A/N: This fic is such a mess. Multichapters are not my forte, and certainly not entirely unplanned ones. Because this is what happens; an entire freakin' chapter that is nothing but exposition, and then the next chapter is nothing but smut. What the heck is a 'balanced narrative'?
But yeah. This chapter is the one where a lot more of the world-building details start to show up. So there's that, lol.
Zack called during Cloud's lunch break the next day. It was not the most coherent of conversations, since Zack started by apologising profusely without even explaining why.
"—and I know it's such a pain, I really wanted to hang out with you more as soon as possible, but it's just this thing's come up, and I'm sorry, I swear. I'll make it up to you when I get back, but they don't even know how long—"
"Zack," Cloud had interrupted. "Just tell me what's going on."
Nothing worthy of such a tirade, that was for sure. Zack just had a mission out of town, and would be gone for at least one or two nights. It was unfortunate timing, because that would take it into the weekend and Cloud had really wanted to spend more time talking with Zack and getting some answers. But it was hardly the first time Zack had been sent off, and it wouldn't be the last. At least it wasn't weeks this time.
The fact Zack had been making such a big deal out of it actually helped Cloud handle it better. It kind of stung that Zack was leaving so soon, even though Cloud knew full well it wasn't his fault. Zack complaining about being tempted just to ditch the mission made Cloud laugh and put things into perspective. It was Zack's damn job, and he had told Zack as much.
"I'm not going anywhere, moron. I'll be here when you get back."
Zack shipped out before Cloud finished work, so Cloud had just gone home to his own place. It felt a little weird – Friday nights had almost always been the one time he put aside to see Zack, no matter how busy the rest of the week had been. It was quiet without him.
Cloud hardly minded quiet. He would've killed for it back in his army days. But with quiet came the unfortunate habit for his brain to overthink.
Around Zack, everything seemed so straightforward. Cloud felt like Zack would always have his back, no matter what. So even if he didn't know all the answers right then, between himself and Zack they'd solve any problem the world threw at him. He didn't know everything about what being a vampire meant, but Zack did, and he knew Zack would tell him, piece by piece between games and food and kisses. Or more.
The longer Cloud was without Zack's reassuring presence, the more he began to doubt.
He didn't know what being a vampire meant; he'd barely scratched the surface. Sure, he knew a whole fucking lot thanks to his little obsession, but that was about fictional shit. His interest had previously only been an idea. Maybe something to turn into an incredibly hot roleplay with a lover. When it came to the reality of it, he was suddenly in over his head.
That was another thing. The sort of thing that made Cloud lie in bed and pull the pillow over his head, wishing he could smother his embarrassment out. It was one thing to have a fetish centred around a fictional concept, but if they weren't fictional after all—there were real people who were vampires and Cloud had just fetishized the shit out of them as a group without even knowing—gods. He felt like the stupidest, most thoughtless pile of shit on the planet.
Worst of all was he hadn't even changed; he still thought of Zack, Zack's fangs, how it felt when they grazed against Cloud's skin, and he still got as turned on as ever. Fuck.
Cloud rolled over aggressively, burying himself into the covers as if he could make himself disappear. He needed to stop thinking about it. There was nothing he could do about his actions thus far; all he could do was try to do a lot better in the future.
With nothing else to do on a Friday night at such short notice - and never having been much of one to go out anyway - Cloud had ended up staying in and going to bed early. He was regretting that course of action now, because it only resulted in longer to lay awake while his brain replayed '101 moments you hideously embarrassed yourself and made everyone hate you'.
"Fuck you too, brain," Cloud mumbled into the pillow.
But maybe even that was better than the other worry that gnawed at his gut. Because then, on top of all that, there were the others. The other vampires who Zack was with. He didn't even know how many, just that Zack seemed to have been talking in the plural.
He wasn't going to judge. There had been a guy in his old unit who had a polyamorous relationship; they'd all been privy to that development, whether they'd liked it or not. Things hadn't been working out between him and his girlfriend – they were so in love, but working for ShinRa just didn't leave enough time for him to see her as often as she needed him to. Feeling shitty as hell but understanding, he'd actually helped her set up other dates, one of which was with a good friend of his. They'd hit it off. But rather than ending things and moving on with the new relationship, they'd come to an agreement to make it work with all three of them.
Most of the unit had given the guy tons of shit for it, assuming the girl was just with this new dude and keeping him hanging around for fun. But Cloud admired him. He'd fought tooth and nail for that relationship, and he'd ended up with something that worked for all parties involved. Cloud could tell he was so much happier after it all got sorted.
