Shadows within darkness
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Final Fantasy Anime › Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
46
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978
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Currently Reading:
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Category:
Final Fantasy Anime › Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
46
Views:
978
Reviews:
134
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Final Fantasy VII Advent Children and I do not make any money with this.
Chapter 39
Soooorry for the long wait, we had some technical problems XD But it´s solved now^^
Many thanks to
IntHellsing (Woah! Uhm, well, Vincent did not behave very nicely, but I guess he was a bit overwhelmed, hehe ;) Still, it was not nice… *smacks him* Bad Vinny!)
Rina76 (Ha, we are talking LUCRECIA here, Vincent´d probably have fainted in a fit of fanboy-ism XD Hugging her is harmless ;) Hahaha, Vincent´s acquaintances are just very demanding, it seems, they can´t be bothered with announcing their arrival first. I cannot spoil anything yet since you´ll read it in a minute, Just that much: *hands over a big dose of Botox*)
Lamica (Hehehe, with a bit of help I finally got it done^^ I usually really let it play in my head, but this time there was just a black nothing for a long time…)
For reviewing. Special Thanks to my wonderful friend chephren and the plotbunnies she fed me and of course as always to the awesome Golden Kitsune for betaing!
Enjoy!
39
Yazoo sat hunched over his books, trying to distract himself, when a few hours later the door to the salon opened and the other two vampires entered with flushed faces. He didn´t know if it was from the blood or other reasons, but he really didn´t want to know either.
Pretending to be utterly consumed by his studies he didn´t even look up when they entered.
“We are having our nightly studies,” Vincent informed his acquaintance quietly, which was answered by a far too interested “Oh, that sounds splendid.” And naturally she had to ask “Would you mind if I joined you?”
“Not at all,” Vincent said and they sat down on the table beside him.
“What are you reading?” Lucrecia asked, trying to look at the book that was laid out before Yazoo.
“Francois de la Cur,” the young vampire replied curtly, turning another page without looking at her.
“Oh. That´s… interesting.” Her voice held an awkward tone as she sat back, not so eager anymore and apparently Vincent noticed too, as he inclined his head and asked, “You do not like his writing?”
“Well,” Lucrecia stretched, picking at a lint on her dress with pointy fingers. “I do not really mind it, but you know… he was a sodomist…”
At that Yazoo looked up to her, arching a brow. “What´s wrong with that?”
The woman gave a laugh that sounded a bit disbelieving, and then her gaze darted to Vincent before she waved a hand and said softly, “Well, you know, it´s just… unnatural.”
There was a moment of silence, in which the ebony haired man crept deeper into his collar, but Yazoo pushed the book aside and entwined his fingers on the table, transfixing his gaze on her. “Really. And why is that.”
“I believe men weren´t made to like other men that way. Nature made them to like women, it´s the only natural way, to have children and…” She paused. “I mean, there might be situations when there is no woman available for a long time, and I do understand that men need relief and that they would turn to other men to get it, but that´s not how it normally is. Men love women, that´s how it is.”
“I detest women.”
Lucrecia gave a forced, little smile at the emotionlessly, matter-of-factly spoken statement, but didn´t break the eyecontact with her former lover´s student either. She stared right back into his fathomless, unflinching eyes and said with a lenient tone, “Have you ever actually been with a woman?”
“No. Maybe I would, if the mere thought of it wouldn´t send me retching out my guts,” Yazoo answered politely, but his eyes remained ice cold.
The woman seemed to fidget under his stare and eventually looked back to the hands folded in her lap, saying quietly, “As I said, I think it is unnatural.”
Yazoo´d probably been shocked about her frankness, but he was too surprised. So he closed his mouth and said slowly “You are feeding from humans since at least 300 years every night, you have to sleep in a coffin, you read peoples minds and alter their memories, you can´t even touch anything that vaguely resembles two crossed sticks and you want to tell me that I am a freak of nature because I prefer the company of men?”
