For The Love of Chaos
Chapter 18
The morning was met by the sound of children playing outside as they ran from place to place. A few clouds dotted the sky, but still could not manage to hide the suns warmth and beauty; it shone brightly overhead.
"Careful now" Tifa said, making her way through the street as a boy quickly ran in front of her. She had just finish shopping and was now heading back to the bar to prepare lunch for everyone.
Once she was inside, she went to the kitchen, placing all the bags on the counter. "Now, to start making lunch" she said to herself, pulling things out of the bags.
"Hey Tifa, the gang should start showing up soon. Just thought you should know" Cloud said as he came into the kitchen for a moment, grabbing a glass of water, before he walked back out. Tifa sighed, before turning back to her work.
About half way through making lunch, is when she finally heard someone enter the bar. The voice of a young teenager could be heard as it quickly got closer to the kitchen.
"Tifa!" the teen shouted, bursting into the kitchen. It was a young girl with short black hair. She wore an outfit that consisted of black short shorts, a black shirt with white print on it that showed her midriff, a short sleeveless leather jacket, black knee high boots, and a black headband.
"Hello Yuffie" Tifa replied, turning her head to the young teen.
"Where's Vincent at?" she asked quickly, jumping up and down. Tifa looked at the clock for a moment. It was almost noon now.
"I think he's still up in his room" she said, and before she could say anything else, Yuffie ran out of the kitchen. She quickly made her way upstairs, running down the hall to Vincent's room. Without even bothering to knock, she threw open the door and ran inside.
"Vincent!" she yelled happily, jumping on his bed. It wasn't until she actually looked at him properly that she let out a scream. "AHH!!!" at that moment, he shot up, covering his ears from her scream. He glared at her as she fell off the bed and onto the floor. He let out a growl from the ringing in his ears as he also to notice to Anna's display of shock. Anna had actually fallen out of the bed and onto the floor as a result of everything.
"Chaos…" she whined, holding her head in pain. Chaos growled at Yuffie.
"…Get out…" he growled, causing her to run out of the room screaming. After that, he turned his attention to Anna, leaning over the bed to look down at her.
"Are you going to help me up or just sit there?" she asked, slightly annoyed at the faint smirk on his lips. After a moment of thinking, he finally reached out his hand, pulling her back up onto the bed with him. She then abruptly smacked him in the back of the head.
"What was that for?" he growled at her.
"For actually sitting there thinking about it" she said, shoving him. He growled at her again, before quickly pinning her to the bed. She groaned in annoyance, struggling against him. He growled dominantly as he hovered over her, a grin slowly forming on his face. It was short lived though as he was quickly thrown off of her and against the wall. Her eyes went wide with shock as he was sent against the wall. He growled, baring his fangs at the large black man that stood before them. What scared her most was the fact that he had a large gun for an arm.
"See? What did I tell you Barret?" Yuffie wailed from behind the large man. The whole time, Chaos sat there glaring at the two, before standing up.
"Get back in there where you belong, ya pain in the butt" Barret said, raising his gun at Chaos. Anna's eyes went wide, before she quickly got up and run in front of Chaos, blocking him from Barret.
"No! Leave him be!" she shouted, arms spread out, shielding Chaos.
"Get outta the way little girl, he's dangerous" Barret said. Chaos stood behind her, a hand on either shoulder. He let his chin rest on top of her left shoulder as he continued to glare at Barret, growling. Yuffie hid behind Barret out of fear of Chaos.
"And you're not?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in question.
"Damn it girl, move!" he said roughly, moving to grab a hold of her. Chaos quickly got in front of her, growling protectively. "What the?" Before anything else could happen, Cloud came in.
"What's going on in here?" he asked, looking at the scene in front of him. He watched as Anna wrapped her arms around Chaos' waist, hugging him tightly. Barret stood there with his gun still pointed at him.
"Cloud, get him to stop" Anna said, resting her head against Chaos.
"Barret, stop it" he said, turning to Barret, before looking back at Chaos "And Chaos, let Vincent out. We need him" he said, staring at him. Chaos growled faintly, hugging Anna to him, before changing back to Vincent. Only when he did that, did Barret finally lower his gun. "Now, everyone downstairs, it's time for the meeting" Cloud said, before walking out and going back downstairs. After a moment, everyone followed, Anna included.
A few hours later, the meeting had finally come to an end. Although, at one point, Anna couldn't take it anymore and walked out. Before anyone could stop her, she left the bar, walking down the street.
There were a few things in particular, that had been said that had upset her great. Especially, when the subject had gotten onto her. She couldn't help who she was, it wasn't her fault. She kept her head down as she continued to walk, kicking random pebbles with her foot. She was only brought back to the world around her when she ran into someone, falling to the ground. "Sorry…" she whispered.
"Hey, don't worry about it little lady" that voice was so familiar.
"R-Reno?" she stammered, looking up. Sure enough, it was indeed the red headed Reno.