So, no. It didn't bother Cloud that Zack had other lovers. But… he wanted to meet them, at least. Be on good terms with each other, be friends. Maybe they wouldn't ever hit it off as anything more, but that was okay. To Cloud, it felt important to know about the other people who played such a significant role in Zack's life.
He'd talk to Zack about it when he got back. Maybe then he could shake his vague feeling of unease about the whole thing.
It was a plan; or the start of one, at least.
That just left one last burning question in Cloud's mind. Or perhaps not so much a question as an entire topic. Everything about vampires, Cloud wanted to know. Had Zack always been a vampire, or had he become one somehow? How did that work? He clearly didn't have a problem going out in the sunlight or eating garlic, where all those myths just bullshit? Was his enhanced strength and speed anything to do with being a vampire, or was that just from having been in SOLDIER before? What did ShinRa know about vampires, and what was their beef with them? What about the supposed 'vampire threat' Zack – and others, Cloud presumed – got sent out to combat occasionally?
It was fucking exhausting just thinking about it. He couldn't even blame Zack for not having told him – there was so much Cloud needed to know, it would take forever to talk it through. They'd do it, though, piece by piece.
Of course, Cloud couldn't get any direct answers until Zack got back. But, he wondered… a lot of stuff out there was just the cycle of movies and books regurgitating the latest trendy incarnation of vampire lore, but Cloud knew of one or two places that might have some more relevant information. If he got a feel for what to expect, it might make that conversation with Zack faster and less one-sided. If nothing else, they could laugh over how wrong everyone was.
Yeah, he decided. He'd do that tomorrow.
By the time Cloud's brain had finally stopped overthinking enough to let him sleep, it was already the early hours of the morning. That was probably the reason why he woke up a lot later than he'd intended the following day.
Cloud blearily informed his alarm clock that it was a piece of shit (though, of course, he was the one who had set it specifically not to go off on the weekends). After a quick bowl of cereal, a shower and getting dressed, Cloud headed out to the station.
Did he need to go to the library to do his research? No. He had a laptop and a phone that both would have been entirely capable, but… Zack had him getting paranoid. Cloud was absolutely not meant to know about the whole vampire thing, and he could get Zack in serious shit if anyone found out he had told Cloud.
He knew it was stupid. What were the chances anyone was gonna be checking his internet activity? Sure, his wifi was provided by ShinRa - a bonus they provided alongside the subsidised apartments they offered to their staff (it was the only way any of the lower level workers could afford to live above the Plate). That didn't mean ShinRa was watching all the information that went through the network.
Whatever. It was nice to go out somewhere on his day off anyway.
Cloud hadn't been to the library in a long time; it was pleasant to watch the familiar building roll into sight as the train approached. It really had been years.
When Cloud had first arrived in Midgar and joined the army, he'd never intended to stay there. His goal was SOLDIER. But he failed his first attempt to get in, and before he had a second chance the whole SOLDIER project was shut down. He drifted for a bit; to the logistics department first, then the engineering corps.
That was when he'd sought solace in the library; they were provided with basic training, of course, but Cloud had found a love in working with mechanics, and wanted to devour far more information than the army provided. He'd finally found something he excelled at. And excelled enough that he'd been picked out for an internship in the ShinRa's general engineering department.
He'd been working in the engineering department since. Instead of just maintaining the equipment the military used, Cloud now got to play with anything from cutting-edge robotics to the mako reactors. As well as a few side projects of his own.
Although it had been a while, not much had changed. Cloud found himself drifting fondly to the non-fiction section; in particular, the shelves that housed the library's books on mechanics. And of more immediate concern, the small study room behind that section that also housed a pair of computers for library patrons to use.
The room was empty, as Cloud had been counting on. Being small and out of the way, a lot of people didn't know about it, or perhaps simply couldn't be bothered to go all the way up to the third floor just to sit in a glorified cupboard to study.
Cloud slid into the computer seat and logged on.
The first thing he wanted to check was ShinRa's official stance. Zack had said they viewed vampires as the 'bad guys' – why? They kept Zack employed, what was the difference between him and anyone else?
There was nothing on ShinRa's own site. Just a generic statement about protecting the population from monsters, environmental disasters, and other threats.
Searching specifically for news articles featuring 'ShinRa' and 'vampire' as keywords turned out to be a little more useful. The oldest article was from five years ago, asking for ShinRa's comment on a sudden surge in attacks in Midgar that were being attributed to vampires. The PR spokesman denied there being any such thing as vampires, suggesting instead that these were simply another vaguely humanoid monster that panicked victims were mistaking as something else. ShinRa would protect, as always.
