[incomplete]

[telekineticity]

Who: Jean [Open to Anyone]
When: Tonight
Where: Around the church
Rating: E for Emo
Warnings: TBA
Summary: Jean's quite the upset one. So instead of sitting at her house, she wanders around town.

Comments

[foreswear]

He had spotted her not far from where he sat, gun in hand with cool steel glinting in the light given off by a lamppost not far from the steps he had situated himself on. Across from him, the nearly desecrated church stood steady and silent, glowing with some sort of odd and eerie presence that drifted about his surroundings, casting every inch of land in a gentle serenity that spoke through the heavy thicket of blackness. He sat, thinking, because... well, Vincent was always thinking about something, wasn't he? Usually, it nearly always had to do with Hojo, or Hojo's orders to him, or Kazuki, or Namine, or any other person in his life who had some sort of impact that left him stranded, confused, pulled in all sorts of directions. There were too many things he had to do. Too many duties he needed to fulfill, and he couldn't do it, not the way he should have been doing it. Not when he was working with so many very different people at the same time. It was hard, and it was exhausting.

It was very, very wrong, too. He knew that. Couldn't not know that. But if it'd keep the ones he loved safe, didn't that mean something? The ones who really mattered, anyway. The ones he held close to his heart, because. Even with how much he hated Hojo, he knew he couldn't stop him completely. No matter how badly he had wanted to, and hadn't he tried so many times before? Hadn't he tried to stop him so many times before, and every time, it had been pointless. Empty actions for empty threats, and nothing he did ever seemed to change anything about the professor. And it was frustrating. Tearing him apart. Breaking him into bits and pieces that could not be fit together.

But, well. That didn't matter. Not really. Not when it came down to it.

A flash of red caught careful eyes, and he was glancing up from his gun, hesitating, pausing, finger moving up along the barrel to the trigger. It took a moment for his vision to adjust to the hard curtain of night that was placed before them, but after a moment, he caught sight of her. Jean. Not too far from where he was, and after a minute of silent debating, he flattened one palm onto the cement stairs as he rose to a stand. Cerberus was slid carefully back into his holster, and he took a couple tentative steps forward, watching the way her head bowed in the dim light. Watching, deciding. She was upset, wasn't she?

"Jean?" Her name was called hesitantly. Fell from his lips with a careful ease, and then another step forward, a little more sure this time. "Are you all right?"

A pause.

"What are you doing out here?"

[telekineticity]

She recognized the voice easily. "Vincent."

She raised her head, and slowly looked over at him, the right side of her mouth turned upward in an attempt at a smile. She shook her head in response to his questions, as she wasn't sure the answer to either of them. She wasn't all right, but supposed things could be worse, and had no idea what she was doing outside.

"Freezing, for one thing." She made a very lame attempt at a joke, and although she laughed, it came out sounding flat and hollow sounding. She fully turned to face him then, hands clasped behind her back.

"I wasn't expecting anyone to be out this late." Her head tipped off to the side, and she tried once again to smile. She managed a slight bit better this time. "I'm glad to see you, though. It's been too long, hasn't it?" The smile went away then, and was replaced with a deep frown.

"I'm sorry, I'm really not in a very good mood right now. Things are going on, with Lo-" She stopped herself from saying his name, due to the fact that if she did, she was going to keep talking, until she started crying. "With someone."

She looked back over at the church with a sad smile. "It's a beautiful church, isn't it? For something down here in the lower level, I mean."

[foreswear]

Definitely upset, he decided.

And he knew, vaguely, about what had been happening with Logan. Knew vaguely of the events surrounding Schuldig's death, and that, yes, he had been involved in them. Knew bits and pieces of the stories passed around the lower level of the city -- knew enough so that he could understand her reason for being upset, for looking the way she did. Still, it didn't stop him from being bothered at seeing her that way. It took every ounce of will in him not to reach out and draw her to him, because no, she wasn't Namine, and she wasn't Lucrecia, and he couldn't just do those sorts of things with a woman who wasn't entirely familiar with him.

So, he kept his distance, stood feet from her as his vision wavered from her face over to the church. He nodded in time with her words, red eyes moving over the stone of the building, up to the cross at the top, before his attention shifted back over to the woman not far from him. So sad, and it made some part of him ache, some force from within his stomach that had it tumbling, and the soft line of his mouth tilted down a bit into a concerned frown. He had never been the best at comforting people, but. He'd be damned if he'd leave her like that, in such a state.

