Blood & Sympathy (FFVII: Vincent x OC)

Ch93 - Hope For the Future

How things might've been. That's all he thought about. He hadn't realized he had been staring at the night clear sky. He hadn't realized he was lying down on the soil. He just knew his limbs ached. His entire body ached and he couldn't move. He couldn't even flinch. He didn't know how many hours he laid there. In the middle of nowhere beneath the dark sky. The breeze was cold. It brushed his cheeks and he felt it. He felt the cold. He felt the pain radiating from his wounds.

He hadn't died like he hoped. He hadn't died. But he did not think about it. He just thought of how things might've been with her. He thought about how life would've been if they'd ever get to live it together.

He thought of the day they first met, back in the Shinra Manor. How she had blushed back then and stumbled on her words. And how later on they'd sit every day for lunch and they'd talk. Even back then when Lucrecia had broken his heart, Jocasta would make him smile. She would make her crappy jokes. She would tease him calling him Vince and he would act annoyed although he wasn't.

He remembered the nights. He'd find her passed out by her desk, with an empty bottle of whiskey beside her. It made his heart ache even back then. And he'd pick her up and take her to bed, to rest properly. He could still feel the shifting of her body closer to his whenever he'd hold her. He remembered that night that he'd found her in that forest after hunting. He had picked her up and gathered her in his lap because he had missed her so much. He remembered the night they danced in Cid's wedding. How she had buried her face in his neck. How tightly his fingers had clutched on that blue dress that she was wearing.

It all seemed so long ago. It all seemed so perfect back then, but now... A tear slipped down his cheek and landed on the cold, hard soil that he laid on. Vincent just stared blankly at the dark sky. Chaos had left. It had returned to the Planet, and so had Omega. Vincent didn't know where he had landed after his encounter. He just knew he felt pain everywhere.

But he wasn't crying because of the pain. He was crying for her. He was crying because now he had to live without her. At least, he wasn't going to live an eternity now. But she was gone. She was gone. He remembered her salty cheeks, her shiny, silver eyes when they stared up at him for the last time. The moment when they both confessed their love for each other, before they had to do it. Her fingers were tight around his when they both pushed that dagger inside her stomach. And then he had to listen to her crying, and her whimpers. Then he had to look on that painful smile that she had forced on her lips, for him.

And then he had to watch her head rolling back as she let out her final breath. Another tear slipped down his cheek as he stared blankly at the sky. Another door was opening and this time it led to a path of utter loneliness, and pain.

"Maybe some people... are just never meant to be happy,"

He could even hear her voice in his head. Maybe she was right. He had to watch her go. He had to watch the woman that he loved, die. For the second time. How was he supposed to move on now? How was he supposed to pick back the pieces of his broken self? How was he supposed to do that alone?

He didn't know how many hours he laid there. Maybe he was hoping that some wild beast would find him and eat him. Yeah. That'd be nice. That'd be a sweet end in that story. He closed his eyes, pushing a few more tears down his cheeks, and he thought of her.

He thought of how things might've been. Living with her. Waking up every day by her side. He just wanted to be happy. Why was this so much to ask?