Cloud - Chapter 17: Chapter 17

"So, now that Cloud is over rubbing his genital part with someone else, I think that we can start this important meeting for which we have all been called for," Estella stated, giving Cloud a reprimanded look and he smirked.
Obviously, he wasn't bothered by the fact that his friend caught the two of us being in the most intimidated position. He didn't have any care in the world but for me, it was the complete opposite. Estella glanced at me and I immediately looked away under her hard gaze. I was feeling completely embarrassed and humiliated from what she saw Cloud and I doing earlier.
"Thanks, it's always a pleasure for me to know how Cloud is pleasuring himself in his sex life," a white hair boy, sitting beside Estella, told her sarcastically with an eye roll. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.
What was I doing here again?
Cloud and I were now in the 'business' room of his house, as he called it. He informed me on the way here that it was there that him and 'everyone' normally discussed about important things going on. I really wanted to know who formed part of this everyone but before I could ask him about it, we arrived in the room where two other individuals were there waiting for us.
Now I was sitting quietly on the couch with Cloud beside me. While the latter was sitting at ease with an arm passed around my shoulder, me, I was feeling a bit awkward by our close proximity. But despite the awkwardness, I didn't tell him anything or try to push him away.
It was useless, I already knew it and he clearly didn't look like he wanted to remove his arm so soon. He was keeping me closed to him. I was starting to wonder where his sudden affection for me came from.
Estella was sitting in front of us, one leg on another, her arms were crossed over her chest and she had a serious look on her face. She didn't look friendly at all to me. Her brown hair was tied in a ponytail and one wick of her hair, dyed in red, was properly placed behind her ear. She was wearing a white shirt and a pair of black short along with long black boots which got to her knees.
The perfect killer girl.
Beside her was sitting a boy with white hair who I still didn't know the name. Apart from his little comment from earlier, he hasn't uttered one single word. Not many words has been said since we arrived here anyway. The boy looked like he didn't want to be here. A bored expression was present on his face while he sat comfortably, his cheek resting against the palm of his hand.
"Seriously Cloud, why the hell is that boy here?" Estella asked Cloud, pointing at me and I frowned. "We have important business to talk about, non-human business, and I don't understand why your fuck toy needs to be here?"
The little...
"I'm not his fuck toy. I'm not the fuck toy of anyone," I snapped at her immediately, glaring at her. It was the first time that I spoke since we arrived here and Estella seemed surprise that I dared talk back to her but she tried to act like she wasn't. She huffed.
"So why is he here?" She asked Cloud again, completely ignoring me now.
"He is the main center of everything. He needs to be here," Cloud replied and she rolled her eyes. Suddenly I felt Cloud starting to play with my hair and I groaned, pushing his hand away.
"Stop this," I scolded him and he smirked, looking innocently at me. Why was he being so touchy touchy with me? It was starting to annoy me. In another circumstances, I would have maybe appreciate it but I knew that Cloud was only doing that to get on my nerves and he was majestically succeeding.
"Your hair is so soft. Just like your skin," he told me adorably, now caressing my cheek.
Seriously why was he being so display of affection with me? When did he even start to have any affection for me at all? His eyes went slowly down my face, taking in my every features until his gaze arrived at my lips. Another smirk formed at the corner of his mouth and before I could even react, he cupped my face in his hands and gave me a quick peck on the lips.
I froze.
"Why did you to that?" I asked him in shock and he chuckled, giving me an obvious look.
"Because I can," he replied, pulling me closer to him and I nearly fell on his lap but I caught myself just in time.
"What a flirt you are Cloud," Estella grimaced, looking at us in disgust. "The same as always. You didn't change at all since the last time I saw you. Always running after innocent little guys."
"You mean, they run after me," Cloud corrected her with his usual smirk.
"Well, I surely don't run after you," I murmured under my breath and Cloud nuzzled me in the neck. I jumped, gasping when I felt him pull on my skin with his teeth. I put my hands on his chest and pushed him away without hesitation. "What has gotten into you, damn it?" I asked him, an angry frown on my face, as I went to sit at the other end of the couch, far away from him.
"What? You don't like being all lovey lovey with me?" He asked me innocently and I huffed.
"Absolutely not. It's creepy. Would you please be serious for one second? And stop touching me," I ordered him and he pouted.
"You are no fun, darling," he said.