His eyes travelled over to Vincent for support or something since he thought that this matter concerned his lover as well, but so did her gaze, and the poor man could do nothing but keep quiet, sitting on the fence.
Sighing, Lucrecia, corssed her legs and leaned a bit forward, saying gently, “It might just be your lack of experience. I am not saying that your feelings for… males aren´t genuine, but you may mistake deep friendship for love.”
At least now Yazoo´d have expected his master to say something to his defence, since she was directly offending him as well. After all it had been his master who had more or less seduced him in that faithful night, and had turned him a ‘sodomist’. But Vincent just remained silent as if the whole matter didn´t have to do anything with him at all. So after a moment of fruitless waiting Yazoo simply closed his book, stood from his chair and said with a bow, “If you will excuse me then. I do not want to offend your sense of appropriateness by reading the work of sick perverts in your presence.”
And with that he left.
Lucrecia looked after him and then turned towards the other vampire, frowning “Oh dear, I didn´t offend him, did I?”
“I do not know…” Vincent said slowly, looking a bit uncomfortable.. “He is rather…attached to me, he might have misunderstood your arguments…”
“I understand,” she sighed, reaching over the table and taking his hand. “Who wouldn´t be? You are a wonderful person. But I suppose he might have misinterpreted things between you… Maybe he needs some time to figure things out. I mean he only has been with you for so long, he doesn´t know any better, and his affection might have taken on some unhealthy forms…”
Vincent looked to the closed door at that and then back to his friend, asking uncertainly “You think so?”
“Well, it seems rather… likely,” she answered softly, squeezing his hand.
He let his head hung, shaking it resignedly, “You may be right. I have spoiled him a little too much, probably. I never thought about the consequences…”
“Don´t blame yourself, you did the best you could, I am sure of it. But now might be the right time to correct these mistakes.”
*
And so it continued for a few days. The animosity between Yazoo and Lucrecia was almost tangible, but Vincent pretended to be oblivious. It wasn´t really difficult to do so, because Lucrecia was perfectly friendly and polite and Yazoo was, if anything, only more taciturn than usual. He tried to avoid the both of them and he gave Vincent the cold shoulder on the rare occasions that they were alone, to let him know that he was not amused about the whole situation. Luckily for Vincent, Yazoo just wasn´t one to make a scene. Which didn´t mean that he didn´t yearn for the night that the wretched woman would take her leave.
But five nights after their conversation they did not come back until near dawn and to Yazoo´s utter horror they brought a new wooden coffin with them and placed it right beside his own.
It was then that he felt like he had to have a word with Vincent, politely excusing himself to the lady and dragging his lover into the salon.
“Excuse me, what is going on here?”
“Lucrecia will stay with us now.”
“Shall I retreat to the crypt, that you can have some privacy or something?”
“Yazoo, stop behaving like some jealous old woman, I already told you that it does not suit you..”
“Well then, can you tell me with absolute certainty that there is no reason to be jealous?”
It was a calm question, one that could not be dismissed with an annoyed flick of the hand.
Vincent shifted his weight to the other foot, averted his eyes, then sighed and turned toward the window, looking out at the moon.
“Maybe it is better if our ways part here. You need something that I realise now I cannot give you: undivided attention and love. Please do not get me wrong, you mean very much to me, you really do, but if you stay here with me you will only get hurt. And I do not wish for that.”
“And you think you will not hurt me if you throw me out?” Yazoo had turned towards the fire, their backs facing each other.
“No, I do not think that. But it will only be temporary. If you stay with me, it will be much more painful, believe me.”
“Did she tell you that?”
The other remained silent, just looking outside without really seeing anything.
“Listen,” Yazoo said eventually, sounding tired “I am certain that you feel for her very deeply and that you are happy that she is here. And you may not want to think about certain things, but I did.
"I do not know what happened between you or why she left you to go with Sephiroth, but I doubt that he ‘took her away’ from you as you phrased it. She seems very capable of making her own decisions to me and it strikes me awkward that she suddenly appeared after she heard that you are having a life again.”
