Indestructible

Title: Indestructible

Author: Enide Dear

Pairing: Valenwind (eventually)

Rating: Aw Gods, the fluff! It burns! It burns!

For Love Confession contest!

Summary:

'And I've never been smart with love

I let the bad ones in and the good ones go but

I'm gonna love you like I've never been hurt before

I'm gonna love you like I'm indestructible.'

- Robyn, Indestructible





The first time Vincent said 'I love you' he was seven years old. His crush was a sweet, red-haired girl with freckles on her nose and eyes as blue as the sky. His heart was pounding in his ears as he said it and his palms were sweating as he pressed his gift into her hands.

The girl took one look at the awkward, shy boy, another at the cold, clammy frog in her hand and then she screamed and pushed him backwards into the frog pond. Vincent crawled out with his clothes sopping wet, the girl and her friends' laughter in his ears and his little boy heart utterly crushed.



The second time Vincent said 'I love you' he was thirteen, going on fourteen. It was a hot, endless summer and his parents had rented a cabin by the sea; the boy in the cabin next to his was dark haired and shy for all that his shoulders were powerful and his body tanned by summer play. They'd played in the water and on the beach, they roamed the summer night under countless stars, they biked together to buy ice cream. At some point they'd ended up entwined in the sandy dunes, kissing and touching and laughing as they shivered with feelings they were only just beginning to understand. When Vincent stammered his confession, the boy had smiled and parted his lips as if to say something back. But the boy's father had caught them just at that moment, furious and yelling he'd beaten up his son and dragged him away, ignoring Vincent's screams to stop, stops.

Vincent couldn't save him and he never saw the boy again.



The third time Vincent said 'I love you' he was sixteen years old and she was twenty five, his school teacher in mathematics and physics. She was just out of school herself, vibrant and alive with long, long legs and hair the colour of spun gold and with a glint in her eyes at the tall, withdrawn boy with the beautiful face and hair kept short over his ears. She took his virginity on the class room desk after school one evening. He loved her utterly and to despair and that they had to keep their relationship secret only added the trill of the forbidden.

They were found out. Vincent never knew how. One day they were both called in to the principal, and faced with the accusations and the risk of loosing her job and perhaps never finding a new, she desperately accused Vincent of rape. In horror he saw his love's eyes turn hard as she sacrificed his future for hers and he couldn't find any words to defend himself.

But there were no evidence and his father hired the best lawyers. The case was dropped and the teacher was fired. He couldn't save her even though he would have done anything to do so.



The fourth time Vincent said 'I love you' he was twenty three and one of the fastest rising stars within the ShinRa Bureau of Investigating Affairs - also known as the Turks. The man was another Turk, boisterous and happy and always able to bring a smile to Vincent's sad face. Sandy haired and grey eyes, he wasn't much to look on but the sheer force of his warm heart shone through to make him beautiful. He taught Vincent new things between the sheets, they were partners, living on the edge and Vincent still climbing the ranks with in the Turks.

Life was wonderful.

Until the evidence was put before him, Vincent couldn't believe the man he loved had betrayed both him and ShinRa. He'd sold secrets, all the secrets that Vincent was privileged as higher in the hierarchy and which he'd naively told his lover. Secrets sold to terrorists. Secrets that was lethal.

At first it was ordered that Vincent be executed as well. He hunted down his former lover, shot him himself and dragged the corpse back to ShinRa. He was freed but no longer held any rank but he didn't care. He didn't have enough left of his heart to care.



The fifth time Vincent said 'I love you' it was to Lucretia with her sad eyes and clever mind. This time he swore to himself he wouldn't let go, he wouldn't let his lover get hurt, he would be happy.

He ended up shot and dead.



The last time Vincent said 'I love you' it was to eyes as blue as the summer sky, to a powerful body, hair like spun gold and a heart and mind that were truly as warm and faithful and clever as they appeared. His heart had been broken so many times he didn't know if there were anything left of it to give but when Cid put his arms around him so hard and whispered those words back to him that he'd waited a life time to hear, then Vincent realized that maybe it didn't matter. Because he'd got Cid's heart in return.