Log: Complete

[velated-v.livejournal.com]

When; Saturday Night

Rating; PG, Possible PG-13

Characters; V velated_v, Evey ever_evey

Summary; Due to thier cupboard and fridge doors leading anywhere but to the cupboard or fridge. V and Evey go for Take-out and then back home for a movie, and a night of revelations ensues. ( Dinner and a Movie? First Date?! =3 ♥ )

Log;

V sighed, and adjusted the collar on his poet's shirt agian.

Upon exiting the tube station the temperature had risen drastically, which was difinitely not condusive to comfort when one was covered head to toe in either black fabric, black leather, wig or mask.

Plainly put: V felt as though he were about to melt.

He glanced to his side at Evey.
She looked rather uncomfortable as well, but at least she had the options in wardrobe to wear something light.

"I must confess that I have had reservations about eating whatever cousine this dubious place has to offer, but I suppose we really haven't much choice now."
He said as they entered the great square.

"Well, Evey, take your pick." he indicated with his free arm ( the other having been claimed by her before thier departure) the bustling square, majestic fountain and smattering of street vendors selling all manner of dishes from the mundane to the insane.


There were some benefits to living underground. While V had had to destroy the door before they could leave without getting lost, the temperature stayed comfortable there. Up above, it was miserably hot (but even thinking as much made Evey feel guilty, because she certainly wasn't covered top to toe and really didn't have any right to complain).

"Everyone else has survived eating the food," she answered V, smiling as she looked around the square. "I'm sure we will, too."

If the temperature hadn't been so unforgiving, Evey would have liked to stay in the square and look around. The fountain in the center especially intrigued her--something about it looked very enticing. And there were the vendors' wares to look at and plenty of people to watch.

They could always do that another day, though--tonight, she wanted to retreat to the tube station as quickly as possible. She chose the closest of the booths and pointed to it. "How about that?" The man had to offer what appeared to be curry and rice. "It looks edible enough."
V took note of the curry vendor and nodded.

"I would suggest joining the crowd gathered about the fountain whilst I 'aquire' some chicken curry for you, my dear?"

He eyed the throng of *ahem* scantily clad beings who were attempting to cool off near or within the fountain itself

" hmn. Call for me if you have need.."

He was entirely prepared to lift the afore mentioned food for Evey ( and himself really) without qualm or second thought.

She was hungry, and he would provide for her.
This was just a simple truth about his character.


Evey shook her head and didn't make any move to leave.

"That's all right--I've got a couple of pounds on me. I can do the acquiring this time." After all, he'd paid for the fabric, even if there wasn't a shopkeeper visible to see to the exchange.

Then a somewhat worrying thought occurred to her. "...If the vendors take pounds--do they?" If they didn't, she wouldn't have any useful currency. That was a troublesome possibility; she didn't want to rely completely on V's generosity.


That's all right--I've got a couple of pounds on me. I can do the acquiring this time.

V blinked behind the mask and regarded her.
He mentally sighed at the realization he had been slipping back into old habits..He should have considered her desire to repay him in some way for offering shelter, safety and food since her arrival.

Though, in truth, he was a little disconcerted. If she felt thier arrangement to be nothing more than a matter of pragmatic economics he would have to find some other means of giving her valid reasons to desire his company...
( At this point he was unsure how he would be able to get on without her. Having already tried once before in their waking world...
It had been difficult, then, and in this bizarre world he feared it would be nigh impossible!)

......If the vendors take pounds--do they?"

" Hmn. A good question." V said while regarding the vendor as the rather short, and wizened gentleman stirred a steaming pot of rice.

"Only one way to find out, then."


V approached the vendor ,along with Evey, and after the small man had confirmed Evey's funds with a wide smile and several bobs of his head, the pair had two rather large paper bags with what was, assuredly, enough enough food to feed four or five people!

V shook his head in further amusement.

"Apparently exchange rates are highly in our favor." He said after solicitously taking her bag to add to his own.

"Shall we adjourn to the underground, then?" He asked, unable to keep the hope out of his voice that she would also wish to escape the stifling heat

For a moment, Evey stared at the sheer amount of food they were given for the price she'd paid; it looked like enough to last them half a week. Besides that, it smelled delicious (and it was starting to make her feel hungry enough to eat it all). V was right--this was a very good exchange on their end.

"Shall we adjourn to the underground, then?"

"Yes, let's," she answered, smiling at him as they headed out of the square and back towards the more comfortable temperatures of the tube station.

