He Tells All
by: Bishojo Beauty
Chapter 20
Minutes passed like years. Hours passed like decades. Each filled with more silence than the last. Tifa glanced over at her companion and sighed soundly. She was horribly bored of the silent conversation that was taking place. Not that the silence wasn't a nice peaceful thing. It was in the beginning. But now, it was deafening.
Kael had announced early in the day that he was going to scout ahead while the two of them continued together. He seemed to place a certain amount of emphasize on that word. The brunette could have sworn that she saw a devilish gleam in his eye as he left.
Unfortunately for all Vincent said, Tifa might as well be walking by herself in the dense forest. Again, Tifa sighed loudly.
-
Eleven. He counted eleven sighs that had escaped her lips since Kale had decided to "scout ahead". He silently cursed his brother's thinking. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Tifa's serene face or rather extremely...bored face.
Vincent had always found himself unable to start a decent conversation. Even in his Turk days. It was a wonder how he had ever gotten Lucrecia to speak to him in the first place.
Lucrecia...
It suddenly hit him that she had been almost completely absent from his thoughts since he started his journey with Tifa. Vincent had no trouble identifying the reason.
Thoughts of Tifa constantly plagued his mind day and night. No matter how hard he tried to force them out of his head, his thoughts were always able to sneak past the barrier he built. Just like Tifa did in reality. No matter how hard he tried to not let her in, she had somehow made it.
After his first taste of human contact after all those years of isolation, he found himself craving it like one would crave nicotine. His body, despite his mind's orders betrayed him as he found himself wanting to be near her. Touching her. But he could not let that happen. He was a monster that deserved to rot alone in his own hell. And yet, Tifa gave him hope. Her smile, her voice, her eyes, her lips against his. Everything about her made him feel like a being worthy of having another chance at life. At love.
A sigh reached his ears and disrupted his train of thoughts. Twelve. That was twelve sighs. He could not stand it any longer. Each sigh tore at his heart as he knew that he was the cause of it all.
Clearing his throat, he parted his lips in hope to start a conversation. But his throat seemed to close up and his brain ceased functioning.
He swore mentally. He felt like he was in grade school again, trying to talk to his crush for the first time. Vincent felt like slapping himself.
"We should be nearing Junon soon," Vincent cursed at himself as those words left his tongue.
Stupid conversation starter. Vincent thought to himself. Why couldn't he be like everyone else and ask her how her day was, or if she slept well. No, he had to be a cold emotionless bastard that didn't do conversation. He watched as Tifa cocked her head in his direction and regarded him with a blank expression.
Tifa was not entirely sure Vincent had said something. With the trees rustling loudly in the background and Vincent's low voice, it was a wonder Tifa had heard anything coming from Vincent at all.
"Pardon?" She asked.
"Junon, it's approaching," Vincent replied in his monotone voice.
"Oh," was all she was able to say before she was stopped in her tracks by the sudden proximity of Vincent. When she felt his flesh hand resting on her shoulder, her mind began to race with thoughts of what Vincent was up to. Thoughts of the night of their first kiss began to float around in her head. Despite how short it was, it left a lasting sensation physically and mentally.
As Tifa lifted her eyes to meet his, she found that his attention was not focused on her, but on something in the distance. She couldn't help but feel disappointed, but the feeling was soon overcome by anxiety as she continued to regard Vincent's unwavering gaze at the distance.
"What is it?" Tifa asked in a whisper. Vincent placed a golden finger to his lips in response. He was clearly hearing something.
"We have to run," he finally stated firmly, his hand leaving her shoulder. The sudden move left Tifa feeling cold. But Tifa pushed her current thoughts of Vincent aside and focused on the current situation.
Tifa began to move quickly through the dense forest in the direction that Vincent pointed. She trusted him completely as he had proved his skills time and time again during their AVALANCHE days. His instincts got them out of more than enough tight encounters.
"What is it?" Tifa asked again, this time much more demanding. She hated not knowing what she was up again. Even if it did nothing more than strike fear in her.
"Tifa," Vincent started, his voice taking on an unfamiliar tone. She turned to look him in the face. And what she saw in his eyes confirmed what she heard in his voice.
Fear.
Once again, his hand was on her. This time gripping her almost painfully around the elbow. They weren't moving now, and Tifa watched Vincent as he twisted his head around with his eyes scanning the deep forest surrounding them.
"Run!" Was all he said before he pulled her along with him, forcing her to run as fast as she could just to keep up with Vincent's pace. Vincent soon allowed her to take the lead and she was almost grateful as she could now hear what Vincent must have heard earlier. It was a deep rumbling that was with out a doubt only made possible by a large beast. And considering the how constant it was, Tifa felt safe to think that there was more than one. The sound grew louder and louder despite the speed at which the pair of them were running. The beast was no doubt nearing them. She turned her head in hopes to catch a glance of how close the beast was, but stopped in mid-turn as Vincent's voice sounded loudly behind her.
"Don't look back! Run!" The alarm in his voice made her legs move faster and carry her further if that was even possible. Tree branches whipped again her from head to toe, but that was the least of her worries. She could feel the ground trembling beneath her now. She tried to pick up her pace.
It wasn't much further until Tifa felt her legs give out beneath her. She felt a jolt and figured she must have hit the ground already, but when she opened her eyes, in which she did not realize she closed, she met the sky instead of the muddy ground below her.
She was...flying.
Luckily for Tifa, Vincent had been able to reach her as he made a desperate grasp for her and launched himself into the trees as best as he could under the circumstances. It was far below his expectations but it sufficed as he extended his golden claw and dug deep into a tree branch, using it was leverage to swing the two of them higher into the trees. When he was satisfied with their level of safety, he looked below to see not one, but seven rather deformed behemoths stomping over the ground they were occupying not even two seconds ago.
He turned to face Tifa's wide-eyed expression as she watched the beast pass below her.
"Were those behemoths?" She asked. She was positive they did not look quite like that the last time she encountered one.
"Yes. Most likely the work of Hojo," He paused. "We must be near." Tifa nodded in response, her eyes still not leaving the ground below them. It was a very narrow escape.
Yay! I finally updated! I must apologize for how long this one took. It should have been done earlier considering I had this written before but I didn't feel pleased with it at the time. I wrote this like 5 times, each one not even similar to this one. But yeah, I've been having difficulty getting anything down lately. Writer's block ya know?
But yeah, thank you all for reading! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.
Let me know how I did kay?
Bishojo Beauty