She blinked, face beet red and face furious. "Well? Get out!"
He returned her remark with a shocked blink of his own. "Tifa had told me that I would be staying in this room..."
"WHAT?!"
She took the moment to turn even a deeper shade of red, if it was possible, she believed that her face would combust into flames at any moment. She was about to retort when her face fell upon his bare upper body. She swore she could have been drooling before she shook her head and squeezed her eyes close as tight as possible.
Thank you, Vincent, for making this even more awkward than Gods would deem possible. She thought before burying her head in her pillows again, attempting to hide her embarrassment.
Vincent, obviously realizing that he was only half-decent immediately shot back into the restroom to put his shirt on. She sighed against the pillows as the door closed and willed the color in her cheeks to fall, wondering if it was possible if steam was rising from her cheeks. If that was humanly possible, she knew that it was happening at that open.
She began to allow her mind wander about her current predicament. It's not like she hated the idea of Vincent in her room, but it was just so… awkward! Grossness! What if we walk in on each other while the other is indecent or something?! Not that I would really mind--… Ew! Stop! Stop! Stop! This is Mister Valentine here, Mr. Unattainable, Mr. I'm going to loathe my life away, Mr. I can't love anyone. Just thinking about it drove her into a depressed state.
When Yuffie thought her cheeks had significally died in color, she bolted out of the room. "TIII- FAH!!! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"
Shelke happened to walk by in the halls as Yuffie sped by her, not failing to notice her intense look. By the time the small ninja was out of earshot, (which wasn't long, the girl was booking it at maybe 40 MpH,) she simply shrugged and kept walking. "I assume things will just keep getting stranger."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
She's mad. He thought sadly, taking a seat on his designated bed, reach was about a couple feet from Yuffie's bed. True, Yuffie's presence there had shocked him, but he had not expected her to run as if all hell was chasing her. She probably can't stand being around me.
Vincent sighed and fished drying his hair, only to responded with a deeper, more guttural sigh. You truly are dense, Vincent Valentine.
Vincent raised an eyebrow, Chaos?
You can't assume that for one second she might simply be embarrased?
He fell silent for a moment, loss in the recesses of his mind in which even Chaos could not hear him. She must truly dislike me. He thought after a moment, ignoring Chaos' comment altogether.
For the love of all that is good and holy… Chaos fell silent after that, dissapearing into the depths of Vincent's mind, muttering something about a way to cave in Vincent's 'dense' skull.
Vincent however, simply slide his dress shirt back on and properly dressed himself before proceeding out the door and down the hallway.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
There was the sound of a key turning the door to the temporarily closed bar, allowing the lock to unhinge itself and the door to swing open. Through it came a young boy with somewhat long, (for a guy,) brown hair that seemed to flay out a bit. Denzel Strife sighed after a long day at school and simply removed his shoes before throwing down his backpack, shrugging his shoulders from the new release in weight.
Ever since the boy had been admitted into a nearby school, he had found himself loathing every minute of it. He felt as if the teachers were attempting to cram information that he would never need in real life into his head and honestly, he didn't need any of that. Still, after much prodding from both Cloud and Tifa, he continued to go.
He loved coming back home, especially recently because their new house-guest.
"TIII- FAH!!! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"
… speaking of which.
"H-hey Yuffie!" He started as a flying form passed him quickly.
She looked over her shoulder and muttered something that sounded like a muddled, 'hey Denzel' before completely disappearing down the hall, leaving a slightly disappointed Denzel. That wasn't like Yuffie at all, the boy had gotten used to fierce bear hugs from the tiny ninja after coming home from school… but today… nothing.
He would be lying to himself if he said that he didn't feel irked.
"Hello, Denzel." A deep, tenor voice sounded from behind him.
Oh, Denzel thought, of course, it had to be him.
Denzel Strife was a lot of things, but he was not stupid. As much as Marlene would sometimes attempt to convince him otherwise, he wasn't. He was well aware of Yuffie's ongoing infatuation with the dark gunslinger, as much as it infuriated him. Every part of his being told the boy that he never stood a chance with the young ninja while the dark and gloomy was around, still, why Yuffie liked Vincent was lost to him.
"Hey Vince." Denzel exhaled before walking away.
The dark-haired man raised his eyebrow at the boy's use of Yuffie's made nickname for him, his lips pressed into a thin line, clearly unimpressed. The cloaked gunsman shook his head and walked soundlessly in the direction that he had heard the screams.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"TIII- FAH!!! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"
A pair of copper colored eyes widened slightly in amusement as a hand went up to brush rather long strands of hair. Tifa supressed a giggle and simply fought the urge not to burst out laughing, if only to annoy the smaller girl further. However, a straight face plastered on her head showed that she was successful in that struggle.
She looked onward as the daughter flew open to reveal a red-faced, furious ninja who was panting loudly and glaring daggers at the taller woman. She slowly raised a threatening finger at the brunette as she shook with what seemed to be uncontrollable rage.
"Y-you…" Yuffie spat out, as if she couldn't believe what was going on. Again, Tifa struggled not to giggle.
"Hmmm?" Tifa raised an eyebrow, almost innocently. So far she had flawlessly shown that she had no idea what Yuffie was so miffed about.
"W-why'd you do it?!" Yuffie demanded, apparently unconvinced.
"Why'd I do what?" Tifa asked, nonchalantly playing with a long strand of hair.
"Don't what me, lady!" Yuffie barked, getting redder with each passing moment. "You k now exactly what I'm talking about!"
Tifa blinked once, or twice, giving off a rather innocent and confused look. "I'm sorry Yuffie, but I really have no idea w hat you're talking about."
She was fuming, and Tifa was surprised that steam hadn't begun flying from her ears. "W-why'd… you put me and Vincent in the same room?!"
