--Chapter Two: The Aftermath--
Vincent Valentine never sulked. It was a pointless, childish practice. Right now, however, he was doing a damn good impression of it.
He ran his hands through his hair again. It wasn't nearly as bad as he had thought it would be though. Who would have thought that a teenaged ninja with a kunai could make such a tidy haircut?
He did his sulking impression anyway. Yuffie was sitting on the other side of the road, waist deep in mud, picking hairs off her clothes. Never cut hair on the windy day. It goes everywhere.
She caught him looking at her and grinned. "Come on Vinnie, it's not that bad. Here." She skipped over to him and held the much shined face of her shuriken up to him. The polished metal acted as a mirror. Vincent grabbed it and tilted it so he could see.
Without his headband and cloak, with his hair cropped short, he looked much like he had when he was a Turk. He wasn't entirely happy with that.
"Vinnie, gimme my Shuriken back…"
Vincent let go of the weapon, and folded his arms across his chest.
"I bet we can get someone to pick us up now!" The young ninja chirped happily.
"…"
"C'mon Vinnie, get out of the mud." She put on a squawky old lady voice. "You'll catch your death of cold!"
The tall man sighed and stood up. "Let's keep moving then."
It was another three quarters of an hour before a vehicle came past.
A large tow truck roared towards them, and Yuffie bounded out into the middle of the road.
"Yuffie!" Vincent called, but she stood her ground. "Yuffie! What if the driver doesn't see you?" He strode after her, and grabbed her arm, trying to drag her off the road.
She was stronger that he expected, but still no match for the tall gunman. Protesting all the way, she slid off the mud soaked road.
The truck stopped anyway, and someone inside leaned over and opened the passenger door. "Leviathan, you two look like you just walked through a swamp!"
"In a way, we have." Yuffie grinned and asked hopefully, "Any chance of a lift?"
"Sure, hop in." The young man said. "But if you get mud on the seats, you are so helping me clean it off."
Yuffie shrieked happily and practically bounced in, then waved Vincent up after her. "Hurry up, hurry up! A nice warm meal is waiting! I can almost taste it!"
Vincent slammed the door after him and looked over Yuffie's head at the driver. A cheerful looking man, about twenty, at a guess, with shoulder length blond and brown streaked hair tied back into a ponytail. He was skinny looking with a round face and light brown skin, and was wearing grease stained overalls with a logo on one arm that said 'River and sons: You break it- we move it!'
"So are you River, or one of the sons?" Yuffie asked, just as he was about to ask a similar question.
The young man laughed and shook his head. "Neither. River died a few years back and one of his sons took over for him. I'm River's grandson, my uncle runs the company now."
"Oh. Sorry."
"It's ok. I get asked that all the time. The name's Fred River by the way." Fred River suddenly changed gears and sped up, throwing his passengers back against the uncomfortable seats. "By the way, hold on, the roads a bit slippery."
"Thanks for the warning," Yuffie said, just a bit too cheerfully.
oOo
It was over four hours before Fred slammed on the breaks and yelled, "We're here!" cheerfully.
Yuffie woke up with a start, shouting "Battle stations!" Before she realized where she was.
Fred was already out the truck and heading towards the patch of bright light in the darkness that was the Bulwark Inn.
Yuffie climbed over Vincent in her hurry to follow him, and Vincent followed at a more sedate pace. His crimson cloak was still wrapped around his claw arm. The wet fabric was beginning to feel heavy, even to him.
Bulwark Inn was a warm, bright little pace, empty at this time of year, except for a few old trucker types, whom Fred was already talking animatedly too.
Yuffie was at the bar, waiting impatiently for the meal she must have ordered. Vincent sat down heavily beside her and waited for the bar tender to notice him.
oOo
There was a regular, sharp pain in his good arm. He opened his eyes a crack to see what it was.
"Vinnie? Vinnie! Wakey wakey! You're dinner's here."
Yuffie was poking him with her kunai. It was the same kunai she'd used to hack half his hair off. "Don't." he mumbled, then closed his eyes again.
"Vinnie! I went through all that trouble to get you a nice hot meal and you don't want it!"
