WARNING: SMUT ALERT. This chapter has been biting my butt for forever, because I've been trying to make it fit. There is smut, it is somewhat unexpected WTF smut, but since I wrote details of this scene into other parts of the story and I want to keep them, I had to leave it in.
If you'd rather not read the smut just skip SCENE 3, you'll still be able to figure out what happened from later conversations, just without the details.
ACT 9
SCENE 1
Yuffie opened her eyes to the obnoxious presence of golden sunlight as it filtered in through the window. She glared at the curtains and blinds she'd been too tired to remember to close last night before she heaved herself into a sitting position on the side of the bed and blearily looked at her alarm clock. It took her a moment to bring the numbers into focus as her head felt like a bag of wet sand that had been pounded into an odd shape and then left someplace cold until it froze into an abstract sculpture of canvas and earth.
Her taste in her mouth could probably be described in similar terms as well.
She looked at her clock a little closer, not sure she had read it correctly the first time. She groaned slightly as she realized that she had forgotten to set it the night before and it was now several hours later than she usually got up. She gave the wet sand in her head a shake and swore lightly when it seemed to shift. It was a good thing that she didn't need to go into the theatre until much later… An almost electrical jolt ran through her system as she remembered that she probably wouldn't be going into the theatre at all.
Her phone rang, making her start and she fumbled for the handset of the extension she kept in the bedroom.
"Hewwo." Yuffie said in greeting, trying to get her sleep numbed mind to work her mouth correctly.
"Ms. Kisaragi?"
Yuffie coughed slightly and gave her face a rub before trying to talk again.
"Yes, that's me."
"Ah, good. This is Detective Wilder. I was wondering if we could get you to come in this afternoon to make an official statement, say around two thirty?"
"Two thirty?" The question was more to herself than to the detective. It should give her more than enough time to shower, dress, eat and get down there. "Sure, that would be fine."
"Great, we'll see you then."
Yuffie made some formless noise in agreement and hung up. Briefly she considered falling back into bed for a few minutes, but instead she hauled herself up into a more or less standing position and staggered off to the bathroom to get ready.
SCENE 2
Aaron Talley arrived at the station about thirty minutes before his appointment so he could meet up with his lawyer. Ira Donaldson was a very good solicitor, who had represented him and the theatre in a number of small altercations over the last twenty some years. Luckily Ira, while very good at the law, seemed to be unimaginative when it came to things outside of the legal profession. Over the two plus decades he'd known Aaron he'd turned a blind eye to more than one strange event.
In truth it wasn't that he didn't know something was going on, it was more that he was just too professional to admit that it was odd. The lawyer had even once had an entire conversation with the Thing in the Basement, back when Thing was in its Star Wars phase. If a twenty minute talk with Yoda hadn't made an impression on the lawyer's stoic indifference then there was probably little that the theatre could throw at him that would.
"Aaron," he shook hands with Talley.
"Ira." He said back as they both took a seat on one of the benches in the waiting area.
"So, anything to add from what you told me this morning?"
Aaron shook his head. "Not really. Nelson's condition is slightly improved from last night and the doctors are hopeful there won't be permanent damage. " Aaron sighed. "But it will be months before he's anywhere near recovered." The manager looked up as two police officers escorted a handcuffed prisoner through the doors to that lead to the interrogation rooms. "The police will of course be interviewing several of our people today and we're still waiting to find out when we can reopen the theatre."
"Have your people gotten lawyers?"
"Some yes, some probably no." Aaron hesitated for a moment. "Would you be willing to take on a couple of other clients?"
Ira looked at him with slightly raised eyebrows. "Such as?"
"Well Vincent, for one." Aaron said carefully, as the aforementioned man was probably the only theatre member who had come the closest to shaking Ira's ability to ignore the strange and unusual. "He really wasn't involved, but he was there watching the play that night and... I think he makes one of the detectives assigned to the case uncomfortable."
Ira didn't appear to be much surprised about that.
"The other client would be Yuffie Kisaragi. She's new to the troop and still young. I don't think it would occur to her to even get a lawyer. Also, someone stuffed the prop sword into her closet after they switched them, so she appears to be suspect number two after Raymond at the moment."
"You're sure she wasn't the one who did the stuffing?"
Aaron looked at the lawyer and nodded. "Yes, Vincent would have noticed." He'd managed to badger him last night until he had spilled all, or at least most of what had been going on during the last week. "He's been keeping an eye on her due to some... over the top practical jokes."
"How over the top?"
"Way over," he admitted. "They're the type that could get someone seriously hurt or possibly killed."
"Or arrested for murder?"
Aaron started at the suggestion. "I hadn't thought of that." He shook his head. "I hope not."
Ira nodded. "I'll take them both on as long as they don't object. Should I bill them or the theatre?"
Trust Ira to think of the money.
"Bill me, I'll cover it and if the theatre will reimburse me great, if not..." He shrugged his shoulders to show that either way it didn't matter much.
SCENE 3
Yuffie had just gotten out of the shower when her phone rang and she managed to make a spectacular dive for the hand piece while still managing to keep her towel up.
"Hi, this is Yuffie. I'm home right now so please go ahead and talk." Actually it was amazing how many people either hung up or spent a few seconds waiting for the beep to leave a message when she said that.
"Yuffie."
"Vincent," Yuffie said, suddenly self-conscious about talking to him while she wore nothing but a towel, even if it was over the telephone.
