Author's Note: Yup, I'm going there. XD As much and all as I ADORE Vincent, this opportunity was just too good to miss! And with that, shall we…?:D


It was just the normal day in Seventh Heaven, Denzel and Marlene were upstairs playing while Tifa served her usual punters. The sounds of glasses clinking and endless chatter pleasantly filled her ears as she cleaned the surface of the counter with a white cloth. It was a nice summer afternoon; hot but not completely unbearable, Tifa was just thankful that she got the air-conditioning re-serviced before summer really came into full swing.

Cloud would be home soon; it was near the end of his rounds of delivering packages here and there.

Tifa stopped cleaning when she heard footsteps coming from the back. She turned her head around the door frame to see Yuffie wearing an oversized coat, trying to sneak up the stairs. Tifa arched an eyebrow, puzzled.

"Yuffie, what are you doing?" she inquired, watching as Yuffie nearly jumped out of that ridiculous coat.

"I, um…" Yuffie stammered as she scratched the back of her head. "I just wanted to check something upstairs. Nothing important!"

Tifa sighed knowing that she was most likely up to no good but decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. "Alright Yuffie but if I find out that you've done something…" Tifa warned.

"I know, I know! You'll go all kung-fu on my ass if I do."

Tifa smiled in response heading back to work. One of her regulars, Johnny, was sitting at the bar finishing his glass. "Another one…?" Tifa offered warmly.

Johnny nodded and as Tifa started to pull up another pint he spoke casually. "Hey Tifa, have you heard the news?" he asked. "You won't believe this…guess who's back here in Midgar? Don Corneo."

Tifa stopped dead and turned around to face him. "Don Corneo?" she gasped, staring at him incredulously. I thought Reno took care of him back in Wutai, she thought to herself.

Johnny took a quick sip from his drink before continuing. "Yup, apparently he was seriously injured by some accident and now he's back re-opening the Honeybee Inn."

That explains it...

A loud clatter came from the back of the room and Tifa quickly ran to the direction of the noise. She wasn't exactly surprised to see Yuffie, her arms stuck out and completely immobilized as she struggled to come down the stairs by the large weight she mysteriously gained. Several materia dropped and rolled their way to Tifa's feet as she placed her hands on her hips. "Yuffie…" Tifa said, her voice firm and full of authority.

"I didn't do anything!" the young ninja exclaimed as a few more materia continued to drop on the floor from underneath her coat. "The Single White Rose of Wutai would never steal material from friends!" Tifa gave her that don't-lie-to-me look. "…Okay!" Yuffie hung her head defeated. "But I prefer to call it borrowing without asking."

"And having no intention to give them back," Tifa stated, crossing her arms. "Put Cloud's materia back where they belong and meet me in the office in ten minutes; we need to discuss something."


Tifa closed down the bar early and asked one of the barmaids to collect Marlene and Denzel from school. She was sorting out some paperwork when Yuffie entered the room throwing her coat onto the couch. Tifa looked up from the desk and asked her to sit down.

"Whaddya wanna talk about Teef," Yuffie asked, pulling up a chair and plopping down on it.

Tifa's eyebrows furrowed lightly as she put away the sheets and looked at Yuffie, her large brown eyes bearing that same intensity when she was discussing something serious. "Don Corneo is back in Sector 6," Tifa said, her voice firm and straight to the point.

"W-what?" Yuffie almost squeaked in shock. "I thought he was done for back in Wutai. Didn't Reno finish him off?"

"I thought so too," Tifa shook her head sadly. "But he survived…somehow. From what I hear he's re-opening the brothel."

"Pervert!" Yuffie snorted. "I say we break in and kick his ass!" She quickly stood up and started punching the air over-enthusiastically.

"No," Tifa disagreed as Yuffie stopped and gave her a quizzical tilt of the head. "It'll cause too much commotion if we just go barging in and demanding answers."

"So? We'll just sneak in and see what he's up to," Yuffie shrugged.

"But he'll recognise us," Tifa reasoned. "We need someone to go in for us. But the question is: who…?"

They couldn't ask one of the barmaids to go in; they needed someone who could take care of themselves if they ended up in a bind. Shelke was out of the question; even though she was technically nineteen, she had the body of a ten year old and even the Don had age limitations. So that left the rest of the group. Red XIII and Cait Sith were also out of the question; Red for obvious reasons and Cait was busy working with the WRO.

Now that left the four guys…

It was a no brainer that Cloud would just downright refuse, especially after that little episode three and a half years ago. Barret wouldn't last two seconds without getting noticed in there, Cid was in the same boat; Tifa doubted that they would get away with what she had in mind. So that only left one person…


The sound of metal clinking against the pavement could be heard in the streets. People looked in horror as the black and red clad man walked past them, the lower half of his face covered by the neck of his heavy mantle; ignoring the whispers and odd stares from the corner of his eye.

