I know what you're thinking: not another Yuffentine story when you haven't completed the ones you already posted! I know :( I'm sorry! It had been swimming in my mind, and I had to post it. Plus, I wanted to give y'all a personal update.

So, yeah... I hope you guys like this. It's way different from what I usually do. The concept is a little different, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. It's not an AU, but a way post-DOC story, if that helps.

Disclaimer: I do not profit or claim to own anything. I'm just a poor girl, I need no sympathy...

Vincent's POV

She approached me slowly. Her eyes, once a heavenly caramel and chocolate color, now hardened to a near bullet-silver in a piercing glare as she met my gaze with no trace of the lingering warmth I once so familiarly knew. Footsteps echoed in the entry hall of Shinra Manor as she stiffly stalked across the hard floor. Hands fisted by her side in an attempt to control whatever negativity she felt. The scowl on her face seemed wrong, needing replaced by the usual cocky grin and endearing laughter that had captured my attention when the world was dark. A million thoughts crossed my mind, a mind that was silenced of demons and nightmares, but bereft of my saving grace.

"Vincent," she greeted dully, her voice a flat monotone, forced through the near-gritting of her teeth. Her eyes remained callous, her stance rigid as she regarded me with emotionlessly slitted eyes.

"Yuffie." My heart froze as a strange sensation of loving and loathing overcame the numbness I'd grown accustomed to as of late. Gaia was unfair. How I wanted to sweep her into my arms, how I wanted to curse her existence! The look in her shielded eyes told of mutual feelings, at least, of the latter sentiment.

"I she ready to go yet?" Demandingly, Yuffie crossed her arms and continued to glare, the image of the once perfectly carefree ninja replaced with the image of a woman whom had aged with the weight of the world — one she had saved numerous times only to be cast out of her homeland and inheritance for marrying the monster of a man (not only a demon harborer, but a foreigner) she'd fallen for along the way — on her shoulders. But even after all of the years —ten, if one were to ask— her face retained the purest form of Wutain beauty and ninja grace; her body was still trained to spring into action at the first sign of danger. After all of the years, I still found that no one could compare to her… And she still held a piece of me that I could not destroy. It made me sick.

"She will be down soon," was my cool reply. Forcing my gaze to remain icy and my expression stoic, I turned my back to the woman that had spent the better half of a decade beside me, faithful and loving. For some reason, that had not been enough. Devotion and passion simply never stood the test of time —for us at least. Nothing could prevent our inevitable growing apart as life passed by, and though I'd change things if I could, it was merely too late to salvage a marriage that neither lover really cared much to salvage anyways.

... Though, if asked the truth, I did care. I cared more than I could ever admit to her, to our friends, or to myself.

"Hi, sweetie! Did you have fun with Daddy?" Yuffie's demeanor evolved in an instant, her frigid behavior melting into the picture of a perfect mother as she bent down and waved at our slowly advancing daughter. Our daughter was truly the picture of innocence, her little chocobo doll tucked beneath her chin, half hidden by long locks of onyx curls. Her bottom lip stuck out in a pout and her garnet eyes were wide behind pale, blinking lids. She had my coloring, but her face was Yuffie's.

Clinging to her mother's hand but not speaking, Maeria — Yuffie's name choice, for her materia obsession carried over into pregnancy, where it seemed she craved not only food, but any glowing orb not in her possession — shrugged and kept her eyes on Yuffie, not meeting my gaze. Her personality, thank Gaia, was that of mine, mild-tempered and quiet, and not of her mother's. Sometimes I felt that it was easier to parent Maeria than to handle Yuffie.

"Tell Daddy bye," Yuffie encouraged and glanced at me, her loving smile stretched across her face as she smoothed our daughter's bangs out of her eyes. The child did not respond, as she had become wont to do, and I felt a twinge within my chest as I gave sigh only detectable to the woman who'd spent years learning to read me.

Yuffie met my eyes, her own full of sympathy as she whispered, "Go on, Mae. I'll be out in a moment." The chocobo-toting girl did as she was asked, her head hung low as if she might break into tears if she looked at me. It killed me inside to know that my own daughter thought of me as the monster within my being. She cowered in fear of me. I should have known when I married Yuffie that this could not ever be. In retrospect, it was better this way, better for her to fear me than to love me.

