Chapter 70: Pack Mentality
It wasn't at all like the first kiss they'd shared. Somehow – it was even more intent and yet softer and fuller at the same time. Tifa's eyes lidded as if she were sinking and her lips softened for his as if they'd been waiting for his mouth to come back to them all along. Because they had.
She had.
His own lips were soft as well and they moved slow this time. Tender and caressive. Cherishing. As if they had all night. As if he was going to go on kissing her all night long. Tifa melted into that and her arms came up and wound around his shoulders. He kept one arm around her to hold her gently close but his other hand moved. Stroked her cheek, the curve of her shoulder, before slipping backward to brush through her hair and cradle the back of her head.
There was a wonderful warm ache that had started in the center of her and was spreading as slow and lazy as his kisses throughout her entire body and Tifa made a soft sound. She felt him smile at it and his lips rewarded her slip, rubbing soft and tender against her bottom lip and it drew an almost silent laugh out of her. His lips smiled again and the kisses went playful then without losing even the whisper of his pure tenderness. His lips left hers for a moment as they both shared an inhale and she opened her eyes just a little to see the blue of his watching her face and she thought – her lips shifted into a soft smile and she reached out to touch his cheek. She'd never seen him so entirely at peace before. And then something flickered through his eyes as they met hers.
Pain?
"Cloud…" she whispered his name and he lowered his head back to hers. But his eyes didn't leave hers.
"Tell me 'not Zack'."
It made her lips shift into a soft smile.
"Not Zack," she told him softly. His eyes moved over her face in the moonlight and then moved back to met hers and she saw the skin was tight around their edges. His voice was harder, rougher but still just as quiet.
"Tell me 'not Leon'."
She felt the way her heart constricted.
"Not Leon," she told him, reaching up to slip her fingers down the side of his face. She saw the war in his eyes. His belief in her, his trust in her – and what he'd thought was a sure fact. Gentle, she tugged a lock of his unruly pale hair. Shook her head as she held his eyes.
"Not Leon," she repeated. And then smiled in a flash. "And not Barrett or Cid or Red either."
It made the edges of Cloud's lips jerk upward and the skin around the edges of his eyes wrinkled in laughter instead of pain. She could taste the silent laughter on his lips when he kissed her again and both of his arms went around her to hold her closer against him.
"You let Red sleep with you," he grumbled softly against her mouth as he kissed her again.
Her quiet laughter poured into him as their mouths met.
"I like chocobos better," she teased and he had to pull away for a moment to press his face against her throat to stifle his laughter so it wouldn't wake up the children. Tifa wound her arms around him and tangled her fingers in his soft hair and couldn't seem to stop smiling. She could feel the laughter bubbling through her blood, the pure joy of it. Cloud's mouth found hers again and she sank into him and the wonderful things he did to her, body and soul.
But she wasn't brave enough to ask about Cissnei.
They did eventually fall asleep, soft slipping kisses, bodies cuddled together, Tifa's long hair tangled over both of them, Cloud's hands under the hem of her shirt so they could spread across the skin of her back.
When Tifa woke up in the morning he was gone but the bed was still warm where he had been and she shifted into it to press her face there and inhale the clean, sharp smell of him. She was smiling and couldn't seem to help herself. Her fingertips touched her lips and felt the way they still tingled and it made her smile even more. Last night –
It made her face flush with heat and yet she felt like singing and dancing around the room. Instead she slipped quietly out of the bed, getting grumbles from her siblings and went to the bathroom to get ready for the day. When she came back out she was blushing because her lips had more color than usual but she hoped no one would notice. She wanted to hold last night to her heart a little while longer and just savor it all by herself.
But it did make her think of Aerith and she noticed that her friend wasn't in the room and probably hadn't come back last night either. Cloud had said she was with Zack? Had she spent the entire night or had she slept elsewhere? It was a little soothing to hear she'd been with Zack. It showed Aerith wasn't throwing herself off a cliff in despair or hiding in a dark closet. Neither of which were typical Aerith reactions anyway.
Tifa let herself out of the room, thinking she'd give the children more time to sleep in and then she paused outside her door. Remembering - belated and what was wrong with her? – about the sniffing outside the door last night. Eyes flickering a bit wider as it registered, she turned without thinking and found herself staring into crimson colored eyes.
Vincent.
Her eyes narrowed in automatic reaction to being between him and the children and the red in his eyes glinted like embers as he smiled. And he wasn't smiling at her fear because she wasn't afraid, she was getting ready to kick his ass and he knew it. His eyes lidded.
"I don't hurt children," his voice was a low, rough whisper.
"Only a coward would," she answered back levelly and his eyes flicked up to hers. She saw the approval in them. He knew she was making it hard for him to attack the children without being called what no man would let himself be called.
"Little wonder…" he murmured to himself.
"Move along, mutt," the voice came from behind the dark cloaked man and it was low to the ground and with a distinctive rumble to its carefully enunciated words. "The woman and I have business together."
Vincent turned his head just a little to look over his shoulder. He made a soft sound in his throat. Then he turned his attention back to Tifa and gave her a small bow. She got the distinct impression he was silently laughing to himself before he moved past her and further up the path. Tifa turned her head to see Nanaki and she went down to her heels the way she always did for him. He came solemnly forward and she ruined it for him by reached out and scrubbing her fingers over the side of his cheek where she knew he liked to be scratched. Then she turned her attention to the now empty path that led further up the mountain.
