Over the Subject of Cheese Sandwiches
A/N: No Ocs here. Only mild VincentxTifa and possibly some OOC incidents. A one shotter written for a light read. Ignore the existence of Advent Children.
There was something sincere in the tone of her voice that was lacking when others tried to invite Vincent Valentine to a game of idle chatter. Possibly, it was this alone that caught him off guard. Or maybe it was that she was actually speaking to him. The other members of AVALANCHE had accepted Vincent's antisocial personality and could live with just the idea that he was there, perhaps participating in his heart. He seldom times ever did, however, and that was the problem. He was always too absorbed with internal matters to be social. If there was a word that passed through his mind more than anything else, it was Lucrecia. It was the sole reason he was a part of this group, and the only reason for having made these acquaintances that by now he dared to call friends. Yes, they understood his troubles to an extent; he had told them clearly what he wanted out of traveling with them. They'd never know his deeper anxieties, though.
And no matter who he killed, be it Hojo or Sephiroth or Jenova or the whole of Shinra, Inc… It could never change the fact that he'd failed her. It would never bring her back. And he didn't even want to think about the playful banter they once exchanged, and the smiles and the long walks and the holding hands, because it only boomeranged around to the isolation and the obsession that she soon had for another man who could never do a thing but use her like a little toy until it was all broke and worn and ready for the garbage.
No, he didn't want to think about it.
But he found himself all the same almost totally disconnected from reality as the festivities went on all around him. October 31st. All but Vincent were in costume--he could quite easily excuse his normal clothes for being a vampire costume and no one would question him, so why waste time dressing in silly disguises for the purpose of a party that dealt with ghouls and ghastly demons? He, after all, had quite enough of that to deal with in his daily life. Halloween should be the one day of the year he DOESN'T have to associate himself with a beast, a demon, or… anything inhuman for that matter. So he leaned comfortably against the wall in the background--he felt better as a wallflower. It meant he wasn't expected of anything, and the rest of AVALANCHE, bar the occasionally inquisitive Yuffie, knew that he wanted best to be left alone. It was in this state that he had so drifted into mindless regret, having forced himself to believe that his atonement for failing Lucrecia was removing Hojo and Sephiroth from the world… The people that he couldn't save her from. Forcing yourself to believe something that you just can't accept, however, leads only into depression or insanity. Vincent was obviously a depressed man, but his sanity was debatable to say the least.
After all, it is the silent ones who wind up murderers.
Tifa Lockheart had just broken this rule of social understanding between the members of AVALANCHE and Vincent, however, and her simple question had landed him in a temporary stupor out of first being brought back to reality from being addressed by his name, and second by the surprise at Tifa being the initiator of the conversation. He had to stare at her a minute just to confirm that she had, indeed, tried to talk to him, and then only after seeing her expectant face did he reply, not having known a word she had said.
"What?"
"I said," she paused briefly as if to make sure he was listening with a sweet smile on her face, "Have you tried the cheese sandwiches?" She was costumed in an Ice Witch outfit, her skin paled and tinted blue as well as her hair, which she wore down.
"Cheese… Sandwiches?" Now that he understood the question, he was having a hard time fathoming why she might think it was an important enough subject to bring up with him. Truth be told, he knew nothing about which candies and cakes and little finger foods they were serving--surely no fancy feasts for our heroes on Halloween, candy and costumes were much too important to be compromised for the money to be used on such trivial things as full course meals when snack cakes can be bought at just 2 gil apiece. Surely there was some ulterior motive, maybe Yuffie had challenged the gang to yet another trying game of Truth-and-Dare, and Tifa had unwittingly chosen Dare.
"I haven't tried the cheese sandwiches," Vincent replied, hoping his answer might be satisfying to the brunette. But to no avail. She found the awkwardness to be quite amusing, and challenged him to hold the conversation.
"I can't blame you. Cloud made them--and it was obvious that he had better things on his mind at the time. It's seriously a tray of uncut bread slices with a piece of synthetic cheese in the middle. No more, no less. Barret gave him some trouble over it, he was a little hysterical. He kept ranting on and on about 'spiky headed white-boys and their trailer trash cheese sandwiches'," Tifa giggled after this last remark, finding the memory to be humorous. Vincent stared at her, not sure of how he should take this.
"I wouldn't know. I don't eat cheese sandwiches." Most would take this as a sign to drop it and leave. Nice try, you gave it your best shot, better luck next time. But she seemed to take it as an invitation to ask more questions, and even took a place beside him against the wall. From here all of the party could be watched, from Cloud losing to Yuffie in a game of DDR (in his latest attempt to prove that white people can dance and Asians don't always rock DDR) to Cid and Barret having an intelligent conversation as far as drinking buddies go, to Cait Sith giving stand-up comedy and Red XIII trying to fathom the concept of bobbing for apples, circling the basin of water in his research. Vincent had been too concealed within his own shady corner of the world to notice all of his acquaintances trying to have some fun and simultaneously presenting their quirks. It was a scene that easily remedied his angst and distracted him from that name, that time, that place. It wasn't the first time the group had distracted him from this. He occasionally before had watched on as they lived in passive wonder.
