Yuffie entered the room hesitantly when she saw the empty beer cans and smashed wine bottles. Her father's room was a mess. The grimy rug was screwed up on the floor and the sliding doors lay open, letting the cold wind push through the room. Godo lay, half unconscious, on the cream sofa. He let out a loud belch when Yuffie walked in as she stared at the massacre in front of her.

She had received a call a few hours before from the Turtle Paradise Inn telling her that her father was not able to stand up any more and it was offending the few customers they had. Yuffie was surprised by the call (her father never let himself drink too much), but set off from Rocket Town where she had been visiting Cid immediately. When she arrived at the bar, she was told her father had already stumbled back to his house by himself. The one man in there shouted a few drunken words about Wutai being so far down the drain that their leader had even tried to drink his troubles away, but soon became quiet when she brought out her Conformer. Racing down the hallways, she wasn't sure what to expect, but gasped at the condition Godo was in.

"Cleaning lady! Aw, I'm so glad you made it! I called an hour ago but no one came. You look familiar, did you and I ever...?" He sat up slowly and raised his eyebrows at the young woman in the doorway.

Grossness. "It's me Godo. Your daughter?" Yuffie wasn't in the mood for her father's idiotic behaviour, she had been having a nice time with Cid until the pub called.

Godo screwed his eyes up at her and denied it. "Nah, you're not my daughter. She hasn't seen me in years, and she's always hanging out with those idiots from Midgar." He tried to stand up but fell right back down again, his head felt like it flying high above all the responsibilities thrust upon him.

"Nope, it's definitely me!" She saw him struggling to stand and dragged his arm over one of her shoulders. Walking carefully, she helped him through the glass doors and out onto the terrace that overlooked the royal gardens.

"Oh crap it is you." Yuffie was stunned to hear him swear for the first time. It wasn't much of a swear compared to Cid and Barret but it was worst she'd ever heard from him. She smiled at the amount of black mail she was going to have on him by the next morning. "I forgot how much you looked like your mother." His fowl breath wafted to Yuffie as she sat him down on the wooden slats.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"Well Yuffie, do you know what today is?" He looked up at her and took another swig of his beer can. "Today, is the day your mother died, and you didn't even remember!" He pointed at her accusingly before nearly falling over again.

Yuffie squirmed uncomfortably. She had remembered, that why she had gone to Cid's. She wanted to get away from all the memories of death in her life and decided Rocket Town was the best destination. Shera was still running around after their new born and Cid would just sit and drone about his new air ship, having to put a dollar in a swear jar every few minutes when Shera made him. It was a light and breezy atmosphere. "I did remember, I just wanted to forget."

"Bah!" Godo yelled. "You think you've got it so bad just because your Ancient friend got killed and your mother died when you could hardly remember it! You don't know what it's really like to loose someone! You weren't even that close to the Cetra girl."

All the sympathy she had for her father disappeared in those few seconds and were replaced with anger. She stomped back into the room and grabbed the luggage she had left at the door. "That was too far Godo, too far. Have fun drinking alone, you're no father of mine." She slammed the door behind her loudly and ran back to the chocobo she had left outside, ignoring the pleas from Godo to stay.

He groaned to himself in the darkness and tried to push himself back up. He failed stand again and started crying in the moonlight. Not only had his wife died only a few years after they were married, but ever since then he had been pushing away his only daughter because of how much she reminded him of his wife. He was an idiot.

--

Yuffie's cell phone beeped loudly next to her in the spare bedroom of Cid's house the next morning. She muttered to herself something about letting it go to answer phone before Cid burst in the room in a robe.

"Hey brat, your !?*!~ phone's ringing and it's waking up the baby! Answer it!" Even in his angry state, She couldn't help but laugh at Cid's clothes.

"Sorry old man, but it was worth it seeing you in THAT!" She held a giggle back before bursting out into screams of laughter.

Cid glanced down at his body before realising he had put on his wife's robe, the pink silk one. He rolled his eyes at Yuffie's immaturity before stomping back off. "I'm not old damn it, just answer your phone."

Her cell was still hissing angrily at her on her bedside table, so she answered it quick before Cid could come back. "Yuffie here!" She sang into the phone.

"Oh, M-Miss Kisaragi. It's Staniv." She wondered what her father had done last night after she left. "I'm afraid I have some bad news..."

--

The whole village sat a week later in the light drizzle that had begun to fall. AVALANCHE sat restlessly on the wooden seats surrounding Godo's grave.

Most of them hadn't wanted to come to the funeral of someone they didn't really know, but Tifa insisted that Yuffie needed them all badly and they would all have to go if they wanted to keep their legs. Three days ago they all piled out of The Shera and had tried to contact Yuffie, only to find she had locked herself up in her room like she always did when she was upset. The funeral was the first time anyone had seen her since the phone call at Cid's house, and she didn't look well.

