I BET YOU THOUGHT I WAS DONE

I'm not. I just need to figure out how to tie up everything way down the line.

As Cloud left the ride again with Tifa in tow, he couldn't wipe his goofy grin from his face. He was holding her hand and her shoulder brushed his arm, and there was a glow on his cheeks he couldn't chalk up to little magic tricks. Being in love felt good, he thought. Really good.

He looked down at Tifa, and she had a glint to her eyes and a giddy smile on her lips. His grin grew. "What?"

"Nothing..." She twirled a bit of her hair around a finger.

"You two look like you're up to something," chimed Aerith's voice as they nearly passed the table she and Rox sat at. She had a sly look on her face as her chin rested on her hand.

The two stopped in their tracks, red faced and unable to wipe the smiles from their faces. "We're up to nothing at all," Tifa said.

Rox groaned while Aerith beamed. "You two make a cute couple."

"Thanks," Cloud stuttered out. "Uh, you two enjoying the fair?"

"I am, but I think Rox needs to learn how to relax." Aerith pat Rox on the back as the teen looked up into Tifa's eyes with a pout on her lips.

"Whatever."

Cloud couldn't help but snort at Rox's reaction, but he understood she would be a little upset. He looked around the fair, trying to see what they should visit next. His eye twitched as his gaze came across a familiar face, looking about the crowd.

"Cloud, what's wrong?" Tifa asked. His grip had strengthed on her hand.

He looked back at her. "I think we should go. It looks like Domino called in the calvary."

Rox rolled her eyes. "Oh, now we have to run away from vampire hunters before they get any ideas." She was terrified of vampires, but after what had happened to Aerith and she, Rox had a brand new wariness towards her old guild. She wondered to herself if they would try to kill them just for being close to a vampire.

"Didn't you say they wouldn't attack us here?" Aerith asked as she furrowed her brow.

Cloud nodded. "They're still going to try and track us to a more deserted area."

Tifa looked at Aerith and Rox. "They didn't see them with us...We should go seperately."

"We might get lost in the darkness," Aerith pointed out. "We barely know the streets in the daylight."

"Cloud, can you take them home? I'll wait at the entrance for you." Tifa motioned her free hand towards them.

He bit his lip and looked between them and her. "I don't wanna leave you alone with them prowling around."

"If they don't know we're together, Rox and me should be fine until you get back," Aerith pointed out.

Cloud nodded and looked back at Tifa. "Head towards the entrance, and I'll watch your back. Okay?"

"Alright. I'll be waiting for you, Cloud."

"Well, it was nice meeting you two!" Aerith grabbed Rox's arm as they got up from their seats and walked off towards another stand. Rox looked back, her brows together as she looked at Tifa.

"Tifa, I'll watch from the sky for a bit, alright? Just until you reach the shadows."

She nodded. "I'll take my time, I don't want them to think anything of us meeting Aerith and Rox."

"Good idea..." He gave her a kiss on the lips and squeezed one of her hands before walking in the opposite direction, probably off to some lonesome corner where he could turn into a bat.

Tifa sighed and walked off again, strolling towards the entrance. There was no point in hurrying, and she took her time. Tifa looked at this stall or that as she fiddled with one of the stuffed animals Cloud had won for her. It was such a tiny little thing he worked for; she would put them in her room on her nightstand, she decided.

She gave it a soft squeeze as she left the entrance. Her finger traced the fur of the little brown bear that smiled up at her, and she smiled back at it. Maybe she would put one of them in Cloud's hands as he slept so he had something to wake up to, she thought playfully.

Tifa wondered if Cloud was watching her yet, but there was no sign of him up above and no suggestions popping into her head. Maybe Aerith and Rox stopped him, or maybe he was caught up by a stranger asking him something he probably couldn't help them with, like directions to a payphone or a specific street.

She looked up from the bear after another long moment of walking and scanned the area behind her. Her gaze moved to study the entrance to the fair that was now in the distance, looking for any hostile faces she would recognize that could be following her.

