it's not me you see / pieces of valentine

[notwhatiwas]

Characters: Vincent Valentine [notwhatiwas] and Veld Dragoon [consummateturk]
Location: Veld's Room [Deck 05, 8204]
Date: July 23rd, midday to afternoon.
Rating: PG-13

Comments

[notwhatiwas]

It took a ridiculously long time for Vincent to get back to Veld's room from Lucrecia's, and when he did he just stood there for several long minutes. He looked to his right, at the door to his own room--he hadn't been living out of it for weeks, not since Lucrecia showed up--and thought about going there instead. Veld couldn't possibly want to put up with him anymore, and it wasn't fair to Vincent to keep doing this to him

[consummateturk]

Veld had taken to reading while Vincent was away. He figured the other man was in some sort of deep, loving, and otherwise deeply romantic conversation. When he'd been researching Vincent's affair with the doctor, Veld had assumed that it was some brief fling. Something similar to what he had had with Felicia's mother before finding her with child.

Obviously he'd been entirely wrong. So when Veld opened his door to a distraught Vincent, he could only assume she'd rejected him again. He opened his mouth to snipe something at his old partner and couldn't. The look on Vincent's face was far too tired, worn and devastated.

The ache in the heart when you realize that the person who you love more than anything in the world doesn't feel the same way you do was a horrible feeling. It was akin to being crushed under something you couldn't push away or push aside. Despite the way that Vincent made everything in his gut twist, Veld couldn't push him out of the way.

"Are you alright?" Was all he could say.

[notwhatiwas]

Vincent just leaned forward, much the same way he had when Veld pulled him out of the bath after facing down Chaos, and leaned his head on Veld's shoulder, fitting his forehead to the curve where it met his neck.

Otherwise, he didn't touch him. He took a breath, and it came in with a shudder, a choke.

"Why am I such an idiot?"

He hadn't intended to phrase it so bluntly, but couldn't think of any other way to get the words out.

[consummateturk]

Speaking of that feeling.

Veld pulled back and ushered Vincent back into the room. On one hand, it was best that this happened now, while he was human and had a chance to process things. It didn't make the whole mess easy to watch. "You're not, Vince."

When Veld spoke it was heavy and he looked more to the corner than at Vincent. "You fell in love. It happens and you can't control it anymore than you can bring down stars. It's not something that one sets out to do." Maybe he was talking to himself as much as he was talking to Vincent.

[notwhatiwas]

"Not what I was talking about." That wasn't entirely true, the question had been fairly open, tied back into a thousand different things, hundreds upon hundreds of missteps in his unnaturally long life, but the way Veld answered made him realize that he'd had one specific instance in mind.

He sunk down to sit on Veld's bed, raking a hand back through his hair and leaving it there, halfway tangled in the mess of thick black. "I should have believed you," Vincent said quietly, slowly opening his eyes. "I shouldn't have had to go..." He took another of those trained breaths of his and raised his head, expression a mask of pain. "Minerva, Veld, how long have you known?"

[consummateturk]

Veld didn't sit on the bed, instead he pulled his desk chair over and sat across from Vincent. He leaned forward and sighed. "About what happened to you? A while." He stopped and counted back the years. "In my time, I'd known for approximately four years." He shifted in his seat, wondering if he should go on and explain why he hadn't located Vincent.

He couldn't think of a way to word himself. How could he say 'I didn't think you'd care to see me' without sounding petulant? Vincent was a hero in Veld's time, albeit a reluctant one. Veld was just a quiet professor trying to patch things up with his daughter.

[notwhatiwas]

Longer than Vincent had even been out of his coffin by his timeframe. Significantly longer than he'd initially though he'd been out, considering how he lost track of time in the two years between Meteorfall and the incident with the Remnants.

But if Veld had known for that long...

"Did anyone ever tell me? In your time. Or do I still--" He sighed again, holding his left hand to his face, rubbing his temples with his thumb and middle finger. "I guess you wouldn't know, would you? You didn't...when you arrived, you didn't behave as though we were on speaking terms."

[consummateturk]

"Just... listen for a moment. What I'm going to say is going to sound insane." Not that being on this boat was sane in any stretch of the imagination. But Vincent wanted to know how he found out and it wasn't an easy process.

"A... great deal happened since Meteor Fall, Vincent. You... Lucrecia showed you the truth when Omega and Chaos had that fight the legends talk of." He let out a laugh. "You end up free of Chaos. The world looks like it will stop trying to blow itself and everything on it up."

He took a breath. "I was very ill for two years, during and after Meteor Fall...as was my daughter. Her recovery was slow."

[notwhatiwas]

Vincent wanted to ask what legends Veld was talking about--Grimoire didn't find the scripture it translated from until well after Vincent was out of the house and with Administrative Research, and thus never heard the story--but what he said after made the younger man freeze.

