Take it easy, old man [OPEN]
Who: Veld and whoever wants to bother him in the hospital
When: after this and a plane ride to Junon
Location: Hospital in Junon
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Veld's been ordered to rest. At least a week is what the doctor's say. He may allow them to keep him three days. Maybe. If you come in, he could even be asleep. Rare, this.
( It was your heart on the line )
When: after this and a plane ride to Junon
Location: Hospital in Junon
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Veld's been ordered to rest. At least a week is what the doctor's say. He may allow them to keep him three days. Maybe. If you come in, he could even be asleep. Rare, this.
( It was your heart on the line )
He paused just to one side of the doorway, back to the wall, closed his eyes and stopped breathing. Vincent felt his heart slow and quiet, and his ears strained for the sound of Veld's breathing, his heartbeat, measured and timed carefully in his head. Definitely asleep. Veld never breathed that deeply when he was awake, and the subtle flaw in his heartbeat was considerably calmer than would have been possible were he awake to think about everything that was going on these days.
Vincent let out a low sigh and then moved on silent feet into the room, carefully closing the door behind him. The lights were dimmed but not entirely off, curtains drawn, the room was relatively dark by common standards; the burning red of Vincent's eyes stood out in the gloom, and his enhanced vision had no problems adjusting to the change in light. Really, this lighting was preferable, comfortable, not the constant low sting of the fluorescent bars outside.
He moved over, quiet as a ghost, and took a seat on the chair he'd left at Veld's bedside at his first short visit, grateful that the nurses had been kind enough not to move it. Settling into his seat, he simply looked at his former partner for a long moment, corners of his mouth drawing downward.
Even asleep, Veld looked so tired.
...He'd fallen asleep with his eating tray still in position, so after a moment more of taking in stitched scars and greying auburn hair and wishing he'd been there, gotten there just a moment sooner, wishing he had the strength to come see this man while he was awake, Vincent rose once more to his feet and, to keep as quiet as possible, just picked up the table and moved it to the other side of the room.
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Slowly, he lifted a hand and snapped the nail of his thumb under his front teeth. Yellow eyes gave the person away as clear as a brilliant neon sign. Those eyes drifted to the sleeping man on the bed. The voice was Vincent's as well, many years ago. Though Vincent's had never been so gleeful. "Let's smother him with a pillow."
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One other part of him, quiet and level, pointed out the anti-reflection's eyes, and it was that which finally made Vincent set his jaw and straighten, not relaxing so much as falling back into familiarity.
"What are you doing here?" He growled, fully aware far too quickly of who--or rather what--he was talking to.
Chaos had never manifested so clearly before, never actually spoken to him like this, never shown himself; there was also the little matter of the demi-WEAPON having returned to the planet after Vincent fought off Omega, but that was a concern for another time. He didn't need to know how the monster had gotten here, or taken such an insulting shape, but why.
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Chaos then looked about the chair and snapped up a yellow decorative pillow and held it on his lap. "But I'd rather the whole place blow up." Chaos' first sentence hung in the air when he turned his head back to Veld's sleeping form and began to kneed the pillow like a cat.
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"If you touch one hair on his head," he ground out, "I'll make personally sure you're sent to see Omega."
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Vincent's face had never found smiling easy, it was odd to see it so gleeful. "I would love to see you try it. Oh... maybe Hojo can come in to visit your old partner, speaking of such things."
With a final sort of hiss, Chaos tossed the halves of the pillow to the floor and gained his feet. Smooth, elegant strides brought him up to Veld's bedside Yellow eyes looked the sleeping Turk over before they looked back up at Vincent. Black eyebrows then arched in a knowing fashion.
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The anger and hurt boiled inside him--Hojo and Veld and the things Hojo could do to him, seeing everything he'd lost so clear and eerily cheerful-- threatening to set any of the three creatures left in him loose, and Vincent had to remind himself to breathe around it.
He had a million things he wanted to say, some directed at Chaos and some most certainly not, only familiar face he wore, but all that came out when he opened his mouth was "Get out."
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He registered, deep down, that since this was Chaos the chances of other people being able to see him were as slim as other people being able to see Lucrecia during his fight against Hojo and Weiss before Omega woke up, but the ruined pillow left him unsure.
Obviously he was tangible. He could do damage. By that logic, he should have been as obvious to anyone as he was to Vincent.
But it was Chaos so he couldn't know.
"Leave him alone." Vincent stood close to his younger, more human self--and the irony of his human body being a shape for the thing that had made him the least human of all wasn't lost on him--and put his right hand on his gun, holstered at his side. "Do whatever you have to do with me, and get out."
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Through the cracked eye he could see what registered as Vincent, but it didn't exactly parse. It made the most sense, but something was wrong. "What the hell are you doing?"
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The voice was Vincent's. It didn't belong to Chaos and yet... here it was. Yellow eyes smiled at Vincent before he let out a little laugh at the half asleep Veld. "You know better."
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"And It was the bet possible outcome."
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And just like that, Chaos was gone
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He watched, stared, and his heart pounded in his chest so hard it hurt. He was going to be sick, pain roiling in side him deep enough to make his vision flicker, to make him want to shake.
He couldn't breathe.
He wanted to scream.
There literally weren't words for how painful the scene Chaos and Veld made was, was no description for how much it hurt to hear his voice--his voice--after so many years, talking so casually with his partner. Still too young, much too young, but so much closer to how things could have been. How they should have been, would have been if he'd just walked away.
Vincent reflexively caught the bottle lobbed at him with his left hand, and Chaos disappeared. No flash of crimson light, no coiling black energy, the WEAPON in very human skin simply wasn't there anymore.
He shook as he helped Veld sit up, wanting to pull away and curl in on himself until he imploded but determined not to do anything of the sort in this particular room. Once the physically-older man was upright, Vincent popped the lid off the pillbottle and held it out for Veld without a word.
He kept silent, eyes downcast, leaving Veld to keep the other voice in his memory for as long as possible. He didn't even try to meet his eyes.
Even with all the questions seeing Chaos brought up, it had made one thing abundantly clear.
As he was now, as he would be for the rest of his impossibly, unnaturally long life, this couldn't ever work.
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It did mean that Reeve was going to have to look at the arm. Scarlet and Reeve had worked together on his little project. This wasn't the first time the item had broken.
He took a deep breath and opened his eyes when he sat up. "Vince?" a short laugh followed. "I thought I was imagining you." He looked down at the pills and frowned. "Think I may have cut it a little close this time."
He only took one of the pain pills and nearly all the water. "How is everyone else?"
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"Everyone made it out. No casualties that I'm aware of." He took a deep breath and forced the barest, faintest hint of a smile. The most he gave to anyone lately. "Overall, for the moment, things are...all right."
Sure, the world was coming to an end again and Sephiroth was free--or so the little snatches of intel he'd been able to pick up attested--and Kadaj had escaped and Vincent had transformed into Galian in front of Elfé and Chaos was back and anything Vincent had started to think might be possible since the WEAPON left him had come careening back to shatter against the harsh stone wall of Vincent's reality, but other than that everything was completely all right.
He put the bottle back on the nightstand and, after a moment's hesitation, retook his seat. Vincent cast a glance at the ruin throw pillow on the floor at his feet, and surreptitiously nudged the pieces under Veld's bed.
He was not all right in the least, and it showed, but he knew better than to think he could tell anyone. Chaos was back. Somehow or another, Chaos was back.
"Let's smother him with a pillow."
Back, and worse than ever.
Vincent tried not to shudder.
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