"Should I be worried about him?" she asked and Nanaki sat down next to her where she could wrap a companionable arm around him. Instead of answering, he opinioned:
"You smell of Strife."
It brought the blush back to her cheeks and Nanaki snorted a sound through his muzzle and was simply Red again.
"You often smell of Strife, Tifa. He enjoys leaving his scent on your skin."
She shut her eyes and made a noise.
"Are you sure we can't act like I don't know you can talk?" she asked and he woofed a laugh and shifted as she settled down to sit on the step of the door to rest his chin on her thigh so she could comb her fingers through his fur.
"You will not have to fear the beast," he told her, slitting his golden eyes in pleasure as her fingers scratched automatically at the base of his crest. "He will cause problems for Strife and perhaps Leonhart. You and the flower female he will simply test."
"Should we have not brought him along?" she asked, even though she hadn't actually been there when the decision had been made. Red moved his shoulders in a strange copy of a human shrug.
"He is a powerful ally. Once he has found his place in the pack, he will be useful. Unless Strife or Leonhart are forced to drive him out."
Tifa smiled and looked down at the animal by her side.
"We're not exactly a pack, Red."
One of his golden eyes opened and he waited until she started scratching his fur again to comment:
"You are close enough. And he is beast enough that he recognizes it. You humans have confused things and he will test things out until he works out the structure. His human mind tells him that Leonhart is the pack leader but his animal tells him that Strife is. He is an outcast and so if he is to be a part of your pack he must find his place in it which means he must know who he will follow – or challenge for dominance."
"You make him sound more like a wolf than a person, Red," she chided and he gave her a look at the irony. She exhaled a laugh.
"Yes, but you never challenged Cloud."
"I owe he, and you, a debt. That can only be paid by serving. And I do not have what is necessary to bind your people together. Even if I could defeat one of your leaders, it would change nothing." He exhaled with pleasure as she found a spot with her nails that must have itched. "Until the beast knows he is not stronger, he will continue to test you."
"Me?" Tifa asked, because she was pretty sure they'd been talking about pack leaders and she was also pretty sure she didn't come close to qualifying. Red exhaled a quietly rumbling noise.
"You are our den mother, Tifa Lockhart. You are the dominant female and in the beast world you must belong to the pack leader or he will not stay pack leader long. If you had chosen Leonhart, he would be the undisputed leader of your group but you chose the rouge male. The unit you bring to support Strife is stronger too than Leonhart's. It is loyal to you and him first and follows Leonhart only because the two of you chose to."
"Uh – " Tifa managed and Red shook his fur and shifted so Tifa could reach a different part of him.
"If Valentine would challenge your leader, he would need to know where you stand and if you would join him if he won. He cannot decide if he wishes you to be his mate or his den mother. The beast inside him will push him to be near you because it must have one or the other. His beast will also smell Strife on you. Until he defeats Strife, he will not bother you because he recognizes you are the core of the pack and he will find himself cast out again if he does. The others will not tolerate it. And I think his beast, and perhaps the man, are tired of being outcast. Besides," Red shut his eyes and relaxed against Tifa's side. "He is not strong enough to defeat Strife. Valentine does not have the determination to be pack leader that Strife has buried inside himself."
Tifa sat in silence and digested Red's explanation. In a very strange way – it did make sense. She wasn't sure if she was comfortable with that fact but a great deal of it was easier to understand now at least. And – he was right. Cloud was the leader of the group as much as Leon was. Partially because at least half of their group had known Cloud either starting at the same time or before Leon. But, more than that, Red was right. Cloud had something inside him that made people want to follow him. He never did anything to ask for it or encourage it – he'd certainly never challenged Leon or anything like that. In fact, the more she thought about it, Cloud never challenged anyone. Instead he seemed almost indifferent to leadership structures – and, thinking back, on the times they'd challenged him, he'd tended to act as if he didn't even notice. Cloud had no problem following Leon's lead but he only did it in passing and it never actually seemed to cede authority over Cloud to Leon. Tifa… liked that. She liked the lack of macho showiness she saw so often working at the bar. Cloud never bragged about what he could or would do – he just did it. Silent and competent and then he moved on. Tifa thought, even if she hadn't been in love with him, she would have found that comforting.
"What about Aerith? You said that he would bother me and Aerith. And Cloud said the same thing last night too."
Red kept his eyes shut in relaxation.
"She is the other female of the group. If Valentine replaces Strife and you would not accept him, he would have to substitute her for you as den mother and see if the others would accept it. His beast will test her to see if she would join him. But more – she is magic. Anyone with ties to this planet can feel her, smell her, taste her in the air when she is near. She makes my skin tingle, like ants, when she touches me but I want it when she does not. He will feel it too. The desire to be near her, to feel that whisper from the planet against his soul. He will bother her least of all because her moods change the way the air feels against your ears."
"Huh," Tifa managed, filtering all of that through her head. To her, Aerith just felt like… Aerith. The way she always had. Tifa stood up, careful not to disturb Red and dusted off her pants.
"Will you watch over the kids for me? I'm going to go see if I can find the others."
"They are with my grandfather," Red answered. "They told me to come fetch you."
Tifa gave him a look and he pretended not to know.
"Follow the trail to the top of the mountain," he told her instead.
