FF7- Infallible
By Fatima Natasha Razi

Every time I look at the sunset I see his eyes. Vermillion and bleeding. They flint and flake pain none of us can understand. Red like blood that never ran in his veins. Like the cape he hides under. Tattered. Like my heart that feels like a fist of ice every time I remember seeing him walk away.

It felt lifetimes ago when I'd announced that I was returning to Wutai. That the WRO would have to find another sensational ninja thief. That Vincent would need another partner. When they had asked why, I'd played my last gambit. I'd looked at the man leaning against the wall across the conference room, his arms crossed, face partially hidden by his raven bangs and partially by the collar of that infernally hot cloak.

I told them, or rather him, that my father wanted me to come back and marry into the Wutai throne.

I can still remember it.

He didn't even flinch.

Then it was more out of bitter spite that I laid out the entire story of how I was marrying my bestest friend in the whole world who had asked for my hand in marriage and how I couldn't wait to be his.

He had walked over, placed his clawed hand on my head like I was some four year old child he was blessing with his greatness. I wish I could have smacked that hand away and told him that he was an asshole. I wish I could have hit him and hurt him for being who he was. For his inability to love an incorrigible child like me. I wish I could blame him for the shattered pieces of my heart that I carried back to Wutai on a fucking silver platter.

But no. Eloquent as I am most of the time, I stood there like a gurgling malboro as he told Reeve he'd find himself a new partner and walked out of the room.

Great Ninja Yuffie Kiseragi, Champion of Justice and all things pretty and shiny came home to a confused old man.

And grew up.

Now at twenty-eight, things were different. They were simpler. But sometimes I would sit on my favorite hilltop and think of happier times.

---

"Vincent?"

"Yuffie."

"What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Oh eh eh…well see it happened like this… it was a dark and stormy night. Too dark for the Princess of Wutai and all things beautiful and greatness with a knack for…"

"Yuffie?"

"Yes Vinnie?"

"Can you skip the rhetoric and get to the part where you got into trouble?"

"Hmph! What makes you think I got into trouble?"

"…"

"Pfff! Fine. So I've been busy. I don't have cool demons keeping me company in my head. Do you know how BORING Wutai is this time of the year?"

Sigh.

"Hey! Are you sighing in that Yuffie's-acting-like-a-little-girl-and-I'm-going-into-ignore-mode-now way!"

Blink. "The what way?"

"The Yuffie's-acting-like-a-little-girMPPHHH!" Eyes widen. Ohmigod! He's touching me! His hand is actually over my mouth. Ohmigod.

Wince. "Sorry. It's been a while."

"Why are you sorry? I'm the one that landed on you! I should be sorry. Oh but don't take me so seriously. Things happen. They happen all the time, ya know. And it's no big deal. So since it's no big deal, I'll be on my way now. It was nice running into you Vinnie; I'm going to be going now. Yes. We shall meet again! Oh yes and you shall be endowed with…" Feet walking in thin air. I glared over my shoulder. "Unhand the back of my shorts you big red pervert!" Smacking his hand away with a flourish I turned on him, hands on my hips. "Geez Vinnie, what is with you?"

Another sigh. "Where's your Chocobo?"

"My little Wimsy! There is my little Wimsy. There see, there running away from where I tied…him…wait a minute! HEY! Come back here birdbrain!"

---

"Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. DAMN!"

"Yuffie!"

"Don't you Yuffie be you stinky old man. How could you do this to me? Do I look like a little girl to you? I don't need you to make any decisions for me! And for that matter, have I ever let you make any decision for me, EVER!?"

Godo's smile was weary as well as tolerant when he saw his one and only grown daughter throw a tantrum like a five year old. May I remind you that I'm just as good at it now as I was when I was sixteen? And it irks the hell out of me that the one feeling embarrassed about losing it is not my fat old father, but me! ME!

Gritting my teeth, fists clenched to my sides, I faced my silent father with fury in my silver eyes. "How dare you!"

He shook his head. "I grow tired of your moping."

"Moping!?"

