"I read that independence was a lightness in your step; you walked away I felt so heavy at the start of every day."
Johnny Flynn, Shore to Shore
Chapter 14: A Gift
Once in bed, Vincent found that sleep wasn't going to come as soon as he would have liked. In previous nights the sheets had brought his comfort—now they itched and chafed against suddenly sensitive skin. The darkness was too thick all of a sudden, penetrated in a rather sinister manner by the dull red glow of the alarm clock.
He couldn't say Tifa had overstepped any boundaries. She was a friend wishing him a merry Christmas with a chaste kiss. It had been innocent enough; she hadn't set out to embarrass him, or make him feel uncomfortable. But more resonating than that was that he had made no objection. There were no angry words exchanged, and no tears had ensued.
It had been his first meeting with Tifa since she had left for Wutai several months ago with Yuffie, and he had to admit he felt pleased at seeing her back to her old self. She was smiling a lot more, she was animated, and if he allowed himself to notice, her curves had returned, fleshing out her once narrowing frame.
He was only pleased, he kept telling himself, that she was healthy again.
Had she forgotten all about their uneasy relationship in the time she had been away? Part of him wanted to think that.
But overhearing a certain conversation had changed it all.
He'd only been in the next room, rinsing his face in the bathroom. Perhaps they hadn't heard him over the sounds of Cid and Barrett singing awfully harmonised Christmas songs, yet regardless, his mind had gone into overdrive.
His body's immediate reaction had been nausea; perhaps he feared Tifa's reaction, should she discover his overhearing, or maybe it was because even a child had noticed. How someone could tell all that from one day…
Was it that obvious? He ran a hand over his face in the darkness.
He had walked away before she discovered he was listening and returned downstairs. He had pretended that nothing had changed.
Then she had kissed him softly and sweetly on the side of the mouth, and he had let her walk away, quashing an overwhelming impulse to grasp her arm firmly and pull her close, run his fingers through her hair as he kissed her open mouth...
They lay on the floor in front of the fire, his insistent hands hitching up the fabric of her nightshirt, thighs encircling his waist tightly as his mouth tasted flesh... He explored every inch of her, and there was nobody who could disturb them, no-one to take this away…
…he bolted upright in bed, shocked awake by the reality of his dream. How long had he been asleep? The glare of the bedside alarm told him it was 4:30 am- a long sleep by his standards, yet still…. He fell back against his pillows, letting out a long huffed breath as he raked his fingers through his hair.
He often dreamt of her; though rarely like this. When he had first left Kalm, she was the subject of his nightmares. He would wake in cold sweat, her name on his lips in a silent scream.
His eyelids slid shut once more, trying to focus on his breathing to calm his still-racing heart. His mental diversion works, and he found he was drifting off to sleep again. He awoke refreshed an few hours later to the sounds of a waking household. Deciding he would do the tea rounds, he dressed and called a 'Merry Christmas' to everyone on the landing, taking the steps two at a time.
He entered into the living room where Nanaki was sleeping before the dead fire, to find Tifa curled up on the sofa, a blanket draped over her slender frame. He leant over her still form, features relaxed in sleep. The dancing Christmas lights cast a spectrum of shadows across her face, pallid in the gloom. Her fingers loosely clutched at the edges of the blanket.
Tenderly brushing a stray strand of her hair back from her face, he gazed freely upon the face of the woman who had somehow against all odds had somehow wormed her way into his heart.
"Tifa?" Vincent intoned softly, crouched by her side so his face was level with hers.
"Hm?" She stretched a little, though she didn't open her eyes. He felt a tug at one corner of his mouth.
"It's morning. Marlene will be down soon." He warned her, standing again. "You take sugar in your tea don't you?"
And so the hectic Christmas morning began. Everyone had been hastily established in the living room by an excitable Marlene, holding their respective beverage with bleary eyes. Tifa sat next to Vincent with her legs curled up underneath her, the blanket pulled up to her chin, bleary eyes watching Marlene select the first present from beneath the tree with appreciative amusement.
It was nice to see a child so excited by the festivities.
"This one is for you, Daddy!" Marlene passed a scruffily wrapped parcel to her father, who opened it to reveal a metal polishing kit. The tag read;
'To Rusty,
For your arm,
Cid',
Barrett rolled up the wrapping paper and lobbed it at the pilot's head. Cid gave a throaty laugh as he gulped down his cup of tea, deftly catching the paper ball and looking rather pleased with his agility at such an early hour. Cid had been otherwise thoughtful, no doubt from Shera's input, giving Tifa a set of pretty earrings, which she proclaimed to love and proceeded to wear at once.
