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It's a reason
Why I'm down
I am beaten
And pushed around
It's a ceiling
Without a sound
Everyone I know
"Why
I'm Here"
Oleander
A
shadow hung over the docking bay, deeper than the bluest midnight. The sharp tangy smell of seawater permeated
the night air like a thick blanket. At
first, Yuffie Kisaragi had relished the smell of the ocean so close. At Wutai, if she stood on the top of the Da
Chao Statue, she could see the ocean stretching for miles and miles and feel
the gentle sea breezes caress her face.
It had always given her a sense of peace and serenity, but not now. Nope, right now it felt as if someone had
stuffed packets of salt up her nose. Open
packets of salt. The saline smell hung
so heavily in the night air that she had to resist the urge to hack and cough
like she had a frog stuck in her throat.
The full moon was obscured by a flock of
thick and bloated thunderclouds that didn't even allow the barest fingers of
moonlight to peek through, and Yuffie couldn't decide whether that was a good
or bad thing. The utter lack of light
hid their hiding spot behind a box of crates well enough, but it also made
things a hell of a lot more difficult to see.
She could barely see the nose in front of her face, much less the person
they were "following."
She
turned to her partner for what seemed like the millionth time and said,
"Psst! Hey, Vinnie! Any sign of him yet?"
The shadow next to her, the one more ominous
than the rest, shifted slightly, and for a moment, she saw a flash of a red
bandana covering even redder eyes.
"No," Vincent Valentine said shortly, then turned away from her.
Yuffie
folded her thin arms across her chest and made a face, shifting restlessly to
get the blood flowing back into her legs again. She and Vincent had been in the same crouching positions for what
seemed like hours, with Vincent keeping a lookout around the side of the crate
while Yuffie tried her best to keep herself entertained (which wasn't working
at all). "If he doesn't show up soon,"
she threatened grumpily, "then I'm leaving."
Vincent
didn't say anything so Yuffie continued venting her frustration.
"It's past midnight, and I'm cold and wet
and tired and grumpy. Why did dumbass
Cloud have to send us here? We
could have investigated Midgar just as well as freaking Reno, Rude, and
Elena! But no, instead he sends us
onboard an old stinky ship to look for some dude that we know next to nothing
about. And just when we're about to
leave, who shows up but the dude we're looking for! Then we have to stay on the damn ship and let it take us to who
the hell knows where we are! And then,
to top it all off, Vinnie here decides to push me into the water just as we're
getting off—"
Vincent
suddenly whirled around, startling her so bad that she jerked away from him,
the edge of the Conformer poking one of her numb legs. "Yuffie, be quiet," the older man said
calmly despite his sudden motion.
Yuffie scowled, refusing to be
intimidated. "Vinnie, I'm cold and I'm
wet and my legs are asleep. Can we please
go home now? That guy already knows
we're here."
"And
whose fault is that?" Vincent asked flatly.
"Are
you saying it's my fault?!" she demanded, squinting at him in the
darkness until she could just make out his left claw braced on the concrete
between them and his red eyes glittering faintly in the darkness. "You're the one that knocked me into the
water, Vinnie!"
"No," Vincent said without a trace of
emotion. "You slipped in a puddle and
fell into the pool. I had nothing to do
with your mishap. And while we're on
the subject, our quarry would have no idea of our presence if you hadn't
insisted on yelling and screaming after you had your accident."
"It
was no accident!" Yuffie insisted, knowing she was whining and not caring. "Someone pushed me and that someone had to
be you!"
"I told you before that you slipped in the
puddle. All I did was pull you out of
the water. Blame me if it will ease
your state of mind and keep you from complaining. I don't care either way."
He turned away again, the end of his red cloak brushing her leg in the
darkness.
Yuffie pouted, but kept her mouth shut. It was bad enough that she was here, even
worse that she was here with Vincent.
Not that Vincent was a bad guy.
In fact, he was okay if you wanted someone who didn't talk much, and he
was kind of good-looking in a twisted sort of way, but he definitely wasn't
Yuffie's idea of amiable company. Why
couldn't Cloud have partnered her up with Tifa, who would probably at least
sympathize with Yuffie's soaking wet and miserable condition? Even Cid or Barret would have been better
company than Vampire Boy. Cid's
cigarettes could drown out the seawater smell, and both of them would have been
more fun to fight with than Vincent, whose flat tones and one-word answers
tended to kill any attempt at conversation.
"Hey, Vinnie," she said again, glancing at
the statue-still shadow next to her.
"Yes, Yuffie?"
"I need to go to the bathroom."
"There's a lovely pool of seawater three
steps to your left."
Yuffie's mouth dropped open. "Did the dark and gloomy Vincent Valentine
just make a joke? Wow, and I was here
to witness it. Tifa and Cid will be so
jealous. But that still doesn't change
the situation. I have to go to the
bathroom!"
