He Tells All

by: Bishojo Beauty

Chapter 15

Everything happened all too quickly. Before Tifa knew it, she was once again in Vincent arms, spinning now. She heard a gunshot sound. A grunt. And then a louder, more deafening, and much closer shot sounded. She felt Vincent's body jerk reflexively against the gun's recoil.

Then they were falling.

Tifa waited for impact on hard ground, but it never came. There was a slight jolt, but she felt unharmed. She looked up at her saviour and realized that he did not have the same fate as her. His face was scrunched in pain, and his breathing was heavy. More gunshots sounded close by and a screech of tires and revving of an engine followed.

Then, silence.

Tifa looked up further to face Kael, who still had his gun up and tracing the retreating vehicle. Chester was no where to be seen.

"Tifa, could you...?" Vincent grunted with his hands grasping her shoulders. Tifa then took note of their proximity. She was completely on top of him and she could feel his every breath through the rise of his chest and the puffs of air that escaped his slightly parted lips. His warm breath tickled her cheek and sent tingles down her spine. With a small squeak, she immediately jumped off of Vincent and helped him up into a sitting position.

The brunette, then realized that Vincent had taken the shot for her. Would a Turk who did not care for you do that? Tifa's mind began to ask her causing her to fell horrible for the thoughts that had drifted through her mind right before this incident. She was definitely wrong.

The brunette looked around to inspect his wounds. There was a bullet hole in his left shoulder and was currently bleeding quite profusely. She watched as Vincent tried to check the wound by himself. He did it quite efficiently with quite a bit of ease and professionalism. Tifa figured it would seem that it was pretty much deemed necessary for him to be skilled as so. Life as a Turk must have called for it.

"Are you okay?" Tifa asked. She got a mere nod in reply. Vincent did not trust his voice to not betray him and sound out his discomfort. Kael then came over and knelt down next to the two. He had a perplexed look on his face and he did not take his eyes away from where the retreating vehicle was last seen.

"Chester," was all he said.

"Yeah," came Vincent's soft reply. None of them really understood at this point how Chester was able to had been standing before them only moments ago. But it was an undeniable fact that he was. Through what Tifa and Vincent experienced during their brutal AVALANCHE days, it seemed that sometimes death was easier to cheat than one would believe.

Vincent scoffed shaking his head and loose strands of hair fell into his face. Tifa instinctively brushed them away. Vincent's eyes shot to her immediately and Tifa did not flinch for once. She just merely smiled as she tucked the loose strands behind his ear and placed her hands back onto her knees.

Tifa had come to a realization in this short time. Not long ago, she had found that she completely forgotten about Cloud, whom she believed she loved. And instead, someone else had snuck their way into her mind and her heart as well. She was slowly, but surely falling for a man none other than Vincent Valentine. When this had happened, she could not say. It just did. Somehow.

If anyone had told her that she would one day end up falling for Vincent she would have laughed until tears came running down her face. But that would have been then. Now she would have agreed with them without hesitation.

This realization made Tifa much more confident and bolder as well.

"Thank you, Vincent," she whispered, looking deeply into his eyes in search of his true feelings. He turned his eyes away from hers and focused on something that seemed much more interesting near his feet as he once again nodded in reply.

Tifa took the opportunity at hand and reached out, giving Vincent a gentle peck on his left cheek. When Tifa pulled back. She found the look on Vincent's face absolutely priceless. For Vincent only however. Any other man, Tifa would have brushed it off.

Vincent's lips were parted ever so slightly and his eyes were slightly wide and full of shock. All abnormalities for Vincent.

Tifa had finally been able to catch the stoic man off guard. Whopping in her mind at her accomplishment, she smiled once again at Vincent. That was all the time Vincent needed to collect his composure somewhat. But Tifa couldn't help but believe that she saw a slight quirk of his lips before he pursed them together.

