Ch 2: Seeds of Jealousy
Decided to continue, so this is dedicated to my reviewers.
Disclaimer: I don't own Square Enix or KH or any of its characters.
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Meanwhile, Vincent was being dragged to see the sights of Hollow Bastion. He looked fondly (meaning his countenance hadn't changed) at the matured Yuffie, grinning and smiling at him. She had changed since the heartless attack, but she still had the same spirit as before.
Vincent could admit it; he had missed her deeply when they were separated. More then he should have, perhaps…
When the heartless had attacked them, his first thought was to protect Yuffie. She wasn't talking to him, he had hurt her deeply, but he still cared.
Caring didn't stop the heartless, though, and they came, fast and furious as ever. Tifa and Yuffie, angrily demanding to stay and fight, had been forced into the airship while Cid piloted them away. Vincent and Cloud remained, to battle the heartless.
They were separated and Vincent had thought he would die. At the last minute, however, an unlikely savior had come.
The figure, cloaked in black, had motioned, and the heartless had stopped their pursuit of him. Vincent had turned to face this new enemy, but was promptly knocked out.
He had vaguely remembered a sadistic whisper say, "Oh, a new toy…What fun!"
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Vincent woke up a couple of hours later, and vaguely realized that he was in what seemed to be a scientist's lab. Which only reminded him of Lucrecia, the beautiful scientist.
His memory of Lucrecia sparked the memory of his argument with Yuffie. Vincent groaned. He had said things he shouldn't have, and was meaning to apologize, but what if she was dead?
No, she was not dead. She couldn't be.
"Awake, now?" The figure cloaked in black removed her hood to reveal a blond head with antennae-like spikes. "Hmph. Dunno why Marluxia bothered to save you. You don't seem like much." Her taunting voice echoed across the room. "Name's Larxene, number XI of Organization XIII. No fear, eh? We'll soon change that."
Lightning cackled, and Vincent gasped in pain. He wouldn't give her the pleasure of knowing so, though. But then his heart ran cold at her words.
"Hmm…Immune, eh? Well, that little ninja wasn't. She lasted long enough, but she died like the others. Ha!" Larxene cackled, and left.
It was like that for the next few weeks. Larxene would come and inflict both physical and mental pain. The physical pain didn't bother him, he was used to such things, but his heart died every time she talked about Yuffie.
She just…couldn't…be dead…
When he thought he just couldn't take it anymore, a red headed figure teleported in the lab, and started cutting the chains. Once he was done, he stood back up and simply said, "Well, there you go. You're free to go."
Vincent would have questioned his intentions, but he was too tired to do so. The figure must have sensed that, though, because he stopped and turned to face Vincent. "The people imprisoning you are traitors. Got it memorized? Well, I have been sent to stop them, and interfering with their plans seems good. Don't mind Larxene, though, she's really not that bad…"
Was love blind? Vincent mentally pictured Yuffie and winced. If she was dead when he hadn't apologized…he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.
Axel motioned towards a portal. Vincent got up and went through it.
"Oh yeah, don't worry. She's alive."
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Since then, Vincent had been wandering, trying to find someone, anyone from his past. He had finally gotten a tip from a boy named Riku that they were in Hollow Bastion. Vincent had followed the map, and had ended up here.
Where he was currently being questioned by Yuffie.
"Well, where the heck have you been, Vinnie?"
"You know, you could have called. You do have a phone, right?"
"Are you even listening to me!?!?!"
Yuffie glared, but decided to let it go. She was extremely happy at seeing Vincent again. It brought back old memories, some good and some bad.
But, inside, she wondered whether she was very happy. Well, of course she was happy that Vinnie was here!
It was just that Yuffie thought that she was finally getting over her teenage crush on Vincent (Vincent had made it clear he didn't like her, she thought sadly), but here he was, and emotions she thought were long gone were reappearing and conflicting with her feelings of mutual hatred (or so she tried to make herself believe) for Squall.
