Late that evening Larissa arrives at the door of 7th Heaven with a gloomy air about her. Everyone inside seemed to be having a marvelous time with Cid and Barrett arguing about something, but laughing it off in the end.

Larissa's gloom came over her as she let her mind wonder on her way back to Midgar. She did not want to tell everyone of her problem and have to leave them behind. Larissa had grown very fond of the children and Vincent has become one of her closest companion for the past few weeks. Not to mention Cloud who has started to open up to her about his past experiences with Sephiroth and to be always on your guard.

Of course how could Larissa forget Yuffie and Tifa who have been nothing but kind and friendly to her while Nanaki pals around with her when she runs errands through town. Reeves and Cait Sith are always entertaining to watch as much as Cid and Barrett arguing over who should do the chores around 7th Heaven.

Before walking in to the splendid meal Larissa decides to stay outside a little longer to enjoy the pale moon and the constellations in the sky high above. Larissa walks to the side of the bar and jumps lightly on top of the roof, so as to not make too much noise for the others to notice.

Meanwhile… "Where the hell is Larissa, she should have been here hours ago! I don't see why she never comes in here on time. Always dragging her ass in her late and expects us to stay up all night to eat with her. I say let her go hungry tonight, that will teach her to get her lazy ass back here when we tell her to," booms Barrett.

Cloud noticed that Larissa had not made it back yet either and was starting to get worried about her and that maybe Sephiroth might have caused trouble. Vincent on the other hand just rose from his seat and walked straight out the door without saying a word of where he was going.

"What the f is up with Vince? He never tells you shit about anything, he just leaves you hanging until he decides to tell you what's up at the last minute. He's worse than you Cloud," says Cid while taking another beer out of the cooler.

Luckily Tifa grabs the beer out of Cid's hand, causing him to cuss her out like there is no tomorrow. Tifa just looks him dead in the eye and says, "I think you have had enough booze for one night. Everyone should be off to bed anyways since it is so late. We have plenty of work we all need to do tomorrow."

Grumbling off to bed Cid along with Barrett go upstairs while everyone else went to their posts for the night. Outside 7th Heaven Vincent peers up on the roof and sees Larissa's shoes hanging off the edge and decides to join her for the night.

Vincent jumps on top of the roof too and sits right next to Larissa, gazing at Midgar in its cool relaxed state of the night.

"Evening Vincent," greets Larissa. "I thought you would be in bed by now since you did not sleep well the night before."

Vincent only shrugs his shoulders in reply and leans back on the slanted portion of the roof to support his very thin body. Sitting silently for about 10 minutes Larissa decides to teach Vincent the technique he has longed to learn for weeks. By now Larissa has been staying with them for about a month and has learned something about everyone, especially Vincent.

Propping herself against the slanted portion of the roof beside Vincent, Larissa asks gently, "Vincent would you like to learn how to speak to me telepathically?"

His eyes flew wide open at the question she was asking him and he turned his head quickly to look her in the eyes for the truth. What Vincent saw in Larissa's golden eyes was pure honesty, which he had never known before in his entire life.

Slowly he says, "I would love to start the lessons if that's ok with you, Larissa. Please show me how."

"All right then let's start right now. Vincent I want you to clear your mind of everything, it needs to be a blank slate. To achieve this you must lie perfectly still and close your eyes to block out anything that might distract you. Since we are lying down on this roof it would be wise to straighten up your body as much as you can, but stay relaxed."

Following her directions exactly Vincent lies vertically with Larissa and begins to clear his mind for the next instructions.

"Once this is done you now make a mental picture of the person you want to talk to telepathically. That way you can connect with him or her much easier and there will be no complications. Please tell me when you are ready for the next step Vincent."

Making a mental picture of Larissa in his mind Vincent could not help but smile a little because of the joy he brought her.

Gruffly he replies, "I am ready, tell me what to do next."

"Ok now it is time to do the difficult part of this technique. You have to reach out as far as you can, with your mind I might add, to connect with that person you wish to speak to. That is the only way I can explain it and you will know when you have succeeded when you feel a tingle run through your body. Also you will hear that person's voice inside your head either faintly or very clearly, depending on how advanced you are. Start reaching out right now to see if it works."

