Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII. Square does.
Yuffie stood in front of Tifa, hugging herself tightly as the rain battered down around them. The raindrops pounded the earth with such ferocity that Yuffie cast an anxious glance upwards and a quick prayer to the Dragon God.
Tifa noted the look and the murmured prayer. "Your Leviathan seems upset tonight," she commented quietly, almost mockingly. "Have you done something to anger him?"
"No," Yuffie whispered. "I...no! No, I haven't done anything wrong!"
Tifa smiled, but the light in her eyes was cruel. "Can't go home, can you, Yuffie? The adventure's over, but the princess is supposed to have a prince at the end. I don't believe Wutai finds it acceptable for the princess to bring home another princess." Her eyes darkened. 'But then, you've never returned to Wutai with us after that first time. You always stayed at camp with Vincent and Red. Could it be you're not a princess, anymore?"
Yuffie turned away, ever so slightly. There was a flash of a red cape, away in the darkness, and she sighed in relief. "No, Tifa, I'm not. I told Godo and he disowned me. It's against Wutaian beliefs." There was no pain behind those words, Yuffie discovered, or very little. It had been so long, or felt like so long, and she and Godo had never been close to begin with.
Tifa was silent behind her. Yuffie sighed. "I know you don't believe me, but it's you I love. Cloud is a friend. Vincent is a friend. Very good friends, yes, and the only family I have now, but still..." she shrugged. "Friends. Brothers, if you want to go that far, because I do love them both. Just, not the way you think I do."
"Yuffie." Yuffie turned to face Vincent with a smile. She walked to him as Cloud stood and gazed sadly at Tifa. Red settled himself on the ground nearby, tail swishing lazily and his one eye trained on Tifa.
The swordsman addressed her for the last time. "Tifa, the adventure is over. Barret is going to rebuild his town and raise Marlene properly. Reeve is going to rebuild Midgar, without the plates and reactors. Cid is returning to Rocket Town, Red is returning to Cosmo Canyon." His glowing Mako eyes seemed to burn through the pouring rain. "First, Red wants to travel with Vincent and I. We have no home, nowhere to return to. Neither does Yuffie. You, at least, had a life in Midgar. Go rebuild it, because once we leave, you can't reach us and we won't return. Red will, someday, but Yuffie and Vincent and I won't be with him. We will try and work out what Hojo did to us, but since his research is probably lost by now..." he shrugged. "You won't find us that way. And we're not bringing a PHS with us."
"Why?" Tifa pleaded, reaching one hand towards him. Cloud stepped back.
"The woman I love is dead," he said monotonously. "The woman Vincent loves is dead. And the woman Yuffie loves," he concluded with a swift glance at the ninja, "is an idiot." There was a sound form Vincent that might have been muffled laughter. "Goodbye, Tifa."
Cloud joined the others as they started walking away. Somehow, in a trick they must all have learned from Vincent, they vanished into the rain-soaked night in minutes.
Tifa found she couldn't distinguish the rain from her tears any longer.