Author's Note: Vincent Valentine is my favourite character in the game, so after much renewed interest in the game upon seeing the Advent Children screenshots, I decided to try writing something about him. It's not very good, but please read and review, thanks!

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 7.

Inside a small but cozy cottage in the sleepy town of Kalm, a woman was washing dishes, humming a nameless tune softly as she went about her chore. She was a beautiful woman who looked to be in her mid-forties, with long black hair cascading down her back in soft waves, soft brown eyes and a heart-shaped face barely marked with the lines of age. Her figure was still girlishly trim, despite having given birth to 3 children.

As she wiped dry the last plate, Leanna Valentine Farnsworth glanced at the calendar hanging on the wall next to the refrigerator. 10 October, she thought. How time flies. I'll be a year older again in 3 days time.

Pouring herself a cup of hot tea, she walked to the living room and settled comfortably in the sofa. She sighed. Her birthday had always made her feel melancholy for the past 30 years. She remembered a time when her birthdays had always been the happiest day in her life, when she would spend the special day with her elder brother, who shared the same birthday as her, baking their birthday cake together and eating the sumptuous feast that their grandmother would prepare for the two of them.

She had always been very close to her brother Vincent. He was 12 years older than her, and ever since their parents died from a monster attack when she was barely 3 years old, Vincent had been both an elder brother and a father figure to her. When he was 20 and she was 8, he went to Midgar and worked for Shinra to earn money to support the family. Despite the distance, he regularly called them every Friday evening, and would come back to Kalm for their birthday every year, without fail.

She remembered waiting eagerly for her brother's call every Friday, when her brother would regale her with tales of life in Midgar. She remembered waiting at the town's entrance on the eve of their birthday for her brother to come back. He would pick her up and twirl her around in the air with a big smile on his handsome face, and then they would walk back to their cottage hand-in-hand, where their grandmother was waiting at the door for them.

Everything changed that fateful year.

How long has it been since her brother disappeared from the surface of the Earth mysteriously? She still remembered the frantic search for her brother that she and her grandmother went through when he failed to come back for their birthday. Tried calling his PHS but it was not switched on. Calls to his landlord's house went unanswered. The trip down to Midgar uncovered nothing except the supposed non-existence of Vincent Valentine.

I'm sorry. Our records show that there has never been a Vincent Valentine in our employ before.

……Shinra's official reply to their queries.

Vincent Valentine? No such person has ever rented a room from me. Are you sure you have the correct address?

……the landlord of the place where Vincent was last known to be staying at.

I've never seen this man before, sorry.

……one of the countless people that she had approached in hopes of some recognition of the handsome smiling man in the photo she clutched in her hand.

After months of fruitless search for Vincent, they had no choice but to admit defeat and returned to their home in Kalm. Their grandmother passed away one year after Vincent's mysterious disappearance and Leanna was left all alone in the world at age 16.

Leanna sighed. Birthdays bring many unwelcome memories.

... to be continued