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Candy Wrapper	By : KSipesh Category: Final Fantasy VII > Het - Male/Female Views: 1100 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Candy Wrapper, Chapter 6

Vincent remained there next to me for a long time in silence, as we just stared into each other�s eyes. Eventually, our moment was broken by the intercom again cracking to life.

"Get your asses on deck. We�re hittin� Midgar today before headin� North," blared Cid�s generally annoyed voice through the small speaker in the wall.

"Damn it," I grumbled to myself, seeing what might have been disappointment in Vincent�s eyes as well.

"We need to go, lest they become suspicious." Vincent sat up and reached over the edge of the bed, collecting his clothes.

I too got up, retrieving my outfit. "Suspicious? Come on, I don�t give a rip what they think, anymore."

Vincent stood while pulling on his pants. "Yes, but do you not recall how angry you became this morning? If they had evidence of what was transpiring between us, it would escalate."

I turned around after getting my clothes back on. "Do you honestly think they aren�t going to notice something at some point? Why hide it, Vincent? I�m proud to be with you. I don�t want to have to go around pretending that we barely know each other!"

He walked over to me and placed a hand beneath my chin again. "And I couldn�t be happier myself, but I don�t want their taunts to cause you pain. I couldn�t stand the notion of being the reason that you were mistreated."

"I�ll fight for you, Vincent. I don�t care. After this is all over and done with�we can leave them and never have to deal with any of them or their crap again. We�ll be free." I moved closer to him and placed my arms around his waist, letting my cheek rest against his still bared chest for a moment.

He said nothing in reply, only drawing in one long breath.

I stepped back and looked up at him, seeing that his eyes were turned away, and that his lips were tersed. Obviously, there was something serious playing out in his mind. "Vincent?"

He seemed to emerge from his state and he met my gaze. "Yes?"

"What�s wrong?"

Again, I could see him thinking, before he forced a small smile and stepped back from me. "It�s nothing. Come on, we need to get going."

Once dressed, Vincent walked over to the door and looked back at me. "I�m going to go. Don�t follow immediately."

I was going to protest this, but he disappeared from view before I got the chance. Vincent was determined to protect me from the barbs of the others even though I didn�t want to be protected. I wanted his comfort both alone and in public. I honestly didn�t care what anyone thought.

I left the room and stepped onto the bridge of the airship, finding everyone else gathered there. They were all plastered against the view window looking out and soon, I was standing between Vincent and Nanaki, seeing what held their attention.

We were close to Midgar, and the reality of what we were facing loomed in the distance. From our vantage-point, we had a magnificent view of the city, but also of the horrid fireball that dominated the sky, turning the morning air blood red. Meteor seemed suspended above the scene, flares of flame licking up from its sides as it hung distant in the sky, on its painfully drawn out decent toward the planet. The entirety of the plate was bathed in its fiery luminescence, with the slums beneath cast into an inky shadow.

I may not have ever wanted to return there necessarily, but something about the sight broke my heart. How we were possibly going to stop this tragedy from happening, I couldn�t comprehend. The whole thing seemed just too big to get my mind around.

Instinctively seeking some sort of reassurance, I reached over and interlaced the fingers of my left hand within Vincent�s right. He was studying the view with such intensity that he didn�t pull away like he probably otherwise would have, instead, he tightened the grip. Then again maybe he, too, needed some sort of comfort. I wasn�t really sure.

Cid finally spoke up, shattering the silence that had descended upon us. That seemed to be his job-- to end all awkward or reverent silences. And he was good at it, ever elegant and tactful. "Well fuck, screw it, let�s head North. We don�t have time to circle jerk any more."

"No!" Yuffie turned from the window and back to where the pilot had gone over to retake the helm. "I�m going to Wutai one last time before jumping into that crater on some suicide mission!"

"Yeah, an� I wanna see Marlene," Barrett added, joining Yuffie�s protest.

"God damn it! We don�t have time! Look out there!" Cid motioned toward the window. "That thing ain�t gonna wait for us to take walks down memory lane!"

"We have enough time to go say our good byes, Highwind," Nanaki said in a low growl.

The pilot put his hands on his hips. "I�m flyin� this mother to the crater. I�ll give it two days, and if everyone ain�t back by then, we�re goin� in without you."

I saw something flash behind Cid�s eyes, indicating that he, too, had something that he figured he could do in that time, and I knew that he was going to go see Shera. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was in love with the woman. If he hadn�t, she would have been rendered into nothing more than a pile of ashes years ago.

