Hurt/Comfort Meme

[my_belfry_of_fun]

Hurt/Comfort - Hurt/comfort is a fan fiction genre that involves the physical pain or emotional distress of one character, who is cared for by another character. The injury, sickness or other kind of hurt allows an exploration of the characters and their relationship.

- Post with Character Name | Series in the subject.
- Others respond.
- Roll 1-10 at RNG for a scene, play it out and have fun!

1. INJURY. You've been injured. Broken bones or bleeding out or maybe just a tiny little papercut. The choice is yours.
2. SICKNESS. You're sick and laid up in bed, at home or in a hospital. The severity is up to you.
3. FEAR/ANXIETY. Something is happening and you're scared beyond belief.
4. LOSS OF SENSES. Sight, touch, taste, hearing, smell, etc. You've lost some important sense or ability and now you're left to deal with it.
5. DESPAIR. Nothing is good or right anymore and you can't shake the depression. Maybe that friend of yours can help though...
6. BREAKUP. You've been dumped. You need someone to comfort you, possibly by the one who dumped you.
7. MAKE UP. Fight or break up, it's time to makeup.
8. RESCUED. You've just been held captive and/or tortured for however long and finally, someone has come to the rescue.
9. BAD ROMANCE. Fight, cheated on, abused, whatever the case is, someone else can clearly see you need comfort from someone who isn't your terrible lover tonight.
10. LOSS. You've experience a loss of some kind and need help getting through it.
11. INSANITY. You're seeing things that aren't really there, hearing voices, or you're just convinced you're at your wit's end finally and you're going to crack. Maybe someone can give you a helping hand.
12. TIRED. You've had a heard life recently and you're just worn too thin to really care anymore. There's no fight left in you anymore. Can someone help change your mind?
13. ADDICTION. Drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, or any other type of addiction has got you in its grasp. First time or relapse. Will someone be able to save you?
14. INSOMNIA. You can't sleep anymore, no matter how hard you try. Maybe someone can give you company.
15. NIGHTMARES. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, you can't sleep without gruesome, horrible nightmares. Either someone is stuck in your dream with you, witnessing it or they're just waking you up, soothing you out of it.
16. BLACKMAIL. You've been caught doing something you shouldn't and you were blackmailed because of it
17. SEPARATION. You're going to be separated for awhile or were separated for a long time. Either make up for lost time or try to spend every last moment together.
18. SINS. You're feeling the weight of your sins and guilt clearer than ever. Can someone give you absolution or lessen the ache any?
21. SECRET. It's difficult having to keep that secret of yours, be it a relationship or something you just don't want to share with anybody else. Maybe it's okay to talk about it now though...

Comments

[toomanymistakes]

For probably once in the three months she'd been in the city she doesn't flinch, or rather has no reaction at all to the hand on her shoulder. Instead she just sits there, the dark rings under her eyes likely answering the latter part of her friend's question better than any numerical value could.

"I'm not sure, a few of us were up all night attempting to decode the cipher," she answered so quietly he probably could only make out only a few words from her attempt to reply. Shiva's tits, she was still seeing a part of it as she looked into Vincent's eyes as though the negatives were imprinted into her retinas.

[bloodypast]

Able to make out enough, even as it was clear from the visual evidence before his eyes. Her posture, the dark rings, the faint voice. "May I..." Starting, then stopping and shaking his head.

"I'm walking you home." Better to make sure she rested, and that she'd get food on the way. Worth it to him, for his peace of mind. A step back, "I'll be right back." before he was walking away. He'd retrieve his firearm, formally clock-out, and then they could move.

Vincent could still not remember when he'd ever seen her this exhausted.

[toomanymistakes]

She nodded once, watching him disappear around the corner as he went to clock out. For a moment, she thought that perhaps she was a bit more alert and started to stand up.

...but by the time Vincent would return, he'd likely find her dozing awkwardly half on the floor, half still in the chair. Muttering what was likely gibberish to him under her quiet breaths.

[bloodypast]

Returning, that had not been what he'd expected. Especially since Sheena had followed him, mostly to see what had pulled him away and satisfy her curiosity. Not that she wasn't aware he had friends, she was friends with some of the same even.

She just hadn't met Dr. Crescent yet--another person from his world. So many of them really. Kneeling, the other ninja gave the passed out scientist a once-over too, then back up to Vincent. "I assume if I leave this to you, you're not going to do anything I have to find and beat you up for later, right?" She grinned upon noticing her coworker and fellow Hero stand up slightly at the affront to his pride.