Again she walked deeper into the night, and almost jumped when she heard soft footsteps behind her. Tifa narrowed her eyes and tightened her jaw as she turned around; her stalker was a familiar face she hadn't had a desire to see tonight.

Domino.

Tifa pocketed the stuffed animal before walking towards him with her fists squeezed at her sides. "Spying on me again?" she asked with more than a hint of irritation in her voice.

He looked a little flustered as he stopped sneaking, as if he wasn't quite sure what to say. He put himself into a defensive position as she continued to walk towards him. She rolled her eyes at his indecision to say anything after she approached him. "Are you here to kill me or kidnap me, or what?"

"What? No!" Domino looked offended at the thought as he took a step back.

"What else would you do to someone you thought was a vampire's servant?" She raised a brow at him.

He seemed taken aback by what she said. "Free them," he said simply.

"I'm not his servant, so there's no need for you to be stalking me." Where was Cloud? He shouldn't be taking this long...

Domino gave her an incredulous look. "C'mon, that's a pretty bold lie...even for a servant, Alyssra."

Tifa huffed. "Not that you'll believe me, but I'm with him willingly." She looked behind him for any familiar hunter faces, but found none; she assumed they were still searching for Cloud within the fairgrounds. "I told you before, he was an old friend of mine."

He crossed his arms. "I doubt that."

"I don't care if you believe it or not, that's the truth." He was giving her a disbelieving stare, and she put her hands on her hips. "What was the point of you calling your friends up, anyway? You couldn't attack us there. Were you waiting to attack me if I hadn't heard you sneaking up on me?"

"Alyssra—"

"And you wanna pretend you're a good guy!" she interrupted, exasperated with the tanned skin man.

"Is everything alright?" They both turned; it was Cloud, his arms crossed as he stood behind Domino. The vampire hunter jumped and took several steps back, his dagger now in his hand. Cloud looked at Tifa and tilted his head. "I was looking for you."

She gave him an unconvincing withering look. "You're late. Did something happen?"

"Mm." He looked at Domino, a smile creeping on his face as he stared into his eyes. "I found a lost kid, actually," he said innocently. "So I took him someplace...safe, before I came here—"

"Liar," Domino whispered firmly as he carefully, deliberately moved his feet.

"Hm, do you know him? He said his name was Glenn, and he was hiding in one of the closed tents." Cloud's smile was a full on evil grin as he took in how much paler Domino's face had become. He glanced at Tifa and noted the worried look on her face. Go along with it, I'm teasing.

Domino took a step towards him, his hands clentched into fists. One was raised a little, holding his dagger. "If you did anything to him—"

Cloud's eyes went back to Domino. "You'll do what, exactly? Slay me? You were already planning to do that." Without lifting his gaze from the vampire hunter he walked by him to get to Tifa's side.

Domino shook his head and pointed a finger at the vampire. "No...he was wearing an amulet!"

Cloud shrugged. "It was pretty easy to convince him it looked stupid, too." He wanted to chuckle at the vampire hunter's pale face, but he understood very well what loss felt like. He wasn't one to inflict it maliciously. "I'm in a really good mood tonight, Domino. So, I told Glenn to stay right where I left him, at the cotton candy stand...Kids are really easy to manipulate, y'know."

Tifa looked between the two. "You better go get him, Domino."

Cloud nodded. "I could just change my mind and keep him. Glenn is a pretty likeable kid, despite being your brother."

Domino bit his lip, then charged back to the fair in a panic. Cloud looked around for any others that could have been watching, then looked at Tifa. "Let's go before any more show up."

She nodded and they hurried towards home, watching their backs as they briskly walked through the darkness. "What did you do to his brother?"

A dorky smile crossed his lips as mist shrouded them both. "The worst thing I could possibly do to Domino this late at night."

"Which is?"

"Buying his brother sugary treats."

Tifa stifled a giggle. "You have to be the worst 'bad guy' ever, Cloud."

Cloud's smile grew as he put an arm around her shoulders. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Domino rushed towards the area that the vampire said he had left his brother. That demon must have been watching as he took Glenn someplace safe before they searched for the monster with hopes of catching it off guard as it left the fair.