Vincent turned to stare at her again. "What do you want me to say, Yuffie?"
"How about, 'Oh, Yuffie, since I know you're
wet and cold because I pushed you in the stinky seawater that was probably
filled with gross amoebas and who knows what, let me go find you a nice clean
hotel where you can rest, eat, and go to the bathroom.' I think you should say something like that,
Vinnie."
"How about, 'Piss on yourself'?"
Yuffie's mouth dropped open again, but she
managed to sputter out, "That was so rude, Vinnie Valentine! I see you've been hanging around Cid and
Reno a bit too much!"
"Actually, I think it was spending two hours
with you on a boat and then waiting here with you for one more hour that did
the trick."
Yuffie punched him in what she hoped was his
shoulder. "You're so mean to me,
Vinnie! Next time, leave me in the sea
water with the amoebas; I'm sure they'd be better company that you!"
"Forgive me, Yuffie," he said flatly. "I'm afraid I'm not in the best of moods
tonight. I'm sorry for insulting you."
"No, you're not," Yuffie grumbled. "But I'll just pretend your apology was
sincere. At least we can be cold and
miserable together."
Vincent didn't reply; he simply turned away
from her and continued to watch for their quarry. Yuffie drew her trembling knees up to her chest and shivered,
pushing impatiently at her shoulder-length hair, which she had been allowing to
grow out at Tifa's prodding in the year since they had defeated Sephiroth.
The young ninja sighed inwardly and found
herself reflecting on all the things that had happened in the past year,
something she had started making a habit of.
Reeve, formerly known as Cait Sith, was working hard on rebuilding what
was left of Midgar. He had taken over
the remnants of Shinra, going as far as calling the Turks back in to help. Naturally, and with the Planet's best
interests in mind, he had discarded the idea of Mako reactors and was in the
process of changing all the reactors into electric generators to power the
sectors. The progress was slow, but
with Reno, Rude, and Elena to help him out, the former Urban Development
manager was optimistic about the future of both the Neo-Shinra and Midgar.
Cloud and Tifa had taken up residence in
Tifa's new bar at Kalm. Surprisingly,
the two hadn't gotten married as most of the others, Yuffie included, had
thought. Though they pretty much lived
next door to each other in the rooms above the bar, their relationship didn't
seem to be deepening all that much.
Both Tifa and Cloud, however, seemed content with their neighbor-like
existence, and though Yuffie thought that they should have gotten together, she
was happy as long as her friends were happy.
Barret had taken his daughter Marlene and
moved to his ravaged hometown of Corel, where he was working on revitalizing
the town with the same dedication and uncharacteristic optimism that Reeve had
for Midgar. Personally, Yuffie thought
he should just put that dump out in the pasture and shoot it, but if that what
he wanted to do with the rest of his existence, then that was fine by her. Whatever floats his boat.
Red XIII had returned to Cosmo Canyon, of
course, and was in the midst of reading all he could on the history of the
Planet, the Cetra, and whatever other bits and pieces of information he had in
that old, musty library of his. He
would soon be the Guardian of Cosmo Canyon, and the lion-like creature was
taking his responsibility very seriously.
Yuffie visited him whenever she could and bugged the living hell out of
him. Hey, the furball needed a little
spark in his life.
Cid had immediately returned to Rocket Town
and asked Shera to marry him. He was
both surprised and overjoyed when she said yes. Yuffie was surprised, too.
If someone who had used to treat her the way Cid used to treat Shera
asked her to marry him, she would have told him to shove that ring up his you
know what. But she was happy for her
friends at the same time. Even from the
very beginning, she had felt that Cid and Shera belonged together. It hadn't taken an idiot to see the unspoken
attraction between them.
The wedding had been fun, too, with Cloud,
Cid, and Reno all a bit giggly and tipsy during the reception after drinking
too many shots of whatever it was they could get their hands on. Before the bride and groom had said their
vows, however, Cid had been so nervous that he smoked cigarette after cigarette
until finally Yuffie and her unwillingly partner in crime, Reeve, had swiped
his pack and flushed it down the toilet.
That wedding had been one of most fun times of her life. Even if she had to wear that uncomfortable
bridesmaid dress that made her feel half naked. The highlight of her evening, aside from watching Reno try to
climb up and dance on a table only to fall in a very surprised and very unhappy
Barret's lap, had been when she had managed to drag Vincent out onto the dance
floor. She practically had to pick him
up and carry him, but that had been the best part of it.
Yes, life had been good.
Then one day, out of nowhere, Cloud had
called Yuffie on the PHS, sounding extremely morbid for a man who seemed to be
leading a very happy existence.
"Hey Cloud!
What's up?" Yuffie asked as she lay on her mat, holding the PHS with one
hand and juggling a mastered Fire materia with the other.
"We're having problems, Yuffie," he said
dully, but the ninja could hear the underlying worry evident in his voice.