"I should call you 'Miss Fujibayashi' for that for the next week, Sheena." Which just made her smirk at him. Standing with him, as he'd knelt and done his best to pick Lucrecia up carefully. Conscious of the weakness in his left arm--he should be fine for now. "Yes Mr. Valentine, and I still meant what I said." The ninja teased back, winking. Then her expression looked slightly more serious. "Go, I doubt you'll get any questions but I'll cover if you do."

A nod, being sure he had a secure grip, left arm under her knees, right under her shoulder and around her back and ribs. Even passed out, they'd managed to get one of Lucrecia's arms around his own neck and shoulder for added stability. Meanwhile he was pondering his next plan--take her to where she was staying?

The observatory was nice, but it was also sparse for guest quarters. Not for lack of effort and time on Zelda's part, but many of the other Heroes were staying there currently. Nor was she likely to rest or sit down for a food without working through it.

An Inn held similar problems, not to mention at least one of them held a certain Bartender who'd proven he had a nose for gossip. While it did amuse Vincent to poke back at the other, he also wasn't keen on the man using the tragedy of their lives for his own amusement. Inns also were expensive, and while Heroes got a stipend it wasn't much; the other heroes also hadn't even that.

Sighing, he vaguely hoped Yuffie was not coming home anytime soon. Then again, if Reno could crash on their couch regularly, then Lucrecia doing so for a few hours should be fine too. His next decision was whether to take shortcuts via the back-alleys and roofs (and if he could do so safely without disrupting the woman in his arms) or the streets.

Streets were too public, so shortcuts it was until his arm or other parts of him protested.

[toomanymistakes]

Maybe it was the minimum of three days straight with no sleep that she did not stir at the the voices. One day once her inevitable embarrassment wore off, she would likely return in hopes of meeting Sheena properly. Until then, she did not protest anything. At least, until they were traversing the shortcuts.

It was the same thing she'd seen for weeks on end: She could see the bloodied faces of the other Heroes who were no so fortunate to make it to Mysidia no matter where she turned, as if they were taunting her. Why should she still exist, with all she'd done, when their innocent lives had ended? It wasn't fair to them. It wasn't fair, at all. They could have been of much better use to the others than she ever would be. She couldn't even find the answer to a simple cipher, let alone an answer to protect them all from Palitutu's plans.

She ran from them. Ran, trying to escape the haunted faces of those whose eyes would never see the light of day again. Yet for every step, her feet felt heavier and heavier until she found she couldn't move. She knew what was coming next; it had been the same the last few times she'd dreamt...

"No, not again."

...It was likely obvious with her breathing patterns that she was indeed still asleep, but not nearly as peacefully as one would hope.

[bloodypast]

Vincent had, at more than one point before her restlessness had become increasingly obvious, been mildly annoyed that the Ninja Job's special ability with a crystal would only confer Invisibility upon himself. It would've made things so much simpler. Careful of her though, and planning his routes out as much as he could. Clear enough to him that Lucrecia had obviously not let herself rest for sometime.

Nor would he have been at all surprised to find she was suffering nightmares. Not with all that she had been through on Crystallis alone, never mind her time before then and her visions. A deep breath in and out, as the dark gunslinger took a breather on a roof-corner, not far from the border now. About to head back to the streets and alleys, when she spoke in her sleep and stole his attention.

"Lucrecia?" Low, shifting his position to support her as he brought his left hand up and brushed back some of her hair. Whether trying to comfort him or her, Vincent honestly couldn't say.

[toomanymistakes]

As though on queue, the blackness and faces seemed to vanish as though they were a curtain being torn in two to reveal Hojo's lab in the manor, and his laughter as she stood there in terror. Somewhere she could hear her voice being called, but all she could muster was:

I'm... "-so sorry."

Then she was in the lab again, her lab, and standing between Hojo and her computer monitor.

'I see! Another experiment? Once a scientist, always a scientist--'

No, he was wrong. It wasn't... HE wasn't-!

Yet even that scene seemed to fade into static; something new from the usual nightmare, until she saw the demon itself staring back at her.

"Cha...os..."

She awoke with a jolt, not realizing for a second that her grip had tightened on Vincent's suit jacket as she slept, or even that she was being carried until her eyes adjusted. "Where... are we?"

$@#&, she'd fallen asleep waiting for him to return hadn't she.

[bloodypast]

Chaos? Crimson-eyes blinked, and for a second--only a second--Vincent felt a nudge at his consciousness that was a feeling of anger and rage. Crystallis--his status as a Hero and dependency on the Crystal as his link to home--had locked away most all of the effects all the experiments had wrought on his tortured body. Leaving him human, save in times of great pain and duress when he found that he still could call him, could change.

