Categories > Games > Final Fantasy 7 > Sable and ivory
A/N: Yes, later in the story, there will be a lemon. ;D
Special thanks to Novocain for beta-reading.
Chapter 8
Turning point
They had an appointment with that important ass person in three quarters, and they were still eating.
Here she was, worrying over her respected country and nervously arranging the food on her plate in piles and circles and rhomboids, and not only had time decided to crawl like a slug, but Tifa didn't know to tell her even who the guy was or what was wrong with Wutai.
She only said that Reno had called to arrange a meeting with the important dude and the princess, 'concerning a matter of crucial importance, diplomatic tactfulness and all that jazz', as he put it.
She was tapping her foot maniacally on the wooden floor, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by Vincent, seeing as his chair was next to hers and undoubtedly the vibrations she was sending his way where those of a small earthquake.
He motioned discreetly at her to stop.
She offered him one of her finest fake smiles and stopped the nervous habit, taking a bite of her food to get herself distracted. However, her movements were fast and abrupt, so the food on her chopsticks was soon decorating her lap.
'#&$#,' she glared at the offending heap.
"Are you alright, Yuffie? You seem a bit, well, very nervous. You don't have to worry; I'm sure everything will be okay with Wutai! Reno probably exaggerated as per usual," ever-caring Tifa said.
"I'm fine, just fine," she grumbled in reply, trying to clean her dark brown trousers.
She took another bite, carefully this time.
The little Wutaian restaurant was rather good, even for a girl who was brought up as the sole heir to the throne and was consequently treated only to the best gastronomical options her country could offer.
But that was before she was sent by her father to the wilderness in order to 'gather' materia that would 'restore Wutai'.
Because gastronomy is the last thing on your mind when you have beasts big enough to use you as a toothpick for their actual meal chasing you around.
'Not that toothpicks are bad,' she thought, playing with one on her right hand, 'but I'd rather use them, not be used as them, thank you very much. And you shut up, Chocobo boy, I don't wanna hear about the new developments in motorcycle engineering! '
She wanted to groan, or drag out Vincent by the collar and leave for Wutai, or ask Tifa if as a teenager she had her boobs removed and replaced by oversized balloons, or throw her plate in Cloud's face. She wanted to be spared the boredom of eating in a corner table for six in a small packed restaurant, with Cloud talking about all that manly-man stuff with Vincent, - although nothing of the... other sort - and Tifa mooning over her beloved I-look-like-I-was-just-hit-by-thunder-and-my-name-is-ironically-Cloud boy.
Okay, perhaps he was cute in a way, but he was certainly already taken. And she really didn't feel like meeting Tifa's fist anytime soon; Reno said it was rather painful.
Vincent watched her fidget and bite her nails out of the corner of his eye and decided it was probably time to change the subject and include her in the conversation. He waited until Cloud had finished his sentence, and said:
"So, how's everyone faring?"
"They're all fine from what we hear. Nanaki is in Cosmo Canyon with scrolls up to his big, feline nose. Barret and Marlene are okay, and he brings her to play with Denzel every Sunday. Reeve's face is probably glued to a computer screen, even as we speak. And Cid and Shera... are on their honeymoon," Tifa supplied for them, smiling.
The last comment caught the ninja's attention.
"On their honeymoon? But they got married three months ago!" she exclaimed, her inquietude momentarily forgotten.
Tifa giggled a little.
"Oh, you know Cid! He had problems with the ship again, and he told her to wait until it the engine was fixed..."
"He didn't!"
"Yes, he did... But they eventually went on their honeymoon," Cloud confirmed, glancing at Tifa in her casual, form-fitting clothes with what could only be described as a conspiratorial gleam in his mako-enhanced eyes.
She grinned prettily and looked at her golden boy in adoration.
Vincent cleared his throat.
Yuffie felt that she was missing something.
Just as she turned to ask Vincent about it, she noticed his gaze wander behind Tifa's back and focus on something or someone thoughtfully.
She blew her bangs out of her eyes and searched the crowd for what he was possibly looking at.
She found her.
Yes, her.
