Edited 2/216

Disclaimer: Things you recognize! I disclaim them!

AN: In which Bru makes unnecessary references to everything, along with making up for the severe lack of fluff in the previous two chapters. Enjoy!

.xxx.

I think falling in love is weird. I mean, it hasn't happened to me, like, super often or anything, but it's still weird. Back when AVALANCHE was whole (as in: before Aerith died), and when sitting around the campfire had gotten too boring and repetitive, me, Aerith, and Tifa used to hole up in one of the tents and pass around some of those cheesy romance novels that use stupid, flowery language and deal with really tough subjects such as a princess falling in love with a pirate after he kidnaps her to hold for ransom, or a duke falling in love with his servant girl and knocking her up even though he's married or whatever. The two of them would read it out loud while I cowered under a blanket, half-embarrassed and half-curious and half thinking 'uh… seriously?'

I'd never been in love before then, hell, the only crush I'd ever had had ended up with him laughing in my face and me feeling like someone had just ripped out my spleen with their bare hands and eaten it right in front of me and left me in the middle of nowhere with no way of getting medical attention so that my wound would get infected and kill me. So, suffice it to say, I had not had good experiences with the whole L-word. And the books that Aeris and Teef subjected me to did not exactly do much to help my understanding, since it seemed like they were all about sexiness and big boobs and sultry stares. If I had to make a list of things I did not and never would have, I'm pretty sure those three items would be at the very top of it.

I finally asked Aerith about it one night, as everyone was getting ready to either go to sleep or stand watch.

"Umm… Aerith?" It was about a month after the day that came to be formally known as the Materia Incident, and I was pretty sure I was forgiven at that point since I'd been allowed back in on Girls' Nights.

I remember her smiling at me like she knew what I was about to ask, as I awkwardly shifted around in front of her, all big feet and burning cheeks and gawky, teen naïveté. Aerith was like that. "What is it, Yuffie?"

"I just… kinda… wanted to know… uh… what's love like? Like actually, actually like?"

"How come? Someone on your mind?" She teased, poking my nose, and I swear to gawd I saw her eyes flicker towards Cloud, which was like, so far from where my mind was it wasn't even funny. Sure, Spikes is cute and all, but something about having someone beat the crap out of you with a giant sword the first time you meet them just puts a damper on any crush that might develop.

"No! No. I see where you're looking and get your mind away from there, missy!" I flailed around to make my point and she just laughed that tinkling laugh of hers.

But then she stopped laughing and her eyes sort of softened and she got that far-off look where you just knew she was on a whole different plane than the rest of us. "Well, love is different for everyone. For me, love is… flower wagons and grins and the brightest eyes you've ever seen. It's knowing that he would've come back, always, if he could have and that I'll see him again, someday."

By the end of her little spiel, my face was scrunched up tighter than a closed accordion, and I was pretty sure 'what the hell are you on about?' was scrawled across my forehead in big, red, permanent letters.

She just smiled at me again, all pretty and perfect and understanding. "Love is knowing that someone will wait for you, no matter how long it takes for you to get back to them. At least… that's how I see it."

I had never been able to wait for anything in my life, so this mentality didn't really make a whole lot of sense to me at the time. I mean, I had always figured, why wait for something to come to you when you could just go out like the sneakiest of sneaks and take it yourself? When I tried explaining this to Aerith, she just giggled some more and poked my nose again and wouldn't say another word, leaving me more confused than ever.

I went to Tifa the next night, determined to get an answer that made sense. I was always a little more comfortable talking to her than Aerith. I loved them both, still do, but Aerith just saw too much. Even with my perfected ninja poker face, she'd see right through it down to the heart of what I really meant. Tifa, while perceptive in her own way, didn't have any magic Ancient seventh-sense or whatever.

"Hey, Teefers?"

"Yes, Yuffers?" She grinned, wide and beautiful, looking up as I poked my head into her tent.

"I already asked Aerith but… her answer didn't make a whole lot of sense. So… can I ask you something?"