The jolt though, made him push the confusion and thoughts stirring back to be mulled over later. "You passed out." Perhaps stating the obvious, but Vincent felt it necessary to confirm it for her. Left hand dropped to rest against at his side, he still supported her under her shoulder, around her ribs and waist with his right. "Up on a roof under an overhang. Better to take shortcuts and alleyways."

[toomanymistakes]

Thank you, Vincent, for stating what was becoming painfully obvious. She had hoped, that of those who would witness her having a nightmare like that, Vincent would not be one of them. Yet it seemed as though fate would decree it differently than she'd wish.

Loosening her gip, she glanced away. "Put me down," she muttered, "I can walk from here." They both knew the gossipmongers didn't need more fuel for their fires. That, and she had a feeling things were about to get...strained.

[bloodypast]

Not as strained as she might think; although for the first time since they'd reunited and met, he did not listen to her. Not letting her go or putting her down anyways. "...and let you fall off the roof?" There is a very arched-eyebrow, and some amusement in crimson-eyes, before looping his left hand under her knees again.

Easy enough to leap down, and only on the ground in the alleyway, did he finally comply with her request. Taking a full step back, to give her space even. "And where will you walk to, Lucrecia? You passed out." Calm tones, but firm.

[toomanymistakes]

For a moment, Lucrecia simply gave him a scrutinized look as though she had implied down on the ground below in her sleep-deprived state. Yet she does not protest further, a small embarrassed smile briefly flashing across her lips as he leapt down. It was a small relief to have solid ground under her feet again, much as she may have secretly liked being carried. A relief that faded as quickly as her smile, for she wasn't sure. Her feet had guided her to Vincent in a moment of need for someone who would not judge her as harshly, nor could she let the younger Heroes she'd tried to watch over know more beyond what Barret had spat out between slurs she would not repeat in civilized discussion.

"...I don't know," she admitted, withdrawing a little within herself. "I had wanted to speak with you before returning to the observatory, but-"

Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to when the faces of the dead were friends of several of the other Heroes residing there.

[bloodypast]

A pivot of his position, studying her again. He had meant to try and show his concern, the seriousness that she needed to rest, not to make her withdraw. "I considered the Observatory, as well as other places." No surprise there.

"But decided they would not be suitable. Not that my answer is the best either..." Things were still strained at times between them, and between he and Yuffie regarding her. "I cook though, and my house is empty for the next several hours, aside from a moogle or two."

Enough to let her rest and recover a bit.

[toomanymistakes]

"Which is...?" she'd began, curiosity getting the better of her. If it was something that seemed only slightly better than the alternatives, she'd wondered what the one that seemed the lesser of evils-

Oh. Oh, that would definitely be awkward and caused her to raise an eyebrow. Tired as she was and much as she didn't mind Vincent's cooking, she couldn't help but be worried. "Are you sure? What if Yuffie returns early?" She knew how much the young princess disliked her even speaking with Vincent, let alone existing in the same city.

[bloodypast]

Vincent's eyes narrowed only slightly. Not at Lucrecia, and hopefully she'd know him well enough. Yuffie would simply have to deal, and he would take care of it.

Confirming, a step towards her, arm out such that she could lace her arm through it if she wished. If not, it was still easy enough to place it in a suit-pocket casually. "We're not far, and Ophelia will be there. Mooshoo, if he is around, is more mature than his Hero as well." Mooshoo would likely understand Vincent's reasoning, and at least keep things polite even if he didn't like the situation.

[toomanymistakes]

That small glare not directed at her in particular was enough of an answer for her. Without much hesitation, she closed the distance and interlaced her arm with Vincent's. "If you're sure," she relented, perhaps she was leaning into him a little too much than she should. But after that show of concern, her reserves of damns were depleted. If nothing else and she awoke to their arguing, she could just sneak out. Or rather, try two. Silly ninja jobs.

[bloodypast]

It was subtle, a relaxing of his shoulders that didn't affect his posture, but spoke of the tension he'd held. Relaxing when she didn't protest or fight him on it, automatically adjusting his pace. Walking, ignoring the deja-vu--there had been so much deja-vu at different points since her arrival.

The sky indicated late afternoon, from the position of the sun and there was damp in the air that smelled of oncoming rains. It was a bit longer to do so, but Vincent had taken routes that moved him through the 8th District from the 3rd, housing the school and university. Fewer of the Heroes were students, so it meant they were less likely to be spotted. A-O2 was right on the border with the 8th district, on the 14th's side, and Vincent had mentally scanned over his neighbors, who'd be likely to be around, and so on.

