'He was upset last night.'
'I'm not playing his game, of course he's upset.'
Tifa flipped the page of the book she was reading in the living room, ignoring both the words held within and Squeak's watchful eye. Squeak was upset when she told him she wasn't making him breakfast too, after he angrily squeaked something she didn't understand but got the jist of as she came down the stairs. 'I'm not catering to one of my jail wardens...'
'It can't be a game if he's risking himself to keep me alive. Cloud would do that, not a stranger. Cloud would look at me like a wounded animal after I said what I said last night.' He had always been sensitive, even when he tried not to show it on his face. Those blue eyes of his were windows into his soul. Still, doubt lingered. 'How can I be sure...'
'But I don't want Cloud to be...'
'It doesn't matter if I don't want him to be a vampire. If he's telling the truth those other vampires must have spiraled into madness, they were never others.' That was the conclusion she was coming to after hours upon hours of thought on the matter. Tifa had barely slept as she attempted to think things through, and she yawned at the thought of her patchy sleep through most of the day.
'But how do I know it's the truth? That means the guild is wrong.'
'The guild isn't infallible.'
'Neither is he.'
Tifa really wasn't sure what to think in regards to her keeper. She just needed to know more, she needed to make sure. She just had to make sure this wasn't some long drawn out act. But what for? She couldn't think of any reason to take such a risk. 'You're important to me. You were my only friend in Nibelheim...'
'I still need to get out of here. But how? If I leave, that other vampire will find me for sure. Am I stuck here?'
'I could still go to Nibelheim...but that's just as much a prison as this in the end. What about my guild, what about the church? He...he said my vampire hunter days are over. Whatever decision is made, he's not letting me back in there.' She huffed angrily at the thought. That had been her life for the last five years, and he thinks he can take it all away?
'But they'll be looking for me. What happens if I meet one of them on the street, or they visit my house? They would never understand that a vampire went through the trouble of keeping a vampire hunter alive. Just like I wouldn't if the situation was reversed...What do I do? They're probably worried if they don't think I'm dead yet.'
She glanced at Squeak, then at the flowers in the vase on the table. 'Aerith is probably concerned, too. Hm. I wonder how her date went...' Tifa went back to staring at her book with a wistful sigh. She wondered what time it was, until she heard creaking footsteps and the shower running upstairs. 'Sometime after sunset.' Shivering, Tifa lifted herself from the couch after putting her open book on the table. She glanced at Squeak. "I'll be right back."
Squeak seemed to huff while staring at her, Tifa rolled her eyes and then went up to her room, searching for her jacket; the large thin T-shirt and baggy pajama pants she found in the guest drawers not quite keeping her warm enough.
Her mind continued to mull over everything as she found the article of clothing, the conflict between her experience as a vampire hunter and this new, entirely different situation. As she made her way down the stairs Tifa wrapped her jacket around her; she froze as she hit the bottom step. Heavy footsteps snapped her out of her thoughts, and suddenly she didn't feel safe any more.
A black haired man came to a standstill near the center of the room, arms crossed over his chest as he looked around the living room with a frown. The man's blue eyed gaze fell onto Tifa's wide, red eyes, and he pointed as he approached her. "Hey, you're Cloud's-" She tried to shoot up the stairs to get a height advantage in a fight but felt lightheaded, and she stumbled; a hand grabbed her shoulder, causing her to gasp. "Wait a second!"
Twisting her shoulder to escape his grip, Tifa turned around and gave a weak push to his chest to send him back to the living room as she attempted to get up to higher ground. She couldn't let him have any more of an advantage than he already did; this must have been the vampire that Cloud was speaking to last night, the one that was eager to catch her. "Cloud!"
Tifa blindly charged up the stairs, and then she felt a strong arm pulling her up the rest of the way and a wet, warm chest on her cheek. She looked up, Cloud sporting an annoyed grimace under his soaked bangs as he attempted to hold on to her waist in one arm and the white towel covering his hips in the other. "What the hell, Zack?"
"You opened the door!"
"I told Squeak to because he said she was upstairs!"
Tifa looked between the two. "I...just went upstairs to get my jacket." she said in a whisper. Cloud looked down at her, then a little past Zack with a hard stare.
