Blood 14:

Dangerous liason

Though he had resisted this temptation for near a week, he could not hold out any longer, finding himself drawn to the dusty old baby grand piano standing sadly in the corner. Running one finger through the dust, tracing the maker's name, he hesitated, playing a C. Despite being dusty, the piano was in good condition, and in tune, which was a bonus for any pianist.

Resigned, Vincent took a seat at the keyboard, "It's been a long time." He said to himself, cracking his knuckles, and wriggling his fingers. Slowly, he began to play. It was a song he had always loved, quiet and almost careful, yet dark. His fingers danced lightly along the ivory keys, the melody remaining steady. His mental sheet music was all that mattered to him while his fingertips connected with the keys. It really had been too long since he had sat at a keyboard.

Eventually, he reached the end of the song and improvised, ending in a spirited if not somewhat impromptu glissando. He sighed, shaking his head as he changed his mental sheet music for something a little more lively. His thoughts were interrupted however, by the sound of light applause. He snapped to attention, looking round to see Lucrecia standing in the doorway, a look of surprise on her face. "Lucrecia." He muttered, not daring to make eye contact with her, more than a little embarrassed and curious as to how much she had heard.

"That…. That was beautiful." She told him, folding her arms and staring at the ground. He looked almost scared sitting there; she couldn't help but feel that it was something to do with her.

"Thank you."

"I didn't startle you, did I?"

"No, not at all."

Hesitantly, she wandered over and took a seat on the stool beside him. They were both silent for some long time, Vincent cursing himself for his shyness, Lucrecia wondering why he was so scared. At last, she looked round at him and said, "Teach me to play something."

Vincent was surprised, "What?"

"Teach me to play something." She repeated herself.

He frowned, "All right. Put your fingers on the keys like this." He laid his fingers on the keys, one to a key for ten keys. She copied him, "This is called the five finger position." He pressed one of the keys lightly, "This is middle C. If you can find middle C you won't ever get lost on a keyboard. Now this is called a glissando." He drew one finger along the keys from top to bottom.

"A glissando, right." She did the same, going from top to bottom back to top.

"Improvisation. That's good." Though he didn't say it, Vincent was enjoying this. Sharing his music was so much better than enjoying it alone. "This," He played the keys one after another at intervals of one, "is called an arpeggio." Lucrecia watched carefully, secretly enjoying this as much as he was, "And this," He began playing that melody once more, "Is the Nightmare's beginning."

Lucrecia listened carefully to the piece, watching Vincent's fingers as they moved over the keys. She tried to memorise each note, but found the speed of a pianist who knew the music so thoroughly was too difficult. Vincent reached the end of the piece, feeling each chord as he played it. "Now you try."

"I don't know if I can, you made it look so easy."

He ran his fingers up and down the keyboard several times, smiling to himself, "That's because I've been doing this since I was five."

"I'll give it a try." She conceded.

"All right, follow my lead." He began to play slowly, showing her each note as he played it. She followed along, flushing red as she messed up a few times. "Don't worry, we all make mistakes now and again, you'll get used to it." he assured her. They practised together in silence, Lucrecia smiling as she got the hang of it. She looked round at Vincent to see that he was deep in concentration, the music suddenly getting louder as he found the pedals and lost himself in the melody. Once they reached the end of the piece, Lucrecia turned to Vincent,

"Can we play this one more time?" He gave no reply, starting over as she requested. Unsure what to say, Lucrecia kept to recent events. "You know," she began, watching her fingers on the keys, "I've never seen anybody move as fast as those kids did."

Vincent frowned at that, hiding a smile. "They weren't prepared to tussle with me, I suppose."

"What did you say to them?"

"Nothing much. Just threatened to bring legal action against them for trespassing on private property." Lucrecia stopped playing at that, looking round at him with a grin,

"You didn't?"

"I did." His seriousness was too much for her, Lucrecia creasing up with laughter at the image of him pointing out clauses to four adolescent boys. 'I trust you know a good lawyer. I represent myself.'

Vincent looked at her, not quite sure what she found so funny, but whatever it was, he liked to hear her laugh. At length, she sat up straight, looking round at him and smiling brightly, "Have you ever had a girlfriend, Vincent?"

She almost creased up again, the size of his eyes tickling her almost stupid. Was he really that horrified she should ask such a thing? "One or two." He answered the question at least. "When I was younger. My work has been my main area of concentration recently. Why do you ask?"

Lucrecia shrugged lightly, playing a glissando. "Just curious." His silence surprised her, drawing her to look round at him once again, "Aren't you going to ask me about my shady past?"

"It's not my place to ask a lady about such things."

"Aren't you the chivalrous gentleman."

"Beg your pardon?"

She shook her head, looking up at the ceiling with a smile, "It's nice to meet someone who respects you." Her chuckle confused Vincent, until she spoke again, leaning forward on the keyboard and looking round at him, her cheek resting in her hand, "I can just imagine you on a white charger."

