Chapter 3- That funky car smell
Reeve sighed to himself as he found his apartment building was still in one piece. There were only a few sectors that survived the chaos, and thankfully his was one of them. Walking down the carpeted hallway, he withdrew his keycard and slid it through the small card slot above the doorknob.
Once hearing the lock click, he opened the door and touched the small touch pad on the wall. The entry and main room filled with an ambient, soft light. Reeve stepped into the main room when a mangy gray tabby cat greeted him. The rest of the group entered behind Reeve. Tifa looked down to find the one of two cats circling Reeve's pant leg. Bending down, she reached for the second cat and found it was eager for her attention. The second cat was just as mangy as the first, except it lacked the tabby stripes being only a solid gray color. Picking the animal up, the cat purred and sniffed Tifa curiously.
Reeve smiled seeing his two pets. "The one you are holding is Isis and her brother is down there is Osirius." Reeve walked over to the breakfast bar and opened a small plastic container that held cat treaties. "I found them as abandon kittens. I saw them once and ended up coming home with them. Huh, Sirius?" He held a treat above the cat's nose getting the cat to dance in circles.
Vincent was less then amused by the animals. He never had much love for animals, but at least he could tolerate cats. The gunman surveyed the apartment with a slight amount of curiosity. At first nothing seemed much different then he last remembered being any Shinra operated structure except for the taste in furniture. He let his right hand touch soft texture of the couch he stood next too.
His eyes then drifted to the suit of armor that stood opposite of the front door. Peering, Vincent moved closer to it, inspecting the etched detail on the breastplate. His then slipped down to the gauntlets that clutched the broad handle of a shortened halberd. His eyes saw the faint apartment light catch on the sharpened edge of the weapon. 'I am impressed, it is actually...sharp.' Though he was not sure if that was necessarily a good thing.
"I paid only three hundred gil for that suit."
Vincent looked up to see Reeve addressing him. Finding the gunman was not going to say anything more Reeve decided to show him where to he could sleep and the shower. For the short period of time they had spent in his apartment, he realized the strange moldy smell was not the doctor's office or the car. It was more like transient and mothballs.
Loosening his tie, Reeve gestured Vincent to follow him.
Tifa hung back only half-listening to Reeve tell Vincent about towels, spare clothes and other necessities.
"Excuse me!" Tifa step to the side as Cait Sith hopped by on the back of the mog into a side room. Curious to see where they were going, Tifa pushed the door open and turned on the light. She found the room filled with dolls. Three of the four walls held large glass display cabinets that held dolls and puppets. She approached one case and found a various arrangement of porcelain dolls, some made of wood while others seemed exotic with large empty eyes and shrunken bodies. Then there were also marionettes and other puppets peppered throughout the display cases.
Caith Sith opened a closet door on the remaining, bare wall and squeezed inside and shut the door. 'Marleen could use a few toys that would put themselves away like that.' Tifa could not help but feel a little weirded out about the room. 'Why a man like him have such a collection? Though I suppose it's not too weird, at least it isn't like collecting potato chips with saints' faces. I am sure he had spent a fortune collecting some of these.'
"Whatcha lookin' at?" Tifa looked down and found the little cat doll jumping at her feet.
"I was just looking at the collection." Tifa was still baffled at how Reeve can not only control and speak through the doll and yet be in another place talking with another person.
"Pretty cool huh?"
'What? The collection or Reeve's attention span?' "It is quite expansive." Tifa finally responded.
"You can sleep in here. I have a futon with some blankets if you like that."
Vincent entered the room and looked briefly over the small set of bookshelves and the small desk next to them. His eyes drifted over the futon and froze on the closet, or at least he assumed had to be the closet. The door were two large mirrors, mostly to help make the room feel more spacious, but Vincent did not see space, but a strange thing staring back at him.
He leaned in close unsure what he saw. His instinct was to fight it, and then realized it was merely the reflection of him.
"You have seen a mirror before right?" Reeve inquired from the door.
"Yes, I just never thought I look quite...like this." In his mind he thought he still looked like he did thirty years ago; in the suit, his hair short far much shorter and well, not quite as pale. He could not help but to feel awkward and felt a just a tinge of shame. How did let himself go like that? The clothing he wore was suddenly unfamiliar and alien despite running around in for the past couple of years. The cape he did not mind much, but it was the gauntlet and the boots that seemed odd and cumbersome. Then it dawned on him, it's was Hojo! It was all Hojo. 'That sick little man played dress-up with me while I was out. What else did he do?' Vincent shuddered at the possibilities.