"V?" Evey asked, as they entered the ruined door into their home. "I was wondering if we could talk about the last time we were both in our own world. About our last conversation." She paused next to the couch as she watched him, waiting for his answer.

((Which is quite short, but she refused to beat around the bush.))

To say he was unprepared for the question was a bit of an understatement....
He had been contemplating the dessimated doorway, and mentally drawing up blue-prints of an upgraded security system when Evey looked him square in the eye and asked him the one question he had been simultaneously dreading and hopefully anticipating since the moment she arrived.

It took him a moment to recover some of his poise, and in that moment he simply looked at her , all the while, silently thanking Guy Fawkes' grinning visage for hiding the ( he was quite certain) "Dear-Caught-in-Headlights" expression.


"We-..." He cleared his throat
"We may talk about whatever you wish" He managed after a moment



"All right." Evey looked down at her feet for a moment, stalling in hopes of figuring out what it was she wanted to say. "You told me you loved me."

Not a brilliant start--surely he remembered the details of that night as well as she did--but she'd had to say something. The way V had started when she suggested this topic as conversation fodder gave her the feeling he was as tongue-tied on the subject as she was.

Evey took a deep breath and began again, walking towards him as she spoke. "You said that you loved me, V. And I suppose that's what I wanted to talk about." Another pause, as she cast about in her mind for something that didn't sound terribly dumb. Nothing came to her, which didn't matter too much; at that point, words were already spilling out of her mouth, whether she liked it or not.

"Before I ended up here, I went over and over every word either of us said and I tried to tell myself that you were nearly dead and you didn't know what you were saying. Because then it was a tiny bit easier to know you were gone if what you said was just delirium and nonsense, but if it wasn't--"

She stopped short, having managed to stay the flow of words and glanced away. "I'm sorry, V," Evey muttered. "This isn't coming out right at all..."

He crossed the small distance between them, and befor he had even stopped to think on his actions, he tilted her chin upwards and looked into her shining eyes.
"I told you that night that I would only give you truth Evey..."
Here he hesitated...unsure how to proceed for he hadn't expected to ever live long enough to deal with the fallout of that night, nor the consequences those words may have wrought in her emotions.
"It was truth...Every word....But I want you to understand now, dear Evey, i have no allusions as to whether you could feel that way for a...'monster'."

It hurt to say...and hurt to think on. He had replayed her one and only display of affection towards him agian and agian in his mind when he first arrived in the city. It had been a comfort..a comfort to have at least one happy memory in a sea of painful ones, but he must face facts: She was a bright and beautiful spirit... while he possessed a darker, damaged soul.

He dropped his hand from her face reluctantly and looked away...down at his own feet in order not to have to look into her beautiful face, and attempted to swallow past the sensation of a band tightening around his heart.

She scarcely breathed as he touched her, lifting her chin so that she was looking directly into the eyeholes of the ever-grinning mask (which now looked more melancholy than she'd ever thought it did before). Every word was doleful--she cringed inwardly when he quoted her, remembering the accusation she'd thrown at him before.
But he was not simply a monster. He was brilliant, humourous, an excellent cook... If he was ruthless, or violent, or merciless, it was towards the people who had wronged him. His only truly reprehensible acts towards her had made her who she was at that moment--had made her free from the fear that had controlled her, without her notice, before they met.
"If I thought of you as a monster," she whispered, taking in hers the hand that had dropped away from her, "I wouldn't stay with you, V."

Her words mixed with the tightening sensation were making him feel dizzy and confused.
He took a deeper breath, trying to clear away the swimming sensation and very slightly shook his head.
She had posed him a very complicated question by way of a very simple statement, and now he would..*had* to do the same to her.

"I told you there was no tree waiting for me...you responded that it wasn't true.."
He took a deep breath feeling more and more caught in the alien emotion he could not name, yet still threatened to crush his heart in it's grip.
She had kissed him...well, kissed the mask to be more precise, but her nearness, and her words had shaken him and nearly undone twenty years of working and watching and waiting until the time was right.
"I managed to turn away from you, then. Although it took everything within me todo so...
Still, I turned away to fulfill the promise to valerie and every other nameless cell number........

But afterwards. After it was done I realized something.."
He was not sure where these words were coming from, nor how this had occured, but he gave into it; the sensation that had been looming over him since she had first broached the subject,and now found that the squeezing band loosened and instead suffused him with a sort of strength.
His eyes rose and fixed her with a gaze so intense the mask could not hide it.
"I realized, Evey, that in the end it wasn't vengeance I wanted...it was a chance...a chance for roses

...with you."