A tall, middle-aged woman with light brownish hair that mixed with gray near the roots was heading towards their table, her eyes never leaving Vincent.
Everyone stared right at her, with the exception of Cloud who would break his neck if he tried to do so directly.
"Hello..." Tifa said kindly, a hint of a question underneath.
The woman, whose face was well-preserved but still looked aged enough, stopped staring at Vincent for a moment and told Tifa just as courteously, "Excuse me for approaching uninvited like this, but... is that you, Vincent Valentine?"
Vincent nodded, after a moment's hesitation.
She was next to him now.
"Of course, it couldn't be someone else..." she said softly, her scrutinizing gaze lingering on his strong, fine features and raven hair that stuck out in every direction.
Yuffie watched his eyes narrow, trying to search his memory, and then widen.
Behind the wrinkles and the white hairs there was a face from his past.
He stared at the woman unbelievingly.
She smiled wryly. "Thirty-five years... Thirty-five years, yet you haven't changed a day..." she said, her voice a little thick, possibly from years of smoking.
"Aileen," he acknowledged her.
She chuckled weakly.
"That's me. You do remember me after all... I guess six months is quite some time, right Vincent?"
"...Yes," he looked uncomfortable now.
Who could blame him? It was quite the shock for him.
He remembered her faintly, but it was an entirely different image he had in his head.
All those age lines and spots, and the form, tired and slouchy... Time is cruel.
Nothing to do with the fresh, stylish secretary of all those years ago.
Before Lucrecia... When he was a whole man, with the dangerous mask carefully slipped on. Turk. Bringer of death with an angel's face.
He didn't need this now.
It was most unsettling; she looked almost in her sixties, while he still looked in his late twenties. Her eyes were hard and cutting thought him.
He frowned, realizing how she must feel. Cheated by time and fate, having to face a young, handsome man she had an affair with, the man that still had the aura of buried secrecy around him, mixed with something else, something potent like sulfur on her nostrils. She'd never know what it was. He'd never forget what it was.
Being dead and brought back. Being rejected, slapped, when you were most confident. Trying to get rid of the anger burning inside you, eating you like an inferno of regret and pain. Trying to embrace life again and learn the world anew, stumbling with your emotions like a child; a man with too many threads of his past caught on him.
Eternal youth was harder than she'd ever imagine. She had no reason of envying him.
Everyone was watching the silent exchange, but nobody spoke.
Until Yuffie decided she didn't like the hardened expression on Vincent's face.
"Vinnie, are you alright?" she whispered, placing a small hand on his arm. He averted his gaze from the woman to briefly look at her. His expression, cold at first, relaxed a little.
"Everything's alr-" he began, but the woman interrupted him.
"Vinnie? How lovely, I see you still like them young and pretty. I'll admit though, at first I thought she was your daughter," she guffawed.
Not waiting to see Vincent's reaction, Yuffie jumped out of her chair and closed in on the taller woman, eyeing her in disdain.
"Hey! Drop it, alright?"
Aileen cast a sideways look at the man.
"Oh, aren't we feisty. Should I tell her exactly how much you can take care of your self, Vincent?"
Yuffie glanced at him quickly, and immediately felt her cheeks flame in anger for the woman. How dare she walk in like this and remind him, tease him... Just when Yuffie had started to break the icy exterior.
"Leave him alone!"
"Why, little-" Aileen opened her mouth to retort with something that didn't bode well for Yuffie, and the ninja stomped her foot, ready to just push her away or yell.
Vincent was quicker though.
He was up in an instant and in front of Yuffie.
"Some things are in the past. Where they belong," he said stonily, daring her silently to continue with her sentence.
She got the hint. With a mocking bow of her head, she began to leave their table for where a salt-and-pepper haired man and young pregnant woman were waiting for her.
"Careful, Valentine, and don't break too many hearts this time around," she threw over her back, sharply.
Everyone watched her back as she left with mixed emotions.
Cloud was stunned, Tifa was worried, and Yuffie was still annoyed.
Vincent... well, it was hard to tell.
Yuffie felt a hand on the small of her back, pressuring her forward a little.
