Moving On

Guilt’s Cost, Part II

By Kristen Williams

Vincent waited anxiously at the edge of town. Always one to be filled with self-doubt, he was certain that Tifa wouldn’t come back. Surly she had gone home to tell Cloud about his proposal, and they were back at the house having a good laugh over it.

As he continued to wait, he kicked at the dirt and smiled briefly. He was amazed at himself for at least having the fortitude to find Tifa and tell her of his feelings.

"That wasn’t particularly Vincent like of me…" He sighed to himself, somewhat amused.

Hearing someone approaching, he looked back over his shoulder. Tifa was coming, and at once Vincent was relived. When she was close enough, he saw the look on her face. She was ghost white, and shaking. Vincent hoped that he hadn’t made a mistake by trying to take her from Cloud, but he supposed her current composure was to be expected after leaving her long time companion.

Filling with some sympathy for Cloud, he asked, "Is he going to be all right?"

She looked back in the direction of her house and shuddered slightly. Tifa was not going to tell Vincent that Cloud had killed himself. "I think… he is better now than he has been since Aeris died."

Vincent managed to produce a weak smile, and took Tifa’s small hand into his gloved one. They started slowly away from town. Every so often, the ex-Turk would look back over his shoulder, expecting to see Cloud running after them with his sword drawn, but it didn’t happen.

After walking for sometime, Vincent broke the silence. "I know you’re tired, so we can stop at the inn up ahead for the night if you like."

She smiled up at him gratefully. "Yeah, I think that would be a good idea. I’ve kinda had a rough day."

"I’d say so." Vincent reached into a pocket to make sure that he had enough cash on him to do as he had proposed. There was more than enough as he had suspected, and they made their way into the hotel.

He walked up to the registration desk, with Tifa following a few paces behind. Well, she thought, let’s see exactly what Vincent has one his mind here. I hope he had the decency not to expect too much of me tonight…

The innkeeper finally appeared. "May I help you?"

Vincent put his money on the counter. "Yeah, one room, two double beds if you’ve got them."

Tifa was a little shocked when he turned to her, face flushed red. "Unless you’d rather have your own room?"

She shook her head. Two beds or my own room? Oh my God, he’s actually a gentleman? "That’s fine…"

"Good enough", the innkeeper picked up Vincent’s money. "Here’s your key, room twenty three."

Tifa followed Vincent up to their second floor room. Once there, Vincent opened the door and at once put his gloved hand over his nose and mouth. He turned back to face Tifa, a smile hidden behind his hand.

"What?" Tifa cocked her head, confused.

"Nothing, it’s just that I hate the way these places always smell. So…closed up, you know." He allowed his hand to fall back to his side.

She reciprocated his smile. "Oh."

He turned on the lights, and went forward. As he had requested, there were two beds.

Vincent again turned to face Tifa. "Do you mind if I take the one closest to the door?"

She shrugged, in some amount of disbelief that he was not expecting to sleep with her. "Whatever."

Sitting heavily upon the bed he had chosen, Vincent sighed. "It’s late, I think we should just turn in now, so we can get an early start tomorrow."

Tifa made her way to the other bed and sat as well. "Uh, where exactly are we going?"

Vincent flushed, but leaned forward so that his face was hidden under his hair. "Well, I’m not really sure, but I thought that I should go thank someone first."

"Who?" Tifa’s curiosity was getting to her.

"Cid." Vincent flopped onto his back.

Tifa was confused. She knew that there had been no love lost between the pilot and Vincent upon their disbanding. "No offense, but why do you need to thank Cid? I thought you two hated each other."

He laughed. "I wouldn’t say we hated each other, we merely had some, ideological differences. But he is the one who told me where you were."

"Told you where I was? When did you manage to run into him to get that information?" Tifa lay on her side, facing her companion.

"I didn’t exactly run into him… I went to Rocket to find him. I knew that he would be able to tell me where you were." Again, Vincent blushed, but this time there was no hiding it from her.

She was taken aback. At once, the depth of what Vincent felt for her was all too clear. Having Vincent seek out Cid to find her location was akin to any other man promising her the stars. "Really?"

He just lay there silent.

"God Vincent, you faced Cid for me? I am impressed." She smiled.

Vincent seemed to grow uncomfortable. "Well, like I said, it’s late. We really should get to sleep."