"Mm-hmm." She patted the spot next to her on her bedroll and I plopped down.

"What's love like? Not the stupid kind in the books we read, but the real kind?"

She was quiet for a moment, head tilted as she thought.

"Well… I can't tell you what it'll be like for you, since everybody has different experiences with it. But… For me? It's always begun with friendship. And… It's knowing that a person will always come for you, always be there for you, no matter when or how or why."

At this, I'm pretty sure I did some more flailing since, ya know, it's kind of my thing. "But Aerith told me it's when you know someone will always wait for you! Now you're saying it's when someone will always come for you?! I… I think I'm too young for this shit. Or it's just too confusing." Tifa tossed her head back and laughed, before pulling me into a half-hug against her side as I grumbled.

"It's both. Sometimes, you need someone to wait for you… and sometimes you need them to help you out. When someone can do both those things, without hesitating and without ever… using it as leverage against you or anything like that… that's love." She paused, giving my shoulders a squeeze. "But really? That's only a tiny part of it. So much of it is all mixed up with feelings and emotions that reasons and descriptions sort of… fade away and become unimportant."

I sighed, hanging my head. "I think I'll stick with the kind that's in our books… where it's all about sex and stuff. That just seems easier."

I think Tifa almost puked she was laughing so hard at that.

Now, you may ask, 'Why, oh why, Great Ninja Master Yuffie, are you regaling us with this odd vignette about your stupidity when it comes to love at this moment in time? We would much rather be hearing about your time at Rufus's place and all that important, saving-the-world stuff.'

Well, just keep your freaking pants on, you big nympho, I'm getting there. And for your information, love plays a very important role in the next few chunks of my story.

But seriously, I mean it about your pants. Stop trying to strip.

.xxx.

The Shin-Ra Estate was exactly how I imagined it would be: huge, ornate, slightly over-the-top, and, above all else, cold-looking on the outside. It was nestled behind thick, brick walls like a fortress fit for a zombie apocalypse, halfway between the city center and the outskirts. I could go on and on and on describing it in every little detail, but that would probably be boring for you, nyeh? So, instead, I'll make it simple. All in all, it reminded me of the castle from that cartoon movie about a beast who's not actually a beast but a guy who was super mean to this lady so she turned him into a beast until he could find someone to love him. And… there was something about a rose, too. I don't remember too well 'cause I hated that movie, but Shake used to make me watch it all the time when I was little and stupid and annoying and she wanted me to go the eff away so she could actually get some training in.

Anyway, that castle from the movie? Could basically be interchangeable with Rufus's estate. And the beast waiting for me inside? Rufus Shin-Ra, in the flesh.

It would've been a whole lot cooler if there'd been a talking candelabra, though.

Anyway, as we got out of the car, Reno swaggered on ahead of us, in theory leading the way although I'm pretty sure we could have figured out where the front door was since it was, ya know, on the front of the freaking house. Or should I say mansion…. Castle…. Thing…. Anyway!

Once inside, we were shown up the grand staircase to our respective bedrooms which happened to be right across the hall from one another. Reno wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. I kicked him in the shin. Everything was normal as a sunrise.

After settling our things (not that we had that many, since it's not like we were on vacation or anything), we got the grand tour, ending with the library. Rufus hadn't made an appearance yet, which was just fine with me. At that point, if I could have gone my entire stay at his estate without seeing his smug face, I would've been just peachy.

As a warning, that's not the way this story goes. Just so you know. I don't want you all yelling and saying I deceived you later on!

Reno pointed out the documents, which were sitting innocently on a big oak table, surrounded by thick, leather chairs and next to a massive window overlooking the grounds. Yes, in the cold, dead city of Edge, Rufus managed to splurge enough to have real grounds. With fucking grass and everything. I couldn't fault him for having nature about since everything else in Edge was so stupid and dead, but it seemed a little… excessive. Of course, I was probably just looking for stuff to fault him on so… yeah. I'm honest with my biases, don't judge!

