Wicked, a final fantasy vii fanfic

Wicked

"I've…I've done some bad things to get what I want."

"You know, Vincent, for the first time…I feel…wicked."

"And, you know, I can admit that."

"But I don't feel horrible about it, Vincent. Because this is what I want."

"And I really try to tell myself that I needed those things."

"This is what I want too, Lucrecia."

"But, when I think about it, there probably could have been another way."

"I wish we didn't have to sneak around like this."

"Some things were really rare, but was anything really that much the better for it? …Maybe so. But I can't help but wonder if there was another way."

"There is no other way, Lucrecia."

"And even when, at the time, it seemed like it was impossible."

"I suppose you're right."

"I realize…"

"There is no other way."

"There probably was another way."

The intimacy was stifling. The comfortable – even if pained – and way she said it, full of acceptance made him shift. She was always like that. She could barely tell the level of intimacy you shared with a person you just met the other day to the level you shared with someone you had known for years. Perhaps because she had accepted everything about herself. Perhaps because no one ever asked. Maybe she felt more comfortable around strangers.

Either way, the closeness was choking him slowly.

"What about you? I mean, besides from being a Turk, have you ever done anything…well, bad to get what you wanted?"

"…"

"C'mon! I confessed."

"…Yes Yuffie, I have."

"Spill!"

"…I'd rather not."

"Yes! Spill!"

"…"

"Party-pooper. Here, I'll tell you one of my worst – erm, other than what I just did the other day to ya'll - and you'll tell me one of your worst. Okay?"

"…and what if you just tell me, and I don't respond? That gives me an advantage over you."

"First of all, you're Vinnie. You'll feel obligated to tell me." She said this all in a very matter-of-fact way, as though she had him all figured out. "Secondly, exactly what would you use those advantages for, hmmm?" Yuffie winked and nudged him with her elbow, and he ignored her.

"Pssh. Anyway, one of my worst. Humm…well, probably that time the same guy who had a mastered – mastered – Phoenix got a hold of MY Leviathan. He had a couple mastered materia, no more Summons. Some nice materia. But I tried every way I could think of. Finally, I just posed as a hooker-stripper-person-thing-"

There it was. The sheer bluntness was wrapping around his neck, and his eyes were bulging. He turned his head to Yuffie in his own version of disbelief.

"Vin! Vin, come on. I didn't sleep with him."

She could have sworn Vincent had been holding his breath.

"Did do a strip tease. Got his materia too."

Even as she tried to be nonchalant, a blush spread over her cheeks and she ducked her head. Silence settled, and the space between them seemed to stretch for miles. As vast as the sky above. She knew how shallow and slutty she sounded. She was properly ashamed too. Vincent had a feeling she'd never told Godo how she'd gotten that mastered Phoenix.

"One time," Vincent found himself saying, "I lost a bet."

Yuffie looked up. Her eyebrows rose and she looked up at him expectantly.

"…And I was…I had too…" Vincent was turning red as his cape, he knew. "I had to pop out of a birthday cake."

Yuffie stared for a moment.

"Wearing a…a…"

Yuffie's lips sealed shut and she started turning red.

"…a bowtie and a black man thong."

Yuffie couldn't conceal it. She started howling with laughter, and went on until her face turned dark with laughter and she was still succumbing to whoops of mirth five minutes later, always stopping to start again (presumably picturing it). Vincent was visibly disgruntled, realizing he should not have blurted that out.

"Oh god, oh god you aren't serious."

"Afraid so."

"Shit Vin, why would you bet something like that?"

"I was…new to the Turk training program. I thought I could beat a man at cards."

"…and who, was this man?"

Vincent smiled wryly. "Tseng."

"You're kidding. You aren't the best man in the world at cards?"

"That would be Tseng. Or Rude. I believe Rude was Tseng's only match at cards."

"Oh god, that's hilarious."

"Don't remind me."

Silence came again, but this time the companionable silence between friends. They stared off the deck of the airship and out on the blue horizon. Yuffie's motion sickness was apparently not as bad on the deck, and Vincent could see the small side effects of a tranqulizer working on her. But she seemed to grow uncomfortable, and starting fidgeting. Then she started switching her weight from foot to foot, twisint and turning. Vincent pressed down on her shoulder with a hand. She stopped and he instantly withdrew his hand, as though he'd been touched by a hot poker. She wasn't offended. She knew him. But she did look guiltily up at him.

"…you know, I've done worse than that, Vincent."

"…I know, Yuffie."

"I haven't done much worse than this, Vincent."

"I know, Lucrecia."

"I'm not really a good person, you know that Vincent?"

"But you are a good person, Lucrecia. And a lovely woman."

"But I don't think I'm really a bad person, either."

"I think I'm turning into a bad person, Vincent."

"Because I don't really think you should be judged entirely by your deeds, you know?"

"Because of what I've done, what I'm doing…"

"Because it sorta depends on more than that, you know?"

"You're doing it out of love."

"It's why you do it, and how you feel after you do it."

"I don't think that matters much, Vincent."

"And I really think that makes all the difference."

"'You aren't a bad person Lucrecia.'"

"You aren't a bad person Yuffie."

"Because this is you want, isn't it?"

"You didn't do this for what you wanted."

"Yes. This is what I want."

"I did it for Wutai."

"But still, Vincent…"

"But still, Vin…"

"For the first time…"

"It really isn't the first time…"

"I feel…"

"That I've felt…"

"Wicked."

"Wicked."

A/N: Things come to me while I read Travelling Pants books. Not even inspired by a line. Just came, the first line, and the rest came out.

That one quote belongs to Wicked, the Broadway show. It wasn't supposed to be in there, hell, I wasn't even listening to it. It just came out of my typing. And who am I to question my fingers? Hm. Don't think to horribly of me for stealing that quote.

Difference between Yuffie and Lucrecia musing.

Supposed to take place shortly after stealing of materia thing. In the game, Vincent is all 'rawr. Unforgiveable.' So don't ask why he's forgiven her so soon. He just has. Stupid boy. Shush, ya'll. I don't mean it.