Tifa knew that there would be no more talk from Vincent tonight, and decided that it would be best to turn in. She unlaced her boots and slipped them off. She regretted momentarily the fact that she had forgotten to bring along any extra clothes with her. After climbing beneath the sheets, she slipped off her shorts and let them fall to the floor next to the bed. She was never able to sleep with anything more than her underwear and a shirt on.

Vincent rose briefly from his bed and flicked off the lights. Tifa watched in the darkness as he lay back down on his bed fully clothed. The only preparation he made before falling asleep was to remove his gun from his holster, check to see that it was loaded, and laid it down next to his right hand.

In her groggy state, Tifa spoke without thinking. "You’re gonna sleep like that?"

"What?" he mumbled in response.

"You’ve got so much on."

He turned his head to look at her. "Don’t worry about it."

It wasn’t until that moment that Tifa noticed that his crimson eyes had the same faint glow to them that both Cloud and Sephiroth had. "Oh, your eyes…"

He closed them at once, and turned his head away from her. "Please don’t say anything about them."

She sat up, her tiredness melting away. "Why not? They are just like Cloud’s were." She decidedly did not mention Sephiroth.

"They are horrible." Vincent sighed.

Tifa slid from her bed and knelt beside Vincent. "No they are not. Look at me." She placed a hand beneath his chin.

He opened his eyes reluctantly. "Tifa…"

"No Vincent. It’s all right. They aren’t horrible, they are beautiful." She smiled at him.

"You said they are like Cloud’s, you didn’t bother to mention that they are also like Sephiroth's."

Tifa was stunned at his ability to see into her, but she made up for it. "Just because he was evil doesn’t mean that his eyes weren’t beautiful. That’s probably why Cloud’s were so wonderful, after all, he was Sephiroth’s clone."

At once, the memory of the truth behind Sephiroth’s parentage stung Vincent’s heart. He needed to change the subject away from his dead son. "Why do you keep referring to Cloud in the past tense?"

Tifa moved backward to sit on her bed. She buried her face in her hands, and began to cry bitterly.

Vincent immediately felt awkward, not knowing what to do. He moved from his bed to hers, and sat next to her. "It’s all right, Tifa…"

She looked up to him and shook her head. "No, it’s not…"

Vincent was wracked with guilt from having taken her from someone she clearly loved. "I’ve made an awful mistake… I’ll take you back in the morning."

Shaking her head, she replied, "No, I can’t go back."

"Why?" Vincent wanted to put his arm around her, but held back from doing so.

"Cloud is dead." She managed between sobs.

"What?" His mind reeled. "How? We just left your house tonight, and he was fine then."

It was several more minutes before Tifa could talk again. "After I went back to tell him that I was going to leave with you… I found him upstairs, run through with his own sword. I had known that he was depressed for a long time, I just never figured that he would actually do anything like that."

Vincent sat in silent shock for a moment. "Why didn’t you tell me that before? I knew something was wrong when you came back to me."

She shrugged weakly. "I didn’t want to tell you, because I knew in a way that it was…this will sound cold, but…"

"Go on, Tifa, please." He gently urged her.

"That it was the only way for him to be happy." She wiped the tears from her eyes. "He can be with her now."

Vincent remembered when Lucretia had turned away from him to go to Hojo. He knew that the pain Tifa felt now was similar. "I’m sorry, maybe if I had just stayed away this wouldn’t have happened."

Tifa allowed anger to flare in her voice. "Don’t you dare think that, Vincent. He would have done it either way. He had no knowledge of why you had come, and quite frankly, I don’t think he cared. Besides, I would have continued to have lived with him, always miserable in the knowledge that he was unhappy."

At a loss for anything to say, Vincent finally gave in to his wish to touch her. Unfortunately, she sat to his left, and it was his cybernetic arm that he placed around her shoulders.

She looked at him and smiled, noticing that his eyes were now brighter than before, but she did not comment on it, knowing that it would upset him. Tears of mourning for Cloud still made their way down her cheeks, but somehow being in Vincent’s embrace made it all right to cry. Tifa allowed her head to come to a rest against his chest, hearing his heart racing nervously inside.