Not the best option maybe, but certainly the best of the ones prevented to him as they walked. Peaceful and quiet--didn't mean the ex-Turk wasn't alert. But he was a quiet person by nature and while a myriad thoughts ran in his brain, the priority was the 'mission'.

Not long at all before they were coming upon the residential district and walking past the slightly larger B-style house to A-O2.

[toomanymistakes]

For much of the walk Lucrecia remained silent. She didn't fully pay attention where they were going aside from not bumping into something, or not to trip in her heels. Relying on Vincent to know where they were going was just so easy to do, having trusted him with so much more in the past. Even after...

In a brief moment of clarity, she glanced at Vincent's left hand as they walked. It had been the arm that had decayed most, and in the few months of being reunited with him she'd noticed his not using it for things that required more dexrous movements. Realizing that, maybe, he'd given up the more familiar way of defense. Not that he likely needed it right now, but it did not go missed.

"...sorry," she breathed under her breath sleepily. Both for being a burden, and for something she still had yet to say.

[bloodypast]

"Hmm?" The noise and raised brow met her soft query. Both had more than enough guilt in their souls--it could be anything. Unlooping his arm only to unlock the door, Vincent enjoyed a brief moment of startled irony.

Keeping it to himself however--now he knew what Yuffie felt like, yelling at him to stop apologizing all the time.

Stepping in, ushering Lucrecia with him, it wasn't long until a white furry blur zipped to the pair, red-scarf and pom waving with the speed. "Welcome home kupooooOh!" A blink, Ophelia clasping her hands in her scarf in mild surprise. She wasn't any less welcoming however, taking in the bags under Lucrecia's eyes.

Fluttering closer to take a look, then up to Vincent, moving with them as he led them to the living room. "I'll go get tea started kupo. Anything else?" Hovering, and Vincent shook his head. "Tea will be fine for now, Ophelia thank you. Dr. Crescent pulled an all-nighter."

Ophelia pouted, and fluttered back over to cross her arms in front of the scientist. "You know better kupo!" Protective, as she liked the other hero--even with all the complications this had brought. "Mooshoo is upstairs, I'll give him a warning to delay Yuffie too if that'd help?"

Crimson eyes blinked, before Vincent nodded. "That would be appreciated, but only if he wants." After all, Reno crashed on their couch often enough. Lucrecia could do the same as far as he was concerned.

[toomanymistakes]

Letting him go, she waved with her now-free hand to Ophelia. "Hello, Ophelia. Sorry for the surprise visit," she replied with a smile, before giving Vincent a look when he wasn't looking. Did he really have to inform her of the overnighter. "I'm afraid even after all this time to adjust, insomnia does not simply disappear."

Nor nightmares, but she wasn't about to explain that so soon. Nor the subject of said repeated nightmares. At the very least, she'd hoped that she would be able to use her sleepless nights to be productive. Yet here she was.
She sat herself down on the couch once they reached the living room, albeit a little awkward over all this fuss.

[bloodypast]

Oh but Ophelia caught that look and wanted to sigh at the pair of them. Best also that neither Hero knew that she and Mooshoo had discussed the situation themselves a few times. Not least of which because of the conflict it had created between Yuffie and Vincent. The moogles were duty bound to be good companions to their heroes, and would've done so even if they were not both very fond of their Heroes.

"Weeeellll" Drawing it out, the little moogle was still giving her a pout. "Good thing you're in the right place then kupo. The people in this house are used to insomnia, so we moogles are used to dealing with it kupo!" Determined, and moving to pull the blanket down from the couch into Lucrecia's reach before she flitted off to the kitchen.

She didn't know the scientist-hero well, not yet. They had talked, and she most certainly liked the older woman from what she could see. Clear enough she carried guilt and was trying to atone--not unlike Ophelia's own hero, even before he'd confessed the bare story of just whom she was to the rest of them from Gaia. Yeesh what a mess--it was almost like one of Ophelia's stories from her books.

While his companion moved to start water, Vincent was mentally cataloging what would be quick but filling. Moving to the armchair that was his usual spot, before addressing her. "You wanted to talk?"

[toomanymistakes]

As Ophelia left the room, she nodded. Of course she had, but left alone in a room with him... Perhaps it was time she were completely honest with him.

"...I fear I'm nearing my limit," she admitted, voice low so Ophelia would hopefully not overhear. The very faint glow in her eyes faded as she stared at her hands, she felt it best to start from the beginning. "When we were summoned, I thought that the visions would stop. The constant pain had, as though some part of what Kalki had done to call us here had caused the cells to go into remission." Something that until recently she had been grateful for. At last, she could finally die like anyone else.