She looked up, straight into Vincent's twin pools of blood.
"Come on," he said, guiding her forward to her seat and sitting next to her. She tried to hide her excitement and, at the same time, disappointment that his hand was no longer on her middle. It was a little cold, but thrilling at the same time, as she could feel every single one of his fingers and his palm on her skin through the thin shirt. It had brought her goose-bumps. Physical contact with Vincent was a rare occurrence.
"Um, that was... episodic," Tifa said with a nervous smile, trying to lighten the atmosphere up.
Of course Yuffie was too preoccupied with thoughts of Vincent's hands and how exactly they would feel on her without the layer of the shirt to notice him studying her.
"You didn't have to intervene," he said finally.
Cloud and Tifa exchanged an apprehensive look.
"Huh? I know that. But I... felt like doing it," she replied shyly.
"..."
He was staring in outer space.
"You're not mad at me, are you?" she gasped.
It took him a moment to digest this and answer.
"No... I'm not."
And he meant it. He just had a lot to think of at the moment.
"Oh, goodie," she said, smiling as brightly as ever.
Vincent found her goofy smile to be slightly contagious, and the corners of his mouth turned upwards in his usual subtle way. Feeling something inexplicable for a moment, he postponed the unpleasant thoughts for later, and instead focused on the young woman who was chatting vividly with Tifa.
The urge to act on impulse was there again, persistent like a bird tapping on the window.
Cautiously, he rested his hand above her knee.
Yuffie choked on her water.
This couldn't be, right?
Her eyes traveled from the place where his hand was lightly 'sitting' on her knee, up to his arm, neck, and finally his face.
In time to see him control his tiny smirk.
"Thank you," he said smoothly.
Then, he turned his attention back to his plate, as if nothing had happened.
But something had happened.
If her mind couldn't believe it, then she'd have to take the tingling of the nerves on her left leg as testament.
Cloud looked cockily at Tifa.
'You owe me fifty gil,' he mouthed.
She was too excited to care and made a mental note of interrogating Yuffie.
And squealing with her.
----------------------------
"Alright, guys, is this the rendezvous place?" Yuffie asked, taking in her surroundings. It was a small park, with a few benches against the only big trees, two beautiful oaks. A bunch of children where playing a short distance away, what looked like a variation of hide and seek. There was some chilliness in the air, even though the sun was bright and the sky clear.
She found the place to be refreshing and calming on her stretched nerves... The same nerves that Tifa apparently wanted to crumble with her mischievous glances and teasing remarks.
"This is it, yeah. Yuffie, would you like me and Cloud to leave, perhaps..." the brunette asked, waggling her eyebrows at Yuffie, her back turned on the two men, so that they wouldn't see.
Yuffie elbowed her lightly on the stomach.
"Tifa! He's watching!" she warned, through clenched teeth.
True enough, Vincent was leaning against the trunk of the tree, seemingly watching the passers-by, but Yuffie was sure that he was listening to the conversation with interest. Hell, she could even imagine his ears twitching like an alien in one of those sci-fi films.
Albeit a very handsome alien with a sexy voice and long-fingered, slender hands that made her body way too... responsive.
"But it's such a sunny day and Vincent might feel very hot in those clothes of his, but you see, he might be shy with me and Cloud around-" Tifa insisted.
"TIFA!" the ninja whined, burying her face in her hands.
Tifa snickered, throwing her long hair over her shoulder in an elegant motion.
Cloud winked at her, and suddenly pointed at the entrance of the park. His expression changed as fast as lightning.
"What the-"
It was none other than Rufus ShinRa in his wheelchair, and Tseng of the Turks was pushing it.
Yuffie watched with increasing disdain as they came closer and closer, the wheels making an annoying 'whoosh' sound on the pebble trail.
"This can't be good," the ninja muttered to herself. When was the last time Rufus had made a move without any hidden motives or purposefulness?
The noise stopped, and the two men faced the company, their expressions not giving away any hint about what this unusual meeting was about.
"Good evening," the blonde man said, as hawk-like as ever. "I trust you didn't have to wait long?"
