So happy with your reviews, thanks a lot! :D

So, here is the moment we have all been waiting for. Vinnie will tell his story to Violet. Enjoy!

Chapter twenty two

The next morning, Violet woke up in Vinnie's bed. She slowly opened her eyes and felt a pounding headache. "Great", she mumbled and looked at her side to see Vinnie was still asleep. No surprise there, the guy could sleep all day. Violet smiled while looking at him. He looked so cute and young when he was asleep. His arrogant attitude nowhere to be found, his face completely relaxed. He snored loudly and rolled on his back. Violet laughed and shook her head. He was far more charming when he was awake, that's for sure.

The past few weeks were already the best weeks of her entire life. She had found out that nothing is boring when Vinnie is around. She loved it how he laughed at danger, how he made fun of everything, how he lived on the edge between obey and disobey. But he could also be very serious when she needed him and he was very protective over her. She loved the save feeling he gave her, his scent, his looks, the way he touches her, the way he looks at her, the way they have sex… They also had talked a lot the past few days. But he still didn't told her what had happened on Earth. Even if he acted like he was fine, he wasn't. Sure, she could see that opening up that day on the battlefield had helped him. That his burden wasn't so heavy anymore. But it was still there. She first had decided to give him a few days, maybe he was gonna tell it by himself. But learn to know Vinnie. He sure talked a lot, but said almost nothing. He was never gonna tell it by himself.

Violet was deep in thoughts when she suddenly realized Vinnie's eyes were open and he was looking at her.
"Hey sweetheart, you okay? You have that frown on your face again," he said with a hoarse voice from the alcohol last night.
Violet smiled. It seemed Vinnie did also a good job in getting to know her too. She decided to be honest.
"Morning cutie. I'm fine, just thinking. I realized you still didn't told me what happened on Earth…", she said with caution, she didn't know how he would react. Maybe a morning with a hangover wasn't the best time to ask.
Vinnie's face darkened. He still didn't want to talk about it. But he knew it wasn't fair to hold it for himself. He had promised that he would tell her. He took a deep breath and looked into Violet's green eyes.
"It's not a pretty story, sweetheart. Sure you want to hear it?"
Violet nodded. "Yeah. It will help me to understand you. I'm here for you and I wanna help you. I can see you are still upset. But I need to know what happened. So I can be a better help to you. Plus, it's not healthy to keep it all inside."
Vinnie sighed, rolled on his back and stared at the ceiling. Violet wrapped her tail around his, to let him know she was there for him and waited patiently.

Vinnie cleared his throat.
"Well, it actually all started when I met Harley years ago. She was a medic and mechanic for the Freedom Fighters. She was a fighter and also very pretty. I liked her from the first moment I laid my eyes on her. Slowly, we began to grow closer to each other. She gave me this when I got hurt pretty bad because of an explosion", he tapped with his fingers on the metal at the right side of his face. "She understood that I was in pain, not physically, but emotionally. My looks are important. They are all I have. Next to great skills of course… But she understood. That made her even more special.." Vinnie smiled a little sad. Violet was not really surprised to hear this. She already had thought that Vinnie was hiding behind his looks and skills. And underneath, a soft and loyal side, maybe even a little insecure.

"The day we had destroyed the tug transformer, we finally came together. Sort off. It was the beginning of something beautiful. But then that traitor took her away from me. I only had left her alone for one minute and there was Mace. He grabbed Harley and poof… They were gone. He probably used some kind of transporter. I've tried to stop him, but I was too late." Vinnie gritted his teeth. He could still hear Mace his voice. 'Something to remember me by, mousies!' That lying piece of sh… Vinnie felt a squeeze in his tail and that brought him back.

"Right. I ehh.. I was devastated. He took away the only girl I ever had loved in my life and of course, I blamed myself. I couldn't protect her. I was too late. We searched for months, but it was no use. She was gone. And I needed to move on with my life, so I was told. So I did, but I always had the feeling that some part of me died that day. Until we crashed on Earth and I met Charley…" Vinnie swallowed and Violet crawled over to him and lay her head on his chest. She never had heard Vinnie talk so open about his feelings. She said nothing, gave him time to find the strength to continue his story. Vinnie could feel his chest tighten again when he said Charley's name. He felt the sudden urge to run away. But deep down, he knew that wasn't gonna solve anything. Plus, Violet had the right to know. To know how he had failed.

"When we crashed at Earth, our spaceship flew into the scoreboard from a football stadion. There was a game going on at the time and we landed with our bikes in the middle of the field. I thought it was a nice welcome reception, but Throttle didn't liked it at all. He didn't want to cause any trouble on a planet we weren't familiar with. We drove through the city, didn't know where to go. Being stuck on a planet you don't know is so not cool. But the place somehow felt familiar. Parts of the city were ruined, just like Mars. But then, on top of it al, Throttle's bike got a busted gyro. We saw a garage and I scooped it out. That's when I saw Charley for the first time. She was fighting with a huge guy who was leaking oil, I know, weird and disgusting. The guy was trying to take the garage away from her. Later on, we found out his name was Greasepit and he worked for a Plutarkian slimeball named Limburger."

