Reminiscence

A/N: Well, I guess you could call this my entry to the Reefie challenge over on the Viva La Reefie forums. I guess.

This story was inspired by reading a lot of fics involving the pairing, some good-natured convincing my Leonora Thalberg and Marilena, and the song The More Boys I Meet, by Carrie Underwood.

Disclaimer: I neither own FFVII or the song mentioned in the sentence above. Thank you.

All this being said, thanks for reading!

"Reeve?" Yuffie stuck her head inside the office and, realizing the lights were off, shrugged, flicked them on, and walked in, closing the door behind her. "Guess not. Oh well."

Yuffie sighed in relief as she walked over to Reeve's desk. She had just spent three weeks with her father in Wutai, not entirely thrilling weeks, but, apparently necessary ones, and she was drained, tired, and more than happy to finally be home. Wutai just didn't hold the same attraction for her that it used to in terms of home. She was still the White Rose of Wutai, but home had become wherever Reeve was, and for now and a long time in the foreseeable future, he was in Edge.

Tossing herself down in Reeve's chair, Yuffie was about to put her feet up when she noticed a neatly folded piece of paper adorned with the characters that made up her name in Wutaian smack in the middle of Reeve's desk calendar. Yuffie reached for the paper, smiling fondly as she recognized Reeve's practiced hand. Her name was the only thing he could write flawlessly, and he used it whenever he had a private message for her. Yuffie turned the paper over and slit the tape holding it closed with a green fingernail.

My dearest Yuffie,

I wanted to be here to greet you upon your return, but Rufus called a meeting this morning. I truly think he does it just to spite us. I decided against calling you and waking you at an ungodly hour to let you know. I knew you would come here first, and the characters have never failed to catch your attention.

It is so good to know you are home. But you must promise me one thing. If I am not back by four, please, please, either call Shinra or come over and rescue me. There is only so much of Rufus Shinra and those damnable Turks I can take, no matter how much I love them all.

Don't worry about dinner. I have something planned. It's good to have you home, Yuffie.

I love you.

Reeve

Yuffie's smile turned into a grin. She checked her watch. Two o'clock.

"Hm. Two more hours till I can rescue Reeve. Geez. A meeting all day. Rufus is nuts. Absolutely wacko. I think he needs a woman." Yuffie chuckled outright at that idea. She'd have to enlist Reeve's help on that one. And maybe Elena's. And Tifa's. Whenever Rufus called a meeting with Reeve, he included the Turks and Cloud.

Leaning back in Reeve's chair, Yuffie put her feet up on the desk as she had originally intended to do. Fully intent on planning out how to set Rufus up on several blind dates, most of them horrendous, Yuffie ended up distracted by a photograph on Reeve's desk.

"Huh. Now when did you get there?" Yuffie asked the picture, stretching as far as she could without taking her feet off the desk and managing to snag a corner of the photo frame.

It was a picture Yuffie hadn't seen in years. It was of herself and Reeve, his arm around her and her head on his shoulder, caught candidly outside of the WRO building by Elena. She had been attempting to catch Tseng relaxing on film. It hadn't worked, but she had caught Reeve and Yuffie instead. She'd gifted them with the picture the next day, and Yuffie had thought it was still in the album at home.

Yuffie smiled down at the picture before resting it in her lap and tipping her head back. The photo brought back some fond memories. It had been taken the day after their first date. It was funny actually, what had led up to it. It was all, indirectly, she supposed, Vincent's fault.

--------------------------

"Perhaps we could discuss the matter further at dinner, Yuffie?"

"Sounds great, Vince. Actually, though, I've got a batch of tonjiru and some oden on the stove right now and they'll be ready by dinnertime. We could just eat here." Yuffie said, slightly distracted by the progress of the oden.

"Very well, Yuffie. I shall see you at six o'clock?"

"Perfect. See you then."

"You shall."

The line clicked dead, and Yuffie put the phone down for a while, stirring the tonjiru and eyeing the oden to make sure nothing burnt when a stray thought suddenly occurred to her.

"Oh, sweet, holy Leviathan. Is this a date?"