Vincent snapped to the present and turned away, pulling his hand from mine as I supposed he would do once he was fully aware that he was touching me. None of the others had noticed.

As Cid turned the ship away from Midgar and toward the North, everyone dispersed, going back to doing whatever they did to keep busy aboard the craft. Vincent and I remained before the window though, watching as the landscape changed before us.

"And what will you do?"

I turned my eyes up toward him. "I�ve got nothing to do. I guess I�ll just stay on the ship."

Vincent looked into my eyes for a moment before staring out the glass. "I will come back as quickly as I can, Tifa."

The fact that Vincent had somewhere that he felt he should go struck me as strange. I probably frowned, I was too confused to really be aware of it if I did. "I�ll go with you."

Without looking at me, Vincent shook his head just a little. "No, stay with the ship. I have to do something alone. It�s nothing you would be interested in."

"I don�t want to be left here alone!" I only realized afterward that my little raise in voice had caught Cid�s attention.

"What the hell�s going on with you two?"

I turned around to see that Cid had left the helm and come up directly behind us. I could actually feel Vincent tense up at the question and I knew that for his sake, I had to deny everything, no matter how much I didn�t want to. "Nothing."

"Bullshit." Cid crossed his arms over his chest and smirked. "I heard you two going at it, my room is next to yours."

I felt the color drain from my cheeks. My eyes landed upon Vincent, searching for a way out of this.

Vincent faced Cid, wearing no expression at all. "The lady said nothing, Highwind."

I could see something in Cid�s body language change. He looked around the bridge, seeing that everyone else had cleared out, just leaving the three of us. The pilot then shoved his hands down into his pockets and dropped his gaze to the floor. "Look, you guys gotta do what you gotta do. Tiff, I�m sorry for screwin� with you this morning. If you all are happy, then fuck it."

The fact that this man had given his blessing to our relationship, although be it in a slightly unconventional way, was amusing on some level. "Th�thanks, Cid."

He pulled out his right hand and scratched beneath the strap of his flight goggles, forever upon his head. Cid�s discomfort with the situation was clear. "Yeah well, I saw how upset you got this morning, and I�I realized that you must really care so, who the hell am I to hound you for it? I like you, Tiff, I don�t want you to hate me or think that I�m a fuckin� jerk."

I reached out and touched his arm briefly. "That means a lot."

Cid then extended his hand toward Vincent. "Take good care of her."

Vincent slowly accepted the handshake, seeming certain that Cid was messing with him, but he eventually realized that the other man was being sincere. "I will."

"Good enough. Your secret�s safe with me. I don�t want Cloud having an aneurysm or anything." Cid turned to go back to the helm, glancing at me as he did so. "Now go do whatever in the hell it is you�re gonna do. Just�keep it down. I don�t need to hear that shit."

I couldn�t help it and I laughed. The pilot�s good heart that I had claimed was there all along had finally made its presence known.

Vincent may have been wearing that cloak again, but somehow, I knew he was smiling in amusement as well. He looked over at me and took my hand, leading me off of the bridge. I found myself pulled to the room that he�d been sharing with Nanaki.

Vincent gazed at me as he put his hand upon the door to open it. "You need not come in."

I�d never once seen the inside of his room, and I was curious. "No one�s around to notice."

"Very well." Vincent pushed the door open and pulled me in along with him.

I remained by the door, scanning the scene. One of the two beds had all of the sheets piled upon the center of it, somewhat torn up and shaped in a sort of nest. The orange fur that graced the blankets and sheets made it obvious that this was Nanaki�s bed. Apparently, like a lot of cats, he had a habit of kneading into his bedding with his claws and the mattress was ruined for human use.

Then there was the other bed. I would have thought that Vincent would be the type to get up and instantly make his bed, probably tucking it all up so tight you could have bounced a quarter off of it, but no. The sheets had been thrown back off of him when he�d gotten up and allowed to fall where they had. His pillow seemed to have suffered some damage, undoubtedly from his left hand, and it�s stuffing was pushing out through the punctures he�d put into it while sleeping. His sheets were also frayed from his talons. Vincent was hell on bed linens, and only slightly less so than the lion he was bunking with.

Then I looked at the wall behind Vincent�s bed. Hanging there were taped several diagrams of the inner workings of various firearms, as well as charts for ammunition specs and the like. I smiled to myself. "Most guys have pictures of chicks hanging by their beds."