Her black dress reached to the floor and her tired face was covered up with small black veil. It was obvious she wasn't comfortable being there but she was made to stand at the front with Godo's four companions. Staniv, Chekov, Shake, and Gorkii stood looking down at the coffin in front of them, but every once in a while one of them would flick their eyes back to Yuffie. She was well aware of this but seemed in a dreamlike state.

After the funeral was finished she tried to hide back in her room but Tifa grabbed her and asked her to talk for a bit. She was reluctant at first but gave in to Tifa's unyielding pleas. Tifa took her aboard Cid's ship and asked her to spill what had happened.

Yuffie repeated the night she saw Godo to her friends but it still didn't manage to make her feel any better. "...It was all so fast, the next thing I knew I was getting a phone call from Staniv telling me that Godo had fallen off his balcony and was found the next morning dead." The party were shocked by her words and felt bad for their friend who used to be so happy, even if she was a little annoying sometimes.

"Ah hell I'm sorry brat, if anything like that happened to Marlene I don't know what I'd do." Barret squeezed her shoulder in affection and walked out of the bridge to call his adopted daughter. She was all Barret ever thought about.

"Me too kid. You can stay with me n' Shera as long as you want." Yuffie smiled weakly at Cid's invitation but turned it down, saying that she had to look after Wutai now.

The other members of the party expressed their condolences to her and slowly left the circle of chairs they had been sitting in and started mulling around. The only one left to speak was Vincent.

"...Yuffie." He didn't know what to say. Considering what he had been through, he thought he should have known exactly what to say, but still his mouth wouldn't move. "...I'm sorry." He finally mumbled, cursing himself inside for saying something everyone else had already said.

"Thank you Vincent..." It was the first time in a while Vincent had actually heard her use his full name.

Yuffie looked down at her knees and drifted back off into her own world. He didn't like seeing her like this. It was the opposite of the Yuffie he had known before and he wished inside for her to jump up and say something stupid and immature that would make everyone laugh. But she never did.

"Why are you finding it so hard?" Vincent focused his crimson eyes on her as she looked up in surprise.

"Excuse me?" She was definitely more polite than the old Yuffie.

"Why are taking his death so hard? You were never that close to him before." He stated, Vincent secretly feared the worst inside but didn't want to say it out loud.

"I...I feel responsible." Vincent cursed again in his head when he found out he was right. Yuffie looked up at him wide eyed and weary. "If I had just stayed - If I had tolerated his attitude for once in my life then he'd still be here! It was my fault he died!" Tears flew down her face as she tried to run from her former team mate. He caught her hand and pulled her back.

"It's not your fault Yuffie, it never was and it never will be." He felt like a bit of a hypocrite. Okay a BIG hypocrite, but he knew she needed to listen to him before she went too far.

She pulled away once again and this time he let her go. She needed time to think and there was no use him trying to butt in. Tifa saw Yuffie run from the room and went after her but Vincent cut off her path, shaking his head.

--

The next day, AVALANCHE left Wutai and headed back to their own houses. Vincent was supposed to be going with them but stayed behind, saying he had some business he needed to take care of before he left. They looked at him like he was crazy but nodded nonetheless, and left him to himself.

Last night Vincent had decided that he couldn't let Yuffie be taken the way he had been. If she didn't get over Godo's death, she would soon end up just as cold and crude as him. So instead of heading back to wander in the Nibel Area aimlessly, he was going to take Yuffie on an adventure and hope that in time her smile would return. It was no lie that the two hadn't been the best of friends before, but he knew her spark would never return if he didn't do something fast.

He entered the pagoda with ease, each guard recognising him as part of AVALANCHE and a friend of their new leader. She didn't smile when he approached, just nodding slightly and turning to meet him. The old Yuffie would have nearly knocked him over hugging him and shouting loudly in his ear. Chekov was talking to her at the time but quickly stepped aside when she saw Vincent coming and made her way out of the room.

"Vincent." Yuffie greeted him weakly. "I thought you and the others had left this morning?"

"The others have, I stayed behind to ask you something." She stared up at him perplexed, why would he have missed a free trip back to Nibelheim just to ask her a question?

"What?"

He sighed, slightly ashamed of what he was about to say. "Would you accompany me on a trip away from here?" He already knew the answer, but waited for her to reply politely.

"Um..." She wanted to laugh at his uncomfortable face but the twist inside her stomach still hadn't gone away since last week. "I don't think I can." Her heart longed to say yes, to go travelling away from Wutai and to forget her troubles and doubts, but Wutai needed her now and she couldn't just disappear off not knowing when she would be back. "Thank you, I would love to, but I won't be allowed now I'm ruler of Wutai." She stared down at her feet expecting him to walk away.

It was the answer Vincent had been expecting, but he wasn't about to give up that easily. He had a Plan B. "If that's the case, I'll guess I'll have to kidnap you."

A/N: Ahh I didn't expect this to be so gloomy but it gets better! There wasn't much Vincent in it either but there will be in the Chapters to come. I'm trying out a much more complex storyline and I guess that means there are going to be some boring bits! Should update asap! x Oh and if you like Yuffentines please check out my other story, 'Beneath The Cherry Blossom Tree'. :)