While Vinnie was talking, he suddenly realized it gave him some sort of good feeling to tell all this. He never spoke with anyone about his time on Earth and it was somehow… refreshing. All those memories. Good and bad. It was nice to share it with someone. He realized he stopped talking and looked at Violet. She lay with her head on his chest with her face towards him. She smiled. "Take your time, I know it's hard."
Vinnie knew she really understood how he felt. After all, her story wasn't a pretty one either.
"Well, my idea was to impress this human woman with me being the hero and all, who saved her from the bad guy. Unfortunately, I slipped and slammed into a wall. My bro's took care of the rest. It was embarrassing, really." He smiled sheepishly at the memorie, with a little blush on his cheeks.

"Charley never had seen Martian Mice or any alien, so at first she was a little scared of us. But Throttle explained everything and to convince her, he did his mind trick stuff, showed her our story. After that, we became good friends with her. She helped us to find a place to hide, since our ship was toasted. The scoreboard became our hideout. She upgraded our bikes, gave us food, helped with missions against Limburger. She really cared you know? Not only about her own planet, but she cared for Mars and our species. She was always on the front row to help us, even if we had already told her a thousand times it was too dangerous. She never listened though."
"That sounds really familiar. I begin to understand why you liked her so much", Violet said with a smile.

Vinnie chuckled. "Yeah, she really was amazing. Without her, we would have died on that planet. I started to develop feelings for her. It was a little weird at first, because she was a human and I'm obviously not. I tried to push it away, but it was no use. After the devastating loss of Harley, I finally felt that life could become better. I saw the light again, instead of the darkness. We flirted a lot, but always kept our distance. I didn't know if she was feeling the same way, she didn't give it away. But there was no rush. 'I will tell her someday', I always thought. Maybe I thought we had all the time of the world. But when the day was there, it wasn't like I had pictured it at all…" Vinnie felt silent and stared at the ceiling.
Violet could feel that his heart was began to beat faster and his breathing heavier. She lifted up her head. "Listen Vinnie, if it's too much…"
But Vinnie shook his head.
"You have the right to know, sweetheart. And if I don't tell it now, I probably never will."
Violet lay her head back on his chest.

"The day that changed everything, that destroyed another part of me, began like a day as usual. We stopped Limburger and destroyed his tower like we always did. When we were on our way to Charley at the garage, I saw Karbunkle on a roof close to the garage. He was holding a bazooka. Karbunkle was the crazy doctor who worked for Limburger", Vinnie said when he saw the confusing look on Violet's face.

"We saw him and he saw us. He didn't say anything, he only smiled. That was weird, since the guy always had a speech prepared to tell us how good he was and what he had invented this time to destroy us. I could feel that things were getting pretty ugly, but my body froze. Can you imagine? Moi? Yeah. I froze. It all happened so fast. He fired that rocket and blew up the whole garage. And there was me, doing nothing. Dammit, how much I hate myself when I think back at that moment.." Vinnie took a deep breath.

"I think at that moment, I could feel how strong the emotion fear is. I raced to the garage and began to search for Charley. Modo found her. He cried when he saw her. I didn't. I couldn't. I could only stare at her and the same thing repeated over and over in my head. 'You couldn't save her. You were too late. You failed. AGAIN!' I think after that I literally lost my mind. The anger turned into rage, the rage into pure hate. All I could think off was that Limburger had to pay. And he did. I killed him and that stupid doctor. Carbine dragged us back to Mars and gave me the task to train you guys. As some sort of punishment." Vinnie was surprised with himself. He'd never talked so much about his adventures and his feelings. It was very hard, but actually not so bad as he always had thought.

Violet stroked his chest, following the lines of his muscles with her finger.
"Vinnie, I am so sorry. I know how hard it is to lose someone you love. And you lost two important people. And that is devastating. But it wasn't your fault. Although I would probably feel the same way if I were you. I understand you think that you have failed. But you didn't. There was nothing you could have done."

Vinnie gently took her her hand and kissed it.
"The biggest mistake I made was letting Charley become close to me. She was in danger because of me. I dragged her into our war."
Violet shook her head.
"No. Vinnie, she had a choice. There is always a choice. She choose to stay with you guys and was putting her own life at risk. I don't want to sound insensitive, but it's not fair that you to take the whole responsibility for what happened. It was also her own responsibility. It's not that you forced her into your war. She choose for it", she said firmly.

Vinnie narrowed his eyes. His first reaction was to defend Charley, but the words didn't come. He realized that Violet was right. He never had thought about it that way. But she was right.
"Your point is well taken. You know, I vowed to myself and Charley that I would never ever let anyone become close to me again. To be alone for the rest of my life. To avoid I would fail someone again. Then I met you. And it turned out it was very hard to keep my distance. You have Charley's eyes, you know? I immediately felt something when I saw you and looked into your beautiful eyes. But I tried to ignore it. Even tried to push you away, but you wouldn't let me. When the base was attacked, the only thing I could think about was you. It made me realize how much you meant to me and that I was beginning to make the same mistake again. What can I say, I'm a stubborn mouse. But I've lost both Harley and Charley without even telling them how much I loved them. And the thought that was gonna happen again… I couldn't stand it. I didn't want to fail someone again. And thankfully, this time I wasn't too late. And then you overwon your trauma just to save me and I knew. I knew that must be love. I truly believe we belong together. So… now you know..."

Violet felt a warm feeling inside. She now completely understood why he had behaved like had done. Poor Vinnie. His life definitely wasn't a straight road. But thank god, he had came to senses.

"I think I love you, Vincent van Wham", she blurted out. Her eyes grew big when she realized what she just had said. Maybe it was too soon to say this out loud. But Vinnie smiled and held her tightly.
"I think I love you too, Violet Brooks."

Ahhh, so cute! Please review! :)