Tseng emerged from behind the wheelchair and stood next to his president. His height and long raven hair reminded her of...
'DUN DUN DUN... Vincent. Damn, I see him everywhere!'
"You might as well quit the formalities. What do you want?" was Cloud's unfriendly retort.
The young man smiled knowingly, thin fringes of hair shining as the sun fell on them.
"Straight to the point, I see." His tenor voice was cold. Then again, when was it ever something else?
"What do you want to tell me about Wutai?" Yuffie piped up as aggressively as she could muster.
Rufus tapped his fingers on the arm brace of his chair and exchanged a look with Tseng.
"Many years ago," he began, "as you already know, my father's company started a war against the military land of Wutai. Your land, Princess Kisaragi," he said, addressing Yuffie.
"It was a war smeared with the blood of both our parties. When Wutai finally succumbed to ShinRa, it was nothing more than a weak village. Thus, it became the tourist resort you accuse it of being," he continued coolly.
"And how do you know that?" she exclaimed, biting the inside of her cheek and dreading his response.
"Because your father told me," he smirked, watching the girl's face bleach. "Wutai is getting stronger again with each passing year, and we wish to create a bond with it in hopes that our previous mishaps will be forgotten. It's in our best interests to form some sort of... alliance that will benefit all of us. As you can probably guess, we have already negotiated with Lord Godo. He has given his consent for the forming of a joined ruling for Wutai."
"I've heard of ShinRa's 'joined rulings' before," Vincent spoke for the first time.
"Mister Valentine, I'm afraid you have no say in this," Tseng interrupted. To Yuffie, he sounded dignified but colder than Vincent, since his voice lacked the comforting inner rumble.
Vincent glared at the man.
Rufus chuckled slightly and everyone's attention was back at him again. "I'm sure you understand the terms of the arrangement, Miss Kisaragi. You are to co-rule with a ShinRa deputy. The only acceptable means for that, according to your tradition, is marriage to a man of your country, a pure Wutaian. And we have just the man..." he finished, still smirking.
Four dumbfounded sets of eyes -in various states of disguise- rested on the blank face of Tseng.
Special thanks to Novocain for beta-reading.
Chapter 8
Turning point
They had an appointment with that important ass person in three quarters, and they were still eating.
Here she was, worrying over her respected country and nervously arranging the food on her plate in piles and circles and rhomboids, and not only had time decided to crawl like a slug, but Tifa didn't know to tell her even who the guy was or what was wrong with Wutai.
She only said that Reno had called to arrange a meeting with the important dude and the princess, 'concerning a matter of crucial importance, diplomatic tactfulness and all that jazz', as he put it.
She was tapping her foot maniacally on the wooden floor, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by Vincent, seeing as his chair was next to hers and undoubtedly the vibrations she was sending his way where those of a small earthquake.
He motioned discreetly at her to stop.
She offered him one of her finest fake smiles and stopped the nervous habit, taking a bite of her food to get herself distracted. However, her movements were fast and abrupt, so the food on her chopsticks was soon decorating her lap.
'#&$#,' she glared at the offending heap.
"Are you alright, Yuffie? You seem a bit, well, very nervous. You don't have to worry; I'm sure everything will be okay with Wutai! Reno probably exaggerated as per usual," ever-caring Tifa said.
"I'm fine, just fine," she grumbled in reply, trying to clean her dark brown trousers.
She took another bite, carefully this time.
The little Wutaian restaurant was rather good, even for a girl who was brought up as the sole heir to the throne and was consequently treated only to the best gastronomical options her country could offer.
But that was before she was sent by her father to the wilderness in order to 'gather' materia that would 'restore Wutai'.
Because gastronomy is the last thing on your mind when you have beasts big enough to use you as a toothpick for their actual meal chasing you around.
