CHAPTER 1
"A round over here, please!"
"Right here, lady!"
"C'mon, move it!"
Yuffie growled beneath the counter as she searched for the right whiskey, the right beer and the right smile to produce to the barbaric drunkards spitting orders at her. With tightly squinted eyes and a grin too big for her mouth Yuffie placed a drink in front of each of the men.
"There you go!"
She tossed her choppy black bangs to one side, sighing as she turned around. Out of the corner of her eye she caught the end of a ponytail disappearing back into the room down the hall, and a thump that was inaudible to most people in the bar caught her attention. She smiled to herself, wiping her hands on her apron.
Persuading Tifa and Cloud to go on vacation had been hard, she thought. They seemed to have already known that Yuffie wasn't cut out for this whole bartender business—that the rush of it all would be too overbearing, that she couldn't differentiate liquor from goat's milk, and more importantly that she was impatient.
Even now Yuffie could feel the unholiest of words clinging to the end of her tongue, barricaded behind her pearly white smile. But for the most part, Yuffie was keeping her mouth shut during business hours. She would prove Cloud and Tifa wrong. She would prove to them that she could keep this business going—no, any business, at that!
A determined smirk was replaced by a slightly smaller, more inward determination. They weren't the only ones who needed proof.
Even she could hardly believe the situation that she'd gotten herself into. From day one, Yuffie had began to feel like the whole thing had been a mistake. Ever since she'd left Wutai, nothing she set her mind to turned out the way it should have. But this has to be different, she thought. I can do this.
I can.
"Hey, Lady."
Yuffie was drawn out of her reverie by the fattest man at the counter, who sat wobbling dangerously behind three empty pints and countless shot glasses.
"You waitin' for this drink to wear off or sumthin'?"
"E-Excuse me?" Yuffie unclenched her fists, strapping a harness and a muzzle over the Wutai ninja that wanted to jump over the counter and send a swift kick and a shower of shurikens around the entire room.
"I said am I g-gonna be sober again before you get off your...your ass and get me anoth—an—another drink!"
Her movements were deliberate as she grabbed another pint, filled it, and slammed it on the counter, not really giving a damn about the half of the drink that sloshed out of the mug and into the man's lap.
"Enjoy."