Yuffie's eyes got big and she began to panic. She had no idea what Vincent meant. It sounded like a date, but Yuffie had been known to be wrong before. Tifa! Tifa would know. Trying very hard not to completely panic and hyperventilate, after all, she had been trying to get the gunman to agree to a date for the past year, Yuffie grabbed for the phone and called Tifa.

"Hello?"

"Tifa! Oh my gods, you have to listen to me and you have to help me! I'm panicking over here!" Yuffie all but shouted into the phone, still stirring the tonjiru. She may have been panicking, but she loved tonjiru, and she would be damned if she ruined it.

"Yuffie? What's happened now? What materia are you after now?" Tifa asked, her voice coming out slightly tinny over the connection.

Yuffie straightened indignantly. "Hey! I'll have you know that I have considerably toned down on my materia-stealing ways ever since Deepground, and you've seen that for yourself! I'll thank you to remember it!" It was true; over the past year, Yuffie had focused more on materia she could acquire legally. She was a prominent member of the WRO, after all.

Tifa laughed at Yuffie's obviously affected self-righteous tone. "Okay, okay, you're right. I'm sorry. What's wrong."

"I think Vincent asked me out."

Over the next half an hour, Yuffie related the conversation between herself and Vincent, word for word, to Tifa, and also to Elena, who was at the bar looking for Reno and Rude, who had "forgotten" their phones at the office. Both women agreed with Yuffie's interpretation: Vincent had asked Yuffie out on a date.

Yuffie began to panic again. "What am I going to wear?! Oh, it's a good thing I told Reeve I'd see that new thing of his tomorrow and not tonight. What do I wear? What do I say? How do I act? What was I thinking, asking him over here on a first date? What am I going to do???"

It took Tifa and Elena another half hour to calm Yuffie down and decide on an outfit and a plan of attack, so to speak.

It was a quarter to six. Yuffie took a deep breath and smoothed the front of her dress. She had picked up the little black number a year and a half ago and never worn it. There was probably no better time than now. Yuffie glanced at the table, checking it over for the fifth time. Two place settings, candles, unlit though, she didn't want to give the wrong message, and dinner done and smelling wonderful. It had taken all of her self control not to eat some of it early.

Yuffie fidgeted around, checking her hair, makeup, and dress several times over the next fifteen minutes, until the doorbell rang precisely at six o'clock. Taking a final deep breath, Yuffie pasted a glowing yet demure smile on her face and went to open the door.

"Vincent! Hello, come..." Yuffie's voice trailed off as she realized it was not Vincent at her door. It was Vincent and someone else.

"Good evening, Yuffie Kisaragi." Shelke.

Yuffie stared, dumbstruck, first at Vincent, then at Shelke, and then back at Vincent. The gunman's face betrayed nothing signifying anything to suggest that this was an unusual or unexpected circumstance. Yuffie slammed the door in their faces and locked it.

She stood there for a few minutes, still trying to process what had just happened, until the knocking started. Calmly, she walked over to the phone and called Tifa.

"Hello?" Not Tifa. Cloud. Great.

"Cloud, can you put Tifa on? I need to ask her something."

"Sure, Yuffie, hold on a sec." The line sounded with static as Cloud handed over the phone.

"Yuffie? It's six. Aren't you supposed to be having dinner with Vincent right now?" Tifa asked, mild concern coming over in her voice.

"Are you sure this is a date?" Yuffie asked levelly.

"Yes, I'm sure. I even told Cloud about it and he agrees with us. Why? Just relax."

"He brought Shelke. I closed the door in their faces."

"HE WHAT?!"

Ten minutes later, the food was put away safely in the refrigerator, the dress was replaced with the usual outfit, Vincent and Shelke were still at the door alternately knocking and calling her on the phone, and Yuffie was out her bathroom window and on the way to visit Reeve. She was too irritated and shocked to accept the sympathy she was sure she'd find at Tifa's, and she felt that work was the best thing to get her mind off of the giant mistake that had just happened.

Yuffie decided to knock on Reeve's office door rather than just barge on in as she usually did. After all, she had told him she would see him in the morning. Once she got a response, she opened the door and went in.

"Hey, Reeve."