Ever the Turk, he supposed. Ever the gentleman, regardless of how much times had changed.

"Beautiful," he repeated, softly, testing the word a bit, before moving one hand up to brush dark strands of hair from his eyes so he could better look at her. "I'd say that, yes."

He watched her carefully, observing every bit of her as she spoke, moved. Every action she went through was committed to his memory, and really, it didn't help any. Only worried him a little more.

"You look exhausted," he pointed out, after a moment of steady silence.

[telekineticity]

"That would be accurate, I don't think I've slept since Logan dissapeared. It feels like I've been up for a month nonstop now." Oh, she was positive that she had dark circles under her eyes, and was fairly certain that she had lost some weight due to her not eating, as her pants now slid off her hips as she walked. She knew that her hair was a tangled mess, and she looked like Hell. But she didn't care, really.

She eventually turned her gaze away from the church and back over to him, afraid to show him how sad she was truly feeling. Part of her wanted to stay and talk to him, about everything, regardless of the fact he most likely didn't care to hear any of it. The other part of her reminded her of the way a deer must feel; curious, but too skittish to remain in one place. It was because of that restless feeling that she began fidgiting. Her fingers constantly flexed in and out, her foot tapped, and a hand kept going to push hair out of her face.

She stood there, silent, even as those annoyingly embarassing tears formed in her eyes and slid down her face, the warmth of them stinging her chilled skin. Bowing her head, she bit down on her lip, and gave another silent prayer out to the Gods. This one for her own inner stregnth and sanity.

"If you loved someone with all of your heart, and trusted them completely, how would you feel if you knew that they were lying about something very important? Do you continue to trust them, even through the lies and the hurt you're feeling? Do I continue begging him to come back to me, like some kind of dog would her master, or do I go find him, when obviously he doesn't want me to?"

She let out a soft sob then, one that shook her body. "Vincent. I just don't know what to do."

[foreswear]

That was it, then.

She didn't have to do much more other than that, other than turn watery eyes to him and speak in that wavering voice, and without thinking, he closed the distance between them. One hand went to rest delicately along her arm, drawing her close as his other moved up to her face, gloved fingers brushing away her tears as the ache in his chest only grew, the frown only became a little deeper. But it was much more worried now, much more concerned, and he felt terrible for not being able to do more to help her.

"Jean," he murmured softly, fingers trailing up along her cheek to affectionately touch against soft strands of hair. "Don't. Don't cry. This -- it won't last. It can't."

He wasn't entirely sure how true that was, though he could only hope it wouldn't. Could only hope that Lucrecia would, indeed, find some way to help those who had been infected. That ShinRa, despite Vincent's own current position with Hojo, would find some way to halt the professor in his steps, keep him from moving further with his progress, with whatever it was he was trying to achieve. Could only hope, and pray, and wish to whatever gods were there that were listening that this wouldn't go on forever. That it wouldn't tear Purgatorium apart like it had Gaia. That the same stupid bullshit that had happened on his own planet wouldn't happen again there. It couldn't.

But those were hopes, and wishes, and far-off things he thought about every night before he drifted off to sleep. They weren't facts. It wasn't something he could be that sure of, and it killed him to admit that, to come to that faltering realization. Not proud moments, certainly, but they weren't matters that could be denied.

Pulling her close against his chest, into a warm hug, soft lips brushed delicately along her forehead as he murmured again: "I know how hard it is."

[telekineticity]

His motions comforted her slightly, although the ache in her heart didn't cease. If anything, it only increased. Guilt quickly set in, as she allowed another man to wipe away her tears, to pull her into a hug. Her cheeks burned red with embarassment at how easily she fell into his hug. And although she didn't move to put her arms around Vincent in return, she felt a slight warmth of hope in his kind gesture, which kept her grounded in place.

"You can't know how hard this is, Vincent." Jean continued to sob, even in his arms, her body shaking from combination of hopelessness and the outside temperature. "I- I think Hojo is involved in what's happened to Logan. So many people have warned me about him, and I didn't listen." A fresh round of tears made their way out now, as she pulled away from him in order to wipe at her eyes with her fingertips.

"I'm...I'm sorry about this, Vincent. I normally try to hold myself together better than this, but I think the lack of sleep and the situation itself are working together to get the best of me. I'm normally much more level headed, I promise." She apologized for her behavior, hoping he would understand. The last thing she wanted was to lose a possible friend because of her being too emotional.