"Anna? Man, is this my lucky day or what?" he said, grinning down at her. "Here, let me give you a hand" he said, reaching out to help her up. He smiled when he looked at her face. "Radiant as ever I see," he said, flirting a bit. "So, where's Valentine at? I figured he'd be with you or something," he said, looking at her for a moment. Anna sighed, before turning her attention toward Reno.
"He's back at the bar with the others and their stupid meeting…" her voice was a bit bitter at the end. She sighed, before turning away. "I'm sorry Reno…I…I have to go" she said, before quickly running off into the crowd.
"Hey! Wait!" he called, but it was too late, she was already gone.
She sighed as she continued to walk down the streets, taking into consideration the number of children lining the alleyways, plagued with the stigma like she was. She could tell that for some, it was a bit more noticeable, but she knew that it still had to hurt all the same. Strolling down one of the alleyways, she took notice to a little girl. The little girl had brown hair, and was also holding a kupo doll in her arms. She also had the stigma adorning her left arm. After looking her over, the girl looked up at her.
"You have the stigma too, don't you?" she asked, seemingly already knowing the answer.
"How do you…" Anna started, but couldn't seem to finish.
"Why else would you be here?" she asked. Anna opened to mouth to say something, then closed it. The problem was, she honestly couldn't think of a reason. In fact, she didn't really know what the reason was that led her to the alley filled with children. "It's okay, that just means that you're one of us" she informed her, smiling as she craned her head to look up at Anna.
"Hey, don't you think your parents are worried about you? It's getting late" Anna said. The little girl nodded her head faintly.
"I guess you're right. Well, bye then" she shouted as she ran down the alley and into the street. Anna smiled faintly as she leaned against one of the walls, letting out a puff of air.
"How I wish things could be simpler…" she whispered quietly, staring off into space. The silence around her was broken though upon hearing the sound of footsteps. She wasn't all that surprised at who she saw though.
"Anna" the deep velvety voice spoke, coming to stand in front of her. She stood there, gazing into his crimson pools.
"Vincent…" she said, closing her eyes, before wrapping her arms around him in a hug. "I hope I didn't worry you two too much?" she inquired, looking up at him for a moment.
"You walked out by yourself, we got worried when you didn't come back" he said. She nodded her head, sighing as she pulled away from him.
"Yes, but apparently to some, I'm more trouble than I'm worth" she spoke quietly.
"Forget about Cid…that's how he is at times" he told her, taking her by the hand and leading her to the very end of the alleyway.
"Where are we going?" she asked suspiciously. When they were finally in pure darkness, she was shoved against the wall, quickly making her blood run cold. At that moment she found herself staring into Chaos' glowing orbs. She relaxed a bit when she noticed the lack of anger in his eyes. He simply placed his head against hers, staring down at her. "Chaos…" she whispered, hugging him as she pushed herself off of the wall. She then pulled away and smacked him in the chest lightly. "Jerk, don't scare me like that…I know you wanna make a point at times, but sheesh" she whined slightly, causing him to chuckle. "Oh, shut up" she said, turning to walk back down the other way, but she found herself being held back by none other than Chaos himself.
"Wait" he said, pulling her against him. She sighed heavily, turning to face him.
"What do you…" she didn't finish, seeing as she was cut off by him kissing her. After her head cleared, she shoved him off, groaning a bit. "Stop that" she demanded, only resulting in causing him to chuckle.
"You're mine, now, come on" he purred into her ear, causing her to shiver momentarily. It was then that he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her to him as his wings burst open. He grinned at her as he quickly jumped into the evening sky.
"Chaos!" she shouted, laughing lightly "Have you no manners at all!" she shouted over the wind. He then brought his lips to her ear, whispering softly.
"No" he said, chuckling. She just smiled at him as he did this. At this point, she was used to his occasional jokes and joking around. Although, others might find it odd for someone like him, but she found it to be quite normal and enjoyed it from time to time.
She smiled as he flew higher, going high above the city into the darkening nights sky. It was beautiful from where they were and Chaos probably didn't even know it. She smiled faintly at the thought, but then considered it for a moment. He wasn't so dense as not to notice things of such beauty, she was sure of that. Although, what was beauty in his eyes? The world itself has always been so monstrous to him, always jarring and hurting him, whether it be physically, mentally or emotionally. She figured that that was why he had so much rage inside of him and just so much hostility towards people at times. She sighed as she thought about that. Most people feared him, that was made very clear with Ariana. Anna remembered how mad she had gotten when Ariana had accused Vincent and Chaos of being monsters.
Her thinking was unfortunately cut short when she winced, a shock of pain going through her shoulder. Chaos looked down at her, feeling her pain.
"Anna?" he asked quietly. She just groaned, pain slowly snaking its way through her. She could feel it gnawing at her skin as she slowly dug her nails into his arm out of pain. Her eyes widened when a jolt of pain shot through her entire body, shaking rigorously with insufferable pain. "Anna?" Chaos repeated her name again, but all he got was a muffled cry of pain as her body shook.
I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. Remember to REVIEW please? I'll be needing ideas soon. Pleasant reading. Bye bye.