AN: This is a short drabble that I whipped up to sort of break through some writer's block I was having on another story. It's kind of pointless. Canon "Dirge of Cerberus" - verse. Vincent x Shelke, if you squint hard enough. It's complete - I think. I don't have time to start another full-length story right now!

Standard disclaimers apply - all fun, no profit, don't sue me, etc.

Circles

She watches him ruffle her hair, and feels her face drawing up into a scowl. Tifa is looking at her funny again, that half-confused, half-knowing look, and she quickly smoothes her expression into a more familiar smirk, sipping coolly at her drink. Iced tea, that's all it is - Tifa knows better than to give her anything with more punch than caffeine - but she savours it like it could be the most potent mixed cocktail the Seventh Heaven has to offer.

There's another quiet murmur from the corner, and Yuffie watches Vincent almost smile from the corner of her eye. She winces and takes a deeper gulp of her iced tea, not for the first time wishing that it WAS alcoholic. She has never managed to make Vincent almost smile. She has managed to make him wince, groan, glare, mutter, mumble, sigh, brood and complain. Never that particular twitching of the lips, however, nor the strange glitter that sometimes lights up his blood-red eyes.

Shelke smiles, and for a moment Yuffie is insanely glad that the small girl's mako-weakened body will never grow into adulthood - a petty victory of sorts. Then she remembers that the kiss of time will also never land on Vincent, and her moment of triumph shrivels up and falls away - she can feel herself getting older, while Vincent is the same as ever. Soon, she knows, she will be older than Vincent - and he will be the child, while she plays the role of the responsible adult.

Still, she wonders what it would take to make Vincent notice her. A dip in a mako stream, maybe. Another attack by Nero, perhaps - too bad he's dead now. Maybe another near death experience - many scenarios run through her head, all quickly discarded. Yuffie might be a drama queen, but she's also always been the star of her own show. It would be humiliating to take the role of a damsel in distress now, of all times, and she's sure he would notice something was off.

Shelke laughs again, quietly, and Yuffie briefly reconsiders her position.

"Hey," a quiet voice interrupts her, and Yuffie looks up to see Tifa watching her carefully. "Are you okay?"

Yuffie puts her drink down solidly and redirects her attention completely on the nosy bartender. "Would you believe me if I said yes?" she asks irritably.

Tifa sighs and puts the glass she has been polishing away carefully. "You know, if you ever need to talk..." she trails off. Her eyes flicker briefly over to the window table where Vincent and Shelke are seated, before returning to Yuffie. The message is unspoken, but very clear. Tifa knows what it feels like. She knows what it is to be the other woman, the third wheel. It doesn't matter if Vincent and Shelke will never have anything more than their strange symbiosis - Lucrecia's memories fuelling an unrequited love - Cloud never really had Aeris, either. It doesn't change the fact that they are both, for all intents and purposes, officially spoken for.

Yuffie personally thinks the world would be a better place if both men would just stop listening, but that is neither her decision, nor Tifa's. Still, she reflects, as she meets the other woman's knowing gaze and gives her a weak smile, neither can she stop hearing the tune set in her own heart.

"Don't you just hate it when you get a song stuck in your head?" Yuffie says conversationally, taking another long draught of her tea.

"Hmm," Tifa agrees, reaching for another glass. "Sometimes all it takes is a distraction to help get it out of your head," she offers helpfully. Tifa has a whole houseful of distractions, now. The children that run in and out of the bar constantly are part of the reason she doesn't serve anything but iced tea during daylight hours.

Yuffie twiddles her thumbs together and considers Tifa's words. Reeve has been a good distraction for the most part - there's always something to do for the WRO, and it really was quite a boost to her ego when he named her head of the Intelligence Division - all the jokes she had to weather from Reno notwithstanding.

There's another low rumble from the corner, and unconsciously Yuffie identifies the unfamiliar sound as yet another new facet of Vincent - one of many that have been slowly unearthed, once again by Shelke. It's a laugh - or the closest he might ever come to making one. She winces into her drink.

"I'll get back to work soon," Yuffie promises Tifa, silently wishing the other woman would leave her alone. Yes... there'll be another mission soon enough, another chance to get away from Edge, another chance to get on with her life and live it the way she knows she's supposed to, alone and independent. But for now, she sits and sips her tea, watching the odd pair sharing the booth, the sunlight and the connection that she will never be able to have from the corner of her eye.