It's a new day, a new user and a new fanfic.
Here's my first foray into fanfiction. Any and all comments would be appreciated. Though heavily influenced by many stories already posted in this community, I don't believe that I have purposely lifted anything. If I have, my apologies, it was not my intention.
For interest sake, "Vicious Cabaret" alluded to in this piece appeared in the original GN, but the majority of this fic. was influenced by the film. Enjoy.
The Fingering Lesson
Evey lay on her bed staring at the vaulted ceiling fuming at V. He had been missing for three days and she was fearful and more than a little pissed off. Where the hell was he? Evey knew that secrecy was paramount to V, but this was stupid: what if something happened to him on one of his nightly sorties? She didn’t even know how to get out here. She failed to see the logic behind “saving” her only to maroon her in his underground lair without knowledge or options to help herself if the situation arose. Evey had offered to help V with his vendetta plans, and though he had accepted the offer, it had been a few months and all she had managed to do was to become the Gallery’s cleaning lady. She felt useless. She felt ornamental. She felt put in her place, which only added to her dark mood.
Technically, V hadn’t been gone three whole days. Each morning she woke up and padded out of her room calling for him. When it was clear that he was gone, she went into the kitchen and found a meal waiting for her in the icebox. Well, at least he still remembered to feed her. When she first arrived in the Gallery, V waited on her like an honored guest, which was good as she was a modern, young woman utterly devoid of homemaking skills due to the loss of her family early in life. He seemed delighted to have someone to impress, and she was happy to be pampered for the first time ever. She tried her best to make herself useful, but found that 20 years of independent living had made V self-sufficient in all the ways that mattered. She developed the theory that V looked upon her as a cherished pet; as lovely and as irrelevant as a calico or a spider plant. Recently, she felt a change in the way that V viewed her. He had always shown her great deference and physical care, but she had started to feel that he felt her physical presence keenly whenever they shared space together. She caught him staring at her lingeringly, and when he was alerted to her awareness, he stiffened and busied himself as if ashamed of his harmless actions. Evey, herself, felt a strong pull towards V ever since that first night with the Fingermen and the rooftop fireworks. He cut a dashing figure after all: heroic, mysterious, educated, diffident - but he was also an unabashed murderer, he was intensely secretive and totally unreadable. But that was part of his allure too. Evey had tried to start a game with V: a game of touch. She found excuses to casually touch him and tried to guess at his reactions. Though he initially seemed alarmed, he soon warmed to the “game” and tacitly began to initiate forays of his own. Evey thought that if this man, so tightly controlled, so sealed off from the outside world in his mask and doublet, could learn to touch her perhaps he could learn to trust her. Nevermind, the personal thrill that she received from playing with him.
But all of that ended three days ago. Now her only companion was fear. Her only game was dreaming up catastrophe scenarios. She felt small and powerless once more as surely as if she was being chased through the dark streets of London again. She hated her fear, and she hated that V had so casually victimized her to these feelings after seeking so diligently to allay them. She was going to storm into that kitchen and toss whatever he had left for her in the sink to congeal, no matter how delicious it looked. Screw him!
As she thrashed around her bedroom to find some socks, she stopped sharply at the sound of music. Piano. The melody was haunting but familiar somehow. Was V back and playing the Wurlitzer? Her heart leapt against her will at the prospect of his presence in the Gallery. Silently chiding herself she opened the bedroom door and saw no one in the main gallery. The jukebox was lit but not playing. But there was music! She wandered into the main room and looked around her 360 degrees into all of the alcoves that splintered off of the center gallery. The vaulted ceilings and the stone floors made sound bounce in every direction, momentarily confusing Evey’s ears. But then, she saw movement in the dim recesses of the furthest alcove. Behind the grand piano.
How could she not have noticed that there was a piano in the Gallery? Simple, she thought, V’s cave-like ambiance demanded that many areas of the Gallery were at near twilight lighting levels. A dark instrument in a dark corner away from the main living areas meant that she had simply never noticed it before. She trod silently along the length of the piano. On it’s lid lay V’s gloves. She picked them up and rounded the instrument’s edge to face him.
V was engrossed in his song. Evey made out that it was a version of a pop song from the jukebox called “Mad World”, but much slower and more delicate. She remembered a snippet of lyrics: “ I find it kinda funny, I find it kinda sad. The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had.”. A personal anthem, thought Evey ruefully? V snapped his head around to face Evey and abruptly stopped playing. He carefully and quickly hid his exposed hands beneath the keyboard. “I didn’t hear you approach, Evey.”
