Blood & Sympathy (FFVII: Vincent x OC)

Ch23 - Frost

She began to stir when she felt light hitting her eyelids. Jocasta opened her eyes, allowing the morning light in. Her eyes took a moment to adjust before she gained her senses fully, and she felt arms around her. She looked down only to find his left arm that wore the gauntlet, around her waist. Jocasta turned her attention to her hands. Her palms were pressed flat against the leathery straps of his chest.

Her eyes widened in panic. No, no, no... This is too close! Jocasta let out a yelp of surprise before she tried to move away, but all she ended up doing was falling off the bed.

Vincent snapped out of his sleep. He stood on his elbow. Wine-red eyes searched curiously for her, before her hand came up, letting him know she was on the floor.

"I'm fine!"

He made a hum of acknowledgement before he settled back on the mattress. His right hand rubbed over his eyes and his forehead, surprised when he realized that he had actually slept that night. No cries of horror, no midnight crying, no claw marks on the walls around them. All he could do was admit that Jocasta's assumptions were correct. There was indeed some kind of conflict between their demons, and being together like that, kept them quiet and therefore their minds at ease. He watched Jocasta as she picked herself up, with a grunt, and sat back on the bed. She chuckled.

"Maybe we should make sure there's a double bed next time," she said, unable to hold back a giggle. Vincent gave her an awkward look that made her bite her tongue "Oh God! We're friends, I don't mean it in any weird way! I know you're still brooding over my sister, and it'd be so damn weird if we uh... well you know,"

Real smooth.

"Shut up," Jocasta whispered under her breath, as a response to her demon's voice inside her head. Her eyes looked back at Vincent. He was still staring at her with an eyebrow arched "I'm just saying that the, uh... the hypothesis was proven correct, right?? Didn't you sleep tonight?? I don't remember you turning into some demonic beast to tear off my clothes and feast on my flesh, am I right? 'Cause believe me! I would've known if that happened," she said and she laughed awkwardly when she realized that the more she spoke, the worse things got. "I..." she looked away from him and focused on her fingers that were messing nervously with the fabric of her long sleeves "...I should probably shut up,"

Vincent shook his head and woke up. He put on his sabatons and stood on his feet "That would be... for the best,"

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Obviously, the team was not ready for that. Tifa and Yuffie were curled over each other, shaking like twisted tree trunks as the cold air bit hard against their exposed bodies. The norther they headed, the more difficult it got to move through the snow that had reached the level of their knees.

They had been walking over the mountains the entire day. Everybody did look pretty much exhausted and the sun must've had already hidden beneath the distant mountains. None could really tell where the sun was at this point. The entire sky hid behind a pretty thick layer of fat grey clouds that wouldn't stop throwing loads of snow.

Barret and Cid were wearing their spare jackets which weren't enough against the windy air of the snowstorm around them, but they were something. Cloud didn't seem to have a problem against the cold, though. His shoulders and arms were exposed against the frostbite, but he with Vincent, Red, and Jocasta, were the ones that moved forward leaving all the others behind. Of course, Cait had no problem with the cold either.

Jocasta could not feel the cold. Maybe she was sensitive against the warm temperatures, but definitely Hojo had taken care of her endurance on low temperatures. Her skin was still cold though and she could tell from how pale it looked. Maybe it did have an effect on her body, but she guessed, Hojo had somehow killed off all of her temperature receptors. She couldn't feel the cold, but it did affect her body. Still just a guess. She thought to herself as she dragged her foot over the fat layer of snow to keep moving forward.