As Vincent was walking, he heard that familiar beeping sound coming from his phone. Flipping it open and pressing it against his ear. "Vincent?" the voice was female, light and cheerful.

"Tifa?" Vincent questioned as he continued to walk.

"Hi there! Are you doing anything at the moment…?"

"No," Vincent answered.

"Good, could you come over here for a while; I have a favour to ask…"

"Alright," he sighed before ending the call and closing the phone causing it to let out a loud snap.

It didn't take that long for him to reach Seventh Heaven, but he was slightly surprised to find the sign outside the door saying "closed". He entered the bar and the noise his boots were making must've reached Tifa's ears as she called him to head on upstairs.

Reaching the top of the stairs, Tifa gave him another call that signalled him to enter the room at the end of the hall. He turned the brass doorknob and let the varnished oak door creek open, revealing both Tifa and Yuffie sitting on a bed. The room was well kept and had little decorations, just simply a desk with a few scattered bits and bobs on it along with a large mirror and a large wardrobe in the corner of the room. There were drawings of Tifa, Cloud, Marlene and Denzel on the walls; all done by Marlene of course. A small lamp stood on top of the small bedside table. The bed sheets were a plain khaki colour and crinkled up slightly underneath the weight of the two girls.

Vincent closed the door behind him and stood there, waiting for one of them to speak up. Yuffie was biting her lower lip; the tip of her right foot was twisting left and right. Tifa was silent as well and Vincent couldn't figure out why. For as long as he had known them both, he had always been aware of when they were nervous. He would always stand at the back and begin to observe and analyse their small quirks and mannerisms. Yuffie would either do what she was doing right now, stammer in her speech or scuff her feet on the floor and look down. Tifa was different; she would pause before speaking, her eyebrows knitting together as she struggled to think of what to say next. But Vincent had taken particular notice over the years and not many people noticed it, was the fact that when she was really nervous she would either fiddle with her thumbs or play with the rest of her fingers; which was what she was doing right now.

"Will someone tell me what is going on?" Vincent said, his tone low and abrupt.

"Um," Tifa hesitated for a moment, her fingers lacing and unlacing between each other, twisting and turning as she tried to lay out in her head on how she was going to explain this to him.

Vincent groaned, his patience becoming paper thin. "I'm wasting my time here," he growled as he placed his hand on the doorknob.

"Wait!"

Swinging his head around to meet Tifa's gaze she continued. "We need your help," she began. "Don Corneo is back in Sector 6-"

"-You know: the old perv we were telling you about a few years ago," Yuffie interrupted.

"Was that really necessary?"

"Sorry Teef!"

"My apologies Vincent," she pardoned, smiling up at him. "We need someone to go undercover and sneak into the Honeybee Inn."

Vincent's body shifted uncomfortably. "Undercover?" he asked, arching a thin eyebrow that was mostly covered by his bandages.

"Yes," Tifa nodded. "But…listen, before we say anything; we wouldn't be asking you if it wasn't serious so..." She cleared her throat before explaining further. "Seeing that he'll only see girls...we were thinking that you could maybe dress up as one…?"

He just blinked and stared at them. Did really hear what Tifa had just said to him? Or was his age finally coming up and kicking him in the groin after all those years? Surely not, Tifa wouldn't ask something like that of him…yet here she was pleading to him.

The silence hung heavily in the room, the tension mounting up. It wasn't until a low, deep and bewildered voice shattered the room. "What?"

"Don't be alarmed," Tifa tried to sound as calm as possible.

"Well just a little," Yuffie shrugged, giving out a small yelp when Tifa gave her a sharp dig in the ribs with her elbow to signal her to pipe down.

"Don't be alarmed?" Vincent growled. "Do you have any idea what you are asking of me?"

"We know Vincent! But please understand!" Tifa pleaded.

"Besides we helped you beat Omega!" Yuffie shot back.

Tifa turned to look at the young ninja. "Actually Yuffie…Vincent destroyed Omega on his own…"

"But-"

"Enough!"

The two paused and looked at Vincent, a scowl plastered on his pale face. "The answer is no."

As he turned to leave the room, Tifa and Yuffie stood up. "Vincent!" Tifa begged.

"I got him!" Yuffie grinned mischievously, reaching into her pouch and grabbing hold of one of her precious materia and casting a strong spell on him.

Vincent tried to get away once he saw the flash of light but he felt the effects kick in almost immediately; his eyelids hung heavily and his legs struggled to support his weight. His gauntlet scraped the wall, the wallpaper tearing from the sharp points as his knees buckled. He collapsed and cursed under his breath. "A Sleep Materia…?" he muttered, his head lying on the hard surface of the floor.

As he slowly drifted off, he could barely see through his eyelashes Tifa kneeling beside him and he could vaguely make out their frantic voices.

Within that second, he was gone and left to the mercy of these two…


Author's Note: Thanks for reading and I hope ye enjoyed it. Please review and hopefully I'll update soon.