A/N: AWESOME! I updated all of my series fictions in the same weekend! Yeah for me!
Thank you for reading! Please enjoy!
Rhapsody's Song
Chapter Three: Everyone, This is…
Change is a Good Thing…Right?
When Reno walked into the Seventh Heaven at his normal time (Noon) on Saturday, he was greeted with a surprise.
First, the "CLOSED" sign on the bar's door. But he walked in anyway. Then he saw it.
Everyone's favorite demon-infested ex-Turk was sitting in the center of Tifa's bar, the center of attention. The same demon-infested ex-Turk that no one had seen for months and Reno had assumed had finally kicked the bucket. And he was getting his hair cut by Tifa.
That was the most shocking thing of all.
Gone were the gold gauntlet, gold pointy shoes, gothic black jumpsuit, and fuzzy red torn blanket-cape thing. Instead he wore a baggy pair of jeans and a simple black long sleeved t-shirt. He still had the black gloves and Cerberus was still holstered at his hip, but besides that, it was almost hard to recognize Vincent Valentine.
"Yo, Vincent?! That you?" Reno asked, sitting at his normal booth next to Rude. Tseng and Elena sat across from him, eyeing the ex-Turk with interest. That's when Reno noticed that everyone from team AVALANCHE was sitting on a stool (Yuffie, Reeve, Shelke, and Cloud) or at a table (Cid, Barret, and Shera) or on the stairs (Marlene and Denzel) or on the floor (Nanaki). He even noticed, to his amusement, that Rufus was sitting at the bar, look of utter confusion distorting his normally cold features.
Today was a good day.
"Hello Reno," Vincent muttered, turning slightly to watch the Turk sit down. He promptly was hit in the head with a pair of scissors.
"Stop moving so much! I'm going to cut your ear off if you keep it up!" Tifa warned as Vincent held his head where she'd hit him.
"He doesn't have to worry, then!" Yuffie mused. "It'll probably just grow back, like his heart did!"
"Thank you for your concern, Yuffie," Vincent muttered darkly.
"So, why are you doing cutting Mr. Valentine's hair, Tifa?" Elena asked. By the looks of it, everyone in the room had the same question, but the blonde Turk was the only one who could really ask it.
Yeah for Elena.
"I'm helping him let his demons out," Tifa replied brightly. A few scattered chuckles came from the bar's occupants.
"Well, excuse me, Sira Strife, but I am perfectly capable of letting myself in and out of places, thank you." Every Turk (and Rufus) jumped at the voice. Tseng turned around to see Galian Beast sitting on the floor, playing chess with Nanaki.
"Wow…" Tseng said, staring at the demon. "That's…okay…didn't see that one coming…" He looked his drink on the table, wondering if what he was seeing was alcohol influenced.
"Oh, right. Turks and Rufus, this is Galian Beast. He's one of Vincent's nicer demons," Tifa introduced, focusing back on cutting Vincent's hair. Vincent rolled his eyes, a slight smile on his lips.
Wait, why was Vincent smiling?!
"Pleasure," Galian said, nodding his head to the Turks. He then looked at Rufus and gave him a toothy grin. "Act like your father and I eat your soul." Rufus chocked on his drink and struggled to get air. The members of AVANLANCHE just found this funny and started laughing.
"Nicely said, Galian!" Barret cheered, raising his glass to the demon and downing it all in one drink.
"Okay, can I ask a question?" Reno asked, raising his hand.
"What is it, Ser Takashi?" Galian returned. Reno looked slightly shocked (how'd the demon thing learn his last name?) but shook it off and fired his question.
"Why'd you call Tifa 'Sira Strife?'" he asked. Tifa was quick to answer that one.
"Because Cloud and I are getting married, Reno. Haven't you heard?" Rufus chocked on his drink again. This time he was laughing.
"Took you long enough!" Elena accused, pointing at Cloud. Cloud just shrugged and shrunk away from her finger. "Congrats, Tifa!" she said happily, clapping.
"Thank you Elena," Tifa said, smiling. "You can move now, Vincent. You're all done." Vincent nodded gratefully and stood up, walking over to grab a broom to help Tifa clean up.
"So wat's the real reason ya cut yer hair, Vince?" Cid asked.
"It looks nice, by the way," Shera stated.
"Thank you Shera," Vincent said, smiling at the woman and continuing to broom. He totally ignored Cid's question.
"Eh! Vince!"
"I heard you, Cid."
"Then wat's the reason?" Vincent said nothing, so, as always, Galian stepped in.
"I suppose Ser Valentine cut his hair to impress his new girlfriend, of course."
No chocking, no laughing, no sputtering and shocked words of disbelief.
