amour coriace ( five hargreeves! ) - Chapter 12: Chapter 12

LOVE IS SELFISH. Some could willfully disagree, but the proof was everywhere. In teenage couples around any town kissing until their lips went numb and married adults holding one anothers' hand while lying beside each other in bed. They were selfish. When they'd argue and cry, they were selfish. When their love for one another would turn sour from anger.
Love didn't last forever. That was clear. Love, despite being so increasingly popular, was something that scared Vincent just as much as death. Maybe even more, if possible. The idea of dedicating his life to someone in particular wasn't worrying. What did worry him was the idea of that someone falling out of love. That someone one day no longer looking at him the same, with that total love in their eyes that would most definitely make Vincent swoon.
And he wouldn't lie and say he didn't want to be loved so shamelessly it hurt. Because he did. He wanted someone to look at him and feel their heart constrict in their chest just at the mere sight of him standing before them.
He knew he'd love that feeling more than anything else in the world. But he also knew it would scare the shit out of him. He wasn't sure what he'd do if someone suddenly hated him when they'd sworn to adore him forever. Perhaps he'd cry. Or perhaps, he'd just stop feeling the ability to love altogether.
He didn't know which he found worse. Sure, he cried often, but it had always been for idiotic reasons that held no true purpose. Crying for something as heavy as the loss of love would be torture.
Although, Vincent had never had to feel it. For he'd never been in love before, and at this point he was sure he never would be. He was unlovable and everyone around him knew it.
His parents would tell him often, and his friends all knew as well. They'd look at him with a sort of sympathy after he came back from making out with a boy he barely even knew the name of, stare at him with such a pity that frustrated Vincent to no end.
And Vincent was positive he didn't need love anyway. All love was was a feeling of your heart squeezing and a pleasant heat overtaking your body. Vincent was sure he could get that from just dying.
He was sure once his eyes would begin to close for eternity and his body would shut down, he'd feel something close to love. Maybe a pleasant feeling that he wants to grasp onto forever. But he's not even sure yet.
And when he looked at Five Hargreeves, he felt himself withholding those similar feelings of love and death and all things alike. Although, he wasn't in love. Not yet, at least.
All Vincent understood was that what he felt for Five was different than anything he'd ever felt before. It was a scary thought. One that bit at his skin like frost and made chills go up his spine. He hated it.
But he didn't hate Five. No, of course he didn't. He could never hate Five. Such a thing would be impossible for Vincent to even force himself to do. He knew he'd never look at Five with a burning hatred in his eyes, no matter what he did to him.
Five could kill him and Vincent would still feel so strongly towards him. His feelings could never change, it seemed. Five was the only person who could ever make Vincent feel such a way.
And so Vincent would do anything for Five, he'd decided. He'd decided it well before he realized his slight bit of feelings for Five, but he might as well bullshit that fact and pretend it only started recently.
So it started recently, he'd decided.
When Five had stumbled out of bed way too quickly after Vincent had leaned in close and kissed the soft skin of his cheek with such fondness Five didn't know how to handle himself; Vincent had smiled.
He'd smiled gently with the same fondness that scared Five more than anything he'd experienced. Scared Five more than the apocalypse and more than the idea of Dolores being burnt up into flames.
So Five had scattered away to his closet, pulled out a change of his own little get-up that hadn't changed since the very day Vincent came, and turned to face the wall as he changed.
Vincent had stared, of course. And then Five had snapped at him, with a bright red blushing face and wide eyes. And Vincent had smiled softly again and Five almost lost it right there.
“I'm going downstairs- uh- come down whenever you're ready,” Five spluttered out in a panic, refusing to meet Vincent's eyes before he teleported away, gone in that same poof of blue Vincent had come to dislike.
He didn't really like when Five teleported away from him. Sure, he understood it was his only power. But around Vincent, he could at least be modest; the show off.
Vincent stood up, chuckling as he walked over to Fives closet and merely found suits, the same ones with shorts instead of pants that Five seemed to have an obsession with. Seriously, who needs that many shorts? Does he know what pants are?
Vincent rolled his eyes, deciding on just keeping what he had on; despite wearing it for the past two or so days. He felt gross, but what could he do about it? He wasn't gonna ask Five if he could take a bath in his house. He couldn't risk the thought of any of Five's, or even worse, Five himself, to walk in on him bathing himself. Fuck that.
Vincent sighed, running a lazy hand through his unbelievably tangled curls, wincing when he pulled a strand too roughly. His hair was a mess. And his goddamn shoulder hurt so bad. He flinched a bit as he rolled it back in a test of sorts.
