Author's Note: For anyone who is still reading. This will be finished. I promise. Please r eview :)

Chapter Sixteen

Claire stood in silence for few minutes, then looked behind her. Walking along t he stone path was Leon and Rufus. Neith e r appeared hurt, and as they drew clo s er , she could hear them chatting abou t gir ls. How they hadn't seen her yet w as bey ond her comprehension.

So she eavesdropped like a good and inte rested Claire.

"Ada is quite a woman," Leon was saying. "But I'm not sure how I feel about Clai re. I mean, she's not as stunningly beau tiful, but she is pretty. And she has a good heart. Whereas with Ada, I just don 't know. I think there's good in her, bu t it's not always clear."

"I know what you mean," Rufus said. "But , having not met this Ada, I would submi t that Claire is a better person. Unfort unately for you, she is one of my Turks. "

"What?" Leon said. "You have a no dating policy or something?"

Rufus snorted. "My Turks may date if they want, but I wouldn't allow a wis hy-washy individual such as yourself nea r her."

"Wishy-washy?"

Rufus stopped walking, and poked Leon in the chest. "A Turk is an elite soldier. Soldiers do not perform well when incon siderate individuals are playing with th eir hearts. They perform much better whe n engaged in a never-ending stream of ca sual relationships or when they have a s ingle flame burning in their hearts ."

"So you're saying I can't date Claire be cause I might be in love with Ada?"

Rufus nodded sharply. "Exactly."

Claire was about to pop up and tell them that she was there. Frankly she decided she didn't want to hear them talking ab out her anymore. But before she could sa y anything, two more individuals appeare d from a doorway on the other side of th e passage: Vincent and Cloud.

Cloud was breathing heavy, and Vincent l ooked as if they had just battled a flee t of dragons. The edges of his cloak wer e blackened and smoking. "Look," he said , voice soft. "It's Rufus Shinra."

Cloud raised his hand. "Rufus, where's t he rest of the Turks?" He eyed Leon spec ulatively from a distance. The man looke d suspiciously like the thief of his sub marine.

Rufus blinked. "Cloud, what an interesti ng surprise."

"Interesting is one way of putting it," Cloud answered.

Both groups were walking toward the midd le, where the pool of green water swirle d. Claire forgot about their conversatio n. She was captivated by Vincent all ove r again. After spending some time with h im, and the need to stare at him had pas sed. But now that they had been apart fo r almost 48 hours, she was lost again.

His face wasn't the cool mask of indiffe rence she expected. Instead he seemed de sperate. His eyes skimmed the area, movi ng sightlessly over where Claire was. An d the muscles in his cheek were bunched, as if he were trying desperately to not move his jaw.

Then they were less than four feet away, and Cloud's body broke her contact with Vincent. And she could hear them talkin g.

Cloud was saying something about looking for Claire.

"She went to get Tseng," Rufus said. "I gave Tseng orders to retrieve her, so th at she could bring him and the others he re. Then Kennedy and I set out to find – "

Before he could say anything, Claire spr ang from her crouched position to a stan ding one. "Sir, Tseng ordered me to prot ect you," she said. "I can't believe you ditched me."

For a second no one spoke. Then Leon was reaching for her, and Vincent was too. And both of them made to pull her in dif ferent directions. And Leon's hand was w arm on her bare arm and Vincent's gloves were cool. And both of them were saying her name, and Claire decided that Rufus was right about one thing. It was awful ly hard to be a solider when one's heart was doing cartwheels and backflips.

She tugged loose from both of them. "Sir ," she said to Rufus. "I'm supposed to b e your bodyguard."

Rufus blinked. "Is that what Tseng order ed you?"

"Yes."

Rufus shook his head. "I am not quite so helpless as he imagines."

"Nevertheless, I'm sticking to you like glue," she said. Then she turned her eye s to Leon. "By the way, thanks for ditc hing me."

Leon frowned. "It wasn't my idea, but Ru fus assured me you weren't coming back a nd I didn't want to waste time."

"Sure," Claire said.

"I don't think you're in a position to b e upset about getting ditched," Cloud s aid. "You ditched Vincent."

"She didn't," Vincent said. "She –"

"Sorry," Claire said. "I did ditch you, but only because I HAVE to do something about Umbrella and I knew they had a hid ey hole leading into their based around here somewhere."

Vincent looked pained, and it made Clair e's heart hurt. She reached out, catchin g his gloved hand and squeezing lightly. "But now that we're all here, we can te am up and get Hojo the comeuppance he so richly deserves."

Cloud looked as if he wanted to protest, but everyone else was already agreeing. "We just came from that way," Leon said , "and there's nothing but a maze."

"Same that way," Vincent said.

"So we walk toward the smelliest area," Claire said. "That's where Umbrella will be."