"Vincent-"

"Do not worry yourself, Yuffie. I am fine." But I was not, a fact both of us knew to be painfully true no matter how we denied it. Yuffie sighed deeply and shook her head, her eyes cast to the floor.

"Vincent, she'll come around. She's always been a 'daddy's girl,' but it just takes time to adjust to this situation. We both knew this wouldn't be easy on her."

This Yuffie made my heart thrum painfully, this mature, compassionate woman. The soft smile that the ninja granted me eased the troubled feelings in my heart, but only slightly. It also made the pain worsen, for I couldn't help but miss Yuffie's presence at night, her loving eyes and tender expression. She had been my anchor and my reason to live, and now she only visited to collect the one thing in my life that brought me more joy than she had. It killed her to do it; I could tell that much from the troubled frown she sported whenever Maeria disregarded my existence. Though we were separated, Yuffie was not a person to be heartless or take revenge — usually. She wanted me to go on and be happy as much as she wanted that for herself.

"She's six years old and confused. She… she doesn't understand why her parents aren't together anymore." Yuffie refused to meet my eyes when she whispered the last part.

In the moments of quiet vagueness that surrounded the ninja, I couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking, or what I was thinking for that matter. Recently I had found myself unable to put feelings into words, and it seemed that Yuffie was kin to this sensation too. She remained silent for a moment or so, and in the span of stillness, I watched her as she seemed to deliberate something, her lip pulled between her teeth in a fashion agonizingly similar to how she used to beckon me to her.

"Why… Why aren't we together anymore, Vincent?" she blurted out. The words froze my blood in my veins as I desperately tried to decipher the meaning behind her exclamation. A thick, pretty blush crept into Yuffie's cheeks as she shook her head and stammered, "I — I mean — what do we tell Mae as the reason we aren't together anymore!" Her blushing intensified, and as if to hide it, she shifted on the balls of her feet and stared at the floor, a sheepish look on her face. Ah, there was the Yuffie from AVALANCHE's glory days.

Why weren't we together? Why had she asked me such a question? It had been a mutual decision to separate… I wanted to ask her about the strange inquisition. It almost seemed that she wanted — no, I wouldn't allow myself to go there. Hope made one weak, especially in a situation such as the one at hand. And what could a monster like me possibly hope for? I'd been given a chance, too many, and I'd thrown them all away.

Collecting myself, I answered with as much fake bravado as possible, "We both know why, Yuffie. What we once had is now gone, and there is nothing left. You and I are simply not meant to be."

It hurt me to say it, and I'm sure that a momentary flash of pain expressed itself within my crimson eyes, but I kept my visage as passive as I could manage. That is to say, it was entirely passive.

In honesty, the answer to Yuffie's question seemed foreign to me. I couldn't say that we were separating because of a lack of love between us, that wouldn't be true. I couldn't actually say what it was that was forcing us apart like magnets of the same conductivity, when we had once been the total opposites that did indeed attract. There was no denying that we were in love, and possibly still were, but something that had to be subconscious was preventing us from experiencing the same affection we once felt before. It was there, but felt more like a flame that was flickering out. No, not flickering out. Burning so brightly it blistered flesh. It was… a painful kind of love.

"You want me to tell our daughter that her parents can't love each other anymore?" Yuffie scoffed, deadpanning. She crossed her arms in disbelief and clenched her teeth. "Yeah, 'cause that certainly won't lead to emotional issues."

"We shouldn't lie to her, Yuffie. She deserves the truth."

"Maybe you shouldn't lie to yourself," Yuffie hissed, yanking the suitcase up from off of the floor of the manor before storming out, calling over her shoulder, "You can see her the next time we go to court."

The door slammed, and the echo that resounded through the manor reminded of just how empty my life was without the only two sources of light that ever illuminated the fathomless darkness in which I'd submersed myself.

