I apologize in advance for this one.

It's been two years, as I've said, since I've picked this story up, so this chapter may be a little off kilter compared to the other ones.

Also, I debated a neat plot, but then I realized that it wouldn't work, with all the years and everything… ;(

Thanks again to those who commented and the like. It means a lot.

Eh, I hope this one is just as good.

Ch3

The window above the bed caught her eyes for a moment. She tilted her head to peer up as a bird flew by gracefully, causing her to smile slightly. She looked back at the man, studying the soft incline of the bridge of his nose. She started to feel a twinge again, in which she was forced to place her hand on her forehead and gently rub her skin. She started to feel weaker and weaker by the second, and eventually fell forward onto the man's arm.

When she opened her eyes, she was outside. The air was crisp, and the grass was green. She looked around, a clean breeze catching her hair from her. She grabbed onto her braid, which had fallen over her shoulder, and started through the town of Nibelhiem, which appeared strangely restored. She watched some birds eating some feed on the ground, two others fighting over a worm fresh out of the ground. A dog ran by and then noticed her. He ran up to her, begging for some simple attention. She giggled slightly and patted him on the head, he panting with his tongue hanging out. He ran away to a little girl that had called to him.

Her happy gait was interrupted when she saw some people leave the mansion out of the corner of her eye. This caused her to wonder where everyone was -- where that man was. Why was she outside in the first place? She turned around sharply, forgetting about her throbbing head, and ran back to where the hotel was. Once she got there, she flung open the door. She looked around worriedly, nobody in sight.

"Excuse me...?" She heard a small voice ask. "... Can I... Help you with something, young miss?" She turned around, and an old woman was approaching her, a cane as her support against gravity. Aeris searched through her mind, unable to remember seeing this old woman previously.

"Uhm... yes. This... IS the hotel, correct?"

"Hotel? Goodness, no, miss. You must have this town mistaken." The old woman nodded slightly. "I raised my children in this home." This shot through Aeris's mind. Not a hotel?

Without thinking of what to say, or perhaps having the inability to think of what to say, Aeris ran back out the door and straight to the mansion. The two people, she had noticed, had already left, since they were completely out of sight in any direction. She flung the gate open, which did not make a sound this time, and ran through the door. She stopped upon entering, seeing that the chandelier was still hung, and lit, and the house looked rather lively. There was no dust, the whites where white, and there were no boards sticking up through the floor. She knew where she was going -- to the bottom. She ran up the stairs, pushed a toppled chair out of her way, and shoved the stone door open. She ran down the spiral walkway and through the eerie hall, only to find that the hidden door was open. She went slowly inside, not wanting to make a noise. The room smelled less old, but still older than new. The four coffins were still in tact, the three nearer to the door closed. Aeris walked slowly over to the coffin the young man had been found in, thinking maybe she would find him. The coffin was open, and no one was inside. She touched the inside slowly, feeling the velvet interior against her soft skin. She thought for a moment while doing this. Where did he go? What happened to the others? Why doesn't my head hurt anymore?

Just then she heard an aggravated cry from the library. She stared at the door for a minute, frozen in the stance she was in. Another sound was heard, as if something had been thrown across a room. She exited the small chamber and turned toward the laboratory, seeing that everything was freshly broken and massacred. There was fresh blood on the operating table, on the pieces of random glass on the floor, smeared against the corner leading into the library.

She continued slowly to the library, edging the walls so as to not be noticed in any shadow. Her hand scraped against some cold splattered blood on the wall. Her nose wrinkled upright, but she continued on. The cries of the person became more prominent as Aeris grew closer. It sounded like a younger man, weeping solemnly about something. She turned the bloody corner, seeing the silhouette of a person bent over in front of the fireplace, which was lit, and the young man had his back turned to her. She walked further down the hall, stepping over numerous piles of books. Her foot accidentally hit a book, causing her to fall to the floor. She caught herself with her hands and knees, pulling herself slowly back up from the ground. The young man had noticed the noise and rushed over to her. Aeris backed away, but he was too fast. He pinned her against the wall, his unkempt hair sticking to his face because of the tears on his cheeks and rubbed all over his eyes. His eyes were bloodshot and ember, blood all over his clothes and body. He was breathing heavily, sounding choked and weary.

"... Why did you do this to me?" His voice creaked slowly, torn from screaming and crying. Aeris's eyes widened, confused by what he just said. She started to inch away.

"I-I don't know what you're---" As she shook her head side to side sympathetically, his hands went immediately to her shoulders to hold her back. She winced when his left hand on her right shoulder startled her. It was sharp and cold, feeling metallic in all. The points of his fingers on his claw were digging into her skin through her clothing.

"Why did you do this to me?" He demanded harder this time, pushing her back a bit against the bookshelf. She looked up at him, tears streaming down his face. "...Why did you do this to me...?" He trailed off sadly. He started to lower his head, ashamed, beginning to lean it against her shoulder. She closed her eyes.

When she opened them, she was back in the hotel, her head lying atop of the man's soft arm. Her head was still throbbing, so she just turned her face toward his torso. She sighed lightly, feeling comforted that it was just a dream. She breathed in again, relaxed, noticing the smell on his wardrobe. The smell triggered a memory of her dream. The man who held her against the shelf. The man who saved her. The man lying on the bed that she, too, was lying on. She pushed herself up from the bed and looked him over. His unkempt hair, his fair skin, his drawn-up lips. She didn't understand what her dream was about, but he was in it. She extended her right arm towards his left, which was pushed in between the wall and his body. She started from his shoulder and worked her way down, her fingers gently grazing his clothing and skin. Once she got to the inside of his elbow, her fingers ran over something hard and cold. She picked up his cape that was covering that part of his arm and gazed at his claw. She kept running her fingers over the metallic hand, watching the trail of her fingerprint glide across, and she would then follow it back to clean it.

She kept thinking about the dream she had. Why him? What happened? Was that even real? She stared into his face longer, taking the image to her mind so she would never forget. His eyes started to twitch a bit, so she watched. His hand moved toward his waist, then followed up to his eyes. He rubbed his eyes softly, tracing his hand to the side of the bed and propped himself slightly up. Aeris continued to watch him, having moved her chair back a little ways and making sure her staff was right behind her, just in case. He opened his eyes slightly, making it seem as though he couldn't see that well. He winced his eyes, staring at Aeris.

"... Lucercia..." He whispered under his breath in Aeris's direction. He blinked a few times before he quickly turned to look at the foot of the bed, ashamed of the fact that he was wrong. Aeris looked at him worriedly, inching the chair a little nearer to the bed. He slightly moved his head to look at her, dragging his sight up her pink dress. She had her hands gathered in her lap, patiently waiting for another word from him, being silent. His eyes were stuck on her elegant fingers, the curves in her soft hands. She was so familiar to him. She bent forward a little bit to catch his gaze.

"... A-Are you all right?" She asked almost silently, not wanting her sudden outburst of words to shatter their ears once compared to the dead silence. He looked up at her in a daze, his ember eyes glowing with fire. He just stared deeply at her, falling into her eyes, having caught her gaze after so long, this grown woman he seemed so familiar…

Geh, I'll be honest. I don't know where I am going with this one...

In time, though, I know I'll think of something. ;)

I've aspired to make a good Aeris & Vincent story too long to just give up on it.

How was it…? ;(