Re-uploaded with the dialogue that went missing from this chapter.


Part One

Vincent was not sure what could have possibly prompted him to call Cloud that day with a message for Yuffie. He knew Yuffie. Over the course of their fight against Sephiroth and Jenova, they were often paired together as traveling companions. Phrasing the message that way and passing it on through another member of their group was the wrong way to go about it. When he thought back on it, the whole thing was insulting.

After the fight against Bahamut Sin and Sephiroth, Vincent had returned to the Sleeping Forest. He was not sure what drew him to the place, but he found the silence soothing. Once the truth had come out about their part in what was being called the Jenova War, his home in Nibelheim had been overrun by tourists and reporters. He had slipped off in the night to the one place on the planet that was nearly impossible to reach. He had fixed up one of the houses for his own use and traded for supplies with Bone Village.

The archaeologists were not surprised to see him return after his latest venture. They greeted him and passed on congratulations on his victory in Edge, but most were smart enough to leave it at that. Vincent had overheard one of them saying they all felt safer with a hero living nearby and no one in the village was going to jeopardize that if they could help it.

Vincent stopped to purchase supplies from the young woman who ran the shop in town. As he was counting out the necessary gil, his phone began to play the most awful music. The tune was loud and in another language. Vincent assumed it was Wutaian, but he could not be sure. Bewildered, he fumbled for the device and quickly picked up the call.

"Who is this?"

He knew as soon as he heard her laughter that Yuffie was on his phone, "Nice to talk to you, too, Vince! Geez... what crawled up your butt and died?"

"Yuffie..."

"The one and only." There was a pause on the other end and some loud rustling before she returned, "Sorry, I'm hanging upside down from a tree branch and I don't wanna drop you."

Vincent did not even bother to reply. Yuffie had a way of filling the silence without any help from anyone. True to form, she kept talking, "I just wanted to make sure the ringtone I picked out for myself worked. Did it?"

Picking up his supplies, and ignoring the amused smile on the shopkeeper's face, Vincent replied, "The horrible song that played on my phone?"

"Horrible!?" Yuffie cried. He could almost see the indignant expression on her face, "That's a great song! Way better than the default ringtone. Besides, this way you'll always know it's me."

"How do I change it back."

"Funny!" Yuffie replied with a giggle, "Anyway, I gotta run. This hanging upside down thing is not working out like I had planned. I'll catch you later!"

The phone clicked into silence and Vincent sighed in relief. He went about his day as he often had and thought nothing more of his conversation with Yuffie. It was several hours later, well into the night, that he thought of the young woman again. His phone began blaring the song Yuffie had chosen for herself, waking him out of one of his rare moments of sleep. He wondered briefly, as he flipped the phone open to take the call, if she had chosen the song because she knew he would always answer just so the music would stop.

"So... I was thinking..."

She sounded a little breathless, as if she had been running only moments before, "Yuffie?"

"Have you... ever... dropped a piece of buttered bread?"

Or perhaps she was still running. He could not tell, "I am sure I have."

"It landed... butter... side... down... right?"

He heard what sounded like a cry of pain in the background, too deep to be Yuffie's, "What are you-"

"Right?"

Vincent refused to dignify the question with an answer. He honestly could not remember if he had ever dropped a piece of buttered bread, let alone what side it landed on. She seemed to take his silence as an affirmative answer and continued on.

"Cats... always land on their... feet."

Another pained cry, closer and louder this time, sounded in the background. Vincent frowned, unsure of what he should be doing. He heard Yuffie grunt in a way that suggested that she was grabbing her weapon out of the air. She stopped and seemed to be trying to catch her breath. There were no further sounds of fighting on her end of the call.

"What do you think would happen if you tied a piece of buttered bread, butter side up, to the back of a cat?"

Vincent sat in stunned silence for a moment, unsure of what was really happening wherever Yuffie was, "This is a ridiculous conversation."

"Yeah, I know." Yuffie replied, her voice sounding more normal, "The question was just bugging me. Makes you think doesn't it?"

Before he could reply, she hung up the call.

It was hardly the last time he received such a phone call from Yuffie. It was always the middle of the night and nearly always ridiculous. Normally this was not a problem as he required very little sleep, but her babbling disturbed the silence he so enjoyed.

He had called Cloud, hoping to speak with the man on the subject. He was not sure how to approach Yuffie to get her to stop harassing him. He had hoped that Cloud would know why she was bombarding him with calls on an almost nightly basis. When the phone rang through to Cloud's voicemail, Vincent spoke without thinking it through.

"This is my phone. Tell Yuffie she has no right to call this number."

Vincent felt guilty almost immediately after hanging up. He intended to tell Cloud to forget the message when he returned the call, but Cloud never called back. Neither did Yuffie.

At first, he was relieved. The calls had been pointless and annoying. As the days passed, however, the silence that had once been comforting began to wear on him. For the first time since awakening, Vincent was lonely.

Vincent decided a trip to Edge was in order. Cloud was living in Tifa's bar when he was not making deliveries and Tifa had extended an open invitation for everyone to stay with them when they were nearby. The two of them would help him to feel better.


So let's try this again... with dialogue this time! A great big thank you to SirenMist for letting me know that the dialogue failed in the upload.

For some reason, that line from Advent Children really stuck with me. In the game, Vincent says he never thought he was cold but shortly after he demands that Yuffie stop calling his phone. This is what I imagine that she would call him about. I consider this to be in the world of Do You Want To Talk About It, set before that story, but after Advent Children. It seems like a good start to the interactions between the characters in that story. There will be a couple of small throw backs if you're really paying attention, but nothing world changing I'm afraid.

There's really no excuse for the lack of updates on the above mentioned story. All I can say is that another story has hijacked my brain and eight chapters and more than 13,000 words later, I think I will be allowed to have it back. Once I'm satisfied with that other story and figure out what I want to call it, I'll start posting it as well. Hopefully I can start work on DYWTTAI again at that point. Until then, hopefully this will tide you guys over. The next part will be up soon.