Can't fight the Moonlight
By Miarath
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and all its characters belong to Square-Enix(c). This is a work for fun and not for any profit.
Warnings: shonen-ai, yaoi or whatever you will call this, meaning boyxboy or slash, a little horror, some bad language, AU since this is a Halloween/horror story. Also some mayor fluff!
Pairing: CloudxSephiroth/(SephirothxCloud)
Time: Set a little while after AC
xxx
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Just a Scratch
Cloud sat there all evening at his usual table in the Seventh Heaven, brooding, which really wasn't out of the ordinary, but the intensity of it … was. It was also something, she couldn't help but think that it reminded her of the time when he had been deadly sick with Geostigma. Of course, this couldn't be that disease since it had been purged by the planet itself, but it didn't stop her from worrying.
"Cloud?" Tifa finally called out, unable to hide the worry in her dark eyes, while she looked at the brooding ex-Soldier, who still stared off into thin air. "Are you all right?"
He didn't react at first, just continued to rub his left arm, right over his elbow. It looked like something was having an itch there or maybe something was hurting him.
"Cloud!" She said again, much more forcefully and punched him lightly at his left shoulder.
"Yes, … Tifa?" Cloud finally reacted, but still looked kind of drowsy. "Everything all right?"
"Yes, of course. It is." The brown-eyed girl replied, unable to keep her frustration with the blonde's behaviour out her voice. "I am fine, Cloud. It's you, I'm worried about."
"About me?"
"Yeah, you've been behaving very strangely for days now." She explained then shook her head in a tired fashion. "And you've started wearing that again." She pointed at the black sleeve Cloud was wearing over his left arm – then stared at it very hard at it. "Cloud … you're Geostigma hasn't returned, has it?" She asked with sudden fear in her voice.
"Geostigma?" The ex-Soldier replied then shook his head after a while. "No, it hasn't."
"But ...why then..."
"Am I wearing this?" He finished her question for her, with a tired sigh.
"Yes, why Cloud? It doesn't make any sense to me." Tifa frowned at this, fiddling with the pink ribbon she still wore on her upper arm. "You're not hurt, are you?"
At these words Cloud started to fidget a little, almost like being embarrassed by something. "A little." He muttered after a long uneasy pause.
"A little? How little?" Her voice rising again at these words, making it very clear that she doubted them.
"It's just a scratch I caught while running into a wolf a week ago." The blonde explained finally then shook his shoulders. "Really, Tifa, you don't have to worry. It's practically healed since days."
"Oh, okay, but if it's healed what reason do you have for this?" She replied, still feeling uneasy at this obvious harmless explanation.
"Why?" Cloud said, then went on to pull the sleeve up a little, just a little until one could see his upper arm, which was covered into a thin layer of band aid. "It's because they itch pretty badly if I don't put anything on it." He then continued to remove said band aid, revealing three clearly visible parallel running scratches on his arm.
"Also they heal annoyingly slowly." The ex-soldier added in a frustrated tone.
"They look worse than they are, though."
"Oh, Cloud!" Tifa exclaimed, looking alarmed. "Did you went to a doctor with this?"
"No," Cloud replied, nearly, growling at that only to finally shake his head once again. "And you won't get me to do it. You know how well I do with doctors." He all but sneered a the word, unable to hide his disgust at the very idea of facing one of those for anything not life-threatening.
"Hmm, I see." She didn't sound satisfied, but she also knew that there was hardly anything she could do when he was like this. "Must have been a very large wolf to leave marks like this."
"It was." He nodded then went on to put the band aid back into its place and the pulled the sleeve down once again. "I was surprised myself, cause we usually don't have those here anymore, not since Shinra cut back on Mako power at least."
"I hope you made good work out of this beast then." Tifa finally said and turned around to went back to continue her work in the bar.
"I would, but it got away. It run before the fight started for real." He shrugged at that and left the bar, taking off on Fenrir once again. Yes, he really needed to get out of here, cause the place was getting too kinda too crowded for him.
And he really needed to get away from upcoming holiday mood that seemed to infect most of the town, with people talking about which silly costume they were going to wear – and pumpkins at every place. It wasn't all bad, of course, but he really needed some fresh air. Thankfully that was available freely just a few miles out of Edge.
xox
Cloud drove for a while, until he reached a familiar place up close to the ledge to a hill. It was a place he had been often enough when he needed to think – or when he just needed some peace to think things through.
A time like right now, because this was certainly something he had to figure out, somehow.
