Disclaimer: No...just no.:(
He could hear the roar of the crowds as the announcer taunted and teased them. The "kid", Jay something or other, was out there already, he could tell by the onslaught of jeers which greeted his opponent and made his head ache. Taking deep breaths he could feel the familiar sense of dread creep over him, twisting and suffocating his veins. Breathe in. Breathe out. He forced himself to quench the throbbing nausea and remember why he was here, why he chosen to follow this path of selfish adrenaline and death. He relished in the emotions. This was his stadium. His Tokyo. No one, had the arena as full as he had, no one had nearly half the amount of money betted on their fights, no one had reached the heights he had…well this side of the century. He was Cloud Strife, he reminded himself, and he had a job to do, crowds to please, money to earn…
"You ready?"
Cloud twisted around to see a shadowed figure leaning against the door. Wrapping the last of the bandages round his wrists he rolled his head forcing out the last cracks and jumped a few times on the spot to warm himself up, "As I'll ever be. Cue them in."
The figure pushed himself up from his propped position, and started to walk away. He took a couple steps and paused, without looking back he uttered, "Be careful Cloud."
Cloud kept silent.
Cloud stepped into the roofed walkway, which led to a path that snaked through the crowds and finally ended by the chains of the ring. Men came in from all sides surrounding him, to form a sort of circle of protection, but most knew that out of everyone present, Strife didn't need it. Cloud's head was still spinning, but he thanked the lord that his nose had gotten use to the sickening concoction of stale blood, sweat and tears. He raised his gaze and saw him. The opponent was in the ring, prancing around like a twit, as if he owned the place. It was at this point, as always, that his overwhelming dread dissipated, his hands clenched and body released that vital initial burst of adrenaline. He closed his eyes and fell into that oh-so-familiar trance. His breathing quickened, as did his heart rate. All sounds became fuzzy and undistinguishable. He faintly heard the announcer say something, and it was as if someone turned the volume right down. The crowd was silent. Deathly so. Cloud opened his eyes and saw Jay Zhao stop his movements and visibly tense. He smirked. It's time.
Giving a nod to one of the men he was more acquainted with, Rude, he signalled he was ready. Stepping out from under the covered path, the crowd caught sight of him and went ballistic. Cloud, well naturally, he was in his element.
Sweeping his body under the chains and into the ring, he met with Zack in his corner, never once looking up to meet the eyes of his opponent.
"They seem to love you more today!" he shouted, trying to be heard over the surrounding din.
"Jealous much?" Cloud allowed a smile to grace his face.
"Psssh, it's nothing compared to the sound my women make as I pou-"
"Ah Zack. Their eyes were closed weren't they, not my fault all women envision me as they're fucking." He smirked and tilted his head to look at his friend, the expression disappeared when he immediately realised Zack's attempt at lightening the situation was to calm himself more than Cloud. His mouth was set in a firm line, his eyes directed to the opposite side, Cloud refused to follow his stare, timing was everything.
"You have the biggest ego I have ever come across Strife…it's time." Zack ducked out of the ring, and jumped to the ground. Their eyes met, and he winked, "Get him."
Cloud responded with a firm nod, don't worry man...and made his way to the ring's centre. From that moment, it was as if he fell into a chasm of emptiness. All the clamour was gone, apart from the sound of his own heartbeat. Keeping his eyes to the ground he saw the shoed feet of the announcer, and the bare ones of his opponent. Finally, he lifted his gaze. Ice blue met black. The blue's penetrating stare was almost haunting, and the other set visibly flinched and had to look away. Cloud sneered. The first battle was won.
"Cloud, ready?"
Nod.
"Mr. Zhao?"
Wavering a little, he too nodded.
"Right, commence."
Taking a step forward they bowed, then immediately both stepped back. Cloud shook his arms by his sides for a few seconds, never taking his eyes off his adversary.
The hunt began.