After showing me to my prison, I mean table, Reno sauntered out, probably to go find some maid to bang or something. Or maybe to style his hair. I didn't really care one way or another since the pile of paper sitting in front of me had my head spinning from the sheer volume. With nothing left to do for the time being and time a-wasting as I stood and gaped like an idiot, I settled in to start reading, exhausted already.

And that, my dear friends, is how I found myself pouring over centuries-old documents, hours later, with a major crick in my neck along with the headache that had decided to wrap around my brain like a giant turban of pain and despair. Said turban of all things awful also decided that it would be a way good idea to squeeze around my gray matter every few seconds for added pain and annoyance. It sorta reminded me of this book I read where this evil guy had this other evil guy living under his turban and this little kid (who was like a wizard or some shit) had to, like, defeat them or something 'cause they killed his parents.

I dunno, I had a way short attention span when I tried reading it, so maybe I'm getting some parts of it all wrong.

The point was, I was not having happy fun research times. It's not exactly a walk in the park to translate Old Wutaiian into New Wutaiian, plus they have this whole roundabout way of describing things. And that little tidbit of stupidity reminded me of this game I played one time, where the main character was this little blonde elf dude, and every time someone important would talk to him they'd be all "great hero of time, ye who is destined to save the world over and over again, the blue-eyed beast of awesomeness, the bearer of courage and super-cool sword skills, you who holds part of the gawd-almighty Tri-force" and I was all like, 'can't they just call the kid by his freaking name?'

He was kind of a cutie, though, if I'm remembering it properly.

ANYWAY, as you can see, even thinking about how I felt in those moments is causing me to get distracted and sidetracked, and it was a thousand times worse when I was actually going through it.

Vince sat with me, although he couldn't do much more other than be a sounding board to my frustrations since he apparently didn't read Old Wutaiian.

The documents were split up into sections, one for each of the elements and, supposedly, when I had learned to harness all of them (which I had thought I'd already done since I was pretty sure I had mastered all those different pieces of materia, but Ancient Wutai apparently ignores such shenanigans), would then lead me to the ultimate, all-encompassing, big-momma's-house, Power with a capital P.

I had chosen to start with Fire, but since the language was so flowery and over-the-top and convoluted and dumb, I was just sort of reading the same line over and over and over again without understanding any of the freaking words.

"Perhaps you should take a break?" Vince suggested, sometime after I had begun seething over the documents. You could tell I was seething because I was literally breathing in and out through clenched teeth, which is like pretty much the definition of "to seethe."

At his suggestion, my body agreed all of its own accord and I promptly shoved the documents away from me (I'm very good with delicate things, dontcha know) and head-desked with a groan.

"Why is my life so stupid these days?" I asked the table. Vince answered me instead, which was ironic because not too long ago I probably would've compared him to a table seeing as he was all quiet and unemotional and sort of a square.

"I don't think it's stupid so much as it is strange. But rarely have either of our lives been normal." I could hear a tiny, wry, Vincenty-smile in his voice at the end of that.

"Strange…" I mumbled against the table, and again, I could make a comment about my lips against the table and how Vincent is sometimes rather table-like, but I'll refrain. For now, heh. Besides, his comment had stirred something all up in my Yuffie-brain and I figured it was the perfect time to ask the question that had been festering in my mind like a piece of moldy cheese. I picked my head up from its newfound friend, the table, and began picking at my nails. "Speaking of strange… d'you remember anything, uh… weird happening a little bit after you were taken by Draknor? Y'know, something weird that might've happened and might've… um… involved me?"

At this point I began focusing very intensely on his face. After all, if Vincent Valentine is going to give anything away via facial expression, you have to be incredibly tuned in to catch it. It's kinda like looking for the Bigfoot Chocobo, or the Mideelan Sea Monster. Incidentally, I'm pretty sure the Sea Monster was actually Emerald Weapon which is why no one can find it anymore since we KICKED ITS ASS. Ahem. Anyway.

"I… don't remember much from the beginning, other than pain." He said the words slowly, like he was weighing each of them carefully. "I don't know if they drugged me to keep me unconscious, although in theory my modifications should negate any drugs."