"That wasn't funny, Squeak." he hissed.
Zack scratched his cheek with a finger. "I wasn't gonna hurt her..." He glanced at Tifa, and she stared back at him, and held onto Cloud tighter. "My name is Zack, if you haven't heard already." he said with a disarming smile. "What's your name?"
Tifa said nothing back.
Cloud gave her a squeeze, and she looked up at him. "C'mon. Let's get you back to your room, okay?"
Tifa nodded, hesitant to leave his side; it was ironic to her that she was clinging to him for dear life now when almost two days ago she cringed at his touch. But she still felt weak as her body recuperated from blood loss. The vampire escorted her to her room as footsteps descended the stairs. She released her tight grip on his torso as they entered the room, and then he walked off to his room after patting her back. She locked the door and leaned on it, listening for anything on the other side of the door and ready to move and defend herself.
Minutes passed and she heard footsteps go past her door, then murmurings downstairs as the two spoke; she put her ear to the door and made out Zack saying that he didn't mean to scare her, and Cloud asking him to act a little calmer the next time they met. Eventually she heard them say their goodbyes and door opening and closing, then footsteps coming towards her door. A knock issued from the other side and she unlocked and peeked out of the door. The spiky headed vampire was clothed, a cowl resting on his shoulders.
"He's gone, Tifa."
Tifa nodded as she opened the door further, but she was baffled he would allow him into the house while she was wanted by his guild. "Did you...tell him about me?"
"Only him."
"Even after he invited you to find me?" she asked incredulously.
He sighed. "I wouldn't trust just anyone with this, considering we'd both be dead." Cloud moved out of her way, beckoning her to come downstairs. "Zack...he's worried you'll kill me, so he said he was gonna do nightly visits until he gets to know you better. When Squeak told me there was a knock at the door and that you were upstairs..." he glared at the rat who stood by the couch as he reached the living room, "I told him to open the door. I didn't want Zack busting the door in in a panic while I was in the shower."
"He wants to know me better?" she asked as she sat down on the couch again.
"When you're ready to speak to him, so he stops this nonsense." He stood, arms crossed as he glared at Squeak, the rat nonplussed at his master's irritation for his earlier transgression. To Tifa, it seemed the little servant was on a loose leash if he would go that far to seek petty revenge on her.
Tifa hummed to herself. "When I'm ready...I'm ready to go home, not be interviewed by a vampire."
Her captor snorted, tapping the fingers of one hand on a bicep. "We don't have many options at all in regards to that..."
"What options do I have now?"
He let out a loud sigh and eyed Squeak as the fat rat climbed up the couch opposite Tifa. Tifa's stomach lurched as the vampire's eyes then went to her. "Since you won't move back to Nibelheim, and I can't have you running around as a vampire hunter anymore..."
She shook her head. "You want me to become one of your servants?" she hissed with no small amount of suspicion. "You'd have full control over me!"
He shrugged. "You've been in my house the last two nights. If this was about controlling you, I wouldn't present it as a solution. I would have done it the instant I brought you here."
She narrowed her eyes. "The last five years I've been fighting the darkness, and you want me to become a part of it?"
"Do you have a better idea? I'm giving you the chance to be completely off limits to my guild."
Tifa huffed. "And then what? My guild is going to be looking for me. They know where I live. I can't tell them I'm not interested anymore. They'll know something happened." She looked down at her feet. Vampire hunters don't reappear after several nights unless they're servants or new vampires, and they made for some extremely dangerous opponents if they hadn't been killed outright. Or so her compatriots had said.
"But they wouldn't kill you over it...right?" He looked uncertain as her gaze came back to him.
She opened her mouth to speak but promptly closed it again; they wouldn't do that, would they? Almost all the servants she came in contact with were put down, however. 'Almost all of them. Why couldn't we save them like some of the others...?' Tifa hadn't questioned that before. Couldn't they force holy water on them to remove the unholy taint? She was silent for a minute, her face a frown as she thought it over. "I don't know."
He shook his head. "Maybe your guild is as cutthroat as mine is. At least with the assassin's guild, they're honest about it." Tifa knew of that guild, a small, secretive collective that took care of some of the city's dirty business. There had been rumors of vampires working for them, and here was proof, standing before her.
