Tonight however she was sitting at her single table by the window alone unwinding from another week of prom drama queens and their mothers who think that their little darlings can do no wrong and absolutely must be dressed in singular fashion. As such, she was in no mood to talk to any one or even be reasonably civil other than to order her drinks and Tifa recognized her scowl and after hearing "Prom Season" from the woman said nothing more than to confirm drink orders and carefully watched the woman get completely trashed instead of lightly buzzed.
Dark leather pants hugged her hips and thighs close before flaring out slightly at the calf to allow for boots. The studded close woven belt looked to be made of several different colored leathers tanned thick and sliced thin to allow for a tight weave to hold the studs in place and wear well. Her top was a combination of a loose woven off shoulder cream colored top, held in place by a mahogany colored scaled under-bust corset. The total effect of the outfit was stunning when put together with blue gray eyes that looked more blue than gray tonight due to the smokey effects of her make-up and dark lip stick, while her hair was pulled up from its normal braid into two braids that coiled neatly around her head like a crown.
Tifa felt sorry for all the men that approached the woman and ended up walking away alone tonight. Maiya was in a hell of a mood and while she seemed to be mellowing out some as she started to feel the effects of the alcohol she was drinking, it didn't change the fact that she was flatly turning down every male that approached her, be it for a drink, a dance or more. Turning to her next customer she smiled. "How can I help you?"
"That woman over there, I want to get her a drink." Tifa looked at the man carefully and then over in the direction he was pointing. Sure enough he was pointing at Maiya.
"That's not such a good idea. Buy yourself a drink, it'll be easier on you." Tifa suggested, hoping the man would take her suggestion.
"Why?"
"She ignores the drinks the men buy for her. She's in a hell of a mood tonight. Believe me when I say tonight's not a good night to try and sweet talk her." Tifa was trying to warn him off, save him some trouble. However he seemed to be one of the stubborn ones. She wasn't going to say no to money spent at her bar, she just hoped that he understood what he was getting into.
"She won't ignore me." Tifa looked at him as if to say 'Yeah right', "Get her one of what she's been drinking."
"You want me to tell her who ordered it?" Tifa always asked this, sometimes the guy wanted to tell the lady himself, sometimes they wanted to let the bartender be the ice breaker.
"You can." He put the money on the counter before she even asked for it and with that done she went to make the drink. There was a nice tip to go with it so she was done trying.
Walking over to Maiya she waited till the latest contender fer her attention for sent away with a flat "Go away, you bother me." Before stepping up to the table with the drink. "I didn't order this."
"No, he did." Tifa pointed and watched as the woman sighed and pushed the drink to the far edge of the table and continued with hers.
"Thanks, but no thanks. Oh, I'll be needing another when you come back around." Maiya tilted her glass to emphasize her point and then pointed to her nearly empty glass of water too.
"You bet." Taking the rejected drink she headed back to the bar, picking up drink orders on the way as well as empty glasses and dishes for the kitchen.
As Tifa returned to Maiya with her drinks, dropping off other orders along the way, she noticed that the longer and heavier than usual night of drinking was starting to really hit her older friend. "Maiya, maybe you should slow down a little on the drinks. Start on some coffee maybe?"
The woman looked up her eyes slightly glassed over, but still focusing well as she shook her head. "In a bit Tifa. I've just had the week from hell, I really don't want to remember it despite the fact that I undoubtedly will with the hangover I'll have come morning."
"Well at least you're drinking water with your drinks, so it won't be as bad as some of these yahoos." With a parting smile Tifa left again with the empty glasses and headed back to the bar with several new orders and knew that some at the bar would be waiting for her as well.
It was closing time by the time Maiya left, harassed and irritable. The bar was still in one piece however as the seamstress was not a fighter, and Tifa seemed to know when things were starting to get out of hand in her corner of the bar. However she was barely able to stagger out into the night to walk home and had declined a cab to get home. Tifa was not overly worried until she saw the man who had been watching her all night get up and leave right after. It was at that point her worry went into overdrive. Grabbing her phone she dialed the only number she could think of that would be in town tonight.
At three in the morning most people would ignore their phone ringing. Vincent was not one of those people. If his phone was ringing at three AM then something was happening that needed his attention NOW. Picking up he voiced his attention, "Yes?"