Something that had wrapped itself up in my innards began to plummet. "So… you don't really remember anything? Nothing at all?"

"Your arrival was the first moment I truly felt lucid. Other than that, I was… in and out of dreams and trying to keep Draknor focused on causing me pain so that he would stay away from your father."

Vince's masterful Poker Face of Impenetrable Calm was frustratingly impenetrable. But when have I ever let anything be without giving it some good pushing?

"Any… uh… interesting dreams you might so happen to recall?"

"What is it exactly that you are fishing for, Yuffie?" He asked, a slight smile curving his lips.

I scoffed to cover my panic. He wasn't supposed to question my motives! "Please, Vinnie. I fucking hate fish. And fishing. And all things having to do with fish."

"Your patron god is a water serpent…"

"Details! Tell me about these dreams!"

Hi, I'm Yuffie and my middle name is Subtle. Nice to meet you!

Silence fell over both of us as we soaked in our stubbornness. Vincent's a private guy, so I could see why he might not wanna discuss dreams with me… and me? I was just afraid he'd say he had no idea what I was talking about if I brought up my little dream-hallucination and then there would be no way for me to ever feel one hundred percent sane again.

I suppose I could blame it on drugs, like an acid flashback or something, except I'd never done acid. The most I'd ever done was smoke a little Loco Weed with Cid one time before he realized what he was actually, like really doing with me and made me go back inside and go to bed. The buzz-kill.

So anyway, we sat there staring across the table at each other, trying to gaze into the other's mind or soul or thoughts or whatever, and probably both failing miserably. At least, I know I was failing and I was pretty sure Vincent was, too. Unless mind-reading came with his handy-dandy, Hojo-patented, modifications.

Finally, because I'm pretty sure he thralled me once again, I caved.

"FINE! I'll tell you why I'm fishing…" I sighed, and looked away from him. "When they took you, once I regrouped with everyone and we had a plan… I had this weird, uh… kind of a hallucination I guess? I don't think it was a dream, 'cause I wasn't fully asleep or anything but… I dunno. It was just you and me talking. And it seemed really real, like you were in the room with me. And dream-you made some comment like, either I was nuts, or I wasn't and you were having the same dream-thing wherever you were. So… I guess I just wanted to know if I should be checking into a mental hospital or not." I looked up and glared. "And I was trying to figure all this out without telling you why, so that you wouldn't think I was crazy, even if I actually am, which I'm beginning to think I am, because you're staring at me and not saying anything encouraging, you big jerk. So there."

The shadow of a smile was still chilling out on his face. I was beginning to wish I'd just kept struggling through the documents rather than face a smug Vince.

"Are you ever gonna say anything?" I snapped, nerves frayed and flapping in a distant breeze, much like Vinnie's cape when he used to flounce about with it.

"I cannot say whether or not I had the same experience as you. I don't remember much from the first day or so. But when I did dream, you were there."

At this point I think I was red like a piece of summon materia, and promptly went back to studying my nails. Or the table. Or the rug. Or anything that wasn't in the general direction of Vincent's face.

"I'm definitely crazy…" I muttered, more to distract him than anything else.

The next words out of his mouth made me perk up my head and stare. Oh, and they made me blush some more, too.

"Yes, you are crazy. But I wouldn't have you any other way."

I couldn't keep my eyes from meeting his even if I'd wanted to. It felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room and I was suddenly cursing my friend, the table, for keeping Vinnie so far away from me.

As one of us was about to make the decision to remedy the table-situation—and let's be honest, as the more proactive (read: twitchy) one of the two of us, it was probably gonna be me—the doors to the library suddenly swung open.

"DINNER, YO!" Reno yelled, strolling in with his red spazz-attack dancing atop his head, and completely killing any moment Vinnie and I had going on. We leaned back, and I could've sworn I heard Vincent mutter a choice, four-letter word under his breath. My Vinnie, cursing? I was so proud.

