Aeris's Pointless Adventure
Part IV : Aeris & Vincent
written by K-chan (who needs to stop picking on Vincent...)
The day was still long, and Aeris had already begun her search by asking around Nibelheim for any information pertaining to Sephiroth since this was the place Lucrecia had heard her son had been living in... and apparently been up to no good either. While Aeris went around asking the inhabitants and showed them the only photo of Sephiroth (the one where he was threatening to shish-kabob the photographer with the Masamune if the dude didn't like disappear with the camera--not a photogenic person) with Vincent's help... which was pretty much just him following her around as he reread Lucrecia's letter to him.
Having found nothing useful (besides the fact that Vincent shouldn't read while he walked), Aeris stopped and sighed... And for the upteenth time, Vincent blindly bumped into from behind. He apologized and stood there, reading, while she looked at him. She put both hands on her hips and asked, "Vincent, just what is so interesting about auntie's letter? You've read it... how many times now?"
He stared at her like a child saddened by a comment about his favorite toy, "But it's from Lucrecia!"
"Well... I'm just curious... How can auntie have such an influence over you?" He hesitantly handed her the letter, not that he was afraid she might laugh at him for the contents but afraid she would take the letter away from him and evilly rip it to shreds before his eyes, but she didn't seem like the type to be evil.
Aeris read the letter aloud, "'Valentine, if you don't get your butt out of that mansion and help my niece to look for her parents and stop Sephiroth from destroying the Planet, then you will face the ultimate wrath of the beautiful and powerful Empress Lucrecia! DIE, SLAVE!! BWAAHAHAHAA!!'" Vincent just stared at the young woman, who even did the laugh at the end... and it was just like Lucrecia's laugh he so treasured.
"Oh no!" she gasped, "I hope auntie remembers to take her medication..."
Meanwhile, Lucrecia was on the roof of her home, wearing a pot on her head and singing into a toothbrush about something having to do with digging for earthworms... or a hole to bury her ex-husband in... while the rest of her friends were cheering her on below, where the firefighters had sprawled out with that catch-ie thing to catch her with since they couldn't reason with her to get her down the other way safely...
"I'm sure she'll be fine," Aeris nodded, giving the letter back to Vincent since she understood the letter was nothing more than a threat. Suddenly, they hear something growl... REALLY loud too. She followed the painful sound till her eyes ended on Vincent's tummy.
"Can we get something to eat?" he asked quietly.
She smiled and nodded, "You sound like you haven't eaten for days." Vincent just followed her without a reply to that because he truly hadn't eaten for days... Well there was that pizzaman from the other day, but Vincent didn't mean to scare him off... and why did he have to run off with the pizza too?!
Aeris and Vincent entered a small eatery and took a booth seat in the corner because the latter had insisted on a shady place to sit. When they were seated, a waiter came by and gave them the menus, also taking their drink order. Aeris didn't see anything different and exotic on the menu, so she just ordered the chicken pasta, and Vincent asked for a steak. While they waited for the food to come, they sat in silence like two hikers on a snowy mountain in fear of an avalanche (or AVALANCHE themselves--imagine a mercenary, a flowergirl, a lab specimen, a barmaid, and whatnot attacking you).
"Umm, so how did you meet Auntie LuLu?" Aeris asked, trying to break up the silence because she was feeling awkward with Vincent just staring at the table top like it was the most interesting thing in the world.
Hearing someone speak (and to him at that), he looked up at her and said, "An experiment."
"Whaa...?"
"..."
Aeris looked confused, and Vincent just looked at her. She recalled her aunt's ex-husband was a scientist, so she assumed that Vincent was an assistant of some sort, not bothering with what kind of experiment it was because poor Vincent WAS the experiment. After bringing back some memories for him, Vincent seemed to sulk even more, and that just got Aeris to panick silently, thinking he looked very suicidal. "So... uuh what brought you to Nibelheim?" she said, hoping to divert it away from Lucrecia and all.
"Court decision," he sighed.
"..." Now let's go inside Aeris's brain to see how this answer is affecting her: 'What does a court decision has to do with living in Nibelheim? Court... Did he violated a law? So he was a criminal? A dangerous criminal? Then why did auntie tell me to get his help?? No, this can't be right... It was probably a minor offense... and maybe that's why he was never able to see Lucrecia... but still, WHAT minor offense that gets one exiled in such a spooky mansion? And have to sleep in a coffin?? Maybe he's a vampire too... He sort of looks like one... I wonder...'
It appeared to Aeris that Vincent wasn't going to elaborate on the whole 'court decision' answer, or anything else. "You're not much of a conversationalist," she remarked.
And this was Vincent's silent response: 'Okay, so how am I suppose to tell Lucrecia's niece that 'Hey, I used to stalk your aunt 24/7... but she had me arrested, and I was banished to that spooky manion and sleep in a coffin 'cause it's just comfortable.'
And thank goodness the waiter came back with their order or else the inner monologues would continue. Aeris seemed satisfied with with her pasta, but Vincent poked at the steak with his fork and said, "It's overcooked."
"Really?" She then waved her hand in the air for the waiter to come over, "My friend here would like another steak. He doesn't want it cooked well done."
"Rare, please," Vincent told him.
"We can only do medium-rare," the watier said, "It's as rare the cooks go, part of the health policy and all."
Vincent stared at him as if he was a talking cow, so Aeris spoke up on his behalf, sweatdropping, "Medium-rare will be fine."
After the waiter nervously left because the ruby-eyed stare was chilling him to the bone. Vincent turned to Aeris, "But I wanted 'rare'."
"Now Vincent," she said, "it's not healthy to eat steak too rare--that's what Auntie LuLu said." He quickly nodded in agreement,
and so when the medium-rare steak came, he ate it like a good, little boy.
TO BE CONTINUED...