Vincent swooped down the stairs, jumping and often skipping several steps as he dashed down, taking the floors down and ridding each flight of stairs of their potential threats. We encountered no one except the ShinRa on our journey until we reached the first floor and charged outside into the parking lot.
Here, I found my voice to speak, panting breathlessly. "Where...?" I threw myself against the passenger side of the car as Vincent ran past. He stopped only once to snap at me, "NO. We'll steal a car."
"What!?" I limped after him, and caught him when he had the driver of a gray pick-up truck staring down the barrel of his pistol. He hurried about to the driver's side, yanked the door open and pulled the driver out, dumping him onto the blacktop. I scrambled into the cab, finding the seatbelt and jamming it tightly into place just as Vincent gunned it, and squeeled down the street.
Time passed quickly. Vincent took several turns onto backstreets which it seemed only he knew. Eventually, in the darkness pierced only by a single ray of dawn light, Vincent pulled into a vacant, sheltered parking lot and stood it in the shadows behind a board wall.
The engine rattled like a tired beast as he keyed the ignition. The truck was quiet, ticking occasionally as the heat dissipated.
My body resumed its incessant quaking. I leaned toward him, shaking my head slightly. Then dumbly realized my seatbelt was still buckled. I undid it, grumbling, before I slunk up against his side.
This he did not mind. That's what disturbed me about Vincent. I could do whatever I wanted, but he never seemed to mind. And he never attempted anything of his own volition. I was in no position to comment. I was warm now. And his arm went around me, understanding that we ought to keep warm.
"We'll stay here... get some rest, Luciel. I'll stay awake."
"I won't be able to sleep, Vincent. You know that."
Vincent said nothing. He watched me, I'm sure, while I nuzzled my face into his jacket. His heart was still pounding, or maybe it always pounded like that. The living room was literally miles away now, but I felt unable to resist closeness with him. In the strengthening light, Vincent appeared solemn and morose, his pale face drawn in lines of sorrow, thought, and indecisiveness.
With notable care, I stroked his hand, speaking softly. "It's alright, man." I breathe out slowly, trying to hide my excitement. The chill that crept into the truck forced me closer, closer to him that is. Then he moved slightly, turning toward me and kissing my forehead.
"What did you mean?" Vincent asked bluntly. "When you were talking to me in the apartment..."
"I meant every word I said," I replied, wearily. My lie felt like sand, didn't hold any more substance than a melting, bitter cube of old sugar. "About being around you. With you. I'm tired of hiding--"
"Luke," the man interrupted firmly. He took my jaw in his hand lightly, turning my face upwards. My body quaked again, this time savagely, so that his grip slipped loose for a second, but readjusted properly. I quivered, fearful and alarmed, when his lips caressed my brow again, painstaking and careful.
What did he mean? Stupid, I said to myself privately. Act. Do something. But actions failed me, as did words. Besides, Vincent understood the silent language well enough. But my fear clutched, urging me to shrink away slightly. It was perhaps my undoing, for he moved away from me, sitting back behind the steering wheel and resting his arms across it.
His eyes closed slightly, taking a breath. "It's pointless to hide from me. Each human being lies somehow every day in their lives. They lie to feel safe. No one takes risks... But you don't need to lie to me. Least of all about your feelings about me. Do you think I can't see into your small jests?"
"But you don't want to," I pointed out. "You avoid it every time... then when you try to tell me something... you always get interrupted or you chicken out."
The sunlight made his black, bristling hair shine. He breathed out slowly, vapor clouding up against the windshield. "I can't love anyone..."
"Why not?"
"You wouldn't understand..."
"Uh," I chewed the course words I felt roiling, straining to reach the air. "Excuse me. You explained it to me. You told me your story, about Lucrecia and what's happened... that's the whole reason we're out here! But you can't go on blaming yourself for something she decided on her own! If you love her, you'll--"
"--move on." Vincent leaned back, his face twisted with anger as he stared through the windshield, squeezing at the steering wheel with his left hand. "But I couldn't protect her!! Do you think I can just forget? How much she meant to me? And you fail to acknowledge the fact that every waking moment, her face haunts me, remind me she has sold her soul to ShinRa and science to contribute to their wretched energy uses!"
"You couldn't have stopped her," I whispered to him, reaching to grab his arm. It felt icy cold to the touch. "She was prepared to accept the risks. Whatever ShinRa's intentions are are none of your business. There's nothing you can do!"
Vincent refused to speak. I saw his jaw working, heard a faint popping as he cracked the joint a few times. Somehow I felt a palpable, inescapable regret and self-loathing work its way into my heart where it nested and festered. How selfish I am! Suddenly he was talking to me about my feelings, then it eventually spun in 180 degree angle about his problems.
"I love you," I said quietly, turning away from him with a sudden scowl and burning eyes. "Okay? Are you happy? You're the best fucking thing that's happened in my life, and quite possibly the last person I'm ever going to have feelings for at all. After this, one of us is going to die. I thought maybe I could make you happy, but there isn't a goddamned thing on this earth gonna make you ever feel joyful again. It's certainly not me."
The gunman made no outward comment. He straightened after a moment, if only to roll up his window, and finally turn the engine on to adjust the heat.
"I wish I hadn't met you," I mumbled, pressing my head against the glass of my window. I stared outside at the frost-stricken asphalt, trying hard not to make my upset tears too well-known.
A touch at my arm jerked my head upright. His face loomed slightly above mine, little struggle was made as his mouth made its soft mark against my cheek where my tears had dripped. I pushed against him at once again, although inside of me there welled a great breaking resolve that convinced me my struggling would be all in vain.
Vincent Valentine pulled me away from the window and together we sat near the heating vents, his arms around me. And I, wishing always, that I could feel some warmth from his body returned.
After a minute, I kissed him instead. He returned it solemnly, the pain ever evident, drawing beautiful lines against his face. He seemed to me too old to be in such agony, but too young in body to actually resist. His lips were as sensuous and practiced in kissing as I dreamed they were. My teeth gently captured his upper lip, then parted when his tongue came, earnest but careful, into my mouth.
The contact sparked a flood of reactions from either of us. I knew what I felt - instantaneous white-hot desire, worming its way, warming my loins and face as I suckled on his silk smooth honey-flavored flesh vigorously, realizing its effects as Vincent strove suddenly to drive it deeper. My hands reached up, raking through his hair of their own accord, stopping at his neck and kneading.
My whole body lurched when I felt something cold on my stomach. I gasped slightly, pulling out of the kiss to see what the hell was going on. His fingers circled around my navel, stopping when he watched.
"Cold!" I whined, pushing at the hand, but it wouldn't go. I writhed. He caressed. It drove me mad.
After awhile he did stop. He held onto me as I sprawled in his lap, his back turned against the side of his door and one leg stretched out across the cab seat. Me? I lay over the leg partially, straddling his thigh and quite positively comfortable. The cab warmed slowly.
"Luciel," the gunman murmured after another minute.
"Yes?" I urged, my heart suddenly pounding.
"Thank you." It wasn't what I'd hoped... but he pulled me towards him, and teasingly I kissed him again and again, until I made him moan.
The sun rose as gilded mist faded into diamond blue sky.
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Author's Notes: Yes, yes, I know... very sappy indeed. And lemony-fresh, perhaps? But in either case... I wanted to continue this chapter to something 'more' but I thought it better to leave that out for now and move on with the rest of the story... Which, by the way, will probably piss you people off but... I hope not!! Let's just say, all good things must come to an end...