These aren't mine, I don't know why I have to repeat myself, but I really don't wanna be sued! I'm sorry I haven't written in a while, but what the hell I thought that I needed a break, well, now I'm back, you can give me my good ol critiques. No flames, I still have no songs, and Kougar, dj, and Mouse are all my characters. This is a long long chapter and it's somewhat revealing, it's majorly about the roommates and where they come from. I swear, I'll finish this Shin-Ra Academy thing real soon okies?! Sorry I forgot to say thanks to Lord Cirenmas and Yuna8 Thanks for your input too! No songs still! Sorry!!

Red Death's Love

-LMG-

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Lucrecia leaned back in her chair and stretched. Vincent paused. He looked down at his watch. 12:01 am. Had they been talking that long?

Lucrecia smiled. "Hey you, don't do that!"

She reached for his hand and placed her hand in his. Her hands were so warm. Vincent felt the flame from within grow hot. He wet his lips and stared at her beautiful face. What he wouldn't give to just hold her and be with her, even if it was for one night.

Lucrecia continued. "This is our night, so- time is not an issue here."

Vincent rubbed her hand with his. "Alright." He said it almost like a whisper.

Lucrecia looked deeply into his eyes. "Vincent, thank you for sharing your story with me."

Vincent nodded. "Sure."

Lucrecia looked at him a little puzzled. "Vincent, I thought that you said that you didn't have any friends when we first met."

Vincent grinned good naturedly. "Well, technically that's true."

Lucrecia raised a brow.

"What do you mean by that?" Vincent cleared his throat. "Well, at the time I didn't have any friends, you see, when we joined up with the TURKS, we didn't think that we would get separated. DJ, Mouse and Kougar, we all thought that we would be assigned the same team. But that wasn't so. Apparently, I did so well in training camp that they wanted me to be one of the President's five main bodyguards."

"Oh, is that so?" Lucrecia took her hands away, placed them on her hips and gave him a cocky smile. "So, you were that good?"

"Yes I was," Vincent said mimicking her smile. "And after that, I never saw any of my old friends. So I wasn't really lying to you when I told you that I didn't have any friends. At the time, it was true, and I had just started my job at Shin-Ra inc as a fledgling TURK."

Lucrecia laughed. "Alright alright, so tell me about training camp, or whatever they call it. What did you do there? I mean was it hard?"

Vincent nodded. "Ohhh yeah, it was grueling. It was just like going to boot camp, or at least what I imagined boot camp to be like. But this was worse. We had to get up every morning around 5:00 am and we went to bed at 11:00 pm. We had daily work out exercise's, regardless of rain or shine. We ate in the morning and in the afternoon. The food was horrible. They taught us how to make bombs, clean our guns and what-not, everyday it was just work, work and more work. We only had three hours to ourselves, one in the morning after breakfast, one in the afternoon and one before we went to bed. Other than that, we didn't get any breaks or vacation time."

He glanced over at Luca to see her reaction. She nodded for him to continue.

"There was a test every week that we had to pass, and it was hard. If you failed the test, you were sent home immediately. A test can last up to about three days. We had stake outs and little jobs we had to pull in order to pass. When you're taking your test, you can easily get killed in the line of duty, so you had to be real careful not to get caught or anything. Every night they tortured and beat us in order to interrogate us. There weren't days when I would look at myself in the mirror and think, god, I can't believe that's me! I had bruises all over me and I was so disheveled, I didn't even recognize myself."

Lucrecia shook her head and patted his hand with concern. "Oh my god! That's so horrible! Vincent, why didn't you just leave?"

Vincent shook his head. "I don't know, I mean, originally I wanted to go there to see what it was like, but then when I got there, I don't know, I guess I wanted to try it out. There were so many times I wanted to quit and go back home back to the old man, but something inside me wouldn't allow that. I had been training for months to get where I was, and I couldn't give it up. I think it was just the challenge of it all. I've never challenged myself this way, and in a way, I kind of enjoyed it."

Lucrecia shook her head. "You're a strange man you know that Mr. Valentine?"

Vincent chuckled at her statement. "Heheh, I know that."

He looked down almost shyly at the empty glass by his arm.

Lucrecia smacked him playfully. "Oh you! Hey, whatever happened to the old man? Did you tell him about being a TURK?"

Vincent sat there quietly. He shifted in his seat uneasy. When he didn't answer her Lucrecia's face softened with concern. She touched the side of his face with her fingers.

"Hey, you alright?"

Vincent blinked. "Yeah, I am... I just-" He shook his head. "It's nothing, I just- I just it's really difficult." He stammered.

Lucrecia grabbed at his hands. "Oh, I'm sorry Vincent, I shouldn't have asked, I'm sorry for being so nosy."

Vincent squeezed her hands affectionately. "No, no it's not that at all Luca it's just that, well- I haven't spoken to the old man in years. I mean, I wrote to him after I graduated. Mouse had invited me to stay with him and his mother for a few months, and I wrote to the old man telling him about my plans.... about Shin-Ra. The old man wrote back to me. I knew that he would be angry with me, but I never thought that he would disown me..."