"Thank god you're home. Maiya was in tonight, but she didn't just have a few drinks like normal. She's totally wasted. She's walking home barely able to stagger out my door and some guy just followed her out. He's been watching her all night and I'm not able to follow her cause I'm still closing up the bar."
Vincent listened to the quick run down of what was happening with growing worry, Maiya was no light weight in drinking, and for her to have been drinking till closing time would have indicated an exceptionally bad week. "I'll find her and get her home." Hanging up with nothing more said he shot out the door as fast as possible, taking the fastest routes to the bar and then roof hopping along Maiya's route home hoping that nothing had happened to the woman.
He had just over shot the alley she was in when she screamed in fear of her captor. Letting his momentum bleed out in a sliding stop he ran back to the edge of the building he was on and when he looked down he saw RED. Maiya was now on the ground passed out in drunken haze while the man kneeling over her was preparing to rape her in the cold shadowy alley. Letting his voice boom out he threatened. "I wouldn't do that were I you."
Vincent let an unseen smile grace his face as he noted that the man startled and fell over as his pants around his knees tripped him up. "W-who's there?"
Dropping down into the alley Vincent let his full presence be known. "That was not a smart move you made." His voice back down to it deadly calm tones. He was furious really, but there was nothing he could do save for knocking the man out and turning him over to the authorities with his crimes and making sure that Maiya got home. Decision made he lashed out with his left hand clipping the man across the side of his head with a harsh back fist, knocking him out easily before seeing to it that Maiya was uninjured.
This was fortunately the case. The scaled corset and leather pants she liked to wear on her nights out proved to be too much of a hindrance to the man he just knocked out so she was only drunk and passed out from fear and alcohol. Pulling out his cell phone he called Tifa back letting her know that things were for the moment all right. Tifa asked where he was and offered to take the man into the authorities for him while he got Maiya home. This was agreed on and while he waited he picked his friend up off the cooler ground and wrapped her now shivering body in his cloak close to him, hoping to warm her back up some.
Vincent was starting to get impatient when Tifa finally showed up with one of her bouncers in tow. "I brought him with me in case mister personality here decided to wake up and try something stupid." Nodding to the pair and seeing that they had the situation covered he turned out of the alley and prepared to leave.
"If I am needed for a statement, you know where I will be." Tifa nodded, after a scare like this she knew her sometimes partner, mostly friend wouldn't be anywhere save for inside Maiya's apartment for the rest of the night and into the morning to make sure the woman was ok. If she wasn't, they'd all know about it within short order.
Shortly afterward Vincent was at the shop digging the keys out of Maiya's small purse. entering and locking up behind him he quickly made for the apartment upstairs and settled the woman on the couch until he could figure out just what to do with her. She couldn't stay in her clothes, yet after a night like tonight it would be better if he didn't undress her for bed. Deciding on a midpoint he turned down the bed so that it would be ready and then thanked every deity out there that he had payed attention to how the corsets on her dressmakers dummies were laced up, unlacing her just enough to let her breath some, he turned her back over and started to unhook the clasps that held the thing together in front, being very careful not to jostle her into wakefulness as he figured that would bring on questions at the top of her voice.
Finally he got the corset off of her and took her boots and socks off. Unbuttoning her pants he left them and her loose top on and covered her up to let her sleep through the rest of the night. Fortunately it was the weekend now and she did not have to open shop the next morning so that was one less worry, however the potential for the local authorities arriving in the morning were pretty good so he'd have to stay up and make sure she wasn't disturbed until she woke of her own volition. Closing the door most of the way so he could keep a sharp ear out for any sounds of distress, he went to the kitchen and prepared himself some tea to wait out the night.
Morning came with the sun bright and full in the apartment save for the bedroom where the blinds were well closed. Vincent was still sitting at the kitchen table one leg crossed over the other watching the sun come up and listening for anything that might be wrong in the building. It was mid-morning now and there was still no sign of Maiya waking up in the bedroom and about an hour before Vincent had gotten up and checked on his friend to see that she was ok.
Another hour had passed when Vincent heard knocking on the door to the shop downstairs. Not wanting to disturb Maiya just yet he quickly moved to answer and found a couple of officers from the local precinct at the door. "Vincent Valentine?"
Noting badges and their numbers he nodded and let the men into the shop before moving to stand between them and the stairway to the apartment upstairs. "Can I help you?"