Vincent almost clinched his fists while in the process of reaching out to Larissa and managed to hear her voice faintly inside his own mind saying, "Hi Vincent, can you hear me?"

He responds back, "Yes I can barely hear you, but at least it worked."

Larissa pops open her eyes to gaze at the stars once more before telling Vincent that she was tired and was going off to bed.

"You did a wonderful job tonight Vincent," says Larissa. "We will continue with these lessons for a couple of nights until you get the hang of it, if you want to that is."

Opening his eyes he leans on his side to glance at Larissa and gives her a gentle smile of pride and pleasure.

"I would like that very much, just let me know when and where you want to practice," whispers Vincent as he thought he heard someone down below in the kitchen retrieving a glass of water.

Both crept down from the roof of 7th Heaven and went inside to bed, knowing they had many tasks to do the next day.

For the next few nights Vincent and Larissa practiced for nearly 2 hours. By the end of the second week they had finally mastered the technique to talk among each other through wave lengths of their brains.

To test this theory they went downstairs together one morning to eat breakfast with everyone, but they were silent the whole time externally.

Mentally they were saying: "Just look at them Vincent. They have no idea what is going on between us, I bet Barrett thinks we are mad at each other or something," says Larissa giggly.

"I love this new way of talking to you Larissa. Now they can stop giving us such a hard time over us being together so much. So what are you doing today?" Vincent and Larissa continued to talk in their minds the whole morning while Nanaki studied them closely.

Barrett gave up trying to figure out what was going on and went with Marlene to retrieve Denzel from upstairs in his slumber. Cloud walks in abruptly seeing Larissa and Vincent looking in each others eyes as if in a serious conversation, yet their lips were not moving at all. This quite disturbed him, but not for very long before Tifa called him over to the counter to deliver something to Yuffie across the street.

Carrying the package out of 7th Heaven Cloud looks back again at them and sees that Larissa is rising from her chair to the counter to request for another glass of cold fresh water. An idea came to Cloud's mind to invite Larissa to Yuffie's materia shop since she had never had a real tour of it before.

Walking back into 7th Heaven Cloud asks, "Larissa since you are up would you like to go with me to Yuffie's shop across the street? I know I haven't given you a tour of that yet."

Larissa quickly turns around with a cute smile on her face towards Cloud and says, "Sure Cloud why not? I have never been to Yuffie's shop yet even though I promised her a few days ago to see it."

Gazing at Vincent before she left Larissa mentally says, "I will be back in a little while Vincent. If you like you can practice going outside with other people to see if you can handle their oncoming thoughts as well. That will be our next lesson and if you need anything you know who to think about."

"Thank you Larissa and I will give the next lesson a try. I know you will find me later to see how well I am doing. Oh and when you go to Yuffie's shop be prepared for her to scream and jump around. She loves having visitors she knows personally."

Nodding her head lightly towards Vincent she walks out the door with Cloud, waving to Tifa as she leaves.

When Larissa and Cloud arrive at Yuffie's materia shop she runs up to Larissa and gives her a huge bear hug. Then she went to Cloud and did the same jester while taking the package Tifa had sent to her from him and opened it up immediately. Inside the box was a warm breakfast that Tifa made especially for her and Yuffie looked like she was about to cry.

"I just love Tifa! I can't believe she made this and sent you Cloud to give it to me. Not only that but you brought Larissa with you too. I am just overwhelmed with joy. Ok what would you like to see first?"

Yuffie gave them the grand tour of all tours of her materia shop that she was so proud of. Larissa did not understand the importance of these crystal balls until Cloud explained it to her afterwards.

"These tiny crystal balls are what give humans special abilities. For example a woman, man, or child can learn how to use White, Black, and Time magic along with certain Summons. All it takes is practice and anyone can master these techniques over a period of time. But since we have not had any disturbances we hardly use them anymore. Yuffie just sells them for a decoration in your home, jewelry, or if people want to learn those techniques they can still find them easily."

