Title: Two Where There Was One

Author: Spazzy the Blindfolded Angel

Pairings: Vincent/Lucrecia, Cloud/Tifa, Turk Vincent/??? (don't know yet, either Yuffie or Tifa)

Summary: After giving into numerous requests Vincent agrees to go to the Christmas get together. However, a present from a certain Ninja changes everything and now there are two Vincents or more precisely, one ex-Turk and one Turk.

Disclaimer: I don't own'em, blah blah blah.

Chapter 1: Two Where There Was One

I didn't think it was possible…

…And yet…

Hm…I guess this has made me a believer. I thought, really and truly, that the past could not be changed. That what was in the past stays just where it belongs…in the past. Sure, I like many others…hell, more the most… wanted to change the past. Many things could have been avoided just by fixing simple events.

I didn't think it was possible. I knew it could not be done but here I am sitting on the floor of the Shinra…no…our Manor, watching my son unwrap Christmas presents. Yeah, I have a son. Speaking of which, I chuckle as he opens the box I gave him moments ago. I riddled the wiggling box with holes; I didn't want his gift to be prematurely ruined.

He opens the lid slowly, I suppose trying to draw out the flavor of the surprise for as long as possible, and I smile as I watch his eyes widen in shock and then crinkle in laughter as the wiggling furball of a pup I bought him jumps onto his chest, pinning my six year old son to the floor as it attempts to lick off his face.

"Dad! He's awesome!" I hear him say, giggling between licks as he tried to pry off the happy puppy. He pets the dog's fur lovingly, hands trying to smooth down the unruly fur, emerald green eyes looking into adorable sky blue.

"His name is Cloud," I utter subconsciously, catching myself afterwards, a bit shocked and then smiling. How fitting, the dog did remind me of the kid.

I watch as his pale face glimmers with joy, ruffling the wild fur of the dog as he says, "Alright then, Cloud, you want to help me tackle Dad?"

I blink. Hey, since when did giving presents involve getting tackled as a reward? I move to stand, thus getting out of reach but I'm too slow. I let out a small grunt as a blur of silver and gold tackles me into the floor.

I give out a rough bark of laughter, something I used to never do, now that I think about it. I open one eye slowly; looking into the face of my child and the face of his dog sprawled over his head. He smiles…

"Thank you so much! I love you, Dad!"

Somehow it both warms and hurts my heart. I don't deserve this love…but then I open my eyes to the fact that things have changed. I confronted Lucrecia immediately about what was troubling her, The Jenova Project was stopped at Phase 1, Hojo never courted Lucrecia but me, Sephiroth turned out to be my son instead of his this time, Hojo never shot me, Lucrecia never died, I was not altered by hideous experiments and I did not sin, or at least, I do suffer the regrets of which I once did. I still have bloodied hands but what was done was done…I quit the Turks. I have a son. I have a wife. I have a family. I run a small weapons shop at the edge of town…

…I'm happy.

I can't ever forget all that happened and sometimes I still have the nightmares from my other reality…from my hell. But after every single one I wake up to slender arms around me, rocking me gently, my face pressed into silken tresses.

"Its all right, Vincent," she would say to me. And everything would be all right. My nightmares slowly have been dwindling.

…Everything is okay.

I shake my head from those thoughts and look up as laughter chimes throughout the room.

"I found you," she says in between giggles, laughing at the picture of a tall lanky man on his back with a silver haired, green-eyed child and a gold haired, blue-eyed dog on his stomach. And she smiles, "My two men."

"Three men, Momma!" I hear him say, taking the wiggling pup into his arms and showing her his gift, "Cloud's a man too!"

The giggles and nods, "My three men. My Cloud. My Sephiroth," and she gazes to me, holding her eyes steady against my red orbs and she smiles in that way that hurts to look at because it's heartbreakingly beautiful, "My Valentine."

And for god knows how long, I smiled with all my heart. I'm so blessed. And to think I have such funny people to thank for this. And I thank them every second of my life.

"Welcome Vincent! I was afraid you weren't going to come!" Tifa said warmly, opening the door wider and grabbing the gunman by the wrist, tugging him through the doorway with unbelievable force. Vincent stumbled into the house, trying to get his bearings as Tifa set to worrying about him. He heard snippets of 'how cold it was' and 'can I take your cloak, well, I guess you won't want to take that off' and 'look at all the snow in your hair, Vincent!' and 'your nose is red! I hope you don't catch a cold' which all seemed to come at once as she brushed the snow from his ebony locks. She only stopped to breathe when she stretched up on her socked toed feet to be able to reach his face. With two warm creamy hands she gently cradled his jaw and brought him to eye level, making him bend over instead of her stretching. She kept him that way for a bit, searching his eyes intently while he nervously waited for her to let go.