He stopped Fenrir and watched the familiar sight of Zack's buster sword in front of him. He quickly dismounted and sat down on one of the rocks nearby, watching the valley beneath him. It had changed quite a bit during the last few years as well, for it was no longer the dismal plains it had been, because slowly life was returning to it – and there were now patches of grass and even the one or other tree.
"Zack," he muttered, half to the sword and half to himself. "I'm sure you would know what to do about this … thing." He said aloud, absent-mindedly scratching at the scars once again.
Problem was that he hadn't told Tifa the whole truth, about the scars and how he got them. He also hadn't told her that there had been a bite as well, one that had healed so fast it hadn't left any scar behind. Then there was also the fact that there had been a strange expression to the wolf's eyes, but that all wasn't what disturbed him most.
No, it was the wolf's fur or more specific its colour: that kind of silver he had only seen a few times in his life. To say it reminded him of Sephiroth was an understatement at that, but not the one he had been forced to fight. No, it reminded him of before, before he had gone insane.
Something Cloud didn't want to remember, because it hurt, still hurt more than he dared to admit. It shouldn't hurt that bad, cause it had been just a dream, even back then. Only, things were never as simple like that, oh no …
Just like it didn't seem like the wolf had been serious in attacking him then.
Cloud couldn't help, but think that he had gone easy on him, because of the place he had bitten him, his upper arm – and the fact that he had stopped after just one bite; a bite that had been almost gentle, only drawing a little blood at that.
His mind seemed to have gotten calmer since that incident, which felt like something … had been removed from him, something he had lived with ever since Hojo's tinkering had taken place that it was almost strange to have it missing now. Cloud wasn't sure but he had a feeling like it might be Jenova that was gone from his mind, but he had no clue how that could be, since not even Aerith's healing water could do that trick beside healing his Geostigma.
Well, there was more than that, because things had started to get weird to say the least about. There was a strange awareness about everything, including people, machines, animals and monsters. The latter didn't really bother him, but it was the weird awareness about people that … bugged Cloud.
It surely wasn't normal to smell how people felt – nor was it normal to feel suddenly angry enough to start a fist fight only because Reno dared to stare him down, which wasn't something that had bothered him ever before. Sure, he hadn't exactly liked the guy, but he had never made him mad that easily.
Well, days had gone by like that, littered with weird incidents he didn't understand much. Partially it was very much like the way it had felt when he had woken up in Midgar, adjusting to all the things Hojo had done to him.
Only, it wasn't quite like that, because it felt completely natural despite the fact that logic said otherwise.
Suddenly, he felt like he was being watched – and looked up in response, trying to make out who or what was watching him. At first he could out-make nothing out of the usual. There was Zack's sword, Fenrir and the plains surrounding him, lots of rocks, too, but nothing more.
Well, at first, but after a while Cloud spotted a bit of silver lurking behind a rock and stood up and approached it carefully only to see the tip of a pointed ear a little later and finally the whole figure, which turned out to be the same silver furred wolf he had met a week ago.
Only, this time the wolf didn't seem to show any aggressive behaviour, no, he just stared back at Cloud, with a strange expression at that. There was a certain softness to his green eyes, that caught the blonde off-guard – and made him think of another certain pair of green eyes, he remembered from his past at Shinra; about those times when Zack pulled him along to meet a certain General.
Cloud … could only stare back for what seemed a small eternity. For some reason he seemed unable to move, almost like any movement would disrupt the moment and, maybe, chase the wolf away.
Then the wolf approached him, slowly and then touched him with his muzzle at Cloud's right upper arm, the very place he had bitten him previously. There was an apologizing look to his eyes, almost as if he wanted to say that he was sorry for biting him. Another moment later he rubbed his cheek against Cloud's hand like he was asking for the blonde to pet him.
Cloud … couldn't help it but his hand moved on his own in response to this, scratching the wolf behind the ear, which caused the animal lean into his touch, making a quiet sound of pleasure. Doing this the blonde felt a strange sense of peace coming over him – and quite forgot the time, because he ended up spending the whole afternoon petting this strange wolf.
He couldn't help it, but he had the distinct feeling that this wolf was indeed no-one other but Sephiroth, the original Sephiroth, before he had gone insane and all. Cloud could be wrong, but maybe the planet was giving them a second chance no matter how weird that sounded and all.
He also felt guilty about it, wishing for something like this, after all what happened, all that destruction and near demise of the planet itself, but he couldn't help wishing for it.
