Welcome to my little Vampire AU! I decided there just aren't enough of them! This is going to be Angeal/Genesis/Sephiroth/Cloud, so I hope that's your jam! In this world Shinra does exist and Sephiroth was a SOLDIER but Genesis and Angeal are a dhampir and vampire respectively so hundreds of years old and not ever SOLDIERs themselves. Cloud never left Nibelheim in this, and is not in a very good place and could use some help...
Winter in the Nibel Mountains was harsh, and long, and dark. It made Angeal sorely glad that the cold had very little effect on him. His heavy coat was more costume than necessity but he remembered long nights curled with his mother in front of their small fire with mostly their shared body heat to keep them warm through the night. Nights in Banora had never been as cold as this, nor as dark, and never as lonely as it felt to stand outside the house of the boy called Cloud Strife.
He wasn't a boy, Angeal reminded himself. When he had been human, a nearly twenty year old man would have been trying to start a family or mastering a trade. Leaning against the dingy wall of the tiny home, with the single light shining hopelessly though the thin floral curtains, he looked awfully young. Small for his age, certainly, but with clear definition in what muscle he'd managed to gain.
He felt a pang of homesickness that he'd thought he was long cured of. It had been almost three-hundred years since he'd lost his mother, after all. But he could remember her washing him in a basin by firelight. He peered through the gap in the curtains to watch as the young man poured water from a steaming kettle into a larger pot and began carefully bathing himself.
It was such an old fashioned thing, in a world full of modern conveniences like running water and Mako energy. that he couldn't help but be transfixed - it was like looking back in time, a time when his life had been hard but innocent. He had a feeling that, like he had been, Cloud was alone and hungry most of the time. The mayor's daughter hadn't said that explicitly, but she'd said he needed money and had a house all to himself. He needed to leave town, as soon as spring arrived, and Angeal couldn't blame him.
Nibelheim was not Banora, and outsiders were not welcome. Apparently, Cloud's kin had been considered outsiders for a couple of generations at least. He didn't look anything like the hardy northern townsfolk, slight and blond in contrast to stocky and dark. If it were a hundred years ago, Angeal and his companions would have been run off long before now. As it was, they were clearly outstaying their welcome in the Nibel Inn, particularly when they had… irregular hours. The inn locked itself up at night, precisely at midnight, and didn't open until the sun rose, bright and early, at nine-o'clock since the days were terribly short in the dark half of the year.
For two men who lived their lives mostly in the dark of night, this was more than a little inconvenient. For more than one reason. They needed new accommodations quickly, and Genesis' lover couldn't make the trip to any other meager excuse for civilization the area had to offer.
He watched Cloud towel his hair dry, the pale golden strands fluffed up like the feathers of a baby chocobo, and then stepped away from the window to rap his knuckles against the door. Peeling green paint flaked off and fluttered to the ground - uncared for and apparently uncared about since the boy's mother had died suddenly in the summer.
The door creaked open the tiniest bit, revealing a suspicious expression on a startlingly lovely face. Wrapped closely in a threadbare robe, shivering in the cold air that leaked through the gap, Cloud looked him up and down, "What do you want?" he asked, sounding incredibly tired and expecting nothing good.
"A Ms Lockhart, Tifa I think her name is?" Angeal smiled slightly, catching those bright blue eyes with his own and gently reaching out to push warmth into his voice. The boy relaxed, barely, whispers of safety and trust washing into his mind. It was a little too easy really, Angeal could taste how tired and defeated he was, leaving him so open and vulnerable to him, "She said you might be amenable to renting a room for the rest of the winter?"
"Why would you want to stay here ?" Cloud asked, blinking up at him and opening the door a little wider, "I'm sorry it's just…" pale cheeks flushed, eyes lowering with a trace of embarrassment, "I don't even have heat right now. And I'm basically sleeping in the living room where the stove is. It's too cold upstairs."
"Well I'm willing to pay you whatever you want," Angeal said, "my friend is sick, and money isn't really a problem if it means we can take care of him."