Vincent tried to temper his shaking, but his anxiety over Tifa being so close was overwhelming. He brought his gloved hand up and placed it on her shoulder, and allowed his cheek to come to rest against her hair. He hadn’t been this close to anyone in seven years, since the day he briefly embraced Tifa before leaving her and the others behind. It was at once both exquisite and terrifying. He doubted that she would let him this close if she had any idea of what his body was like beneath his clothing, or if she truly knew what he had done during his life, including the past seven years.

It wasn’t long before he noticed that Tifa’s sobbing had ceased. He opened his eyes to look down upon her, seeing that she was asleep. As gently as he could manage, he laid her back upon her bed and covered her with the sheets before making his way back to his own bed.

He lay back down, and out of habit, he again picked up his gun and made certain that it was loaded and in working order. As he placed it back down, he sighed at himself. He wondered why he had let his life get this desperately paranoid. Vincent was well aware that there were truly those out to get him, but why this need to sleep with a gun at his side when there was no one who knew where he was right now?

Yet it was the investigative abilities of those who were after him that worried him. He knew how very good they could be, at least, he knew how good they had been, when he had been one of them. Now, they saw him as a traitor and a rival in the complicated world of assassins.

The Turks, who had disbanded seven years past, had reassembled again, under the new and equally corrupt president. Rufus had been horrid in his abuse and misuse of the Turks, and this new president Harwin was much worse. All the former Turks who had refused to rejoin the new service were to be eliminated, and Vincent was one of them, and one of the only ones left. He would never forget the day he happened past a new stand five years ago, and saw the headline that proclaimed Elena had been sentenced to execution as an enemy of the state. Next to that same article was a list of names provided by the government as others ‘wanted for questioning’. At the bottom of that alphabetical list was something that didn’t surprise Vincent; his own name.

Now that list was shorter. Much shorter, and undoubtedly, Mr. Valentine was now wanted for much more than questioning. Whenever funds had begun to run low, Vincent took work in the only field he knew. The Turks certainly hadn’t been thrilled with this lone mercenary taking some of the most lucrative hit contracts away from them.

Yes, Vincent knew that being an assassin wasn’t a well looked upon career, but until recently, he had nothing or no one to lose. Maybe if his heart hadn’t been so polluted with his own pain he would have felt something like guilt, or at the very least, a conscious, but that had not been the case. As it was, those who he had killed were most likely those who deserved it. He did research his targets to some extent, making sure that he could justify their death with more than just his occasional need for cash.

These thoughts haunted him, making sleep difficult. It wasn’t just his life in danger now. He had brought Tifa into it. Vincent closed his eyes and silently admonished himself. How could he do this? Had sleep not overtaken him at that moment, Vincent Valentine may very well have gotten up and quietly left town.

The following morning, Vincent awoke to the sound of running water. He opened his eyes, and could see in the reflection of the closet mirror that someone was moving in the shower. It took him a few seconds to come all the way to the surface of consciousness, and for a while, he remained perfectly still, staring into that mirror, trying to remember exactly where he was.

It wasn’t long before the water stopped, and the door to the shower slid open. Vincent knew that he should close his eyes or turn away as Tifa emerged, but found it impossible to do so. He looked on as she towel dried her hair, and then began to get dressed. His view was somewhat distorted as the steam from the shower began to cloud the mirror.

Given just enough of a look at Tifa to get him aroused, Vincent suddenly became terribly embarrassed and sat up, turning to face the window.

Soon, Tifa stepped out of the bathroom to find Vincent still facing the window and looking somewhat shaken. She immediately went over to the window, curious as to what he was seeing.

"What’s out there?" Tifa asked as she strained her eyes to see out through the morning fog.

Vincent shook himself out of his daze. "Uh, nothing. I just woke from a bad dream, that’s all."

Tifa looked back at him with an expression of remorse. "You have no idea to how many times I’ve heard that said over the past seven years."

He managed a weak smile, Cloud’s suicide still too close. "I’m sorry."

An awkward silence passed, before Vincent managed to come up with an idea. "Why don’t you head on downstairs, and see if there is anything left of their free breakfast. I’ll get ready and be down in a minute."

She nodded. "All right. You want me to get you anything while I’m there?"

He thought for a second. "If they’ve got any of those danish things with the cream cheese…"

Tifa laughed. "You certainly know how to start the day off healthy."