That had been a very bad gamble.

Now he had to hope that vampire actually hadn't done something to his little brother. The way he had gazed at Glenn earlier in the evening had the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and was one of the reasons he had called Kedime in the first place. Why did Kedime demand he help, with his brother here? Of course Glenn would have taken off that talisman he gave him. The boy was always so skeptical of talk about vampires.

Domino looked about and spotted the cotton candy stall. Leaning on it was Glenn; he had a large stick of yellow cotton candy in his hand that he was casually munching on. Domino jogged up to him and grabbed his shoulders, jolting his brother. "Glenn!"

"Hey, Dommy!" He ate another wisp of cotton candy.

Domino frowned. "Where did you get that?"

His little brother pointed towards the exit. "This guy named Cloud bought me some. He said kids should have fun at fairs and shouldn't be hiding in abandoned tents."

"Did he do anything to you? Why did you let a vampire convince you to take off your talisman..."

Glenn frowned up at his panicked brother. "Vampires don't exist."

"That guy was the vampire we were looking for! He could've kidnapped you!" he quietly admonished. He took out a small vial of holy water he kept with him. "Drink this."

Glenn rolled his eyes and did as Domino asked, if just to placate him. He looked up to his brother, but his belief in vampires was silly to him. "Well, if he's a vampire, they seem pretty nice."

Domino groaned as he rubbed his face with both hands. He was more relieved than anything that the vampire hadn't done anything to Glenn, he had had ample chance to. Maybe vampires did have the occasional merciful thought, he supposed. "Vampires aren't nice."

Glenn shrugged. "He bought me this before he said he had to go find his girlfriend. I thought it was a good idea to just stay here in case you or Kedime walked by."

"Girlfriend?"

"Yeah."

That vampire called Alyssra his friend the other day. Was she telling the truth? She never fought him or Kedime and Nahki. Maybe she was a necromancer or something, he thought. Someone that took the dead a little too seriously...Now she was his girlfriend?

She didn't seem the type, but "Cloud" didn't seem to be a vampire until that night he made it look like there were maggots in his food. Even then he had wondered if it was Alyssra who had done it until the night of the fight on the beach. This was a secret world, filled with people that held dark secrets about them.

"Domino!" He turned around to see Kedime walking towards him at a brisk pace. Her face was a stern mask as she went from Glenn and his cotton candy to Domino's face, silently demanding an explanation.

He sucked in a breath as he rose and turned to face her. "I told you it wasn't safe! The vampire found him. He...told me where Glenn was after his maybe servant confronted me."

Glenn rolled his eyes as he finished his treat. "It was just some guy."

Kedime ignored him. "He told you?"

Domino explained what had happened, and she nodded. "Gorky should have been watching the street that Alyssra woman always walks. So, it's not like we don't have a chance."

"Unless he floats off."

"Vampires can float? That's so cool!" Glenn said.

Domino gave his brother an exasperated look. "Vampires aren't cool."

"And it looks like Gorky might have gotten a little closer to their hideout, but he lost them again. I suppose that's progress." Kedime was typing on her phone. "The neighborhood is made of several streets."

"So we look for the boarded up house, easy."

Kedime tsked. "Maybe. There could be a dozen abandoned houses to inspect." She looked up at the crowd as a couple of people headed to the entrance. She didn't notice the bat that flew over their heads.

Tifa sat on the couch next to Cloud. They had been a couple for only a few hours now, and she wasn't sure what to do besides snuggle into his shoulder. How far was too far? He glanced at her and his eyes held need, a need she had inside her as well. A warm smile crossed her lips, and she reached up to kiss him as he came down to meet her. It felt like electricity humming through her lips.

After a few minutes they parted, and Tifa looked up at him while she took a deep breath. "Do you think we should lie low for a day or two?" she asked.

He shrugged his free shoulder. "Maybe. We're both homebodies as it is, aren't we?"

Tifa let out a short chuckle. "A little. But that's what we get for being nice to vampire hunters, isn't it?"

