Month 03 – Day 11 – Saturday

The burning sensation rushes through his arm as the poison infects his limb. He winces lightly and murmurs quietly a swear word before kicking the nasty fiend even though it was already dead. His hand goes to the side of his waist to reach for a potion, but he swears again when he realizes he's run out of them. He glances toward the city ahead of him, and estimates that it will take, give or take a good solid hour to reach home.

He swears. This was going to be a long day.

As if last night wasn't long enough either. The talk with Vincent opened up emotions within him he never knew existed. It was difficult, he thought to himself, and most probably why he found himself an hour away from home on a weekend. He usually spent the weekend with them, either lazing around or miscellaneously shopping somewhere around Edge. But here he stood, on the outskirts of Midgar staring at the ruin filled city.

Ever since he defeated Kadaj's gang, there was something about her that made his inner thoughts troubled and uneasy. It wasn't anything she said or did, but it was as if something within him had come to a sort of cross road where everything seem so complicated and strange. It was to put it simply, confusing for a man of his well being. As it was so commonly known, the man with spiky hair and blue serious eyes didn't deal well with situations such as these.

He smiled wearily at himself and the irony of the situation. He always understands the difficult things in life, but the simplest of things he just could never grasp. It wasn't because they were hard to grasp or anything but more so, they were complicated for his nature. His understanding of things was far more literal, strategy base. Maybe that was why he did well to fight, but never to understand emotions. After all, Shinra builds Soldiers to fight, not to deal with emotions. But admits his troubled past, he had in fact felt emotions before and dealt with them in many ways than one.

Although, when it came to her it was so much more difficult to understand, he thought as he rode Fenrir through the dusty filled outskirts of Midgar.

He defeated Sepriroth several times already, and defeated a dozen and much more of Soldiers back then, but what he felt right now when he thought of her, it seem a lot more complicated and somewhat scary. He didn't really know what to call it or what to name it for that matter, but he knew one thing and that was that, whenever he looked at her or talked to her, his heart would skip a thousand beats, and his lips would go dry. He would feel himself tensing as if not knowing how to relax all of a sudden. And it's funny, because he shouldn't be afraid of her, she's his best friend. But yet, why when he stands next to her and looks her in the eyes does his knee buckle and his body go limp?

It was like this thing that went forever and never ended. This thing that clouded his mind and warmed his heart, it made him feel completely and simply, happy. He shrugged the thoughts away as he pulled Fenrir to a stop at the red light.

He presses a hand at his forehead when the streets suddenly start becoming double. He squints his eyes a little, and tries his best to focus, but for some reason everything is becoming blurry. He waves a little in his seat, trying to sit properly.

"Yo, you alright?"

He turns to his side to see a familiar red head. But for some reason he just cannot put his finger on who it actually is. He nods his head slightly, murmuring something under his breath.

"You don't look so good," another guy says. He's wearing sun glasses, and his head is quite shiny. He shrugs a little at the red head beside him.

"I'm uh... I'm fine," he says, still trying to focus his eyes on them.

"Are you drunk, yo?"

He shakes his head, and slips a little when he tries to push himself up on the bike. He feels a hand catch his arm and he glares instantly to the bearer of the arm.

"Woah, relax, it's me," the red headed guy said pressing a hand to himself, "Reno... and that's Rude."

"Re-no?" he mutters slowly. "Reno?"

"Yo, that's me."

"Tifa..."

"Um... I'm not Tifa."

"I need to-"

"I think he needs a potion," Rude says plainly.

"Like no shit?"

"I've run out."

Reno groaned and pressed a hand to his forehead, "I've run out too."

"Let's take him to Tifa, her bar is just down the road."

"Tifa..." he barely whispers before his world goes black.

"...bad sting..."

The noises seem to drown out behind his head like an echo.

"...poisoned by fiend...don't know what type..."

What fiend? Poisoned? Since when?

"...he be okay?"

Okay? Is something wrong?

"I think..."

He opens his eyes barely enough to see the spinning fan on the ceiling. He recognizes the photo frames at the side of his wall, but he vaguely remembers coming home at all. The last thing he remembered was fighting that fiend.

That fiend!

His eyes come to a full open, and he comes to a stand instantly. But the head ache that shoots through his mind makes him cower as his hand comes to his forehead at lightning speed.

"Cloud, you need to sit down," that voice is familiar, feminie yet stern.

He looks in the direction of the voice and sighs a little when he discovers who it is. He watches as she hurriedly places the tray with a bowl of soup on it on the table before coming to his aid. She touches his arm and brings him to a sitting position.

"Are you okay?" she asks as she places a hand at his forehead. "Geez, you're burning up."

He blinks a couple of times, blankly staring at her. "The fiend..."

She nods her head as she places a cool towel at his forehead. "Yeah, Reno told me."

"Reno?"

"Reno and Rude," she says, "They brought you back here."

"What?"

"They said they saw you at the intersection about two blocks from here," she explains, "They said you looked kind of drunk."

"I wasn't."

"I know," she says with a small smile. "Turns out you were poisoned."

"By a fiend, yeah."

"Didn't you have any potions?" she asks.

"Ran out," he says boyishly.

"Why didn't you go to the convenience store? It would have been closer than coming all the way here," she says to him.

"I thought I could make it home," he says.

She stares at him for a long moment before rolling her eyes and saying plainly, "Always brave aren't you?"

"I just-"

"I know," she says simply as she comes to a stand.

"Hey Tifa," he calls softly.

"Yeah?" she turns around, her brows relaxed as she threw him a homely smile.

"Thanks."

"I didn't do anything though," she replies softly.

"For being here."

She stares at him for a long moment before giving him a warm smile.

"You don't have to thank me for that," he barely hears her mumble as she walks out the door.

A/N: Alright this is the most non-making sense chapter to a story that I've ever written. If non-making sense even makes sense lol. Struggling to keep up with updating the story plus juggle work. Always got to love the christmas shopping rush. Anyway, I will definitely update again before christmas :), with a better update at any rate. Thanks again to all who reviewed to the previous chapter.

Thanks to:

Brocky, SweetMisery49, vx-Luna-xv, Kohyru, crackitlackin, Spiritslayer, Oceanee, Teefie, aww, Cloudtail4ever...

'aww' as you have called yourself in the anonymous review - I know Vincent is not a vampire but occasionally in some ff7 fanfiction stories i've read, authors have referred to him as the vampire because of his vampirish nature (you know, dark and mysterious, spooky and scary, wise and quiet)