"Miss Lockheart came into the station last night with someone she claims assaulted one of her customers on the way home. From her account the man followed her from the 7th Heaven bar where she called you from and you intercepted him before he could do more than assault her. She informed us of your location and that this is where you would likely be as you would be watching over your friend since she wasn't injured. We just need to take a statement from you and Miss Hattori." The police were watching carefully as Tifa had told the previous shift very specifically that Vincent would be very careful with his friend since she had been attacked and to be anything less than honest with him would have him turning them out the door in short order.
Vincent was also watching the police carefully for truth, lies or absence of either as they told their story. He was satisfied with what he heard and gestured for them to sit in the vacant chairs in the shop before taking one up himself. "I'll give my statement down here to give Maiya a little more time to wake on her own. If she is not up by the time you are done with me I'll go get her for you."
The two officers thought that this sounded plenty fair as the woman had been through a hard night and a traumatic incident, letting her sleep a little longer wasn't going to hurt them any. It took them all of thirty minutes to take Vincent's statement and ask the necessary questions to clarify the points he had thought he had made clear the first time around. By the time they were done, He was slightly irritable with the whole rigamarole and was very ready to be done with it all. But he had Maiya to think of and asking the officers to wait he moved noiselessly up the stairs to get her presentable.
The first thing Maiya saw when she came into the conscious world was Vincent's face within arms reach as he gently shook her shoulder to wake her up. The first thought through her head was 'Dear god make the pain stop.' The first audible sound from here was a groan that indicated that the person uttering it was in no way shape or form ready to rejoin the waking world. Unfortunately any hope of going back to sleep was shattered by Vincent's quiet voice informing her of the situation in her shop.
Nodding slightly to show that she understood what she was being told, if only barely, she managed to stumble out of her bed and into the adjoining bathroom, not caring what state Vincent saw her in, or the fact that he was in her apartment at all, instead only caring that there was a hot shower waiting for her to help her regain any state of coherency needed to deal with the police downstairs.
Vincent left the moment he heard the water start running to inform the officers that she would be down when she was ready, and not before. Then promptly disappeared back up the stairs to make some of the coffee that she seemed to favor in the mornings versus the tea in the afternoons. Deciding that making it a little stronger than what the instructions called for wouldn't go amiss, he started up some toast and hoped that the light breakfast would be something appreciated by the hung over woman before she had to deal with anything even resembling an authority figure.
When Maiya came out of her bedroom dressed for the day and looking much more coherent the first question out of her mouth as she saw Vincent puttering around her kitchen putting the toast on a plate and coffee in a mug for her was. "You stayed with me last night didn't you?"
Vincent looked up at her curiosity in his eyes, "I didn't think you'd mind, especially after what happened." His voice was somehow smoother than usual, taking the sting out of the reminder that something truly horrific could have happened to her had Vincent not been there for her.
"How did you know?" Residual fear warred with curiosity, pain from her hangover, and the desire to glance around to make sure no one else was there with them in her apartment.
"Tifa was looking after you last night. She watched the man follow you and she called me concerned that something would happen. It almost did." The last was as close to condemnation for her irresponsibility as he would come for the moment.
This was enough to shake loose the entire cascade of memories of what happened beyond her drunk induced haze of the night before and the memories scared her white. Vincent noted the drastic change in her color and swiftly guided her to her seat before she collapsed. "Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god." The mantra was repeated a few more times as Vincent became concerned in her sharp increase in respiration and the widening of her eyes that weren't seeing what was in the room.
"Maiya!" The sharply spoken word startled the woman as she had never heard Vincent speak in such sharp tones before and also drew her out of her near hysterics. "Maiya, you are home, and safe. The man that wanted to rape you is in jail and if you work with the police who are downstairs, he will not be allowed to walk freely without supervision for a long time. But first, you need to eat and have something to drink." His more forceful tones backed down into the calming pitch she was more used to. The one that told her that she was absolutely safe and that no one would harm her so long as he was near.
"You will come down with me?" Maiya's eyes darted to the man sitting across the table from her, the only one in the building she trusted at this point in time.
Vincent could see the residual fear there, and the consequences of the scare she'd had. It would take her a while to regain her self confidence again, but it would happen with some effort on her part. Maybe he could ask Tifa to give her some lessons in self defense so that this would be less likely to happen again in the future? In the mean time he watched as his friend finished off her toast and coffee and looking as awake and put together as she was going to get for having an extremely bad night indicated she was ready for the day ahead of her. Together they went downstairs to move her towards the next step of her new future.