"Wow, that's wonderful. Those crystals seem to have an eerie beauty about them; it makes me wish that I had a purpose to use one," says Larissa.

While Larissa and Cloud were still in Yuffie's shop Vincent decided to take Larissa's advice and try out his new technique among the public. All he had to do was balance the thoughts of others around him without panicking or fainting in front of everyone.

Stepping outside of 7th Heaven he opens his mind up to the public, but was swept away by everyone's thoughts. Vincent had never dreamed of hearing such agonizing, insane, and enjoyable images of this society all at once. The pain was so unbearable that he did not realize that he was screaming with his hands over his face.

Inside Yuffie's shop Larissa suddenly hears an ear splitting cry ringing in her head and realizes that it is Vincent.

Rushing out the door she calls out to Cloud, "I hear Vincent screaming outside, we need to help him."

Cloud dashes outside after Larissa and finds her on her knees beside Vincent, trying to calm him down. He runs over to Vincent's other side and tries to comfort him as well, but the horrifying scream would not stop.

Prying Vincent's hands away from his face, Larissa places her hands onto his cold sweating face and gently leans her head towards him, so their foreheads would touch. Once inside Vincent's mind she could see all the pain mixed in with other quick emotions of the public combined with his thoughts.

Carefully Larissa reaches out to him with her mind saying, "Vincent calm down. I am right here, just close your mind slowly and the overwhelming pain with cease. I am sorry I was not there to help you. It is my entire fault that you are in such a state."

When Larissa opened her eyes she noticed that the screaming had stopped completely, but now Vincent was clinging onto her body, unable to let go. Everyone from 7th Heaven came outside to see what was going on while others gazed on in confusion. Cloud tried to release Larissa from Vincent's grasp with little success. In fact his grip grew tighter around Larissa's waist while his eyes revealed how he truly felt. Fear and regret seemed to dominate the rest of his emotions as Vincent stared into Larissa's golden eyes for comfort.

By then Yuffie came running to Vincent's other side yanking at his hands to let Larissa go, but she fell on the paved road in her trying efforts. The only solution Larissa could come up with was to carry Vincent inside 7th Heaven to rest in his room until he could explain what had happened.

Gently rising from the road, Larissa places her own hands onto his and releases herself from his grasp quite easily. Cloud and Yuffie just stared at her with astonishment and wonder of how she was able to escape Vincent's iron grip. To keep him from falling all over the place Larissa places her arms around his waist and starts to guide him back to the bar and straight up the stairs in a swift pace.

Everyone outside stared in bewilderment at them and the scene they had just witnessed. Reno and Rude also did not know what to make of it, but they stored it away in their memory banks to tell President Rufus about it later. He has been curious of Vincent and Larissa's activity since the first day she showed up unexpectedly at their door step by the aid of Nanaki. Sometimes Rufus's mind would wonder, in his opinion, to Larissa's majestic beauty, yet he could not image a woman such as her to come to him willingly. He would have to make a private visit with her someday for his mind craved to know her. Right now he would have to wait and hope that Reno and Rude would do the job correctly for once.

Returning to 7th Heaven, Vincent could not rest like Larissa advised him to do. Instead he approaches Larissa and begins to wrap his arms around her soft body in a passionate hug. Larissa did not know what to do at first, but then it dawned on her that she should wrap her arms around him in return. They held each other for quite a long time until Larissa peered into his crimson eyes and saw that he had reached a relaxed state at last.

"Vincent I should have been more specific on the damage it would cause you, especially your mind. But I am still impressed; usually people cannot handle the stress level of it and go insane in a few hours or a day, depending on how it has affected them."

Vincent just stood in silence in front of Larissa while trying to organize all of his thoughts back together. When he looked at her again he noticed that she looked back with a worried expression that he had never seen before. The way Larissa looked reminded him why he enjoyed her company so much. Besides Lucrecia he had forgotten what it was like to love someone completely no matter where they came from or what they were. Vincent also noticed how much he has changed emotionally as well as mentally. He smiles more often than he used to and interacts with the children as much as he can while not delivering for Tifa. It seems that the emptiness left by his tragic love for Lucrecia has finally been filled.