His eyes widened. "Free of..." That wasn't possible. It couldn't be. "Chaos is gone? He--it's gone in your time

[consummateturk]

Veld wasn't expecting to get into his life story at anytime in the near future. He didn't need to rehash his old life and his old wounds. Elfe had forgiven him, and if he was on the way to hell, he could go comfortably with that.

He shook his head and looked Vincent squarely in the face. "No, Vince. It isn't you. It's a WEAPON, like Ruby, like Emerald. There were Chaos and Omega. It started with Zirconiade and my daughter and ended with you and Chaos. But you are no more chaos than Elfe is Zirconiade."

Was this all he was wanting to hear? That he wouldn't forever be a danger to Lucrecia?

[notwhatiwas]

Vincent was just quiet and still for a long, long minute, eyes locked with Veld's, searching for some uncertainty, some hint that maybe he wasn't completely right, maybe there was something he was missing and didn't want to admit. There was nothing. Just Veld's clear brown eyes and solid expression, without a hint of trepidation or dishonesty, no omission whatsoever.

Vincent let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.

And then he smiled.

It was a weak, broken thing, obviously awkward from disuse, but a smile all the same. And in spite of the pain, through the spike that learning Lucrecia's hand in things had driven into his heart, it stayed.

He looked away then, raked a hand back through his hair once more, and his entire body seemed to relax, settling down from some force rigidity into something just slightly more comfortable.

"So if Chaos is gone," he paused for a beat, choosing his words carefully, "why didn't you ever talk to me again?"

[consummateturk]

"Chaos was never the reason I didn't speak with you, Vince." Veld could have easily pointed out that even after he'd shown up, Vincent had also kept his distance.

"The first two years I wasn't physically capable of doing so. After that... I could easily say that I was busy with Elfe. But that's not entirely the case. You were busy and I didn't want to bother you."

That was mostly the truth. "Further, your little friends weren't too fond of Turks to begin with, it could have been a hassle." Though since Elfe was now in Edge working, Veld was going to have to speak to the other man sooner or later. "Though I expect I will be unable to avoid you in the near future."

[notwhatiwas]

"Or you wouldn't, if you were to make it home."

He wondered if Veld had heard the story yet that their planets had all been destroyed. He'd only heard it passing, random mention here and there, as if it was common knowledge. He didn't believe a word, and didn't suppose Veld would either, and so held his tongue.

Vincent closed his eyes and thought back through the conversation. Questions. Zirconiade rang a bell, something related to Avalanche, stories he'd heard simply from his affiliation with the group. How it connected to Veld's daughter--Veld's daughter, the thought reminded him yet again of how much time and how many possibilities he'd lost while he was having nightmares in his coffin--was an unknown, although it wasn't entirely difficult to put the pieces together

[consummateturk]

“I don't believe anything without the proper substantiating evidence.” That much was the truth. Veld had heard all of the rumors but they were just that to him. Veld was of the opinion that they were all dead anyway and the states that they had arrived on the boat were more a testament to their varied states of mind at the time of their death and less to do with their world blowing up. Vincent hadn't asked about that, however. He'd asked about Zirconiade and Felicia. Veld bit back the urge to gloss over all of the details. But if he was dead, this was probably his chance to make peace with his old partner

[notwhatiwas]

Vincent just listened, that clutching in his chest tightening for Veld's sake at several points, but never too tightly for him to hold his tongue. Elfé...he knew the name, she'd headed up Avalanche before Barret, before Cloud. He had no idea she was Veld's daughter.

It was a type of connection he hadn't expected, and couldn't quite wrap his head around.

He did remember the night that Veld found him, clearly as he remembered anything from his days in the coffin. He remembered opening his eyes and looking up out of that horrible stone box, recognition instantaneous for them both even after so many years.

Too late, his mind had hissed. Not real. Nightmare. Too late. It took some time even after Cloud had found him for him to realize it had even actually happened, that it wasn't one of the sleeping delusions wrought to make sure he would never forget everything he'd done, everything he'd lost.

"I remember when you found me. I..."

"There's so much I want to ask you...but it appears it will have to wait.""I wasn't entirely sure

[consummateturk]

Certainly Veld hadn't expected an apology. He sighed at Vincent's. "I should have sent someone back, but I didn't want to get the others involved once they'd left."

Veld knew that they would have. Any of them would have. Veld maintained and traded in favors on many levels and it was part of the reason he'd been alive so long. He took care of his people and rarely asked for anything in return. It ensured that they knew he wasn't going to send them off on idiot missions.

"You don't have anything to apologize for, Vince. It wasn't like you were able to stop it."