Reno then proceeded to plop two plates down in front of us, and settle in next to Vincent with a plate of his own, smirking at me the whole time.

.xxx.

Within the human soul sleeps an uncontrollable tide, fiery and blazing and different for each and every being. This passion embodies the element of the Flame, the Axle of Heat on which Desire turns. Only when one combines this Blazing Power, this ember of Love and Lust, with the four other Elements, will one attain the Great. Harness the Fire. Harness the Passion. Bring it to the forefront of the mind and let it flare around the inner. Draw it up and in and around and out.

Those are some choice excerpts from the document on Fire, which I have strung together for your viewing pleasure. As you can see, they're incredibly helpful. And when I say helpful? I mean, not at fucking all. The worst part? That's me cutting out some of the more flowery tidbits.

"I. Can't. DO THIS!" I yelled, chucking a throwing star across the room where it probably embedded itself in one of Rufus's more valuable tomes. I smirked, before feeling frustration creep up over me again.

At some point, we had finished up dinner and Reno had wandered off, leaving me to actually start getting down to business. I had tried everything. I had tried meditating until I was almost asleep and then searching for this so-called Blazing Power. I had tried thinking my dirtiest fantasies and then dragging it up then, since there was a whole section on love and lust and all that crap. I had tried running around until I was physically heated up and almost sweating, hoping that might stir something.

All I got? Was a big, fat load of nothing.

I flopped back in my chair and glared at the offending documents. "I can't fucking do this, Vince. I don't know how, these are no help at all and the world is going to end and it'll be all my fault."

"You can do this." He stated quietly from across the table.

"Tch. How do you know?" I asked in my snottiest voice, ever the mature one.

"Because I've seen you master this before." I glanced at him, wary in my anger. "Do you remember when you first mastered your Fire materia?" I shook my head. "I do. I'd… never seen a spell like it before. You were so excited. You cast it and, for me, everything else faded away. It looked like you were dancing with the flames, wielding them like an extension of yourself. In that moment, you were the fire. It was incredible, and powerful. It was a beauty like I'd never seen before."

He leaned over the table, eyes boring into mine. "You can do this, Yuffie. You just need to find that spark."

For a moment, I didn't breathe, I just drowned in his eyes and the feeling of his faith in me. And then I was kneeling on the table, hand fisted in his collar and crushing his lips to mine.

You wanna talk about fire? You wanna talk about passion? Get back to me once you've kissed Vincent Valentine. But not really, because he's mine and you can't have him. The man may be quiet, and he may be slightly emo, but he's got a reserve of emotion stored up within him, and it was all mine to experience as he kissed me back.

Every fiber within me was singing in relief as his hand found my neck and pressed me closer. Every nerve of my body was humming and tingling as my hand tangled in his hair, and somehow I ended up in his lap and I had the realization that the end of the world didn't even matter anymore. All that mattered was that we kept kissing until our lungs collapsed.

And let me tell you, it came pretty damn close. Once you get started kissing that man, it gets very hard to stop.

In that moment, I had the sharp and sudden and abso-fucking-lutely terrifying realization that I was somewhere in the middle of falling in love with Vincent Valentine. Maybe I wasn't totally there yet, but I was on my way. And it was nothing like what Aeris and Teef told me it would be like. It had nothing to do with waiting or being there or both or whatever. No, this was all about unwavering, unconditional faith.

I'd never had someone believe in me so thoroughly and so certainly as Vincent. I'd never had someone say, "Yuffie, yes you can and here's how I know." It made me want to earn that faith and that trust and that belief. It made me want to take down anything and everything that ever tried to get in my way. And it made me want to never leave my comfy place all wrapped up in Vincent's arms.

Somewhere deep and tucked away in my chest, a phoenix burst into flames, and nothing, nothing could touch me.

When we finally pulled back from each other, I kept my eyes closed for a few moments longer, just relishing. "So… is this the part where you tell me you're too sin-filled and no good for me and that we can't actually be together?" I asked quietly, pressing my forehead against his.

