Kueilan – close your eyes if you're still around, best beloved…
Chapter 76: Blood Sport
The Gold Saucer catered to all kinds of whims and 'amusements'. On its surface it was shiny and electric lights and cheerful music but there were lower parts to it as well and those lower parts, hidden under the gloss, were for more 'adult' amusements. It was no Honey Bee Inn but some of the sporting events were more violent than others and it was rumored that some of the people participating in the games were criminals. Even in the slums of Midgar, Tifa had heard that the bets here went high and the payment on their loss was prompt and to the point. Technically, it was all legal so no one stopped the three women as they made their way through the halls that led off to the different sporting events but they did get a lot of looks and quite a few of those were speculative. Tifa and Aerith both fell back automatically into the habit of moving the way you did when you were traveling through the slums and kept Shera between them. Leon was waiting at the entrance to the Battle Arena and Tifa was so glad he was there she almost hugged him. She'd been worried he'd be in the arena.
Which just left –
"Where's Cloud?"
Leon didn't look happy and he jerked his thumb back over his shoulder through the door before he turned and started walking that direction himself. Inside the entrance the noise of the crowd started to rise.
"He's fighting."
"What?" Tifa asked even though she'd heard perfectly well.
Leon led the way to the risers that served as cheap seats.
"Apparently Dio, the owner of the place, is a betting man. Cloud made a bet."
"A bet?" Shera repeated but Tifa had stopped moving at the top of the steps up to the risers and was looking at the arena. And Cloud.
He was facing off against three monsters, two of which she recognized. All of them were on the large side. Cloud was moving with his usual efficiency, sword a flashing blur of motion. Tifa didn't know how many times she'd seen him fight – but it still made her mouth go dry. Part of it was worry – but part of it, the part of her that had something wrong with it, found him impossibly attractive when he was fighting. She knew it was insane because he could get hurt or even killed and so she shouldn't be noticing the way he took the weight of a roll on his legs or how impossibly graceful it looked when he blocked a blow and then spun under it to drive in.
It was just monsters. Big, dangerous monsters and anyone could get in a lucky strike – but… just monsters. Cloud had been fighting monsters before she'd even known him. Her worry was at a reasonable level.
"Come on," Leon reached out and took her hand to lead her blindly toward a place on the benches. Around her the noise level went up from the surging crowd as one of the monsters collapsed. Tifa wrapped her fingers around Leon's and let him guide her so she didn't have to take her eyes off of Cloud.
"I'm sure he'll win," Aerith told her. "It's Cloud."
"He's won the last two," Leon commented tightly and that did bring Tifa's eyes to him.
"Last two?"
Scowling, Leon sat down and tugged her down as well.
"That's the deal. Seven fights. A new handicap for each fight. If he wins them all, Dio gives him the keystone."
"What? Seven?" Tifa looked back at Cloud and it was a good thing he was in combat or she would have been forced to punch him herself. Seven fights, not seven monsters. How many monsters in each fight, how many different kinds of monsters? And - handicaps?
"He lost his fire materia right off the bat." Leon sounded as if Tifa might have to get in line to pummel Cloud. "Protective armlet next round but he cast barrier. This round all his materia seems weaker."
"And he's got four more to go after this one?" Shera asked in horror as Cloud took a blow he hadn't had time to dodge and Tifa went absolutely still in her seat and forgot to breath. It knocked the blond backward and he rolled with it and was back up on his feet in an instant but Tifa had seen the blood.
"He's still got healing materia on him," Leon murmured, barely heard over the new roar from the crowds. Tifa nodded in a jerk. Leon had said all Cloud's materia was weaker though.
Cloud took down the next monster and Tifa was vaguely aware of the sounds of yelling and screaming from the people around her, of how many of them were on their feet. A part of her that understood business wondered how much Dio's bookies were making on each of Cloud's fights. She climbed to her own feet and then onto the bench so she could still see as the people in front of her went to their feet. Cloud's last monster fell in a heap and Cloud backed up to put his back against the pole that marked one of the corners of the arena. There was the brief glow of a heal materia over his skin but it was very faint compared to what Tifa was used to. She knew Cloud well enough to know he looked tired and she also knew him well enough thanks to their travels to know that he wasn't at the end of his strength.
But he still had four more rounds to go.
The floor under the monster bodies sank, a giant elevator of some sort and a woman in a revealing outfit walked around the outside of the ring, holding up a placard with the number four on it. Everywhere people were punching buttons on the small betting boxes they held in their hands and above it all, a board was flashing the odds and the latest handicap in big, white letters.
"Shit," Leon cursed, rare for him and Tifa looked over in a quick glance before going back to Cloud. "They've hit the monsters with a speed materia."
Cloud ran a hand over his face and flicked away the blood and sweat. The floor rose and there were two giant monsters with long looking claws. Without a sound, Cloud moved back into the square and went on the offensive.