The man addressed looked up from the pile of papers he was reading. "Yuffie! I thought you said you would be by tomorrow. Not that I'm not entirely thrilled to see you tonight, though," Reeve said, giving her a slightly rakish grin as he did so.

"Yeah, I know. Change in plans," Yuffie said, flipping a chair around backwards and sitting in it.

Reeve frowned slightly. "Is something wrong, Yuffie? You seem rather quiet."

"Nothing major. No big deal." Yeah right. "What did you want to show me?"

"Ah!" Reeve stood up and rubbed his hands together. "I think I have an answer to that little problem you and I were talking about last week."

Now it was Yuffie's turn to frown. "What problem?"

"The one where you keep getting into dangerous situations and still consistently refuse to take Cait Sith with you," Reeve said mildly, as if they had not had a tremendous argument over the situation five days ago.

Yuffie rolled her eyes and slumped down in her seat. This was an argument she was just not in the mood to rehash right now. "Reeve..." she said to the man as he calmly made his way to the bank of computers and counters on the far wall of his office.

"Now, Yuffie, I think you won't mind this," Reeve told her, flashing her a smile over one shoulder.

Sure I won't.

The whole argument in question had started when Yuffie returned roughly a week ago from her latest mission, injured and in the company of Cloud, Tseng, and Elena, who had been sent to find her when she didn't come back on time. It was the fourth straight mission that had ended with Yuffie in trouble and unable to contact help, and through no fault of her own. She was Reeve's best spy, and that meant the dangerous missions. They'd just been a bit more dangerous lately.

Reeve had allowed her a day to recover, and then called her into his office and informed her that Cait would be accompanying her on her next mission later the next week. Yuffie had refused. Reeve had insisted. An argument had ensued. Yuffie, frustrated with Reeve's unbending mindset on the matter, had told him that she didn't trust Cait Sith, especially after the incident in the bathhouse in Wutai. Reeve had taken the insult against Cait as an insult against himself and the argument got worse, until Cid, in the offices for a drop-off of supplies, had opened the door and chucked in a large rock, wrapped in a note that told them, rather inelegantly, but normally for Cid, to shut up and quit the yelling.

While Reeve reread the note, Yuffie had taken the opportunity to leave the room and cool off. Reeve came looking for her shortly afterwards, ready with an apology, but she had told him that she was sorry, that she did trust Cait, and him, but that she still wouldn't take the robot. Yuffie's main reservation was actually a fairly sound one, from a security standpoint. On all of her missions, Yuffie was undercover. Cait Sith, however, was notoriously recognizable, and would either end up getting her nowhere or into an even more dangerous situation. Reeve had considered this for a moment, and then agreed, and told Yuffie to go home and rest.

Now, it seemed that he was starting up the whole argument again. Cait Sith was sitting on the counter.

Yuffie heaved a sigh and tried again. "Reeve. Do you not remember the shouting match? Cid's rock? My security reasons for not taking Cait? I thought we were done with this."

Reeve smiled at her and leaned back slightly on the counter. "We are done with it, Yuffie. This is something new. Come here," he said, beckoning her over with the crook of a finger.

Yuffie rolled her eyes again and slowly dragged herself across the room to Reeve. He's probably come up with something just as flashy, just as annoying, just as spy-capable. Yuffie had lied to Reeve, after all. She really didn't trust the doll, especially not after Wutai.

"Here, Yuffie. What do you think? I thought that you could name him," Reeve said, opening a box and lifting out a small, still dog.

Yuffie was taken aback. The little dog was just big enough to look real, yet still fit into her pack comfortably, covered in a reddish-brown fur. It looked entirely nondescript, just like a real little mutt.

"The color of the fur can be changed, too, so he won't look the same unless you want him to. Same with the eyes." Reeve was practically bouncing on his heels, he was so excited, showing off his new toy.

"Wow," was all that Yuffie could come out with. "He's really, wow. He's so, normal." Her hands reached out and picked up the toy dog, petting him and turning him over to see how he was built. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Reeve's smile turn into a full-fledged grin.

Her hands suddenly stilled. "Does he work like Cait?"