Cloud noted the date down. Surge of vampire attacks – that could be relevant to something.
The newer articles didn't seem to have anything of relevance. Cloud skim-read through a few; the only difference seemed to be that, over time, the PR department had picked up the public's colloquial term, and now used 'vampire' themselves as a word to refer to the sort of monsters that preferred to kill by ripping their victims throat out with their teeth.
Attacks dropped to a steady rate, no more than any other kind of monster (human or otherwise) around, and the idea mostly faded from the public consciousness.
Next line of enquiry, then. What were these supposed 'vampire' monsters? 'Cause they sure didn't sound a damn thing like Zack. Or any of the types of vampires generally popularised by the media. (Cloud knew a lot about those ones – ahem.) In fact, the monster thing was new; Cloud couldn't really find any mention of it at all anywhere between really old myths and then the reports starting five years ago.
Hesitantly, Cloud checked some of his old forum haunts. The awkward, hideously embarrassing forum haunts. That was… ahh. Cloud swallowed. A few minutes of clicking around turned into almost half an hour, but he determined one thing; that was nothing with any actual news there, that was for sure. These were the kind of vampires he was more familiar with. There were written stories, stills taken from movies, art of various characters, nothing more than that.
He could feel his face heating up, though. Just some of those picture, fangs sinking into flesh, seeing the blood well up beneath them… Fuck. Why was he like this?!
Cloud quickly clicked away, glancing behind him even though he was alone in the room. A whole fucking decade and he still hadn't escaped his embarrassing vampire phase. And probably wasn't ever going to now.
Anyway. There was one last site he particularly wanted to check – the reason he'd been so particular about not doing this anywhere he could be traced to. AVALANCHE. It was just a conspiracy theory website, but it had proven correct before. Namely, when SOLDIER had been shut down.
Cloud had been desperate for information. Of course he had been, his dream had just been fucking shattered. And on ShinRa's end was nothing but radio silence. For literally months. All that had been issued was a generic statement about SOLDIER no longer running, but other departments being fully functional and ready to defend Midgar as much as ever.
So Cloud had turned to other places. Rumours had been rife, of course. But AVALANCHE was the one place that had come out with a statement and stuck to it, claiming there had been a mass desertion. Another year later, Cloud met Zack, an ex-SOLDIER, and that was confirmed to be true. Though even then, no one knew the reason for the mass desertion. Zack hadn't elaborated beyond a tight-lipped; "ShinRa was doing some fucked up shit. They were right to get out."
Of course, the problem was, AVALANCHE was incredibly anti-ShinRa. Even though he wanted nothing to do with the rest of the organisation, just flicking through their 'news' page could get him in serious shit. Especially since he worked with goddamn mako reactors.
Best just find what he needed and get out.
He searched their archives for vampire stories and theories. Every hit was within the last five years; nothing older than that. That matched up to the other date Cloud had got, claiming a surge of vampire attacks around then.
The predominant theory AVALANCHE put forward was that ShinRa themselves were involved. The timing was almost too coincidental… the vampire attacks started almost exactly the same time SOLDIER was shut down. The one group of elite fighters who would be able to handle monsters like that, gone right when they were needed.
The hair on the back of Cloud's neck stood on end. He hadn't even realised… he had been so preoccupied by everything going on with SOLDIER that he had barely registered the whole vampire/monster thing at the time, something that was fairly unusual for him. Normally just the mention of vampires made him sit up and pay attention, but having his life goal destroyed before his eyes had put a bit of a dampener on his enthusiasm for things at that point in time.
He hadn't realised those events had been so close…
AVALANCE often stipulated that monsters in general were caused by exposure to mako. The feral ones had those mutations, those distinctive eyes. These vampires were monsters, but so much more humanoid. Were they too the product of mako exposure and mutation, but on people?
The SOLDIER process involved using mako as an enhancement agent, Cloud knew that much. What if it had… gone wrong somehow, for some of them?
For all of them?
"Zack…"
Cloud had enough information. His blood felt like it was running cold, and he was cursing himself for doing this at a time when Zack wasn't around. Because oh, boy, did he have questions now. Even if it was just a yes or a no answer, he needed to know. Was there a link with SOLDIER?
If there was… Cloud wondered about Zack's other lovers, the other vampires; had they been SOLDIERs once as well? Why were some like Zack, still human, while others had become monsters?
Cloud logged off the computer, his history automatically erased by the system.
The wait for Zack to get back was going to be torture.
