Disclaimer: Nothing owning.

Warning: no smut again. Sorry! Next chapter!

Chaos wasn't used to worrying. He was the prelude to the end of Gaia after all. Not much to worry about, after the Apocalypse. But ever since he had been condensed into a puddle of contaminated Mako (damn that scientist) and injected into his host, Vincent, he had started to care.

At first, he enjoyed tormenting Vincent. He started with little things like snide comments about Vincent's team. Who told that midget ninja that short-shorts made good protective battle-wear? Vincent would have said that too, if he had been more "there" at the time. Then he commented on Vincent's own behaviour, pointing out the stupid little things the man did. Who takes apart their weaponry hourly to clean it?

Eventually Chaos came to feel as if he was kicking a puppy while it was down. Vincent beat himself up more than Chaos ever could, and that sucked the joy out of things. So he tried to entertain himself in a corner of Vincent's mind unless Vincent was threatened or called for him. He got bored of that after a while though. So he talked to Vincent, and they became, if not friends, then allies. Chaos cared for the undead man's wellbeing. Which was why he was planning to get Vincent together with someone.

He knew the man was quietly watching over the delectable Cloud Strife. Vincent would never come out and tell Cloud about his attraction though. Vincent "had sins to atone for". Chaos thought he should take a leaf out of Cloud's book and try to forgive himself.

//Hear that Vinnie! Forgive your damn self and live a little!// Chaos directed to the now-conscious Vincent. The first thing Vincent did was cradle his head.

Ug. Chaos, did you drink last night? Why isn't the Mako healing this?

//Hmph. Consider it atonement. Mako only heals extraneous wounds. Not poisoning.//

Ah. Yes. Sin must be atoned for… Vincent's mental train of thought jumped the normal track and plunged into the eternal twilight of "emo" town.

//Fucking- Vincent! Damn it. I think you've had enough atonement. Now go get some water. Your aching head is my aching head.//

Right. Wait, Chaos. Where are my shoes? Vincent looked at his pale bare feet. His deadly metal battle footwear had vanished. Vincent started wandering the mansion for them.

//Weren't you getting water? Vincent! Water! And aspirin! This demon is regretting drinking. Viiiiiiinnie!//

You are not a kleptomaniac ninja, and so you may not call me 'Vinnie' under any circumstances. Got it? Now. WHERE. ARE. MY. SHOES?

//I… don't remember…?// Chaos was starting to regret dumping the monstrosities off a bridge. After melting them. And throwing them under a train.

What am I going to wear then?

//Conveniently and in a way that has absolutely nothing at all to do with me, there are a nice pair of leather boots on the decrepit rag you call a front rug.//

Gaia damn it Chaos. Those shoes were an excellent weapon in battle.

//What, by making your enemies laugh to death? Face it Vince. You walked like a duck. A duck with a stick up its ass. That must be why you jump about so much, instead of walking like a normal undead person. Now about that water?//

You shut up. Vincent found said boots. They were quite nice, and even though he was miffed at Chaos for losing his shoes, he was reluctantly grateful.

//They have blades in the toe, and spikes in the heel. Now get some aspirin damn it.//

Oh fine! Vincent huffed. He went to the medicine cabinet, only to look at the empty space in dismay. Damn. My head really hurts. Damn you Chaos! I hate lending the body to you.

//Hey, hey. If I heal your headache, can you let me out again tonight?//

NO! Look at what happened last time. I'll just sleep it off.

//Vincent. I'm kind of running out of songs, but I saved one that made me think of Sephiroth. You wanna hear it?//

I hate you so much, Vincent groaned.

//And here it goes! I am slowly going crazy, 123456, switch. Crazy going slowly am I, 654321 switch. Now, lets go faster!// Chaos might like Vincent, but he wasn't above using his pain against him. Even if Chaos was at fault for inflicting said pain, and feeling it himself. He had a higher tolerance than Vincent in any case.

Just heal this damn headache, Vincent acquiesced. This mental circus was becoming a regular occurrence. He might just as well let Chaos out every Friday and Saturday night. Vincent never did anything anyways. One of them might as well enjoy themselves.

Cloud sighed and tapped his fingers against the sticky table he was sitting at. The man who was supposed to pick up Reno's package was over an hour late. All Cloud had gotten for his patience was a proposition… or five. He sent them on their way with a growl. If the man didn't show up soon, Cloud would end up drinking himself silly from boredom. He relaxed a bit, and instead of scanning the place, he watched the people as they gyrated on the ground floor.

There was a particular person he kept seeing. A flash of red, a hint of black, and pale skin flushed with exertion. He thought it was Vincent at first, but logic came up and smacked him through the alcohol. Cloud, he told himself, this is Vincent we're talking about. If there are more than five people in the room he leaves. If someone tries to talk to him, he'll stare them down until they run screaming. The only reason he talks to me is… wait. Why does he talk to me?

"Hey, is that my package?" a voice said, moist air warming his ear. Damn it! I have to stop spacing! Cloud cursed. The customer was behind him, a hand on Cloud's shoulder in a way he did NOT like.

"Yes it is sir. Please sign this form," Cloud pulled the form from his vest and slapped it on the table, along with a pen. The man slid his hand down Cloud's shoulder and trailed it down his arm. His gaze lingered on Cloud while he signed the form. Cloud practically ripped the paper from him and stuffed it back into his pocket. "Have a nice night," he said coolly. He chugged the last of his drink and slid out from the booth.