"Vince," Yuffie whispered, the brilliant glimmer in her eyes speaking volumes about the joy she couldn't contain. That joy was so overwhelmingly contagious that I had to fight a smile of my own. Twiddling her fingers, she grinned a little and pressed a kiss to my claw, sending a shiver up my spine as she shifted against my chest and raised her head to look into my eyes. Radiance. She was made of pure radiance.

"Hn?"

"Will things always be like this between us?" Her voice held cheer and excitement as she folded her arms on my chest and rested her chin there, gazing into my eyes with her puppy-dog ones. The grass around us swayed in the wind, and Yuffie's hair mimicked the movement, catching the rays of sun. I took a fly-away lock of dark chocolate between my fingers, examining its silky texture before tucking it behind her ear and marveling at the smooth skin of her neck.

How… How could one person enslave my heart so completely? How could she possibly make me feel like the world was worth living in, worth saving, when before I believed that there was nothing but sin and hatred?

"Perhaps. Nothing is ever perfect. I've committed many sins, but… You have helped me find salvation, Yuffie. I cannot promise that it will always be easy, but I stay with you no matter what the future holds."

And I meant it whole-heartedly. I needed the feeling of her lithe form against mine, the beat of her heart in time with my own, and the small puffs of breath against my neck as she sighed contentedly. Even Lucrecia failed to fill the void within my chest as Yuffie had. The scientist had loved me when there was no broken heart to be mended. Yuffie managed to gain my devotion and heart even after the depression that Lucrecia put me through, even after I reverted into myself and refused to trust those around me. She loved Vincent Valentine, the monster and the man, and she did not have limitations to what she would endure or how evil I could be inside: everything that made me who I am she accepted and embraced. The ninja had truly earned my heart — no, she never had to earn it truly, she deserved to have whatever she desired, though my own faults led to reservations about allowing myself to love her. I was as tainted as the word sin itself, and Yuffie was purer than the first snowflake that fell in winter.

"Do you promise?" Yuffie sighed, her eyes flirtatious and twinkling with mischief. She traced the lines of my face with a finger, leaving a path of heated skin in her wake while she nuzzled further into my side, ignoring the unbearable heat of the sun on our bodies as we lazed about in the open field (though that took quite a bit of convincing on her part).

I merely nodded, running a hand through her soft hair. It once brought me immense pain to consider living, laughing, allowing myself to embrace the future like Lucrecia had wanted — but with Yuffie, the thought of not spending every waking moment of my existence beside her felt darker than any memory I retained from my life before AVALANCHE.

"With everything I have…"

The answer seemed to satisfy her, for she placed her hands on the ground beside my head and lifted her body up, locking our lips in a fervent kiss that filled me with her sweeter-than-sugar taste and ignited my senses in a way that had me struggling to think clearly past anything beside the feeling of her soft lips against mine. It wasn't long before the intensity between us amplified to an extent that only my pushing her away could prevent going further. When I succeeded in putting distance between Yuffie and myself, I took a moment to admire the sensual look on her face as she took in air.

She panted, watching me through half-lidded eyes, and I cupped her cheek. The words I'd been meaning to say, but hadn't summoned the courage to, seemed so desperately close to the tip of my tongue that I knew if I did not say them now, I never would.

"I love you, Yuffie."

A gasp escaped her slightly swollen lips as she sat up and stared at me, wide-eyed and hiding a frown. "You… You love me?" Yuffie sounded so unsure of herself, so taken aback by my confession that I nearly laughed. Hadn't she always been the brash ninja with the overflowing confidence and self-assured demeanor? Her shy uncertainty was rather... cute.

"Hn. Very much." Somehow, it felt natural to tell her everything I had kept inside for so long. Although others always branded me as quiet and reserved, and of course they were right, this babbling ninja with a face as beautiful as the country she had come from had opened my heart. It seemed effortless to keep up a conversation now, and I found myself often enjoying the talks that I'd engage in with others. Before her, I would have scoffed at the idea of attempting to get to know someone on a personal level. Before her, it was inconsequential and a waste of time. Before her, I had squandered so much of my life away, time that I could have spent moving on.

She shook her head, smiling softly. "Vinnie," she met my gaze, "I love you too."