A true reassuring smile appears across Vincent's cold lips as he says, "Sorry Larissa I had to put my mind back in order. I am fine now, please do not worry anymore."

The smile that Vincent had longed to see showed brilliantly on Larissa's face as she replies, "Well I am glad to hear it. Next time I will be with you and we can start doing the technique at the edge of Midgar. That way the thoughts of others will not overwhelm you, they will be very faint sounds. As you progress we will move further and further into the city."

Nodding his head in agreement a sudden light knock could be heard from the old wooden door. Turning around to glance at the door Larissa quickly says, "Come in, the door is open." It seemed to take a life time before the door was completely opened to reveal Cloud on the other side. When Cloud viewed the room to see what was going on he noticed that everything seemed to be under control.

"Hey Vincent are you okay? I was really getting worried for a second there."

"Yes I am all right now Cloud, thanks," says Vincent while studying Cloud's features and notices the hint of worry he spoke of only moments before.

"If you don't mind Vincent," says Cloud. "Yuffie is still downstairs in a hysterical state. She would come up here herself, but she is too afraid of what kind of condition you are in. Either that or she just wants to see you move around. Will you go and comfort her because we have tried everything we could down there and Barrett is about to lose it."

Walking passed Larissa with a deep sigh he heads out the door where Cloud was to the panicking Yuffie downstairs.

Alone in the room at last Cloud walks in front of Larissa to study her features to see if he can find an answer to what has happened. He found none. Larissa stared back at him for a few minutes before looking away to the window.

"Larissa can I ask you a question even though it might be personal?"

Turning away from the window slowly Larissa answers, "Why sure Cloud. I will tell you the truth the best way that I can."

Taking a deep breath Cloud bursts out, "Larissa are you in love with Vincent? Are you two a secret couple? I know everyone says these rumors, but lately I can't help but wonder if you two really are or not. All the time you spend with each other and then there is this whole silent intense conversation you have together. I just want a straight answer."

Larissa did not answer right away because she was shocked by Cloud's stressed expression. It looked like he was preparing himself for a massive blow that would come at any given moment.

Collecting her thoughts she replies, "No Cloud we are not a couple. I know we spend much of our time together when we are not with the children or doing errands. I view Vincent and me as a deep connected friendship that will never break no matter what the circumstances. Does it bother you that Vincent and I are together most of the time?"

Cloud's eyes widened a little at this sudden question that he was not expecting from her. Quickly he says, "No Larissa it does not bother me at all. I am glad Vincent has someone to make him feel happy since he has been in a slump for a while."

Before Cloud left the room Larissa could not help but read his thoughts as he strolled toward the door.

In his mind this is what Larissa heard, "It does bother me a great deal why she spends time with Vincent so much. Even though they are not a couple I still want to spend time with her too. I know Vincent is not being selfish, but I do envy the way he is able to reach out to certain people."

This is all Larissa was able to hear because Cloud left the room and could be heard going down the stairs and out the door. Larissa realized in that very instant that she would have to pay a little more attention to Cloud as well as the rest of the group. The children she gave her time willingly with Tifa, Barrett, Nanaki, and sometimes Yuffie. Shelke she would visit at the lab when she had the chance and if Cait Sith and Reeves were not too busy she would spend the afternoon with them. Vincent was always around so he was taken care of and as for Cid he is constantly going to Rocket Town to see how is new recruiters are doing.

Cloud was the only person she had not spent a whole day with. Tomorrow she decided to dedicate her day to him and to know him for who he is. As she checked outside the window she could see that dusk was approaching. Going downstairs hastily she arrived right on time for dinner.

After they ate she immediately went to sleep like the rest of the group after helping Cloud put the kids to bed. She could not wait for the new day to start because she would have her blue prints almost done for the new houses to be built for Gaia and to truly meet Cloud like she should have done from the beginning.