Chapter X; Day 20

Vincent Valentine woke up, his palms clammy and twisted in the bed sheets. He waited for his muscles to relax and the tension to lift, his eyes sore and tired. Salty water ran down the side of his face and it was impossible to tell whether it had been sweat or a tear. The Turk turned his head, simultaneously trailing his fingers over the empty space beside him. Lucrecia had slipped away while he was asleep; where she had lay in his bed had already cooled to below room temperature. Vincent swung his legs over the side and tip-toed across the cold, wooden slats to his chest of draws. Dressed and now wide awake, the black haired man took a trip to the bathroom, before grabbing a cup of coffee from the drawing room.

"Ah, Mr. Valentine," the person in question almost choked on the scolding hot drink he was downing. Briskly wiping the back of his hand over his mouth, Vincent turned towards the man on his left.

"Professor Gast. Morning,"

"And a good morning to you," the scientist gave him a crinkly-eyed smile before his face sobered a bit. "I don't suppose there's been any news on Morgan Price's whereabouts…?" the Turk shook his head, suppressing a sigh and looking at the floor.

"Unfortunately no," Vincent took a gulp of his coffee, still avoiding Professor Gast's kind, forgiving gaze.

"Chin up, Mr. Valentine. I'm sure he'll turn up safe and sound in no time," the scientist gave him a pat on the back before taking a slice of toast from the rack and disappearing off. The Turk drained the remains of his drink and set it down on the table. Lingering a moment more, he straightened his suit and headed for the basement.

On the way through the dank tunnel, Vincent hesitated by the locked door on the left, that had been in his dream. The surface of the age-worn, wooden door was icy to the touch and the Turk felt his insides knot in warning. Vincent's eyebrows drew together as he slowly reached for the rusted, metal ringed handle. He twisted it, took a breath and pulled. To the Turks uttermost surprise, the door creaked open. With a quick glance up and down the tunnel, he stepped inside and shut the door gently behind him. He was stood in a small, hexagonal, dimly lit room, but Vincent barely noticed. Positioned haphazardly from the left to the right were three coffins. They were lidded and looked almost brand new; the Turk dreaded to think what dwelled inside them…or who. Vincent started to the coffin on the right first, readying Cerberus just in case. He slid the lid aside. A skeleton with mouldy flesh still clinging to it here and there, stared silently back at him, unseeing. Vincent scrunched up his nose in reaction to the smell it exhumed and swiftly resealed the coffin. Equally more determined and reluctant, he moved to the middle of the room. On looking into this one, the Turk suffered a mini heart attack, as he passed his free hand over his eyes. It was empty. In different circumstances Vincent might have laughed, but now he simply walked over to the third and final coffin. He inhaled and exhaled through his nose as he braced his hands on top of the hard, confined prison. The Turk sighed in relief before sucking it back in, sharply. It wasn't Morgan. But it was someone. Vincent could tell that it was a man, although he had already begun decomposing. There didn't appear to be any wounds or injuries to explain the man's death, from what Vincent could see, but further speculation was halted at that moment.

"What do you think you are doing, boy?" the Turks reddish brown eyes narrowed before he had even turned them on the scientist who was addressing him.

"Investigating. We Turks do that sometimes. It's a compulsive habit." Vincent said sarcastically, slotting his gun back into its holster after a moments thought.

"And what, I ask, are you 'investigating'?" Hojo sneered, the small light in the room reflecting off of his glasses and concealing his eyes; not that that was an entirely bad thing.

"The disappearance of my colleague," The Turk answered in a toneless voice, before his intuition sparked. "What did you think I was investigating?" The professor's expression didn't seem to change, although Vincent was sure the older mans frown lines had deepened, ever so slightly.

"I am the one who asks the questions." Hojo spat, looking mildly superior.

"Why are these dead bodies- skeletons- in here? And who were they?" Vincent questioned, careful to keep the heat out of his words.

"That is none of your business." The scientist snapped, moving further into the room. "I feel as though I am repeating myself. You should be seen and not heard, boy." Hands balled, Vincent walked towards the entrance, pausing just behind Hojo.

"I will find out whatever it is that you're hiding." The Turk promised in a quiet, lethal voice. The professor barked a short, vulgar laugh.

"Do you suppose that I will be the only one after your silence, if that were to happen?" he countered, facing Vincent as he folded his hands behind his back. "President Shinra would order your head on a platter, should you find out something that could harm his precious company." Hojo laughed again, his beady, obsidian eyes now visible, cut into the Turks.

"Is that right…?" Vincent allowed the hint of a smirk and left the room.

