Author note: Guys, I'm thinking of writing a HOTD fic, most likely after this one is completed. Can you take a guess which character my brain has seized on? Why must I like long haired jerks in my fictional men… send help.
As for the smut, I will use it. I'm just torn between if I want to use it in story, or separate it out with other scenes I discarded… the choice is killer! If I wait, it'll be a bit, since Sophie is still young… any characters you guys want to see get it on, or do something fluffy together?
Chapter start
The door swung open quietly, already polished and repaired by Claudia to be silent and dirt free. Despite that, red eyes were on my form from the moment the know quietly turned. My back leaned against the door as it closed, giving him the eye contact he initiated.
Blood had been cleansed from him; long hair brushed to neatly fall down shoulders in a waterfall. The cloak that identified him, impractical and never normally seen on a Turk, was missing. His body was slighter that I'd thought it would be without that crimson cloak, its usual twists causing him to seem bigger it seemed. Shoulders about as broad as Sephiroth's, body leaner than the taller SOLDIER. Similar to the way Genesis was lean.
Silver shone from his side, gun still there. Tseng giving him the benefit of the doubt as a Turk? Doubtful. They'd probably been unable to take the weapon from him, distrust so plain in the bloody orbs, as well as the deceptive relaxation of his body. He seemed fluid in his stance, yet tension lingered in the set of his shoulders, legs slightly bent to launch to whichever side he might need to dodge.
I was the furthest thing from a threat, even with Boulder by my side, sensing the energy of the room.
"I guess I should thank you," I finally murmured, breaking the silence. "You saved my life."
"Hardly." He turned his body to face mine, arms crossing. My girlish voice, slightly high pitched to add to my innocent form. I knew how a Turk cataloged threat.
"Oh, but you did! Well…" I pretended to think, finger tapping my chin before I shrugged. "Well, Vergil saved me. You helped, though!"
I crossed the floor, getting dangerously close, laying a hand along his forearm. If I was older, I would have pressed against him. His arm was solid, another facet that was deceptively relaxed. He could twist my neck in a second if he wanted to. Pretending I didn't know that was the privilege of the life I had. Who would ever harm the precious Shinra princess?
"So, Mister vampire," I cooed, "What's your name?"
He studied me, my eyes. I'd made sure to dress in an adorable manner, no way to hide weapons on my form. Look, how not a threat I am Chaos. It seemed to work, as he didn't tense or reject my touch. His eyes dismissed me partially, glancing away to look at Boulder, ready as always to launch into either play or fight.
He marked Boulder as the threat in the room. "Vincent."
I hummed. "Vincent… vampire?" I teased lightly.
"Valentine." He withdrew from me.
It was safer to allow it. I meandered around, settling on the bed in a way that made it bounce. Smiling at him.
"I think I like Vampire better. Gonna suck my blood?" Tilting my head, still smiling innocently.
Vincent seemed to think for a moment, before bending over me slightly, the golden claw of his artificial arm trailing the vein of my neck. "Wouldn't that terrify you?"
Laughter spilled from my throat, airy and light. I didn't allow myself to shift away, instead wrapping arms around his neck, my favorite maneuver of tugging the strands wandering fingers encountered. Vincent didn't wince, and I tugged downwards, leading him into settling on the bed as well.
"I don't think my blood would be very tasty. If you're hungry though I'm sure Claudia would be happy to make your food rare from now on."
"You can't be that naïve," he muttered.
"To believe in vampires?" I hummed, brushing my hand down the pastel skirt I wore. "Once upon a time-"
"What are you on about?" His brows had arched high on his head, disbelief coloring his face. Dealing with a child, was what he probably thought, a truly spoiled girl who'd never had need to mature.
I fell into it. "Sssh. I'm telling you a story Vampy. Keep up. Once upon a time, there was a not so innocent Turk, cause Turks are never innocent. And two scientists, one even less innocent then the Turk, and one so naïve and…" Annoying, my brain supplied. "And one so idealistic she was blind to things going around her."
Vincent had stiffened, and my smile turned a little less innocent. He didn't interrupt me though, eyes narrowed as he listened. I kept it to what knowledge the reports had given me, glossing over the gaps I knew but couldn't reveal, my voice growing more and more serious.
"And she regretted it, I think." I added it on, at the end, brushing my hands down the false hand he had. He was letting me run my fingers over the cool metal. Noticing the glove underneath, it I paused, tugging it enough the gauntlet slid down. Vincent sighed, taking his arm away and sliding it off, revealing the thing wasn't a prosthetic, but a clawed gauntlet. He dropped it into my lap and I gaped at him.
"What?"
"I thought that…" I'd thought it was fake, that Chaos had dissolved his arm maybe and Lucrecia had placed on the prosthetic, or Hojo had done something. "I thought it was fake."
