FicWad

Let's look at it. This story is an AU, very loosely based on World of Darkness, board game. There are my usual favourite pairings : Vincent/Yuffie, Cloud/Tifa, Tseng/Elena, Zack/Aeris, maybe some OC/OC. Enjoy and let me know what you think.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters nor the settings, they are SquareEnix's. All things associated with the World of Darkness games belong to its respective owners (White Wolf) as well.

Chapter 1

Passing Acquaintances

The soft light of the moon graced the streets and rooftops of Midgar, basking them in otherworldly glow, lending peaceful feeling to everything. The peace was shattered with a sound of running feet. A shadow moved forward and transformed itself into a figure of young girl, running surely across the roof of an apartment building. Dressed in a form-fitting black pants and top, she stopped for the briefest of moments on the edge of the roof before jumping down.
She landed softly on her feet, a feat seemingly impossible to achieve after jumping from the roof of a four-storey building. She didn't stop, though, and quickly sprinted away, trying to put as much distance as possible between herself and whatever was pursuing her. Only seconds later a tall, bald man in a suit dropped to the ground. It wasn't such a graceful landing as hers but he didn't waste any time comparing styles and set off after her, speaking into a headset.

"She's heading in your direction, Reno. Be ready."

"Yeah, yeah," an annoyed voice came over the line. "One little girl to catch. No problem for me, yo."

"Don't underestimate her," the bald man chastised him. This mission was very important, as their boss had reminded them. It was vital that they catch this unknown girl. So far, they hadn't met with any success.

"Sure, mate. Leave her to me," Reno's confidence was almost oozing out of his every word as he straightened from where he was casually leaning against the wall, tossed his nightstick into the air and caught it again. Very soon, his hearing, much more superior to human, caught sound of running feet. He walked into the middle of the alley and stopped to wait for his prey. He didn't have to wait for long. A young girl skidded to a halt at the sight of him. She glanced behind but that route was cut off by the other guy. She threw up her hands in a gesture of 'why me' and then, with a resigned sigh, unstrapped the large weapon on her back. A normal human wouldn't be able to wield such a weapon. In a design, it was a shuriken but those weren't usually three and a half feet in diameter. This girl, however, was not a human. Neither were her opponents.

"So we've gotta play, after all, hmm?" she smirked as she easily fell into a battle stance, feet apart, one slightly bent for better balance.

"If you call having your ass kicked playing," Reno answered and got ready as well. "What you say, Rude? Shall we have some fun?"

"We were ordered to bring her alive," Rude was well aware of his partner's destructive tendencies when in battle. "Don't hurt her."

"Your concern is really touching," she spoke sarcastically. "How about you let me go? That way I won't have to hurt you."

"You're really confident for someone who's going to lose, little girl."

Her eyes narrowed.

"And it takes both of you to fight a little girl? How brave."

"Fine," Reno looked at Rude. "I don't need help in beating her. Don't interfere."

Rude sighed but complied. There was nothing worse than Reno when someone challenged him. He just prayed that he would be able to stop his partner before something happened to the girl who provoked him.

The girl bowed to him and crossed her arms in front of her with the shuriken as a kind of a shield. Then she threw them to the sides and suddenly there were two weapons, one in each hand. She changed her position again, left arm above her head and right in the front. She smiled.

"I accept your challenge, warrior. State your name so I know who I will defeat."

"Confident bitch," Reno murmured to himself. Louder, he answered. "Reno. Clan Brujah."

Her eyes seemed to glow when she heard his answer.

"Brujah is always a challenge. Very well, Reno. I am Yuffie Kisaragi. Clan Ravnos."

"Shit," Rude said to himself. Ravnos was probably the most unpredictable of all clans with the possible exception of Malkavian, not to mention this girl looked like she came from the Wutaian branch. Ravnos had ruled in Wutai for nearly one thousand years and they had the reputation of being skilled fighters, training with human warriors there. Training made Wutaians very dangerous, making them fast even without the help of any 'special' gifts and abilities.

