Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Final Fantasy.
A Loving Bet
"Vincent, will you be my valentine?" Was all Yuffie had been asking him for the last hour.
"No." Was all the single white rose of Wutai would get as a response.
"Please, Vinnie?" She continued to pressure him, pouting.
"No." Valentine simply told her for about the one-hundredth time.
"Why not?" Yuffie Kissaragi demanded a reasonable explanation.
Vincent sighed as he explained "We've been through this, Yuffie. I don't participate in Valentine's Day. Especially when it's to win a bet."
"But-" She tried to tell him but was belittled.
"Valentine's Day is nothing but a pointless celebration that makes people lose hundreds of dollars and do pointless things. Like…Placing bets to see who falls in love first." He concluded
Yuffie sulked as she remembered how all of this started yesterday.
Tifa was working at the bar, which consisted of serving customers, washing glasses, kicking drunk people out, and a lot of unexplainable stuff. She was bored, and also somewhat upset. Ttomorrow was Valentine's and she didn't have anybody to be with. Even if Cloud got here, they wouldn't go out. She WAS going to ask him though..would he even say yes? Tifa doubted it.
She sighed as she watched somebody pass out on the floor after having about 6 too many martinis. She just hoped she wouldn't end up like them. Alone and drunk.
"Hey, Teefs!" somebody's familiar voice broke her out of her thoughts.
The brunette looked over and saw Yuffie standing in front of her. She blinked a few times, shaking away the afore-mentioned idea, before replying.
"Oh. Hi, Yuffie. What are you doing here?"
"Nothin'.." She told Tifa, even though she had that look in her eye that told anybody that she was there for a reason.
Lockhart stared at her, knowing that Yuffie wanted to ask her something.
"Alright, spit it Yuffie. What do you want?" she questioned the girl now sitting in front of her.
"Nothin'.." the Wutaiian teenager said again.
"Yuffie.." Tifa persisted.
Yuffie tried to hold it in, but couldn't control herself.
"Okay, already! I don't have a date yet, and Valentine's Day is TOMORROW." She moped.
"Oh…" Tifa simply said.
The ninja looked at Tifa with a puzzled look.
"You're hiding something." Yuffie stated to the bartender
"No I'm not!" Tifa exclaimed before turning a light shade of pink and turning around to wash the glasses full of suds.
"Yes you arreeee…" Yuffie taunted
"Am not!" the long haired martial artist objected.
"You're going to ask Cloud, aren't you?" Yuffie kept pestering her.
"…Maybe" Tifa replied, looking at the ground rather than at the annoying ninja.
"Ah ha! I knew it!" Yuffie said, before pausing in thought "No fair, Teefs! Now I'm going to be like...the only girl without a Valentine!"
"Well…You could always try Vincent." Tifa suggested
Yuffie then gained a very big smile and her eyes almost seemed to have sparkles in them when she thought about that.
"That's it.. I can ask Vince!" She said beaming, as she jumped up from her seat.
The brunette bartender just nodded before resuming her work.
Suddenly, almost out of nowhere Yuffie Kissaragi got an idea. A funny, evil, reckless idea.
"Bet I could get a valentine before you." She stated with a competitive smirk between her cheeks.
Tifa looked over at her, perplexed
"Excuse me?" She said in a somewhat playful tone.
"You heard me. I bet you that I can get Vincent to be my valentine before you can get Cloud to be yours." Yuffie re-explained.
"Yuffie!" Tifa said, her tone somewhat cold, before continuing "Valentine's Day isn't about who can be loved first! It's a day to show how you feel for one another!" She scolded her friend
Yuffie sighed, and blew the hair out of her face. "…I guess."
Tifa turned around again and resumed washing dishes.
"Of course, if we DID happen to place that bet, you know I would win." She explained to Yuffie, a smile on her face, thankful her back was turned to her companion.
"Would not!" Yuffie exclaimed
"Would too!" Tifa contradicted
"Okay, fine! You're on!" Yuffie declared "50 gil to the person who wins!"
