[Semi-Open]

[sendthefallen]

Characters: Yuna, Rikku, Vergil, Dante, Auron, Vanille, Winry, Train, Kurt, others?
Location: Yuna and Vergil's Apartment, 1A - Fatality Condominiums
Rating: PG-13 for now.
Time: November 9th, Evening to Late Night
Description: It's Rikku's birthday! Time for celebration! But...who spiked the punch? (We'll give you one guess.)

Comments

[blue_darkslayer]

"Oh?" Vergil asked, his tone just a little amused with feigned incredulity. Yuna, angry? He couldn't recall a time when he'd seen it. He was, though, trying to think back to a month prior, and if anything particularly significant had occurred. It would've been easier if it weren't for the fact that something was always happening in Death City, and he had more of a tendency to savour those days when there wasn't some kind of crisis or grand event occurring to swallow up all of his time.

"I understand the sentiment," he replied thoughtfully. Even if he hadn't become aware of his own feelings for Yuna until very recently, he couldn't be certain how long ago they had actually begun to manifest. It was the unfortunate drawback behind suppressing human emotion and largely denying its existence. Developing a level of empathy for others wasn't something that had occurred on purpose, either. Under different circumstances, he would've called it a weakness in his defenses that grew without his noticing. Now, he wasn't so certain. Not with how things were beginning to turn out with Yuna.

"I'm not so sure it was anything specific that caused it, but the simplest answer would be me," Vergil said, before clarifying with a thoughtful expression, "It's been a slow process, but certain things, people, helped." He mused. So much had happened, and in a way almost everything that had occurred since he came to Death City had contributed in some way, from the moment that he'd decided to integrate into society. That... was no doubt where it had began. It had been easy to remain closed off from humans when he had regarded them as weak and insignificant, and had isolated himself from them. This world's brand of humans had forced him to reevaluate that assessment.

And now he was romantically attached to one. What remained of his former self felt disturbed and even ashamed at the thought, and he knew that getting further involved with Yuna wasn't going to be without a level of internal conflict. At the same time, though, he wasn't about to deceive himself by pretending he hadn't changed. He couldn't ignore where said changes had lead him, and it was far too late to go back. Now more than ever he was aware that he needed Yuna's presence as he was moving into the unfamiliar, even if that too irked his sense of self-reliance and independence. But Roy had caused him to question whether or not letting her in and in turn allowing himself to feel was truly weakness.

Vergil closed his eyes momentarily. He still hadn't decided on an answer to that particular question, but that didn't much alter his resolve otherwise. "In any case... thank you for being patient," he murmured quietly, and as he opened his eyes the impulse took him to cup Yuna's cheek gently. He'd made her wait a month, and he already hated it when she compromised herself for his sake as is. No longer. Relationships work both ways, even if he couldn't do more than protect her and try to make her happy.

[sendthefallen]

"Well, maybe not angry exactly." Speaking was coming a bit easier now that he wasn't doing everything in his power to distract her. Yuna was at least somewhat used to the touch of his hands along her arms and even shoulders. It was when he pressed his lips against her skin or his hands traveled a bit lower that her mind wandered. "Rikku has been...pestering me about you a lot. She wanted me to talk to you about, well, this a long time ago, but I didn't think the timing was right."

More like she was too nervous, or thought she was crazy, or hadn't fully accepted her own feelings, or worried about extraneous things, or a multitude of other excuses that she'd piled one on top of the other in an attempt to convince herself that it didn't really matter.

"To be honest, I'm surprised she didn't try to tell you in secret or something sooner. Like she did with the ball." Yuna grew a little self-conscious as the memory. "She tried to convince me to do it myself, but I couldn't do it." She laughed a bit at her own silliness; even if he'd said no at the time, what would that have really changed?

"I think I've changed too," she said quietly in response, her thumb running idly over the smooth but hard skin of his chest. Yuna hadn't thought that she'd let anyone get quite this close, not after what had happened last time. "I...tried to fight it for a bit, to make myself just want to be your friend, but..."

"But it didn't work. Not at all." And now they'd gone way too far to ever go back again. It scared and thrilled her all at the same time.

His hand was still warm, even against the flushed expanse of her cheek, and she leaned into the contact, her eyes shutting briefly as if to just savor the moment. "You don't need to thank me," she said quietly before reopening her eyes. "The wait was worth it."

Vergil's alarm went off then, and the summoner turned her head toward the noise before reaching out with one arm to turn it off before returning to her previous position. Yuna leaned in closer then, taking a bit of initiative for one of the first times probably since they'd met. Her lips ghosted over his before she spoke. "Do you think we could...stay here for a little while? Please?"

[blue_darkslayer]

"Oh?" Vergil asked quietly, though in truth he wasn't surprised even remotely. Of course Rikku had been interfering. Something would be terribly wrong with his life if someone wasn't meddling in his affairs one way or another. But Yuna was right - if that particular discussion had come much sooner, the matter would have been much more complicated, and possibly bearing repercussions.

Aside from causing him to distance himself from her by matter of nature, it would've brought their entire friendship into question if he'd learned of her having bore feelings for him for such a time. All things considered, the timing was fortuitous.

"You made the right choice," he said, musing. But shortly he blinked and then snorted in amusement once the pieces rather abruptly fell together. "The ball? Rikku fed me some story about you needing an escort. She didn't speak a word to me otherwise." He had, naturally, been completely oblivious to her true motive. He was going to have to be more mindful of that one. At least the girl had respected their privacy enough to avoid directly interfering beyond that.

"I see." While his voice was quiet and his tone thoughtful, he was suppressing a sigh. He couldn't protest since he was no doubt equally guilty of having done so, albeit for different reasons, but it bothered him immensely that Yuna had had to suppress her feelings like that. Knowing how compassionate she was, but at the same aware that it was perhaps better for her than pining over him... it grated against his pride. He had made her wait, all because he was so emotionally stunted. The notion plagued him.

It made him want to be a better person for her sake.

He was surprised, pleasantly so, when she breezed across his lips and it touched him in a way far too intimately for her to ask the simple question so earnestly. With the thought lingering, it didn't even enter into his mind that he should or could refuse. All else be damned. Staying by her side was the very least he could do, though inwardly he knew that there was more to those words.

"If that's what you want..." he murmured, affecting a seemingly casual air. But his eyes were soft all the same and emotion coursed through him far more deeply than he would commit to expression. For now he could give himself to her but he was, nonetheless, still only himself.