The racket in the bar that night was unbearable for one poor barmaid. The football was on, with Tokyo FC and Urawa Reds playing each other. The multiple missed chances, and one wrongly given penalty had left Tokyo one down in the middle of the second half, the specific ugly diving incident which led to the smoothly taken spot-kick had just occurred, the bar erupting in curses. Tifa Lockhart was sure they were going to take the roof off. She was happy though, nights like these really brought the customers, to the point on most occasions she and Yuffie never stopped moving. Glancing to her left she spotted said girl tearing out her hair at the aforementioned goal, laughing to herself, she went about tapping out another beer.
"Yuffie, Yuffie…Yuffie…"
"Oi!" Yuffie appeared and slyly poked a carefully directed finger in Tifa's side, causing her to jerk from the tickling sensation, "Don't use my name in vain."
One minute he was in front of him, the next…he was gone. Spinning around Cloud tried to discern where the agile little fuck was now. Seriously, he has some superman shit going down here, he groaned inwardly. Suddenly there was a flash of green of the right. Cloud snapped around, bringing his body in a defence stance just in time as one hand flew out of nowhere to distract him, and the other, fingers outstretched, reached for his neck, jabbing him in the side. SHIT. Cloud immediately reacted and threw himself to the ground, his body now crouching low, animal-like. He could feel the process already. Dammit…Zhao had hit a vital receptor in his neck precisely. This action caused his body to send signals to lower his blood pressure, his breathing became shallower; this was just to slow me down. Quickly, a few seconds from throwing himself to the mat, he got up, forcing himself to control his body, which at the moment was a losing battle. Come ON. He had to force himself to try harder to inhibit the oncoming dizziness. This guy is good. Closing his eyes momentarily he focussed hard, knowing the time had come to up his game…he had taken too many hits and delivered fewer. To any onlookers, this little moment of Cloud's was missed, but for Cloud, it felt like an eternity. He didn't think he needed to go this far, especially with this procedure being so unstable. Not with this skinny shit anyway. Harnessing his strength, the remnants of the mysterious Mako energy he had in his body, and hoping for the damn best, he opened his eyes.
Green. Bingo.
Jay Zhao was collecting his breath by the corner. The crowd was deafening for him, but he knew he hit the jackpot as Cloud crouched. He waited till the jab effects took its toll, he enjoyed this part…watching his enemy slowly deteriorate. But the last thing he was ready for was for Cloud Strife to get up so quickly, and lock his eyes on his. Zhao could feel something change in the air, and it was as if the crowd did too as it silenced. The air became hot and sticky as he stared into the green pair of eyes. Green? Zhao's own eyes widened considerably. What the hell was going on?
A devilish smile broke out onto Cloud's face, distorting it so. With his eyes still trained on Zhao's, he rolled his shoulders back and laughed. And it sounded dangerous. Swiftly he somehow glided to Zhao without him noticing even a twitch of Cloud's muscle, and grasped him by the neck. Holding the opponent a foot off the ground. Zhao tried to fight back, but he found that he couldn't move. In his head he was screaming to his muscles, but it was in vain, he just couldn't move. He saw Cloud's mouth open, and he strained his ears to hear, "I've played fair for too long, little boy. Pray you'll die quickly." Zhao screamed but no sound came as Cloud's free fist collided with his head, snapping it to the side. Still holding him in the air, Cloud launched another tight fist at his adversary's stomach, knocking the air clean from him. Jay Zhao, fell to the floor, still strangely unable to move. This couldn't be happening, he thought desperately. Finding his voice, he found the strength to croak out, "Please…pl-".
But it was too late. As the last thing he ever saw was Cloud's foot colliding down on his neck.
The crowd, once again, went wild. Cloud punched a fist in the air. His eyes smoothly changing back to that infamous, icy blue.
"Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifaaaaaaaaaa!" Yuffie wailed from one of the couches in the living room. Tifa sighed, what now? And trudged to where Yuffie was, laptop resting on her crossed legs.
"What's up Yuffie?"
"OHMYGOD, you'd never guess!" she stopped, and waited expectedly.