"Screaming will change nothing daughter. It has been seven years! Seven years of dangling hopeful men under your nose and now it has come to pass, that not one male will volunteer to appear in your court for the fear of your accepting him. Do you know what they're saying about you?"

"No!" I thundered, resisting the urge to throw something at him. "I could give a rat's ass about what those hobbyhorse courtesans have to say about this." And then it caught my curiosity before I could stop it. "What did they say?"

His mouth tilted up in a knowing smile. "That you're a cranky old maid who would freeze their souls and offer their bodies as sacrifice to Da Chao."

Ice Princess.

The fire in my veins instantly died. Oh. So I hadn't heard them wrong when I'd walked through the street today. So that's what they were saying. And I'd thought they'd said 'nice breeches' which I'd thought was weird considering I was wearing a skirt. Hmph. So what? I'm allowed to wear skirts now.

I could see Godo slowly take account of my long raven hair tied into a rebellious braid, the red kimono type blouse over the soft gray suede skirt and red slippers. Not exactly princess garb, but so what? I'd been on the hilltop today. Of course, which remind me. "How could go behind my back you insufferable turd! And to call HIM of all people!"

Godo snorted, and for a moment I thought his fake teeth would come flying out through his nose, but the man was still elegantly put together. "If you had slunk any lower Yuffie, you'd be dragging your damned face between your feet!"

"You're sick, you know that?"

"Bah!" He waved an indifferent hand and glared hard at me as if I really was five still. "No daughter of mine is going to be blue! What the hell kind of color is that! A queen should at least be pink!"

"PINK!? Gimmie an effin break!"

"Yuffie!"

"Bah! I can't argue you with you, you stubborn old coot! I'm running away. Running away you hear."

"You're too old to run away! I forbid it!" His chest puffed up with incense.

"Hell with you and your meddling. When he comes, you can tell him to just go to the hell he came from! Exit Yuffie! Stage right!" With one last majestic twirl which I now have mastered to perfection thanks to my princess like duties, I marched out of the temple and straight for my Chocobo.

Damn Godo and his self-righteous need to protect me. He willingly sends me off to explore the world, save it several times over to now sprout a paternal instinct. Do you really think that he couldn't have had me brought home if I he had wanted. Pfft. He is the head honcho here. Or was. Now it's me. To hell with those prissy people who thought I was made of ice.

And then fury seemed to seep out of me like a deflating balloon. Sitting atop my Chocobo, my shoulders slumped as I watched the darkness of the night surround me. Trailing Wimsy up the Da Chao mountainside, I guided him to the old ruins and stopped him at the sharp Cliffside that overlooked the city of Wutai. And its beauty couldn't distract me today. The glimmering lights only mocked me until I climbed off my pretty white bird and sat there my feet dangling over the precipice.

Twenty-eight years and the mere mention of him reduced me to a jumble of childish sputtering. The long seven years had taught me simplicity. They had tempered the fire in my veins. I'd done my share of growing up that I'd denied myself all those years.

It was morbidly ironic that Vincent Valentine had kept me alive and young.

Because while he'd been around, I had been invincible.

"Come away from the ledge."

The effect of the familiar husk of his voice was like whiplash against my already singing nerves. Back snapping straight, my hands clawed into the rock as I hung onto the edge of the cliff. It would have been better if I had fallen. I should have run farther away. But Godo had been right. I was too damned old to run away anymore. So I kept my eyes on the winking lights of the houses in Wutai and began to count. Anything to calm me down. I wasn't the same child he'd rejected. He'd just have to deal.

"Yuffie."

He must have seen the spasmodic tick in my jaw because I heard his soft puff of weary breath. And then to my utter shock I saw two pointy golden boots stop beside me before his red cape and leather clad self sat down beside me

For a long moment we sat there in complete silence. It was like the nights we'd huddled around the fire while the others slept. Only I wasn't fifteen anymore.

"Yuffie, I…"

With a predictable little snarl, I managed to stand and walk away from the ledge with enough grace to even take him by surprise. The mountain winds seemed to mirror my fury as it whipped my braid off my shoulder, the strands slashing across skin as I grabbed Wimsy's reigns. But something else had grabbed me.