Lucrecia gasped. "Disown you? How- I mean why would he do that? Just because you joined the TURKS?"

Vincent nodded. "Yeah, the old man, he's very philosophical, he's a true artist. Artist's are well known for their passion in what they believe. The old man hated Shin-Ra, he was so hurt when I told him about the TURKS, he told me that if I joined with them, that he didn't want to see me ever again."

Vincent sighed. The look in Lucrecia's eyes, it was a look of anger.

"I can't believe that, how could he be so cruel to you? He raised you like his own flesh and blood!"

Vincent nodded. "That's why he did what he did, I was his son, maybe not his real son, but he had raised my as his own, the only reason why he told me that was because he loved me, and I know that he didn't want to see me as a...." Vincent trailed off.

Lucrecia stared at him. There was a long pause. She looked down at the table. It was very awkward. Should she change the subject? Lucrecia rubbed the back of her neck with her hand.

"Well, I heard that they're throwing a party at the Shin-Ra mansion sometime next week. The place will be heavily guarded and I know that most of the TURKS are going to be there, do you think that your friends will come?"

Vincent shrugged. "Maybe, I hope so, it would be nice to see them again."

He smiled sadly.

Lucrecia bowed her head. "I hope so, I don't like seeing you alone, or sad. It really hurts me to see you like that-"

Vincent softly touched under her chin with his finger and tilted her head so that her eyes met with his. Their faces were inches away. Lucrecia inhaled sharply.

"Luca, I don't ever want you to feel bad, not for me, not for anyone! Promise me that."

Lucrecia couldn't speak. She was entranced by his blue blue eyes, so she nodded instead. After a few moments, she thought that he was going to kiss her. She waited with bated breath.

He was staring at her mouth. It looked so kissable. He wanted to just take a quick peck. Would she mind?

At that moment Lucrecia shuddered her eyes closed and her lips parted. If he kissed her now, she would let him. This man, this boy, he made her feel like this. Her heart pounded against her chest, it was so loud, she thought that Vincent could hear it. What was he waiting for?

What are you waiting for Valentine? A voice piped up in the back of his head. The woman he loved was sitting there across from him waiting to be kissed, and he? Was he scared? Vincent's heart throbbed loudly inside his ribcage. There was a rushing sound in his ears. He held his breath. It seemed as if time stopped for them and them only. Was this what it's like to fall in love? The voice in his head re-surfaced, it laughed manically and sinister like. If you truly loved her Valentine, you should let her go- . She's an innocent. She doesn't know who you truly are and what you've done to get you where you are. How many people have you destroyed in the name one pride and greed? Vincent's heart sunk.

Lucrecia. The reason why I haven't told you anything about me is because, I know, that once you heard the horrors I've done, I know that you can never love me. I can't let you love me. My life, it's not meant to be with someone like you. Even if we do fall in love, and we are together, someone would come for him one day. They would take him or hurt her, and he couldn't allow that to happen, not to his love, not to Lucrecia. She deserves to be with someone like herself.

An innocent.

Not him.

With those thoughts in mind, Vincent reluctantly withdrew from her. Lucrecia's eyes opened she had a surprised look on her pretty face. It was quickly replaced by an annoyed look.

Lucrecia fanned herself. "Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?" She said breathlessly.

Vincent shook his head in agreement. "I think it's a little warm in here."

Lucrecia, I love you so much, that I'm not going to let you get involved with someone like me. Vincent cleared his throat. "Well, it's getting late, I think that we should go soon, otherwise Hojo and Ghast will start to worry about you."

Lucrecia frowned with disappointment. She sighed. "Alright Vincent, let's go."

They got up from their seat and walked over to the coat rack. Vincent helped Lucrecia into her coat. She smiled at him and thanked him. As they headed outside, they stopped to say goodbye to Bart and Emily.

"You guys have a good one!" Bart waved them off.

Emily walked over to the spot where Vincent and Lucrecia were. She picked up the glasses and waved them at her husband.

"You know Bart, I don't care what you say, I want to have children, you know, sometime soon, before I grow old!!"

Bart shook his head as he wiped his counter. "I don't know about that Emily, we're still too young to have children, an besides, children an I don't get along that well, you think I'm going to be a good father?"

Emily laughed at her husbands remarks. "Oh Bart, I don't care, I just want a child, Ralph and Jenna Strife are trying to have children!"

Bartholomew Lockheart shook his finger at his wife playfully. "Well, that's the Strife's for you, but that ain't us! You know Em, if the Strife's jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?"

Emily walked over to her husband and playfully slapped him. "Whatever! What about a girl? We can call her.... Mary, or Elizabeth?"

Bart snorted. "Heh, why don't we give her a fancy name, like- Tifa or something-"

Emily gave Bart a ridiculous look. "Tifa? That's a strange one. I never heard of any names like that, are you trying to get our child beat up?"

Ralph chuckeled, "Well, if ya don't like that one, you probably don't wanna know about my list of boy names..."

Emily clasped her hands together. "So you do want children!!" She hopped over the counter and threw her arms around her husbands neck. "Oh Bart I-"

Bart gave a good hearted laugh, and patted her behind. "Emily, my glasses! Watch out with the glasses!"

-End-