“You eavesdropped?” the other vampire asked suspiciously, turning around, but Yazoo just continued, unfazed by the interruption.
“I did, but this is not the point here. The point is that you have to think about it this way: Say there is a person you care for and you know this person cares for you too, but at the same time you decided not to be with that particular person. What would you do to ensure that your love interest will never forget about you, in case you may decide one day to come back?”
Vincent did not answer, just kept on watching the back of his student.
“Well, here is what I would do: I would leave that person in utter despair, making sure that he never stops grieving over my loss and clings to the past instead of living on. Now, what would you do if you found out that your plan didn´t work and your lover found someone else?
"I will tell you what I would do: Go back, make them break up, take my former place and as soon as everything is settled I would take my leave, having made sure that my fill-in has been established again. Maybe she doesn’t even think that way, or does it conciously. Maybe she really missed you and only realised it now.
"But the fact that Sephiroth told her about us should make you wary. Do you really believe that he would have sent her here if he wouldn´t expect you to end up miserable again? His only goal is to destroy you. It may not be this week or this year but he knows that she will come back to him eventually for the same reason she left you of her own will once before and you will be the one who looses everything. Your dignity, your trust, her. And me.”
“This is ridiculous, I will not listen to this any longer! You know nothing about us and I will not allow you to calumniate her!” the cloaked vampire snapped harshly, eyes blazing angrily as he turned and stormed out of the room before he could forget himself and do things to Yazoo he might regret later.
Falling back in a chair, the silver haired teen watched the flames idly flickering in the fireplace.
Now this had gone exactly like he had predicted for the worst case scenario.
All he had achieved was driving Vincent right into her arms. But he had to try it anyway, hadn´t he? Since the damn woman had appeared on their door, Vincent had transformed into a wholly different person, desperately doing her every bidding, and there was nothing he could do about it. And since he also wasn´t able to watch the downfall of his master and obviously wasn´t welcome here any longer he would take his leave by tomorrow.
Tbc
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...
..
.
*waves* See you next chapter, and don´t forget to review^^
Many thanks to
IntHellsing (Woah! Uhm, well, Vincent did not behave very nicely, but I guess he was a bit overwhelmed, hehe ;) Still, it was not nice… *smacks him* Bad Vinny!)
Rina76 (Ha, we are talking LUCRECIA here, Vincent´d probably have fainted in a fit of fanboy-ism XD Hugging her is harmless ;) Hahaha, Vincent´s acquaintances are just very demanding, it seems, they can´t be bothered with announcing their arrival first. I cannot spoil anything yet since you´ll read it in a minute, Just that much: *hands over a big dose of Botox*)
Lamica (Hehehe, with a bit of help I finally got it done^^ I usually really let it play in my head, but this time there was just a black nothing for a long time…)
For reviewing. Special Thanks to my wonderful friend chephren and the plotbunnies she fed me and of course as always to the awesome Golden Kitsune for betaing!
Enjoy!
39
Yazoo sat hunched over his books, trying to distract himself, when a few hours later the door to the salon opened and the other two vampires entered with flushed faces. He didn´t know if it was from the blood or other reasons, but he really didn´t want to know either.
Pretending to be utterly consumed by his studies he didn´t even look up when they entered.
“We are having our nightly studies,” Vincent informed his acquaintance quietly, which was answered by a far too interested “Oh, that sounds splendid.” And naturally she had to ask “Would you mind if I joined you?”
“Not at all,” Vincent said and they sat down on the table beside him.
“What are you reading?” Lucrecia asked, trying to look at the book that was laid out before Yazoo.
“Francois de la Cur,” the young vampire replied curtly, turning another page without looking at her.
“Oh. That´s… interesting.” Her voice held an awkward tone as she sat back, not so eager anymore and apparently Vincent noticed too, as he inclined his head and asked, “You do not like his writing?”