He could hear the crocodile tears in her voice. Gods…
Sitting up, he looked around blearily. Yuffie was sitting next to him with a half eaten meal of mashed potatoes and peas in front of her. There was a similar meal in front of him, although not half eaten. Fred was over with the group of the truckers, laughing and probably drinking too much, judging from the half empty tankard in his hand and the unfocused quality to his eyes.
"Eat!" Yuffie commanded him. There was a whiney tone in her voice.
"Alright…" He had to admit, the food did look good.
oOo
The next morning Fred woke Yuffie up before dawn. "I'm heading off now. Do you want to come with to Lockwood Inn, or are you gonna walk?"
"Lockwood?"
"Yeah. It's about three hours that-a-way." He waved in a general Easterly direction. "It's where the car that I'm supposed to be towing is. We're the only towing company on this continent that operates outside of cities, I swear. The owners said it was well and truly stuck in about a meter of mud. They're staying in Lockwood Inn until I get there."
"That's the general direction we're going in too, so yes please." She sent him to wake Vincent up and hurriedly got dressed and packed her things into her backpack.
Within ten minutes all three were downstairs eating a hasty breakfast of eggs, toast and bacon. When they'd finished they paid for their meals and accommodation and ran through the still falling rain to Fred's truck.
They'd been driving for almost half an hour when Fred asked "Say, Vin…" Yuffie had introduced him as Vin, and Vin he remained… "Why do you still have that huge red rag wrapped around your arm? Doesn't it get annoying? What's it for, anyway?"
Vincent frowned. He hadn't really thought about what he'd say. "It's an old injury. It's a bit nasty to look at." He said, shrugging.
"Oh, ouch. Sorry to hear that. How'd it happen?"
Silence again while Vincent thought.
"Er- you don't have to tell me. Sorry."
They traveled in peaceful silence for almost ten whole minutes, before Yuffie got impatient and started wriggling. "Are we there yet?"
"No." Fred said.
"Are we there ye-?"
"Yuffie. Don't start."
The ninja in question glared resentfully at Vincent and stuck her tongue out at him. "Spoilsport."
"Yes."
Eventually Yuffie fell asleep.
After a while, Vincent did to, which was unusual. He was probably just bored.
oOo
They were rudely awakened when Fred swore loudly and the truck suddenly swerved sharply off the road before coming to a halt about five meters into the scrubby bush. Vincent only just avoided cracking his head on the window, and Yuffie shrieked.
"Monster!" Warned Fred, before disappearing from the driver's seat. Yuffie and Vincent looked at each other before then followed him out.
"Hey! Get back in the truck! It's not safe out here!" Fred yelled at them angrily, pointing at a huge gray dragon like creature standing in the road, eyeing them up. Fred was holding a huge antique rifle of some sort, which had been under the driver's seat.
"Don't worry, we're fine." As if to prove her point, Yuffie pulled a small shuriken out of one of their many hiding places in her clothes and boots, and flicked it at the monster. It hit with deadly accuracy in the dragon's right eye, and it howled in pain and fury.
"Hey, you're one of them ninjas!" Fred looked a bit confused and slightly apprehensive.
"Yup, sure am." Yuffie didn't waste any more time talking, because the dragon had roared again and charged at them. The young ninja ran to the left, dragging Fred with her, while Vincent leapt to the right.
Pausing, the dragon looked at the three fleeing figures, growling softly wondering which to eat first. It chose Vincent.
The gunman had no difficulty keeping away from it, jumping into a tree which grew beyond the scrub, flipping over the monster's head and running across the road to where Fred and Yuffie were. "You two need to distract it. Keep it occupied. I've got a plan."
Yuffie nodded, and pulled Fred out in the dragon's path again. "Oi, dragon breath!"
"I'm not sure this is a good idea!" Yelled Fred, as the dragon spun on them…
oOo
A/N: Hahaha, you have to wait for the next chapter to find out what happens. Well, I suppose it's not that hard to guess what will happen, but oh well. Yeah, please review. Thanks!
And a huge thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! THANK YOU!