Just complete and utter silence.
The Reactions
"YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND?!" That call from everyone in the room (besides Shelke, Yuffie, and Tifa, Vincent noticed) was the start of the chorus of questions and complements. Vincent resisted the urge to cover his ears and run screaming from the room.
Okay, just run from the room. He'd never scream at anything…at least, not anymore.
"Dude, who is it?!" Reno called.
"No one you know," Vincent muttered. Not that anyone heard him.
"Wow! Is she pretty?" Elena asked.
"Can we meet her?" Marlene begged. "Please Uncle Vincent?"
"I'm taking it she likes short hair, huh Vince?" Cid laughed. Shera slugged him in the arm. "Wat was that fer?!"
"Good job, Vinnie my man!" Barret called.
"Does she know you're infested with demons or is that something you leave out for the second date?" Rufus asked. Vincent resisted the urge to shoot that man.
"I'm happy to hear you've 'atoned for your sins', Vincent," Cloud said quietly. It was a wonder Vincent could hear him over all the yelling the others were causing. He nodded his thanks to Cloud, who nodded back.
He looked over and saw Cait Sith grinning at him. He didn't know what to think of that and just chose to ignore it. Yuffie was talking quickly to Reeve, and Vincent inwardly hoped she was not recounting the tale of Lucrecia's resurrection that Tifa had told him this morning on the phone.
Why it had taken Tifa two months to tell him exactly how his lost love had returned to him, Vincent will never know. Not that it mattered much now.
"Is she coming today, Vincent?" Tifa asked, taking her place behind the bar and smiling at him.
"Um, yeah…she said she would," Vincent answered.
"Oh great! I can't wait to see her face when Yuffie blurts something about your buddy Chaos," Rufus stated, grinning.
"She already knows about my demons, thank you for your concern, Rufus."
"Yes Ser! I met her a long time ago. Such a nice lady…" Galian said, moving another piece on the chessboard. "Check." Nanaki growled and stared at the board, looking for a move.
"Rufus behave yourself or I'm going to let Barret through you out," Tifa warned. Rufus took one look back at the grinning Barret and shut up.
"Hey Spiky! Where ya going to?" Cait Sith asked, watching the blonde-haired warrior stand up.
"Huh? Oh, my lunch break's over. I've got to get back to work…" Cloud replied, kissing Tifa's cheek and heading for the door.
"Cloud, it's Saturday! You aren't telling me that you work on Saturdays!" Yuffie moaned.
"Yuffie, I work on Saturdays," Cloud said, shrugging. "I'll be back before dinner, Teef." He waved and walked out the door.
"Man Tifa! You have got to get him to take fewer hours!" Yuffie moaned.
"Yuffie, I'm fine with him working this much. He always comes back, so there's no worry," Tifa replied happily. There were a few cheers from the remaining AVALANCHE members.
Denzel and Marlene's were heard the loudest.
Brief Lapse of Memory
Outside the bar, Cloud was busy getting Fenrir ready to go. He was so focused that he didn't notice the muffled sound of footsteps approaching.
"Excuse me, sir?" Cloud looked up and found himself staring face to face with a woman with brown hair and brown eyes. She wore a black skirt and a purple short sleeved shirt with black sandals.
"Um, yes?" Cloud asked, smiling nervously. Damn shyness. He could stop Meteor, defeat Sephiroth, twice, save the world, even die, but when it came to talking to new people, he still froze up.
"Is this the Seventh Heaven?" she asked. Cloud wondered if she was blind or something. There was a sign, after all. "I'm new around here." Oh, well that changes everything.
"Yeah, um…that's this place. But we're closed today, sorry to tell you…" Cloud said, shrugging and looking back down at his bike.
"Oh….I was told to meet someone here…" the woman said, biting her thumb. "Do you perhaps know of a man named Vincent Valentine?" Cloud looked up at her, finally taking a closer look.
She looked familiar…had they met before?
"Huh? Oh yeah, he's in there…is that who you were coming to meet?" he asked. The woman nodded. "Are you, by any chance, his girlfriend?" The woman nodded again, this time blushing slightly. Cloud only smiled. "Wow, sorry to hold you up then. You can go on in, the door's unlocked."
"Thank you, Mr…?"
"Strife. Name's Cloud Strife, nice to meet you," Cloud smiled, holding out his hand to shake. She shook it.
"Nice to meet you too, Cloud. I'm Lucrecia Crescent."
"Thanks for putting up with Vincent. He's really a good guy, once you get to know him," Cloud said, nodding. Her name didn't really register in his head yet. "Well, they're all waiting for you inside. Glad I got to meet you before going to work."