"Ravnos are nothing but a bunch of thieves," Reno said as he activated his nightstick. The smile he received this time was more feral, clearly showing elongated fangs in Yuffie's mouth. "Hit a sore spot, girl?"

"Maybe I like shiny things. What girl doesn't? I'm just getting bored. You're all talk and no action."

"Ladies first."

Yuffie didn't reply and instead attacked him. One moment she was standing still like a statue, then next her left arm moved and one of the shurikens went sailing through the air towards Reno. He ducked before realizing that the weapon disappeared into thin air. But that split second that it took for him to realize the fact gave Yuffie enough time to cross the space separating them. She hit him hard with her elbow and spun to deliver a roundhouse kick into his stomach. Reno doubled over in pain. He had to hand it to her. She was good. He looked up again and saw that she once again held two shurikens. How did she manage to make that one disappear?

Yuffie made some really complicated hand motion and suddenly there were three shurikens in her hands. She didn't waste any time in sending them against him again. He didn't duck this time and so he could see as they once again dissolved right in front of him. Two of them. The third hit him and sliced his chest, leaving behind a sharp pain and redness of seeping blood.

"What the-" he coughed as his body started working on closing the wound.

"Welcome to the world of illusions," Yuffie smirked. "I hope it hurt."

Reno growled. He was playing nicely but it was time to take off kid's gloves.

"You asked for it," he murmured and focused on calling forth his abilities. He felt the familiar rush of power that was filling him and he knew with a sudden certainty that he would beat the girl. He moved towards her, deliberately slowing his motions and watched as she ducked his left-handed punch. What she didn't expect was the right hand clutching nightstick that moved at a speed far outmatching even hers. The blow sent her head to the left where it met his fist. She tumbled to the ground, where she laid, unmoving.

Reno tossed back his head. It was easy. The girl might have been good but not that good to take him out when he put in use his superior strength and speed. He looked over at Rude who was shaking his head disaprovingly.

"I hope she will be all right. We had orders."

"Relax," Reno waved off his concern. "She's just knocked out, yo. Ya know it's harder than that to take out one of ours."

He leaned over to pick the girl up. That's when he heard it. The soft sounds of little feet. Or more like paws. Rats? This was one of the shabbier parts of Midgar. Of course there would be rats. He shrugged and put one hand on the girl's shoulder to turn her over. When he saw her grinning, he once again reacted far too late. One of her legs caught him behind the knee, sending him crashing down to the ground. She jumped up and kicked him into the stomach, hard. She then mumbled something, pointing at Rude.

The patter of paws grew stronger and from both ends of the alley, very small shadows moved in. Reno had been right. They were rats. There were hundreds of them and all seemed to move with a purpose. They had an objective and it was the silent man who had until then stayed out of the fight. Yuffie started springing to the end of the alley, avoiding the rats along the way.

"It was fun," she blew them a kiss. "I'm leaving my little friends to keep you company. Bye."

With a last wave, she was gone, swallowed by the night.
Yuffie ran at a steady pace. She knew the rats wouldn't hold them off for long but hopefully, they'd give her enough time to mask herself. She sniggered as she recalled the look on Reno's face when he had turned her over and saw she had been awake. She was grateful for the ability to recover from most of the accidents and injuries at a speed that was almost miraculous. It sure came in handy.
Taking a sharp turn, she found what she had been looking for. A heap of old paper and some rags next to the large dumpster. It smelled awfully but it wouldn't be for long as she told herself. She laid down, pulling old newspaper over her body and then recalling a memory of a homeless man she had literally crashed into earlier in the evening. Holding it in mind, her appearance slowly changed to a mirror image of the man, her features safely masked under the heavy illusion. However, the more important fact was that her aura had changed too. She closed her eyes, calming her breath to imitate a sleeping person.