Grinning, she flung herself into my arms, our lips meeting once more. A part of me thanked Lucrecia for having given me the opportunity to live, for it had led me straight to the one that I needed. She broke my heart, but left it to be mended by Yuffie. And the way my heart had constricted in an agonizingly glorious way when she repeated the words I had just confessed led me to know that the love I had for her was so deeply ingrained that if I were to lose her now, my coffin would not be for sleeping in. No, I could not lose Yuffie. I could never lose her. There would be nothing left of me.

"Oh, and Vinnie?" Yuffie began, breaking the kiss with a very serious look in her eyes.

"Hn?" My mind still had not focused, and I was far too distracted by the lighter-than-air feeling within me to comprehend anything my dear ninja was saying.

"You're such a hopeless romantic." Punctuating the statement with a flick to my forehead, she grinned wider than before and snatched my gauntleted hand up again, threading flesh and metal together as she gazed up at the sky and watched the clouds.

Almost unwillingly, my eyes traveled to the sweet fingers that curled around my claw. I felt sickened and euphoric at once as I took in how she held to the symbol of my inner-monstrosity. Part of me wanted to disengage our hands and tell her that touching my gauntlet would taint her, and the other part of me smiled, feeling almost unburdened by the way she never cowered from the aspects of my being that truly made me unworthy of her devotion.

I wanted to ask her the question that had been on my mind since a little over half a year after the Omega incident, when I no longer felt like my life revolved around atonement and Lucrecia. It revolved around a little ninja with a smile that lit my heart up every time she made a joke at my expense or took off with my tattered crimson cloak around her shoulders, or slept on the coach and awaited my homecoming from a mission — she always broke into Shinra Manor when I would go off somewhere, and she'd stay there until my return. All of the quirks that made up the Great Ninja Yuffie somehow came to mean more to me than I had ever intended them to, however I couldn't complain. My heart knew, somehow, what I needed — who I needed. I needed Yuffie, and she always occupied my mind, whether we were together or I was off doing damage control at Icicle Inn. The question lingered in my subconscious, presenting itself at random intervals. I held off, for I'd yet to experience the right moment.

"Cloud and Teef are probably waiting on us," Yuffie admitted after a while of comfortable silence. When she snuggled her warm body further against me, I had the urge to chuckle and point out that leaving my arms appeared to be the last thing she wanted to do.

"Hn," I agreed, my mind still not focused on the present, but on matters of the heart.

"I bet they think we got it on out here."

That statement jolted me into reality, and Yuffie threw her head back in laughter at the appalled expression on my face as I gaped at her and blinked slowly. She giggled a little and then pecked me on the lips, something I would have enjoyed more had I not been slightly mortified at Yuffie's crude declaration.

"Don't worry," she appeased, her eyes still shining in mirth. "Everyone knows that the great Vincent Valentine is a gentleman and would never think of getting horizontal with me without a proper ring on my finger."

That furthered the crimson flush on my cheeks and propelled the ninja into more fits of laughter. I couldn't find what she thought was so funny about the situation. It was bad enough that I had ventured into a relationship with her, but the insinuation of my taking her innocence outside of wedlock horrified me beyond words. That was where I drew the line.

A small smile cracked at the side of her face as she draped her arms loosely around my shoulders. I had honestly expected her to go ranting on about how she was old enough to make her own decisions and she was of legal age, but she but she both stunned and warmed me when she stated:

"You're an honorable guy, Vinnie." Smirking, the ninja purred, "But watch yourself, Vin, 'cause I'm not going to make this any easier on you."

I knew as much. And, looking back, the one thing that remained a definite certainty was just how difficult it was to be married to Yuffie.

I know it seems really OOC, but I will explain through flashbacks as time goes on. Given that it's been several years, they have new quirks and personality traits that the story hasn't revealed reasons for yet. Also, I through in the last scene purely because I want to draw a very clear line between how Vincent and Yuffie used to be as opposed to how time had changed them. Yuffie was her usual happy self, and Vincent had managed to lighten up and let her in. However, now they are both closed off.

Just so you know, I plan to update this one only when the others have been updated or only when I have time, but at least once every two months.

Thank you for reading ^_^ Let me know what you thought!