"You don't look so hot, Vincent. I didn't think that you could get sick, you never did before but then again," she babbled on, he stopped listening, concentrating instead on the soft hands that touched his slightly hot brow.

Yes, he was feeling a bit under the weather but he was sure that after all that Hojo did to him he was incapable of getting sick anymore. He probably just felt bad because of the cold weather. Once he sat down and warmed up he would be fine.

Vincent Valentine doesn't get sick.

"Don't worry about me Tifa," he said firmly, pulling his head up out of her hands gently before sniffing the air, "Do I smell burning muffins?"

He suppressed a chuckle as he watched Tifa's mahogany eyes widen. She shrieked something along the lines of 'oh dear god' and ran off into the kitchen, waving at the smoke billowing out from it.

Vincent shook his head and walked into the family room, his duffle bag in tow. He didn't get far into the family room before two children, Marlene and Denzel, tackled him.

"Vincent! You came!" he heard the muffled call of excitement from Marlene as she buried her face into his cloak, her arms circling his lean frame as best they could. Denzel yanked at his hand, "Hello, Mister Vincent! You're that gun guy, right? Can you teach me? Cloud says he won't teach me how to use a sword until I'm older but would you teach me to use a gun? Please?"

Vincent bit back a groan, trying to figure out where to start and who to start with before Barrel came to his rescue.

"Leave the poor man alone, kids! He's anti-social enough as it is without you two pushing him deeper into his shell," Barrel yelled with that voice Vincent's eardrum's never got accustomed to.

Trying to ignore the anti-social crack, which meant that the jokes were starting already, Vincent made his way to an empty seat, the armchair beside where Red XIII was laying.

Nanaki peered up to him with his good eye, pulling his head up from where it laid on crossed paws to greet him with a nod, "Hello Vincent. I surprised to see you here. I'm glad you came."

Vincent sat down, well, more like threw himself, into the chair, laying his head back on the high back and letting his human hand drift down over the armrest to nestle behind Nanaki's ears. Red XII allowed only the children and Vincent to do this and at the moment, Vincent was glad the fire cat didn't mind, finding the silken fur soothing to his hot feverish hands. Red automatically felt the unnatural heat, peering up to look at his friend's perspiring brow, "Vincent, are you-"

"I am fine, just tired from the journey, my friend."

Vincent heard footsteps draw near him but he didn't bother to open his eyes. Judging by the tempo of the step he could tell it was Cloud.

"It's been a while, Vincent."

"Indeed it has," the gunner said gently, opening one ruby eye to peer at the blonde's face. Nothing had really changed but Vincent could tell that the boy was lighter somehow. After forgiving himself for what was done and confronting Sephiroth for what Vincent hoped to be the final time Cloud seemed to be a in good health.

"We were afraid when you didn't come back after the Omega incident."

"Shelke gave you word of me," Vincent said softly.

Cloud crossed his arms, raised one eyebrow and lifted his chin, chuckling, "We would have appreciated getting the word in person," he sighed, "Vincent, I've been meaning to speak with you-"

Two giggling girls interrupted Cloud. Yuffie held Marlene's small hand in her own, both smiling in a way that made Vincent nervous. Tifa stood behind them, smiling in the way a mother does when surrounded by her family.

"Alright, now that everyone is here, lets open presents!" Yuffie and Marlene exclaimed together.

A general agreement was settled. Marlene and Denzel dove for the tree, grabbing presents and bringing them to everyone in turn. Everybody got everyone something so they decided to take things slow. Marlene and Denzel would take turns giving them out. Whoever the present belonged to opened it, everyone watched and then they would move on to the next and so on.

Vincent nudged his duffle bag under the tree, leaving it open so the kids could get the presents from within easily.

The first present was for Cloud, from Cid. The gift was a pair of riding goggles, like the old pair he had before Yazoo shot them to a million and one pieces. He thanked Cid who waved his hand, brushing away the gesture and saying something like 'Christmas spirit, ya know?' under his breath.

Next was Tifa, from Cloud. It was a small velvet black box topped with a red bow. Marlene smiled and gave the box to Cloud instead. Cloud blushed before standing, walking up to Tifa and bending unto one knee, opening the little box for her to see what lay inside. A white gold band that twisted into two, diamonds curled between the two tendrils of gold leading up to a large diamond in the middle. Cloud paused, watching Tifa's face light up as she covered it with shaking hands, cheeks flushed, eyes watering, "Oh Cloud!"

"Tifa, there is only one thing I want this Christmas and every Christmas after this, forever and for always. I want us to be together. I want you to be my wife, to fully become my family. Tifa, will you marry me?"

After much cheering and crying and laughing Tifa said yes. Cloud gathered her tightly in his arms, afraid to let go because the moment seemed too real and yet so fragile, this intangible lovely thing he could even begin to grasp and loved it for its simple complexity, never wanting it to go.