“Well,” Lucrecia stretched, picking at a lint on her dress with pointy fingers. “I do not really mind it, but you know… he was a sodomist…”
At that Yazoo looked up to her, arching a brow. “What´s wrong with that?”
The woman gave a laugh that sounded a bit disbelieving, and then her gaze darted to Vincent before she waved a hand and said softly, “Well, you know, it´s just… unnatural.”
There was a moment of silence, in which the ebony haired man crept deeper into his collar, but Yazoo pushed the book aside and entwined his fingers on the table, transfixing his gaze on her. “Really. And why is that.”
“I believe men weren´t made to like other men that way. Nature made them to like women, it´s the only natural way, to have children and…” She paused. “I mean, there might be situations when there is no woman available for a long time, and I do understand that men need relief and that they would turn to other men to get it, but that´s not how it normally is. Men love women, that´s how it is.”
“I detest women.”
Lucrecia gave a forced, little smile at the emotionlessly, matter-of-factly spoken statement, but didn´t break the eyecontact with her former lover´s student either. She stared right back into his fathomless, unflinching eyes and said with a lenient tone, “Have you ever actually been with a woman?”
“No. Maybe I would, if the mere thought of it wouldn´t send me retching out my guts,” Yazoo answered politely, but his eyes remained ice cold.
The woman seemed to fidget under his stare and eventually looked back to the hands folded in her lap, saying quietly, “As I said, I think it is unnatural.”
Yazoo´d probably been shocked about her frankness, but he was too surprised. So he closed his mouth and said slowly “You are feeding from humans since at least 300 years every night, you have to sleep in a coffin, you read peoples minds and alter their memories, you can´t even touch anything that vaguely resembles two crossed sticks and you want to tell me that I am a freak of nature because I prefer the company of men?”
His eyes travelled over to Vincent for support or something since he thought that this matter concerned his lover as well, but so did her gaze, and the poor man could do nothing but keep quiet, sitting on the fence.
Sighing, Lucrecia, corssed her legs and leaned a bit forward, saying gently, “It might just be your lack of experience. I am not saying that your feelings for… males aren´t genuine, but you may mistake deep friendship for love.”
At least now Yazoo´d have expected his master to say something to his defence, since she was directly offending him as well. After all it had been his master who had more or less seduced him in that faithful night, and had turned him a ‘sodomist’. But Vincent just remained silent as if the whole matter didn´t have to do anything with him at all. So after a moment of fruitless waiting Yazoo simply closed his book, stood from his chair and said with a bow, “If you will excuse me then. I do not want to offend your sense of appropriateness by reading the work of sick perverts in your presence.”
And with that he left.
Lucrecia looked after him and then turned towards the other vampire, frowning “Oh dear, I didn´t offend him, did I?”
“I do not know…” Vincent said slowly, looking a bit uncomfortable.. “He is rather…attached to me, he might have misunderstood your arguments…”
“I understand,” she sighed, reaching over the table and taking his hand. “Who wouldn´t be? You are a wonderful person. But I suppose he might have misinterpreted things between you… Maybe he needs some time to figure things out. I mean he only has been with you for so long, he doesn´t know any better, and his affection might have taken on some unhealthy forms…”
Vincent looked to the closed door at that and then back to his friend, asking uncertainly “You think so?”
“Well, it seems rather… likely,” she answered softly, squeezing his hand.
He let his head hung, shaking it resignedly, “You may be right. I have spoiled him a little too much, probably. I never thought about the consequences…”
“Don´t blame yourself, you did the best you could, I am sure of it. But now might be the right time to correct these mistakes.”
*
And so it continued for a few days. The animosity between Yazoo and Lucrecia was almost tangible, but Vincent pretended to be oblivious. It wasn´t really difficult to do so, because Lucrecia was perfectly friendly and polite and Yazoo was, if anything, only more taciturn than usual. He tried to avoid the both of them and he gave Vincent the cold shoulder on the rare occasions that they were alone, to let him know that he was not amused about the whole situation. Luckily for Vincent, Yazoo just wasn´t one to make a scene. Which didn´t mean that he didn´t yearn for the night that the wretched woman would take her leave.