He chuckled, low and rough. "I've spent the past few weeks watching you in action, Yuffie…and plenty of time back during Meteor as well," He began. "Every time some piece of bad luck knocks you down, you pick yourself back up again, no worse for wear. In the face of that, how could I continue to wallow?" At my shaky laugh, he continued, "And I believe this is the part where I kiss you again."

We'll leave out how I actually kissed him first. My mouth was too busy with other things to correct him, anyway.

.xxx.

"You still think I can do this, right?"

A warm hand squeezed mine and I'm pretty sure all my other internal organs squeezed in happiness as well. Or maybe just my heart. I dunno.

It was about two in the morning and Vincent and I had taken our little pow-wow outside to finish up for the night. Finish up with the Fire stuff you perv, not the other stuff. Although… there had been lots of metaphorical fire involved with that stuff too if you get my drift. Insert your own lusty wink here, 'cause I can't wink lustily for shit.

Anyhoo, it had been decided that if I was gonna try harnessing the Blazing Power of whatever the fuck, I should probably do it outside instead of in a library since, ya know, books are all super combustible and stuff.

The grounds were pitch black, and if it weren't for Vincent's unfair ability to see just fine in the dark, I'm pretty sure I would've face planted about ten times on our way out there. We stopped a good distance from the house and I looked up, admiring the stars. Somewhere up there was where Leviathan had gotten these powers in the first place. And somewhere, deep in the earth below my feet, was where Quezacotl—and now Draknor—had gotten his. And now, it was officially time for me to get my ass in gear so I could fight this thing.

Play time was fucking over.

Like casting with materia, I thought to myself, closing my eyes and sucking in a huge breath. Which you've done twelve billion times before. This is gonna be easy. Releasing it, I probed inside with my mind. Vincent's hands found my shoulders and I dug deeper.

Instead of searching for a magic orb set within a weapon or piece of armor, I searched down within myself for that place that had flared to life while I was kissing Vincent. It was like tunneling through felt blankets toward a tiny flame at the center. I was pulling back the layers, thick and muzzy and muted, searching and searching and searching. It seemed to take forever, but maybe it was only a few moments and then I found it, a tiny little wisp of Fire. I cradled it in my hands, a smile sliding onto my cheeks.

There's always a moment, right before you feel intense pain, when your mind or your subconscious or whatever goes "oh, shit." In that moment? Mine said "Oh, fuck."

And then flames erupted along my arms and a feral scream ripped itself from my throat and heat was flaring in every part of my body, woven into my muscles and tendons and bones and life force and I couldn't stop screaming. My head fell back and my arms shot out to the sides and all I could see was red-orange heat. Every muscle in my body seized up and screamed along with me and I couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't feel anything but fire and pain and death. And then I was on my knees and puking and my arms were still encircled in fire, spiraling from elbow to wrist and when I put my fingers to my mouth they came back sticky and wet and red.

A second later it was all gone, and I was simply left vomiting blood into the grass as Vincent kneeled beside me, half trying to rub away the hurt and half afraid to even touch me.

I managed to choke out a tortured, "I don't think I want this anymore, Vinnie," before I keeled over and fell into darkness.

.xxx.

AN: Ha! And you thought this chap was just gonna be all about teh fluff. But see now? Didn't I tell you to have faith in me over the mystical powers? Would I ever turn this story into a cliché, Mary-Sue infested piece of bleh? The answer to that is no, I wouldn't. Thanks go out to my FABULOUS reviewers from the last chapter: CupofTeaforAliceandHatter, serenbach, LiveLifeLikeNeverBefore, MadBlossomingPrincess, What A Lovely Disaster, Le Requiem, wanderingmusician, xXHellfireRavenXx, realestboo, and myeve123! You all make my day and my life and this story complete. Also, I apologize for the delay in posting—I haven't had internet for the past 5ish days due to a massive storm in my area -_-

Anyhoo, I gave you fluff so give Big Momma some lovin! And when I say Big Momma, I mean me and when I say lovin, I mean reviews.