A/N: Please review if you like! I like hearing your thoughts or criticisms!
Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Berseria, it's characters, content, or plot.
The next day, Rokurou and Velvet made their way through the daemon hoards to meet back up with the Dark Turtlez. He waved excitedly at their arrival but a tenseness around the mouth made it apparent that he wasn't actually that happy to see them. He was happy to be done with them. It didn't bother Velvet much - she hasn't been that good at making nice since becoming a daemon - as long as the Turtlez had the information she wanted.
"Heyyaz! How waz the tripz?", greeted the black-clad Turtlez. "Cut the small talk. Do you have a location?", Velvet cut in with an annoyed eye roll. Rokurou snickered. "Yez, yez, o'courze. Well I'z hope your chatz with the guyz here waz helpful. I'z don't really haz a location az he'z been underground az certain memberz of the Abbey haz been investigatin' him. But I do haz informationz on where he'z gettin' new women. Perhapz you couldz go undercoverz to get takenz to hiz hideout", explained the Turtlez as he nervously scratched the back of his head. He winced when Velvet uncrossed her arms, clearly expecting to be hit.
"I was hoping for more than that", Rokurou grumbled as he rubbed his chin. "Well, I guess we have no choice but to dress you up like bait, Velvet.", he concluded. Velvet scowled, pissed off at the way this was turning out. Rokurou just smiled his carefree smile in response. "It's to save the girls, Velvet. Just imagine - he picks you up and suddenly all those girls stop getting whisked off the streets.", Rokurou said convincingly. She knew he was right and she'd have to do it to protect those girls but she didn't have to like it. She grunted in a way that only Rokurou realized was agreement.
"K, Turtlez, buddy. We'll take whatever info you got. We'll pay handsomely for your services, of course.", Rokurou said. The Dark Turtlez told them that his informant noticed a recent string of missing village girls in Lothringen. There's been a few who were last seen talking to exorcists before they vanished. He was likely to be found hiding out around there. Rokurou paid the Turtlez and they headed to port to hitch a ride across the sea to Lothringen, stopping on the way in Reneed.
Before they could go on to Lothringen, they needed to first dress Velvet up like the village girl she no longer was. But her old garb wouldn't do. She needed to be eye-catching enough to catch the attention of an exorcist but low-key enough to look like a desperate villager with limited resources. Velvet and Rokurou went to a clothing merchant in town to buy their disguise.
Rokurou was all too keen on picking out Velvet's clothing. Everything he picked had a plunging neckline, a silk or lace, and terribly suggestive dress slits. Velvet had no clue why he was so intent on getting her to try those things on considering her normal attire wasn't exactly conservative. She began to ignore Rokurou's suggestions altogether, instead looking at the more commonplace clothing.
As she looked through the piles of clothes, she found a purple dress that was reminiscent of her childhood friend Niko's dress. The dark purple sleeveless sheath dress needed a long sleeve shirt underneath to cover her daemon arm, but it'd work. She found a pair of white fashion gloves to hide her daemon hand and brown boots for her feet. She even found a garter she could use for hiding a knife in her impractical-for-fighting garb. Velvet bought the clothes and they quickly went to the inn for her to change.
When fully dressed, Velvet braided her hair in a long tight braid like she used to. She looked at herself in the mirror and felt a strange sense of loss. This is what she might've looked like by now if her life hadn't gone awry. After a minute of mourning, Velvet reminded herself that she had Rokurou now - she wasn't alone in this world.
She walked outside the room to find Rokurou, who still hadn't seen villager Velvet. She waited with baited breath as he saw her, not sure whether or not she wanted him to like how she looked considering this was not her look. He walked over, smiled, and began fixing a flower in her hair. She nervously waited for him to comment. He leaned down and whispered in her ear, "You're pretty damn cute but I prefer my Velvet." Velvet took a deep breath, relieved. He somehow knew exactly what she wanted to hear even when she didn't.