"Thank you for the tour and your hospitality. If it is well, I would like to shower. I have 30 year old Hojo cuddies to wash off." Vincent walked past Reeve and shut the bathroom door.
Reeve gave a sigh of relief. This time they did not have to drag him kicking and screaming.
Drying his hair with a towel, Vincent took a first real look at himself without the headband or collar. For once, he actually saw his face, pale as it seemed, but it was his face. 'No wonder Lucrecia wasn't too sure of me back in the cave. I would be too if I were in her shoes.' He glanced back and saw his old clothes lying crumpled on the floor, still holding the form. ' Maybe Reeve had a point about my clothes walking away. I am almost convinced myself.' Curious, he picked up his pants and examined them. For being as old as they were, the material held together well. However, looking closer, he found the seams were pulling apart among other holes and tears that were forming. He sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose. He sniffed his skin and found he smelled only soap. He then inspected the discarded clothes and found them to be culprit. "My word that smells bad, something like old books and sweat. I appreciate people being polite, but I would have appreciated a little honesty more, like… "Oh hey, Vincent, you stink!" '
Dropping rumbled garments back down on the floor, his eyes turned to the fresh set of clothes Reeve loaned him.
'It seems like only yesterday I wore something quite similar.' He fingered the stiff collar of the dress shirt. It almost seemed everything was normal, like it was before everything fell apart. 'Like those sorry pants.'
Still feeling sick and miserable, he put on the change of clothes and the picked up what was left on the floor before leaving. Turning off the light, Vincent stepped out into the hallway, nearly tripping over the little black and white Cait Sith doll. Vincent glared at it in silence. Caith sith scrambled back nearly avoiding the gunman's feet.
"Hey watch it!" Caith sith stated looking up at Vincent. "Ya know, ya don't clean up half bad."
Vincent sighed, slowly swallowing. "It's not proper for grown men to talk or play with dolls." Turning, he left the doll and walked down to the spare room where Reeve had set up for him to sleep in. Dropping the clothes, he turned and entered the main part of the apartment. He found Tifa sitting on a barstool while Reeve stood in the kitchen with a couple of glasses.
Tifa glanced over and her eyes went wide. "You mean, there was someone actually underneath all that hair?" She teased. Vincent's face remained flat. Walking over, he pulled out another stool and sat down. Reaching over the counter, Vincent picked up the white paper bag and dumped out the small amber bottle of pills.
"What's that?"
Vincent glanced over. "What's what?" He grumbled.
Tifa pointed at her eyelid. "On your left eye, there's a scar."
Feeling self-conscious, he kept his eyes on the medicine instructions. "It's nothing." He reached over to his left arm and pulled down at his shirtsleeve to make sure covered despite they had already seen the needle scars that Hojo had left.
Reeve gave him a quick glance before tossing him a few crackers and a glass of water. He also saw the small scar Tifa pointed. If he hadn't known better, he would have sworn he had seen that with some people who had brain surgery or even a lobotomy. 'That might explain a few things.'
Vincent tossed two pills into his mouth and followed them with the water.
"I hope you don't mind Wutai take-out. Thought it would be the most convenient." Reeve pulled a clear glass bottle and returned the kitchen bar island.
Vincent stared at the medicine bottle and then set it down. "Fine." 'As long it is not the fried rice or that deep-fried dish I had that one time. I am already sick. I do not need anymore help in that department.'
Reeves took Vincent's glass and poured some of the bottle's contents into it. "Try and drink some of this, it's like drinking a liquid candy cane."
Vincent picked up the glass with suspicion. He sniffed at the clear liquid and then looked at the bottle. 'Peppermint schnapps?' Shrugging, he tasted the liquid. The alcohol hit hard against the soreness of his throat. He winced and swallowed. After the initially pain, it didn't seem so bad, so took another sip until he emptied the glass.
"If you excuse me, I am going to lay down for a while." Vincent already felt his head beginning to swim. Though he was not sure if the medication or the drink or both. Perhaps it was not wise to combine antibiotics and peppermint schnapps; not that he really cared anymore. Tifa and Reeve watched as Vincent lumbered down the hallway and when he reached the back study room, he shut the door.
Author's Note: I suppose I need to explain a few things. Okay, the lobotomy comment was spawned by a comment I ran into when I was playing FF7. I had Cid talk to Vincent and he makes a comment somewhat like this: " I wish I have your Get-up-and-go attitude. After being asleep for 30 years, I seems I have lost my feelings…"
Or something like that, and knowing that Hojo is a sick little twit, I figure I would run with that line and assume one of things that man may have done is messing with Vincent's brain. Or at least that is my spin. Whether anyone else cares for it, doesn't matter much to me.