"Deal! But get ready to pay up, KISSARAGI." Lockhart warned her.
"I think you'll be the one to pay up, LOCKHART." Kissaragi threatened back at her friend playfully, but competitively.
After their little tiff, they resumed doing what they had been before, waiting for their "victims" to arrive.
And so that's what the little ninja was doing right about then. Disturbing the poor Vincent Valentine, all to win a bet.
Well, it wasn't all about the bet. She really did like him; but she couldn't tell him. At least not right now.
"But, Vince! It'll be fun! Can't you be romantic for one day a year?!" the over-sized star thrower questioned him
Vincent sighed.
"Fine.." He told her.
"Really?!" she squeaked with joy
"No." the long-haired man confessed.
At that Yuffie growled angrily.
"Vincent Valentine! You be my valentine RIGHT NOW!" she shouted at him, causing a few people in the bar to stare in their direction.
Vincent looked over at her, somewhat shocked at how frustrated she was beginning to get.
Right about then Tifa walked in with Cloud, both of them talking casually. Tifa obviously hadn't "popped the question" yet. Now was Yuffie's time to strike.
Yuffie grabbed hold of the front of Vincent's cloak, causing Vincent to jump a little in surprise.
"Yuffie, what are you do-" He barely had the time to let out that protest before Yuffie pulled him close and he found his lips connecting with the ninja's.
Tifa looked over and saw what had happened.
"No!" She cried
"What's wrong?" Came the question asked by the blonde.
She looked back over at him, trying to think of an excuse.
"Uh..I ,um, forgot to buy more alcohol for the bar!" she lied
"But…there's still some upstairs." Cloud said.
"Oh..right..silly me!" She said, faking a giggle.
Cloud just glanced at her oddly for a moment before heading over to the bar, taking a seat on one of the cushioned stools.
…..
After Vincent and Yuffie parted, they both stared at each other. Vincent being a little dazed, took a minute before he spoke.
"Yuffie, I-" he started
"I know! And I'm sorry, Vince!" Yuffie said
"ButIreallydolikeyouandIwantedtotellyouthatbutIwastooscaredandthebetwithTifameantnothingandIjustdiditsoIcouldbewithyou!" She explained, gasping for breath after her rushed explanation.
Vincent just stared blankly at her for a second, and it hurt Yuffie, making her feel like a fool.
"I knew I shouldn't have said anything!" the white rose of Wutai admitted, before her eyes welled up with tears and she tried to run away.
"Yuffie, hold on." Vincent caught hold of her arm.
"I…" he tried to say something but couldn't finish.
"…What? You think I'm an idiot don't you? You can tell me, you know." She said through sniffs.
"N-no..I..I..was..going to tell you that I…like you too." He finished, covering his face even more with the collar of his cloak to hide his now red face.
Yuffie's face brightened a little, and she wiped the tears from her eyes, smiling.
"Really?" she asked him, afraid of what he might say.
The ex-Turk nodded as a response.
"I…just didn't know what you'd say. I was afraid of telling you after…after..Lucrecia." The last word was hardly a whisper; but the irritating teenage ninja understood, and simply hugged him as a response.
Vincent, even though he liked Yuffie, felt a little awkward at that. He'd never had somebody care about him this way for years, and he didn't know how to deal with it anymore. What if the same thing happened again?
Taking a deep breath, he hugged her back, none the less. He knew Yuffie wasn't like that. Yuffie was different. Yuffie was special.
Yuffie was his.
…
Tifa had been spending the last few minutes carrying the last few bottles of wine and beer she had back downstairs, from the cabinet she had upstairs in her office. The brunette sighed. She hated being even slightly low on alcohol, because that meant noisy and impatient customers, which also meant the kids wouldn't be able to get to sleep very fast.
She grabbed the last bottle and continued down the stairs, where Cloud was waiting at the bottom of them; not knowing that Yuffie was planning on doing something very evil. Evil, but romantic.