"I suppose so." Cloud stared at the cold fireplace. Being with Tifa again had slowly softened him, he mused. Months ago he wouldn't have given a second thought to killing Domino just for being a vampire hunter. Nothing personal on an emotional level, just a bid to have one less problem creeping up on him. Now, he was doing the one thing he shouldn't be doing: humanizing his enemy.

He pushed the thought away, not wanting to dwell on Domino, especially after being the victor in what was an unspoken love triangle. Cloud's eyes looked over Tifa. "Did you wanna bunk with me again?" he asked hopefully.

She smirked back. "You move quick."

Cloud snorted and squeezed her tightly. "You always jump at the chance," he teased.

They both stood up from the couch and walked upstairs. Aerith was already in bed, and Rox had gone to her room with one of the treats Cloud had bought the other night to read, or more likely to sulk while pretending to read.

Tifa looked towards her room. "Let me get cleaned up first," she said.

He rubbed her cheek. "I'll be waiting."

She entered her room and dressed in her night clothing, then freshened up in the bathroom. Before she went up to his room she fetched a book on an obscure martial arts form from Mideel that rested on her bookshelf.

When she entered Cloud's room he was watching her with a book in his hand as he leaned into his pillow and bed frame. He smiled at her and playfully patted his hand on the bed. She scooted up close to him and leaned on his arm, causing him to hum.

Cloud glanced at her book. "What book is that?"

She looked at the cover, then him. "It's a martial arts book. I wanted to see if there was anything I could incorporate into my style." Tifa looked down at his book; it was a thin, bluish grey hardcover with no title. "And what have you been reading?"

His eyes fell on the book, and he blushed. "Grimoire," he said.

Tifa cocked her head. She had seen them before, and they were disposed of after a vampire had been slayed. "Where did you get it?"

"Zack. I'm not sure where he got it from, but he said older vampires collect them. He's only got three, because it's not a big interest of his." Cloud looked at the book cover and rubbed it with his thumb. "I'm not sure if I'll collect more or not, especially if I don't know where to get them. They're kind of like instruction manuals for vampires."

He opened it to a page discussing mist manipulation, and Tifa glanced at it. "So, living humans can't use any of this, huh?"

His hum was uncertain as he looked at the illustration on the page. "I don't think so. Maybe there's a book on that somewhere, but I don't have it."

"Oh." Her eyes looked upwards in a playful fashion before looking at Cloud again. "If there was anything on it, I suppose I would have seen a servant using it, anyway."

"It would come in handy." He shrugged and looked back at Tifa with a smirk. "Why, are you interested in becoming my servant now?"

She looked away with a blush. "I didn't say I was!"

He chuckled at her reaction. "But Teef, it has perks, y'know."

Tifa tsked as she unconvincingly glared back. "I'm well aware!"

"That would be a pretty big fall for a vampire hunter, especially if you did it willingly." There was a naughty appeal to it to him that he chalked up to his disdain of hunters in general. But there was more to it; he would be that much closer to Tifa, and she would be that much closer to him.

Tifa looked back at him with a pout on her lips. "And you said my vampire hunting days were over."

He put his book on the nightstand and grabbed her up; he was holding her over his lap with his hand around her waist. "I did say that. Hm. Your father was right, I am a bad influence," he teased.

She snuggled up to him. "I don't think I'm that much better," she muttered before sliding a hand onto his scalp and kissing him. She wondered about the always available option of becoming his servant, but decided that if it ever came down to it, it probably wouldn't be so bad. Especially since this vampire was just as much hers as she was his.

"You're rather perky this afternoon, Tifa."

"Oh?"

Aerith chuckled. "You've been humming since you waltzed into the kitchen."

Tifa poured her cooked oatmeal into her bowl, then carefully picked it up and carried it to the table. Rox was slouching in her seat, staring at the last half of her sandwich. Aerith was nibbling on the rest of hers and handing an olive to Squeak.

She took a spoonful of her oatmeal and blew on it before eating it, then glanced at Rox as she huffed harshly. "Rox, are you alright?" she asked after swallowing her food.