The rest of that night went by smoothly. Everyone received gifts and everyone was happy. Vincent looked down to the small pile that had grown at his feet. He received nightclothes from Tifa, no doubt in preparation for his stay over the holidays, a beautiful new pair of guns that Cid and Barret spilt between them, one called Ebony the other Ivory and they fit their names. Cloud gave him a new leather holster that would fit quite nicely around his torso, effectively conceal his new twin pistols and allow easy access to them. Nanaki gave him a new piece of weaponry from Cosmo Cannon, well, sort of. It was a long chain necklace with a small tube at the bottom filled with a glowing blue liquid. It gave off a soft gentle smell, like the wind and the rain. Nanaki had said it would come in handy if he ever found himself short of anything in the cure and restore area of his items. Reeve gave him something called a Me-Pod. The Me-Pod could store music of his choice, it seemed. Vincent would have to thank the man and his cat in person for their humorous gift, perhaps with the help of his new guns? He shrugged it off, he would get over it. Marlene and Denzel got him a small plush toy of a chocobo, its tuffs of plushy fur were black and the eyes were red. 'Just like you!' Marlene had told him happily when she gave it to him. He kindly thanked them both. Shelke wasn't present but she left him something via the mail that came a few days ago, according to Tifa. Inside the package was a letter, quite thick actually and a picture album but he didn't look through yet nor did he let anyone else, much to Yuffie's disappointment.

Finally, there was just one gift left under the tree from a certain ninja to a certain gunner. The box was medium sized and square. Yuffie was just beside herself with excitement, bouncing up and down in her chair as she waited for Vincent to open the gift. He knew what it was. Everyone else got back pieces of materia that went 'missing' and he assumed this to be his mastered fire materia or his rare summon materia that went missing a while back. However, he was wrong.

Inside of the box was a piece of materia he had never seen before. Not only that but it wasn't colored like the other materia he had seen on his journey. Now that he thought about it, this materia didn't resemble the others in any way. It was a glossy clear orb and inside the mako swirled around like snow. It was beautiful. He raised his eyebrows, quite a show of expression, and looked to Yuffie.

"Isn't it amazing? I found it the other day! I thought you might like it, Vincent, cause it looks like snow and I know how much you love snow! Maybe it's a mastered blizzard materia?" She began to babble on and on but Vincent stopped listening.

He was more interested with the fact that this unknown piece of materia was activating without his command. The crew all gasped, wide-eyed and panicky, ducking and dodging as the materia in the ex-Turk's hands came to life. Vincent made to move but found the strength to do so drained from him, as though the little orb of mako were stealing it. It was warm in his palm and its glow steadily got brighter.

Finding the will to stand he threw himself from the chair with a grunt of protest, dropping the materia in the process. He looked to the side, muscles bunching as he prepared to dive for cover but it was too late. In a matter of seconds the snowy orb hit the wooden floor, the steadily growing glow spread into a blinding flash throughout the room, followed by a hoarse shout of pain that seemed to double half way through, and finally the silence of the dead.

The room seemed fine, no harm done. There was no snow or fire or scorch marks on the floor so the group assumed the materia didn't do anything but show pretty lights. That's when they heard to muffled groans.

The group slowly let their eyes wander from the slightly smoking materia to the two bodies on the floor beside it.

"Er, am I insane or is there a second guy on the floor next to Vincent?" Tifa said with a shaky voice.

Vincent lay in a boneless heap face down on the floor. His blood red cloak hissed with smoke. He groaned but didn't move, showing no other signs of consciousness. His brows were drawn tight, showing the obvious pain he was in that he would have masked if he were awake.

Beside him laid another man. This man had short glossy black hair, his bangs parted to the side, more so on one side that the other, the length tracing his slender jaw line and gently caressing his cheek. He had creamy pale skin, soft lips and his face was young and despite his unconsciousness one could clearly see he was a fun loving man judging by the very soft lines around his mouth and eyes that resulted from laughter. His suit was somewhat crumpled due to his position, dark blue against his pale skin and zipped half way up, hiding the button up business shirt he wore beneath. At his hip was a gun, Quicksilver scrawled across the barrel and he wore slacks to match his suit. His gloves were fingerless, perfect for gunmanship. This man also appeared to be in pain, his brow drawn tight and his form sizzling much like Vincent's was.

"Yuffie," Cloud said gently, still in shock, "What kind of materia was that?"

"I don't know."

To Be Continued.

Hope you liked it, more to come soon! Reviews will make me write that much faster and if you have any questions feel free to ask!

-Spazzy

EDIT: Fixing the layout so that it is more organized. Found out that FanFic took out all my time breaks so I thought I would fix'em. Hope this doesn't confuse anyone.