I kept hearing a song for Cloud in my head for this chapter and its New Drug by Thousand Foot Krutch.

Chapter 61: Nibelheim

The plan had been fairly straightforward and like all good, clean cut plans it fell apart as soon as they tried to use it.

They arrived in Nibelheim with their packs on their backs, nothing more than wandering travelers looking for a place to spend the night and, incidentally, curious about the rumors they'd heard of monsters. From there they were supposed to get a room at the local inn, gather information on how heavily guarded the reactor was, scout out the guard shifts and rotations, go in and blow the thing up.

They didn't even make it to the 'getting a room at the local inn' part of the plan.

Because there was no inn apparently. Not anymore at least. They stood in front of the ruined shell that was left of the building as evening started to come on and Zack rubbed the back of his head.

"How much do you think they charge a night?" he asked and Tifa, standing next to him, turned her head to look at the rest of the village. It was – odd. For a lot of reasons. The most obvious being that the inn was the only ruined building. Which might have been explained by a careless guest falling asleep with a cigarette in hand on a bed or a kitchen fire except – the ruin was old. Old enough that someone should have either been cannibalizing it by now or trying to clear it away to build a new one. Tifa had grown up in Midgar – anything useful there didn't get left lying around for long. But the burned out ruin looked like it had been left entirely alone, right down to the battered pot she saw half buried under dirt and debris.

The second thing she noticed was –

"Sure is empty around here," Leon commented and he was right. There had been a few people moving through the small town before but looking around now, Tifa hardly saw anyone and the few that she did see were quickly disappearing into their houses. Tifa lowered her hand to rest it on Red's head.

"Feels like the beginning of an old black and white horror movie," she murmured to him. Zack was enthused.

"Cool." He put his fists on his hips and turned to survey the town's center from where he was standing. "So are we going to camp out here or are we going to have Cloud kick a door down?"

Cloud, standing silently a little behind Tifa, turned his head to look over calmly. Both Tifa and Zack had the beginning of a smirk at the edges of their lips and Shera turned to look at them all, realizing she was missing an inside joke. Leon raised an eyebrow at Zack and shook his head.

"Let me try something," Tifa suggested and dropped her pack next to Zack before sprinting over to catch up with someone just about to disappear into their house. Red caught up to her a second later.

"Please," Tifa made her voice young and a little weak for the old woman. Who she had noticed had been watching them hesitantly. "Can you help us?" Seeing her withdraw, Tifa added: "We just want to know if there's anywhere to stay for the night. We've been traveling so long."

The old woman's eyes darted to the group and then back to Tifa.

"You monster hunters?"

Tifa glanced back at her group and saw how all three of the men had huge bladed weapons strapped to their backs. She pressed her lips together to stop the smile. They did look like wandering mercenaries, didn't they? At least the men. She and Shera probably looked out of place in that group. She turned her face back to the old woman.

"We've had to become something like that really. It's hard to travel anywhere these days without running into monsters."

The old woman seemed to be balancing something in her mind and she finally nodded.

"You can stay with me. I haven't got anything to steal and if the men have you two women they're not going to be interested in bothering me. Just don't break anything."

Tifa was still blinking at what the woman had just assumed about her when the old woman turned and shuffled hurriedly into her house.

"Well, hurry up," their new hostess snapped. "I lock the door when the sun goes down and that's it for the night."

"Right. Thank you," Tifa managed before turning to wave over her companions. They joined her and Leon and Cloud both, in their own ways, gave the outside of the house and the area around it an intense once over.

"She thinks we're monster hunter. Or mercenaries," Tifa informed the group. "That's what you get for carrying around those huge swords of yours." She squinted her eyes a little. "And I think she thinks Shera and I are – comfort women?"

"All right," Zack's fists jerked down in triumph. "I get to kill monsters for money AND I get a girl!"

"Zack, I don't think – " Leon began but Zack had already reached out and wrapped an arm around the shoulders of a surprised looking Shera to pull her up against his side.

"I claim the cute one," he announced cheerfully and gave Tifa a shrug. "Sorry, Teef. You hit too hard when you're annoyed."

Despite herself, Tifa started laughing.

"Give me back my backpack, Zack Fair. You're getting testosterone all over it."

They followed the old woman into her house and were given strict orders to stay in the downstairs part and to not touch or break anything and to keep any monster fighting, or other fighting, outside and to clean up after themselves and to keep the door locked no matter what once when the sun went down.