"Let's get you back to bed," Tifa said as she helped Vincent up. She made the mistake of making eye contact with Kael as when she did, he began smiling and winking at her. Vincent's looming presence beside her, however, kept her from beating Kael to a pulp.

That night, everyone slept peacefully. Even Vincent.

-

Tifa awoke the next morning to find herself nice and refreshed. The sun was bright and the sky was an endless array of blue. There was not a single cloud in sight. Leaving the guest room that Nanaki had to generously allowed her to reside for the night, she found that it was only her and Nanaki that were awake. For some reason, it just seemed right that the Valentine brothers would be morning people. Shrugging it off, she proceeded down the stairs to greet Nanaki who sat in the living room reading a book by a rather large window that overlooked the canyon. Nanaki resided in a home that was quite high up as compared to the other homes. This offered amazing views.

"Good morning, Tifa. I hope you slept well," Nanaki said with a grin.

"I did, thank you," she replied.

"Did you have breakfast yet?" She found herself asking. Her days from bartending at her 7th Heaven resurfacing. A shake of the head was all Tifa needed and she was off and into the kitchen.

Not long after, the smell of fresh coffee filled the room, followed by the smell of a usual homemade breakfast. Nanaki felt his stomach growling at the very scent of the food coming from the kitchen. As if just on cue, the Valentine brothers came down the stairs and directly to the kitchen.

Tifa greeted them warmly and urged them to take a seat. She took note of how much better Vincent appeared. She also took note of his change in clothes.

Pajamas. They were all still in pajamas. It would not of had been a big deal if it did not involve Vincent. She had never seen Vincent sleep or wake during their AVALANCHE days, so Vincent in pajamas was definitely a first here. Though still clad in completely black with his bandana still on, he looked very different still. He wore a simple black t-shirt that accented his form in ways Tifa never thought possible of a t-shirt and loose black pants. Giving sight of something she had never seen before. Milky white toes peeked from underneath his long pants. She put her observation of Vincent on hold for the moment as the food was almost ready. After a couple of quick final preparations, the food was done and served.

They all ate in a comfortable silence. Kael stopped silently as if he remembered something he had forgotten.

"These eggs, they taste just like how someone used to make them from when I was a kid. I can't remember who though..." he paused in deep thought.

"Madame Jolei," Vincent interjected.

"Oh, yes, that's right!" Kael exclaimed, taking another mouthful of her eggs.

"Who's Madame Jolei?" Tifa inquired, curiously. Vincent did not answer, so Kael decided he would.

"She was a wonderful lady who took us in when we were younger. We were both dirty, starved and homeless and she took us in without a question," he stated with a smile on his lips. Vincent also seemed happy at the memory as he seemed more to exude a much warmer aura.

"So she was the one that raised you two?"

"For a while. Yes. But she was robbed and killed in the process, not long after," Kael replied morosely.

"Oh...I'm sorry,"

"It was life in the slums, you know?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Tifa replied while her mind drifted back to her days in the beginning of AVALANCHE and her bar. Sometimes she found herself missing life then. She had really belonged to something there that made a big difference. Sighing, she continued to eat her breakfast.

"You grew up in the slums too?" Kael asked, disturbing the silence that had fallen.

"Not exactly. But I did live there. I owned a business," Tifa replied. Their conversation continued on like this. Personal, but nothing too personal. Kael had provided more background information on both him and Vincent in the short breakfast they had together than Vincent had ever told her during the years that she knew him. But that was Vincent.

It turned out that the brother's were half Wutain. Kael had said they lived in Wutai for a short period of time before "transferring" over to Midgar. The use of transferring caused natural curiosity to pique in Tifa, but Kael eluded her questions easily. So the brunette decided that this was not the time.

As everyone was finishing up, Tifa found herself really enjoying breakfast with the Valentine brothers. She still, however, found it difficult to understand their relationship. It was full of tension and yet it wasn't. They seemed to despise each other and yet they didn't.