"The inn?" The boy worried at his lower lip with his teeth, still a little suspicious but interested in spite of it. If he was poor enough that he couldn't even heat his home, that he couldn't even have water to wash in without warming it a few cup-fulls at a time, he had very few options without accepting Angeal's offer.
"They're not particularly welcoming," Angeal said, leaning a little closer, "I'm sorry, can I come in? You look half frozen with the door open and I know how it is when you need to conserve heat, it's all going outside here."
"Oh," the boy shuffled back, tugging the robe closer around him, "I'm sorry yeah, come in."
"Thank you so much, Cloud." Angeal slipped through the door and closed it behind him, the lock clicking beneath his fingers as he swept the dim room with a quick glance.
Everything had been carefully arranged around a small furnace, firewood stacked neatly within reach of an armchair covered in what might have been every blanket in the house. Clearly he slept there, using the small space as a cocoon to keep warm. It would have been precious if it hadn't been a possible life or death issue as the nights got ever colder - it was barely December, the deep of winter was weeks away.
The boy was hovering nearby, his bare feet shifting on the rag rug halfway between the door and his little nest. He was clearly embarrassed again, watching for some sign of judgment or mockery at the way he was forced to live. Despite how little he had to work with, it was clear he kept everything as clean and organized as he could. Angeal wondered how the poor thing would have survived the winter if he hadn't come along.
Angeal smiled reassuringly, Cloud's brow furrowing in confusion as the vampire stepped closer. Blue eyes widened as 'closer' became too close, swiftly enough that Cloud barely had time to gasp let alone escape. A tiny sound of distress whispered past pink lips as Angeal cupped the boy's chin and gently tipped his head back to catch his eyes again. He slid his other arm around a waist that was too slim, Cloud's body going still and pliant in his grasp.
"Shh, it's alright," Angeal watched the boy's pupils dilate wide as he fell under his glamor, "everything's alright, I'm here now. Don't you want me to take care of you, little one?"
A soft breath shuddered out of the boy as tears sprung into his eyes, and a little helpless nod and a sweet whimper was all the answer he needed. Angeal had a rueful feeling that he'd be leaving Nibelheim with one more fledgling than he'd planned. Sephiroth needed strengthening, his injury had healed but the infection had left him far too weak to turn him yet. Genesis had been frantic when he'd found them, hiding in an abandoned hovel some ways down the mountain, stealing what he could to try and treat the wounds as best he knew.
Cloud needed him too, he needed someone certainly. And if no one else in this miserable town could see the value wasting away here then Angeal would appreciate him instead.
"There you go," he murmured as Cloud tilted his head to one side obligingly. The boy's skin was still damp, smelling faintly of floral soap, and his pulse fluttered warm against Angeal's lips, "this won't hurt at all."
"Ah," Cloud gasped softly as Angeal bit down, arching up onto his toes and clutching at the edges of the vampire's wool coat. The blood was as sweet as everything else about him, but just as weak too. He took only a mouthful, it was all that he needed.
A low-level cure took care of the pinprick bruising in the curve of Cloud's throat before he swept him off his feet and settled him in the soft chair. Cloud listened, dazed and agreeable, as Angeal explained that Cloud had fainted and that he needed to take better care of himself. Of course, as Cloud had already agreed, Angeal was going to pay to rent out the upstairs rooms and take care of getting things together to make it livable. He'd get the heat back on, first thing in the morning, and bring his companions here to rest for the day.
All Cloud had to do, right now, was sleep . Angeal tucked the blankets all around the boy who seemed content now to cuddle deeper into the warmth and sigh as he gave into the little mental command to rest, "Don't worry, I'll take care of everything ."
He listened as Cloud's breathing slowed, deep and peaceful, as he fed another split log into the fire and stirred it a little more to life. It was clear that the wood had been carefully rationed but he'd noticed outside that the stack of logs weren't really enough to make it the rest of the month let alone any further than that. He sighed, reaching out to absently neaten the boy's hair a little. He wasn't certain yet if this had been due to poor planning, lack of strength to gather more, or simply apathy. No one else seemed as though they'd intended to help, aside from the mayor's daughter who Angeal doubted would have the resources to do so herself.