Claire was true to her word. She stuck t o Rufus like glue - mostly because it wa s easier than trying to figure out what to do with Leon-who-likes-Ada and Vincen t-who-likes-Lucretcia. And Cloud was on her like glue; apparently he was super-c oncerned that Hojo was going to pop out of the ground and capture her. He refuse d to say why that was such a bad thing, although Claire suspected he had some r eason.

That left Vincent and Leon to take point . There point-position was out of earsh ot of the others, and for a while, neith er spoke. Then Vincent idly mentioned th at Claire was the prettiest girl he'd ev er met.

"Just pretty?" Leon asked, forgetting th at that was how he'd described her as we ll.

"I've met gorgeous women before. Exquisi te women. Sexy women," Vincent said. "Cl aire is not on the same level as them. "

"Yeah, well," Leon said. "She's better t han those women." He shot a Touch Me, an d holstered his gun. "Claire is –"

"Amazing," Vincent said. He glanced over his shoulder, seeing her smiling at Ruf us. He felt a twinge of jealousy.

Leon followed his gaze, and interpreted the look. "She's not interested in him."

Vincent glanced over, red eyes locking w ith Leon's pure blue eyes. "How can you tell?"

"Because . . . I've seen her I-want-you look before."

Vincent kept his voice and his face expr essionless. "So have I."

Leon frowned. "She's directed it at me."

"And me."

Both men stepped away from each other, d rawing their guns and simultaneously sho oting a couple of Touch Me's.

"Claire isn't interested in you," Leon s aid. "She's enthralled. More like a moth to a flame than a woman to her paramour ."

"No," Vincent said. "She is mine."

"She's not a piece of meat for you to ow n," Leon retorted. "She's a woman –"

"And I love her," Vincent said. "And I'm not going to lose her to a boy like you ." He leapt into the air, shooting a fla ming dragon in the forehead and killing it with a single shot. He landed, cloak falling around him.

"I'm not boy," Leon said, shooting his o wn flaming dragon. He took it out with t hree surgical shots.

Vincent looked dismissively at him. "I k now the difference between a man and a b oy, and you are a boy." He pulled out a longer barrel for his Cerberus and casua lly attached it before clipping on a sni per scope. He crouched down, taking care ful aim at a distant enemy and dropping it with a single headshot.

"That's where you're wrong – "

"Oh, I'm not wrong," Vincent said. "I wa s a boy once. I remember what it was lik e. You think you know everything, but wh en it comes down to it, you don't know a nything." He dissembled the sniper packa ge. "Tell me, do you even love Claire?"

Leon bit back an instant reply, choosing instead to mull the matter over in his mind. "I'm going to marry her," he said finally. "I want to spend the rest of my life with her. Ada . . . is more a temp tation that I can resist. I love Claire . " He meant it. Every word, and as he s aid them, he knew that he wouldn't have any more lingering doubts about Claire R edfield and Ada Wong. Claire was his mat ch . He could feel it.

"Wrong answer," Vincent said. "You love her now, but you don't love her."

"What's the difference?"

"Simple. I love her more."

Leon shook his head. "That's what you th ink."

"Let me ask you something," Vincent said . "If she picked . . . Rufus . . . over you – and truly loved him – would you l et her go?"

"Yes."

"I wouldn't be able to," Vincent said so ftly. "I need her like I need air."

"So you'd force her to love you instead of Rufus?" Leon asked. "That sounds like obsession, not love."

"It's not that," Vincent said. "I know s he cares for me, and I . . ."

"What?"

"I did that before. Let her go." He came to the edge of a platform, and saw the first hints of a modern design. "It didn 't turn out well."

"The guy was a douchebag?" Leon asked. " Or she wasn't happy."

"Both."

"Claire has better taste than that," Leo n said. "And just because I'd let her g o doesn't mean that I would stop loving her."

Vincent glanced at him. "You don't love her, Kennedy. You just think you do."

Leon opened his mouth, a retort hot on h is lips.

"You'll love her until something better comes along."

Before Leon could reply, the others were within range. "Looks like we found the place," Cloud said. He glanced at Leon a nd Vincent. "We have to protect Claire i n there. Hojo can't so much as touch her ."

"I know," Vincent said.

"Claire can handle herself," Leon said.

And Claire, in that instant, felt the fi rst wiggle of worry. Because she both lo ved that Vincent was going to protect he r and hated the fact that he didn't thin k she could handle herself. And she love d that Leon was confident that she could handle herself, but she hated that he h adn't instantly sworn to be her white kn ight.

"Hey, Cloud," she said, voice irritated. "Rufus is the one who needs to be prote cted, and I'm the one who's going to be doing the protecting. So get over it."

Cloud shook his head. "This is a disaste r."