Looking down at the golden claw wrapped around my wrist, something seemed to have snapped somewhere inside me. Because never in a normal, sane state of mind would I have ever attacked the gunman that I had now tackled to the stony floor. The tall gunman let out a muffled grunt when my knee landed in his gut.

I was like a woman possessed, with the holy light of Leviathan fueling my anger and precision, I jumped off him as he tried to roll on top. With lightening fast speed my leg shot out to kick him in the head, but his gloved hand wrapped around my ankle, vermillion eyes etched with confusion and surprise.

Well I was just getting started.

Twisting I landed on my hand, my ankle still in his grasp. I brought my free leg up and socked him in the ribs hard enough to jar him. The moment I felt his grip loosen, I sprang onto my feet and kicked his legs out from under him.

The quick vampire/gunman pitched sideway, but rolled his body and back onto his feet a few paces away, but I was already barreling into him with my entire weight and sent us both sprawling across the mountain floor. "You ASSHOLE! Don't you dare touch me!" I grabbed his collar with both my hands, knees clamped down on his torso. "Don't you dare!" I sneered down into those haunting crimson eyes as I smacked his head into the rock for an emphatic point.

Panting and nearly wild with the monster growling in my belly, I glared down at him.

There was only the sound of the wind, Wimsy's whimpers and my ragged breath as I sat there on the man who had been like the steamroller on my nineteen year old heart. And it felt good to see that I had finally come out on top. In more ways than one.

"Are you finished?"

Allowing myself one flash of pain, I was off him as if he'd burned me. What had I expected? What could really have changed? The whole damn world could turn itself upside down, but Vincent Valentine would be infallible.

"Godo called me."

Wrapping my arms around myself, I slid my eyes shut. Every ripple of his voice was like a knife in my gut. To be betrayed by my own father. That didn't hurt as much as it hurt to have him so near me again. "Piss of Valentine."

"You sound like the pilot."

The moisture gathered behind my eyes, but I didn't dare let it slip. "What do you want now Valentine?"

"Valentine?"

"What did you think, I'd call you?"

I could almost feel the frown on him. "Are you okay?"

"Peachy." Lifting wounded gray eyes to him, I watched the wind play with his hair and cape. The death penalty hanging from his holster. Dramatic as always.

But his eyes were trained on me like lasers. "Happy?"

"Ecstatic," I shot back.

"How is he?"

I assumed he was speaking about my make-believe husband. "Perfect. We do it three times a day."

His brow seemed to darken. "You're being intentionally crude."

And suddenly my venom had melted into weariness. "Vincent, what do you want?"

He seemed to be confused by my question, silently watching the winds whip my hair around my shoulders, the red ribbon finally coming loose and flying towards him. Reaching out with his claw, he caught it between his fingers and gazed down at it pensively. "I came because he called."

"And if I ask you to leave, will you? I mean I am queen now."

"If you ask me."

"Go to hell Vincent." Dragging my eyes away from him, afraid I'd break down like a little girl and beg him to stay; I walked to my nervous Chocobo and took his reigns. I know he stood there behind me. His eyes bore holes into my back and I couldn't resist one last look. "Why did you have to come now?"

Displaying the first emotion since I'd seen him, he ran a weary hand through the front bangs of his hair. There was a touch of frustrated restlessness to him. Something that was rare. Any it was sad that I could still read him like a book. "Because no one asked me before."

The rich timber of his voice was like a fist in my gut. My lips parting in surprise, I gaped at him as he looked out towards the horizon, the cloak rustling in the soft breeze. And then the mad giggled built inside me until I was sitting beside my confused bird head buried in my hands, shoulders shaking with helpless laughter. "Oh Leviathan. I must have done something horrid in my previous life to be stuck with a heartless monster like you. You know until today, I'd never seen you for what you really are Vincent." He seemed to startle at my growl. "You're every name they've ever called you."

And then he recoiled, snapping back with the speed of a snake. "Damn you Yuffie, what the hell do you want from me!?"

"What do I want!?"

"Yes, YOU!" He seemed to vibrate with anger, his voice raising an octave which is saying a lot considering this was Vincent we were talking about. And he seemed to realize that, as he calmed himself with a grunt. "I would like it if you would tell me why Godo seems to think I have…" he seemed to struggle with the words before frowning at me, "made you blue."

