Barstools

Theme 28: Dust

It wasn't that Yuffie hadn't missed him— hell, three sleepless weeks were proof enough. And, it wasn't that she was distracted by her almost empty tumbler (water, 'cause Boobs still won't let her drink any kind of alcohol, gawd it sucks to be nineteen) and the little rainbows and her tired reflection looking straight up at her (crap, is that her? No sleep seriously screws her face up, along with crying every once and while because there's still that little niggling voice in the back of her head that keeps on saying that he's dead and ohmigawd why the hell won't it fucking shut up already, he's not dead, he's not dead!), no, as soon as that door knob started to jiggle, she practically (quite literally actually) jumped out of her seat, bounded for the door, and threw it open so fast that the hinges screamed in protest, but her cry of "VINNIE!" was cut short by… it.

And it most definitely wasn't that he was wearing one of Cid's extra pilot uniforms (he looked like an idiot— the pants were way too short, but they hung off of him like he was a twig, and it was the same story with the shirt), or that his face and hair were completely bedraggled and horrible looking, or that he wasn't wearing his stupid angsty-emo-superhero cape and he was just carrying its tattered remains.

It wasn't even a combination of all those things.

No, the reason why was, even though his face was more relaxed and calmer and almost smiling, his eyes were dead. Lifeless. Past the point of zombie or mummified or skeletal, it was like his soul wasn't even there. They were just eye-shaped black holes sucking up all the hope, light, and life out of the room. That was what caused her to be, for once in her life, abso-fucking-lutely speechless.

He looked at her with those red (deaddeadDEAD!) eyes as if there was something wrong with her. Yuffie mouth opened for a second and promptly clamped closed again. She collapsed in the nearest barstool and just stared.

Leviathan, what happened to his eyes! His beautiful, broken, bleeding eyes! Red, red, red like how Reno's hair always dreamed of being! Those passionate, almost animalistic eyes that said so much with a single glare! This is what she had spent three fucking weeks waiting for? Daydreaming, hoping, praying, crying over? She had stayed in the same barstool day after day this past week because Cid was concerned for his airship and her health (constant air travel is NOT fun) sitting there, waiting for this to appear at the bar door?

This… This shadow of a man. This was not the Vincent Valentine that she had been waiting for. It couldn't be him, no, he's a clone, a remnant! Not Vincent. Not her Vinnie.

She blinked back tears, swallowed back the Chaos-sized lump forming in the back of her throat, bit back the sob, the scream of anguish, all that were threatening to take control of her at any given moment, and bolted, sprinted, flew the hell outta there as fast as she could, yelling over her shoulder when questioned that she had to go to the place with the thing. Her voice felt alien and distant.

It was the fucking cherry on the whip cream with walnuts, rainbow and chocolate sprinkles, and hot fudge on top of the mother fucking cake to see Shelke hugging on his arm like it was her teddy bear.

Screw him anyways. She didn't need him. She's the great ninja Yuffie, for crying out loud! She can stand to be on her own. At least, that was what she said to herself as she ran out into the city, not planning on coming back for quite some time, or until he left. Whichever came first. All she had to do was drown out the same little voice in her head that kept on saying stupid liar, stupid girl, coward, run away while you still can, keep on lying to yourself, he'll never be yours.

(liar)

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A/N: I just wanted to do a version of the "Vincent Valentine comes back from Lucretia's cave for the last time to see Yuffie waiting at Seventh Heaven for him". It was actually quite fun, although it was a little out of my style. I'm probably going to do a continuation of this, so, keep your eyes peeled! Reviews are awesome!

Until then, later guys!

Sophie Rush