"I just wanted to call and see if you were all right."
"Umm, I'm fine. I lost track of you last night, did you end up talking to the police?"
"Mm, though there wasn't much I could tell them. They'll probably have me come in later to make it official."
"Heh," Yuffie laughed slightly and sat on the side of her bed. "Yeah, I have to go down there this afternoon and give my statement."
"Ah, good. Aaron's already gone down so you'll probably meet up with him."
There was an awkward pause between the two of them.
"Well I guess I should hang up and get dressed." Yuffie said.
"Dressed?"
"Uh, yeah. I just got out of the shower," Yuffie said as she tried to hitch her towel up a little tighter around her.
"You make it sound like you're sitting there in nothing."
"Well," she said, blushing slightly. "Nothing but a towel."
There was a brief silence on the other end, and then Yuffie could swear she heard Vincent swallow, hard.
"Well I suppose I should let you.... are you in your living room?"
"Uh, no, I'm in my bedroom, you know, on the bed."
Why the hell did she say that?
Vincent was very, very quiet.
"Sitting or lying?"
"Ah, sitting."
Very, very very quiet.
"Lie down on the bed?" Vincent asked, his voice sounding strangely shocked, as if he couldn't believe he'd even thought to suggest it.
"Vincent!"
"Lie down on the bed," he said again, the surprise in his voice was replaced with something else that brushed against her senses and gave her the sensation that he had caressed her skin over the phone.
She lay down on the bed.
"Umm, okay," she said into the phone.
"Now open the towel."
Her breath sped up a little, but she did as told.
"Naked now?"
Yuffie swallowed the sudden lump in her throat and her previous blush flared into fiery life. "Uh huh."
"Mm, good."
Yuffie's twitched slightly, as if Vincent's voice had been a hand that had run down the length of her body.
"Which hand is holding the phone?"
"Uh, my right."
"Ok, I want you to take your left hand and run it down your body. Start at the pulse point in your neck and stop when you reach your belly button."
Yuffie touched the heartbeat at her throat, not at all surprised that it seemed to be going way too fast. She flattened the palm of her hand down on her skin and moved it along her body, between her breasts and down and around her belly button.
"Okay."
"Do it again, keep doing it until I tell you to stop."
So she did, saying nothing, but letting the increased tempo of her breathing speak for her.
"Yuffie, I want you to close your eyes and let your hands move across your body." Yuffie's breath caught in her throat at the thought. "And I want you to pay special attention to anything that makes you gasp like that again."
Yuffie suddenly wished she'd gotten the speaker phone option as she tucked the handset under her chin so she could use both hands.
"Vincent," she said after a time, her voice strained. "Are you...?"
"Would you like me to?"
"Yes," she gasped as her hips suddenly started to move involuntarily in response to the stimulation.
She heard a groan come over the phone as she realized what Vincent must have finally touched.
"Would you like me to be on top of you, my weight pressing you down into the mattress?"
Yuffie's hips snapped up harder at the thought. "Yes."
"Would you like me to be inside of you, filling you up?"
"Oh, God, Vincent!"
"Touch yourself Yuffie, touch yourself down there."
Yuffie groaned, sliding a hand down her body and into the nest of curly black hair between her legs. She slid a finger down the line of wet heat and pressed one of them inward, searching for her core.
"Move with me Yuffie."
And they moved, two people in different places each reaching for the same moment of completion.
"Vincent!"
"Yuffie!"
Yuffie felt her body relax as she came down, little tremors still running through it as Vincent's harsh breathing could be heard over the line.
"Vincent I..."
"Shhh, don't speak, not yet."
Yuffie just breathed for awhile while sparkles danced behind her eyes.
"Yuffie I.... Thank you."
"Vincent?"
"I have to go Yuffie, but I'll see you later today. Don't forget to go to your appointment."
And before she could say anything he hung up.
She let out an aggravated little scream and came close to heaving the handset across the room, but a glance at her clock told her just how much time had passed and with a yelp she jumped out of bed and started to get ready all over again.
SCENE 4
Vincent leaned back on the couch in the Green Room and stared at the ceiling, his senses in shock. What the hell had he just done?
Perhaps he had finally gone mad? He had never done anything like that before, not even with Lucile and now..... Now he finally had to admit to himself that he didn't think of Yuffie as a friend or someone he was just helping or, Heavens help him, some sort of surrogate younger sister.
No, she wasn't any of those things and yet she was so much more than any of them.
He buried his head in his hands for a moment then leaned back, thumping his head against the back of the sofa. He had to be mad, there was just no way this could work.
He straightened up suddenly, giving himself a mental shake as he did. Whether it could work or not didn't matter. Right here, right now there was no way he going to regret taking this step with Yuffie, even if he thought that gibbering insanity had finally made the move from occasionally visiting his mind to taking up permanent residence there.
He just hoped that Yuffie was currently feeling the same way that he did about regrets. Which, given the way that he'd ended the call, she might not be.
He bounced his head off the back of the couch one more time for good measure, before he put aside the uncertainties that ran his life and just for this moment, let it be. He took a deep breath and then hauled himself off of the couch and left the room, not noticing the little amused squeak and scrabble of tiny claws as a small white rat came out from under the sofa to watch Vincent as he left. The rat gave another little squeak before he scurried off, heading into the heating ductwork to make its way back to the basement.