I couldn't help quirk an eyebrow, arms crossing across my chest. And then I nearly lost my breath as I saw those enigmatic crimson eyes slide over me with a quick but thorough assessment. Oh my god, I hyperventilated silently. Did he just check me out? Incensed at his show of interest suddenly, I held out my arms and give him a pirouette. "There? Had your look? See anything missing? It's all there, right? Not blue? My father's colorblind, so I guess this means he called you here for nothing. Which also means you can go. Bah-bye now." When I proceeded to stalk down the mountain without my word, poor Wimsy gave another 'wark' and Vincent materialized in front of me like lightening. And I walked right into him. "Oof! Move you dead thing!"

His hands came on my shoulders like dead weight and I marveled as his ability to make me feel tiny. Okay so maybe I'd matured and carried the weight of the Wutai throne on my shoulders, but standing against the hard planes of the only man that made me want to be fragile.

My hands trembled with the effort to push him away. To put some distance between us lest he rip out my liver as he had my heart. And the sad thing was, there was a part of me that didn't mind letting him. If it meant that I could be around him. Even if he never gave me the time of day. Even if he never noticed me. "I thought you'd come after me," I whispered against his chest. Although I wasn't leaning against him, already the cloak had managed to wrap around me as if it had a mind of its own.

Something rumbled deep in his chest before he spoke. "Yuffie, I…"

But when I lifted flickering mercury eyes up to him, his words seemed to choke. Lifting one hand up, I felt him stiffen as I pulled the collar of his cape down to see his mouth. The ends were tipped down and it wrenched something deep inside me. "Gods Vinnie, why do you do this? Why did you come? Why did you have to come now?"

Those eyes glowed in the growing darkness, the soft lines of his nose as perfect as they had been when I met him. The stoic man that rarely displayed any empathy was suddenly vibrating with something I couldn't quite recognize and I was an expert of Vinnie-ness. Yuffie Loser Kiseragi was the Vincent Valentine Encyclopedia and she couldn't understand the sudden undertones in those blood red eyes or the grip that tightened on my shoulders. "What is it?"

As if realizing what he'd revealed, he moved to step away from me with a wince, but this time I was ready. "Don't you dare!" I glared up at him, my arms wrapping around his back before he could get away.

"Yuffie," he breathed out exasperated.

"I'm not letting go until you tell me."

And just like that we were back where we used to be. He was trying to distance himself while I was asserting myself and invading into his personal bubble. "Can't breathe."

"You don't breathe!" I narrowed my eyes when his eyebrow quirked with a touch of amusement. "Damn you Vinnie, I mean Vincent, you can't just waltz into my life when you see fit after abandoning me!"

This time both eyebrow shot up in surprise.

"Will you stop with the eyebrow thingie! Geez! And your dot-dot-dots are seriously grating on my patience. If you don't tell me why you let me walk out of the WRO office without a damned word I swear I'm going to pick up your scrawny ass and toss it off that cliff and so help me, I am the great ninja thief. You will regret it."

Gathering his thoughts, I allowed him the few breaths to sort them out and then he finally spoke. "I did what was best."

"For whom you angsting idiot?"

"You."

I was baffled. "How does breaking my heart into a thousand tiny pieces be best for me?"

His brow drew together. "Yuffie," my name was so nice when he said it. Oh god. How pathetic could I be? I was still a besotted fool and pushing him to engage in more than a one word conference with me. Nothing had changed. It took one moment with him to put me right back where I started and the seven years I lived without him. Seven long years.

And just like that I was mad at him again. I blame the madman, not my spiraling female hormones.

Shoving away from him, I took a few steps to remind myself that he'd abandoned me. He'd never bothered to even find out if I was okay until my father called him.

"You're such an idiot Vinnie. If you try and justify trampling over my feelings with some self martyred excuse of saving me from you, don't bother please. It would be an insult and it would only be like salt on my wounds at this point. All I've ever wanted to do was help you. I lived through every day watching something invisible eat you from the inside and it would physically hurt me. I wanted to help you. I always just wanted to save you from whatever it was that you were running from and look where it got me. Now I can't even save me."