"Who?
You and Tifa?"
"No," Cloud answered. "Reeve is missing."
Yuffie's heart skipped a beat. She forgot to catch the materia she had
tossed in the air before Cloud's previous statement, and the emerald orb
plummeted down to smack her right in the middle of the forehead. "Ow!" she cried, but quickly returned her
attention to the situation at hand.
"What? How can that be? When did this happen?"
"Last night. Reno was going to ask Reeve to go drinking with him and Rude when
he heard scuffling sounds in the office.
He burst in there, but it was too late.
The window was broken, but there was no sign of Reeve or his attacker,
whoever he or she was. Reno tried to
call someone on Reeve's office telephone, but the lines had been cut and all he
got on his own cell phone was static.
He and Rude showed up at the bar at dawn today to ask me and Tifa for
help."
"Who do you think could have done this?" she
asked, trying to keep down the flutter of fear in the back of her throat and
ignore the growing lump in the middle of her forehead. "A rebel group? I'm sure that there's plenty of people who would want to kidnap
the President of Neo-Shinra."
"I don't know," Cloud said glumly. "There's rebel groups for almost everything,
but somehow I have a feeling that this has something to do with Reeve being
part of AVALANCHE. I'm calling in
everyone and organizing a search. Can
you bring all our materia to Tifa's bar in Kalm?"
"Okay," Yuffie said eagerly, surprised at
how much she wanted to help. "What do
we have to go on?"
Cloud sighed. "Not much, I'm afraid.
Me, Tifa and the Turks searched the office, but the kidnapper left no
trace of anything. We found drops of
blood, however..."
Yuffie swallowed a lump in her throat, and
forced herself to ask, "Were they Reeve's?"
"Yeah," Cloud said grimly. "They were Reeve's."
"Crap," Yuffie said, unable to think of
anything else to say.
"We had pretty much the same reaction. There were only a couple of drops so we
still have hope that wherever Reeve is, he's not seriously injured. But what we're really worried about is the
man Rude saw in the remains of Hojo's lab a few hours after Reeve was
captured."
"What kind of man?"
"Rude said he was dressed all in black with
a ski mask covering his features. He
was searching through old files of Hojo's when Rude surprised him. The man ran away and managed to escape
through a place that we haven't been able to find yet. Turns out that Reno, Rude, and Elena had
seen this man sneaking around before, but he had always run away when they
attempted to talk to him. We're calling
him the Running Man..."
Which brought her to the present moment,
soaking wet and stuck in the docking bay next to a rotting and seemingly
abandoned boat that Cloud had wanted Yuffie and Vincent to investigate. Now she had no idea where she was, what time
it was, how long they were going to be here, or if they would even get a chance
to apprehend the Running Man. All she
knew was that she was cold, wet, tired, and ready to let Reeve fend for
himself, wherever he was. She had a
broken and waterlogged PHS, a rumble in her stomach that sounded every bit as
fierce as those damn green dragons at Mt. Nibel, and boy was she ever
COLD!
Yuffie shivered again and rubbed her bare
arms. She glanced over at Vincent, who
despite what he has said earlier, looked warm and toasty in his long red cape
and black pants.
"Hey, Vinnie," she spoke up again. "Can I use your—"
Her entreaty was cut short when her dark
companion suddenly spun around and clamped a gloved hand over her mouth. Though her first instinct was to struggle
until she was released, she quickly repressed it, trusting Vincent's senses and
knowing that he rarely touched anyone for any reason. She flicked her eyes to the side and was just able to see a
shadowy blur as Vincent shifted closer to her.
"I saw him," he whispered, lips close to her
ear. His warm breath against her ear
sent pleasurable chills running down her spine. Strands of ebony black hair flopped forward to caress her cheek,
and she was suddenly aware of how close he was, close enough that she could
feel the warmth radiating from his body.
Suddenly, she wasn't cold any more.
"He went down a stairwell to a lower level,"
Vincent continued, oblivious to the change that had overtaken her. "Just follow me. Got it?"
Yuffie nodded, not trusting her voice.
Vincent removed his hand from her mouth and
crept closer to the edge of the crate, peering out from behind it to see that
there was no one hanging around the docking bay. He took the Death Penalty from its holster, and seeing this,
Yuffie followed in suit with her Conformer, trying to work the kinks out of her
muscles as she did so.
Vincent stepped out from behind the crate
and into the open, motioning for Yuffie to follow him. The young girl did so, wincing as her knees
and back popped loudly, protesting so much movement after being inactive for almost
an hour.
Keeping
as quiet as possible, she followed her shadowy friend into the darkness until
the inky black seemed to swallow them whole.
Author's Note: Okay, there's the first chapter of what's
probably going to be a pretty long fic.
Not much so far, but the plot deepens as it goes along. Any comments, e-mail me (catalina2717@go.com)