"You assumed I had a false arm?" His voice rumbled lowly, and it sounded like a thread of laughter bundled from deep in his chest.
"Well… you punched through the monster."
"I prefer guns, but bullets are not limitless."
"Makes sense," I muttered, nails tapping along the gauntlet.
He studied me, before he partially demanded. "Is Lucrecia alive? How else would you know these things?"
"Reports. It's also how I knew who you were. Hojo didn't do a good enough job cleaning out the library."
"So, she is…" Sorrow flickered through his face before it returned to stoicism.
"I don't know," I allowed. "Her last report said she was going to a cave of crystals."
"Where she discovered Chaos and Omega."
"Mm. Do you know where that it?"
"No. It was well before I came into contact with her. And the child?"
"Ah, so you believe me?" I fell along the bed, arms outstretched in false relief. "He's my best friend. That's why I'm telling you these things."
"I do not trust you. But I don't believe you're a liar."
"Fair enough. You'll do anything for Lucrecia. And I'll do anything for Sephiroth. I'd say we're going to make a terrific team."
"I must find her. You want that as well, don't you? Why?"
"Hojo wants to break Sephiroth, make him twist and bend. I just… I won't let that happen. Sephiroth deserves the truth. And the only one who'll give it to him is, I think, Lucrecia."
"Very well." He closed his eyes. "I will find Lucrecia. There are things I too…"
I glanced at him, sighing. "You aren't to blame. In the end, everything leads back to one man. And a fuck ton of ambitions."
"Then I will kill the common thread."
"Course. Just not yet. If anyone has the right, it's Sephiroth. If he wants to talk to Hojo after this, once he finds everything out, he needs that right. Agreed?"
"You trust he won't go mad like his father?"
"I trust that my Sephiroth could go mad, in a very dangerous way. But he could also be so good. He just needs the chance to choose." While I ran as much interference as I could.
"Know that if he is, I will end him before allowing him near to Lucrecia."
"Mister Vampire is in love. Be still his beating heart," I gushed out, pushing from the bed.
"You aren't funny," He said.
"Ha! I'm adorable."
"Yo, Princess!" Reno slammed his fist in the door once as a warning, before he swung the door open.
"Reno?" My brows rose. "Shouldn't you be with Cloud?"
"That's the thing. He ran off after that Tifa girl he's been mooning over. Bunch of squirts came back, said a bridge had broke on them. Tifa fell over and Cloud followed."
Ah, shit. Had that been why Tifa hadn't been over? If her mother had just died, then I knew exactly what had happened.
"We have to find them. I can't live without my chocobo head anymore." I stood up, glancing to Vincent. "Well, Vampy. Nothing like a search and rescue to build a friendship."
Vincent rose as well, realigning his gauntlet over his arm. Reno eyed him curiously and cautiously. The Turk shrugged after a moment, deciding it wasn't worth an argument. "Yeah, sure. Grab yer coat, we'll meet you by the front gate."
I met them after a few minutes, and we ran into a few village men and the heartier women.
"We'll go our own way," Reno said. He had no patience for the villagers, apparently fond of Claudia and his little protégé enough that he didn't give a damn about offending anyone.
We darted up a different path, going through undergrowth rather than the easier path the villagers took, led by Mayor Lockhart.
The few monsters encountered were easily handled, bullets from Vincent and I easily lodging into skulls, while Reno shot electric pulses with his mag rod, Boulder happily ripping out jugulars.
I despised the terrain. The snow made it impossible to have speed, and dead branches and twisted plants able to thrive caught and snagged in the tights I wore, causing runs and tears. Cold sidled into the exposed flesh, making me shudder. Never again, if anything could stop it, would I be anywhere near snow again. Fuck this.
In the end, our trek off the path got us to the downed bridge quicker than the villagers at least. And I found the other three already there as well, Claudia looking fearful but determined, a shine to her eyes that radiated grim determination. That wasn't surprising, since Cloud had to get his inner fire from somewhere.
What did surprise me was the way Vergil was allowing her to grip him to remain steady as she peeked over the edge. The way my housekeeper wasn't well kept, but not disheveled in the way we were. It wasn't rough terrain that had messed her pulled back hair, the way a button seemed to be missing from the top of her blouse. Her lips didn't have the tell tale swelling of being thoroughly kissed, but a mark teased itself around her throat not covered by the collar, noticeable when she turned a certain way. Keen eyes observed that Vergil allowed touches he normally abhorred, and I grinned a Cheshire grin, despite the situation. Go Claudia!
"They aren't down there," Tseng announced. He lowered the binoculars he'd been using to scout the bottom of the ravine, glancing to us. His eyes lingered on Vincent, who bore it blankly.
"Then where are they," Claudia fretted.