…..
The ninja was currently sitting in a booth with the gun slinger. They had been talking for awhile now, but Yuffie could only sit around for so long. She needed to do something entertaining. She and Vince were hardly talking anymore, anyways.
She looked over her shoulder and saw Tifa still walking up and down the stairs carrying down some fresh cases of beer and whatever else she sold that came in bottles. Cloud was standing at the bottom, carrying the heavier cases over to the bar for her.
That's when the "something entertaining" hit her. She knew she would probably be chased around and beaten by Tifa if all didn't go as planned, but a ninja had to take her chances.
"Hey, Vince, I'll be right back, okay?" She told him, getting no response.
"Vince?" She called again, looking over at him, only to see that he had dozed off, with his head lying on the table. His breathing was slow and calm.
She smiled a bit, and looked back over at Tifa, who was walking back up the stairs.
She smirked evily as she walked over to the staircase and stood on the first few steps, waiting somewhat impatiently.
Tap tap tap…
she kept making her foot gently hit the stair in the same rhythm to keep from going insane with impatience.
"Yuffie, What are you doing?" The spiky blonde haired man asked her.
"Um..N-nothing. Can't a girl just stand on the stairs and tap her foot without being questioned?" she tried to cover up her plan.
Cloud had stopped listening by this point and simply nodded his head subconsciously, causing the ninja wearing leggings to glare at him slightly.
Then it happened. Tifa came down the stairs, holding one single beer bottle.
"Perfect!" Was Yuffie's thought as she casually moved her foot out into Tifa's path, causing her to trip.
Cloud's childhood friend squeaked in surprise, as she fell forward, towards the blonde himself. Luckily for her, Strife snapped out of his daydream just in time to see her falling.
"Tifa!" he called in worry as he jumped out to catch her.
With sheer luck, Cloud now held his friend, as well as the beer bottle she had lost her grip on, in his arms.
"Um…Thanks." Tifa said, almost blushing.
Cloud let her go and looked her over slightly.
"Are you okay?" He asked her
"Yeah. I'm fine." Tifa assured him.
By this point, Yuffie Kissaragi's eyes were practically flaming with frustration. Why didn't it work?!
"Just KISS already, would you?! We all know you like him, Tifa!" She barked at them both.
Cloud looked down at Tifa, somewhat socked, and saw that she was blushing.
"Tifa? Is this true?" He asked her, tilting her chin up to look into her wine-colored eyes.
"Yeah, it is, Cloud" Tifa answered honestly, as she smiled and looked away again, blushing a deeper shade of rose. Cloud thought that color made her look even more beautiful. "I..I like you. A lot."
Cloud paused for a moment, before taking her hand and pulling her outside into the starry night.
"Cloud, what are you doing?" Lockhart asked Strife, perplexed.
The blonde answered by placing a finger gently onto her lips, silencing her.
"I wanted this to be special." He told her, before removing his finger from the edges of her mouth and placing a kiss onto them instead.
"This is too good to be true.." Was all Tifa was saying in her head, her mind frozen as she returned the long and passionate kiss.
…..
Yuffie knew what was going to happen, and was now parked in front of the window, secretly watching with a small smile on her face.
"Maybe the bet..Wasn't such a bad idea after all." She thought, sighing contently as walked back over to Vincent.
"Maybe…It was a good thing."
She paused for a moment.
"Either way, She still owes me fifty gil."
Fin.
……
And so it ends. I originally meant to post this on Valentine's Day, but I got really busy and forgot. Sorry about that. Anyways, I worked hard on this, so can you please read and reviewbecause I really want to know if I am any good at Yuffentine/Cloti. Please? And thanks for reading!
Ps. For those of you that are also reading Wrong Turn, I promise you all that there will be a new chapter posted tomorrow, even if it kills me. And I'm sorry I haven't updated it in awhile! I will try to be more consistant from now on. Escpecially with March Break just two weeks away, you should be seeing a lot more from me in the near future. Thanks for your patience!