Tifa cocked her head and smiled, as if she finally understood what she was going on about. "Oh… that. Well Yuffie, you need to realize that we do only have one available guest room at the moment. Barrett is in the other and well… no would want to share a room with the snore machine."
She laughed slightly before continuing. "Other than that, we simply have no other room."
"Then put Vincent in Barrett's room!" She screamed, still furiously red and thoroughly embarrased.
"Yuffie," Tifa reprimanded, now taken aback, "you know full well that that guest room only has one twin bed, there is no way that Vincent could sleep in there. I'm sorry but you're just going to have to endure that until Barrett leaves."
She continued to stand there, silently brooding and seething anger with her fists clenched at both sides. Tifa was actually surprised that the girl hadn't assaulted her yet.
"…Fine." She finally relented. "But the moment Barrett is gone, I want him OUT!"
With that, the young ninja stalked out the room and slammed the door behind her. How cruel, Tifa thought, what did that door ever do to her? She smiled to herself before continuing to brush her long hair.
Oh well, Tifa thought and looked at herself at the mirror, I can only hope that they grow closer because of this.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
After a couple hours of wondering whether he should confront Yuffie or not, he conceded to the latter and sat down to read a book in of the boothes by the bar. He was silently enjoying company with himself when a door silently opened and a small figure walked into the room.
Raising his eyes from his book, he saw the small figure stumble into the couch opposite from him and place small hand on the table.
"Hello Mister Valentine." The small voice of Marlene held a bit of awe in it as she regarded the cloaked gunsman that had helped save her about a year before.
"Hello Marlene." Vincent responded, slowly closing the book before him and laying it on the table. There was a lot of things that Vincent was, but he didn't exactly want to be rude to a small girl. That was one sin that he didn't want to add on the list that he wished to atone for.
"Ummm… I was wondering…" Marlene frowned, as if wondering how to phrase her question. "… if you could help me understand guys better?"
Vincent raised a single, ebony eyebrow. "Shouldn't you be asking Denzel or Cloud about that?"
She blushed slightly and shook her head. "Cloud is gone… again, and Denzel… well Denzel is the one I wanted to ask about."
Vincent frowned slightly as if wondering how to address the tiny girl before him, but after a moment of contemplating, he simply shrugged his shoulders. "Ask away…"
The small girl let out a small yelp of victory and proceeded to prod at Vincent for the next five minutes, asking him questions that he had no hope in answering and making him thoroughly regret speaking at all. Perhaps a couple more years in the coffin to atone for this sin would have been more worth it.
After a short a moment of silence, the girl looked up nervously at Vincent and bit her lip, wondering if she should continue with the next question. "Uhmmm… well… one last question."
Vincent raised a single eyebrow and simply nodded.
"Today, after Denzel came home from school," Marlene started, turning to look out the window, "He was muttering something like… she was better off before he came. What do you think he meant?"
Vincent stayed still for a moment, but then silenetly shook his head. "I unfortunately have no idea what your friend meant, perhaps it is something that you should as him."
"Oh… okay." Marlene responded, looking slightly deflated. She looked at her hands for a moment before keeping true to her promise and slipping silently from the booth.
After the door closed he simply sighed, even the two children did not enjoy his presence here.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Of all the nerve, all the nerve in the entire world! Yuffie thought, still seething in anger at her current predicament, I hate her I hate her I hate her!
Why did she put him in MY room!? I oughta shove my Conformer up her ass and make her wish she had stuck him on the floor with Mister Marshmellow! She sighed and turned over on her bed, suddenly realizing that Vincent still hadn't returned to 'their' room. Where is Mister Dark and Gloomy anyways?!
Jumping from her bed, her had calmed herself down considerably before even attempting to walk from the room. She frowned slightly when she found him, silently reading a book at the one of the boothe's in the bar before deciding to approach him.
"H-hey Vinnie!" She said, resuming her normal façade. That it Yuffie! Act casual! "Err… sorry about… y'know… yelling at you and all."
His eyes didn't even leave the book! Yuffie swore inwardly at the lack of response that she ever got from the man. "…It's of no consequence."
"Err… well yea it is." Yuffie said, plopping herself down on the couch that Marlene had recently occupied, frowning when the man still didn't look up. "It was mean of me, and so I'm sorry."
"…it's of no consequence, Yuffie." The man repeated, eyes still not leaving his book.
She rolled her eyes before snapping her hand forward and grabbed the book from straight under his nose and yanking it from his grasp. "Gawd Vinnie, I'm trying to apologize here! Could you at least pay attention?!"
There was a split before a golden claw shot out and snagged Yuffie's wrist, grabbing it so tightly that blood trickled down her wrist from where the claw had punctured her skin.
"Ow ow ow ow!" Yuffie yelped, dropping the book almost immediately, "LET ME GO YOU JERK!"
Vincent suddenly snapped out of it and released her arm immediately, eyes alarmed at the pain he had unintentionally caused her. "My apologies Yuffie, I had no idea…" He trailed off somewhat pathetically.
When he reached out to aid her bleeding wrist, she simply drew back like a snack had struck her, eyes glaring daggers at the man before her. She looked like she was going to yell at him, scream at him, slap him or something in the like but after a moment she simply whimpered and slid off the couch before hurrying out of the room.
Vincent sighed deeply, could he do nothing right?
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Author's Notes:
Tseng-San: Well that doesn't suck at all, man, Vincent needs to work on his social skills.
Elena: He's not the only one, you know.
Tseng-San: -glares at Elena- Perhaps you need more paperwork to keep you in check…
Elena: -eyes widen- No sir, I'm q-quite alright… thank you. -hurries off-
Tseng-San: -chuckles- Anyhow, I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of it's characters; however, the ideas within this plot are original. R&R!