"When Heroes who were summoned with colored crystals reach their mortal limits, they turn to Crystal. But when those of us without color in ours reach the brink, there is no coming back. We die, and no manner of magic can revive them." She let that statement sink in as she bowed her head. "When Kalki told us that we were to defend the others who had turned to Crystal, I hoped that would be how it ended; that it would be my atonement for what I had done - to you, to my son... Yet when Palitutu attacked, another took the killing blow as he shoved me through the portal. His face has haunted me every time I close my eyes. His, so many others..."

When she looked up to face the one she'd hurt the most, a few tears were fighting to fall down her cheeks. "And yours, Vincent."

[bloodypast]

A thousand different thoughts raced through his head. Anger and disbelief--it couldn't turn out this way, could it? A stab of fear and pain, at the idea of losing her again. Cynicism and disgust, worry, confusion--too many emotions interconnected to make sense of any one easily.

Staring back at her for a moment, mouth open slightly but no sound coming out. Vincent understood her, all too well---he'd found some reason to at least feign living again in dealing with Hojo, and then in his decision to help deal with the horror Sephiroth had become. Then he'd been pulled to Crystallis, and for all the similarities and pain and anguish here--part of him had started to live again too.

Unmoving, save for his breathing and crimson-eyes blinked at her--emotions flickering too fast across them to be understood before they were tamped down behind a wall. Waging an inner battle with himself, before getting to his feet once more. Quiet foot falls, measured pace, then kneeling to be more on her level. Reaching out and gently wiping those tears, eyes closing. Gathering courage or composure maybe, later on he wouldn't be able to tell.

"...is my face that hideous?" Low, warmth and understanding in his tone. One epiphany had struck him most with her words. She was suffering, punishing herself--and he still only wanted her happiness.

[toomanymistakes]

For as much as she'd done, until that day she awoke in Aqures Tosf she had no reason to live. She had failed; as a mother, as a friend. Until the day she was shoved into the portal to the research facility, she had no reason to keep pushing herself towards the next day and the day after that. At the facility, she'd finally been of use to the others. Could help them uncover data on this world and what Kalki and her fellow researchers had discovered. Her experience as a scientist had paid off. But now, if felt as though even that feeling of usefulness had crumbled away.

Yet feeling the warmth of Vincent's hand against her cheek, hearing the understanding in his voice, she knew she'd $@&$ed up. "You misunderstand." Her voice was quiet, a small pained smile crossing her lips as she reached up to rest her hand on his own. For all his stoic facade, she could see it in his face that she'd done the opposite of what she ever wanted to do again. "You're as handsome now as you were the day we first met."

Give me a reason to keep moving, she wanted to say. Please stop me from doing something we'll both regret, she thought. Yet instead she asked, "Tell me, Vincent: What do you know about Chaos?"

[bloodypast]

Enough to recognize a change of subject. It hurt but he was no stranger to pain like this. If anything it stung more because he almost hoped this wasn't a change of subject but was relevant. Hope was such a cruel thing...

Keeping his eyes closed--Vincent couldn't keep his emotions from showing like this, so better to keep them closed. "It's difficult to explain, as much of it is tied with the crystals here interfering." Low, keeping his right hand against her cheek and reveling in the feel of her own warm touch over it. "I can call upon him here, in times of great stress--but I am not in control."

Pausing between his words, left hand moving up. Practiced, although it had been years, as his head turned enough. Teeth and mouth being used to undo and pull off the leather glove. Tossing it aside, and fingers covered by a lattice of fine scars reached up to brush her other cheek too. "Rage, anger...but enough that I can control him from striking out against allies. Until the battle is done, or I am unconscious, he remains in control once called."

[toomanymistakes]

"'Soul wrought of terra corrupt. A quelling impurity cleansing the stream, to beckon forth an ultimate fate. Behold mighty Chaos, Omega's squire to the lofty heavens.' ...It was passage from the Chronicles of Yore, one of the texts written by the Ancients that your father and I were researching when he..."

Her voice caught for a moment, before she closed her eyes. The feeling of those scars so close to her, knowing what it had been to stop him from losing that hand altogether. He had the right to know. "When I walked into Hojo's lab and saw you lying there, I couldn't... I couldn't lose you too to his madness," she admitted, as hard as it was to do so. "He'd labeled you a failed experiment, and was going to have your body disposed of. So I hid you in one of the medic pods in my lab, did everything possible to ensure you survived..."

Including infusing him with the self-same essence that would one day bring about the end of their planet. Not exactly her best move, but one made out of desperation. "Having seen him in combat, it's only right you should know why you have his power... is because he lives inside you."