"Don't say that."

Lifting tear brightened eyes, I saw his silent form standing there in the rustling breeze. "Don't say what Vinnie? That I loved you? That I wanted you to make love to me? That every time you gave me that rare smile and that unheard of humor I felt like you'd given me the world? I'm not stupid like you Vincent Valentine." He flinched at the coldness of his full name on my tongue. "I don't lock myself in a crypt and hope the world fades away."

"You lock yourself in Wutai." He shook his head. "You shouldn't talk of such things."

"Because you don't want to hear them."

"Because you belong to someone now."

The burst of laughter startled him and he glared hard at me. Muffling my giggles, I placed a hand over my mouth to keep them inside, but dammit, they burst free without any restraint as did the tears that clouded my vision. "You mean belong to someone else, right?"

He scowled and looked to his side as if it pained him to look at me. "You are right. I should not have come."

He'd always been such a self-deprecating asshole. I'd almost forgotten how annoying and frustrating it could be. But if anyone could get a reaction out of him: it was me.

"No. After seven years of assuming the worst, you really shouldn't have. Because if I hadn't married just some random guy to get you out of my damned head, I'd say now it looks downright appealing."

And then my world tipped off its axis.

Let it not be said that Vincent Valentine is predictable because although I was expecting a reaction, but I hadn't ventured to think he'd nearly transform into his demon and throw me against the mountain side like a poked predator. "EEP!"

He growled, eyes glowing with mako and fury. "Why!"

"Because I wanted you to finally come out with what I could see in your eyes you stupid dead guy. Do you really think it was better not voicing something I could see as clear as day! You were torturing us both and I wanted to know."

"What?"

"If I mattered."

"Yuffie," he sighed my name against my forehead and his body softened against me, finally allowing me free breath. "You always mattered. But I've been dead so long. It's better not to wake the dead. I will not make you happy."

"Call me necrophiliac and get over it. And let me be the judge of my own happiness Vinnie. Hell I'm easy to please. Just bring vanilla ice cream. Or you could show up naked. That would work too."

I felt more than heard the rare rumble of laughter. It sent the most familiar and delicious thrills down my spine. "You'll be the death of me Yuffie."

"I've waited seven years for you to get over yourself. You should know that if you kiss me now you'll be stuck with me for life. And since that bastard Godo called you here to end our misery I'm warning you he'd expect to marry you."

The golden gauntlet wrapped around my waist and I felt the weight of his defeat and surrender. Inside, I was doing cartwheels but here in his arms finally I maturely decided they could wait till after I'd smooched him into oblivion and hooked him with my superior ninja kissing technique.

"I don't know Yuffie..." he sighed sadly and my heart plummeted to my knees. And I didn't notice his smirk until after he'd slid his mouth against my ear. "Godo's really not my type."

My mouth dropped open and I gaped up at him. "Vinnie! Did you jusMUMPHH!"

I should have remembered who was the predator in this relationship. But my prey was kissing me with seven years worth of passion and pain. So with a last whimper of protest I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him with all the love a woman was allowed.

Neither of us had wanted to pull away, but lungs demanded breath, and we didn't go far. His mouth pressed against my forehead he held me in the circle of his arms, the cloak wrapping around us together. "Yuffie..."

"Mmmm?" When he didn't immediately speak I lifted my face up to him. "Are you going to take another seven years for this?"

He frowned in that pensive way that made him appear like a lost little boy. "I...I want to be saved."

Nuzzling into his chest I smiled against his thundering heartbeat. "Don't you worry Vinnie. Lady Yuffie Kiseragi, queen, ninja and thief extraordinaUMMPH!"

"Yuffie?"

"Mmmm?"

"Stop talking."

"Nyuk nyuk..."

"Yuffie?"

"Yes Vinnie?"

"Where's your Chocobo?"

"Who Wimsy? Oh he's right th..."

And sure enough I saw the wagging feathery behind of my white bird making its way down the mountain. See what I mean? Infalliable.

THE END