"Don't call me darling," I scolded him and I heard someone chuckled, making me remember that we weren't alone here. I looked at the other two people in the room and saw that the white hair boy was trying to control his laughter while Estella looked ready to kill herself with a knife.
"Well, you got yourself the perfect match, little cousin," the white hair boy told Cloud and I looked at him in surprise.
"Cloud is your cousin!" I exclaimed and he nodded, a smile forming his way to his lips.
"I have the wonderful chance of being the big cousin of Cloud and Rain. My name is Storm," he presented himself and hearing his name, I instantly knew that he was truly related to Cloud. They were not really brilliant with names in his family. "And you are?" Storm asked me.
"Luffy," I replied, now clearly interested in the boy. "Are you a half reaper two?" I asked him.
"Storm? A shadow? Don't make me laugh," Estella said, rolling her eyes, "Trust me if he was one, half of the human population would have already been dead. He is just a full demon. A heartless killer beast."
"I'm not so cruel," Storm said and Estella huffed.
"Says the one who killed his own parents," she said, like if it was totally normal.
"You kill your own parents?" I repeated in disbelief.
"Don't listen to her. They are still alive," he told me.
"If alive means them being chained in your personal prison and you torturing them on a daily basic then yes, they are most certainly alive," Estella told him and I gulped. It looked like Cloud was not the only killer in this family.
"What can I say, they were abusive now it's my turn to be abusive," Storm said with a shrug and I couldn't help but be amazed by his calm posture. It was not like he just admitted that he was torturing his own parents. A full demon he was. He did look a little bit devil to me.
"Cloud!" I exclaimed as the latter pulled me to him. His arm came around me once again. My head fell against his shoulder and my hand, unknowingly, came on his knee.
"You are good here," he whispered near my ear and I gulped at the feeling of his lips closed to my skin.
"God give me strength," Estella groaned in annoyance. "Cloud, are we here to watch you being a flirt or did you call us for an important reason?"
"Don't be such in a hurry," Cloud told her and she got up from the couch, her eyes snapping fire at Cloud.
"You little shit, you told me to hurry up and come here and now that I arrived, you are wasting my precious time. I have better things to do than sitting around and watching you being a fucking playboy," She exclaimed angrily and Cloud shrugged, hugging me closer.
"I'm waiting for everyone to arrive but if you want to know. I need your help with something important," he said.
"Which is?" Storm asked him.
"The Vins," he simply replied.
"The Vins? Are you kidding me? What did you do to put them on your back?" Estella asked him in disbelief.
"I didn't do anything. Actually I try to avoid them as much as I can but now it's different. They are preparing something. Something bad," Cloud explained.
"They are always preparing something bad," Storm said quietly, his head flopping back against the couch. "The Vins, they are all worthless shit."
"Yeah, but they are strong, intelligent and somehow they always have two steps in front of everyone," Estella added, crossing her arms.
"Do you know them?" I asked these two.
"I crossed path with one of them and it was enough for me," Estella replied, looking down at Storm. "You know all of them, isn't it, Storm? They are your old friends."
"They are not my friends. They are just people that I have the misfortune of meeting," the latter replied with a sigh.
"How many are they in all?" I questioned with a frown.
"Three," Cloud replied, "They are namely Alexandro, Calius and Vance Vins."
"Vance, the worst of all," Storm added, looking at me. "He is the oldest of all three and also the big boss."
"Three?" I repeated in confusion. "I thought that they were a clan. How can a clan have only three members?"
"They are a clan and the clan is named the Vins after these three. They have many people who served them, basically an army and some creatures are also under their orders," Estella told me, falling back on the couch.
"But the thing is that," Storm started, "We don't know where the Vins came from. Vance was the one who started the clan. He just appeared out of nowhere and started recruiting people to work for him."
"And these people just agreed?" I asked him.
"Not all of them," he replied, "Some were forced, some wanted power while the others feared Vance. He is strong and we don't know what is the limit of his powers. What he is is still unknown to everyone. Alexandro and Calius came later on, they are like his adopted sons, we can say. Alexandro is a specialist in getting into other people's head and Calius is well Calius. "
Well that would explain how Alexandro got in my head so easily and returned my memory back. He was used to it. Suddenly what Ken told me about him came back to my mind and I asked myself if I could believe him when he said that Alexandro was there to help us.
"I think that we should talk to Alexandro," I told them at last.
"Why do you want to talk to him?" Cloud asked me.