“Don’t stop. It was lovely, V. “Mad World”, right?”
“Yes. Life is a “Vicious Cabaret” it would seem…” V chuckled to himself not letting her in on the joke. He didn’t resume his playing, just stared at her instead.
“ Please V, continue playing. I didn’t know that you were musical. Is there anything that you can’t do?” Evey continued brightly. V looked at his gloves in her hands and she murmured more demurely “I’d imagine that it would be more difficult to do with these.” Raising the gloves slightly. “Please V.”
Reluctantly, V placed his fingers back above the keyboard, hesitating only a moment before diving into a nocturne by Chopin. Time for a new game, thought Evey as a small smile curled her lips. She slid into position beside V on the piano bench and watched him play. She was close enough to feel the heat coming off of his body, but not close enough to touch or interfere with his movements. The nocturne turned into Gershwin and Gershwin into a raucous ragtime jazz piece. V was showing off now, and Evey, carried away by the joyous music, laughed delightfully. Finally, V slowed everything down by playing Debussey’s “Clare de Lune”. His eyes slid to the side of his mask to watch her be lulled by the piece. Playing all of the pieces from memory meant that his sight could be used for … other interests. Evey felt his eyes on her and she took the opportunity to close her eyes and softly lean against his shoulder while her head bobbed slowly to the melody. Without stopping, V asked, in a more intimate tone “Would you like to try?”
Momentarily lost in her revelry, Evey couldn’t figure out his intent. He tried again “Would you like to try to play?” She shook loose of the emotional cobwebs that had temporarily bound her in inappropriate thoughts and nodded at V. He shuffled down the bench a little and moved her closer to the middle.
“Most people begin with scales, but it’s so tedious. Perhaps we can get you playing right away - we’ll try “Chopsticks”. There are two parts to this song: I’ll set you up performing the underlying rhythm and I’ll play the other part. Watch my fingers, here.”
He demonstrated the fingerings for her part, then he watched her try them herself, first slowly and then faster with more confidence. She was a quick study in most things, but this was a pure delight as they both seemed to blossom at the idea of working in partnership. When Evey had the feel for the part she was to play, V added his own part over top of hers. The tune was jaunty but simple and soon V forced Evey to speed up to make it more challenging. Evey giggled with delight and even V’s Fawkes mask seemed to be smiling wider with glee. Their shoulders were pressed against each other, Evey felt V’s warmth and V felt Evey’s trilling as her body radiated with laughter. A golden glow began to develop around them in this moment, neither Evey nor V seemed to want to break it. Then Evey hit a wrong note and the whole precarious piece collapsed.
“Oh dear.” Said V “Perhaps it was too much too soon.”
“No!” cried Evey, a little shaken by the sudden loss of the moment. “I can do it! I want to do it. I just need a little help, that’s all.” Her eyes pleaded with V in a way that was out of proportion with the incident. There was something else going on, he was sure of it. She seemed almost afraid that she was going to lose something. He wanted to assure her that she would never lose him, but didn’t know how. He had left her alone too long. She was a woman who had lost everything that had ever meant something to her, and he had tried to protect her from that fear. But still, it was there under the surface - she was desperate. He would have to work harder to rid her of her fears. What she could become if only she believed in herself! He decided to try to recapture the moment.
“Okay. We’ll try it another way.”
V rose from the bench and walked around behind Evey. “Lay your fingers on the keyboard in their first position.” he instructed. As she did, he lay his hands on top of hers and began to gently press her fingers into the keys. Evey was stunned. Their touch game had never come close to this and all she could think about was the warm, rough surface of V’s fingers skillfully pressing hers across the piano keys. As her fingers became steadier, he crouched down behind her, his mask looking over her shoulder, his upper chest pressing lightly into her shoulder blades. She could feel his breath near her ear; he was breathing more deeply now. Evey’s own breathing was becoming erratic and her palms had started to sweat. V had certainly kicked the game up a notch. She was wondering where he would end it. Then V slid his fingers off hers and encircled her wrists while she played. If Evey was stunned before, there wasn’t a word for her shock now. An intensely warm flush rushed throughout her body. Her pulse skyrocketed. Her breath was unflatteringly coming out of her in ragged bursts. V hadn’t even thought about his actions before he did them. Lost in sensation, he explored her pale, narrow wrists. He compared their texture and colour to his own. He reveled in their silkiness. He imagined how other areas of their bodies would compare; how they would look side by side, how they would look entwined. The tips of his fingers brushed her radial pulse and he was shocked back to reality: her pulse was thundering. He was frightening her! How could he have been so foolish! He was her protector and now her had taken advantage of a moment and he was molesting her. This wasn’t a private fantasy indulged in his head behind a locked door, it was really happening. So much for his grand plan to rid her of her fears.