"M'fine," the teen mumbled.

"She's been pouty all morning, Aerith pointed out. "I think it's because she's the only one in the house without a boyfriend..."

Rox glowered at her. "Yeah, sorry if I'm a bit more choosy about who I go out with!"

"Let me guess, at least you'd choose someone with a pulse. Right?" Tifa held her nose in her hand as her elbow rested on the table, her other hand softly tapping her spoon against the bowl in irritation. "It's none of your business who we go out with, anyway."

The teen looked her way, but didn't soften her gaze. "I think it is, especially when he's the same guy that almost killed me in an abandoned alley!" She noticed Tifa flinch.

"...He did?" Aerith's brows were raised.

Rox looked at Aerith. "Yeah, her little boy-toy went after me in the dark!"

Tifa sighed. "And he didn't kill you. If anything helped prove he was still the person I knew, it was that he didn't do that."

The teen narrowed her eyes at Tifa. "You told me not to trust vampires, that they were evil incarnate. Well you know what? That sentiment hasn't changed too much deep down."

"Oh." Aerith cocked her head. "Even if Zack saved us from that building?"

Rox sighed harshly. "I can make a small exception for him, I guess. I mean I guess evil incarnate can be nice sometimes."

Tifa narrowed her eyes after lifting her head from her hand. "Rox, I understand why you feel the way you do, but neither of them are 'evil incarnate'. Cloud is my oldest, dearest friend, and he's only like this because he tried to save people from mindless monsters." She stopped tapping the spoon. "I became a hunter only to save him, and to find him like this, alone..."

"Alone, stalking people at night and killing them."

"I think you're being a little melodramatic, Rox." Aerith pat Squeak on the head as he let out a little peep. It wasn't like the subject was easy for her to swallow, but it was was two dimensional dramatics to her.

"I am not!" She held the last half of her sandwich so tightly the cheese was pushing out of it. "I am not..."

Tifa let out a sigh through her nose, then began to eat her oatmeal again. The kitchen was silent but for the sound of quiet eating. She cared about Rox, but now she was going to have to deal with a tempermental teenager that she felt was getting out of line. Tifa knew it would take time before the teen accepted this as the new normal, but it wasn't going to be a walk in the park at all.

After she was finished with her breakfast, Tifa went about cleaning the dishes before taking out Scratch's meal to sit and warm up on the counter. Not wanting to stay still, she went into the living room to clean it up a bit. She opened the curtains and the windows to let in a breeze before taking out the vacuum.

She thought about everything. Certainly she knew what she was getting into, or at least she was pretty sure she did. She didn't know all that well when she became a part of the vampire hunter's guild, but she thought she had. All she was there for was one vampire, and she found him. Or, he found her.

She made her choice, and she would live with it.

They wouldn't have kids, and they wouldn't grow old together. No, she would be the only one growing old. She wondered if he would move on when she became too stiff and wrinkly, off to a fresher face. But, that was decades from now, she thought, and they had just begun their relationship last night.

Still, she couldn't help but think that far ahead. Did Cloud? He probably did. Neither of them knew what the future would hold for them, she realized that, and that like she said in the ferris wheel they would have to take it one night at a time. He wouldn't abandon her, and she wouldn't abandon him, regardless of relationship status. That was established, she thought.

When she finished cleaning she went upstairs to talk with Aerith. Tifa knocked on her door, and she entered as Aerith's voice called out a greeting. Aerith was sitting on her bed with a book on places to see in Junon. Tifa sat next to her as the flower girl scooted over and further onto the bed, sitting cross-legged on the blankets. "Everything alright?"

Tifa shrugged and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Hm."

"Oh, Rox." Aerith put her book down after saving the page she was on. "She knew this was gonna happen, she just didn't say much because she felt helpless."

After a humorless chuckle Tifa replied, "were we that obvious?"

Aerith nodded with a wry smile. "Very."