"He is the enemy, you dumb shit," Estella insulted me. "Did you not understand what we just told you?"
"I did understand but Ken said that he is here to help us and right now I think that he is the only one who can tell us what his clan is planning to do," I explained to all of them.
"Who is this Ken?" Estella asked.
"An oracle," I replied before adding, "And my friend."
I think that we could be qualified as friends now, even thought it was my fault that he ended up in the hospital.
"Okay, why don't you present us to your friend then?" Storm asked me and I sighed.
"Ken is actually laying in a hospital bed," Cloud replied for me before turning to look at me. "But now that we are on the subject, what happen when you were at Ken's? Why were you and Frederick at his place?"
"You don't know?" I asked him in response and he shook his head. I was surprised that he didn't. I thought that Frederick or one of the twins would have already told him about it.
"We were all in a hurry so the explanations had to wait," Cloud said, giving me a questioning look after. "But what happened?"
I sighed. I was seriously getting tired of explaining the same thing all over again but I guessed that I didn't have a choice.
"I wanted to know more about the Vins and I asked Frederick if he knew anyone who could help us and he brought me at Ken's place," I told them.
"What did you learn?" Estella asked me.
"Nothing much but I learned some interesting things," I replied, "I know now what the Vins wants."
I felt Cloud playing with my hair once again and I didn't try to push his hand away this time. It was useless. But his actions made me wondered, when did I start to become so special for him? He had never showed any interest into me before. Why now? The first time that we kissed, I didn't think that it was of any importance to him but now he was acting differently with me.
What was I going to do with him?
What the other me told me hasn't left my mind. It was still here and I didn't know what to do about it. How could Cloud be the key to his true identity? Did they know each other? How learning more about Cloud would help me find the truth? And speaking about the truth, I was starting to hate this thing.
The truth.
That was what I have been searching for since I arrived here and each time I discovered something, I had another thing to figure out. A never ending circle of truth to discover. When has my life become so complicated?
"It's me who they want," I told them at last and before they could speak, I continued, "I wasn't sure of it at first but now I am. I learned that my body was not occupied only by me but also by someone else."
Silent.
Well, that wasn't what I was expecting but I took that as my clue to continue.
"Another soul. I don't really know how to explain it but this other person is another version of me or more like, I'm another version of him. I don't know who he is but from what he told me, he is the original and I am the copy but I'm not the only one. I learned that there are also other copies of him and his powers has been divided among them. I don't know his true identity thought, all I know is that the Vins want him and that he used to be someone powerful," I finished.
Another silent but it didn't take long for someone to break it.
"Impossible, " Estella was the first one to speak. "Alright, creating other versions of one single being is not common but it can be done. But I never heard such thing as two souls living in one single body."
"It's not impossible," Storm denied, "It's just extremely rare."
"Well, I'm only seeing one soul when I look at him," Estella said, gesturing to me and seeing my confuse look, she explained herself more clearly, "Before you start asking stupid questions, yes, I can see souls and I can literally see everyone's soul in this room and when I look at you, I see only your pathetic human soul."
Interesting. Not the insult obviously but what she could do. Looking at her, I already knew that she wasn't human. She was a bad ass and obviously a bitch but her ability to see souls was interesting, at least for me it was.
But, how could she not see the other soul in my body?
"Maybe he is more powerful than you then," I told her at last and she glared at me.
"But who could be so powerful for me not to see him?" she questioned.
"And how did he end up in your body?" Storm added.
"He told me that he was imprisoned in my body and that a seal was put but now the seal is broken and he is planning on taking control of my body," I replied to both of them.
"That would explain the vision that Frederick got of you among the Vins," Cloud concluded and I looked at him. It was the first time that he spoke after the big news. I wanted to know what he thought about it but trying to read his emotions on his face was nearly impossible.
"This little boy was the one in the vision!" Estella exclaimed in disbelief. "This thing is literally going crazy."
"Everything is going crazy," Cloud stated and just after, we heard other voices in the house.
"Let me go!" The first voice shout and I frowned. I knew this voice.
"Walk, stupid!" The other voice exclaimed and soon the closed door of the room was opened to reveal Nicolas and Cale.
Cale was gripping Nicolas by the back of his shirt and the latter was trying desperately to get out of his grip. Nicolas' clothes were changed now, he no longer wore his earlier clothes, he was wearing something more casual now. Cale pushed him roughly and he fell on the ground.