Tifa honestly couldn't be arsed. Knowing her friend was waiting for her, she stabbed at a wild guess, "Erm…is it something to do with Cloud Strife?"
"I SWEAR! We have some next level telepathic shit going on!" She grinned excitedly.
Tifa rolled her eyes, "Go on…"
"Well you know Cloud-the-sex-god supports FC Tokyo, and is always at their matches…right?"
Tifa just nodded…what the…
"Well basically the really weird thing is that he wasn't there yesterday…and that match was on Wednesday, which is odd as they're usually on a Saturday…"
Ahh, something which Tifa did realise…the match being on an odd day that is.
"…so what the HELL was he doing huh?"
Tifa rolled her eyes, this girl had problems. "Don't ask me Yuffie! And anyway…does it really matter?"
"YES! This site…"
"What site?" she raised a brow.
"Oh…erm…aha…"
Sensing her too obvious discomfort Tifa reached for the laptop, only to have it quickly snatched further away from her. This only heightened her curiosity, "Yuffie…give me the laptop."
"No." her voice calm and collected.
"Yuffie, what are you hiding?" she could feel her sisterly chiding alter ego getting ready to make an appearance.
"Nothing Tifa! Honestly, it's nothing okay…"
"Yuffie, keep digging."
"But!" She spotted Tifa's glare, sighing in defeat she slid the laptop round to her direction.
Tifa scanned her vision over the website, and saw a plain Google search page open. Looking to the top toolbar where all the opened tabs were she found it, the site name was: xXxCloudxXx.
"Yuffie, I'm not a complete idiot go to that page."
Laughing uneasily she flicked it open, and shut her eyes tight, not wanting to see the appalled look on Tifa's face. Which did come. As the elder of the two looked upon the screen, her jaw dropped. The tagline for the site was: "Are you a young (maybe not…) stalker of the sexy beast Cloud Strife? If so, then this site is for you! Pictures updated daily!" Blinking, she read it over again, Yuffie spends her time on THIS! I knew she was obsessed but this…this is wrong…so wrong! Tifa hated the man, that much she could admit, but he did need some sort of privacy, and as she scanned the pictures beneath, she figured privacy was something he did not have.
Taglines of pictures: "Cloud eating breakfast!" – "Cloud taking a dip…oooh steamy" – "Cloud TOPLESS OMG!" – "Cloud taking a dump…god only he can make it look sexy."
At the last one Tifa couldn't help but laugh, until the look on Yuffie's face shut her up. It was furious.
"Don't laugh at Cloud!"
"First name terms are we?"
Yuffie blushed. And Tifa felt a lecture coming on.
"Yuffie Kisaragi!" The aforementioned visibly flinched. "…you are 19 years old and you spend you time on these sites? This is just wrong Yuffie! I am paying the internet bill for this shit?" Yuffie, expecting this, putting on her best puppy dog face.
"Tiiifaaa, I was just curious. I don't usually go on this! I just wanted to surf the net for a while ok? I'm sorry Tif." She stared up at her, eyes wide and almost watery.
Tifa outwardly groaned. Gargh she always knows what to pull, how can I say no to that adorable little face of hers…
Yuffie smirked inwardly; she could tell she was going to break.
"Fine Yuffie, what did he do last week?"
She commenced, working around the site expertly Tifa noticed for someone who just wanted to "surf the net".
A/N: HEY GUYS! So sorry this took long but I'm having exams and stuff! GCSE's :( Shouldn't even be writing this to be honest...but oh well...couldn't help myself. ANYWAY I really hope you enjoy this chap...kinda fun to write actually :) And stuff should've all been cleared up by now :)
OH AND, thank you SO much to:
Smiley10111-EmileeElectro-Erianna Abyss-Dark Mousy-Karma -Chaotic Symphony-AshAi-Ch0k-naT-Toons-macalaniaprincess
For reviewing so far :). Makes me happpyyy :D
Take care guys
A/N: Revised 02/07/13
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