Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of the Final Fantasy VII and VIII, those belong to Square Soft and I'm only borrowing them to have fun.
Summary: He had a dark and painful past; she didn't remembered more than her name, still fate lead her forward to fall into his dark embrace and let him have a hope of redemption…VincentxRinoa Fic
A/N: This idea had been nagging me for awhile and I decided to bring it to life and here it is, I have always liked the Vincent and Rinoa thing so I decided to write one, hope you like it and that you can forgive my horror in grammar and the obvious Occ'ness this will have, flames not accepted but constructive criticism is welcome.
Thanks: To the kind people that left a review and this chapter is dedicated to you and I hope that you enjoyed as well.
"Pieces of Me"
By Maiden of the Phoenix.
Chapter One: Ariana.
Crimson orbs merely started at the woman that lay unconscious on the ever green field, he couldn't make much of her more than she had raven hair, alabaster skin and was wearing a mix of sky-blue and black in her clothes, but asides from that what mostly called his attention was the weapon that she had.
The sudden sound of thunder alerted him that a storm was close to unfold and this time of the year the storms could really be strong and powerful, looking down at her once again he briefly wondered if he should help her or leave her there knocked out cold in the field alone and unprotected were everything can happen to her?
For a strange reason the later solution had been more appealing to him yet there he was carrying the unconscious girl in his arms and walking back to the Shinra mansion, he knew that he could have easily left her there but his human conscience, one that was still there, had nagged at him and promptly screamed and lashed at him to help her out even if it was a little.
Without much of an effort he opened all the doors that stood on his way inside the huge manor, once he stepped inside he cocked one of his eyebrows when he found the place neat and clean, the wooden floor polished and the few furniture in the place dust free, not bothering to inspect anymore he made his way towards the stairs and to one of the rooms in the upper floor.
Just like the rest of the place the bedroom he had chosen, well more likely the first bedroom door he had opened, was clean and spotless, not a single furniture or small ornamental decoration was blemished with dust and the coverlet of the four poster bed seemed clean and fresh, with all the gentleness he could muster he laid the now sleeping girl on the bed and took his PHS out.
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The rain was pouring profusely and heavy that the umbrella barely offered a protection for her, thankfully she was wearing a rain coat and boots to prevent any damage to her clothing, with a glimmer of pure anger and hatred she stared at the mansion in front of her and her anger intensified when she saw the lights on, it annoyed her cause the soft glow of the light seemed inviting telling her that inside she was going to be warm and well received yet those lights were just mocking at her.
With not much of desire she slid the metal railing door open and stepped inside the lane of the house, after closing the door she walked the small distance in the stone path up to the door, she didn't had to knock in the front door because in the instant she was in front of it the wooden door opened revealing the man with raven hair and wearing mostly crimson and black.
Not even bothering to greet him she moved inside, she closed her umbrella and placed it on the wall near the door and then she proceeded to take her rain coat leaving it on a small table near by. The woman wasn't ugly at the contrary she was fairly pretty she had light brown shoulder length hair with auburn highlights, with a peach/white skin complexion and a well tended body.
Truth be told when they had first met the woman Cloud had mistaken her for Aeris and the poor man wasn't to blame cause in one way or another Ariana did looked like the fallen ancient, both women had the same smile, same skin color, almost same face features and same hair color, yet the difference between them was in their personalities and their eyes, while Aeris had been blessed with kind filled emerald orbs, Ariana had deep and cold azure orbs that could make some persons nervous with a single glance.
"Where the fuck have you been Vincent?" She suddenly spun around and glared at him with her blue inferno colored eyes "You were gone for a week for God's sake!"
Vincent simply looked back at her not even bothered by her glare "Around"
"Around" She spatted and crossed her arms in front of her chest "Am I supposed to say that to Tifa?"
"You can say whatever you want to Tifa, I don't care" In a flutter of his crimson cape he turned around "Right now I need your help Ariana"
"You want me to help you after…" Her words died in her throat when she saw the half glistening dust that clung to the ends of his crimson cape, there was only one place that dust could come from "You were in Lucrecia's cave once again, I understand that you must go there from time to time but a week for God's sake just let go of that already"
Quickly he whipped around and his crimson orbs glared at her "Will you help me or not?"