'Not that toothpicks are bad,' she thought, playing with one on her right hand, 'but I'd rather use them, not be used as them, thank you very much. And you shut up, Chocobo boy, I don't wanna hear about the new developments in motorcycle engineering! '
She wanted to groan, or drag out Vincent by the collar and leave for Wutai, or ask Tifa if as a teenager she had her boobs removed and replaced by oversized balloons, or throw her plate in Cloud's face. She wanted to be spared the boredom of eating in a corner table for six in a small packed restaurant, with Cloud talking about all that manly-man stuff with Vincent, - although nothing of the... other sort - and Tifa mooning over her beloved I-look-like-I-was-just-hit-by-thunder-and-my-name-is-ironically-Cloud boy.
Okay, perhaps he was cute in a way, but he was certainly already taken. And she really didn't feel like meeting Tifa's fist anytime soon; Reno said it was rather painful.
Vincent watched her fidget and bite her nails out of the corner of his eye and decided it was probably time to change the subject and include her in the conversation. He waited until Cloud had finished his sentence, and said:
"So, how's everyone faring?"
"They're all fine from what we hear. Nanaki is in Cosmo Canyon with scrolls up to his big, feline nose. Barret and Marlene are okay, and he brings her to play with Denzel every Sunday. Reeve's face is probably glued to a computer screen, even as we speak. And Cid and Shera... are on their honeymoon," Tifa supplied for them, smiling.
The last comment caught the ninja's attention.
"On their honeymoon? But they got married three months ago!" she exclaimed, her inquietude momentarily forgotten.
Tifa giggled a little.
"Oh, you know Cid! He had problems with the ship again, and he told her to wait until it the engine was fixed..."
"He didn't!"
"Yes, he did... But they eventually went on their honeymoon," Cloud confirmed, glancing at Tifa in her casual, form-fitting clothes with what could only be described as a conspiratorial gleam in his mako-enhanced eyes.
She grinned prettily and looked at her golden boy in adoration.
Vincent cleared his throat.
Yuffie felt that she was missing something.
Just as she turned to ask Vincent about it, she noticed his gaze wander behind Tifa's back and focus on something or someone thoughtfully.
She blew her bangs out of her eyes and searched the crowd for what he was possibly looking at.
She found her.
Yes, her.
A tall, middle-aged woman with light brownish hair that mixed with gray near the roots was heading towards their table, her eyes never leaving Vincent.
Everyone stared right at her, with the exception of Cloud who would break his neck if he tried to do so directly.
"Hello..." Tifa said kindly, a hint of a question underneath.
The woman, whose face was well-preserved but still looked aged enough, stopped staring at Vincent for a moment and told Tifa just as courteously, "Excuse me for approaching uninvited like this, but... is that you, Vincent Valentine?"
Vincent nodded, after a moment's hesitation.
She was next to him now.
"Of course, it couldn't be someone else..." she said softly, her scrutinizing gaze lingering on his strong, fine features and raven hair that stuck out in every direction.
Yuffie watched his eyes narrow, trying to search his memory, and then widen.
Behind the wrinkles and the white hairs there was a face from his past.
He stared at the woman unbelievingly.
She smiled wryly. "Thirty-five years... Thirty-five years, yet you haven't changed a day..." she said, her voice a little thick, possibly from years of smoking.
"Aileen," he acknowledged her.
She chuckled weakly.
"That's me. You do remember me after all... I guess six months is quite some time, right Vincent?"
"...Yes," he looked uncomfortable now.
Who could blame him? It was quite the shock for him.
He remembered her faintly, but it was an entirely different image he had in his head.
All those age lines and spots, and the form, tired and slouchy... Time is cruel.
Nothing to do with the fresh, stylish secretary of all those years ago.
Before Lucrecia... When he was a whole man, with the dangerous mask carefully slipped on. Turk. Bringer of death with an angel's face.
He didn't need this now.
It was most unsettling; she looked almost in her sixties, while he still looked in his late twenties. Her eyes were hard and cutting thought him.
He frowned, realizing how she must feel. Cheated by time and fate, having to face a young, handsome man she had an affair with, the man that still had the aura of buried secrecy around him, mixed with something else, something potent like sulfur on her nostrils. She'd never know what it was. He'd never forget what it was.
Being dead and brought back. Being rejected, slapped, when you were most confident. Trying to get rid of the anger burning inside you, eating you like an inferno of regret and pain. Trying to embrace life again and learn the world anew, stumbling with your emotions like a child; a man with too many threads of his past caught on him.