But five nights after their conversation they did not come back until near dawn and to Yazoo´s utter horror they brought a new wooden coffin with them and placed it right beside his own.
It was then that he felt like he had to have a word with Vincent, politely excusing himself to the lady and dragging his lover into the salon.
“Excuse me, what is going on here?”
“Lucrecia will stay with us now.”
“Shall I retreat to the crypt, that you can have some privacy or something?”
“Yazoo, stop behaving like some jealous old woman, I already told you that it does not suit you..”
“Well then, can you tell me with absolute certainty that there is no reason to be jealous?”
It was a calm question, one that could not be dismissed with an annoyed flick of the hand.
Vincent shifted his weight to the other foot, averted his eyes, then sighed and turned toward the window, looking out at the moon.
“Maybe it is better if our ways part here. You need something that I realise now I cannot give you: undivided attention and love. Please do not get me wrong, you mean very much to me, you really do, but if you stay here with me you will only get hurt. And I do not wish for that.”
“And you think you will not hurt me if you throw me out?” Yazoo had turned towards the fire, their backs facing each other.
“No, I do not think that. But it will only be temporary. If you stay with me, it will be much more painful, believe me.”
“Did she tell you that?”
The other remained silent, just looking outside without really seeing anything.
“Listen,” Yazoo said eventually, sounding tired “I am certain that you feel for her very deeply and that you are happy that she is here. And you may not want to think about certain things, but I did.
"I do not know what happened between you or why she left you to go with Sephiroth, but I doubt that he ‘took her away’ from you as you phrased it. She seems very capable of making her own decisions to me and it strikes me awkward that she suddenly appeared after she heard that you are having a life again.”
“You eavesdropped?” the other vampire asked suspiciously, turning around, but Yazoo just continued, unfazed by the interruption.
“I did, but this is not the point here. The point is that you have to think about it this way: Say there is a person you care for and you know this person cares for you too, but at the same time you decided not to be with that particular person. What would you do to ensure that your love interest will never forget about you, in case you may decide one day to come back?”
Vincent did not answer, just kept on watching the back of his student.
“Well, here is what I would do: I would leave that person in utter despair, making sure that he never stops grieving over my loss and clings to the past instead of living on. Now, what would you do if you found out that your plan didn´t work and your lover found someone else?
"I will tell you what I would do: Go back, make them break up, take my former place and as soon as everything is settled I would take my leave, having made sure that my fill-in has been established again. Maybe she doesn’t even think that way, or does it conciously. Maybe she really missed you and only realised it now.
"But the fact that Sephiroth told her about us should make you wary. Do you really believe that he would have sent her here if he wouldn´t expect you to end up miserable again? His only goal is to destroy you. It may not be this week or this year but he knows that she will come back to him eventually for the same reason she left you of her own will once before and you will be the one who looses everything. Your dignity, your trust, her. And me.”
“This is ridiculous, I will not listen to this any longer! You know nothing about us and I will not allow you to calumniate her!” the cloaked vampire snapped harshly, eyes blazing angrily as he turned and stormed out of the room before he could forget himself and do things to Yazoo he might regret later.
Falling back in a chair, the silver haired teen watched the flames idly flickering in the fireplace.
Now this had gone exactly like he had predicted for the worst case scenario.
All he had achieved was driving Vincent right into her arms. But he had to try it anyway, hadn´t he? Since the damn woman had appeared on their door, Vincent had transformed into a wholly different person, desperately doing her every bidding, and there was nothing he could do about it. And since he also wasn´t able to watch the downfall of his master and obviously wasn´t welcome here any longer he would take his leave by tomorrow.
Tbc
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...
..
.
*waves* See you next chapter, and don´t forget to review^^