"Why Would You Ever Kiss Me?"

2

"You..." Rody took in a deep breath, because what the fuck was he doing? "You really love me?"

Vince looked up from where he had been sobbing into his hands on his knees; his eyes were swollen and his face was red. He had been scratching at his face, too, if the fresh blood staining it was anything to go by.

He nodded.

"Then... Show me."

* * *

Vince stared in disbelief through the red staining his vison, beacause he had to have heard him wrong. 'Then show me.' There was no world where Rody would say that, not after everything Vince did. Not after he betrayed his small semblance of trust and turned his life upside down. 
He flinched slightly as he felt a warm hand graze his cheek, the human contact an alien feeling, but it relented, pushin itself further to cup his blood-covered cheek. It forced him to look up, his gaze locking on Rody's. Said red head didn't remove his hand, instead moving the other one to softly hold the other side of Vince's face in an embrace too soft and caring for someone who had just lost everything that mattered to him in life.

Vince couldn't find the words to speak. So he didn't; he let his actions speak for him instead. 
He lowered his head to rest fully in Rody's strong arms, letting his eyes flutter shut as tears spilled from his puffy eyes for the first time in a very long time. They were wet and warm and, somehow, distantly, he could taste the faint, ghostly smell of what he remembers to be salt. It's texture as it drips over his lips is too thick for tears, though, and it would feel uncomfortable to have blood mixing with tears down his entire face in any other situation, but right now all he can feel is Rody. The heat of his skin, the care of his touch, the sound of his breaths; it's all Rody. Only Rody. Rody is all that matters right now.

In a barely audible whisper, Rody tells Vince: "Y..you heard what I said..." He grazed his thumb across the under area of Vince's eyes, making them open reflexively so they were staring into each other's eyes. 'God' is all Vince can think 'they look like stars.' So vast and wide and incomprehensibly beautiful he can't even fully wrap his head around it. And then Rody speaks again, and just when Vince thinks he's about to find his way he gets stranded once more in the low rumble of this man's speech: "Show. Me."

'Bet.' 
Vincent Charbonnaue does not back down from a challenge.

So he does the only thing he can do, the first thing that comes to his mind; he leans forward, pushing slightly against Rody's cupped hands, and grazes his lips over Rody's. Only for a split second do they touch, before Vince is pulling back again, scared he's made a mistake, but he knows he made the right choice when he feels Rody immediately close the gap again, this time for good and their lips lock just as their gazes had. Vince shuts his eyes, focusing in on the moment and every little buzz and tingle he can feel radiate through his body. 

He reveals in the slopping feeling of the thick blood smearing against his skin as Rody drags his hands down Vince's neck in long, rough strokes, clutching onto his shoulders as though for dear life. 

Between breaths, he gasped out: "What do you want, Vince? What is it you seek?" 

Our breaths echoed in the empty room as i waited. I had never waited before, never hesitated. Vince was always moving, always on the go. But now... What did he want? No one ever asked him what he wanted before. He always had to fight for anything he ever wanted or needed for his entire life, and now here he was, being asked what /he/ wanted. 

His heart, normally so stiff and icy, fluttered as he ran his hands along Rody's shirt, watching as blood smeared it. /His/ blood. He was /his/. He began pushing the sides of his waistcoat to the side, popping the first of way too many buttons open. A delicious sliver of his chest came into view. Surprise lingered on his face for only a second, sparking up a bright rosy tint, but he quickly took the hint, undoing the buttons on Vince's own apron as he efficiently opened Rody's. Rody, on the other hand, was still fumbling with his shirt by the time Vince had both of his off.