Viral Love

When I awoke the next evening, our chocobo was gone. Valentine’s red eyes scanned the woods. He began stomping up and down, fuming in silence. Finding him just as beautiful during a temper tantrum, I just sat down to watch.

“Chewed through the tether!” he finally exploded, throwing the rope to the ground. “I should have heard that!”

I couldn’t resist. “With the phenomenal hearing I bestowed upon you?” I asked.

He turned on me, eyes ablaze. “Don’t start with me, Hojo.”

I held up a hand. “I’m just teasing. A poor tease, I’ll admit, but I didn’t mean anything harmful by it.” Getting up, I went over to him. “We can still walk,” I reminded. “It isn’t a lost cause.”

He exhaled sharply through his nose. “When I get to Aloysius Heideggar and Scarlet Jasen, I’m going to make them pay.”

“Can I watch?” I asked, in all seriousness.

“Do whatever you like,” he grumbled, walking away. “You always do.”

“Not always.” I caught up to him. His long, angry stride made it difficult to stay with him. “Look, we got a lot of traveling done last night. Why are you in such a hurry?”

“This isn’t a vacation!” he swore. “I have a life to return to, and you have work to do. I could transform and fly, if not for the fact I’m babysitting you!”

Ouch.

“Go ahead,” I invited, now getting angry also. “I assure you, I’m able to take care of myself!”

“Like hell you are.” Valentine pushed past a tangled knot of briars and strangle vine, and a briar cracked me in the face. “I’ve never seen anyone so helpless in the great outdoors!”

“Well excuse me for my deficiencies! Who made the raft?” Hah. I had him there.

“The raft wouldn’t have been necessary if you hadn’t dumped us in a pile of garbage!” He threw the words at me.

“If not for me you’d have burned up in an incinerator, or drowned, or found yourself having sex with me until you died!”

“You almost got us electrocuted! Because of you I thought I’d end up in a shark’s belly!” Valentine put his arms in the air and waved them around. “You kidnapped me and put me in the clutches of Shin-Ra! I’ve been drugged, shot, stripped naked, had my boots stolen, submitted to your idea of medicine, targeted, dropped from a helicopter, and, worst of all, had to fend off your groping hands nearly every moment!”

That last comment stung. I’d deliberately tried to avoid touching him. Could I help it if he comforted me?

“I’ve fed you,” he continued, “I’ve sheltered you, I’ve even clothed you! I think I’ve done very well, especially since I don’t even like you! I think I have the right to be angry our chocobo is gone!” With that, he walked even faster, as if making a real attempt to put distance between us.

I let him. Though he was correct about all his points of contention, I felt highly offended. I hadn’t put him in these positions on purpose. Honestly, I sort of enjoyed this wild tour of the world with him as my guide. Still, he hadn’t asked for the burden of me. I had to give him that.

He didn’t speak to me again, not once. We walked the entire night without stopping. Just as the sun began to change dark to light, he led us into a thick shelter of trees and scrub. Without looking at me, he sat down, put his back to a tree trunk and closed his eyes.

Well, I had to eat. I searched a few minutes until I found an appropriately thick and flexible tree branch. I cut it and shaved the bark, inwardly ranting over the stubbornness of hypocritical Turks. I then gathered wood for a fire, carried it back and piled it. “I’ll be back,” I said, but he didn’t even respond by opening his eyes.

Disgusted, I stalked over the hillside toward the ocean inlet. Let him sulk. I’d already admitted my culpability and could do no more to make it right between us.

I hadn’t speared fish since my boyhood, but I did fairly well. In thirty minutes or less I had two nice fish. I took them back to camp and proceeded to clean them. Valentine watched me. I caught his eye. “Yes, I’m a city boy, but no, I’m not completely helpless. Do you want one?”

“You know what I want,” he answered in an ominous tone.

“Then, let me eat first,” I said firmly, making the equivalent of fish kabobs. “Has it occurred to you that I might know things about vampires that would help you?”

“Tell me,” he ordered.

“All right.” God, he had a prickly attitude. “There are two types of vampires. One kind is born and another is made. Born vampires are bestial, fairly stupid and weak to the sun. They bite humans, and if their blood is transferred in any way, the human becomes a vampire.”

“I’m neither,” he said. “How do I fit in?”

“Lucrecia must have inoculated you with vampiric serums. You’re an unknown variable.”

“Then, you aren’t much good to me for information,” he said, closing his eyes again. “I must go see her to learn more.”

“By all means.” Let him go pester his faithless lover. She’d tell him all he wished to know, I had no doubt. I handed him a fish kabob. “Eat.”

“I don’t want it.” Valentine carefully avoided my eyes and my offering of food.

I thrust it at him again. “Eat it anyway.”

“Damn you, I don’t want it!” he roared, slapping the kabob from my hand.

My patience simply snapped. I dropped my own food and dove upon him, rolling him to the ground and straddling his body. Grabbing a handful of his collar, I hauled him up to within an inch of my snarling lips. “You’ll goddamn eat,” I swore, taking pleasure in his astonished expression. “I don’t know fuck-all about what my ex-bitch shot into your system, but you’re being deliberately difficult, Valentine.”

I wrapped a tentacle around his hands and forced them to the ground. These extra appendages were stronger than him, and I’d use them to get my point across. I used another to grab the discarded food, bringing it up to him. “Doesn’t it seem unwise to refuse food when it could be the only thing keeping you from tipping into true vampirism? Go ahead and drink all the blood you want, but eat like a human, you stubborn fuck!”

Valentine stared up at me like he didn’t know who I was. A great tremor ran through him suddenly, and his eyes filled with horror. To my shame, I realized he feared me.

Me.

I’d damaged his mind as well as his body all those years ago. He probably now remembered lying on my table.

Quickly, I got off of him. Affecting a calm I didn’t feel, I picked up my own food and sat. “My apologies,” I murmured. “I was wrong to attack you. You don’t have to eat if you don’t wish it, of course.”

Slowly, carefully, Valentine resumed sitting against the tree trunk. His hand went out, picking up the food. Eyes upon me, he began to eat.