"Why?" Tifa asked and the old woman scowled and looked at her shuttered windows.

"Because that's when he comes out."

"He?" Leon asked and the old woman looked at him.

"You want to earn your keep you kill the beast that goes snuffling around our town in the middle of the night, draining people of blood."

"The Shinra soldiers can't do that?" Shera asked and the old woman laughed.

"You really aren't from around here. Aren't no Shinra soldiers no more. Too many monsters up at the reactor. Something went wrong and ate them all. Now it's just us and that monstrosity Shinra left behind on our mountain. And him."

"Did – he – come from the reactor too?" Tifa asked and the old woman scowled and shook her head.

"He came after. But at least the monsters stay out of our town. He comes right in like he's got a right or something. You kill him and you can have your pick of which house puts you up while you're here."

With that the old woman turned and firmly bolted and locked the door for the night.

The living room was small and crowded with furniture but the team settled into it for the night. Zack made it a point to set his bedroll next to Shera's and Tifa was pretty sure the woman was going to be bright red all night long. Leon stood at one of the closed windows and frowned, arms folded across his chest.

"The reactor's not supplying power. I looked around, they're getting it from old fashioned sources here. So it looks like Shinra's left the reactor abandoned for the moment. Because of the monsters? Or the beast she's talking about? Something else?"

Tifa, standing by the door to make sure the old woman didn't listen in, looked back into the room in time to see Zack cheerfully sit on the couch right next to Shera and take her hand. He was enjoying himself too much though she wasn't worried in the least about Zack getting too carried away. Maybe Cid should have come after all just so that he could see this. A little prod might not be bad for the man.

"The manor," Cloud's low voice drew their attention. He was leaning against the other side of the doorway from Tifa and had his chin tucked down to his chest, arms folded in front of him. Even for Cloud, he'd been quiet since they'd touched down.

"Cloud?" she asked and he exhaled but didn't look up.

"There's a manor. Shinra manor. In the – " he stopped and his head twitched a little to the side. "In the basement. Records." He stopped again and his eyes were absolutely aqua under his lashes as he refused to look up. "Shinra did more than – Shinra did more here."

It was silent after Cloud finished speaking and his rough, hollow voice seemed to linger in it.

'Shinra did more here…'

"Like the room we saw in the last Midgar reactor?" Leon finally asked quietly and Cloud gave a nod that was a head jerk of his chin closer to his chest.

Shera and Zack apparently hadn't been filled in about the room full of test tubes and chemicals and – everything you'd need for a mad scientist really and they looked at the rest of them in question. They were both smart enough to know that now wasn't the time to ask though. Red just sat near Tifa's heel and watched it all with his golden eyes and who knew what going on behind them. Leon lowered his head to rest his mouth against his fist in thought.

"You think the beast the woman's talking about might be part of that?" he finally asked and Cloud's voice was absolutely emotionless and flat. His answers were even shorter than usual.

"Possible."

Leon nodded and sank into his thoughts. After a minute he announced:

"All right. New plan. Half of us go and blow the reactor. The rest of us will check out that basement."

"Tonight?" Zack was ready to go and Leon looked thoughtful and shook his head.

"Tomorrow. We'll need a guide for the team going up the mountain. I've heard it's dangerous without one. I don't think any of the villagers will go up the mountain in the dark."

"What about the 'beast'?" Zack wanted to know and Leon shook his head.

"Not tonight. Not unless it comes to us. We might find something in the manor tomorrow. We'll stay and take care of it tomorrow night if we need to. But the reactor and the manor notes are our first priority."

"Don't worry, my sweet," Zack turned to Shera. "I'll keep you safe."

Tifa was just coughing her laugh when the old woman came in.

For someone that didn't seem to like or trust them, she had certainly put some obvious effort into making them dinner and making enough of it for everyone. Leon insisted that the old woman join them to eat it as well and Zack had soon charmed her into giggling at his harmless flirting and talking about how things 'used to be'. Shera, much to her embarrassment however, remained the center of Zack's attention and finally, in exasperation as far as Tifa could tell, took to calling the ex-SOLDIER the most outrageous love names whenever she responded to his attentions.

It only seemed to delight and encourage him.

Tifa did get the name of a reliable guide off of the old woman during the course of the meal and quite a bit of harmless gossip about the families in the area as well. Apparently their hostess was the town busybody. Which would explain why she'd been open to letting them in. Information was more important than anything.