The pain hadn't actually caught up with him until now, when he's standing in front of a mirror and staring at his hair that won't fucking detangle itself. That's when his shoulder starts to throb painfully.
He felt a heat first where the wound was. A heat that was anything but pleasant like the heat that came with love or death. A heat that burned so bad he gritted his teeth, almost doubling over when that same pain began to throb through.
And maybe it was infected...
Fuck.
He hadn't even looked at his wound. The only one who had was Five, and he was too distracted blushing like a schoolgirl to possibly see if Vincent actually needed stitches or not.
He'd bled all over Fives bed the night before, in the one place he slept all night. He still hadn't put a shirt back on until early in the morning when Five was still asleep, and now his hoodie had blood seeping from the shoulder in a gruesome looking manner.
It was gross, but also enticing. Vincent liked blood, as stated many times before. He liked the color, liked how it dripped down off his skin slowly and puddled onto the floor or his hand or whatever was being held underneath it.
But now it was just dampening his jacket and the heat of the blood was making the pain so much more difficult to handle. His shoulder felt heavy, and maybe it was the weight of the now wet with blood hoodie. Or maybe it was just him being a crybaby.
It was just a graze, anyway. A measly graze that had hurt extremely bad. But he supposed he'd only been shot twice before. And both of those times he was put under heavy anesthetics and brought to the hospital. He barely even remembered what happened.
But now there was no anesthetics and no hospital bed that hooked him up to IV after IV. Now it was just him and Fives huge house, with the aching pain in his shoulder that he didn't know what to do about.
He turned around and ran his hand that wasn't stained with blood in his black hair once more, letting out a heavy exhale through his nose before leaving Five's room.
He braced himself before walking downstairs, braced himself for the stares he would inevitably receive from all of Fives siblings.
And that's exactly what he got. Stepping down the very last step and walking into the kitchen, all the heads turned to face him, albeit Klaus, Ben and Vanya were absent. Five was making himself coffee, no surprise there and had simply nodded his head in greeting to Vincent.
Vincent would have rolled his eyes if not for the other three eyes on him. And he prayed none of them would talk to him.
But when had praying ever worked in his favor before?
“Who are you? Five has still never introduced you.” The big one had asked. Luther, he remembered. Luther was not as scary as Five had described him to be. Yeah, he was huge and could throw Vincent across the room no problem, but he was also clearly a complete dumbass.
Vincent chuckled. “He hasn't? How unfortunate. Could've sworn Five was absolutely infatuated with me enough to introduce me to his siblings.” He joked with a wide grin, shaking his head as he leaned against the table, ignoring Fives “He's lying! I fucking hate him!”
The beautiful woman at the table, who Vincent knew was Allison, spoke up next, her voice obviously softer than Luther's deep one. “What's your name? Why are you here?”
Vincent couldn't help but laugh, shrug his shoulders and wince when he moved his injured one too much, hissing lightly through his teeth and hoping no one had noticed. “The names Vincent, sweetheart. I'm here because little old Fivey kept me here. But at first, I came here all on my own will. I know, surprising.” He sighed dramatically.
Next thing Vincent knew, he had a knife pointed right at his neck, clearly being controlled by Diego, who was now standing up with a fury in his eyes that Vincent found annoying. “Do not call my sister that, kid. You hear me? We're older than you, have some resp-”
A poof of blue light and suddenly the knife was no longer there and Five was holding it against Diego's side, his own expression angry and predatory. Only this time, Vincent found it hot. “Funny you say that, considering Vincent's almost the same age as me.” He mused before pressing the knife further again Diego's side. Diego and the rest of his siblings didn't seem phased, as if this happened all the time. “What did I tell you about hurting him? I said don't fucking do it. Are you all deaf? Put a knife to his throat one more fucking time and see what happens to your pinky finger in the middle of the night when you least expect it.” Five snarled before dropping the knife to the ground and grabbing Vincent's arm.
Vincent grinned as he was dragged away by Five, waving obnoxiously at the others with a lighthearted “ta-ta!” that earned a elbow to his side from Five and a wince from Vincent.
Vincent chuckled when they got far away enough that they wouldn't even be close to them anymore, grinning at Five. “So, why'd you stick up for me, Hargreeves? Finally growing attached? Don't want your brother to slit my poor throat.”
Five huffed, shaking his head. “Just be quiet. I don't want anyone to get their throat slit. That's the only reason why I did it.” He spoke. Although, it was a bad excuse.
Vincent grinned wider, leaning closer until his and Five's noses were touching. He watched as Five's eyes grew wide and his face became a soft rosy pink. “Says the person who murdered a countless number of people.”
“I never enjoyed that.” Five countered.
“Don't lie.”