He just looked on as she walked past him and out of the room. With her finally at a safe distance, he striped to take a shower. Vincent allowed his clothes to remain where they had fallen on the floor, but took his gun with him. He set it on the back of the toilet tank within easy reach should he need it.

Relieved to find that not all of the hot water had been used, he allowed it to run warm enough to turn what was left of his pale skin red. He stood there with his eyes closed, forever too ashamed of what had been done to his body to look at it anymore than he had to.

When the water began to run cold, Vincent stepped out and dried. He then picked up his gun and went back out to get his clothes. As he dressed, he made his way over to the window to see what was going on outside.

He was just about to turn away when he noticed the man standing out front. Vincent squinted to make sure that he was seeing what he thought. There below, wrapped in a trench coat was someone who Vincent thought was dead. If it weren’t for the silver streaks in his hair, he would have been certain that it was Tseng.

"Oh God, can it be?" Vincent whispered to himself as he hastily finished buttoning his shirt. "If it is, does it mean they’ve found me?"

Once completely dressed, Vincent flew out the door and down stairs. He ran past where Tifa was sitting in the lobby and through the door. Gasping to catch his breath, he looked both up and down the street. There was no one.

Tifa came up behind Vincent, startling him. "What was that all about?"

He turned to face her. "Did you see anyone this morning? Anyone who looked even slightly familiar?"

She handed him the requested danish wrapped in a napkin. "No, why? Who was it?"

He accepted his pastry. "You wouldn’t believe it if I told you."

"Try me." She cocked her head.

Through his mouthful, he replied. "Tseng."

"Excuse me?"

He swallowed. "Tseng, you remember, right?"

Tifa laughed. "Oh Vincent, you know as well as I do that he’s been dead for several years."

"I’ve found that a lot of people that were supposed to be dead aren’t." He looked up and down the street again, reassuring himself that there was no one out besides them.

Not really sure what he meant by that, Tifa placed a hand on his shoulder. "Well, in any event, do you want some coffee?"

Although totally awake by now, Vincent still needed it. "Yeah, then we’ll go."

They sat in the lobby as Vincent worked on his coffee. It was taking a while as it was too hot to drink quickly, and a burnt tongue was the last thing he needed. The conversation had died, and Tifa was getting anxious.

"So Vincent, even if you did see Tseng, wouldn’t he be getting a little old to be a problem?" She asked casually.

"He’d be fifty seven now." Vincent sighed.

"God, you sure came up with that number awfully fast." She smiled.

Vincent set his coffee down and leaned toward Tifa. "He and I were Turks together, if you will recall."

Tifa was a little taken aback by the flat coldness in his voice. "I…know, but…"

He again leaned back in his seat. "You do know that the Turks got back together?"

She allowed a bit of anger to show through in her tone. Tifa did not appreciate how he was talking down to her. "Of course I knew that. That’s the reason why I said I thought he would be getting a little too old for it. In other words, certainly he’s too old to be a Turk if he is alive."

Vincent narrowed his eyes. "Too old? Tifa, he’s seven years younger than me."

She averted her gaze, knowing now why he had become surly. "Sorry, you may be chronologically older than him, but your body is frozen at the age Hojo toyed… sorry, experimented on you. Even in these past seven years, I have to say, you haven’t changed physically at all."

He knew that what she had said was true, and felt sorry for making her feel bad. "Well, even so, being a Turk is a position you take on for life. Sure, they don’t traditionally send the senior members out into the field so much, but if one of them had say, a particular insight into whoever they were trailing, certainly they would be sent along."

Tifa watched as he subconsciously reached down and touched his gun. She was able to read him well enough to know what was going on. "So, why would they care what you were up to?"

His eyes widened in surprise. "You’re good. As I said, being a Turk is a position you take for life. When they rebanded, they put a bounty out on all the former members who didn’t rejoin. You should remember that I am a member of that esteemed group."

Still able to tell that there were several other details he was leaving out, Tifa let it go. "Oh, I see. Anyway, exactly how do you plan on us getting to Rocket? Certainly you don’t expect us to walk, it would take months."

He smiled after finishing the last of his drink. "Well, that’s how I got here from there."

Tifa leaned toward him, brow furrowed. "Vincent, I am not walking to Rocket. No way."