Reeve's grin turned into a frown. "What do you mean? He does spy, but not like Cait. And he can't talk. And I can't control him unless you tap the inside of his ear, right here." Reeve took the dog from her and showed her the spot. She ran her fingers over it, knowing by now the feel of Reeve's secret buttons, and easily discovered the switch.

"So if that's off, he just acts like a normal dog?"

"Except that he's programmed to never leave your side, either next to you or in your pack, and he's equipped with a shielded locator beacon," Reeve told her, his eyes looking at her expectantly. "Do you like him? I tried to make something less conspicuous, easily dismissed as a normal pet, yet capable of telling us if you need help at the same time."

Yuffie took the dog back from him and settled him in her arms. "I love him," she said, smiling brightly at Reeve for the first time that evening. "How do you turn him on?"

Reeve laughed and showed her the other button, concealed underneath the dog's left eye. She pushed it and set the dog on the countertop as it powered up, letting it sniff her and examine her, storing her identity in its' database.

"Any ideas for a name yet, Yuffie?" Reeve asked her, absently petting the dog.

She grinned again, this time with a bit of an evil tinge to it. "Yeah - Reno."

Reeve laughed so hard the dog looked concerned.

Three days later, Reno proved his worth. Yuffie once again ran into a dangerous situation, got captured, and managed to turn on Reno's communication programs by pretending to finger the dog's ears out of nervousness. Cloud and the Turks showed up two hours later, and Yuffie got to come back to the WRO without a scratch. Yuffie, Reeve, and the Turks were thrilled. All except for Reno. The human Reno.

"Thanks a ton, Yuffs. Every time you call that thing, I turn around. And now everybody laughs whenever they call me. Rufus even finds this funny. Thanks loads."

Yuffie had only laughed and patted both Renos on their heads.

Later that night, Yuffie lay on her bed with Reno the dog, petting him and holding a one-sided conversation with the little robot. The conversation had started with his namesake, moved on to how easy the mission had been with him, and then, spitefully, on to Vincent, who Yuffie hadn't seen since the date disaster.

"I can't believe him. I mean, how else did he expect me to take it? And don't get me started on Shelke. Shelke! I mean, sure, the girl's started growing, but it's Shelke! She has no personality, and he did not mention her at all over the phone. If he'd mentioned her in any fashion, I wouldn't have minded as much. I mean, geez. What do you think, Reno?"

Reno barked.

"Yeah, I guess. You know what Elena and Tifa told me? They told me that I should just go out on a date. With somebody. Anybody. They invited me out tomorrow night to go for drinks. Tifa's closing for the night, and there's a new bar in town and she wants to check it out. She said we could pick up guys. Well, obviously not Elena, since she's with Tseng - about darn time, too - but Tifa said she'd go 'shopping' with me. Make Cloud a little jealous. She said he's pissing her off lately. What do you think, Reno? Should I go?" Yuffie asked the dog, looking at it, currently curled up beside her, his head under her hand.

Reno looked at her for a few seconds and then barked again. Yuffie laughed. Reeve had told her that Reno had some minor AI software, allowing him to analyze situations, and she would swear blue she had just seen him use it.

"You know what, Reno? I think you're right. Let me call Tifa. I'll have to turn you off, though. You have to stay home and Reeve says you'll follow me everywhere if you're on," Yuffie said, reaching for the phone on her nightstand. Reno looked at her mournfully. Yuffie laughed again. This time, she would swear that he knew exactly what she had told him she'd do.

The girls' night out was a tremendous success. Tifa had pronounced the bar a dump, Elena had slugged out a guy for touching her butt, and Yuffie had gotten a date.

Which did not go well. The guy was a complete sleaze ball. It was fortunate that the date was at Tifa's, where all of her friends were hanging out and could toss the loser out on the street for her in case she managed to miss with her shuriken. She didn't. That netted her another date.

Which went well for a week and a half. The guy's penchant for cage fighting showed up then, when she'd tried to go to the movies with him and he'd ditched her for one. Yuffie ended up going out with the ticket taker at the movies.