He shook his head hard at that, sitting back on the stool. "Not me. I don't like horses."

"A chocobo then?"

"They peck me. For some reason the things all take an instant dislike to me."

"Maybe they formed a club?" Her thoughtful tone made him chuckle Lucrecia giving a satisfied laugh of her own, "So you can laugh. I thought you'd forgotten how."

"My laugh is atrocious." He told her, playing a tune, "It's awful."

"I've never heard it, so how can I possibly pass judgement?"

"Pray you never will. My God, it's awful."

"Surely not." She sighed, throwing her arms up to thread her fingers together behind her head. All Vincent had done was make her curious to hear this 'atrocious' laugh of his. Before the experiment was out, she was going to hear it, even if she had to take him by surprise with something even he couldn't resist laughing out loud at. "So, what was your favourite subject at school?"

Vincent checked his watch, surprised to see that it was already four o' clock. Had he really been mooching about all afternoon? "What?" He realised suddenly that she had asked him a question. "Oh, I don't know. Why all the sudden questions?"

"If you hadn't noticed, Vincent Valentine, I'm trying to get to know you better."

"Oh."

"If we're going to be spending so much time together, I want to know a little something about you, that way I'll know the man sitting across the table from me, cramming dry toast in his mouth and scanning the papers like some angry bear every morning. I find that far more appealing than seeing a stranger there."

"It's not dry. I chase it with coffee."

"There, there! That's worse." She got to her feet, throwing her hands up in the air and wandering away a little to prod the dying plant in the corner behind the ballroom doors. "Heart attack juice, that's what coffee is! If there's one thing I know about you Turks, it's that you all have awful lifestyles. You all drink, you all smoke and you all swallow coffee like there's no tomorrow!"

"I don't smoke." Vincent retaliated with a lop-sided frown, "I rarely drink and I spend a lot of time in the Company gym. All in all I don't think a little coffee's going to hurt me in the long run."

"Ah ha!" Lucrecia cried triumphantly, "I know a little bit more about you, you non-smoker, fitness fanatic Turk."

"I would hardly say fitness fanatic."

"But you do drink a lot of coffee."

He shook his head. "No, I don't"

"Then what's that?" She pointed at the mug sitting accusingly on the window seat.

Vincent's frown deepened a little. "It was green tea. Now it's empty." Lucrecia faltered, unsure of whether or not she was actually getting on his nerves. After a minute of silence, Vincent's frown fell away to leave a playful smile. "Now who's winding who up?"

"You terrible, terrible man!" Lucrecia exclaimed, racing over and twisting his wrist in an unannounced game of peanuts. "If you weren't so cute I would slap you so hard!"

"Oh? I'm cute am I?"

"In a puppy dog kind of way."

"Professor Crescent, I can't help but notice you always liken me to canines."

"You're a dog!"

"May I ask, how would you know that?"

She twisted his wrist a little harder, "Forgetting yourself Mister Valentine?" With seemingly no effort, Vincent twisted out of her grip, pleasantly surprised as she lost her balance and fell into his lap.

"What if I am?"

Despite her position, Lucrecia was unfazed, looking up into Vincent's face with a curious expression, her arms linked around his neck. "For someone born and raised in Wutai, you speak very fluently."

"And how many of us do you know?"

A knock at the door forced the two of them to look round. Hojo leant against the frame, rapping his knuckles in his own rhythm against the door. Vincent and Lucrecia were both silent. Hojo cleared his throat, "If this rhythm and blues session is over, I need Lucrecia's help in the laboratory. We need to discuss a few things." Vincent stared blankly back at him, unsure what else to do. Lucrecia slid off his lap to her feet, brushing her lab coat down and starting over to Hojo.

She looked back to see Vincent staring at the floor, no doubt embarrassed at getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar, so to speak. Once she was done in the lab, she would find him and set things straight. It was the least she could do.

Vincent looked up, surprised to see that they had gone, leaving him alone in the dusty ballroom again. He had to do something, and the will to play piano had left him. Another cup of tea.

(NOTE: More Vinny, as promised. Someone can be a little opportunist, can't they? As for the Vincent from Wutai thing, I don't know why, but I always assumed that he did come from Wutai. I quite like the idea, as he and Yuffie always seem to get on when I write them, not in a Yuffentine way, but good friends. I suppose it gives them some common ground, and Yuffie someone to talk to about the war. Vincent's laugh, yes. He is very quiet in the laughter department throughout FFVII, but there is a rare moment aboard the Highwind where he's pondering, and suddenly starts laughing, and I MEAN laughing. If there was a voice to it, I would put it on a par with Hojo's laugh it's that creepy and weird. Vinny really does have an awful laugh. One more thing: Up until now I didn't realise that anonymous reviews were disabled. I've enabled them now, so drop me a review and let me know what you think. Constructive criticism is always welcome!)