'So, whatever Hojo's up to could damage Shinra's reputation…'

The Turks mind whirred as he subconsciously made his way to Lucrecia's laboratory. On entering the fluorescently lit room, with the itchy, anti-bacterial air, something occurred to him.

"Mr. Valentine, you're late," Lucrecia, with her brown hair tied into a French plait, beamed at him from over a microscope.

"I didn't realise you were expecting me," the Turk commented, leaning back against the wall opposite her; his jaw worked a little as he crossed his arms over his chest. The scientist removed her rubber gloves and dropped them on the lab table, before coming to stand in front of him.

"Last night was…nice," she said timidly, clasping her hands together.

"Yes," the Turk agreed, glancing at her once before his eyes flickered back down to the floor.

"Are you…alright, Mr. Valentine?"

"Call me Vincent," he returned, in a clipped tone. Lucrecia blanched, lowering her gaze to her feet, biting her lip. The Turk let out a breath and stepped close to her, placing his hands on her shoulders, his thumbs brushing against the sides of her neck. "Will you tell me the truth…?"

"Of course I will. What is it?" Lucrecia looked up at him with her wide, brown eyes, as she put her palm on his cheek, tentatively.

"Do you know about the dead bodies Hojo's been keeping down here?"

Lucrecia looked astonished. Gradually, her hand fell from the Turks face. Vincent monitored her expression closely, but as her palm left his cheek, he felt a stirring of regret for his frankness.

"That is…well that is just absurd," the scientist responded finally, disbelief colouring her tones. "How could you accuse the professor of such a thing?"

"I've seen it," Vincent responded quickly, eyes boring into Lucrecia's, begging her to accept the truth. "I know it sounds crazy, but there is a skeleton and a dead body in that room he keeps locked,"

"There's no way he…" the scientist began, voice wavering.

"He even put them in coffins!" Vincent insisted, lowering his voice and glancing behind him towards the door.

"This isn't…this isn't something to do with Mr. Price, is it?" Lucrecia asked in a near-whisper, evading eye contact. The Turk quirked his eyebrows, trying to read into her discomfiture.

"No. Why? Do you think Hojo killed Morgan as well?" his mouth thinned into a grim line, as the scientist picked at her cuticles.

"Of course not!" she denied, pulling away and turning so that Vincent couldn't see her face. "Professor Hojo hasn't killed anyone,"

"Then who are the people in that room?" the Turk half demanded, moving so that he could attempt to catch her eyes again.

"I don't know!"

"You said you'd tell me the truth," Vincent persisted in a softer voice, in response to Lucrecia's obvious distress. "And I know you're lying,"

"I don't know who they are…were," the scientist repeated, sounding calmer than before, though she was worrying at her bottom lip. "However…the professor has used human subjects in his experiments, in the past- they volunteered, it was their choice…"

"You mean to tell me that Hojo is researching something for humans- like a cure for disease?" Vincent felt adrenaline course through his veins; finally, he was getting somewhere.

"I know nothing about his experiments or goals- I only know what the source of both Professor Gast's and Hojo's research is," Lucrecia explained, looking nervous and less than pleased with the Turks line of questioning. "In fact, I have looked into it a little myself…" she admitted, sheepishly.

"And what is it? That they are researching?" Vincent asked, committing everything the scientist was saying to memory. He probably should have been going easier on her, but he was in Turk mode now and the more information he could get out of her, the better.

"I…I can't tell you. It's confidential- I could be fired," she told him, pulling her lab coat tight around her body. Vincent cupped her face in his hands, firmly holding her eyes.

"Who's going to know?" he said in the convincing voice he'd perfected over the years. "This is really important, Lucrecia," the Turk enunciated her name like a verbal caress; the scientist looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights- not for the first time.

"We don't know what it is exactly. The professors have theorised a number of possibilities, but there isn't enough evidence to support any of them, explicitly." Lucrecia spoke fast but clearly, glancing towards the door a number of times due to paranoia. "The bodies you say you found…they might not have been a part of this particular research- I know that Professor Hojo has also been experimenting with…" she trailed off, releasing a breath and closing her eyes on the Turks searching, red-brown ones.

"With…?" Vincent prompted, gently but with a mild note of impatience.

"Mako energy- but I know nothing beyond that. Of how or why he is trying to harness it…" Lucrecia looked emotionally and physically drained, as she hung her head. "I've told you everything I know, I promise. And I really do believe that Hojo had nothing to do with Morgan's disappearance,"

"I don't doubt that," the Turk murmured, stroking her hair back from her face, tenderly. "But either way, I don't trust him." Vincent pressed a kiss to the scientist's forehead and started to turn away. However, Lucrecia threw her arms around him and hid her face in his chest. His eyes widened a bit in surprise, but his arms came around her automatically, in response.

