrutinizing. He couldn't remember much of the night, so who was this person, and what did they want? Cloud rolled over possiabilites in his mind, but none of the worse scenerios fit. It was vauge, but he could remember catching a ride with some people...this was probobly one of them. In any case, Cloud probobly owed him a thanks for letting him stay here...But not now. It'd be awkward, and stupid, and Cloud was determined not to come off as either to anyone.
So instead, the blonde rocked back on his knees and slid off the bed backwards, watching the blankets crumple into a wake before him. For a moment the dark haired one stirred in his sleep as the blankets pulled under his skin and the bed rebounded in slow motion from Cloud's retreating weight, but once the blonde was on his feet, he was still again. He'd find the dark-haired boy later, Cloud decided. Maybe tomorrow or the next day, or another party sometime. Bending slightly at the waist, he took in what he could of the sleeper's face, partially obscured by the black bangs. It wasn't hard to remember, and the fact that there was an X-shaped facial scar would help. No problem.
Shifting his feet in his sneakers, Cloud dug his hands into the pouch of his sweatshirt and backed towards the door quietly, watching the room's other occupant sleeping as he did. Fumbling with his hand against the door backwards for the knob, the shock of cold metal on his fingertips broke Cloud's fixation and forced him to refocus. Making no sound, the door spilled a widening sliver of light into the dark room, falling across the dark-haired one's knees and back. Cloud slipped through the cracked door and hugged the wall on the other side, a sky blue eye watching the diminishing spotlight as he shut the portal as quietly as he could. With the lightest click, the door locked itself behind the blonde, and Cloud was alone in the low-lit hallway.
On his own, and slightly sick to his stomach from what he had taken earlier, Cloud followed the corridor to a stairwell at the nearest end and decended, landing at each step on tiptoe and making only the muffled sounds of brushing fabric as he moved. If anyone was awake at this hour, he thought to himself as the side door creaked open into the rainy weather, they hadn't seen him. Without intending to, Cloud found himself glad of the fact. He really didn't want to have to answer questions, to deal with what people would think he knew. To be honest, to be perfectly fair, he was scared. He'd been scared at the party, he was scared now. Because he'd taken a perfect little white pill from a near complete stranger, people would have already labeled him. Maybe it was too late to be thinking back on this, but now Cloud was regretting giving himself that label. He'd always had a fear of confrontation...of being asked about something they assumed he should know when he didn't. Maybe people weren't about to throw things and beat him to death over pretending to be something he wasn't, but there were still the knowing looks and the changed tones of voices it could get him...
Although the rain wasn't harsh, it was obnoxious in the least, Cloud's spiked bangs sticking to his forehead and droplets trickling down the ends and landing on his nose. Distracted by his own thoughts and trying to ignore the sensory interfearance of the rain, he didn't notice the approuching body until a hand clasped down with certainty on his shoulder. The slightly built blonde jumped, his heels coming down in a puddle and sending a small shower across the feet of both parties. It was almost perfectly dark out, the only light now from the stairwell windows of the dormitories and the reflected streetlight in raindrops. Still, in almost complete darkness, the very outline of the person in front of him was painfully obvious.
The only thing protecting the individual from the rain was a thin hood and cape, the garment dark enough in colour to be lost in the rainy night that surrounded them. Through the folds of the cape, however, were the effeminiate curves and tightly clinging clothing of someone Cloud had barely been introduced to earlier. The stranger sweapt a hand up confidently and gave his light hair a flick from inside the cape, expression invisiable in the inky weather. "You must be Cloud," the tired sounding voice practicly purred as the apparation stepped closer, now within a hairs bredth of Cloud's body. "I'm terriably glad I stayed awake now, it would have indeed been a shame to miss you."
Blinking and squinting in darkness, Cloud wanted to step away, but didn't want the cape-clad figure to take offence. If he'd really been waiting...It was somewhat of an awkward situation, to be caught off guard by someone who he hadn't even been introduced to, let alone hung out with. A friend of a possiable aquaintence, pulling him aside in the dead of night in the rain. Oh, this was just stereotypically shady. It was hard to keep the chattering teeth out of his voice, but Cloud managed despite the chill of the rain that soaked through his sweatshirt and down to his skin more with each passing moment. "Hey..." He tried to sound nonchalant, unintimidated. It wasn't working very well. "I don't think I remember your name, but you were at the party earlier, right?"
The voice was so cool and sultry it seemed to wash away in the rain and coil around Cloud's sneakers, slinking up his legs. "That's right, very good, I was. My name," He gave another flick of his hair, spattering Cloud with the stray water droplets on the back of his hand. Was this person flicking his hair because it was wet, or some other reason? It gave him a haughty air, somewhat superior. Cloud felt intimidated almost instantly. "Is Kuja. A friend of Seifer...He told me you might be here, I thought I'd wait around and see if you needed any..." He stalled on the last word, a hand moving to smooth an unseen wrinkle in the tight dark cloths that made a second skin under the cloak. "Assistance?"
Shifting uncomfortably from side to side but unable to excuse himself without feeling even worse about the situation, Cloud came to a sudden realization. He had no clue where, in relation to his own dormitory, he was. When he tried to word this to Kuja, however, it came out mangled and shakey. Mentally, Cloud cursed at himself over and over. Extremely smooth, Strife, now you know you're on the bottom rung of their pecking order. It could be worse...at least on the bottom they expect you to be naive... "Yeah...I'm a freshman so I don't quite know where I am..." Cloud trailed off, his querry dying halfway through as another flick of Kuja's wrist sent the hair behind the cloak moving again.
There was an unhealthy silence, the slow spattering of late raindrops carrying on their own conversation but leaving the two students standing in sullen darkness. Cloud could feel the raindrops soaking through his cloths more with the passage of time, sticking the fabric against his skin. Feeling clamy and growing more and more apprehensive of Kuja, the blonde was ready to speak up again, the words stepping over his teeth and into open air before the hooded boy cutting him off.
"Yes, of course I can show you the way home, it was what I came out here to do all the long you know. Follow me," Kuja stepped around Cloud, leaning inwards and rubbing against him as he did so. The shorter blonde barely managed to keep from jumping at the physical contact, raindrops now rubbed between the fibers of his cloths. He has no concept of personal space, Cloud mentally stuttered to himself, still intimidated by the light haired guide who was now beckoning for him to follow.
"Now I have something I should tell you," Kuja spoke as they crossed the darkened campus, Cloud having to shorten his stride to keep up with the other's peculiar walk. "Seifer's given me a job...in turn it's a job for you." In the wan morning light Cloud did his best to avoid eye contact with the guiding upperclassman, instead trying to mark where he was in relation to the rest of the campus. The freshman dorms were down the hill and across the street, Cloud began to feel stupid for not trying to explore on his own first.
"What kind of job?" He felt stupid, naive, paranoid and fighting paranoia. Like a freshman.
Ground squishing beneith their feet, Kuja remained silent, delaying his response. Their footsteps slapped against the alien solidity of the sidewalk, then the street itself before the light haired upperclassman took up the conversation again. "If you remember what Seifer so graciously offered you during the party?" He began in a smooth, cool tone. "Well we run a small buisness here on campus..."