A/N: Please review if you like or have any constructive criticisms.
Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Berseria or its characters, plot, or content.
Rokurou woke up with Velvet's jet black hair falling into his face. "Urgh," he moaned as the pain in his abdomen hit him like a ton of bricks. He looked around. He was on the wood floor of an inn, laying on his back. His kimono was ripped off from the torso up and a bloodied bandage was wrapped around his chest and stomach. Velvet was asleep next to him, with her long black hair loose from her braid. Her bandaged daemon hand rested on his chest. She looked remarkably peaceful despite the gash in her thigh, the bruise on her shoulder, and the scrapes all up and down her body. Rokurou gently brushed her hair behind her ear and smiled at the thought that she was alright.
Velvet began to stir and a moment later her eyes fluttered awake. For a brief second, she smiled and snuggled into Rokurou after seeing it was him. But then her eyes flew open as she realized just in what position she was in. She jumped up and onto her feet. She headed over to the bed and sat on the edge, trying to avoid Rokurou's gaze while acting cool and collected. Rokurou tried to sit up but hissed as his abdomen objected. Suddenly, bashful Velvet was no longer there and the strong, nurturing Velvet had taken her place. "Let me help you," she said as she put his arm around her shoulders and helped him to the bed. He propped himself up on the bed and told her to take care of her leg, which was now scabbed and caked in dried blood.
"Velvet, why did you take care of me before you dealt with your own injuries?" Rokurou asked inquisitively. "Well you were a tad worse for wear," she responded with her back to Rokurou, as she cleaned up her thigh. "Yeah, but you coulda just left me out there. I was ready to die. It was likely that I would die. You didn't need to haul my unconscious ass all the way here. It clearly wore you out or you wouldn't have passed out next to me," Rokurou added.
Velvet threw down the rag she was using to clean her leg and turned to look at Rokurou. Her hands were on her hips, her eyes were narrowed, she was fuming. "That's crap! You know I wouldn't have just let you die out there!", she screamed. "Why?" Rokurou pushed. "Because I need you," Velvet responded. "Why? Because I'm your blade?" Rokurou nudged even more.
Velvet took the bloodied rag and chucked it at Rokurou before closing the gap between them. "Because you're important, you ass," Velvet said while pushing into Rokurou's bare chest. Rokurou mentally noted that she was careful to avoid his bandaged parts.
She turned, about to go back to what she was doing when Rokurou grabbed her hand. "Why am I important, Velvet?" She turned back to Rokurou. His eyes were pleading with her. He needed to hear it. But she wasn't sure she could say it. She turned back away and returned to cleaning her leg, with a new rag this time.
"You're important to me because you give my life meaning", Rokurou said tenderly. Velvet froze with her back still facing Rokurou. "Ya know, all my life I've only ever wanted one thing. I still want to reach that goal, I'm not giving up on it. But since meeting you, I have so much more that I want. I want you and the kid to be safe. I want you to meet your goals, whatever they are. I want to love you and I want to wish for a day that you'll love me", Rokurou said with his eyes locked on Velvet.
Velvet turned around slowly, her eyes watching Rokurou as if he were a predator and she was his prey. "But you left last night", Velvet said, terribly confused by his words after his past actions. Rokurou laughed a nervous laugh. "Well, yeah. I honestly expected you to rip my throat out for teasing you", Rokurou said. "I never imagined an alternative. So when you looked at me like that - so willing - I ran so I could figure out what to do next. I wasn't sure if I should tell you or not. I didn't know how you'd take it knowing I wasn't just teasing you and my motives were not so shallow. I didn't just want you in that moment, I wanted you for every moment. I wasn't sure if what I wanted was okay. But I thought about it and figured, if we can't live life the way we want as daemons, then what's the point to living at all. So I want to give us a try. What do you want?"
Velvet didn't answer right away. In fact she didn't move at all in what felt like forever. She thought about every reason that she should walk away and turn Rokurou down. She wasn't living for herself anymore, she was living for poor dead Laphicet. Her life was on borrowed time, she was living for just long enough to take Artorious down. Being with Rokurou could cloud her judgement, could keep her from making necessary sacrifices, could destract her from her goals. The attachments she had already made with Laphicet and the others were already a burden to her goal. Could she have another?
