Fanfic: Betrayal

Chapter 1: A Forgotten day

Venusvadore

All character and places and blah blah blah are sole property of Square Enix. I make no money from this and I don't own any of it obviously. This applies to all chapters. Pardon my rudeness but everyone knows typing these things are boring.

Yuffie took another turn down the ally. That guy was still following her. She quickly glanced over her shoulder. Yep, definitely still there. She began to walk faster. What was his problem anyway? She didn't even recognize him, and she definitely couldn't recall ever doing anything to upset him. 'Course, I don't always remember the faces of the people I steal from,' she thought, slightly chuckling to herself despite the frightening situation. Luckily, she knew these streets well.

She quickly ducked through another ally that was almost unnoticeable at a glance. It had been a year since the death of Sephiroth, and she had been living in Midgar. Yuffie had always hated Midgar, but she had reasons to stay. She knew she could never go home, after the horrid things her father had done after she had gone with AVALANCHE. She scowled. Footsteps breeched her thoughts. Once again she darted her eyes over her shoulder.

He was still there. A large, intimidating hat covered his eyes while a jacket draped over his frame. The collar of the jacket came up so high that it hid the lower half of his face. Yuffie finally decided she'd had enough. She unexpectedly spun around, flicking out a small knife that had been in the pocket of her jeans. Her brown bangs covered her eyebrows that scowled down at her stalker. "Alright, I don't usually do this, but I'm gonna let you talk since you've been so persistent mister. Do you have a problem, or is there no apparent reason that you're following me?" she said coolly, though she was thoroughly annoyed that this man had gone at such lengths to keep up with her. He had been chasing her for the past hour now. The strange man took a few steps forward and then halted, catching sight of the knife.

"Yuffie Kisaragi?" he asked. Yuffie continued scowling. "Depends on who's lookin'." "I'm afraid that I can't tell who who IS looking," he stated. Yuffie raised an eyebrow. Okaaaaay..."But I think I do have an interesting proposition for you," he said. The man then began digging into the large pocket of his black trench coat. The rustling of paper and the jingling of metal could be heard. Finally, he brought forward an envelope. "Inside this letter is all the information you'll need. My address is also inside, and if you decide you want to do this," he paused, "then go to the address. I'll have someone waiting for you." he tossed the envelope, which slid across the ground. If Yuffie had been confused before, than there were no words for what she was now. "I think you've got the wrong girl. And what makes you think I'll do anything for you anyways?" she spat. But she couldn't help but wonder what was in that letter.

The man rubbed his temples. "I know I don't have the wrong girl, Miss Kisaragi. As for why my company thinks that you'll do anything for us...all I can say is that the rewards will be quite...pleasurable." The last word slid off of his tongue and snaked its way into Yuffie's ears. She liked the sound of that. Though she had been a thief, and lived comfortably in a nice apartment, more Gil was always satisfying, and she had a feeling that this was the "pleasure" that the man was talking about. A smile cracked on her face, no matter how hard she tried to hold it back. "So, what exactly am I supposed to do?" she asked, trying not to sound too exited. The man looked up, only his eyes showing beneath the hat and jacket. "As I said before, it's all in the letter. Contact me if you wish to comply." At that, he began to slowly turn and walk away, though it wasn't two steps before he stopped and looked over his shoulder. "Oh and Yuffie," Yuffie jumped. She had just picked up the letter and it was lying safely in her hand. "This is to be kept quiet. You are being watched, and my men will not hesitate to become violent if things get complicated." Yuffie could tell he was smiling when he said this. How sick was that?

Finally, the man began to walk away. Yuffie's senses then came back her. "Hey, who are you?" she called out, but the man was gone, vanished into the crowd. The girl had thoughts to go after him, but then she remembered the letter in her hand. If this wasn't all a bunch of fluff, than there was really no reason to go after him anyways. The letter would tell her, she figured, and then she reluctantly slid it into her pocket. She didn't think the man would like the idea of her opening it in public, so she decided to wait until she got home. Yuffie shivered at the thought of being watched. After these considerations, she began to jog back down the alleyway, as if nothing had ever happened. Who knows, maybe nothing had...

Yuffie noted that even with the downfall of Shinra, Midgar was still a mess. Things hadn't improved like they were supposed to. Heck, maybe they were even worse. The amount of crimes seemed to have gone up, while the economy went down. She passed a restaurant,"Perfectizimo" as it was called, and noticed that someone was waving her over. Reno. After Yuffie had left AVALANCHE, she had been wandering around Midgar for a while. About a week later, she came across a grubby little bar called "The Booze Shack". She had gone in and found none other than the red-headed Turk himself. He was so drunk that he could hardly recognize Yuffie, and even though Yuffie had always been against Shinra, she had taken an instant liking to him. Soon the two were having lunch together, going to movies, and occasionally Yuffie would drag a wasted Reno home after a rough night. It was strange, Yuffie had always held grudges, but she couldn't seem to hold any resentment toward Reno. His crazy antics just made him too interesting to leave. Plus, how else would the poor guy make it home on Saturday nights?

Yuffie ran over to him and sat down. "Watchya been doin?" he asked, sliding over an unopened can of pop. 'He must have been expecting me," Yuffie thought, 'no way had Reno been intending on drinking something that was caffeine and alcohol free.' Then again, she always did pass by here on Thursday afternoons. "Nothing really. You?" she asked, opening the drink. Reno smiled, raising an eyebrow at the same time. "Heh, well, my boss fired me and then rehired me again," he stated, leaning back against his chair.