Vincent got up. "If you insist. How about airship? There is a port not too far."

She brought her hands together, delighted in the thought of flying again.

***

They departed late that afternoon from the nearby port. This commercial passenger airship was definitely more luxurious than the Highwind had been, and they spent the entire day on the observation deck. This was the glass floored bottom deck of the ship, and they could look down at the world passing below them. Vincent wasn’t particularly thrilled about being on this part of the ship as it made him a little dizzy, but Tifa had begged.

This flight would take well into the next day to complete, and after being served their dinner, they watched as the sun disappeared below the horizon before them. Most of the other passengers had retired to their sleeping quarters by now, and Vincent and Tifa found themselves alone.

They sat in the two forward most seats, getting the full view of the outside world. Tifa looked over at Vincent, seeing that he was almost in a trance as he stared forward. The light of the sunset gave his pale skin a certain glow, and she admired his beauty that she had failed to notice so long ago. She reached over and put her hand on his.

Instinctively, Vincent retracted from the touch, and turned toward Tifa. She at once withdrew her hand, a hurt look overtaking her face.

"I’m sorry," Vincent said quietly, "I was daydreaming."

She leaned back in her seat, folding her arms across her chest. "No, it’s fine…"

Vincent’s heart was stung at the thought of upsetting her. "No, I didn’t mean to react like that. It’s just that…"

She gave him a cold stare. "It’s just that what? Vincent, I know you didn’t come and get me just to have a plutonic friend to spend the rest of your life with."

He swallowed hard, having to fight the tears of shame that wanted release. "You’re right, that isn’t what I wanted to get you for."

He looked ahead again, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to go on if he saw her expression. "Umm… this is going to be really hard for me, so please don’t interrupt, okay?"

Tifa’s look of anger instantly evaporated when she saw a tear fall down his cheek. "What is it, Vincent?"

He closed his eyes, allowing memories to return that had been hidden for a long time. "You all knew that Hojo used me for his experiments, and that this cybernetic arm is what I have to bear for it. But, that’s not all he did to me. Oh God, this is going to be hard…"

Tifa dared to reach out and touch his hand, and this time, he grasped it, bringing it up to his chest. Within, Tifa could feel his heart racing. "It’s all right Vincent. You don’t have to tell me anything if you’re not ready."

He smiled, still not looking at her. "No, I need to be honest with you, otherwise, you might resent me for it later. Hojo tortured me in a lot of ways. There are things that he did that I have never even admitted to myself. But there are others signs on my body than this arm."

Tifa watched as he started to unbutton his shirt. Once undone, he took her hand and placed it against his chest.

She didn’t feel what she expected to be there.

It didn’t feel human at all.

Tifa slid from her seat and knelt on the floor before him. She pushed his shirt back over his shoulders, seeing what he been done.

His left arm, all the way to the shoulder was metal, but instead of the rest of his torso being human flesh, it was black and reptilian. A permanent reminder of the scaled demon that dwelt within him.

She allowed her hands to slide across its glossy smooth surface. Except for its warmth, his skin was very snake like, and in a way, beautiful.

Tifa looked up to his face, seeing that he was looking down at her. "Vincent, this isn’t anything to be ashamed of."

A brief smile graced his lips, as a wave of gratitude for her acceptance passed, but it faded. "You haven’t seen all of it yet."

He rose from his seat. "Can we go to our room? I will need more privacy than this for what else I need to show you."

Tifa got up from the floor and took his hand as they made their way to the small sleeping cabin they had reserved.

Upon entering, Vincent had Tifa sit on the bed and he remained standing before her. "All right. Tifa, close your eyes for a minute, okay?"

She gave into his request, and sat with her hands folded. "Okay, they’re closed."

Vincent began to shed his clothing, allowing it to fall to the floor. Once everything was off, he bowed his head. "You can look now."

Slowly, Tifa opened her eyes. She saw his chest again, and scanned down. The reptile skin abruptly stopped at his lower abdomen, and the same brassy metal that made up his left arm started again. He kept his hands folded discretely before him, keeping part of his cybernetic anatomy from view. Further down, his legs were not given the same armored covering as his arm. Their workings of hydraulics, servomotors, and wiring were exposed. They terminated into what didn’t look much different from the armor-clad boots he always wore.

