Viral Love

Screams and the wet snapping of bones brought me out of sleep. Startled, I sat up in time to see Hojo breaking someone in half while in his Jenova form. By the first rays of morning light, I spied four dead bodies already strewn around him, and he held a fifth in his tentacles while slowly, slowly killing the sixth.

He had it under control. I didn’t rush over and take his prey. I knew he’d never surrender the still-whole man, and the one he mangled now would never recover.

My fuzzy head understood something about this situation was wrong, but it took me a long minute to figure it out. Hojo wasn’t in a Jenova form at all; I’d just assumed so because of seeing so many tentacles. No, he killed while still in his right mind.

His lack of expression made my blood run cold. I could stand demonic glee, or anger, but I saw nothing. It looked like he wore a mask of his own face. He slaughtered with no feeling, not even the enjoyment of a kill.

“Who do you work for?” he calmly, quietly asked the surviving man.

The sobbing man went limp a moment. “I’ll- I won’t work for anyone if you let me go!”

Hojo sighed. “If only I could believe you,” he said, almost sounding sad. His tentacles began to tighten slowly.

“No, please! I have a family!” The man closed his eyes tightly. “I was only taking this job to feed them!”

Hojo put the would-be assassin on the ground, then placed his booted foot on the man’s neck to pin him. One of his eerie arms reached into the man’s pocket and drew out a wallet. Like he had all the time in the world, he flipped it open and began searching. “Don’t you have a skill other than murder?” he asked conversationally, carefully looking at cards and pictures. “Not that I’d call murder a skill. Anyone can kill.”

“I- no, I’ve never-.”

“You’ve never killed anyone before?” Hojo’s eyebrows lifted slightly. “Well, your wallet certainly bears credence to that. Who’s the red-headed girl?”

“M-my daughter, Olivia,” the man answered, trying to wipe his tears away good enough to see Hojo. “She’s six years old.”

Hojo closed the wallet and put it carefully back. “Do you know who I am, Joseph Ghere?”

“I didn’t until I got here,” Ghere replied. “You’re Professor Hojo, of Shin-Ra.”

“Ah, you used my honorific.” Hojo finally began to show a shred of emotion. “Not many people do.” He stepped back, lifting his boot from Ghere’s neck. “So, you must know what I’m famous for?”

“For…” Ghere swallowed. He did not get up, wisely, but lay there in the dust like a dog, showing his belly in submission. “For making monsters.”

“Then you know what will happen to your pretty little girl if I see you return to this vocation.” Hojo smiled coldly. “And maybe your wife. Maybe your mother and father, and brother. Maybe even you, Ghere. I always need lab rats.” He leaned down and picked Ghere up, setting him on his feet. “I strongly suggest you forget about killing people for a living.”

Ghere dove through the underbrush and ran. Hojo, not looking at me, sighed. “Go back to sleep, Valentine,” he admonished gently, still emotionless. “We have hours before we can accomplish anything.”

A quiet, creeping fear touched my heart. It seemed I hadn’t been dealing with the full Hojo all these weeks…

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“You realize where we’re going?” I asked him, drinking the last of his water. “There’s only one place Quinn could be.”

Valentine looked at the ground a moment. “The Shin-Ra Mansion,” he murmured, using that shiver-inducing rasp. “Poetic, don’t you think?” Lifting red eyes to mine, his gaze darkened to the color of old blood. “But, not quite ironic…”

Sometimes he really impressed me. Despite all Lucrecia and I had done, he remained very much his own personality. Smart, so smart, and he didn’t even know it. Didn’t think about his own intelligence, just like a wild animal. And, the beauty went more than skin deep.

I could listen to him talk for hours, but he’d never speak so much. I could look into his garnet gaze for days at a time, but he’d never meet my eyes for more than a few seconds.

Did he read poetry? Did he sometimes find a book that could distract him from picking at his mental wounds? Had anyone ever nurtured that clever mind, or had he relied only upon physical skills to survive all these years?

He shifted and grimaced. “I don’t like the way you look at me right now,” he confessed. “Especially in light of where we’re going.” He made a golden fist. “Is it foolish of me to trust you at my back, Hojo?”

I knew I shouldn’t smile, but I couldn’t help it. “I would have said ‘no’ before our trip to the Gold Saucer,” I told him. “It’s still ‘no’, but I can keep my fantasies, can’t I, Valentine?”

“What fantasies?” he growled, his body gaining more and more tension with every second.

“We’re going down into the mansion, and I know my equipment is still there… waiting for me,” I murmured. Truly, the temptation seemed almost insurmountable. I’d enjoy exploring him. This time I wouldn’t put on gloves. I’d caress every bit of his glorious, undead, luminous perfection with my bare hands. He almost begged me to do it. I laced my hands behind my back. “But, it’s old, outdated equipment, and not worthy of you at all.”

