Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII, OR its characters.
If you don't like angst, leave now. This story is not ending well.
Chapter 10.
"Reno…" she said, distressed, "is everything alright? I heard that someone died and-"
Reno cut her off, suddenly. "..ncent…" he muttered, almost incoherently.
"What?"
"Vincent… hung himself on Tuesday night." There was silence.
"No seriously, Reno, what happened?" she asked, laughing nervously.
"I am being serious." Her breathing quickened, he could hear her start to cry. "I have to go, Yuff…" he hung up. The lights went green on the street, cars and people moved around her in all directions but she scarcely noticed. Yuffie was filled with a numbness for a moment, then began to cry hysterically. Tifa, not knowing exactly what was going on, took her gently by the hand and drove her home.
She woke up in Tifa's bed the next morning, the pillow soaked with tears. Soft tears cascaded down her cheeks yet she said nothing, nor made any effort to wipe them away. Images, memories of things they'd done or said ran through her head. The silence filling the room was unbearable. Reno entered the room, moments later. He looked dishevelled and obviously hadn't slept at all the previous night. Yuffie tried to greet him but somehow, the words wouldn't leave her lips. Instead, they remained tangled in her throat. He lit up a cigarette, the smoke filling the room.
Finally, Tifa broke the silence, entering with some food.
"I made you breakfast." She glanced at Yuffie with pity but said nothing more. Yuffie was hoping this was all a dream, a bad dream, or better yet, she hoped that this was merely a mean joke of Vincent's. That's right, any minute her phone would ring and with a slightly amused tone in his voice, he'd say 'I got you this time' and it'd all be ok again. The tears finally stopped falling, Yuffie got out of bed and hugged Reno gently. The first time she'd actually initiated physical contact with him.
A few days letter, her phone did ring. She answered slowly and uncertainly but the voice on the other end was warm and gentle.
"You'll never guess who this is…" came the male voice, smoothly through the phone.
"Is this…?" she asked excitedly. Her dreams had come true, it really was just a joke…
"It's Cloud."
She stood there in shock, her eyes watering. Of course, who did she expect it to be? Then a realisation hit her.
"You're calling me from Nibelheim? Isn't this costing you a fortune?" she asked slowly. Cloud never did stuff like this.
"Aeris told me about Vincent, I was just checking that you were ok."
Of course, why else would he be calling her. Still, she needed Cloud now more than ever.
"I'm fine." She said quietly. There was a moment of silence, they both knew that she wasn't fine at all.
"Well, I've got to go, I'm on a payphone and it looks like I'm about to run out of money. I'll be back before you know it, Yuffie. With that, there was a clunk as he hung up the phone and the line went dead.
Her every movement was mechanical, regardless of whether she was eating, showering or speaking. Yuffie denied being upset, blaming her zombie-like actions on insomnia, yet everyone could hear her cry at night. She'd say seemingly random things which had absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the conversation and would find herself lost in the middle of the city because she wasn't paying attention to where she was going
Finally, a few weeks later, she found the jacket she'd worn to the last 30 years sleep gig. It still hadn't been washed. She hugged it longingly. A piece of paper fell from the pocket. The ticket to the Lifestream concert, the ticket she had stuffed into her pocket so carelessly. The ticket Vincent gave her. It fell from her hands to the floor, barely making a sound. Tears flooded from her eyes but she stayed silent.
END CHAPTER 10.
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