Eternal youth was harder than she'd ever imagine. She had no reason of envying him.
Everyone was watching the silent exchange, but nobody spoke.
Until Yuffie decided she didn't like the hardened expression on Vincent's face.
"Vinnie, are you alright?" she whispered, placing a small hand on his arm. He averted his gaze from the woman to briefly look at her. His expression, cold at first, relaxed a little.
"Everything's alr-" he began, but the woman interrupted him.
"Vinnie? How lovely, I see you still like them young and pretty. I'll admit though, at first I thought she was your daughter," she guffawed.
Not waiting to see Vincent's reaction, Yuffie jumped out of her chair and closed in on the taller woman, eyeing her in disdain.
"Hey! Drop it, alright?"
Aileen cast a sideways look at the man.
"Oh, aren't we feisty. Should I tell her exactly how much you can take care of your self, Vincent?"
Yuffie glanced at him quickly, and immediately felt her cheeks flame in anger for the woman. How dare she walk in like this and remind him, tease him... Just when Yuffie had started to break the icy exterior.
"Leave him alone!"
"Why, little-" Aileen opened her mouth to retort with something that didn't bode well for Yuffie, and the ninja stomped her foot, ready to just push her away or yell.
Vincent was quicker though.
He was up in an instant and in front of Yuffie.
"Some things are in the past. Where they belong," he said stonily, daring her silently to continue with her sentence.
She got the hint. With a mocking bow of her head, she began to leave their table for where a salt-and-pepper haired man and young pregnant woman were waiting for her.
"Careful, Valentine, and don't break too many hearts this time around," she threw over her back, sharply.
Everyone watched her back as she left with mixed emotions.
Cloud was stunned, Tifa was worried, and Yuffie was still annoyed.
Vincent... well, it was hard to tell.
Yuffie felt a hand on the small of her back, pressuring her forward a little.
She looked up, straight into Vincent's twin pools of blood.
"Come on," he said, guiding her forward to her seat and sitting next to her. She tried to hide her excitement and, at the same time, disappointment that his hand was no longer on her middle. It was a little cold, but thrilling at the same time, as she could feel every single one of his fingers and his palm on her skin through the thin shirt. It had brought her goose-bumps. Physical contact with Vincent was a rare occurrence.
"Um, that was... episodic," Tifa said with a nervous smile, trying to lighten the atmosphere up.
Of course Yuffie was too preoccupied with thoughts of Vincent's hands and how exactly they would feel on her without the layer of the shirt to notice him studying her.
"You didn't have to intervene," he said finally.
Cloud and Tifa exchanged an apprehensive look.
"Huh? I know that. But I... felt like doing it," she replied shyly.
"..."
He was staring in outer space.
"You're not mad at me, are you?" she gasped.
It took him a moment to digest this and answer.
"No... I'm not."
And he meant it. He just had a lot to think of at the moment.
"Oh, goodie," she said, smiling as brightly as ever.
Vincent found her goofy smile to be slightly contagious, and the corners of his mouth turned upwards in his usual subtle way. Feeling something inexplicable for a moment, he postponed the unpleasant thoughts for later, and instead focused on the young woman who was chatting vividly with Tifa.
The urge to act on impulse was there again, persistent like a bird tapping on the window.
Cautiously, he rested his hand above her knee.
Yuffie choked on her water.
This couldn't be, right?
Her eyes traveled from the place where his hand was lightly 'sitting' on her knee, up to his arm, neck, and finally his face.
In time to see him control his tiny smirk.
"Thank you," he said smoothly.
Then, he turned his attention back to his plate, as if nothing had happened.
But something had happened.
If her mind couldn't believe it, then she'd have to take the tingling of the nerves on her left leg as testament.
Cloud looked cockily at Tifa.
'You owe me fifty gil,' he mouthed.
She was too excited to care and made a mental note of interrogating Yuffie.
And squealing with her.