Tifa blew out a sigh. "I really don't know how to comfort her. She's right, I told her those things. I told her what I had been told, and she wouldn't question it at all. Why would she, after everything that happened to her?

"A vampire killed her family, slowly, and some of the townsfolk too. Using her mother." She shook her head and ran a hand through her bangs. "Then Cloud did what he did..."

Aerith cocked her head to the side. "It just doesn't seem like something he would do..."

"I was horrified when he came home with her weapon, you know. I thought he had killed my friend."

"Hm."

Tifa looked at her feet. "But, all he did was take her blade and let her go. Now, he's watching over her. It's a very surreal turn of events when you think about it."

Aerith nodded. Now she understood why Rox was so terrified of quiet, blushing Cloud. She saw what he was capable of. "Do you think you softened him?"

The brunette chuckled. "Probably." She looked up at Aerith again. "Hey, do you wanna join me? I was gonna do my katas."

"I'm afraid I don't know martial arts."

Tifa stood up. "I can teach you the basics. You never know when you might need it!"

Aerith agreed to it, and they went downstairs. They moved the table and the sofa, giving them enough space to practice. Tifa showed her friend a few basic moves she could practice on her own. Eventually Aerith just watched as Tifa did more advanced katas, then practiced with her again.

After Tifa finished her practice, she took a shower and dressed herself with a pair of jeans and a deep blue tank top. She wasn't planning on going out, not with the possible danger of one of the hunters recognizing her in her neighborhood, but she thought it looked nice.

As Rox and Aerith took a small evening walk, Tifa decided to take a nap on the third floor. She opened up the door to Cloud's room and turned on the light. He was laying on his side, just like she left him. Tifa shuffled into his bed, switched off the lamp, and put her back to his chest and the crown of her head to his chin. He was cool against her skin, which was welcome considering the time of year.

She eventually fell asleep again, and woke up with a light chuckle as she felt his arm squeeze on her midsection gently. "Morning, Cloud."

"Mornin'." Tifa could hear the smile in his voice.

Cloud rubbed at the back of his neck as he looked at the door to Rox's room. It wasn't like the teenager was intimidating at all, but talking to her on the subject of him dating Tifa was going to test his patience. Why did Aerith put him up to this? She mentioned it right after he had said Zack wanted him to tell her hello when he had gotten downstairs.

Zack had messaged him almost immediately upon the sun's setting asking if he finally told Tifa, and Cloud swore he could hear his whoop from Junon. But other than that, there had not been much to speak of in regards to the investigation, which they had kept low key on their texts. Cloud was expecting a letter with an update soon.

After a few seconds of clearing his mind he knocked lightly on the door and heard a muffled voice telling him to come in. After a moment of hesitation, he turned the knob and slowly opened the door.

He peeked in, and was greeted with a fearful scowl from the bed. Cloud shook his head in disapproval at the girl as he came in and closed the door. "You should of asked who it was first," he chastised as he played with the hem of his white shirt.

Her eyes narrowed and she scooted to the far side of her bed. "What do you want?"

Cloud suddenly felt sheepish, but ended up walking to the edge of her bed and sitting on it, his back facing her. "I...guess I wanted to talk to you a little."

He felt her dark eyes burning holes into the back of his head, and he peeked from behind his shoulder. He could see under her defiant facade, the fear swimming in her eyes and in the way her arms shook ever so slightly. She was breathing through her nose in a fashion reminiscent of some of his prey when they found out what he was and what he was after. "I'm not gonna do anything to you, Rox."

She let out a shaky and uncertain breath. "What did you wanna talk about?"

Cloud looked away again, and began fiddling with his thumbs. "I, uh...I know you're upset that Tifa and I are dating now..."

He heard a humorless and short cackle behind him. "Yeah, I am. You're never satisfied, are you?"

He looked back at her with his brows crunched together. "Huh?"

Rox pointed at him with an accusatory glare. "Vampires take away everything."

"No we don't."

"Yes, you do. You're never satisfied to take one loved one, you have to take one, then another and another!" Her hand slowly scrunched up into a fist, and she situated it on the covers of her bed. "I keep losing people to you things. It's like...It's like you spared me just so I could see Tifa do this..."