Of course. Reno was always loosing his job as sales clerk at a weapon dealer's shop, though he always regained it again. He just knew too much about weapons to be thrown away, even though he did come in an hour late every other day. "You're really pushing it you know," Yuffie laughed, punching his arm. "He's gonna fire you, and fire you good some day." Reno picked up a straw and blew a pre-made spit wad at her. "Well, if he does, I'll just have to kick his-" "Your order sir?" a waiter said, interrupting Reno's rant. Yuffie then realized how nice this restaurant was. She wondered how Reno was going to afford it, though she didn't say so.

Reno mumbled something about "manners" as he picked up his menu. Which was funny to Yuffie because she was currently peeling off a piece of chewed up straw wrapper from her shoulder? Reno gave him his order and then turned to Yuffie"Ya want anything" Yuffie wriggled. If it had been a stranger she would have said"shoot yeah" and ordered the most expensive thing on the menu. But this was Reno, who had a financial situation that, unfortunately, Yuffie knew about. She found a compromise to this. "Yeah, but let me pay for it." Reno shrugged and continued reading the menu. Yuffie wondered if he knew what she was thinking. She picked one of the cheapest things. The waiter thanked them and then hurried off.

Yuffie's thoughts traveled back to the envelope in her pocket. She wanted to read what was inside so bad that she could hardly stand it. She distracted herself by playing with the fork on the table. She noticed some proper looking lady staring at her, and Yuffie made a rather rude hand gesture. The rich woman's eyes grew wide and she quickly stopped looking at the ninja, though now Yuffie was feeling a little self conscious about her low-riding jeans and her shirt that said "I hate Chocobos" on the back. On the front it had a picture of a large bird being cooked in an abnormally small oven.

"Something's on your mind," Reno suddenly said. Yuffie squeaked. For some reason this had startled her. "Nothings on my mind," she said, forcing a smile. Reno kicked her playfully. "Listen, I used to be a Turk, ya think I wouldn't know that something was bothering my best friend when part of my job was to interrogate people. That's almost insulting," he stated, and then he began to pretend cry. Yuffie pulled his ponytail "Why are you here Reno. You don't usually, errrr...eat at...places like this," she said, gesturing at the settings around her. Okay, so it was a rude question, but it was deserving of an answer. "You don't know yet?" he asked, a smile tugging at his lips. Yuffie scowled, crossing her arms. No, she didn't, but she wasn't going to let him know that. "Of course, I was just starting a conversation," Yuffie said, though she knew her excuse just sounded stupid. Reno laughed. "Ok...whatever you say..." he said sneakily. Yuffie squinted her eyes at him. She had a feeling that there was some sickening joke he had planned.

The waiter was soon back, carrying a tray with a cover over it. He bent down and whispered something to Reno, who smiled and took the tray from him. The waiter dashed off. Reno pushed the tray to Yuffie. "For you," he said, bowing. Yuffie stared at the tray. No way was this hers; it was way to big whatever it was. She slowly took off the cover and gasped. A large cake was underneath the metal cap. Chocolate, her favorite. But most importantly were the words dribbled on top in fluffy white and green icing: Happy Birthday Yuffie, Nov.20th. She lifted her head and gaped at Reno. Cakes were expensive in Midgar, Heck, anything with sugar was. It was almost impossible to buy them. He rubbed her shoulder and asked if she was alright. When she didn't reply he just laughed. "Sorry if you were really wanting to eat the..Uhhhh" Reno picked up the menu, "Shrimp Scampi appetizer. But I thought you might like this better anyways. Happy B. Day, Yuffie."

Yuffie jumped up and hugged him"You remembered!" Reno jolted at the unexpected gesture. "Well I had to, I knew you wouldn't. Now, are you going to share it with me?" he asked, prying her arms off of him and picking up his fork. Yuffie laughed. "NO WAY!" she joked, sitting back down. Reno took a sip of whatever he was drinking. "Awww, that really hurt my feelings, ya know," He said, cutting himself a piece. He set it down. "I ought to take a picture of this so Rude will believe me," he said, his mouth fool of chocolate icing. Yuffie saw that woman staring again. "Don't," she laughed, taking in a mouthful herself. "I'm very tempted to," he said.

As soon as they were done, Yuffie had the leftovers boxed so that she could eat them the next day. Reno offered to walk her home and she accepted. "Are you sure you don't want to go to the Booze Shack?" he asked, poking her. "No, that's alright. I'm really not in the mood to take you home tonight," Yuffie said sarcastically. They were on street 671, about five minutes away from Yuffie's apartment complex. "Are you cold? Do you want my jacket?" Reno offered. Yuffie noticed she was shivering. "No, I'm fine." She blushed. Reno was being really nice tonight. That wouldn't last long though. Soon he was shoving his jacket over her head as rudely as he could, and Yuffie had to refrain from pulling a few shinobi techniques on him. "Come on, Yuffie, Ya know ya want it," he said in a playfully, strange, sexy voice. "Would you quit harassing me? I'm not three years old, I know what you're talking about, ya know," she laughed, "And besides, no woman in their right mind would" "Well, here we are" Reno interrupted. Yuffie untied his jacket from herself with some difficulty, (he had somehow managed to wrap the sleeves in a knot around her).

She handed it back to him. "Thanks Reno. Thanks for the soda, the cake, for walking me home...for the jacket," she said. The last one was added reluctantly. "No problem," Reno said, slipping it on. "Look what you did, the arms are all stretched out," he whined. Yuffie smacked him on the head. "Well, I'm going to bed, goodnight" she said, starting up the stairs. Reno told her goodnight as well and then headed off down the street, whistling a strange tune that sounded like it had come off of some game show. Yuffie shook her head. He was a character. She opened her door and then went inside. She couldn't wait to get into that letter...

Phew, the first chapter of my first fanfic. Hope it went alright. If anyone has any suggestions or wants to point out something I've forgotten, please do so. It will be greatly appreciated. Thanx!

Venusvadore