"It's not like I don't know what happens to a majority of servants vampire hunters face, even those that were formerly of the guild..." The thought was jarring still, and the question of why their guild wasn't saving them continued to run through her head. 'Shouldn't we try to save them if we have the chance? Even when we weren't in a hurry the hunter I was under went for kills instead, rarely saving them.'
She was snapped out of her thoughts by a heavy sigh. "Why did you have to become a vampire hunter...it was because of me, wasn't it?"
She nodded after a tense moment. When Zangan explained to her what had happened to Cloud, she had to save his soul. That was her primary reason for joining the crusade against the undead, him. It hurt every time she thought about it, even now as she questioned all she knew.
"You...went through all this trouble, and you probably almost got yourself killed more times than I'd like to think...just because of me?" His eyes were guilt filled as he gazed at the flowers on the table.
Tifa shrugged, looking away. "I didn't want...you...to be this."
The vampire snorted. "I certainly didn't want to be this, either. I wanted to fight the monsters that threaten the city, not become a monster myself." he said bitterly. He covered his hair with his hood, then looked at Squeak and then Tifa. "I need to leave for now. Would you two please get along? I don't wanna come back to you two fighting over something silly." Taking one last, lingering look at Tifa, he disappeared through the door as he brought up the fabric that covered his mouth.
He couldn't believe it. Or, maybe he could. Tifa's guild wasn't as beneficent as she would have thought at first glance, even though Cloud himself could understand why; they were after things like him, and some vampires just had to go out and cause more ruckus than what was needed. But killing their servants rather than freeing them when the chance presented itself was just harsh.
At least with the assassin's guild they laid everything out to you. Cross them and you're dead. If you have a target kill them and only them if at all possible. Other members were off limits, and traitors were killed. It was what you expected from a group of hired murderers; the ruling class to the lowliest beggar could count on them so long as they had the gil to pay.
He still had to shake his head at where fate took him in these last five years.
Turning onto a quiet street, he checked the numbers that hung upon the front of the houses for the home of his mark; Cloud would scout him out first before ending his life. Information was relatively bare on the mark; he knew the name, description, a basic schedule, and that there was no preferred method of dispatch, so long as the body would be found. The vampire found it a bit out of the ordinary, but it could be to send a message to someone for all he knew.
Cloud found the house and hid in the shadows nearby to watch for any activity. Crouching down he stayed perfectly still, though his mind was still running like it had since the moment he woke up. He really wasn't quite sure what to do if Tifa wouldn't take one of the two offered solutions, maybe wait and see if she became desperate enough to leave that she took one. It was cruel, he knew, but if there was something he learned in his short life it was that it was that it was filled with hard choices.
People passed by, oblivious of the predator in wait in the darkness; Cloud watched the mark's neighbors with interest when they made an appearance. He had to observe them, too, in case they could possibly interfere in a few nights. They came and went and came back again, but the mark had not yet made an appearance. The vampire frowned, and wondered if the schedule relayed to him was in error.
A little while longer a somewhat portly man matching the description of the mark walked by, the man walking quickly as if late. Cloud focused on the man and his visage, the unruly hair and the jewelry adorning fingers and his neck. He narrowed his eyes in thought; this wasn't a particularly wealthy area. Perhaps, he thought, it may be fake jewelry for the sake of impressing someone.
The man finally made his way into his home and after a minute Cloud sent out a suggestion to his mark to open the door to check his mailbox; the man was weak willed enough to follow through without trouble. He would be no trouble to kill in an empty alley. Satisfied, Cloud left after the man locked himself inside his home and went off to walk and gather his thoughts. Tomorrow night, he would follow the man's route to his home.
Keeping to the darkness he took the long way home as he looked up at the stars, so much dimmer in the city than out in the country. He would love if Tifa could see them with him again. A thought flashed through his mind, and he smiled to himself; it wouldn't be such a risk if she pulled up her hood.
Coming to the end of the alley he heard the sound of growls and girly grunts nearby and he rushed off in the direction of the sounds, an image flashed in his head as he came towards the battle. Sneaking behind a corner he made out a woman that had to be much younger than Tifa struggling to battle a single ghoul. His ghoul.
