Fraction of will keeps us apart - Our identities became compromised

[taintdbysin]

Who: Ichiru and Cloud
When: Sunday morning
Where: Suite 4C
Summary: Ichiru's no longer a vampire, but Cloud is?  What's a not!couple supposed to do?
Rating: ??
Warnings: Cursing, blood

Comments

[backing_wind]

Roused from sleep by Ichiru's tone of voice more than anything else, Cloud opened his eyes and turned his body to start reaching for the sword he kept on the floor at the side of the bed. Noticing that Ichiru's body was resting on top of his, Cloud stopped the motion. If there were actually an enemy in the room, the vampire wouldn't be sitting there stunned. Something much weirder must be going on.

He looked up and blinked curiously. "What...?"

[taintdbysin]

A few minutes pass before Ichiru can find the words to speak. His gaze meets Cloud's blue one. "My fangs are gone."

As if to show him lips pull back, and the usually elongated canines are normal human ones. His tongue ran over the top teeth, as if checking to see if they re-appeared. One hand gripped the white sheets, not tight enough to rip them. No, that's reserved for the other hand which is clutching the side of Cloud's uniform. Thankfully the fabric is strong enough to withstand the force of his grip.

[backing_wind]

Cloud blinks, trying to understand. Could someone have stolen them? No, that would be ridiculous. Maybe Ichiru has a gold collar? Cloud studies his neck, conveniently located at eye level. No, that's not true, it's silver. What other possibilities were there?

His eyes go wide in concern. "You need Duzell to do it all over again?" Cloud thought that once you were turned into a vampire that it was permanent, but maybe he was wrong. Either way, Ichiru was bound to be unhappy. He'd gone through Hel to become a vampire, and somehow he'd lost it overnight.

[taintdbysin]

That information would go over well with Zero. Without loosening his grip on Cloud's uniform Ichiru leaned forward to rest his forehead against the blonde's shoulder. Silky hair covered his face from view, most of his expression unreadable because of it.

"Maybe it's just this week's experiment and next week I'll be a vampire again." Hell yes he was unhappy with this development. Of course Ichiru expected to be human once more, but not until he went back to his own world.

Wait, had that happened? Had he been returned home for a short period of time? Now he couldn't hold back and the sheet ripped in his hand.

[backing_wind]

It didn't matter what else was going on, damaging their room wasn't going to help. Cloud shook his head, then tried prying Ichiru's hand free of the sheets to place it on his own shoulder. It was a given that SOLDIERs, and the SOLDIER gear specially designed for them, were the only things that were safe for out-of-control SOLDIERs to touch. At least in Ichiru's case, the violence was unlikely to escalate.

"That's probably it. So maybe you just have to survive the week, and everything will be fine." It seemed that Ichiru still had his vampire strength, though, which would be some kind of consolation.

[taintdbysin]

The ripping wasn't really due to vampire strength, just that of a human who spent time working out. His grip on the uniform wasn't as strong as it had been in the past. Fuck! Ichiru knew what that meant - Cloud would be even more hesitant to try and touch him now.

"This week is going to suck." Still, even without his inhuman strength Ichiru pulled their bodies closer together.

[backing_wind]

It would definitely mean that Cloud would be reluctant to touch Ichiru. His worst hang-ups revolved around accidentally injuring innocent humans. Back home, he let relative strangers walk up to him and touch him, kiss him, slap him, and all he did was stand completely motionless and passive. He had refused to hug his own mother, whom he hadn't seen in five years, for fear of bruising her. He had once almost refused to give CPR to a dying child, only because he couldn't stand to think that he'd been the one to kill her instead of drowning. The very thought of putting innocent people in danger form his own stupid carelessness made him queasy

[taintdbysin]

Human food. Something he hadn't had since the week there was cookies to combat the experiment. It wasn't necessary, or even as good as he remembered it. The mere thought that his only food choice were those nasty food bars made his stomach churn.

"I'm not hungry right now, but let's get you something to eat."

Slowly, hesitantly Ichiru released the blonde's uniform and pulled away. Long silky hair hide part of his face even as he got up from Cloud's lap and onto his feet, with less grace than normal. He didn't stop to wait for Cloud, knowing the blond would be right behind him after he stopped briefly to grab the giant sword.

Right now Ichiru wanted his mask. It hid his expression, put everyone at a distance. He didn't want to hide from Cloud, maybe even a few others but they were going out to face the general population.

[backing_wind]

Glancing over his shoulder in concern, Cloud picked up his sword and holstered it on his back. "We don't have to go anywhere yet." He was seldom in the mood to leave the room in the morning before getting his bearings anyway, but this time there was something that took even higher priority.