V pulled away abruptly, not noticing that Evey had long since stopped playing. “Evey, I….” he couldn’t finish his thought. There was a long moment of silence between them in the dark. Finally Evey broke it and swiveled around on the bench until she faced V who was still crouching. She placed one leg between his knees and left the other on the outside to his left. V found that he was unable to move, unable to speak. How could he make up for such abuse? Wordlessly Evey reached up to the mask’s chin and lifted it slightly, raising his head. V grabbed her hand. He couldn’t allow her to remove the mask, even if she felt that it would allay her fear of him. Evey placed her other hand over his and pulled it from his face. At the same time, she quickly leaned into the chink in his armor: the area between his mask’s jawline and the collar of his doublet. The only area that revealed skin. Before he could stop her, she found his carotid vein. Tenderly she licked his neck and then warmly, softly encircled the spot with her lips. Now it was V’s turn to be stunned. He felt red hot all over. She was so warm, so close, her scent overwhelmed his senses. And then, she softly began to suck. V’s whole body felt like it was on the verge of collapse. His heart pounded in a way that he had never experienced. His stomach tightened. His muscles froze in their crouched position. His hand clenching Evey’s squeezed involuntarily. And in the back of his mind, the only part of his brain that was still worked simply said, “Please don’t stop.”.
Lingeringly Evey circled his vulnerable vein twice more before backing away. All the while V had remained perfectly still. The only sign of his pleasure was the erratic breathing issuing hoarsely from his mask. Evey smiled as she stood up. V remained crouched and didn’t raise his face to look at her, instead staring at her waist that was now at eye level.
“Same time tomorrow, then?” she said coquettishly.
V cocked his head slightly, his universal sign of puzzlement. “My fingering lesson.” Evey stated. “Same time tomorrow?” She didn’t wait for a response. She lifted her leg over V’s knee and walked quietly away into the main Gallery. When he had lost sight of her, V said aloud “I’ll be here.”. Then, he sank heavily to his knees.
Evey heard the soft thud of his body meeting the stone floor and smiled. “I know you will.” She said quietly to herself.
For interest sake, "Vicious Cabaret" alluded to in this piece appeared in the original GN, but the majority of this fic. was influenced by the film. Enjoy.
The Fingering Lesson
Evey lay on her bed staring at the vaulted ceiling fuming at V. He had been missing for three days and she was fearful and more than a little pissed off. Where the hell was he? Evey knew that secrecy was paramount to V, but this was stupid: what if something happened to him on one of his nightly sorties? She didn’t even know how to get out here. She failed to see the logic behind “saving” her only to maroon her in his underground lair without knowledge or options to help herself if the situation arose. Evey had offered to help V with his vendetta plans, and though he had accepted the offer, it had been a few months and all she had managed to do was to become the Gallery’s cleaning lady. She felt useless. She felt ornamental. She felt put in her place, which only added to her dark mood.
Technically, V hadn’t been gone three whole days. Each morning she woke up and padded out of her room calling for him. When it was clear that he was gone, she went into the kitchen and found a meal waiting for her in the icebox. Well, at least he still remembered to feed her. When she first arrived in the Gallery, V waited on her like an honored guest, which was good as she was a modern, young woman utterly devoid of homemaking skills due to the loss of her family early in life. He seemed delighted to have someone to impress, and she was happy to be pampered for the first time ever. She tried her best to make herself useful, but found that 20 years of independent living had made V self-sufficient in all the ways that mattered. She developed the theory that V looked upon her as a cherished pet; as lovely and as irrelevant as a calico or a spider plant. Recently, she felt a change in the way that V viewed her. He had always shown her great deference and physical care, but she had started to feel that he felt her physical presence keenly whenever they shared space together. She caught him staring at her lingeringly, and when he was alerted to her awareness, he stiffened and busied himself as if ashamed of his harmless actions. Evey, herself, felt a strong pull towards V ever since that first night with the Fingermen and the rooftop fireworks. He cut a dashing figure after all: heroic, mysterious, educated, diffident - but he was also an unabashed murderer, he was intensely secretive and totally unreadable. But that was part of his allure too. Evey had tried to start a game with V: a game of touch. She found excuses to casually touch him and tried to guess at his reactions. Though he initially seemed alarmed, he soon warmed to the “game” and tacitly began to initiate forays of his own. Evey thought that if this man, so tightly controlled, so sealed off from the outside world in his mask and doublet, could learn to touch her perhaps he could learn to trust her. Nevermind, the personal thrill that she received from playing with him.