Cloud watched the battle, the ghoul almost ripping out the girl's throat several times as she attempted to dodge the monster's attacks. Finally she threw a vial at it, the liquid inside stunning the beast as he swiped her arm, causing her to cry out a muffled groan. She stabbed the undead creature with a silvery shank and it began to dissolve into ash. Her breaths were harsh and she held her cut arm as she recuperated by a wall.
He walked out from his hiding place, the young woman's eyes widening at his approach. "First time fighting a ghoul?" he inquired, the girl blinking a few times as she tried to make sense of the stranger in front of her. Cloud kept his stance non-threatening, though he was sure his face covering was suspicious. "You must be new if this little guy gave you so much trouble."
"What's it to you, buddy?..." She stared him down, shank gripped in her hand.
Cloud smirked under the fabric covering his mouth and looked down at the remains, giving the pile a gentle kick. It was one less thing to keep watch over; he had to sentimental feelings towards the creature. He preferred the river and the creatures within for discarding bodies when needed as it was. He glanced back up at her. "You're not very good at fighting."
The obvious rookie huffed, eyes flashing with annoyance. "What is this, a test? Who are you?" She looked him up and down, narrowing her eyes as she skirted the wall a few steps, putting more space between the two.
"Didn't they teach you to be more careful? Vampires keep ghouls. If the vampire catches you, you might take the place of their pet..." Cloud walked closer to the girl, and he could practically smell the fear pouring of off her now as the realization that she was alone with a vampire struck her.. "After they're done playing with you, of course."
The teen's hands were visibly shaking, and as quickly as she could she backed away from the advancing vampire. With one last glare she dashed down an alleyway, and Cloud rolled his eyes. 'That leads to a dead end.' He followed at a brisk pace, the girl running through the darkness until the brick wall in the back blocked her path.
"Shit!"
She looked back at Cloud and desperately swung her silver shank at him; he caught her wrist and pried the weapon out of her hand before shoving her to the ground. Cloud bent down and studied her, the quick breaths, the wide eyes, the sweat on her forehead. He held the shank to her neck. "You have to be the worst vampire hunter I've ever had the displeasure of meeting."
The rookie glared down at the weapon pointed at herself and then up at Cloud, her jaw clenched tight as she grimaced. Cloud continued to observe the girl as she laid there on the ground, frozen. 'Just another problem needing solving.' He brought the tip of the weapon closer. He wanted to finish her off, he wanted to nip this little problem in the bud. The longer Cloud looked at her, however, the more he thought of Tifa. Several tense moments passed, the only sound the labored breathing of the girl as she felt the sharp, cold end of her weapon pressing into her skin. He pressed a little harder, getting her to gasp out a small cry.
With an agitated sigh, Cloud took the shank away from her neck. "Go home, kid."
The teenager blinked several times in an obvious state of disbelief. "What?"
"I said, go home. Don't let me find you out here again, pretending to be a vampire hunter." Cloud stood up, the shank still in his hand. "Because if I do, you'll be my slave until the day you die...If I'm not thirsty that night." He leaped over the wall, leaving the girl to her own devices.
'What the hell is wrong with me? I had every reason to kill her.' He squeezed his fists hard enough to make the leather of his gloves squeak as he quickly made his way back to his home. He studied the weapon in his hand, similar to Tifa's weapon if a bit smaller. A little red ribbon was wrapped around the hilt, and a few small runes were etched at the base of the business end.
Cloud mindlessly entered his home, still thinking and looking over the new souvenir in his possession. He was snapped out of his reverie by a startled gasp, Tifa's hands over her mouth and her saucer like eyes staring at the silver weapon in his hand as she stood near the stairs. "Someone you know?" he asked as he put down his mask and hood.
"You...oh God, Rox..." her eyes were becoming watery.
"Young and sassy, with short black hair?" He watched as tears started to fall onto her cheeks, Tifa's nod barely discernible. Maybe it was a good thing he didn't kill her. "She's fine."
Tifa put her hands down, naked surprise on her face. "What?" she almost whispered.
"I didn't kill her. I just took her weapon, I swear." He hoped she would believe him, it's not like he smelled like blood, after all.
She cocked her head to the side, studying the vampire as he looked back. "Why?"