By the end of that round, Tifa had nail marks in the palms of her gloves and her knuckles hurt, she was clenching her fists so tightly. It was Cloud. Cloud the mako-enhanced, super SOLDIER or something close enough to. And yet – everything in her was screaming that she should be by his side. That he shouldn't be fighting alone. That she should be there with him. He was resting with his back against the pole again as the monsters sank with the floor and rubbing absently at his arm and she didn't have to be near him to know his blue eyes would be narrowed and focused, the rest of the arena and its screaming inhabitants blocked entirely from his mind. The sparkle of materia moved over his skin again but it was still too dim. He had three more rounds to go and around her Tifa was aware enough to hear that the betting both for and against him was getting frantic.
"What was his part of the bet?" Tifa asked Leon and he shook his head with a scowl that hadn't really left his face.
"Idiot didn't even tell me about a bet until Dio accepted. He distracted me with checking out the security in the main office."
Tifa rested her hand on Leon's arm and he looked at her, angry at Cloud, angry at himself. She shook her head.
"We'll beat him up after he gets out of this alive."
His eyes narrowed in agreement but the edges of his mouth shifted upward as well.
"Are we taking turns or ganging up on him?"
The bell sounded and the floor came up. Four flying snakelike creatures. Those, Tifa had fought before; she knew how quick they were and how much they hurt when they hit you with their electric attacks.
"Frog?" Shera asked and Tifa looked up at the display to see the handicap.
"Floor is covered in grease but they cast a materia that makes the gravity in that spot weaker," Leon explained.
"You're kidding me," Tifa exhaled. Cloud seemed to give an exhale of his own and moved back into the square. The fight got messy quickly.
"That's ridiculous. No one can fight that way," Tifa protested. But Cloud did. He pulled out moves she'd never seen before and spent most of his time solidly on the ground, rolling. Each time one of the creatures wrapped around him though, Tifa found herself cringing. The last monster and he went down in a tangled pile and it was a long moment of neither of them moving before Cloud pushed it off of him and limped back to his corner. Tifa was down the stairs before she even realized she was moving. Cloud leaned down to pick up the bottle of water and took a swallow before dumping the rest over his head. Tifa saw the way the water pooled pink at his boots.
"You jerk!" Tifa reached up and hauled herself up onto the outside of the square and it was a symptom of how tired Cloud was that he was surprised. He turned and his blue eyes met hers. He blinked and the tired, flat, dead blue of his eyes changed, went young and clear and she saw light spark in it. It broke her heart and she reached out and caught him by the front of his filthy shirt to pull him close. His mouth closed over hers, better than any words, hot with need.
"Sugar," his voice was raw as he drew away and she saw the smile at the edges of his lips before he turned and went back into the arena to face the monsters that had risen. Tifa pressed her own lips together and watched him go. Because he'd tasted like grease and sweat and blood. And storm wind – Cloud always tasted like storms.
Tifa stayed where she was for the next battle. It was hard. It was so hard not to automatically cast cure on him as he staggered. So hard not to make a noise or leap forward to cover his exposed side when he spun through one of his complex attacks. If she did though – it would disqualify him and she knew he'd made this choice. He'd come this far. If she helped now, everything he had done would have been for nothing and all the blood he had left on the wooden floor of the square wouldn't matter. She locked her fingers together and watched. It was all she could do… watch. Watch and pray.
He went down, a stumble that turned into a flat out fall as the last monster alive stretched out its tentacles and grabbed him. It went into close combat where Cloud's sword was too big to be useful and for too long a minute it was impossible to see where the man ended and the monster began. Tifa bit her lip to keep from saying his name and distracting him. Barely staying where she was and not leaping into the center of things. It would have been easier to wait if she'd known he would call if he was in trouble. She knew he wouldn't though.
Finally he heaved and there was the sound of something cracking, breaking, popping. The monster fell limply to the side and Cloud pulled himself to his hands and knees. For a long time he stayed that way and Tifa crouched down at the edge of the square. Determined, he got one foot under him. Rested. Got the other foot planted and staggered to his feet. His hand closed over his sword and he made it back to her. She leaped up and wrapped her arms around him. He leaned into her as much as he leaned against the pole to keep himself upright. His left arm hung limp at his side.
She should tell him he could quit…
"Have I ever told you how attractive you are when you're fighting?" she asked softly as she smoothed fingers through his sweat and blood stiffened hair and he grunted a laugh against her throat and shoulder before rubbing his face against her bare skin there. Exhaling a low, rumbling sound, he murmured:
"So soft," and made her stomach jump weightlessly. With another grunt, he straightened and his eyes met hers. They were so intensely aqua that it made her throat close up with what she saw in those ocean deep depths.
"Be here when I get back." His voice was hungry and low and layered and it sent its fingers down through her chest and stomach. She nodded.
It made the edge of his lips twist upward, barely there, and then he turned and started back to the center of the square, straightening as he went. She saw the dim rise of green as he cast cure several times. The hole in the floor in front of him started to rise and just as he was starting to shift into readiness an orange colored mist seemed to fall from the ceiling to settle around him. Tifa looked up to see the board above the ring but she was too close and couldn't see what this handicap was. The noise from the watching crowd indicated something large however and when the mist dissipated, she saw him on his knee, choking in air.
That was the moment that the floor rose and the giant looking worm with rows and rows of teeth lunged at him.
