Chapter 5: Tenderness:
Tenderness: Affection, Fondness, Partiality.
V moved his head back to get a better look at Lia.
"How did you..." V stammered.
"Do that?" She finished for him.
"Yes," He gulped.
"I read you," Lia stated.
"Why?" V asked her.
"I wanted to know your real name," She said sheepishly.
"And what is yours?" V countered.
Lia lowered her head, averting her gaze, so that he could not see that she was embarrassed by her real name.
"Ophelia..." V whispered
"That's my middle name...Ophelia is my middle name," She began to babble, but V put a finger to her lips.
"What is your full name?" He asked, his voice a low purr.
"(mumbles)."
"What was that?" He tilted his head.
"Juniper Ophelia."
V smiled.
"Why would you be so embarrassed by such a beautiful name?" He asked.
Lia gave him a classic 'what the hell' look.
"How is it beautiful?" She asked.
"Because it is...I will explain it later," He shrugged.
There was an awkward moment of silence before Lia whispered something, "What's that rumbling down below? Feels to me like vertigo." V looked at her strangely.
"That is from 'The Wolf And The Seven Little Goats', is it not?" V asked.
"Yes. How about this one? 'Where's my child? Where's my fawn? Two more times, and then I'm gone'?"
"Little Brother and Little Sister."
"Yes."
"You have a partiality to the Brothers Grimm, don't you?"
"Yes."
"Good stories."
"They are. How about...'Your Royal Highness, what is the news? Are you wake? Do you know of the ruse?'."
"The Three Little Men In The Woods."
"You are good."
"I do try."
"Try this one. 'The wind so mild, the heavenly child.'."
"Hansel and Gretel."
"Okay. 'Flounder, flounder, in the sea. Rise on up, swim here to me. My wife whose name is Ilsebill, has sent me here against my will.'."
"The Fisherman and his wife."
"I can think of no book or passage to test you with," She laughed finally.
"I could, but I will not," He chuckled.
"Tease," She laughed.
V smiled underneath his mask. It had been too long since anyone called him a tease. It had been since he was young...before...He noticed her looking at a clock, then to the window, noticing flashes of lights. She turned back to him, touching his mask.
"No more need to hide, V," She said as she removed it, taking the wig with it, "no more need to hide...yet."
V cocked his head.
"What do you mean...'yet'?" He asked.
"Your vendetta has ended, but mine has not yet begun," She answered, trying not to pass out.
V held her head up, looking into her eyes.
"What did they do to you, Lia?" He asked softly.
"Turned me into a freak," She grunted, "I used to be pretty. Had beautiful hair and beautiful eyes...now, I am just a freak."
V appraised her face. Her pale skin, her white hair, her milky white eyes.
"They made me a ghost of a person," She croaked, "a play on stupid superstitions. People afraid of ghosts, they sent me. Nobody thought they would be killed by the ghost of a girl...but they were."
V was outraged by what they had done to her...and he didn't even know the whole of it...yet.
"They made you kill?"
"Yes. Their perfect assassin."
"Why?"
"Because they could. They did it because they could."
V was disgusted that they would make a little girl kill.
"How did you get away from them?"
"You."
"Excuse me?"
"Your excused. (chuckle) When you blew up that tower...after you saved my cousin. They were too busy with that to pay any attention to me."
"So you got away in the confusion..."
"Yep. You are smart."
V laughed at her amusement.