Velvet and Rokurou left Reneed separately, with Velvet walking the cleared paths and Rokurou following in the shadows. They didn't want to be seen together in town to protect her cover. They also suspected the exorcists may be keeping tabs on women coming into town as half of the women who disappeared were travelling through Lothigren. This meant that Velvet had to maintain her cover on the trails by avoiding or running away from daemons instead of taking them on. By the time she made it to town, she was already annoyed with this cover.
As she made her way through town, she made a point to ask a bunch of people in town about a daemonblight cure. She asked people if the Abbey had a cure, knowing the answer was no. She asked if any herbs or medicines brought people back. After an afternoon of crisscrossing town, she made her way to the tavern for a meal. She didn't need to eat, didn't even like it, but she needed to do it to look human. She acted as if they were always watching because they could be.
After a meal that disintegrated into blood in her mouth, an exorcist sat down across from her at the table. "Can I help you?", Velvet asked meekly. "I hear you're looking for some help with the daemonblight problem.", the exorcist whispered. His face was covered with a mask like all of the other low-ranking exorcists. Velvet couldn't see his face but she could sense the devious smile behind his offer.
"Oh yes! Thank goodness! Do you know something?! Any leads would be greatly appreciated!" Velvet felt that Rokurou was watching somewhere and laughing at her very un-Velvet-like performance. But the important thing was that the exorcist was buying it. He directed her to meet him in the alley out back in a few.
Velvet obediently met the exorcist in the darkly lit alley, all the while questioning what normal woman would do this. This is so obviously sketchy. Nothing good could come of this!, Velvet thought. The exorcist told her to follow him to the man that had all the answers.
She was lead outside of town, to a small house in the Burnack Plateau. There were a squadron's worth of small-fry exorcists outside. Velvet's guide exorcist opened the door for her but did not follow. She walked in to a room lit by fire-light. A black shadow sat in a big cushioned chair. Curr, Velvet spat his name in her head.
Octavious Curr stood and walked towards a motionless Velvet. He was a middle aged, blonde-haired, blue-eyed man with a bit too much of a gut for an exorcist. His crooked teeth made any smile of his look malicious. He wasn't in his exorcist clothes but he did wear a white tunic, as if to portray innocence. Overall, he was untemarkable and unattractive. No wonder he needed to trick women to get laid, Velvet thought.
"I hear you are in search of a fix for the daemonblight. I may have a solution for you, but you see I can't just give it to anybody.", Curr said with a creepy grin on. "Oh please, sir. I need a cure. It's my brother! The daemonblight got to him and if I can't save him, he'll be killed by the others in town. Please, spare him.", Velvet cried, laying it on perhaps a bit too thick. "Well you see, I could part with some of the cure... if I got something in return.", he said eyeing her up and down. He reached for the neckline on her clothes, probably to show him a little more skin.
At that moment, Velvet grabbed the knife hidden at her thigh and thrust it up, through his outstretched arm. He screamed. Blood gushed. "Oh, you'll get something in return alright", Velvet said, in her normal huskier voice.
The exorcists posted outside rushed in at Curr's screams and swears. It was then that Rokurou appeared behind them, slashing the majority down before they could even reach Velvet. She took out a few with her blade, not even bothering to release her daemon hand until Curr was the only one left. She grabbed him with her daemon claw but Rokurou put a hand on her shoulder, asking her to let him do it. "It's my errand. I agreed to do it and I am a man of my word."
Velvet nodded in understanding and walked out of the little house. There was a single scream before the forest plunged back into quiet. Rokurou emerged from the house, cleaning the blood of his swords. As he returned his duel swords to their sheaths, he gently cupped Velvet's face with his calloused hands. "He didn't touch you, did he?" Rokurou's voice sounded harsh and strained. "Of course not. What do you take me for? A defenseless little village girl?", Velvet asked, almost offended. When she saw the relief on his face, she realized that he was worried. But he never tried to hold her back - he just held it in. Velvet didn't know what to say.