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His thoughts about this, though, were interrupted because hid PHS suddenly rang, making him nearly jump up and the wolf move away a little. Cloud stared at it, not answering at first, like so many times before, but then decided to answer it because of who was: no one other, but Vincent Valentine.
"Vincent," he said, answering his PHS, "what's wrong?"
"Actually, better ask what's right." The ex-turk answered in usual smooth voice, but Cloud thought he could hear an undertone of concern in his friend's voice. His friend then continued explaining the current situation at the Seventh Heaven, which was kind of under siege by a certain couple of turks and they refused to leave until they spoke with Cloud. The whole thing was pretty strange, more so because he was quite certain that Vincent could've dealt with Reno and Rude easily under normal circumstances, so what was up with this?
"What has Shinra done now?" Cloud asked aloud, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
"Well, that needs to be seen, but you better come back, now." Vincent said, which meant as much that he can't say more on the PHS, because it's not safe for this kind of information.
The ex-soldier gave the wolf one last glance than sighed in agreement. "Okay, I'll be back soon." He said then went to mount Fenrir and took off towards Edge.
On his way back to the Seventh Heaven he couldn't help, but wonder what this was about that it made Vincent go on and call him – and why he thought that the topic was too hot to talk about it on the PHS.
Soon he arrived at the bar and was met by a frustrated looking Tifa, and Vincent, who had a curious expression on his face that bordered on cheerful for the usual gloomy ex-turk. Cloud frowned at that, then caught sight of Reno and Rude, who had caused this whole mess.
"So, what's so important that you need to me here?" Cloud said in a voice that made clear that this better was not a joke or there would be hell to pay. "I'm here, so talk now."
Reno cleared his throat at that, actually looking quite uncomfortable and all. "Sephiroth," the red-haired turk said in an all too serious work. "There's rumours he's been seen near the remains of the Shinra Tower."
After this words everybody remained silent for long uncomfortable pause, including Cloud, who just stared at the red-haired turk, wondering how much Reno knew … about everything.
"You're joking..." The blonde growled in response, then grabbed Reno by the collar of his shirt, shaking him to make clear that he wasn't happy with this explanation, not at all.
"No, I'm not." Reno protested and tried to slip out of the ex-soldier's grip, but failed miserably. "Believe me, I'm not joking!" He tried again, but Cloud's eyes still held the same steely expression and his grip wasn't loosing.
"Strife, do you really believe I would joke about somethin' like this?" The turk asked, then sighed in frustration, wishing he had his nightstick with him so he had at least a chance to get out of this, but no, he had to give that up as a sign that they meant no harm and to prove how important this was.
Cloud frowned at that then shook his head after another long pause and finally let Reno go. "No you're not joking," he said slowly, "probably not."
"Not probably!" Reno exclaimed with a pout. "This is no joking matter."
"If you say so." The ex-soldier nodded, unable to not tease the red-head, feeling satisfaction to get back at him for all those jokes the turk had played on him in the past.
"You don't seem to be afraid of all this." Reno muttered, unbelieving what was happening, but that was Strife was actually smiling at this, well, grinning, but it was kinda a smile.
"Afraid about what? Sephiroth?" The blonde replied then shook his head. "No." He said dryly. "I respect him, yes, but no fear," Cloud continued with a sigh, realizing that Reno would never understand this, that it was difficult to feel fear, in the sense the turk meant, after all the things he had had to go through. Of course, he didn't want to fight him once again, but that wasn't because of fear.
"So, what's really behind this?" He added another moment later, unable but feel curious about the whole situation.
"To be honest, we don't know." Rude said calmly, speaking for the first time since Cloud had arrived at the bar.
"Yes, that's right," Reno said, nodding. "It's very weird, you know, cause they said they'd seen him naked there."
"Naked?" Cloud echoed the turk's words. He was clearly surprised at this additional information, wondering what the hell this was about. Part of him couldn't help but wonder if there might be another hidden laboratory and they had managed recreating Sephiroth somehow.
"Yeah, like he was born and all." Reno nodded, unable to smirk at the expression Cloud was making in response to this little tie-bit of information. "Hmm, you don't have seen anything suspicious lately, have you?" He continued, remembering why they were here in the first place.
"Something suspicious?" The ex-soldier repeated, then shook his head. "No, I haven't seen him since last time." Cloud said, choosing to omit his encounter with that strange wolf, since he didn't want them to know about this at all. Thankfully, Tifa stayed quiet as well, which was probably because of her dislike for the turks and anybody working for Shinra.
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Hope you like this so far.
Mia