Evey was quiet for several long moments after V finished speaking; she contemplated his words, her eyes never leaving his.

"I told you there was no tree waiting for me...you responded that it wasn't true.."

"There is a tree waiting for you," she answered, feeling her anxieties about the entire conversation beginning to dissipate. "And roses--all year long, if you want them. ...And me." The final two words were nearly inaudible, but they were accompanied by a gaze as powerful as his; she didn?t want to make any move, such as looking even a little bit away, that might cause him to doubt the sincerity of her statement.
And before she considered the action at all, she was on her tiptoes, hands resting on V?s chest to steady herself, and had kissed the mask's cheek. For an instant afterwards, she remained there, her eyes on his--though she couldn?t see them--as if waiting for some response to her impulsive action.


V could only watch at first....as stunned at this second such display of tenderness toward him as he had been by the first.

"God help me.." he breathed "but I am a selfish, selfish man..." and before Evey could entertain second thoughts he had moved so fast it appeared as only a blur.
The corner lamp was thankfully the only one within the great room, and V reached out to shut it off, thus granting him a cloak of shadow despite the weak sliver of light still emenating from Evey's bedroom door.

She made an involuntary noise at the movement and subsequent darkness, but V squeezed her hand gently in reassurance.

" Shhh, dear Evey...don't be frightened." He pulled her a little closer and felt a fresh wave of dizziness at her warmth pressed agianst his chest.

"You have given me so much...and now you have also given me your forgivness."
He reached up under the wig with his free hand and unclasped one set of the mask's softened leather straps, thus allowing him to push the mask onto the top of his head...


For the first time in the 2 years they had known one another he was unmasked in her presense.

"Now I wish to give you the only thing I have left....."
He pulled the mask the rest of the way off, but left the wig...a silent reminder that when the light returned, so too would the Fawkes facade.

He swallowed once, but his voice was still thick as oil when he spoke agian.

"I wish to give you this..."

He took both of her hands..... and lay the mask within them.

The sudden darkness caused a flare of fear in Evey; for her, the absence of light meant nothing but isolation, danger, and fear. She squeaked once but tried to steady herself as V spoke soothingly to her. It's only him and me here--there's nothing to be afraid of, Evey. Calm down, she told herself stoutly. It was something easier said than done, though, and only by listening to V's words and telling herself to remember the little line of light that came from her bedroom door did she quell the panic she felt.

She took in a sharp, shallow breath as he set in her hands the face she was so used to seeing. The mask felt warm from his body heat; Evey held it reverently, wondering what it was like to look through it each day. A thousand questions and possible answers to his words sprang up in her mind, but all flitted away--save one.

"V?" In the dark, her voice sounded young and trembly to her. Shaking her head, she continued. "V--may I...kiss you? Please?"

And suddenly it sounded like much too forward a question--despite the fact that it was delivered in a less confident voice than usual--but it was too late to worry about how he would react to her request.

Silence followed her question as V tried to geta handle on his whirling thoughts & amazed emotions....

After a moment he felt her apprehension that she had overstepped some boundary in the rising tension of her body.
That small question...she would never know how wonderful it sounded to him and after a small amount of internal debate regarding whether this exquisite moment was truly happening, he took charge of the situation.

His mouth descended onto hers without warning.
The kiss was passionate, and demanding as he sought to taste her as deeply as he was able.
How long he had dreamed and fantasized of this moment!
One gloved hand rose to cup her cheek as the other grasped her hip to pull her flush agianst him.

He nipped her lower lip lightly agian and agian until she allowed his toungue to push into her mouth, and stroke slowly back and forth in an unmistakable immitation of penetration.
She tasted like light and the essense of a summers day, and V groaned oh so softly into the kiss at the flush her mouth elicited within him

Those few moments after she spoke were nothing short of absolute torture--he was so silent that Evey began to brace herself for his rejection.

...Which came in the form of the most ardent kiss she'd ever received.

Feeling utterly relieved, she allowed him to pull her closer, until they were pressed against each other so snugly they may as well have been glued together. The thought brought a smile to her lips as V's tongue entered her mouth--and then she stopped thinking about anything other than the sensations he created in her.

One of her hands slowly made its way up his body, past his arms and shoulders to his head, her thumb gently tracing down his cheek. Her fingers tangled in his wig, her tongue entered his mouth, almost timidly...