After a minute, Rokurou composed himself and the pair returned to the inn in Lothigren. It was too dark to head back at this hour. Velvet walked into the room and flopped on her stomach on the bed, suddenly feeling drained from today's events. Rokurou came over and climbed atop her, whispering in her ear that he'd help her get a little more comfortable.
First, he unbraided her tightly braided hair. He ruffled her now wavy hair before moving onto her back. His hands focused on unbuttoning her dress and opening it up just enough to expose her back while leaving the rest of her covered. It was then that he surprised Velvet as he expertly began massaging her back and shoulders. As his hands explored her back, so did his lips which kissed up and down her back. Everything about him was pushing Velvet's tiredness our of her mind, making another feeling far more prevalent.
She flipped herself over and gently cupped Rokurou's face. She meant to kiss him but she paused, suddenly caught in his eyes. Rokurou's eyes were mesmerizing, and not just because one was a daemon eye. His daemon eye, surrounded in the black swirls on his face, should have been terrifying. It usually was when it glowed with fury in battle. But now, it's red glow was softer. His human eye was a deep amber in color. It held all of his feelings within it. Velvet could see in his eyes how he felt about her.
Velvet realized that she underestimated his feelings for her, without even realizing it. She thought that Rokurou considered her with the same carefree nature that he had for everything else in his life. But she suddenly knew that he was serious about her. He was far more serious than the villager boy, Rigel. He was even more serious about her than Arthur was about Celica - and their love was the strongest Velvet ever saw.
Velvet gasped, suddenly terribly uncertain about her own feelings. She worried they were not as strong. She worried that she was keeping Rokurou from another girl, one who was not so likely to die on him. She worried he couldn't handle her eventual death. She worried more that he couldn't hide his feelings for her - a weakness Artorious would be sure to exploit.
She pushed Rokurou off of her, a little too forcefully, causing him to fall on the floor. He groaned, rubbing his banged head. "You coulda just said 'no', y'know. I would never force you to do something you didn't want to Velvet. I'm not like that guy Curr", Rokurou said, visibly hurt by her forceful rejection. "I know. It's not that!", Velvet tried to assure him.
"Rokurou, how long have you felt this way for me?", Velvet asked sullenly. Rokurou tilted his head, confused by how her tone didn't match her question. "Is this too much for you? We can slow down. Whatever you want to do, Velvet", Rokurou replied, evading her question. "That's not it. Just how long?", she asked. "I don't really know, for sure. We left Titania together as strangers with a shared goal. Sometime shortly after that, you became to me like the sun is to a plant. I oriented myself towards you. Drew my energy from you. Was intricately connected to you. Why?" Rokurou asked with growing worry.
"I want to change back into my real clothes. Can you leave?" Velvet said suddenly. Rokurou sighed and stepped outside the inn door. He sat down next to the door, on the outside. Rokurou began talking through the door. "Velvet, I don't know what suddenly has you so freaked out but I want you to know that if it has to do with us, you don't have to worry. You don't have to know how you feel about me and you don't have to do anything with me. I just want a chance to get you to feel about me as I do for you. If it doesn't work out, that's fine. If you want to call it quits, that's fine. If you think I'm a hindrance and want this to stop, that's fine. But if you're worrying about the future by yourself, that's not fine. C'mon, let me in."
A now red and black clad Velvet opened the door. "Come in." Velvet sat on the bed as Rokurou hovered by the door. "I think you love me more Rokurou.", Velvet said abruptly. "How long have you thought about me like this Velvet?", Rokurou threw the question back at her. "I don't know. A few weeks? You're relentless closeness started driving me mad.", Velvet scowled. "Well, there ya go! I've loved you longer. Just give it time. Give me time.", Rokurou flashed a carefree smile. Velvet rolled her eyes and climbed into bed, patting beside her. "Okay, okay. Let's get some sleep."
Rokurou happily jumped into bed next to Velvet. He fit his body into the curves of hers and held her waist to keep her close. He sighed happily. They fell asleep that way, resting for their return to their group.