----------------------------
"Alright, guys, is this the rendezvous place?" Yuffie asked, taking in her surroundings. It was a small park, with a few benches against the only big trees, two beautiful oaks. A bunch of children where playing a short distance away, what looked like a variation of hide and seek. There was some chilliness in the air, even though the sun was bright and the sky clear.
She found the place to be refreshing and calming on her stretched nerves... The same nerves that Tifa apparently wanted to crumble with her mischievous glances and teasing remarks.
"This is it, yeah. Yuffie, would you like me and Cloud to leave, perhaps..." the brunette asked, waggling her eyebrows at Yuffie, her back turned on the two men, so that they wouldn't see.
Yuffie elbowed her lightly on the stomach.
"Tifa! He's watching!" she warned, through clenched teeth.
True enough, Vincent was leaning against the trunk of the tree, seemingly watching the passers-by, but Yuffie was sure that he was listening to the conversation with interest. Hell, she could even imagine his ears twitching like an alien in one of those sci-fi films.
Albeit a very handsome alien with a sexy voice and long-fingered, slender hands that made her body way too... responsive.
"But it's such a sunny day and Vincent might feel very hot in those clothes of his, but you see, he might be shy with me and Cloud around-" Tifa insisted.
"TIFA!" the ninja whined, burying her face in her hands.
Tifa snickered, throwing her long hair over her shoulder in an elegant motion.
Cloud winked at her, and suddenly pointed at the entrance of the park. His expression changed as fast as lightning.
"What the-"
It was none other than Rufus ShinRa in his wheelchair, and Tseng of the Turks was pushing it.
Yuffie watched with increasing disdain as they came closer and closer, the wheels making an annoying 'whoosh' sound on the pebble trail.
"This can't be good," the ninja muttered to herself. When was the last time Rufus had made a move without any hidden motives or purposefulness?
The noise stopped, and the two men faced the company, their expressions not giving away any hint about what this unusual meeting was about.
"Good evening," the blonde man said, as hawk-like as ever. "I trust you didn't have to wait long?"
Tseng emerged from behind the wheelchair and stood next to his president. His height and long raven hair reminded her of...
'DUN DUN DUN... Vincent. Damn, I see him everywhere!'
"You might as well quit the formalities. What do you want?" was Cloud's unfriendly retort.
The young man smiled knowingly, thin fringes of hair shining as the sun fell on them.
"Straight to the point, I see." His tenor voice was cold. Then again, when was it ever something else?
"What do you want to tell me about Wutai?" Yuffie piped up as aggressively as she could muster.
Rufus tapped his fingers on the arm brace of his chair and exchanged a look with Tseng.
"Many years ago," he began, "as you already know, my father's company started a war against the military land of Wutai. Your land, Princess Kisaragi," he said, addressing Yuffie.
"It was a war smeared with the blood of both our parties. When Wutai finally succumbed to ShinRa, it was nothing more than a weak village. Thus, it became the tourist resort you accuse it of being," he continued coolly.
"And how do you know that?" she exclaimed, biting the inside of her cheek and dreading his response.
"Because your father told me," he smirked, watching the girl's face bleach. "Wutai is getting stronger again with each passing year, and we wish to create a bond with it in hopes that our previous mishaps will be forgotten. It's in our best interests to form some sort of... alliance that will benefit all of us. As you can probably guess, we have already negotiated with Lord Godo. He has given his consent for the forming of a joined ruling for Wutai."
"I've heard of ShinRa's 'joined rulings' before," Vincent spoke for the first time.
"Mister Valentine, I'm afraid you have no say in this," Tseng interrupted. To Yuffie, he sounded dignified but colder than Vincent, since his voice lacked the comforting inner rumble.
Vincent glared at the man.
Rufus chuckled slightly and everyone's attention was back at him again. "I'm sure you understand the terms of the arrangement, Miss Kisaragi. You are to co-rule with a ShinRa deputy. The only acceptable means for that, according to your tradition, is marriage to a man of your country, a pure Wutaian. And we have just the man..." he finished, still smirking.
Four dumbfounded sets of eyes -in various states of disguise- rested on the blank face of Tseng.
Sign up to rate and review this story