Tifa let out a guffaw, quickly covering her face to muffle the unattractiveness of her laughter. Vincent shot his attention at her, her chuckling so sudden, and watched as if to inquire what she was laughing about. She had to delay her answer when Cloud tripped on the DDR pad and Yuffie started cackling like the little witch she was. Cloud had been caught off guard by the fit of giggles that surrounded him, and Vincent had once again been the only one to miss it.
"Reeve, you're asking for a nail bat shoved where the sun doesn't shine if you ever pull a stunt like that again--where's your microphone at!?" It was 2 seconds to no time at all for Cloud to have Cait Sith in his arms, trying to find his zipper so as to rip his wiring apart, but he was not succeeding in the least, and his face grew redder with ever snort in the room. Vincent was perplexed.
"C-Cait Sith… He just pulled a joke about Wall Market. He was faking some mobster voice saying, 'And then she walks into the back room with this guy, swingin' her hips like a real succubus. Man, she had the best dress in town and the rattiest pigtails you've ever seen, and I don't know what your tastes are, but I hear her cheap perfume could strangle a man to death--or what? Maybe it was just deodorant. I get the details confused. The chick even had a little tiara on-good God, she must've been high maintenance. Man, I hear she was a regular crowd-pleaser, that girl. I wish I could've gotten HER number, me-ow! I think her name wa--oh, man. It was JUST Cloud, never mind.'" Another laughing spasm. Cloud was choking Cait Sith now; he just wouldn't shut up with his dime store comedy.
"Man, shut up, Cloud! You and yo' cheese sandwiches," Barret shouted, his own belly shaking with laughter. Cid beat the table and his cigarette fell from his mouth as he honked on in drunken amusement. Yuffie was cracking jokes by now, along with celebrating her victory in him in DDR in the name of Wutai. Tifa couldn't hold back her own laughter any longer and almost knocked Vincent over when she fell into him, clutching at her sides. He caught her and held her up until he was confident she wouldn't collapse again in her hysteria, catching the contagion of her smile, and for a brief moment, the mahogany of her eyes. All was a game until the scene was interrupted by a loud splash and gurgle. The team turned to face the washing basin, filled with apples, water, and Red XIII. He'd been trying to catch the apples himself now, unnoticed for quite a while and had managed to flip the basin over and on top of him. Only his tail stuck out, the tip burning as water flooded around it. It was dead silent as he crawled out from under the basin, definitely embarrassed by his childlike display of curiosity. He had been costume painted into a bandersnatch, and the gray color dripped from him like mascara off of a runner-up beauty queen. Two seconds later the house was roaring, and even Vincent let out a lone chuckle at the scene before him.
The busty brunette finally managed to take control again, and stood apart from Vincent. She stared at him, smiling as she always did. It made him wonder what made her smile like that. He was absorbed in the moment, reflecting the smile that she gave him unknowingly.
It was like the Ice Witch had used Fascination, and he was all ears.
"It's good to see you smile every now and then, Vincent. Not everyone hates you, you know."
"…" He didn't need words. She knew exactly what he was thinking.
"Tifa! We're gonna turn the lights down, you wanna club?" Cloud looked at Tifa from halfway across the room. The bass flared up and some cheap dance lights started to ricochet about the room, and the beat of the songs pounded faster.
"Yeah, Tifa! Come dance with us! Just watch it when you're grinding up against Cloud because he--can't--dance!!" Yuffie laughed at her own joke, but Cloud didn't seem too tickled.
"Hey, Yuffie, who knows, Queenie Cloud might just be the one doing all the grinding," Cait Sith yelled.
"Man, you bettuh keep that mess the $#&! away from me," Barret advised, stepping aside from the blonde. Cloud fumed.
Vincent turned his attention back to Tifa, disappointed now that he'd be left in his corner of emptiness apart from the party. His smile might have been faded, but hers was still as sweet and genuine as ever. Even though their conversation had been short and bore little deepness in meaning or structure, it had still made the impact. Created one more memory of mindless banter shared between two, but this time without… Lucrecia.
"Well, it was nice talking with you. You should come join the party. I don't think white men can't dance," Tifa concluded. Vincent half-smiled at this, realizing the futility that he might ever have the same kind of relationship with Tifa that he had once had with…
There goes that name again…
"And try not to think about her so much. There are other fish in the sea!" She smiled once more and disappeared into the dancing strobe lights. An invitation? Hope? Vincent stepped only once away from his corner to watch more intently in an effort to take her advice, contemplating joining them in their half drunken dancing. He smiled on the inside and thought to himself,
"And to think, we might have fallen in love over the subject of cheese sandwiches."