Suddenly, she flashed back to Rigel kissing her on the cheek and walking away, never to be seen again. Not once in her life, her real life, had she taken a chance. She didn't dare love because she had a duty to her brother. And it made no difference. They both still died. Laphicet died to never come back. She died to return as this. This body was different, as was this mind and heart. She was a shadow of who she used to be. And yet still, she froze at the thought of taking a chance, of putting duty on the backburner for a moment of bliss.
At that thought, Velvet knew what she wanted. Her lips crashed down on Rokurou's, forceful yet tender. She put an arm around Rokurou pulling him close. As her knees grew weak, she climbed up on top of Rokurou, who was still propped up in bed. Rokurou quickly ran his rough hand up her back and neck before entangling his fingers in her hair to push her body closer to his. He parted her soft lips with his eager tongue, deepening their kiss. She ran her hand up his neck and rested it at his jawline. Velvet melted into Rokurou and for a moment it wasn't about her duty or vegence. In that moment, her life was about this - being with Rokurou in this passionate moment.
Rokurou was driven mad by the sudden touch and closeness of Velvet. His head filled with Velvet. Her smell - like lilacs and blood. Her taste - like a sour apple, sweet and tart. Her touch was the best of all. She was softer than he ever could have imagined. And he was right, she was like fire - her hands left a burning trail wherever they touched.
Rokurou never wanted this bliss to end. He wanted more and more of Velvet. But his wounds ached and he knew he wanted to take this slow. He wanted this to last. He gently pushed Velvet away. "I don't think this broken body can handle much more, as much as I'd love to keep going," he gasped. Velvet pulled away to climb off Rokurou but he loosely wrapped his arms around her, keeping her seated on top of him.
"Is this what you want?" Rokurou asked breathlessly. Velvet wrapped her hands on either side of his face and rested her forehead on his. She swiped the hair covering his daemon eye up and out of the way so she could look him in both eyes. "I won't give up on killing Artorious. I will kill him and I might die in the process. I won't apologize for that or change that. But until then, I want you by my side. Can you live with that?"
Rokurou nodded his head slightly. "I can live with that. You know, I might die taking on my brother or helping you take that Artorious bastard down too. Can you live with that?" Rokurou mimicked Velvet's question. Velvet laughed and nodded. "Sure, but you're not allowed to die at the hands off some stupid dire foe. You got that?". Rokurou laughed and agreed.
Velvet reluctantly got off of him and directed him to get dressed. They needed to get back to the task at hand. "If you're up for it, we should go talk to this guy that knows about Curr. The faster we take this bastard out, the faster we can get back to our real goals," Velvet said as she fixed her now terribly undone braid. Rokurou replied with a "Yes, ma'am!", laughing hysterically at the dirty look that got him from Velvet. His chest hurt with each laugh but he couldn't help it - he was just so damn happy. When was the last time he felt like this?, he wondered. He sooon realized the answer was never. Velvet was the first dream he had that ever worked out. He would do anything to protect that.
Velvet and Rokurou headed out of the inn to the rest of Port Zekson, feeling a sense of deja vu as they were only here a few days ago. They arrived at the most bustling part of town. Velvet and Rokurou split up to start asking the townspeople for the whereabouts of Furaad Buck, the man the Dark Turtlez mentioned in his letter.
As Velvet was talking with an old woman about their mysterious informant, Rokurou came up behind her and grabbed her hand. This was not like the times he used to grab her hand, quickly and with a rough pull in whatever direction he wanted to lead her. This was tender and sweet. His hand entwined with hers and pulled her into him. He didn't let go either. He seemed satisfied absentmindedly tracing tiny circles on her palm with his thumb. His touch affected her more than she wanted to admit and she blushed slightly. She turned her head away and took a deep breath to help the embarrassment melt away. She wasn't used to such open signs of affection but she had to admit everything Rokurou was doing made her heart race.