Marlene was the main subject of gift giving however; Christmas was a time for the children to enjoy themselves; Yuffie certainly seemed to be doing just that, her giddiness on an obvious par with Marlene's. Tifa was laughing; something she had begun to do a lot more. Everyone was glad to see her in such high spirits, apparently having recovered from the shock Cloud's death.
Shera had been observing Tifa and Vincent since they had arrived, reading the signs, studying the tension between them. There was definitely something there still, unchanged from when she had seen them together in Kalm. Only this time, the atmosphere was less oppressive; she could tell Vincent was relieved to find that Tifa's mood was less self-destructive, no longer so dependent on him.
Now only time would reveal whether or not one of them was brave enough to address their attraction, though Shera's money was on Tifa. She had learnt it the hard way that keeping silent only made the old wounds fail to heal. If they both ignored their feelings, well, they were both fools.
Fragile, broken fools.
Shera had outdone herself with dinner, or so everyone had commented. The sheer amount of food consumed resulted in the requirement for a post-dessert stroll, and so they took to the streets of Rocket, bundled up in coats and scarves. Tifa lagged behind the group, her arm entwined in Barrett's, making small talk. Shera, Yuffie and Marlene had gone ahead to the woods before them, Vincent and Nanaki preceding Tifa and Barrett, with Cid bringing up the rear, furiously attempting to light a cigarette.
Barrett's laughter at his expense proved too much for Cid, who then proceeded to launch a snowball at Barrett's broad back. With war on the verge of breaking out, Tifa jogged ahead, linking her arm through Vincent's. The montage of curses from behind them seemed to attract the attention of the other group members, who rushed back to join the fray, faces flushed with cold and glee.
Tifa chuckled to herself, looking back over her shoulder at the flurry of flailing arms and snowballs.
"Boys will be boys." She said, rolling her eyes, sharing a knowing glance with Vincent. His lips quirked into a small smile, visible over the top of the scarf he wore, given and lovingly made by Shera herself. Tifa too sported a new multi-coloured scarf with a matching hat.
"'Children', I think would have been a more adept term." He remarked, ducking out of the way of a stray missile.
They walked ahead for a while leaving the group behind, crunching through the days' fresh snowfall, their footprints snaking behind. Their meandering path brought them to the edge of a large pond, where a few ducks stood awkwardly on the frozen water, feathers plumped up around their necks. Tifa giggled as they slipped and slid across the surface, some eventually falling into the patch of water in the centre which had remained untouched by the frost.
"Tifa... I wanted to wait before giving you this, until I could get you alone." Vincent announced suddenly, his breath forming a mist before his face. She blinked snowflakes form her lashes, peering into his face curiously. He presented her with an envelope, her name written upon it in his neat flourishing handwriting. She furrowed her brow, perplexed, sliding her nail beneath the seal to reveal the folded document within. She glanced up at Vincent's expectant but worried face, before unfolding it carefully. She scanned it quickly, her mouth falling open.
"Vincent... Is this for real?" On the paper was an address for a building in Hartstow town, a small settlement she knew not to be far from Rocket town on the coast. It had her name at the bottom.
It was a deed.
Stapled to the back of it was a photograph of a handsome, picturesque, cliff top building, with peeling paintwork adding to the rather weathered looking exterior. A small bungalow set into the hillside, surrounded by heather, and backed by the skies.
"I was there a month ago, and I saw it was for sale. I know how you loved your old house... I thought you could make it your new start. So I went to auction and... I bought it." Tifa stared at him in disbelief. "You don't like it?"
"Vincent..." She struggled to find words. "It's... the best present I've ever had." She stammered her way through her sentence, staring hard at the paper, as though it would vanish any moment. "You have no idea what this means to me."
She gazed up into his eyes, and smiled, battling with the urge to throw her arms around his reluctant frame and squeeze him breathless.
Laughter sounded behind them, and Vincent shifted nervously. Tifa turned to see Cid and the group approaching them, pink-faced and exhilarated from their battle.
"Whatcha got there, Tif?" Yuffie asked, bounding over to Tifa side. Tifa gave Vincent a swift glance. He had turned a slight shade of pink, gazing hard at the pond. She imagined that he was wishing he could fall down into the hole in the centre, to spare him the ridicule.
"It's Vincent's Christmas present. He's bought me a new house." She said, her voice conveying some of the shock and disbelief that she still felt. Cid swore, taking the paper from Tifa's hands and glancing over it, Shera and Barrett leaning over his shoulders to read it. Barrett slapped Vincent on the back, sending him stumbling slightly.
"Didn' know you had it in ya Vince!" He boomed, his eyes shining, with something like pride.
"Leave him alone, you've embarrassed him enough already," Shera giggled, linking arms with Tifa. "Come on everyone, Ice skating on the lake!"
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RE-EDITED just a little! Thanks for hanging in there guys, and welcome to the new readers! Thank you so much for your kind words and reviews.