...And her stomach grumbled mutinously, loudly enough that Evey suspected people aboveground might have been able to hear it. Clearly, not quite all of her was ready to forget about the chicken curry they'd purchase

V broke the kiss breathlessly, and had to take a moment in order to gain his bearings, before offering a slightly bashful chuckle.
"I apologise for denying you your dinner miss hammond...but you seem to have distracted me somewhat" he said wrly.
He couldn't quite bring himself, yet, to release her,and instead trailed glovedfingers down her arm to where the mask had been forgotten in her slack grip.
Retrieving it, he indulged in stroking her cheek once more with his knuckles, and smiled ...though he knew she could not see it.

As they ended the kiss, Evey found herself a bit irate with her stomach--every other bit of her had forgotten about supper, so why couldn't it do the same? She was intensely glad that he still held her close; not only was she uninterested in breaking away from him just then, she felt unsteady on her own feet.

"And I'm sorry for distracting you," she answered, when she thought she could do so with an even voice. "...I don't feel very repentant, though."

Her tone was reflected in the impish smile she wore--and in her unspoken hope that dinner wouldn't be a prolonged affair.

After returning th mask to it's proper place he switched the lamp back on and wtched her for a moment.
"Is this real?" ...it had slipped out before he could think too long on it.
"Forgive me, Evey," he looked away, then back at her " I have dreamed and fantasicized of this moment for almost a year....I am having trouble grasping that it has truly come to pass."
He tentatively raised a gloved hand and took one of hers.

"....Thank you...." It seemed to fall woefully short of what he wished to express, but he couldn't find the words with which to tell her how very much her acceptance & forgiveness meant to him

Evey flushed red as he spoke and glanced down and away for a moment. Her mind was blank--she could think of nothing to say in reply to V at that very moment.

...Except, of course, the simplest and most obvious of answers.

"I love you, V," she murmured, looking back up at him, her cheeks still tinged pink. Giving his hand a gentle squeeze, she added, "...Even if this place is constantly changing shape around us, that much is going to stay the same."

Was that enough to ease any worries that might have been plaguing him? She wasn't sure, but did know that it was the best she could offer to him--it was the truth.

He smiled under the mask and leaned foreward to prop Fawkes' forehead to her own, while simultaneously twining thefingers of thier linked hands together.
"Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt that the sun doth move,
Doubt truth to be a liar,
But never doubt I love "
He quoted in response to the changing city.
"And I *do* love you Evey...you will never know how much ". He sighed, and leaned away agian but still kept possession of her hand just because , now, he could.

"I think.....I think tonight I will join you" He said tentatively, and felt a small pang of doubt, but quickly brushed it aside.

All of thier experiences in "dining together" had consisted of Evey eating while V enjoyed her company and conversation.
He had given her the mask...and now he wanted to prove to her just what that entailed.

"Wait here a moment?" He asked, then hurried away to his bedroom.
After a few minutes of rummaging through his Wardrobe he found a length of black silk. ( he had picked it up during one of his excurions for supplies, but had since forgotten about it until tonight.)
Taking a deep breath, he removed his mask, and tied the silk cloth over the lower portion of his face, effectively hiding everything from the eyes down.
After a quick scan of himself in the small mirror he kept, he returned to her...albeit a bit more bashful then he had been before.
This would be the first time she would have seen his true eyes...and that little worm of doubt was wriggling it's way back into his mind.

I think tonight I will join you were words Evey had never imagined she'd hear, and they brought a broad smile to her face. She waited where he left her, her heart pounding as she considered what this might entail on his part; he'd never before tonight taken off the mask in her presence and now he would have to leave it off, in the light, to eat with her. His faith in her seemed overwhelming to Evey.

When he returned, she met him halfway and took his hand, interlacing her fingers with his. For several long moments, Evey studied what she could see of his face. "I never thought you had such beautiful eyes," she finally said. "I always imagined them very dark--I suppose because of the mask--and they aren't. They're a lovely shade of blue."

Still smiling, she led him over to where the take out bags had been left. The food was still warm, and the scent caused Evey's stomach to growl again. "We're going to be eating curry for a week, at this point," she said, laughing. "I don't know how all this could possibly count as one serving."

Those niggling doubts vanished at Evey's statement.

They're a lovely shade of blue

He let out the breath he had been holding & for the first time, she could see the smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes.

As she sat to remove the curry from the bags he moved to the Media Player and put in the film they had both fallen asleep to the previous night; " Sense and Sensebility"

"Nor do I" He laughed.
" At the very least we shall not have to worry over wayward kitchens and preparing meals in the next few days?" He said wryly.

After both retrieving plates and servings of thier respective dinners they sat down together.

And for the first time in over twenty years...he felt himself finally content.