Been a long time since an update, I know.

I'm sorry.

I've been through a hell of a lot since then.

Car crash, college applications, grades…it's all so horrifying.

Anyway, here's your reward.

Hiatus

X

Tifa breathed out in the cold and her dark eyes fixed on the shape under the fountain; she pressed her knuckles against the metal of the pipe touching her cheek and stood still.

Valentine was hunched over in a sitting position natural for his experimental posture, the dark hair he possessed flowing softly with his red cowl in a breeze of the night. A full moon swelled above him, outlining features of his face that seemed all the more like a vampire's.

Swallowing, she barely believed that she could have moved from her spot if she'd wanted to. Something in her heart told her that he was not right.

If Vincent had noticed her presence, he did not acknowledge it. Instead he lifted a gloved hand to his shadowed face and gripped his head as though in pain. She thought maybe his shoulders moved under the fabric, but she couldn't tell for certain. Her breath stopped when she heard him murmuring, and she craned her delicate neck to listen.

"Lucrecia…"

From her hiding place she caught him grinding his teeth at no one. Her pulse skipped a step and if the night had been louder she just might have let a tiny, exhaled breath escape.

Was he…

Tifa frowned sadly and took a slight step forward. Too bold? Maybe.

Vincent didn't even want to believe he could be this pathetic; a part of him was a shred away from sobs and another was deftly close to a scream. No matter how many times he buried her, she came back. Not willingly, really, but the voice he had just heard had to be either the last cries of her spirit or his own mind's insanity. His father's words rang in his head like a gale. 'Can't you act like a man?'

"You would want that," he growled into the night. Tifa froze in her place but he failed to notice her. Shaking his head, Vincent cradled his sore head and tried to do the same to his heart. "You never could know how much she meant." He almost laughed but he knew it was not the time. His stone-red eyes broke and he felt like he might bite through his own lip. "Lucrecia!" The last part was strangled.

A fountain of confusion was very evident in her mind but she chose to ignore it. After Vincent had startled her with his words she'd almost thought he was going to whip around and yell at her, but then she knew that wasn't like him. Of course, this was a new side to him as well. Rarely did he show much more than a straight face. Tifa feared that this was the day he might crack.

She could feel the potential fallout before she even took the second set of steps to his side, but she knew that tonight was it: death or rebirth. She set her teeth together and quelled the impending dread in her stomach. Her fists clenched.

"It was never your fault."

He froze. She waited for the reprimand, the anger, the yelling, hell maybe even Chaos. Maybe he'd kill her. Tifa really didn't care at this point, but she did want to know what was wrong with him. "Don't…don't do this to yourself."

For a moment he stayed as though he'd turned to stone, but then it passed and he stood up. Not shedding so much as a sidelong glance at her, Vincent began to stride away. He was so full of shame and utter rage. Grimoire seemed to laugh at his back now as he walked, and Valentine wondered if he would ever be spared the punishment of his existence. Even Tifa's efforts fell on dull ears. His voice was cold and collected when he spoke. "You shouldn't have come here."

Tifa was taken aback. He hadn't even looked at her. A dark fire rose in her chest and her sympathy turned bitter. "Self-ruin isn't the way to an answer, Vincent! Don't you see what you're doing to your mind?"

No answer.

She began to stalk forward to the flowing cape of red, halting only when she was five feet from his back.

"Don't you see? You're making yourself sick." Her voice welled into a near sob. "When you get like that…like some dead martyr…you make me hurt." Her cheeks rosied; Vincent stopped walking, but still said nothing.

Tifa stared at her shoes, almost grimacing.

"I hate that. I hate it more than when Aerith died." Vincent's heart pumped a little and he turned just enough to look at her from the corner of his eye. "Don't you know why, Vincent?"

He wanted to ask why but his lips mouthed air. He knew she was crying.

"Because you're doing the same thing to yourself. You're dying. I can feel it."

She closed her eyes and fought the silent sorrow. He was watching her and his frozen look had returned again. Of course, Vincent and his mask; without it, his natural instinct showed itself, and God forbid he be human. His metal shoes click-clacked as he began walking away again, and Tifa couldn't stand it anymore.

There was no thinking anymore. There was no time. Tifa half knew what she was doing before she ran at him, and maybe she thought she might punch him, but in reality she was far too angry. This anger transcended the base instinct. She didn't want to let him go. That damn red cloak—his sin—felt too good against her cheek.

"What are you—"

He began it as an annoyed statement to drive her away, but she cut him off.

"I don't want to lose someone else important to me."

Tifa felt naked for saying it, but she knew she'd hit a vein of silver. Vincent tensed under her grasp and lowered his head.

For a while it was silent, and then he said,

"I assume you want me to stay, then."

X

A/N: Oh, so horrible! XD

I hate it. –seethes-

But it's necessary to sate you people. XDD

Reviews?