Halfway to the stairs, he was slammed into the wall. Too startled to react, he stared with wide eyes at the burly man who had pinned him. Civilian. Can't… kill, Cloud reminded himself, taming the "kill the bastard" reflex he had developed. Hey, it worked for most situations.

"What about the other package? I want that one too," the man murmured meaningfully.

"Huh?" was the intelligent reply.

The man caressed the front of Cloud's pants. Cloud was about to toss him over the railing, civilian status be damned, when he noticed something bright in the man's hands. Knife? He could deal with that easily- wait. Cloud felt his knees start to weaken. "D…drugs…?" he slurred. That last drink had been brought to him by a scantily dressed barmaid. He had thought nothing of it, foolishly.

He panicked. Cloud pulled an arm free to shove the man away, but the action had no force behind it. The man must have spiked his drink at the bar and gotten the woman to bring it to him. He hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings when he was looking at the dancing Vincent look-alike.

"Don't worry sweetness, it'll wear off soon… I just want to give you a tip."

"Ffff…" Cloud could barely get his mouth to move. The man picked him up and started down the stairs. A rustling behind them caught Cloud's attention.

"Excuse me, but I believe you have something I want," a voice said. The man carrying Cloud turned to see the Vincent look-alike perched on the safety railing on the balcony above the dance floor. "Hand the delivery boy over."

The man holding Cloud swore and dumped Cloud against the wall. He cracked his knuckles, demanding, politely, what the fuck the other man wanted.

"I already told you, and repeating myself is boring. I'll just take him off your hands," the red stranger moved too quickly for the human eye to follow.

Cloud tried to stay conscious as the drug raced through his veins. Mako usually burned through poison, but it took time. Whatever the man had slipped him was strong… He felt himself being picked up. The Vincent-esque man cradled him with suspicious tenderness.

"I know you are out of it, but listen. I'm going to take you back to my hotel room so you can recover. That guy will be ok… if he wakes up. He's going to regret messing with you. Got it?"

Cloud nodded, feeling his head wobble as if it were boneless. He ended up with his nose pressed against the man's chest, noticing uncomfortably that the man smelled… really good. Damn. He blamed it on super-sensitive senses and the drug, but as the man carried him out of the club, Cloud noticed a lot of things. The care with which the man carried him, the strength of his arms (sure, Cloud was small, but pure muscle), the silken softness of his shirt. The man really did look like Vincent, or the way Vincent would look if he lightened up and let himself loose.

His head swam with dizziness, and he felt as though he was going to be sick. He tried to indicate the latter symptom to the man cradling him, but he could only twitch his arm. He hadn't felt this helpless since his incarceration in Hojo's lab, and it terrified him.

"Hey, we're almost there. You ok there?" Chaos asked the man in his arms. This night was far from what he had planned, and while holding Cloud in his arms might have been part of it, having him drugged into oblivion was definitely not. Damn, he should have killed the man.

Chaos noticed Cloud's heart was racing. Concerned, he started talking to Cloud, telling him meaningless things, jokes and anecdotes to keep him distracted.

In his panic attack, Cloud heard the man talking to him in a soothing voice. He forced his shallow breaths into deeper ones. He tried to calm down. The mako was working, burning the drug from his system. He was not in Hojo's lab. Repeat. Not in the lab. Breathe. Calm down, he told himself. He focused on the man's voice, using the relaxing tone to calm himself. The nausea started to fade back, and Cloud felt the paralysis wearing off.

Sure, the mako in his blood could cure most wounds and burn off poison, but it exhausted the body's resources, and Cloud was feeling it. He started to fall asleep, just as the man entered the hotel. For some reason, even if the man wasn't Vincent, Cloud felt as safe with him as if he were the gunslinger…

They reached the hotel room Chaos had rented for the night. He decided to carefully strip Cloud down before setting him in bed. Luckily, Cloud's defence mechanisms were compromised, or he would have snapped awake. While Chaos was tempted to completely strip the man, his (newly developed) morals told him not to. Ah well. He stripped himself down to undergarments and snuggled into bed with the smaller man. Even if he didn't manage to have mind-blowing sex with the man of Vincent's dreams, cuddling his unconscious body in bed was a close second.

Unfortunately, Chaos forgot that when he relinquished consciousness, Vincent would be the dominant personality when the body woke up. Vincent, with no memories of the previous night…

Rant below. No need to read it.

AARRRRG. What has happened to this website? I have to sort through a TON of crap fics (no offense to budding authors, but SPELLCHECK damnit), mostly dealing with high-school/college AUs. Stupid, improbable, and badly-explained stories are waaaay more common then decent, not even good, but decent stories.

And what is with the Fem-version of people? Deal with their damn gender; it makes the character who they are.

And the Mpreg? Once in a while it works. But there are too many poor excuses for stories out there, and I'm glaring at YOU Naruto writers.

I wish there was some sort of filter, right there beside story length and rating, for CRAP.

While I'm at it, long-ass paragraphs piss me off too. I mean, hit the "Enter" button once in a while people.

Whew. Ok. I just wanted to let that out in the open. I feel better now.