But all of that ended three days ago. Now her only companion was fear. Her only game was dreaming up catastrophe scenarios. She felt small and powerless once more as surely as if she was being chased through the dark streets of London again. She hated her fear, and she hated that V had so casually victimized her to these feelings after seeking so diligently to allay them. She was going to storm into that kitchen and toss whatever he had left for her in the sink to congeal, no matter how delicious it looked. Screw him!
As she thrashed around her bedroom to find some socks, she stopped sharply at the sound of music. Piano. The melody was haunting but familiar somehow. Was V back and playing the Wurlitzer? Her heart leapt against her will at the prospect of his presence in the Gallery. Silently chiding herself she opened the bedroom door and saw no one in the main gallery. The jukebox was lit but not playing. But there was music! She wandered into the main room and looked around her 360 degrees into all of the alcoves that splintered off of the center gallery. The vaulted ceilings and the stone floors made sound bounce in every direction, momentarily confusing Evey’s ears. But then, she saw movement in the dim recesses of the furthest alcove. Behind the grand piano.
How could she not have noticed that there was a piano in the Gallery? Simple, she thought, V’s cave-like ambiance demanded that many areas of the Gallery were at near twilight lighting levels. A dark instrument in a dark corner away from the main living areas meant that she had simply never noticed it before. She trod silently along the length of the piano. On it’s lid lay V’s gloves. She picked them up and rounded the instrument’s edge to face him.
V was engrossed in his song. Evey made out that it was a version of a pop song from the jukebox called “Mad World”, but much slower and more delicate. She remembered a snippet of lyrics: “ I find it kinda funny, I find it kinda sad. The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had.”. A personal anthem, thought Evey ruefully? V snapped his head around to face Evey and abruptly stopped playing. He carefully and quickly hid his exposed hands beneath the keyboard. “I didn’t hear you approach, Evey.”
“Don’t stop. It was lovely, V. “Mad World”, right?”
“Yes. Life is a “Vicious Cabaret” it would seem…” V chuckled to himself not letting her in on the joke. He didn’t resume his playing, just stared at her instead.
“ Please V, continue playing. I didn’t know that you were musical. Is there anything that you can’t do?” Evey continued brightly. V looked at his gloves in her hands and she murmured more demurely “I’d imagine that it would be more difficult to do with these.” Raising the gloves slightly. “Please V.”
Reluctantly, V placed his fingers back above the keyboard, hesitating only a moment before diving into a nocturne by Chopin. Time for a new game, thought Evey as a small smile curled her lips. She slid into position beside V on the piano bench and watched him play. She was close enough to feel the heat coming off of his body, but not close enough to touch or interfere with his movements. The nocturne turned into Gershwin and Gershwin into a raucous ragtime jazz piece. V was showing off now, and Evey, carried away by the joyous music, laughed delightfully. Finally, V slowed everything down by playing Debussey’s “Clare de Lune”. His eyes slid to the side of his mask to watch her be lulled by the piece. Playing all of the pieces from memory meant that his sight could be used for … other interests. Evey felt his eyes on her and she took the opportunity to close her eyes and softly lean against his shoulder while her head bobbed slowly to the melody. Without stopping, V asked, in a more intimate tone “Would you like to try?”
Momentarily lost in her revelry, Evey couldn’t figure out his intent. He tried again “Would you like to try to play?” She shook loose of the emotional cobwebs that had temporarily bound her in inappropriate thoughts and nodded at V. He shuffled down the bench a little and moved her closer to the middle.
“Most people begin with scales, but it’s so tedious. Perhaps we can get you playing right away - we’ll try “Chopsticks”. There are two parts to this song: I’ll set you up performing the underlying rhythm and I’ll play the other part. Watch my fingers, here.”
He demonstrated the fingerings for her part, then he watched her try them herself, first slowly and then faster with more confidence. She was a quick study in most things, but this was a pure delight as they both seemed to blossom at the idea of working in partnership. When Evey had the feel for the part she was to play, V added his own part over top of hers. The tune was jaunty but simple and soon V forced Evey to speed up to make it more challenging. Evey giggled with delight and even V’s Fawkes mask seemed to be smiling wider with glee. Their shoulders were pressed against each other, Evey felt V’s warmth and V felt Evey’s trilling as her body radiated with laughter. A golden glow began to develop around them in this moment, neither Evey nor V seemed to want to break it. Then Evey hit a wrong note and the whole precarious piece collapsed.