Over the next three months, Yuffie's personal motto swung back and forth between "The more boys I meet, the more I love my dog," coined with her head down on Tifa's counter and Reno in her lap, yipping, after a particularly bad date with a guy who thought yellow paisley and orange stripes went together (apparently the brown and yellow attire he'd had on when they met was a work uniform of sorts), and "I'll give anyone a shot once," said when Reno (the human) had asked her out. He actually lasted two weeks. The next candidate based on that theory had lasted two hours. Yuffie just couldn't stand Rufus in that fashion.

"It's not like I'm not trying!" Yuffie said, throwing her hands up in the air one evening at Tifa's. "I've been through everybody who isn't a criminal or a sicko that I've run into that isn't completely ugly, I am not hung up on Vincent, and I swear that the more guys I meet, the more I just love Reno. My dog, Turk, my dog." Reno the human made an indignant noise of protest off in the corner where he was sitting with his fellow Turks having a round.

"You want to date Tseng?" Elena asked, shooting a glare across the table at the aforementioned Turk, whose eyebrows shot up to join the rest of his face in an impromptu expression of a fish. "I'll let you try him out for a while."

"Elena, all I meant was - "

Yuffie snorted, effectively cutting off Tseng's attempted excuse and apology for whatever he had done now. When Elena was PMSing, it was generally better for him to obey her every word, but he hadn't quite caught on to that yet.

"Thanks, Elena, but I'll let you keep him. I'll give anyone a shot once as long as they're not already involved, permission granted or not." Elena flashed her a smile, shrugged, and drained the last of her beer.

"What about me?"

Yuffie turned around at Reeve's voice, jumping slightly. "Geez, Reeve, I didn't even hear you come in. How long have you been standing there? And what do you mean what about you?"

Reeve grinned at her, leaning lazily against the bar. "I've been here since you tossed your hands in the air. And, since you'll give anyone a shot once, what about me? I mean, you've dated Reno, for Leviathan's sake-"

"Hey! What is it with you people tonight?"

"-and we do need to talk about modifying Reno's programming" - at this Reeve shot the glaring human a particularly nasty grin - "so why don't we just go out for lunch tomorrow and call it a date? I promise it will be only you and me, and I promise I won't wear anything that clashes."

Yuffie snickered. "Why not? As long as you promise to leave Cait Sith at the office," she said, grinning and shaking a finger in Reeve's direction. He can't be any worse than some of these idiots I've dated.

Reeve's grin turned pleased and exuberant. "Wonderful! See you tomorrow, then, Yuffie, at the office?"

"Absolutely!" she said, sticking out her hand, intending to shake on it.

"Excellent, then. I must be getting back to work, though. Tomorrow at noon, Yuffie. Goodnight," Reeve said, and instead of shaking her hand, he surprised her entirely by bowing slightly and lifting her hand to his mouth to place a soft kiss on the back of it, keeping her eyes locked with his sparkling ones the whole time.

Yuffie still hadn't recovered her powers of speech by the time the door shut on him.

"Well Cait, I think that went well, don't you?"

Cait Sith just jumped into its' master's arms and laughed.

The next day, Reeve and Yuffie had lunch together, which turned into dinner, and then drinks at Tifa's. They had had lunch together the next day as well, which resulted in the picture Yuffie currently had resting in her lap. And the rest was really only ancient history.

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She was startled out of her reverie by a pair of hands on her shoulders and a light brush of lips across her cheek.

"I see you found the picture. I came across it in the album the other day and I thought it should be admired. Welcome home," Reeve said, leaning his head against hers and speaking into her ear.

"Hi," Yuffie said, a languorous smile stretching across her features as she tilted her head to look into her husband's eyes. "It's good to be home."

Reeve smiled at her and pulled back so he could brush her hair behind her ears. "What were you doing? I usually can't sneak up on you like that."

"Just thinking about what led up to this picture." Yuffie's eyes suddenly widened and she jumped. "Oh, crap! What time is it? Did I leave you to Rufus?"

Reeve laughed and stood, pulling Yuffie with him. "No, you didn't. It's only three. He grew a heart sometime after lunch. And speaking of food, why don't we go home? I planned to cook..."

Yuffie grinned brightly and started to drag Reeve towards the door. She loved it when he cooked. "Absolutely! I could definitely eat! Come on, what are you waiting for? Let's go!"