Cloud stayed silent throughout the meal and when they were done, he helped Tifa clear everything away and take it into the kitchen to wash. Everyone else started to get ready to bed down for the night and so that left Tifa and Cloud standing side by side at the sink washing the dishes. The only light was from a dim oil lamp on the small table in the corner. Bare hands touched and slid over each others, as they exchanged soapy dishes. Cloud was withdrawing into himself, shutting down and going somewhere dark and silent. But his fingers tangled with and brushed slowly against Tifa's as much as hers sought his in the silent exchange of dishes. Finally, very softly, his voice rough at its edges, he said:

"Go to the reactor tomorrow."

Tifa paused, hands on the pan she was cleaning and turned her head to look at him. They were shoulder to shoulder at the sink, both standing closer than they really needed to be to pass dishes between them. Cloud's head was down, hands loose around a glass he'd already rinsed twice and his hair fell forward across his forehead and blue eyes. Tifa turned a little into him. In the dim light and shadows, his face was expressionless.

"Not the basement," she stated.

His chin tucked. A barely there nod.

Very gently, Tifa reached up and touched his cheek with a damp finger. Simply told him softly:

"All right."

His eyes did lift then and found hers in surprise. She gave him a tender, weak smile in response. Had he expected her to argue? His pale brows twitched over his eyes and he let go of the glass so that he could move that hand past her to lay it on the far side of the sink next to her hip. Powerful need mixed with absolute despair in his blue eyes and Tifa fell into them, into that, helpless to stop herself when she raised a soapy hand to rest on his chest. She could see the battle going on inside him, feel the tension in his body, see the tight angles of his face and the way his jaw was locked. His eyes searched hers.

"Our promise – you remember?"

Trapped between him and the sink, trapped even more completely by what she saw in his eyes, Tifa nodded silently in response to his question. His breath jerked unsteadily in through his nose and the skin around the edges of his eyes tightened.

"I need – " it was pulled in a reluctant, rough edged voice from his throat. Without even knowing what he needed, Tifa gave a barely there nod, still holding his eyes. In that blue, she saw the sudden snap as the despair and the need and the sorrow came crashing down over him. She was suddenly pressed against him, pinned between the rim of the sink pressing into her back and his body against hers. And, instead of the hug she'd been expecting –

his mouth closed over hers.

The startled, helpless sound flew from her lips before she'd even realized it and Cloud took advantage of that parting fiercely, deepening the kiss. It pulled all the breath right out of her and shot electricity more potent than any materia she'd ever used right through her body. Her fingers knotted in the fabric of his shirt, both for support and to pull him closer. Her last brain cell exploded into sudden sparks in the fire he spun down through her. There was no room for questions or anything but pure instinctive reaction in the face of Cloud's need. Inexperienced, it was still easy to know how to kiss him and her mouth slid against his, fitting closer. More. Better. So much better…

He pressed forward into her, one hand planted on the sink rim on either side of her, and this time the sound that slipped out of her was pleased and longing and – and relieved as she gave in to him, this. To them... An answering rumble came from his own throat and his mouth on hers was liquid fire and blue electric as his head dipped to move him even closer to surrounding her, his fingers leaving unconscious dents in the thin metal of the sink as his knuckles went white, holding there.

Tifa had no such compunctions about touching and her fingers dragged up, arms snaking around his neck and shoulders, long soapy fingers tangling fiercely in his soft golden hair. Welcoming him - and the need and hunger of their shared kiss.

Cloud was the one that finally pulled back, raising his head to jerk breaths in through his lips, chest moving unsteadily. His hands stayed planted on the sink behind her, his body pressed into hers. Tifa, eyes closed, knew that her knees weren't going to be able to support her and she kept her arms twined around the man in front of her, head still tilted back, feeling… weak. And wonderful. And on fire. And – and so hopelessly confused. Her own shaken attempts at breathing matched Cloud's. Slow, his fingers came up, tender and soft as he curled them around the back of her head, slipping them through her hair as he gently coaxed her head forward so that her face was pressed into his shoulder and his other arm slipped around her in a hug. Holding him, being held, Tifa drew in her first steady breath and smelled clean skin, storm wind and lightening. When Cloud's head lowered to rest his cheek against her temple, he softly whispered:

"Thank you," against her ear.

And inexplicably, Tifa felt like crying.