Disclaimer: FF7 ain't mine. Rei Desai is though.
// // thoughts
******** POV change
Healing
Chapter 1
"It's settled then, Ms. Desai. You are now the owner of the ShinRa mansion in Nibelheim." A young blonde woman said, and handed purchase documents to the redheaded woman across the desk.
"But why that house, if I may ask? I mean, it's so run down and will take forever to renovate. Not to mention how much it will cost." The blonde continued.
"Well..."the redhead started while standing up. "...I guess you could say that it's the interior I'm after." And with a knowing smile, she walked out of the office.
A few days later the redhead opened the old rusted gates to the ShinRa mansion. She swept away a few loose strands of dark red hair out of her eyes as she fingered a newly bought dagger. The mansion towered above her, dark and brooding.
//I really hope that there aren't a lot of monsters in there. Ok, note to self: If I run into more than two at the same time, or anything big, I'll run out of there in a flash and call the exterminators. //
She took a deep breath and entered the house.
Inside, she walked around as quietly as she could to see the state the mansion was in. To her surprise, it was in far better shape than she had expected. She saw signs of recent repairs and there was hardly any dust. There didn't even seem to be any monsters around. And to her surprise, one of the rooms in the east wing even had a bed.
//It almost looks like someone's living here. //
She made her way over to the west wing, where she quickly opened up the secret passage to the real reason she bought the mansion: the lab.
//Be careful now, Desai. If there were monsters anywhere in this place, this would be it. // She thought as she made her way down the spiralling stairs.
There were no signs of maintenance in the basement like there were in the rest of the house. The dust laid thick everywhere and moisture ran down the cavelike walls. The air was stale and had a strange smell. The lab itself wasn't as damp as the corridor, but on the other hand the smell was stronger. The redhead sniffed the air to try to place the weird odour.
//Mako, various chemical...blood? Almost like... decaying...// she didn't really want to finish that thought so she carried on exploring instead, starting with the library. Most of the files and books related to the "Jenova Project". She put away her dagger and randomly picked up a map labelled "Specimen C", briefly looking it over.
"You really were an insane old bastard Hojo. But there might still be something here I can use." She said with a sigh and put the map back. Going back to the outer room, she looked over the various scattered surgical instruments.
"Oh yes, I can defiantly use this." She said with a small smile. The smile however disappeared when she heard a sharp click behind her and felt something hard press against the back of her head.
"Use for what exactly?" a dark voice asked.
She felt like her heart was going to burst out of her ribcage as she slowly turned around and found herself looking into a pair of blood red eyes.
*********
Vincent Valentine was quite annoyed. After all, it wasn't every day that you had an uninvited quest snooping through your house.
"Who are you and what are you doing in my house?" He asked, still aiming the Death Penalty at her head.
"Eh... my name is Rei Desai, and... ah... technically... it's my house." The woman said with a very nervous smile.
//What the..?//
"Your house?"
"Yes, I... bought it a few days ago."
Vincent just stared at her with cold eyes. He could hardly believe what he was hearing.
//I did not even know the mansion was up for sale. No one has even cared about it in over thirty years.//
"I suggest you leave now."
The woman's eyes widened at that.
"He-hey, didn't you hear what I said?"
Vincent just clenched his jaw, trying to calm his rising anger. He could almost hear Chaos laughing in the back of his head.
"Yes, I heard you perfectly. However, I do not really care." He said while gripping her arm to drag her out of the mansion.
He didn't know what happened. If it was that he grabbed her arm to hard or that she tried to pull herself free, but he felt his claw dig into her flesh and heard her scream.
"Aahhh! Dammit, what the hell's wrong with you?!"
He immediately let her go. For a few seconds shame of hurting her paralyzed him. He lost himself in his own thoughts as Chaos laughed louder in his head.
He was roused from his brooding by the woman's voice.
"Hey! Are you listening?
It surprised him that she was still there. He had expected her to run away. It surprised him even more that she didn't look at him in fear. It was a look with a little anger, yes, but most of all, with a strong determination.
Taking his silence as a no, Rei continued.
"I said, do you have a potion or at least some bandages?"
Nodding he fished up a hi-potion from the folds of his cape.
"My name is Vincent if you still want to know." he muttered as he grabbed her arm, more gently this time, and poured the potion into the wound his claw had torn open.
Within a few seconds the edges of the wound began to close up. Not even a minute later there wasn't a sign left to tell about what had happened, except for the blood drenched and torn sleeve of Rei's shirt and the blood on Vincent's claw. Fully healed she leaned on the old lab bench and looked him square in the eyes.
"Well then, Vincent, I think we have a few things to discuss."
A/N
Now I'm nervous. This is the first fic I've ever posted.
First chapter of I don't know how many, but I've got ideas for at least four more.
R&R please.
If you don't like it, don't just tell me it sucks. Tell me what you don't like and why. I do wanna be a better writer.
If you like it… well then I'll be on cloud seven for a few days. ^_^