Having been able to hide any negative reaction from his first revelation, Tifa was unable to maintain her composure now. She rose from the bed, tears tracking her cheeks. She threw her arms around Vincent, eliciting a surprised gasp from him.

He reciprocated her embrace, putting his arms around her. Vincent, for the first time in years, let the tears come freely. "Hojo left hardly a thing of my body alone. He made me what I am out of jealousy and insanity. This is why I will never age. I am no longer human."

Tifa put her hands into his raven hair, turning his head so she could look him in the eye. "Vincent, you are human." She wiped one of his tears away onto her finger, and held it before him. "These prove it."

"But, you didn’t see…" Vincent blushed as he took a step back.

Tifa lowered her gaze, seeing what was exposed that he had hidden before. Where she could find beauty in one way or another with his visage, there was nothing humane about what she saw now.

Hojo’s attempt to take away anything normal in Vincent’s life had been complete. The male anatomy was still present, but very little of Vincent’s original flesh was left. Looking as though somehow unfinished, tubing and mechanical workings were exposed.

Vincent’s voice was almost inaudible, "It works, but I can’t imagine…"

Tifa immediately knew what he meant. Any attempt at sex would be horribly painful and injurious. She couldn’t believe the words that escaped her lips. "There are many ways, some of them still possible."

Vincent took another step back, and bent to retrieve his cloak from the floor. He then threw it around his shoulders and turned away from her. "No, I couldn’t. I am too awful for you to want in any physical way."

Her voice was gentle. "Vincent, please, sit."

Obediently, he did as told, and took his seat upon the foot of the bed. He wrapped his cloak tightly around him, hiding himself away again.

Tifa again knelt before him, and took his human hand up. "Vincent, please give me more credit than that! If I couldn’t love you just because your body happens to be different, then I would be one pathetically shallow person. Sex is fine, I’m not going to lie, but just because we couldn’t do things in a conventional manner doesn’t mean we couldn’t do anything at all. I wouldn’t want you for the reason of you having some superior male embodiment. I would want you because you’re Vincent Valentine. I would be lying to you if I said that I didn’t find you attractive just because of what happened to you in your past."

Vincent continued to sit shrouded, shaking from his nerves. "I am a monster on the inside, too. If you knew what I’ve done, you would never want to be near me again."

She tightened the grip on his hand. "Nothing, nothing you did before you came and found me matters."

"Even if I told you I still worked as an assassin after Sephiroth was dead?" More tears came.

"No." Tifa ran a hand through his hair again. "You did what you knew how to do in order to survive. I can’t hold that against you."

"And that before we all split up seven years ago, that I hurt Yuffie?" His shame deepened.

Tifa cocked her head. "What do you mean?"

He sighed; there was nothing more for him to lose. For the sake of his soul, he would confess everything to Tifa. "After we landed near her home, she kept harassing me for my materia. She already had everyone else’s, and she was God damned determined to get mine as well. She told me that she would do anything for it, propositioning me…"

Tifa allowed him a moment before urging him on. "And?"

"She had no idea what I was. When she saw, she tried to back out, but I didn’t let her." Vincent let his head fall forward.

Tifa was silent for a few seconds. It was hard for her to hear this. "But she did proposition you."

"I still had no right to trick her like that. She could hardly speak afterwards, there was so much blood running from her mouth…" Vincent’s guilt was tangible.

Tifa placed her hand beneath his chin, making him face her. "That too, is in the past."

Vincent’s eyes were dulled from his crying. "It is, but who’s to say that I will never do anything like that again? What if I… what if I ever hurt you?"

She smiled faintly. "Somewhere inside, you know that you won’t, otherwise you never would have come back for me in the first place. I trust you, I just wish you could trust yourself."

He blinked through the tears. The reality that Tifa truly could see him in a way that no one else could was sinking in. "You’re not just sparing my feelings?"

"No Vincent." Tifa wiped away the remainder of his tears. "I knew there was more to you than you let on, even seven years ago. Remember the time after you and Cid had that fight, and I helped fix you up?"

He closed his eyes as she traced the faint scar at his hairline from the laceration he had sustained then. "Yes."

"You opened up to me just a little then." She got up and sat next to him. "I felt so privileged that night. I knew it was really hard for you to allow anyone to help you, and the fact that you let me was wonderful."