"I found the little escapee," Cale declared, getting in the room, leaving the door opened behind him. He looked at all of us until his eyes fell on Estella and he grimaced. "Estella, I would not say good to see you, it would be a complete lie."
"I could say the same to you, guardian," she told him and her attention was soon on Nicolas who was still on the floor. "God, another one of you! Are guardians infecting the world or what?"
Nicolas ignored her and he looked at Cale with a glare. "Why did you bring me here?"
"Oh shut up, you dumb shit," Cale snapped at him, stepping forward and Nicolas quickly backed away. "Why the hell did you run away and call the cops on us?" Cale asked him.
"You tried to kill me and you did something to Ken, of course I'm going to call the cops. You guys are crazy and psychopaths!" Nicolas shouted.
"Can I know who the hell is this?" Storm asked, gesturing to Nicolas.
"You who are you?" Nicolas spat at him in response. "Another psychopath?"
"I will become psychotic if you don't watch your mouth," Storm warned him with a serious expression and Nicolas gulped, slowly standing up.
"I'm going to tell my dad about this. You kidnapped me and brought me to a place that I don't know. All of you are going to rod in prison," he exclaimed.
"Seriously who is this guy?" Storm asked once again, pointing at Nicolas and I sighed, getting up from my seat.
"Another one of my friend, we can say," I replied, looking at my said friend. "Nicolas, can you please calm down? We will explain everything to you."
"No!" He shouted, glaring at me, "You are one of them now. We warned you to stay away from Cloud but you didn't listen and now you are more crazy than them. Seriously, who the hell think that there is another soul living in their body? Only insane people."
"I know that it seems unbelievable but it is true and we are going to explain," I reassured him and he shook his head wildly.
"I'm not going to listen to your insanity," he protested.
"Alright I'm seriously getting enough of him. I'm going to take care of him and make him shut up for good," Estella said, walking to Nicolas and I stood in front of her, blocking her way.
"Nobody is going to kill him," I told her and she rolled her eyes.
"We already have two guardians and trust me, we don't need another one. Now get out of my way. He will be a good dessert, I was feeling hungry," she told me and I frowned.
"You are not going to kill him and, what does the fact that you are hungry has to do with anything?" I asked her and she smirked.
"How do you think I can see souls?" She asked me, the same smirk still at her lips, "This is not magic. I eat souls. I'm a soul eater and guardians happen to be my favorite souls of all."
Really, a soul eater? What was the world coming to? And did she say that Nicolas was a guardian? We haven't really made that clear at Ken's house and Nicolas seemed pretty sure that he was not a guardian and that he didn't know what it was. But then, why did she think that he was one?
"We are not sure that Nicolas is a guardian," I told her and she huffed.
"I see souls, stupid. I know who is who and who is what and this boy is clearly a guardian," she told me.
"No, you are not going to escape again!" I heard Cale shout and I looked back to see him blocking the way of Nicolas to the door.
"Let me out of here immediately! You are all completely crazy!" he shouted and Storm sighed in exasperation. He stood up and walked to Nicolas with an 'I have enough' look. Before I could even tell him to stop him whatever he was going to do, he gripped Nicolas by his neck and lifted him in the air with one hand.
"Storm don't kill him," Cloud told his cousin from his sitting place.
"Why not?" He asked and I stepped towards him.
"Put him down," I ordered him and he huffed.
"Are you trying to be bossy with me?" He asked me in mock surprise, his hand tightening around Nicolas' neck. The latter was trying to remove Storm's hand around his neck but it was in vain.
"Storm put him down," Cloud ordered him this time and he sighed, accepting defeat.
"Okay," he said, releasing Nicolas and the latter fell on the ground once again, coughing. Storm glared down at him.
"Cale locked Nicolas in one of the guest room so that he doesn't run away again," Cloud ordered Cale. "We will take care of him later."
"No!" Nicolas exclaimed immediately as he tried to get away from Cale but Cale was quicker than him. He raised Nicolas from the ground with one arm and dragged him out of the room. I watched these two as Nicolas continued to scream and kick around while Cale threw insults at him to shut up.
"Well that was something," Estella said as Cale and Nicolas disappeared from our sight. "I hate guardians."
"We all know that," Storm told her, going back to sitting on the couch.
"Luffy come," Cloud told me, patting the space beside him and I rolled my eyes.