“I'm not.”
“You sure? Didn't enjoy it even a little?”
“Not even a little.”
“Why?”
“Because, even if they had what was going for them, it kinda sucked.” Five finally decided on.
Vincent grinned, shrugging a bit. “I think the jobs fucked you up more than me. I'm just fine, baby. Well, sort of.” He spoke before moving away from Fives face, not missing the way Fives expression dropped just barely.
Five chuckled lightly. “They definitely did. But I guess that's what happens when you're more carefree than I am.” He spoke.
Vincent rolled my eyes. “Carefree? I had to kill an old woman once and I cried for two hours because I felt bad. All she did was witness something she wasn't supposed to and they made me do it or I'd be sent back to the stupid fucking apocalypse or whatever we're calling it now; magic fun land filled with waste maybe?”
“You just said you don't care as much.” Five spoke with furrowed eyebrows.
“No. I said it fucked you up more. Never said it didn't fuck me up either. I cared a lot, darling.” Vincent grinned. “Now where are we going?” He asked.
Five snapped out of his thoughts, shrugging a little. “Out the back. There's a van in the alleyway that we're gonna take to spy on the guy with the prosthetic business.”
“Why? He already didn't have the files.” Vincent chuckled, raising his eyebrow.
.
Five shook his head. “We have to be thorough. He could easily be lying.” He explained, holding up his finger in a ‘one second' sort of motion before teleporting away. He came back a second later with a bag on his back, Dolores stuffed into it.
Vincent rolled his eyes. “Why do you bring her everywhere? I know you reenact your most erotic fantasies on her plastic breasts, but not in front of me! I'd much rather it be on me instead. Although, I don't have tits. I'm truly sorry. But we can prete-”
“Shut the fuck up.” Five snapped with a light chuckle, shaking his head as he started walking to the back exit. Vincent followed, looking around the parts of the house he hadn't seen up until now. He watched as Five opened up a small door to the fire escape, leading to a ladder that he began to go down. Vincent followed with a grin.
Vincent watched as Five rolled his eyes when they both saw Klaus in the garbage can, Vincent letting out a laugh. Ben was sitting in the corner, and Vincent knew only he and Klaus could see him. “Hey!” Klaus laughed out. “You know, there are easier ways to get out of the house, buddy.” He grinned, leaning against the edge of the garbage.
“This one involved the least amount of talking.” Five huffed, looking between Klaus and Vincent. “Or so I thought.” He spoke, still going down the ladder.
“Hey, hey, hey, so you need anymore company today? I could, uh, clear my schedule.” Klaus suggested with a grin, raising his eyebrow. Vincent let out a chuckle, shaking his head as he watched Five finally get to the ground.
“Looks like you've got your hands full.” Five mused with a chuckle, gesturing to the garbage can. Vincent finally got down from the ladder as well, watching as Ben waved lightly at him, waving back slightly.
“Oh? This? No, no. I can do this whenever. I'm just-” Klaus began to look through the trash can. “I just misplaced something, that's all.” He spoke before holding up a bagel. “Oh! Found it! Thank god!” Klaus sighed. Vincent winced when Klaus took a bite from it, chewing slowly. “Delicious.” He spoke.
“I'm done funding your drug habit.” Five spoke back, shaking his head before turning on his heels and walking away. Vincent shrugged when Klaus looked at him for help, turning around and following Five.
“Come on! Maybe I just want to hang out with my brother and his friend!” Klaus exclaimed, shaking his head.
“Not you.” Five chuckled out, still walking towards the van at the end of the alleyway, getting into it. Vincent got into the passenger's seat with a chuckle.
“A ¡mi hermano y su novio! I love you both! Even if you can't love yourself!” Vincent heard Klaus yell out, laughing a bit as Five finally began to drive away.
Vincent shook his head with a grin. “You're an asshole to your siblings.” He chuckled, watching as Five smiled lightly and shrugged.
“They deserve it.” He spoke simply before glancing over. “How's your shoulder?” He asked, gesturing to the wound before averting his attention back to the road.
“Fucking hurts.” Vincent spoke truthfully. “You sure I didn't need stitches?” He asked with a laugh.
“No.” Five responded honestly with a chuckle. “I didn't really check.”
“Yeah, you were too busy staring at me, lover boy.” Vincent grinned widely.
“Mhm.” Five merely hummed out, and Vincent almost choked on his breath, letting out a cough as he turned to look out the window, his face red and hot.
And he was positive Five accidentally let it slip, or said it without even thinking about it. But it still had the same effect. Still made the same pleasant heat fill his body and combat the painful heat in his shoulder.
Fuck, this was gonna be way harder than he thought.