The kitchen cabinets were just as distressingly empty and Angeal opened drawers until he found a pad of paper and a pencil to begin making a list of what they needed. Medicine, of course, and food, certainly. It had been a very long time since he'd cooked… anything, but it wasn't a skill he'd let atrophy over the centuries. He'd traveled a great deal, and in the beginning that meant working in any place he decided to spend time in. Cooking was something he'd always enjoyed and watching other people take pleasure in his efforts had become more satisfying than partaking of it had ever been.
Cloud and Sephiroth needed to eat, and eat well, to get healthy. Genesis, too, as a dhampir also needed food periodically. He'd deny it, damn his pride, but he'd been suffering himself in order to give his lover everything he could scrounge up. The younger man had yet to explain how, exactly, he'd ended up so far from his own Sect. Angeal was certain it had more than a little to do with his father, who was a poor excuse for a Sire to the vampires he created on purpose let alone to a bastard half-breed he'd never intended to be saddled with.
Slowly, he walked through the small home and noted things down. The pair of boots by the door were entirely insufficient - Cloud's feet must freeze every time he had to go outside. The stitching where the synthetic leather attached to the rubber soles were coming loose, ensuring that snowmelt would soak through his thin socks with every step. His coat, too, was a little small. Looking it over, he was certain the sleeves would barely cover Cloud's wrists. A woman's coat, still hung on its hook by the door, was a forlorn reminder of why Cloud was so alone and ill-kept now.
The upstairs was dark and cold, all the doors closed to keep from drawing precious warmth up into the unused rooms to go to waste and the only light on in the night had been the kitchen to conserve electricity. He found the mother's room, untouched entirely except for the missing sheets and blankets from the bed. Cloud's room was the same, the closet and drawers holding only last summer's cooler clothing.
He'd have to put Genesis and Sephiroth in the mother's room, the silver haired man was entirely too large, even wasted from sickness, to fit in the smaller twin bed of Cloud's. Once the gas was restored and the heater working, Cloud could have his little room back.
Everything here painted a grim picture of privation and loneliness. He had a sinking feeling that the house must have been owned by the little family, or else whoever had been renting it to them would likely have turned Cloud out into the street the moment his mother had passed. The pencil in his hand snapped as he lost a little control of his temper. If he was going to be leaving here with three people in his care, not to mention the strength he'd need to expend to make Cloud and Sephiroth of his Kinde, he'd need to feed himself just as well as he did them. He didn't particularly like the people in this town, and while he wouldn't be cruel he wouldn't go out of his way to be kind about it, either.
Back downstairs, he once more tucked the blankets more closely around the sleeping boy and smiled faintly as he nuzzled into the hand that stroked his cheek. Cloud was his now, and this was the last winter he'd have to suffer the way he had been. He'd take the boy when they left, it wasn't as though anyone was going to miss him. That was a bitter thought, in its own way, but he wouldn't ever have to feel like this or be alone ever again. Angeal would make certain of that.
He thumbed through the lock on his cell phone, redialing the number for the room they'd taken at the inn. Genesis answered quickly, sounding more than a little petulant, "Please say the little girl was right and we have somewhere else to stay?" he asked, not even bothering with a 'hello' first, "What's taking so long? I'm being forced to listen to a pair of yokels next door committing adultery in the most banal ways."
"Yes," Angeal said, pinching the bridge of his nose, "we do, but it's a little more complicated than I'd planned on. Get some rest tonight, you'll need to go out in the morning and run some errands for me."
"How complicated is complicated?" Genesis asked, more curious than put out. He was bored, and irritated, and it would be good for him to get out and loose his ire on whoever was in charge of reinstating the gas service and paying off what was probably an overdue electric bill as well.
"I'll be back in a little while with a list, I'm not quite done here yet." Shrugging off his coat, Angeal gave a little hum, opening the refrigerator and beginning to take out a bit of this and that from what was left. He'd seen a small slow-cooker under the counter and there was enough here to have something warm for Cloud to eat in the morning and make more room for fresh groceries besides.