He turned back to face me for a moment, his eyes narrowed. "I�ve got a picture."

I crossed my arms over my chest and smiled. "Oh really? Show me."

Vincent shrugged and then sat on his bed, reaching back to the wall. He grabbed the lower edge of one of the charts and lifted it up.

You could have pushed me over with a feather. I went forward and looked at what he was showing me, already aware of what it was.

Beneath the chart he�d taped a small picture to the wall. It was of me, shortly after we�d�borrowed�the airship. Cid had taken several pictures of the ship, and when he�d left the camera lying unattended, Yuffie had grabbed it and had shot pictures of me and some of the others for the fun of it. When Cid had gotten the pictures developed, he�d left the ones Yuffie had snapped on the console on the bridge. Vincent had apparently taken this one of me and put it here. The thing is, those pictures had been taken around the time we�d found him. "Vincent, how long have you had that picture?"

There was a hint of color in his face and he shrugged slightly. "All along."

The fact that Vincent had possessed some interest in me from the outset gave me a severe case of the �warm fuzzies�. I went over and put my arms around him as he still sat on the bed. "Aw�"

I could see that he was embarrassed on some level. "If you had known that was there before now you would have been disturbed, I would imagine."

"Why?" I giggled to him.

Even though the fabric strip placed around his head covered his brows, I knew one of them was cocked at me. "Not that I have, but why do males generally have pictures of females by their beds?"

I don�t think Vincent ever had any idea how funny he could actually be. My smile widened and I wrinkled by nose. "Vincent�I can�t see you doing that!"

"I said I haven�t." He looked away from me and over at the picture again, before letting the chart fall back to cover it. "I�ve been sleeping with a giant carnivore in the room, I would be�pressed to perform under the circumstances."

I laughed some more as he got up from beside me and went over to the locker next to his bed. "You�re hilarious."

"I�m merely stating the truth, Tifa." Vincent pulled out his Death Penalty and checked it, before strapping it to his body.

I lost my smile and good mood instantly, understanding that he was preparing to leave. "Vincent?"

He just looked over at me.

"Where are you going?" I asked, needing to know.

"To pay my respects."

"You�re not going back into that cave, right?" I thought back, remembering when he�d had some sort of vision while we had been poking around some dank cave in the mountains. What he�d seen there none of us knew, but he�d fallen to his knees, ranting toward the outcropping of Mako and Materia in the back of the chamber, seeming to have a conversation with some being that the rest of us couldn�t see. That had been a frightening and sad moment. The others had all remained toward the entrance to the cave and weren�t really aware of what had happened, but I�d gone forward with him. I stood frozen in place as he�d knelt there, speaking in dark, cryptic statements to some ghost only he saw. The expression on his face during those few moments had been something I�d never seen on him either before or since-- and I don�t want to ever see it again. It was a look of absolute dejection and misery, and I think that had been the first moment that I�d really noticed Vincent. That was the first glimpse I�d had at his tortured soul. It had been just a few days after we�d found him, only two and a half weeks before.

Vincent continued to gaze at me, probably wondering what was playing out in my mind. "No."

"Then where?" I got up and went a little closer to him.

"I�ve not said good bye to my brother."

"Your brother?" My mind raced, trying to think of any hint he might have given at some point.

Vincent came close and put his arms around me. "My brother, Tifa."

"When did he die?" I asked, looking up into his eyes, seeing regret there.

"In the Temple." Vincent closed his eyes as the words passed his lips. "Sephiroth killed him."

I stepped back from him for a moment, my mind reeling. "Well, we saw Tseng� Oh my God, Vincent? Was Tseng..?"

He nodded and then turned away completely. "Yes."

I�d had absolutely no idea. Hell, Tseng hadn�t even looked old enough to be his brother. "I didn�t know�"

"I never mentioned it." Vincent seemed to get a hold of his emotions and he turned back toward me. "Nonetheless, I wish to go pay my respects. The other Turks buried him close to there."

Now I understood. Vincent needed to do this alone, not wanting anyone to see him mourn. Understanding him like I did, I knew better than to push him on the subject. "Okay, just remember, you promised to come back as quickly as you can."

"I will." Vincent placed his left arm behind my back again and pulled me to him, while lowering the collar to his cloak with his free hand. He gave me an honest smile and then bent forward, kissing me.
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Candy Wrapper