With a soft scrape, Cloud opened the top dresser drawer and picked up one of the food bars in his back-up stash. Swinging the desk chair around so he straddle it and let his sword dangle, Cloud peeled open the wrapper, intending to make quick work of it. He grimaced and pulled it back out of his mouth before he'd even bitten off the first piece. As much as other people complained about them, Cloud had never minded the taste. Up until now.

"I think the Doctors made a bad batch of these things." He looked at the unwrapped food bar with distaste.

[taintdbysin]

Sometimes Cloud was very perceptive to Ichiru's mood, and while it was partially for re-orientation it also seemed to be one of those times. Thankfully he hadn't gotten further than opening the door, which he closed when Cloud settled in a chair. Through his hair Ichiru watched as Cloud took a bite of the food bar and then grimaced.

However it was the complaint that had his head rising a look of shock on his face. Cloud could eat anything and never ever said they were bad. Good, yes but Ichiru suspected that Cloud's taste buds were dead. Crossing the few feet to where the blond was sitting he took a small piece of the food. First he sniffed it and then stuck it in his mouth, chewing on it thoughtfully.

"It tastes the same as I remember."

[backing_wind]

"Hm. That's weird." Cloud shrugged and tried to resign himself to eating the thing anyway, but found it too difficult to make himself do it. He sighed and dropped the mostly-untouched bar on top of the dresser.

Cloud's taste buds were, indeed, dead. He might blame Shinra army rations in his more cheerful moments for ensuring that he could eat anything, or lab nutrient solutions in his more honest ones, but the real reason was that he'd lived in a tank of mako-based solution for five years. The caustic chemicals had destroyed the sensitive nerves for taste and smell far part the point where they could be regenerated.

"I don't know, maybe I'm not really hungry." He was too preoccupied to be in the mood to pick up his faciliberry and start reviewing files just yet, though.

[taintdbysin]

Ichiru wasn't sure where his faciliberry was at the moment, he'd taken it out in order to sleep last night and hadn't bothered to look for it when changing rooms. It was probably in his room near his tribble and he didn't care enough to dig through the posts with Cloud's.

"Maybe we can find you something else to eat soon."

He sat back down on the edge of the bed, his tongue once again running over the top teeth. A habit he might develop over the week, either that or chewing on his bottom lip. Ichiru frowns deeply, his hand coming up to run through his hair.

[backing_wind]

Cloud had been watching Ichiru carefully. It was obviously affecting him a great deal, and vague reassurances that it might be temporary weren't doing the trick. That made sense, though. As long as Cloud had known Ichiru, being a vampire had been his most fervent wish.

Not being much good at comforting gestures, it was Cloud's concerned curiosity about Ichiru's emotional state more than anything that led him to move from the chair to a spot on the bed next to Ichiru. He tried to catch Ichiru's gaze with his, not saying anything.

[taintdbysin]

Words didn't need to be spoken for Ichiru to look over at blue eyes. Emotions swirled behind silver eyes: frustration, anger, fear, pain, many undefined clearly, and under all of that - hopelessness. It was a possibility that it was permanent, and as of lately he'd been getting on Duzell's nerves. No way would the vampire change him again.

Distraction.

He needed a distraction. Knowing it was up to him to make any moves this week he leaned over slowly pressing his lips to Cloud's lightly.

[backing_wind]

Maybe this shouldn't have surprised Cloud, but it did. By long-ingrained habit, he froze in place and let the human touching him do whatever he wanted without protest to minimize the chances of injury. This habit began to war with a different habit, with a lot of recent practice, of kissing Ichiru back. The pieces of Cloud's memory and personality that Sasha had left him to work with were disjoint and confusing, and he often didn't know which was the best to go with for any given situation.

After several seconds, he switched abruptly from passivity to active participation, resting a hand on Ichiru's shoulder and taking control of the kiss and deepening it. There were no hints of hesitation, but there wasn't any sense that Cloud was profoundly affected by the experience either. He was merely playing out a script to the best of his ability, albeit one that he would only associate with Ichiru.

[taintdbysin]

Ichiru was very pleased when Cloud began to kiss back. It meant everything they'd been working on was sticking at least a little. As part of his own habit his tongue shot out to taste the bottom lip of the blond, the smallest of nips placed on it after.

Something was off.

There was a nagging feeling somewhere in the back of his mind but the pleasure of the kiss was making it hard to clarify what it was. Somehow it was familiar - from a long time back, but from where? It took several more moments before it finally clicked in place.

Silver eyes went wide and every last muscle froze as slight panic worked its way through his body.