"…Sorry…" the brown haired girls words came out muffled. The Turk held his lips level with her left ear, inhaling her floral scent.

"For what?" he breathed, with no expectation of a straight forward answer.

"For…" she heaved another sigh. "This morning- I left without so much as a thank you or goodbye…"

"Oh. Right. That…" Vincent murmured, thoughts briefly returning to the nightmare he'd had.

"You were sleeping like the dead…I didn't want to disturb you…" she told him, her grip like a vice.

"Don't worry about it," the Turk rubbed his hands up and down her back in soothing motions, before he pulled back. "You're always welcome, okay?"

"Thank you, Mr. Valentine," she smiled half-heartedly. "Vincent," she added hastily, seeing the look on his face. The Turk nudged her nose with his, a smile tugging at his lips and his eyes dancing with an unknown emotion; unknown to both of them. And then he captured her mouth. It was becoming an impulsive habit. Lucrecia would gaze at him for just longer than was appropriate and he would lose track of whatever conversation they'd been having and kiss her. It was all he could do sometimes, to wait for her to finish her sentence, before he succumbed to the need to feel her lips, skin against his own. The Turks mind flooded with the taste of her tongue, the sound of the gasps she was making, and the texture of her neck, as he took up touching his mouth over and over to the bare, sensitive skin it found there. Everything fell away. And that was both thrilling and unnerving at the same time. Eventually, Vincent registered that he had backed her against the lab table and her nails were digging into his arms a little too hard.

"Sorry," he said, resting his forehead on hers, his breathing bordering on panting.

"No, I am- I feel like I'm losing control whenever you…" Lucrecia giggled softly, her cheeks as red as apples.

"I know, you should really learn some restraint, Dr. Crescent," the Turk teased, a smirk lighting his features. The scientist opened her mouth, but she couldn't contain the toothy grin that graced her face.

"Well, Mr. Valentine. You are proving to be quite a distraction," she reached up to run her fingers through the crow-black hair at the back of his head, as she spoke.

"A good distraction," Vincent stated, confidently; Lucrecia raised her eyebrows. "And please, call me Vincent,"

"I don't know if I would call you a 'good' distraction, Mr. Valentine…" the scientist replied, laughing at the perturbed expression he gave her.

"Alright, I'll leave you to your work, since you can't seem to keep your hands off me when I'm here," Vincent placed a kiss on the end of her nose and started for the door.

"Vincent!"

"Yeah?" the person in question said over his shoulder.

"What are you going to do about Professor Hojo?" the Turk paused and looked at the scientists concern.

"Expose him for the inhumane man he really is," he answered, evenly; Lucrecia's forehead creased faintly.

"But you'll be careful?" the brown haired girl asked, looking down at her hands.

"Are you telling me Hojo's dangerous?" Vincent countered easily.

"No, I- just promise," she glanced up at him from under her lashes, something underlying the worry in her eyes.

"Okay, I promise. Hojo can't touch me."

That night, the Turk was sat in bed, wearing an old, holey t-shirt and joggers and was blindly swinging Cerberus round and round his middle finger. Vincent had definitely gotten more than he'd bargained for in coming on this assignment, but he would see it through to the end. No matter what. So, Hojo might not have been going around murdering people in cold blood, but his 'volunteers' had died and coupled with the strange, aquamarine substance the Turk had seen in Hojo's laboratory, he didn't like the idea of the mad scientist continuing his experiments. However he couldn't just ask nicely and hope the professor had undergone a personality transplant while he wasn't looking. Plus there was the tiny little detail of Hojo and his research belonging to the Shinra Electric Power Company…

'Damn…I guess I could always kill him and make it look like suicide…'

A wicked grin grew on Vincent's face as he pictured shooting the scientist repeatedly in the head. The Turks chain of sadistic thought was interrupted then, by a knock at his door.

"Come in," he called warily, as he placed his gun on the bedside table. The Turk looked up to see Lucrecia standing uncertain, in the doorway. "I knew it; you just can't keep away from me," he said, patting the space on the bed next to him. The scientist rolled her eyes and closed the door gently behind her.

"Someone's getting a bit too big for his boots," she commented as she climbed onto the bed and sat facing him, cross-legged.

"Can I ask you something?" Vincent began, drawing a leg up and resting his arm on his knee.

"Fire away…" Lucrecia smiled, attempting to tuck her bangs behind her ears.