"I'm not your dog," I told him but came to sit beside him anyway.
"So let's just forget about what just happened and moved on. What are we going to do now?" Estella asked, still standing up. "Where are we going to search? And what do we even need to search for?"
"Learning who is inside of my body would be good actually," I told them.
"But how? We don't even have a clue where to start or who he is," Storm said.
"Maybe we should start by searching for the other versions," Cloud suggested. "Luffy, you said that the power of the original was divided into other copies, so if we can find all of them and see what they can do, we might get a clue about what the original is."
"It's a good idea but, how are we going to find them?" I asked him. "They are four, including me, if I remember correctly and I don't know where they are."
"It's easy, we just have to find a witch and she will locate them for us," Estella said and I gave her a look of disbelief.
"A witch? These things exist too," I exclaimed, incredulous, "What next? We are going to see werewolves jumping around along with vampires."
"I think that the last vampire that I met was five years ago and werewolves are near extinction, only a few remains so don't expect to meet both of them so soon," Estella told me.
"Okay," I said, "Where will we find a witch?"
"We don't need to find a witch, we already have a witch," Storm informed me.
"Who is?" I asked him.
"Nova," he simply replied and I blinked.
"Nova?" I repeated for confirmation and he nodded.
"That's our witch," he said.
"A witch who should have already arrived by now," Cloud added.
"Another one of your friend?" I asked him, "Or is she another one of your family member?"
"She is more than that," he replied, "She forms part of my clan."
"You have your own clan?" I asked him, surprised and he chuckled.
"What? You thought that the Vins were the only clan that exist?"
"Yes," I replied and Cloud shook his head, smiling.
"There are many clans, Luffy and I have one of my own," he said.
"You mean that people actually work for you?" I asked him and he nodded.
"Yep and I have the misfortune of being one of these persons," Estella said.
"I would say the same but I'm not one of Cloud's servant. The only reason why I am here is because work was killing me and I needed to run away," Storm said and Estella huffed.
"Since when did you actually work? All I know is that you sit all day and let others do everything for you," she said.
"That's normally what I do but everyone has been busy lately. Many people are dying lately thus there are more souls coming in everyday and I need to take care of some of them," Storm told her.
"Isn't it the job of the reapers to take care of the souls?" I asked him.
"Reapers are concerned with souls who are at peace and people who accept death but the type of souls that I work with is different. These souls are normally the ones who don't know how they die or the ones who has still something to do on earth. They are trapped between life and death and I am here to help these souls solve their stupid problems before the reapers come and take them away for good," Storm explained. "It's a really complicated system."
"I see that," I told him before frowning. "But why are more people dying?"
"It's not important why people are dying, damn it! We have our own problems so let's focus on this," Estella interrupted Storm before he could reply to me.
"We need to find Nova first so that we can start everything," Cloud said.
"When you speak of the witch, here she comes with a can of beer!"
My head snapped towards the door and here was standing a red hair girl, a smile on her face and her hands raised in the air with a can of beer in one of them. I blinked.
"Nova, seriously, drinking again," Estella told her with a reprimanded tone in the voice and I must say that this Nova wasn't how I imagined her to be.
She wasn't like the typical old witch that I saw in TV. Her long wavy red hair fell down her shoulder and I could see some tattoos on her arms, she had a nose piercing and had a Guitar Hero shirt on along with a pair of blank skinny jeans and long heels.
"You are late," Cloud told her and she chuckled.
"I am not. I have been in the house for a while now," she said, taking a sip of her beer. "It has been so long since I have been here."
"I didn't sense you anywhere in the house," Storm said in confusion.
"I'm a witch, dear, a little spell and everything about me disappear," she said before looking at Cloud. "Baby, you are gorgeous as always and oh, who is this cute little guy beside you?"
Cloud rolled his eyes while I gave her a shy smile upon her big smile at me.
"Luffy," I replied.
"Cute, just like you," she said and Estella sighed tiredly.
"Damn it, are we going to be serious or are you all going to continue to waste my time?" she asked us. "I'm getting tired of this non-action."
"Love, explain to me what is happening first then we can start whatever you want," Nova told her and she rolled her eyes.
"If you came here directly instead of playing hide and seek, maybe you would have already know," Storm told her and she pouted while Cloud sighed.
"We need your help to locate some people. I think that it's easy for you to do," Cloud told her and she giggled, nodding.
"Of course, let's start this thing right away!"