"You don't need to get angry for such a thing" It was the closest she could get to apologize, she knew that she had touched a real soft nerve and knew her mistake "Fine, but what do you need?"
Ariana groaned in displeasure when he simply turned around and walked to the stairs, annoyed she cleaned and dried her boots on a carpet that she had placed in front of the door when she had came to clean the mansion while he was away, when she was finally pleased with having her boots clean and dried enough she followed him.
For the second time that night she was silent when she saw the young and gorgeous woman that was laid against the royal purple coverlet of the four posted bed, her azure eyes moved from Vincent to her and back again at least three times, she took a small breath and looked at Vincent with a real unreadable expression than not even the ex-Turk could read.
"You're a pervert!" She angrily exclaimed "I didn't know that you had it as a hobby to corrupt young girls!"
The dark man merely glanced at her "I don't know what you're talking about"
"You're an idiot Vincent Valentine! If you want to ditch her, you better do it yourself!" The anger was obvious in her voice.
"I really don't know or wish to know what kind of stuff is running through your dirty mind" The ex-Turk coldly said and merely leaned against a wall like if nothing happened.
She sighed in frustration "Then, do you care to explain me, why is a young girl laying in that bed?" She asked pointing at the obvious girl in the bed.
"I found her while I was coming back here, she passed out" He simply explained like if nothing to relevant was happening at all "And I couldn't very well leave her there"
"My God! Who are you? And what did you with the real Vincent?" She asked in pure disbelief; however the glare that he sent her re-assured her that he was actually Vincent "Err…so like did you find something that could identify her or tell us why she was doing there?"
"The only thing she had was that weapon" He pointed to the weapon, that he had been able to take off her arm, which rested on a small wooden table "Asides that she didn't had more"
"I see, let's see the weapon then" She walked to the table, being the daughter of a famous blacksmith paid off, for the third time that night she stood there speechless, in the table she now saw the familiar design of Angel wings in the razors "It can't be!"
Slowly he turned to look at her "What is it?"
"Do you know what this weapon is, Vincent?" She asked half turning around to face him; she wasn't surprised when he shook his head, of course that he wouldn't know "This weapon is called the Blaster Edge"
"Blaster Edge?" His voice echoed the foreign name of the weapon, well in all his life he had never heard that weapon "For the way it looked I came to conclude it was like Yuffie's weapons"
"Well in a way it is, well maybe not a Shuriken that is" Carefully she picked the weapon up and gazed at the device "This more is kind like a boomerang, but only that this weapon is propelled by a device and not directly by the weapon wilder"
His crimson orbs watched her carefully while she examined the weapon "How do you now that?"
"Because it was my father whom invented this weapon, he wanted to change the way to use the boomerang. My father spent the last year of his life inventing this weapon" She lightly explained and turned to fully look at him "In total he invented five weapons, the pinwheel, the valkyrie, the rising sun and the cardinal each one better than the last one. However the best is this one: The Shooting Star."
"But if your father invented those weapons, how come I have never saw one?" He simply asked.
"Because they were never made" She stated in a matter of fact type of voice "The items needed to made this weapons were rare, so that tells me Rinoa had a lot of work in order to get them"
"Who's Rinoa?" The dark man asked.
"What? Oh…my bad" With a small smile she walked to him and handed him the weapon and pointed to one of the angel wind shaped razors "There"
His crimson orbs gazed on the razor she pointed, the name 'Rinoa Heartilly' was perfectly written on it "From where do you think she is?"
"Well I really wouldn't know, but at least we know her name" Ariana walked to the bed and gazed at the still unconscious young woman "She needs a bath and a change of clothes…Vincent I need you to borrow me one of your shirts"
Carefully he placed the weapon back on the table "Why don't you lend her some of your nightclothes?"
"Fine, you selfish bastard" She answered with some anger while she turned to look at Vincent "Will you at least aid me to take her to the bathroom?"
