Don't Bring a Knife to a Gunfight [Castle]

[Castle]

Castle heard the strange sounds of darkness rising and whipped around, startled. In the back of his mind, he knew he had heard those sounds before, but never this clearly. Sure enough, there were the Heartless, too close to him for comfort. His eyes went wide.

The sound of the guy's voice and gunfire brought him back into focus. These were the small fry, right? He could take them down!

"Got it," he replied, a smirk tugging at his lips.

He dashed forward and launched a punch from his hip, planting his stance as the technique landed to give himself more force. The Heartless bobbled back, its oversized head lolling. Castle shifted forward and punched it again, and it went up in smoke. He grinned.

His moment of victory was short lived. The other Heartless noticed him. He saw it swiping at him just in time to jump out of the way, cursing under his breath.

[Vincent Valentine]

Only for selfish reasons...
--

Ah, so the boy could handle himself. At least against the smaller ones. Vincent took his next shot quickly, not even bothering to stick around to watch. He turned and shot the last remaining Shadow near the kid. It dissipated but Vincent didn't stand down quite yet.

"You should leave. Now.[/color]"

Vincent wasn't going to stick around for the larger ones to pop up and he hoped the boy would leave before they did.

It was getting darker now. The sun was almost completely set. The only remnants of it were the pink and orange shards low in the sky. The trail would be even more dangerous now. Vincent had invested too much in the kid already, but as he walked away he said quietly "Follow me.[/color]" He didn't stop to wait up, didn't look back over his shoulder. He simply walked away, leaving the purple-haired young man to make his own decision. But if he did decide to follow along, Vincent would make sure he made it back to the town safely. He didn't want to be the one to have to tell his parents their child had died in a horrible accident or worse, the Heartless had gotten to him.

[Castle]

Without any street lights around, the oncoming night was actually dark. This occurred to Castle rather suddenly, and he finally realized what the guy meant about this area being hazardous, and not just because of the Heartless. If he stayed here any longer, he wouldn't be able to see anything. It was pretty obvious when he thought about it, but he pushed that aside to save himself some face.

"Sure, why not," he said with a shrug, following the guy up the trail.

He jogged a little to catch up, not quite walking alongside him, but not quite behind either.

"They get much bigger than that out here?" he asked casually, his tone implying that he still didn't think they were much to be afraid of. However, now that he knew this guy could handle himself, he did wonder what the big deal was.

[Vincent Valentine]

Maybe if you ignore him, he'll go away.
--

Vincent didn't answer him. He wasn't much for small talk or idle chatter, even among friends. And he didn't count this person to be his friend. Not yet, at any rate, but it was always possible. Only a few years ago, Vincent would have been extremely wary if anyone had told him he would one day have friends. He had been so set on sleeping in that coffin forever. Having friends was not part of the plan.

But plans change. They had changed. And now here he was, escorting some troublemaking kid back to town just to make sure he didn't get hurt.

Vincent hoped that his lack of an answer would deter the child from speaking again. They made their way quickly down the rocky trail towards the ruined castle gate. Vincent was on his toes (only figuratively, of course. Those shoes were impossible) constantly watching for more Heartless.

Subconsciously, Vincent made a goal. If they could make it to the gate, they would be safe. It was silly of course. There were Heartless in that area, too, weren't there? Of course, all over the town the threat of the monsters had been greatly decreased but out here on the outskirts of town, they still lived.

They finally made it to the gate and Vincent was relieved without knowing why.

[Castle]

Castle waited for any sort of response from his temporary companion. By the time they made it back to the tiled area, it became obvious that he wasn't about to say anything. So he was going to be like that, huh? To Castle, it didn't really matter.

"What's your name, anyway?" he asked, as if the silence between them had never occurred. "Mine's Castle. Pretty original, right?" he added with a grin.

This was just like the "make them speak game" he used to play back in Traverse Town. Some of the newcomers wouldn't respond when spoken to, and Castle made a sport of trying to make them talk. Sometimes, it ended in them actually having a conversation. Other times, it ended in them telling him to go away. He wondered what this guy would do, being in their current situation.

[Vincent Valentine]

My assignment is complete. I bid thee farewell.
--

It would be rude not to give Castle his name and rude Vincent was not. He was.... aloof. So he answered. "Vincent Valentine.[/color]"

But that was the extent of his manners. No how-do-you-dos or pleased-to-meet-yous. Simply his name. In all honesty, Vincent was happy the exchange had taken place. It bothered him not to know a name and having to refer to Castle as kid or boy, at least inside his head.

The conversation again fell to silence. After several more minutes of walking, they reached the town. They emerged from the Bailey and Vincent realized that it had now become twilight. No longer sunset for there was no color left in the sky, only a green-bluish haze until darkness fell. A few stars twinkled into existence. They must have been extremely bright stars for them to be visible at this hour. But thinking of things scientifically took all the magic out of the world.

Having fulfilled his self-assigned responsibility of getting this boy back to civilization safely, Vincent was fully ready to leave him alone and get back to Merlin's house. They had actually convinced him to stay there a while instead of sleeping in the Crystal Fissure as he had for his first few months back in the Garden.

He didn't know how he was still able to sleep after sleeping for so long, but it seemed though he did not age his biological needs for sleep and food were still intact.

He didn't wish the boy a good-night, simply walked towards the stair case.

[Castle]

Castle smiled when Vincent told him his name. That was easier than he expected. It took some of the fun out of prying, but in this case, getting a name out of him felt like enough. He was content to remain in silence for a bit as they passed the bailey and reentered the town.

He paused to look over the right-hand side of the walkway. It was just about nighttime now. He'd missed the sunset during the encounter with the Heartless. Vincent kept walking, and Castle guessed that this was his way of bidding a person farewell. Suddenly, something occurred to him.

"Hey, uh..." he began, hoping to get Vincent's attention, "do you know where I could find an inn or something?"

He couldn't remember seeing any during his adventure throughout town earlier that day, and with night falling, finding one would probably be a good idea.

[Vincent Valentine]

What does he want an inn for?
--

Vincent stopped and simply pointed towards the archway beyond which laid the Marketplace. He wasn't actually sure if there was an inn there. He didn't spend too much time in the Market place but if there wasn't one there, Castle would instead find someone else who could help him properly.

He went down the steps and walked up the door way of the small cottage that served both as a home for the old wizard and a headquarters of sorts for the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee that he had so politely been shanghaied into. He didn't knock, but his hand lingered on the knob ever so slightly before he went inside.

He was greeted warmly by his friends when he finally did go in and he wondered momentarily what he'd been so worried about in the first place...

[Castle]

Castle looked in the direction of Vincent's indication. In the twilit darkness, it took him a moment to distinguish the archway, but the shape of it was obvious once he saw it. By the time he looked back at Vincent again, he was already halfway down the steps.

"Thanks a lot!" he called after him, but whether or not Vincent actually heard would remain a mystery.

On his own again, Castle made his way down the stairs and toward the arch, remembering that it led to the town's marketplace. Suddenly, as he was passing under the opening, a disturbing realization came over him and stopped him dead in his tracks.

"I left... my stuff on that ship... didn't I...?" he mumbled to himself, a painfully humorous grin twitching across his face.

Looks like he really was on his own here.