“Oh dear.” Said V “Perhaps it was too much too soon.”
“No!” cried Evey, a little shaken by the sudden loss of the moment. “I can do it! I want to do it. I just need a little help, that’s all.” Her eyes pleaded with V in a way that was out of proportion with the incident. There was something else going on, he was sure of it. She seemed almost afraid that she was going to lose something. He wanted to assure her that she would never lose him, but didn’t know how. He had left her alone too long. She was a woman who had lost everything that had ever meant something to her, and he had tried to protect her from that fear. But still, it was there under the surface - she was desperate. He would have to work harder to rid her of her fears. What she could become if only she believed in herself! He decided to try to recapture the moment.
“Okay. We’ll try it another way.”
V rose from the bench and walked around behind Evey. “Lay your fingers on the keyboard in their first position.” he instructed. As she did, he lay his hands on top of hers and began to gently press her fingers into the keys. Evey was stunned. Their touch game had never come close to this and all she could think about was the warm, rough surface of V’s fingers skillfully pressing hers across the piano keys. As her fingers became steadier, he crouched down behind her, his mask looking over her shoulder, his upper chest pressing lightly into her shoulder blades. She could feel his breath near her ear; he was breathing more deeply now. Evey’s own breathing was becoming erratic and her palms had started to sweat. V had certainly kicked the game up a notch. She was wondering where he would end it. Then V slid his fingers off hers and encircled her wrists while she played. If Evey was stunned before, there wasn’t a word for her shock now. An intensely warm flush rushed throughout her body. Her pulse skyrocketed. Her breath was unflatteringly coming out of her in ragged bursts. V hadn’t even thought about his actions before he did them. Lost in sensation, he explored her pale, narrow wrists. He compared their texture and colour to his own. He reveled in their silkiness. He imagined how other areas of their bodies would compare; how they would look side by side, how they would look entwined. The tips of his fingers brushed her radial pulse and he was shocked back to reality: her pulse was thundering. He was frightening her! How could he have been so foolish! He was her protector and now her had taken advantage of a moment and he was molesting her. This wasn’t a private fantasy indulged in his head behind a locked door, it was really happening. So much for his grand plan to rid her of her fears.
V pulled away abruptly, not noticing that Evey had long since stopped playing. “Evey, I….” he couldn’t finish his thought. There was a long moment of silence between them in the dark. Finally Evey broke it and swiveled around on the bench until she faced V who was still crouching. She placed one leg between his knees and left the other on the outside to his left. V found that he was unable to move, unable to speak. How could he make up for such abuse? Wordlessly Evey reached up to the mask’s chin and lifted it slightly, raising his head. V grabbed her hand. He couldn’t allow her to remove the mask, even if she felt that it would allay her fear of him. Evey placed her other hand over his and pulled it from his face. At the same time, she quickly leaned into the chink in his armor: the area between his mask’s jawline and the collar of his doublet. The only area that revealed skin. Before he could stop her, she found his carotid vein. Tenderly she licked his neck and then warmly, softly encircled the spot with her lips. Now it was V’s turn to be stunned. He felt red hot all over. She was so warm, so close, her scent overwhelmed his senses. And then, she softly began to suck. V’s whole body felt like it was on the verge of collapse. His heart pounded in a way that he had never experienced. His stomach tightened. His muscles froze in their crouched position. His hand clenching Evey’s squeezed involuntarily. And in the back of his mind, the only part of his brain that was still worked simply said, “Please don’t stop.”.
Lingeringly Evey circled his vulnerable vein twice more before backing away. All the while V had remained perfectly still. The only sign of his pleasure was the erratic breathing issuing hoarsely from his mask. Evey smiled as she stood up. V remained crouched and didn’t raise his face to look at her, instead staring at her waist that was now at eye level.
“Same time tomorrow, then?” she said coquettishly.
V cocked his head slightly, his universal sign of puzzlement. “My fingering lesson.” Evey stated. “Same time tomorrow?” She didn’t wait for a response. She lifted her leg over V’s knee and walked quietly away into the main Gallery. When he had lost sight of her, V said aloud “I’ll be here.”. Then, he sank heavily to his knees.
Evey heard the soft thud of his body meeting the stone floor and smiled. “I know you will.” She said quietly to herself.