It took those two almost ten minutes to come to her new hideout. She heard two sets of footsteps, one of them sounded angry, almost stomping while the other one were calm and measured steps of someone who had learned self-control and how to use it. Forcing herself to remain still, she prayed they just passed by so she could be on her way to the meeting she was already late for.

"Where could she be? This dump's not that big."

"I'll take a sweep around," Yuffie heard the one called Rude mumble something and felt the Auspex spell wash over her. "There's only a hobo sleeping by the dumpster and... now this is interesting. You can come out," he called to someone. Yuffie cracked her eyes open a little to see what was going on. Rude and Reno stood with their backs to her, observing the shadows in the backdoor of some shop or something. Then the shadows changed and a man emerged from them. Yuffie had to keep from cursing as she realized he had probably been there the whole time and could have seen her. So even the changed aura wouldn't fool him. She prepared herself to bolt away again at the first sign of danger. She had no time to play hide and seek with these guys.

"What do you want?" there was a definite hostility in this newcomer's voice and Yuffie perked up a little. He didn't seem to be on friendly terms with her pursuers.

"Is that how you greet old friends, yo?"

"I have no ties to Shinra anymore," the man said. "That means you two as well. I ask again. What are you doing here?"

"We are looking for someone. Have you seen a young girl around here?" Yuffie could swear the guy looked at her for a moment and she squinted to see him better, hoping to discern his intentions.

"I haven't seen anyone. This part of town is too dangerous at night and people know it. It is said a monster lives here," the man showed off his fangs as he said that. Rude and Reno seemed to get the message.

"Fine, fine, we're going," Reno turned to leave. "It was good to see you again, Vincent. Let's go, Rude."

Rude lingered for a moment.

"You wouldn't tell us even if you saw her, am I right?" Vincent didn't answer and Rude nodded to himself. "Goodbye Vincent."

Vincent watched until they rounded the corner and only after that he turned to where Yuffie was hiding. She stood up and dusted herself off, self-conscious under his scrutiny. She quickly changed back to her normal self and, slightly more composed, approached him.

"Thank you for helping me out," she held out her right hand. "Of course I could take them out but I don't have time to play around. So thanks."

The man, Vincent, made no move to accept her thanks and Yuffie finally dropped her hand, feeling awkward. He was taller than her and looked very dramatic, standing there with his long black hair and large red cape moving gently in the soft breeze. Toreador? Not likely, they were more lively than him. Finally he spoke, in less harsh tone than before.

"You should get out of the city as fast as possible."

"No way, I've just arrived."

"Rufus Shinra has sent two of his best after you. I don't care why but Midgar doesn't need any more trouble. Think about it."

He turned sharply and left her standing in the alley, entering the shadows again. Yuffie scowled after him, all the while knowing he was already gone.

"You could have at least introduced yourself. Or ask for my name. That's what you're supposed to do when you help such a gorgeous girl like myself. Especially when you look the way you do," she muttered the last thing to herself. Then she thought of something. "I owe you for your help so don't count on me leaving just yet," she looked at her wristwatch and let out a yelp. "Shit, I'm so late. Damn Shinra!"

With one last look in the direction where this mysterious stranger had disappeared to, she left the alley behind, sprinting to the meeting place where she had been supposed to be more than an hour ago. The meeting point was an old building which Yuffie entered cautiously inspite of her hurry.

"Hello!" she called out and gripped her weapon more firmly, just in case.

"Yuffie, about time you got here."

The speaker was a tall Wutaian man and Yuffie grinned when she saw him.

"Good to see you too, Tseng," and she leapt at him, crushing him in a hug that would have resulted in at least a broken rib for human. "I missed you."

TBC

A/N: So, short and with a mean ending to a chapter to pique your interest. This is going to be pretty long story as I still haven't introduced more than half of main players. And yes, this has more plot to it than just how Yuffie and Vincent get together. See you, hopefully, soon.