"Yes, you too," she replied, bowing slightly and heading into the bar. Cloud smiled and looked back down at his bike.
"She's nice. It's about time Vincent had someone who understands him….she looked really familiar, though…" Cloud mounted Fenrir and nodded. Then his eyes went wide.
"Wait a minute…" he just about fell off his bike. "Did she say 'Lucrecia Crescent'? As in, the Lucrecia Crescent?!"
Suddenly Cloud wasn't going to work anymore.
Accepted
Lucrecia tried to walk quietly into the bar but the bell over the door alerted everyone to her entrance. She winced. So much for going undetected.
Was that man outside Tifa's husband? He's so polite…Lucrecia thought, smiling to herself and looking around. She felt a shot of discomfort as she noticed every pair of eyes was on her.
And none of them were the comforting red colored.
"Um…hello," she said, looking back at them uncertainly. She then caught sight of Tifa and smiled. Finally, a friendly face. And Yuffie and Shelke too. Good, she was in the right place.
Oh, and there was Galian…playing chess…?
O-kay then….
"VINCENT! YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS HERE!" Yuffie yelled, causing Lucrecia to jump. She heard a few chuckles and felt her nervousness fade away. She remembered the pictures Vincent had shown her and the names that went with all the faces. She quickly searched the room to find Barret, Cid, Shera, Nanaki, Cait Sith, and Reeve. Oh, and the two children were Marlene and Denzel. Marlene was Barret's adopted daughter, according to Vincent, and Denzel was Cloud and Tifa's adopted son.
There, she knew all of Team AVALANCHE. So who were these other people? The blonde haired boy at the counter looked strangely familiar…
Oh, let's face it. He looks like a Shinra… Lucrecia thought bitterly. (She'd had enough with anything to do with Shinra…)
She stood in the doorway awkwardly until Vincent came scrambling down the stairs.
"Sorry," he said, stopping in front of her and smiling crookedly. She smiled back. During the last few months, she'd slowly watched as he fell back into the mold of being a Turk instead of an undead demon person. She'd made the joke that she didn't know which she preferred, Vincent the Turk or Vincent the Undead.
His look was priceless. It took her two full days to convince him she was kidding and quite happy he was alive.
"I like your haircut. Did you do that just for me?" she asked, kissing his nose.
"Yup," he replied, embarrassed slightly by the public display of affection.
"Dude! Vincent! Your girl is hot," one of the unknowns, a redhead, stated. Lucrecia felt herself blush, staring at the man.
"Hehe…thank you?" she replied.
"Anytime, babe! Say, if things don't work out with Vince-OW! RUDE!" The redhead spun around to face his friend, who was bald and wearing sunglasses even though they were inside. The bald man (his name was Rude?) just shook his head.
"My apologies for Reno, Vincent…" Rude said.
"What'cha apologizin' for? I'm just givin' the lady options," the redhead, Reno, replied, glowering.
"I can guarantee, if she needs options, you'll be the last thing she turns too," the blonde girl sitting across from Reno stated.
"That hurt, Elena!" Reno whined. Okay, so the girl was Elena, the redhead was Reno, and the bald one was Rude.
"You deserved it," the Wutianese man looked up at Lucrecia and smiled slightly. "I'm Tseng, pleasure. Please ignore Reno…he's always like this."
"Okay, thanks," she replied. Okay, Reno, Rude, Tseng, Elena. Got it!
"Rufus Shinra," the blonde sitting at the counter said, nodding to her. Lucrecia winced. So he was a Shinra.
"So now you've met Shinra and his Turks," Vincent said, pointing to Rufus and then at the table of four.
"Oh, I get it. Your replacements…" Lucrecia teased. The four Turks laughed as Vincent just turned a light red.
The door behind Lucrecia and Vincent jingled as Cloud came back in.
"Cloud? What are you doing back so soon?" Tifa asked, looking surprised.
"I…just wanted to see everyone's reactions…" Cloud said quietly, walking around Vincent and Lucrecia and sitting on a bar stood next to Tifa's elbow. He whispered something to her ear that Lucrecia couldn't hear and Tifa smiled and nodded knowingly.
"So what's your name, babe?" Reno asked. Rude started rubbing his temples, obviously annoyed.
"Reno, shut it!" Elena ordered.
"Why?"
"Because if you don't we're not saving from him," Tseng said, pointing at Vincent. Vincent glared at Reno, silencing him immediately. Lucrecia laughed slightly. They were Turks alright.
"Well, introduce yer girl, Vince!" Cid dictated.
"I don't think any of you will believe me if I did," Vincent said.
"What'cha mean by that?" Barret asked.
"After what we've been through, Vincent, I'm surprised you have any doubt," Reeve said, chuckling.
