Heart of Glass

05

Peeking over Vincent's arm, Nelly could almost hear the gears turning in his head as he looked down at the membership slip in his gauntleted hand. The poor woman who seemed moments ago so over the moon about the fiends being dealt with, was now standing looking as confused as Vincent. Nelly was the only one who just seemed relatively okay with this situation, she had already got her membership, that happened the previous time they were all here, so it made sort of sense that the woman would reward Vincent with that. But the way he side eyed the money Nelly got had him seemingly trying to figure out how this was a fair deal, when he did just as much if not a little more than her.

"Thank you so much! If you need any more help, we'll be around for a little while I think..." Nelly beamed and looked pointedly up at Vincent, she was expecting something, and he gave nothing. He just gave a nod, pocketed the slip and turned and walked away just as silently; if not for the metallic clinking that came from each movement he made. Nelly looked awkwardly back at the woman, she whispered a quiet apology and ran after Vincent. The wall he was previously leaning against was clearly calling out to him, because that's where he was making for.

Nelly just sighed, seriously, he was just going to go lean against a wall for the time they were here? Running a hand down her face, she trotted after him. She was trying, maybe a little too hard to compensate for any awkward atmosphere that could've happened between them previously. "It's the same," her voice had Vincent stopping, he was near the mooring, they could both see the Broncho. "Your membership and what I got, it's the same. If you wanted to buy it outright, it's about 300 gil." Nelly explained, she didn't know when Vincent was last out and about in the wider world, considering he said he'd been around for a while, a lot could've changed since last time. Also, she had zero clue if he knew that the membership cost that much.

He listened to her; Vincent stood motionless as ever apart from his cloak moving in the warm breeze coming off the crystal blue water behind him. Nelly just stared up at him, unblinkingly just waiting and watching, when he remained silent, she groaned and hung her head. Why was he now being absolutely impossible? Holding up her hands, Nelly turned and gestured behind herself. "Let me buy you a drink." She didn't know if he had money, but considering the woman just gave her 300 gil, the least she could do was buy Vincent a drink. Not only that, if the man wouldn't change into weather appropriate gear, then the least he could do was hydrate and not end up keeling over from the overbearing sun.

That had his red eyes flicking over the top of her head and looking towards the direction her hands were still gesturing to. Nelly didn't think it was a hard thing to agree or disagree to, but apparently it took longer to think about than she ever thought, in the end he did nod though and that had her grinning up at him. She was going to take that as a small victory, all of this was a small victory; she'd managed to get him away from his new favourite leaning place, regardless of the fiends and the concern he gave her, it was still a win. But also, now she was managing to get him away from that damn wall and somewhere else.

Nelly pouted in thought as they walked towards the bar, maybe he was humouring her? She looked up at him from the corner of her eyes, it wasn't like she could see much of his features, his cloak, bandana and now his long dark hair shielded him. With a sigh, Nelly shook her head, she'll take humouring, as awful as that might be, but she'd take it.

At least inside the bar it was cooler, the wooden flooring radiated a coolness that the outside sun couldn't seem to taint. Being fully opened windowed, no glass being present at all, it did allow a fresh breeze to come in. All in all, the bar was the coolest place that was probably here, even Johnny's caught the afternoon sun which made it extremely hot at times.

Even before Nelly could open her mouth, Vincent was already sitting down at a table. She slowly sat down opposite to him, he seemed to have that habit, apparently. Just going off and doing something regardless of others present. Nelly softly sighed, maybe he was still off from earlier? She had said she wasn't afraid of him, she was worried for him, there was a huge difference. "What'll be?" She crossed her arms on the table, enjoying the cool wood as she crossed her ankles underneath her chair. From the minute shake of his head, Nelly just looked despairingly at him. She resisted saying something, she just hung her head and leaned it against her crossed arms. Did he honestly just humour coming with her, to just sit and do nothing?