Yes, where were they? From my memory, the two had fallen from the bridge, Cloud somehow being relatively unscathed, while Tifa bashed her skull.
"Over there," Vincent pointed "It seems at least one was able to climb up."
Of course, vampy had better eyesight than the rest of us. My eyes strained, but was unable to see what he saw on the other side of the cliff, except for the broken tatters of the bridge.
"Maybe they caught the bridge when it fell," Vergil said.
"Possibly," Tseng murmured. He glanced to Claudia. "Are there any other paths that will get us across?"
"Yes, if we follow the cliff line West." She suddenly seized a deep breath, fingers covering her mouth, other hand clutching at her stomach. She had a white knuckled grip in the coat shed adorned.
Vergil had the look of a scalded cat. My eyes rolled. Men… bloody useless. I crossed to Claudia, tugging her hand away and letting her grip transfer to me. The woman's hands were red from the cold, and I felt my heart clench. I had to take better care of her. I'd given her money, yes, but it seemed she had barely spent any.
"We'll find them. If they aren't down there, then that means they're still moving. We can stop them from getting hurt. Come on, Claudia. We need you to show us where to go."
The woman nodded, shuffling around me, and down the path. I exchanged a look with Vergil, who seemed to recognize I'd noticed things. I fell into step beside him, letting him focus on me rather than on his inability to comfort the woman.
We descended deeper into the mountain, feeling the temperature dropping as the day went by. We didn't run into the villagers again, and I wondered if they'd went down into the ravine to hunt for bodies. Maybe we should have waited, had them go the other way. Still, Claudia knew Cloud best, and she made a beeline along the cliffs edge, until we came to the next bridge after a few hours.
I realized, after my stomach clenched in not fear that I'd skipped breakfast. Gotten up and just cheerily wandered to Vincent's room like a dummy. Granted, no way I could have realized this was the day Tifa would lose her common sense. Did this mean Zach was already in Midgar, or traveling to it? No… Cloud had told Tifa in the game when Spring came, he would be leaving. They were, tragically for me, in the first brushes of winter.
I had wanted to curl into a ball when Claudia told me that. This… this frigid winter wonderland, so high it came nearly to my knees, was the beginning of their winter? Son of a bitch.
Vergil seemed to realize my predicament, and called for a break, handing me a piece of the cured beef he always carried. High in protein, low on taste. I was grateful though, ripping a piece off with my teeth and beginning the arduous task of chewing the tough morsel. The others accepted a piece as well, Vincent and Vergil having a silent conversation. I knew Vincent had to have been hungry, but he didn't know these Turks who had joined ranks after his… sacrifice.
Seeing the issue, and understanding it, I cleared my throat, offering him the piece I'd tugged a piece off of. Swallowed it with some difficulty, as I wanted to talk to him. No teasing opportunity left unchecked, apparently even if I had to choke for it. "No poison here Vampy. If you want a neck to gnaw on, I'm sure Reno would oblige."
The redheaded Turk eyed the man and then smiled his usual flirty look, eyes half lidded. "I could give him something to suck, yep."
"Reno," Tseng snapped, rolling his eyes as I started cackling, until a piece of the jerky got stuck, causing a cough. He handed me water while Vergil thumped my back.
Vincent gave the redhead a look, huffing. Then he glanced to me, still holding the jerky out to him, eying me up and down. Noted the way the Turks were in tune with each other and me, the way others had taken bites and not died. He sighed, chuckling slightly as he took the jerky. I beamed.
"See? I'm so adorable even Vampire can't resist me charms," I gloated.
He huffed again, settling down into the snow gracefully. "I should have known you weren't so naïve."
Vergil gave me the piece he'd offered Vincent, ignoring my whine that he couldn't carry chips, or even crackers over his favored jerky.
"Sophie likes to play," Tseng murmured.
"At everyone else's expense," Reno added with a laugh.
"Sephy likes me," I muttered. " You jerks."
Vincent glanced at me, probably wondering at the casual way I mentioned Sephiroth. He probably believed the baby his beloved to be impregnated with was fated to be a monster, seeing the way the pregnancy had beaten Lucrecia, tormented her.
He shelved it, turning to Claudia. "They haven't made it to the bridge. You are certain they would have come this way?"
Claudia nodded, also running into the difficulty of chewing. She was trying to combat it by tearing off small chunks with her fingers. "I taught Cloud these trails after… after his father passed. I know where my boy would go."
Good enough for all of us. Only Vincent might have known the area, though I doubted he'd wandered far from Lucrecia.
My mind drifted. Cloud was supposed to be in the bottom of that ravine… the fact he wasn't meant canon had been altered… what did that mean for long term? I swallowed, pretending to myself it was difficult because of the food I chewed, and not the lump of worry that sank into my belly.