He thought his patience was at risk, but it seemed to him now it was something else. "I already told you—" Cloud bit his lip as he studied the distraught teen. Tifa had said she lost her family. "Look, I just wanna...I want to start over with you—"

"You can't erase the past!" she hissed.

"I know that! I know I can't erase what I did to you, or what that vampire did to your family." She seemed somewhat taken aback, then agitated when she realized Tifa had told him what had happened to her. He decided to go on before she had a chance to verbally retaliate. "I can't erase the pain I dealt to Tifa or my mother. I can't."

Rox narrowed her eyes. "D'you wanna try to worm your way in like that, huh?"

"No. I just...We aren't that different."

"Um, I'm a lot different from a blood drinking corpse," she said matter-of-factly.

He turned away and shook his head. "We were both thrust into a nightmare world as teenagers, and no family to boot. And Tifa has to deal with us," he added with a wry tone to his voice. "We both would have been happier knowing this didn't exist at all."

"You still kept on existing," she tested. "If you hate it as much as I do, why keep going?"

Cloud's shoulders responded with a weak shrug, then he decided to divulge raw memories. "The first couple of weeks I kept to my coffin, hoping the Planet would take me. I would have let the sun finish me, but if I left there was a chance I might have killed anyone that came too near." He sucked in a breath. "I was trying to not do that.

"Every night was pure torment. I could hear a heartbeat from the faraway sidewalk hidden by a stone wall. I wanted to die. But after a while the need for blood made me go insane," he explained morosely. "I almost killed a woman tending to a grave, but Zack stopped me. And after I fed for the first time, I...didn't wanna die anymore. Once was enough. I still hate it, but I can't help but want to exist." He looked back at her with a contemplative look. "You want to continue living, even after everything you saw, right?"

"I do, but that's different! I want you things to die so no one ever has to go through what I went through again..."

Her eyes were forming tears. "How many mothers have you killed for your fix?" she whispered. "How many brothers and sisters? I don't care if they were gonna die anyway, they're still people you killed! And Tifa...Tifa chose you. You." Rox sniffled. "What does it say about you that you'd murder to live?"

"Try living as a vampire before you ask that again," he warned. Cloud frowned at her, but soon his eyes softened. "I know I'm just gonna be a monster to you. I feel the same way about myself. But..." His eyes traveled downward, towards a patch of dampened blanket under the teen's head.

"But what?"

His blue eyes traveled to her again. "But, I still...I'm still human. I think." Cloud sighed at her incredulous look. "I know you hate me. But can you trust me enough to keep a promise?"

She tightened her jaw as she thought over his words. "The last one you didn't keep," she pointed out. "Not that I'm complainin' or anything."

A dry chuckle passed his lips. "Granted, I didn't think I'd see you again. It wasn't a real promise. But you're living in the same house as me, now." He let in a long breath he didn't need through his nose as he shifted his body to face her better. "I promise I'll keep Tifa safe, even if we just go back to being just friends. And I promise I'll be there to keep you safe, too."

"You can't be there for us during the day," she countered.

He nodded. "That's unfortunately true. But I figure the night is more dangerous, anyway, isn't it?" Cloud took something out of his back pocket. "Can I trust you, Rox?"

She gave him a quizzical look. He placed an object, wrapped in fabric, on the bed near her. "Trust me with what?"

"Can I trust you to help keep Tifa safe, when I can't?"

"I'm not that great at fighting, if you hadn't noticed."

Cloud gave her a weak smile. "Yeah, but you're spunky." He gave the object a pat, then his arm retreated before he stood from her bed. "I know you'll never want to be friends with me. I understand that. But at least let me try."

He turned around and left her bedroom, closing the door softly behind him. Rox glanced at the fabric lump on her bed, and in a very cautious manner unwrapped it. She couldn't believe he would let her have this after she told him of her hatred towards him, but she wasn't going to complain. She felt safer already.

In her hands laid her silvery shank, polished and with its red ribbon still intact.