"Shouldn't you bring the clothes you're going to borrow her first?" He quickly pointed out.
"I don't need to, she already has them" She answered and merely sighed when the former ex-Turk gave her a questioning look , inwardly she couldn't help but grin "Didn't Cloud ever mentioned to you that I sleep in the nude, I don't like nightclothes"
Now for the first time that night the one that ended silent was Vincent, what Ariana had told him had shocked him, of course that his expression didn't showed so, maybe that was one of the pieces of information about Ariana that he would have wanted to stay in secrecy and to never been told or at least not to him.
But maybe what had shocked and also bothered him hadn't been the fact that Ariana had so easily told him that, so easy like if she was giving him the hour, but the knowledge that Cloud knew that piece of information. Vincent couldn't help but wonder how the ex-soldier had found that out, but the most possible answer was that Cloud had probably stepped into her room when she was waking up.
Well that explained lots of things.
"Vincent, snap out of it!" The Aeris-look alike exclaimed and the motioned to the still unconscious girl "Take her to the bathroom"
"….." Mutely the gunman walked besides the girl; carefully he picked her up and glared at Ariana "Can you at least open the door?"
Ariana gently smiled "Sure thing, my friend"
For a few seconds Vincent fancied the idea of killing Ariana, if it hadn't been for the fact that he was carrying the unconscious young woman he will have possible done so. Ariana opened the bathroom door and Vincent proceeded inside, not waiting for Ariana to order him again, he moved to place the unmoving girl on the tub and quickly left.
Ariana merely watched him leave, well she supposed he was angry with her and she didn't minded at all, after all her favorite hobby was to drive Vincent nuts with her teasing and see how long it will take him to lash at her, well now that was an odd hobby.
With a small giggle Ariana turned to the still seemingly asleep girl and walked to undress her and proceed to clean her up. Ariana was surprised when the girl didn't woke up through all of that, either the girl was in a coma or she was a real heavy sleeper, when she finished to dry the raven haired beauty up she found herself wondering if she should leave her nude in the bed.
She decided against it and decided to try her luck by sneaking to Vincent's room and grab one of his shirts, however she didn't had to do that, a small smile came to her face when her eyes fell on a black shirt on the bed, well it seemed that Vincent didn't sported the idea of having such a pretty girl nude in his house, grabbing the shirt she walked back inside the bathroom.
"Well Vincent, my job is now over" Ariana said once she was down the stairs and in front of Vincent, the dirty clothes of the young woman in her arms "She's back on the bed and resting peacefully again"
"How long do you think she will be asleep?" The question came almost boringly
"I really don't know" Ariana walked to the door and took her umbrella "At least is not raining anymore. Well Vincent take care of her, I'll return tomorrow and see how things are going"
Crimson orbs fixed on her "Why don't you take her with you?"
"Well Vincent, you found her not me so she's your responsibility" Slowly she turned around and flashed him a sad smile "Besides if you're here taking care of her you won't go to Lucrecia's cave and your soul can rest a little while"
After saying that Ariana opened the door, after a small farewell nod she left him alone, well now he was stuck with a girl he didn't know nothing about more than her possible name, but maybe Ariana was right, if he stayed there 'seemingly' taking care of the young woman his soul could get some rest.
No, something like that wasn't going to help him, he didn't needed to be in Lucrecia's cave to remember his sins and failure towards her, by merely gazing at the golden claw on his arm he could remember the failure he was.
Yet he couldn't very well leave 'Rinoa' alone, the bit of his human conscience didn't allowed him to do so, finally he decided to stay there till she woke up and could leave.
Well this was a longer chapter…or at least I hope so? I know that Occ'ness will be present and I'll try to improve while I advance with the fic.
It took me awhile to update but I did, anyway leave a review, no flames.
Ohh…by the way, I was seeing that maybe this fic can be changed to 'M' rating, what do you think shall I change it?
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Next Chapter: Awakening: Rinoa finally awakes, but her awaking brings more questions than answers….