"It was hard, but I could feel your sincerity that night. No one had talked to me like that in so long. It felt good that someone wanted to actually be around me, not out of duty, but out of friendship. That was something I hadn’t had even before Hojo got hold of me." For the first time in several hours, Vincent produced a genuine smile.

"I never forgot that night. Even afterward, when you went back to being the same old Vincent, I still could see that side of you." She again placed her hand beneath his chin.

He closed his eyes as she pulled him forward, allowing their lips to meet. Vincent gave into it, placing his arms around her, letting his mouth linger on hers. His cloak fell from his shoulders, and he soon felt Tifa’s hand upon his chest. Vincent reached backward, finding the light switch, casting them into darkness.

Tifa allowed her hand to slowly slide downward. Vincent was by now aroused, and flinched away as she got too close.

She pulled him close again, and whispered in his ear, "It’s all right, Vincent."

Relaxing as best he could, he felt her hand again moving toward him.

Tifa grasped him gently; allowing him to grow accustomed to the sensation of her touch. She sighed when he kissed her again, silently letting her know that he was giving into her. Not knowing what exactly he could feel with his altered anatomy, she was delicate with her touch. Having been aggressive at all would have meant a painful consequence for her fingers.

Not used to such contact, it wasn’t long before Vincent felt control slipping away. He held his breath, forcing himself to remain silent. The only thing that Tifa heard at that moment was the sound of his cybernetic claw tearing into the comforter they were sitting on.

A few moments later, Vincent began to breathe again, panting quietly. For the first time in as long as he could remember, Vincent was filled with an inner peace. He smiled at Tifa in the darkness.

There was only one thing left for him to do now.

Something he never thought he would say again.

He kissed Tifa once more, and then pulled away. "Tifa?"

She rested her head against his shoulder. "Yes Vincent?"

"I love you." A tear again ran from his eye, but not one of sadness.

Tifa closed her eyes. I still love Cloud, I care for you very much, but I still love Cloud. I know that once the pain of his death leaves me, I will love you too, but just as you needed these seven years to get over Lucretia, I’m going to need some time, too. It won’t be long though, really Cloud left me the day he met Aeris. I will love you, Vincent. At the very least, you are the most important person in the world to me. All the things that Cloud would never let me give him, I will give to you. I promise.

Vincent could almost hear her thoughts, and held her tightly. "I know I shouldn’t have said that, and honestly, I never thought I would. But it is the truth, and if you can’t say it now, that’s fine. If you are never able to say it, I will understand. But I want you in my life, Tifa. Now that you are here, and know all that there is to know, I will never be able to let you go. I lost Lucretia because I didn’t let her know my feelings early enough, and I wasn’t going to make that same mistake with you."

She kissed him. "Thank you Vincent. I will be here with you always. You will not lose me; I care too deeply for you. It is somewhat of a shock though, that after all this time, you would still think of me. It’s odd for me that a man would care that much. Cloud could have cared less whether I had gone with him or not. This feels so good right now. Even though Cloud is dead, I feel somehow, relieved."

She moved from the bed and went into the small bathroom of their quarters. Once she was gone, Vincent turned the lights on, seeing that the comforter needed to be cast aside. There was still a heavy blanket on the small bed, more than enough to keep comfortable.

When Tifa emerged, Vincent looked over, seeing that she had shed all of her clothing for the night. His jaw dropped, and he turned away. "Uh…"

She made her way to him, turning the lights back off. Tifa sat next to him. "It’s only fair that you see me, too."

To his surprise, he produced a small giggle. "Okay."

Tifa climbed into the bed and wrapped herself in the blanket. Vincent continued sitting not really certain what he was supposed to do.

Sensing his unrest, Tifa patted the pillow next to her. "Come on, lay down. You can’t sleep sitting there."

"You don’t want me to sleep on the floor?" Vincent regained his shyness.

"Vincent Valentine! I think we are past that, okay?" There was a false sternness to her voice. "You get over here and lay down!"

Slowly, he did as instructed. Soon, Tifa came up beside him, placing an arm around his waist. There was still an air of tension coming from him. "What is it?"

He spoke quietly, "Shouldn’t I do something?"

She laughed, holding him tighter. "No, I’m fine. Just sleep."