"Yeah, it can't be any worse than Hojo coming back again, can it?" Rufus asked, eyes widening slightly. Lucrecia decided the boy deserved a second chance. He obviously hated Hojo almost as much as she did.
"Fine. I warned you. Everyone, this is Dr. Lucrecia Crescent. Lucrecia, Everyone."
"Ha-ha! Nice joke Vince. Seriously, who's the girl?" Reno asked. Everyone just stared at the redhead Turk, but not before seeing Cloud's face.
Something about the ex-SOLDIER's face told them Vincent wasn't joking.
"I'm not joking, Reno," Vincent said. Reno's face fell.
"You mean…that's…I was….DON'T KILL ME!" Reno screamed, bolting passed the two of them and running out the door.
"Um, what was that about?" Lucrecia asked.
"That would be Reno being a dumb ass," Rude said quietly. She smiled at the Turk and he nodded, before politely excusing himself to go after the fleeing Turk.
It was only a few seconds after the bald Turk left that Yuffie launched into her tale of how she, the Single White Rose of Wutai, single handedly brought Lucrecia Crescent back to life.
Shelke and Tifa both glared at her, and Yuffie revised her story a little bit.
It was still her idea, though!
Sometime during the tale Lucrecia found herself escorted to a table by Vincent as was promptly joined by Marlene, who scrambled into her lap and smiled up at her. Denzel went over and sat next to Cloud.
Yuffie ended her story only to be stared at with the whole "Deer in the headlights" look.
"That's what happened, really! Leviathan's my witness!" Yuffie stated, exasperated.
It was then that Lucrecia found herself bombarded with questions and comments and she swore she'd never heard the word congratulations said so many times in one sentence. And she was surprised.
No one mentioned him.
Finally everyone had calmed down and Tifa had walked around, refilling drinks and bringing out things for her and Vincent to drink. Vincent must have told Tifa that she liked white wine, because that's what the barmaid handed her.
"Thank you," she said.
"No problem," Tifa replied, giving Marlene a cup of apple juice. Same thing she'd given Denzel, Lucrecia noticed.
"Welcome back!" Marlene said happily, sipping her juice. Lucrecia smiled down at the little girl.
"Thank you Marlene. That's very kind of you to say."
"It's nothing! I've never seen Uncle Vincent so happy before! I should be thanking you!" Vincent blushed again for the like the fifth time that day, making everyone laugh. Lucrecia noticed that Cloud had been silent this whole time.
She wasn't naïve. Vincent had told her all about the JENOVA wars and the DeepGround Assault. She knew about what Hojo had done to Cloud and the other SOLDIERS, knew about the whole "Reunion" and Geostigma.
She was ready for him to hate her. It was only right. His town, his family, his own memories…all destroyed or tampered with because of the experiment she'd allowed to happen. And Cloud said nothing.
Until…
"Thank you." Everyone looked up at the blonde warrior, silent.
"Excuse me?" Lucrecia asked.
"Thank you," Cloud said again, slightly louder. He looked up and stared her in the eyes. Lucrecia winced when she saw the evidence of Mako treatments in his eyes.
"F-for what?" Obviously, this was the question everyone wanted answered. Lucrecia really thought he was just being sarcastic.
"If it wasn't for you, I would have never met any of these people. So thank you," Cloud explained. When she still didn't seem to get it, he kept going. "I mean, sure, Sephiroth killed a lot of people, but that's not your fault, okay? None of us hate you for that. Not me, not Tifa, and certainly not Rufus."
"Amen!" Rufus cheered, grinning wickedly. The bar's occupants chuckled but let Cloud carry on.
"Because of what you did, in a round about way, allowed for AVALANCHE to form and for all of us to meet. And, of course, if you hadn't saved Vincent, we'd all be dead now anyway. The least you deserve is a thank you."
Lucrecia just stared at him. That was not what she'd planned on. She'd planned on yelling, fingers being pointed, blame and hurt being slammed into her. Not a thank you, of all things.
Especially not from Cloud Strife.
She knew she was crying, but she didn't move or say anything. What was there to say? Oh…there was this…
"You're welcome?" she said. Cloud nodded and smiled.
"A toast to Lucrecia!" Cait Sith said. Reeve raised his glass, inviting others to do the same. Soon everyone had their glass in hand (or paw) and raised to a very shocked ex-scientist.
"To Lucrecia!" they all said. Lucrecia blushed and raised her glass as well. With that, they all took a deep drink of whatever was in their cups and glasses. Lucrecia noticed, out of the corner of her eye, that Vincent was drinking a glass of red wine. She smiled.
Some things never change.
A/N: Please review if you get a chance.