He shrugged. "Because I'm an idiot." he said matter-of-factly.
Tifa wiped her eyes with the back of her jacket's sleeve, a sniffle leaving her nose before she released a quivering sigh. "I...Thank you." Her face came into view as she put her arm down, her warm red eyes still wet but her mouth twitched upwards into a smile. Cloud nodded at her thanks before he left for his room upstairs. He locked the weapon away with Tifa's in a chest by the wall, tossed his gloves and hooded cowl onto his bed and then went downstairs to the kitchen as Tifa hid her face in a book as she sat on the couch. He felt his mouth twitch upwards, delighted to have seen the smallest of smiles on her face.
He filled his teapot and put it on the stove, then listened to Squeak as he crawled onto the table; the two mostly kept to themselves while he was gone, but he had caught the woman trying to keep back tears at one point. Cloud bit his lip, wondering how much inner turmoil the situation was causing his friend.
The teapot sounded and he fished out two mugs and teabags, filling them in silence. Again he waited until the tea was ready, discarding the bags and taking the mugs to the living room. Tifa glanced up at him from her book, then took the offered cup. "It's a little stuffy in here, isn't it?"
She shrugged as she blew on her tea. "It's not like I can go outside and get some fresh air." she said, defeated.
Cloud smiled down at her and offered his hand. "Maybe not out the front door, but...would you like to see the stars with me, Tifa?"
Tifa gave him a perplexed look as well as her hand, standing up and following him up the stairs, curiosity piqued. There was a door near his bedroom that lead to the flat roof of his home, a place he rarely visited. It was sealed like the front door, so he wasn't worried about showing her and then waking up to her gone.
"Put up your hood..." She did so, and Cloud opened the simple white door, Tifa gasping happily as the cool spring air hit her face. He watched as she smiled at the twinkling stars above them, and he took her to a darker corner of the roof. They sat next to each other, the vampire sitting to Tifa's right. "I thought you could use some fresh air."
He heard her sip her tea. "Thank you."
He grunted. "It's nothing." Cloud looked up at the stars and low hanging moon, then looked down at her as she kept her eyes to the sky. "I'm...I'm sorry I yelled at you last night."
Tifa looked back at him, the moon and stars dancing in her eyes in a way that tortured Cloud. "It's alright. I...I just..." She turned to her mug, then sighed loudly. "This is so hard."
He nodded, sipping his tea. They were silent for many minutes as they gazed at the sky, Cloud overwhelmed with a sense of nostalgia. "You made me promise to save you when you were in a pinch under these stars, seven years ago."
Tifa hummed, and he took a short glance at her to see a pained face. "I thought...oh, never mind."
"What?"
"Nothing..."
He decided it was best not to force her and he turned back, looking again at the stars. They always reminded him of Tifa, at first how he would come back to her, then how he failed her, and now how he hoped to get through to her. He brought a hand up to run his fingers through his hair, then heard a surprised hum from Tifa. He turned to face her, brows up.
"What's that?" she asked, pointing at his wrist.
He sat his mug down on the ground and looked at whatever Tifa had noticed. "Hm? Oh. It's the bracelet you gave me before I left." He studied it fondly.
"You...kept that?"
Cloud glanced back up at her before looking down at it again. "I've worn it ever since you gave it to me. I didn't have anything else to remember you by..." It wasn't what one would consider a manly piece in the least, but the day she presented it to him his heart nearly burst out of his chest. He only ever took it off to shower, and it was a constant reminder of Tifa and what he left behind; a bittersweet token he relished. Cloud could feel Tifa's eyes burning a hole through his wrist, her fingers skimming the surface of the glass beads, as if it would confirm it really was the same one she gifted him all those years ago.
She put her mug down and covered her face with her knees as she gripped her legs, shaking her head a few times. Cloud looked back at her, her shoulders quivering and nose sniffling. He bit his lip, unsure what to do or why she was suddenly beginning to cry. "Tifa?"
Tifa shuddered an exhale and squeezed her knees tighter. "Cloud...why did it have to end up like this, Cloud?"
He couldn't answer her question, only wishing they both had met under happier circumstances as he rubbed her back in silence. She flinched at the touch at first, but relaxed back into her sorrow as the moments wore on.