The wince, however, coming from Vincent every once in a while because of his injury was a constant reminder of the task ahead of them. They needed to find out why these people were after Vincent and prepare for the possibility of another attack. But with Vincent awake and well enough, Tifa felt more at ease.

It was as if Vincent could read her mind. He cleared his throat and began business. Their first task was to identify the substance that are in the tranquilizers. That however, did not go as successfully as they hoped. Nanaki announced after almost a whole afternoon spent, that he could not identify the substance. But he did say how the substance reacted abnormally to the sample of Vincent's blood as he ran some tests, which was definitely not a good sign.

They day was pretty much up as Nanaki and a couple of helpers finished up the tests. The results were disappointing. They knew nothing. Or atleast, Tifa knew nothing. The Valentine brothers, however, held more information than they were letting on.

But it was late now, and Tifa could practically hear the bed calling to her. After taking a nice long shower, she began walking down the hall of Nanaki's home to her room for the moment. She paused however, upon passing the room that Vincent and Kael slept in. Yet again, she heard the murmurs of a heated discussion. She couldn't hear exactly what was being said between the two, but she could tell by the tones that slipped through the closed door that it was serious. The voices became clearer now, and before Tifa realized what was happening, the door flung open, banging against the other side of the wall, and out came Vincent. He was fuming and in his blind rage, he ran right into Tifa. She let out a small cry as his domineering form knocked her over. The look that Vincent shot her as she looked up to his face hurt, was frightening. His eyes seemed to gleam redder than normal. But instantly, almost as if upon recognition of what exactly happened, his eyes softened. But instead of helping her up, he turned on his heel and began a quick decent down the stairs. Kael soon followed outside the room and assessed the current situation in front of him.

"You selfish bastard!" He shouted after Vincent. The other Valentine did not acknowledge Kael's outburst at all. Tifa took the hand that Kael offered to help her up and watched as he ran after Vincent's retreating form. By the time Kael reached him, Vincent's hand was on the doorknob leading out to the streets of Cosmo Canyon. The older of the two grabbed Vincent's wrist in a death grip and pulled him forcefully away from the door, almost throwing him. Vincent responded with a near feral growl and shoved Kael back. Tifa could only watch, stunned.

Retaliating with a punch, Kael caught Vincent right in the jaw, causing him to stumble back a few steps. The exchange of physical abuse continued until Kael grabbed Vincent's right arm, precisely where the dart had hit him days ago. Vincent released a small cry of pain as he crumpled off of Kael and onto his side, weakly fighting against Kael's unfaltering grip.

With Vincent now writhing silently in pain, Kael took this unfortunate opportunity to speak.

"Hell, Vincent, listen to me. Don't do shit on your own. You remember the last time?" Kael asked. "Remember?" And with that Kael released Vincent's arm.

Breathing heavily, Vincent squeezed his eyes shut. Memories were flooding back to him. Memories of Hojo and what happened. He never could remember exactly what happened, but now they were more vivid than even his nightmares. And it instilled once again, a fear that was mentally buried deep inside him. The fear constricted his lungs and flooded his eyes with tears. He wanted to swat the tears that were forming in his eyes away before they rushed down his pale face, but someone beat him to it. He opened to his face a blurry image of someone with long hair.

Lucrecia?

No, Tifa.

She was hovering over him. Her long hair tickling his face and her hands on his cheeks wiping away the tears that threatened to spill down his face. He was trying to comprehend why she would want to touch someone like him. But his befuddled mind refused him. All that really mattered now was that there was someone here now to chase away those memories.

He lifted his hand and captured one of Tifa's in his own before falling unconscious.

After forever, i update...I have nothing to really say about this chapter, just that it took forever! TT

So yeah, hope you guys enjoy! And I'm sorry bout it taking so long! Been busy and stuck at the same time. Thanks for all your reviews all the last chapter too! Greatly appreciated!

Bishojo Beauty