"What's between you and Hojo?" the scientist flushed and shook her head slightly, as the Turk watched her with guarded, reddish brown eyes.

"There is nothing between the professor and I," Lucrecia spoke in hushed tones, looking defensive.

"Then why does he act like he owns you?" Vincent asked, lifting Lucrecia's head with the crook of his finger under her chin. Instead of answering, she leaned forward and kissed him. The Turk forced himself back and out of her reach, staring her down; the scientist seemed to push down rising hurt and breathed in deeply.

"Professor Hojo…wants to marry me…" Vincent released a startled laugh, before he saw her serious expression and felt a wave of intense annoyance well up inside him.

"He proposed to you?" he clarified in an incredulous tone.

"Is that so surprising- that someone would want to marry me?" Lucrecia countered, her lip quivering as she looked at him.

"No. What's surprising is that he thought you'd say yes," Vincent told her, smirking through his unrecognisable anger. The scientist dropped her gaze, fidgeting with the bedspread. "Don't tell me you're considering it,"

"No, I'm not- I said no, it's just…" she trailed off, moving to the edge of the bed, so that her back was to him.

"Just what?" the Turk got up and walked around the bed to crouch down in front of her.

"It's not a romantic proposal- he doesn't love me…it would be purely for science…" Lucrecia explained quietly, sounding as though she was talking to herself rather than him.

"All the more reason you shouldn't accept!" Vincent insisted, resting his hands on her knees. After a pause of scanning the scientists anxious features, the Turks expression softened. "And what about me?" Lucrecia's chocolate brown eyes met his.

"What…?"

"Well you have to admit that this isn't exactly an innocent friendship…" the black haired man started, hesitantly. "Unless you don't see it that way…I'm not just a bit of fun- an interesting experience to ease your boredom. Am I…?"

"No! It's not like that- you're not…I mean, I'm not…you are…" Lucrecia went bright red, as she bit down hard on her lip. Vincent quirked his eyebrows up, feeling doubt- and something else- niggling at the back of his mind. "You are…different. You make me feel better about- everything. My life and everything that's gone wrong in it. I…I hope we never have to part, although I'm sure that's inevitable…"

"Lucrecia…" the Turk didn't really know what to say. He brushed the back of his hand against her cheek and smiled when her eyes fluttered closed at the touch. And then he brought his mouth up to meet hers. He made the kiss long and lingering, time and space seemed to slow and stop altogether, just like always. Vincent felt something akin to happiness, but it had been so long since he'd had that kind of emotion, he couldn't be certain. His lips and tongue became desperate when he thought of the moment when he'd have to leave and return to Midgar. He didn't know how it had happened, but the thought of being away from the fragile scientist was suddenly too much to bear. In just a few movements, the scientist and the Turk were lying, tangled on his bed, their breathing laboured and their skin hot. Vincent sensed Lucrecia tugging his t-shirt up at the back and quickly discarded it on the floor. Lucrecia ran her hands over the planes of his back and around to the tight muscles of his torso. The Turk made a path down her neck, from the hollow beneath her ear to her collarbone, smiling at the moans she was making. He slid a hand under her pyjama top, stroking the smooth skin of her stomach, inching higher and higher, until his fingers glided over the cotton material of her bra. Since Lucrecia made no sound of protest, he skilfully unclipped the clasp at the back and caught her newly, exposed right breast with his mouth. The scientist gasped and squirmed under him, but her fingers came up to twist into his dark locks, holding him in place.

"Vincent…Vincent…"

As the Turk switched to her left breast, he slipped his hand below the waistband of her bottoms and started to move his fingers inside of her cotton underwear.

"Vincent!" Lucrecia slapped his hand away immediately, causing him to roll off her.

"Oops…" the Turk chuckled nervously, rubbing his neck as the scientist righted her top and got off the bed. "Sorry, I didn't mean…"

"It's alright…" Lucrecia smiled, still a little breathless. "It was a bit of a shock- we were going too fast…"

"I know. I wont pressure you or-" Vincent started to reassure her but she cut him off.

"I'm a virgin," the scientist already red, darkened even more as she edged towards the door.

"Oh…well, I kind of guessed…" the Turk blushed along his cheekbones, irritated by his lack of composure.

"Was it that obvious?" Lucrecia replied, looking unhappy, as her hand flew to her neck while the other felt behind her for the door handle.

"No, I mean, I…"

"Goodnight, Mr. Valentine!" the scientist blurted and ran from the room. Vincent looked on, both bemused and worried. Eventually he lay back, resting his head on his arms and sighed.

'What a handful…'