"I found him", he whispered into her ear. His breath on her ear made her shiver. As she looked over, she saw him smiling that easygoing smile. It was only the nervous gesture of his other hand scratching the back of his head that let Velvet know that he too was uneasy but excited about this new way of interacting. Velvet nervously squeezed Rokurou's hand as a sign of approval.
She began to explain to the old woman that she was gonna get going when the old lady began chattering away like an old grandma. "Oh you kids, so young and so in love. I was worried about you, young lady, being dressed like that with all that skin showing. I thought for sure that you'd get into some kind of trouble. But I feel better knowing you have such a fine young man taking care of you. You better keep this one around or another girl will snatch him right up. You kids go off now. Good luck!" The old lady waved after them as Rokurou and Velvet started running off.
Rokurou started laughing hysterically, telling Velvet how lucky she was to have such a fine young man. She went to elbow him in the gut, remembering at the last moment how hurt he was, and deciding instead to give him an icy stare. He smirked, "You know, you better keep a hold of me or else some other woman will scoop me up." Velvet, in her standard ice princess fashion, replied "She can have you." "I think you'd miss me too much," he retorted.
They made their way into one of the storefronts in town and asked for Furaad Buck. The lady at the counter pointed out a scraggly, dirty middle-aged man with dark brown hair, a full beard, and dark eyes. He wore tattered Exorcist clothes. Velvet and Rokurou were on their guard, expecting some malakhim in tow but it seemed like he was all on his own. He guzzled down some booze in a flask as Velvet approached. "You Buck?", she asked with crossed arms. "Well who's askin?", he slurred in response. "My name doesn't matter. But one name matters a lot to me. Octavious Curr. I hear you know him," Velvet responded in a tone cool as ice. "You betcha I do. Tha bastard stripped me of my malak and exiled me. Tis fault I'm like this now", Furaad groaned. "Well then", said Rokurou as he slyly put his arm across Furaad's shoulder. "How would you like to pay him back for such kindness?". "Under one condishun," stumbled Furaad, "let's move this conversating to the tavern." Velvet and Rokurou nodded, leading the drunkard out the door.
In the tavern, Rokurou started buying the tattered Exorcist drinks to get him talking. Much to Rokurou's dismay, the drunk only had eyes for Velvet and would only answer her questions. Anything Rokurou asked just got a grunt in response. After a few drinks. Velvet found out that Furaad was one of Curr's underlings and although he wasnt morally opposed to Curr's dealing, he did expect a kickback. Curr wasn't a fan of sharing the wealth so he had Furaad exiled. Rokurou could tell it was taking all Velvet's will power to listen to him without eating him.
"So, Furaad, how exactly did the whole operation work?", she asked. "Well, ya see, Curr would send us out all 'cross Midgand to find young, pretty brunettes who had lost loved ones to the 'blight. When we found em, we were to bring em to his home in Logress Villa. We brought em there to hear Curr's proposition. 'ose who wanted to take Curr up on his kindness would be kept in the villa a few days before 'ey were kicked out with ratty ripped up clothes and a blue bottle. It was our job to bring 'em to a daemon, tell 'em it was their loved one, and make sure they tried to feed the blight cure to the beast. It always ended with the beaties gobbling 'em up. We had to watch til we knew they wouldn't be back." Furaad was nonchalant about the whole disgusting ordeal. Velvet was seething with rage. Rokurou watched her carefully.
"So what happened to the one's that didn't take him up on his offer?", Velvet asked in a low, grumbling voice. "Well", said Furaad, "depends on how much he liked 'em. Most of the time, he'd let them go but every now and then, he'd find one he really wanted. Those never gots out." Velvet clicked her tongue at this.
"Where's Curr now?", Velvet asked impatiently. "No clue", Furaad said with a flick of his hand. "Haven't seen the bastard since I was exiled." "Well then, you've outlived your worth", Velevet said as she knocked the drunk out by conking him upside the head with a sturdy liquor bottle. "Feel better?", asked Rokurou. "Much", replied Velvet. He got off the bar stool and held out a hand, inviting Velvet to follow. They linked hands and walked back to the inn to wait for word from the Dark Turtlez.