Valentine’s eyes began to brighten, showing the color of fresh, oxygenated blood instead of old. Very slowly, he straightened his posture from his usual indolent slouch. He blinked twice, a sign that he assimilated my words and judged my body language. Very slowly, the corner of his mouth lifted in an extremely small smile. “You’re walking in front of me today, Hojo,” he said, and I almost felt he teased me.

Incredible. He dared have a sense of humor about all this. Didn’t he know how very real a threat I posed to him right now? I didn’t answer or move, preferring to see how he reacted to that. But, he stayed as still and patient as a statue.

Yes, he did know I was dangerous right now, but it almost seemed he welcomed that.

“You like me this way or what?” I asked abruptly.

He chuckled so lightly I barely heard him. “It’s familiar, at least,” he revealed.

“Feel order has returned to your universe?” I asked, coming closer to him by a single step. He amused me, this one-time specimen and long-time sore spot. “I’m glad I can give you some amount of pleasure.”

Valentine’s stare liquefied into deep calculation and… relief? Enjoyment? I couldn’t tell. He really did find pleasure in my aggression toward him. It soothed his world to have me this way. I found that both thrilling and sad. Time to press him in a way he didn’t expect…

He let me walk right up to him, just watched me get closer and closer until I only stood two feet away. “Maybe you should convince me not to think about you in context of a lab,” I said.

“How can I direct the mind of a mad man?” he asked, still seeming amused. “You’ll always think of me as an accomplishment, not as a human being.”

“And you find that funny?” I prodded.

“Yes. This trip exposed my humanity.” Valentine crossed his arms over his chest, doing that slouch-lean thing that meant confidence. “In showing me my demons don’t exist outside of me, the journey had a use after all.”

I paused. He highlighted a most salient point. No wonder he found this all amusing. I did too, now. I’d helped him remember his humanity while my own grip on it slipped farther away. I’d reassured him in two different ways, actually, if this sudden fascination with my predatory madness bore out as solid.

“It isn’t over yet,” I reminded, coming just a bit closer. “You know better than to start figuring before you’re given all the sums.”

Valentine looked at his gauntlet with casual attention, spreading his fingers out to examine the claws. With that arm slightly out, his head down and body in a gentle S-curve, he simply radiated coolness. Coolness that stirred heat, that is.

Sweet Shiva, what a man. Didn’t he understand that putting himself on display like this only made it more difficult for me to keep resolve? His eyes slid to mine, and I saw with a jolt that he did know that. He posed for me deliberately.

Oh, Valentine, I thought with a strange sort of breathlessness, you don’t know how effective your efforts are. Go ahead and show me your plumage, just like you did while wearing the skin of Chaos… He deserved torture for tempting me, invited it intentionally. Maybe he wanted me to make things right between us by showing his willingness for it.

I was so hard even my borrowed leather pants couldn’t effectively restrain me.

“It’s all in the delivery, isn’t it?” Valentine asked, and I barely heard the meaning of his words. I focused on his voice, on his lips and face while he spoke.

“Usually,” I admitted, “but what are you referring to right now?”

He smiled, which always threatened to stop my heart. “You like to play with your food, Hojo.”

Yes, I did. And I could eat him right now…

No, I couldn’t. We had a job to do.

Yes, I could. I didn’t have a time limit. If I wanted to drag him down to the moss covered ground, I had to only act.

Valentine’s eyes half-closed. He shivered. “I can see what you’re thinking, you know,” he said softly.

“I don’t see how that changes anything,” I answered mildly, closing the distance. I nearly stood against him now. I can see what you’re thinking, too, Vincent Valentine, you fucking tease. Wait until I have you strapped down. I’m going to spread you wide open, and you’re going to take everything I decide you need.

I’ll clone you, and wear myself out on the copy before I even start on you, Valentine. That way I’ll be fresh, able to focus on you entirely. I’ll already know every sensitive spot, every place that makes you gasp and whimper. And, after I’ve explored you to exhaustion, I’ll make your entire body respond to my every whim. You’ll be a toy I never tire of, and I’ll wrap myself around you until you can’t think of anything but the painful bliss I bring.

I smelled his gunpowder-and-rain musk. He was breathing very hard now, almost as if he’d been running. “Does this excite you?” I asked, looking up into his eyes. “Does it make your blood run hot, thinking about what I might do to you? Do you like fighting with me?”

His lips parted. “You said it yourself, Hojo,” he rumbled. “Without you, I have no focus for the hatred that nourishes me so much.”

Smiling, I slowly turned my back to him. I didn’t move away. “You need that hate, Turk, or do you just need me?”

I heard his little intake of breath, the sound of shock. His heat radiated against my back.

“As long as you deliver,” he said after awhile. “I don’t suppose it matters, does it?”

“Well said.” I rolled my sleeves up and turned to smile at him. “Shall we go?”