Well, she knew she was happy right now, and right now was what mattered.
"Hey, Vinnie, want a sea salt ice cream? It tastes better than it sounds like!"
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Yuffie ran off to get the ice cream, and Vincent noticed an ad hanging from a telephone pole.
Fighting Tournament in Olympus!
Fight with a partner or go solo;
Winner gets both a special challenge and the right to challenge the world-renowned champion Hercules!
There was some writing after that, explaining the competition in detail. Yuffie reappeared, and handed Vincent the ice cream.
"Yuffie…It appears that a tournament is happening in Olympus. …Would you…like to compete?" Vincent asked somewhat nervously. He inwardly cursed his tendency to stutter around her.
"Oh, erm…Sorry, but I'm going to the tournament with Squall." Seeing his face fall ever so slightly, she hastily added "But you can still compete in the solo tournament!"
Vincent merely nodded, and followed her, trying to hide his sudden burst of resentment towards 'Squall' Leonhart. Vincent had seen how Leon looked at Yuffie, and he had seen the playfulness at which Yuffie addressed him.
All right, so Vincent was jealous. He admitted it.
"It's all right." Vincent quickly said to cover the awkward silence. Yuffie nodded, and continued to eater the blue popsicle. Vincent gently bit down on his own popsicle and inwardly flinched at the saltiness.
He looked up and saw that the sun had begun to set. Which in turn set off a new problem. "…Where am I staying tonight?"
"Hm? Oh, you can stay in one of the rooms of the castle. It's quite roomy, you'll like it!"
"Where will you be?"
"I sleep with Squall!"
…
What did she say?
His thoughts must have shown on his face, because Yuffie immediately started glaring. "Eww…not like that, perv! We're roommates! Bestest roomies in the universe!"
Oh.
But her correction did not stop the dark wave of Vincent's thoughts.
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Cloud looked up as Vincent and Yuffie finally came to the kitchen. He was starving, dangit!
Yuffie immediately sat down next to Squall, where she always sat. Vincent looked like he was about to follow her, but sat next to Cid instead.
Time to eat!
It wasn't long, however, before Cloud noticed a slight change in the normally peaceful atmosphere of dinnertime.
He looked up, and was rather startled at what he saw. The girls were acting normal; Yuffie stuffing her face while Aerith and Tifa ate with manners and grace.
Conversely, Vincent and Leon had not touched their food, and they were glaring heavily at each other. This surprised Cloud; he had thought that they would have gotten along well. Cid looked extremely amused as he lit another cigarette.
Cloud would have tried to ease the tension in the air, but decided that he valued his life too much to risk getting shot.
Cloud went back to eating. Everything would be fine tomorrow. He hoped.
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Next chapter will be more squffie based. I'll throw in some more of Yuffie in there too. Yay!
And since this person didn't leave an email address, I'll have to respond to him here:
"ShingamiX's message: This is the one of the worst thing's I've seen crawling out of the (final fantasy)KH-fandom. The characterzations are off and the plot made go wtf!? It makes no fcking sense. It's just stupid. Please just die in a fire, you contribute nothing to f-f. ne t but stupid.(Do you think you're Yuffie or what?! uh no, Yuffiecool, YouFugly illiterate loser)"
This is KH fanfiction. Get it right so we're both happy. And you didn't bother to tell me how the characterizations and plot were off. So I can't really apologize to you if it made no 'fcking' sense, 'cause you didn't tell me where it made no sense, and there was no advice on how to correct it. Since you're anonymous, I'll assume that you also don't contribute to ff. net, so that makes us even, eh? I don't recall saying that I'm Yuffie, and I don't exactly think I am. I like being me better. As for calling me illiterate, I found nine English grammar and spelling mistakes, not counting punctuation. ;)
At least we agree that Yuffie is cool, and I thank you for upping my review count.
And for the people who have the manners to leave civilized reviews, please do so. Reviews make the world go round!
Btw, everyone got the larxel hint, right? ;)