ITALY LIVES!!!! Alessandro Del Piero, my hero! The love of my life! Lol!!
Sorry, just can't help it!! It kinda felt guilty when I read your comments on my writing stamina... I was supposed to finish this chapter last Sunday, but after Italy lost to Croatia, my heart broke ^__^ only to be fixed by Del Piero... I'm in love!
Anyway, sorry for the delay!
Usual Disclaimers Apply
Breath Away
Chapter 2
Yuffie took a deep breath as she walked out of the Council Chambers. The only place the media was allowed was in the residence and business district. Anywhere else was off limits, to which she was grateful for.
The meeting turned out better than she expected, no mention of any of the rumors was brought up. The land now belonging to Kitani Corp was top of the agenda, and Yuffie's participation in the Mako Conference next week. She knew Barret would be there, as well as Reeve. He also mentioned that Cloud might make an appearance, but he wasn't sure.
Yuffie's face darkened. The conference would also include the mako-lover Alec Kitani and his supporters. /Gawd, and I thought I never have to see his face again./
The thought of seeing Reeve made her feel uncomfortable. What would she say? Act normal or stay away from him? Sure, she still considered him as a friend, but with those stupid rumors flying around, how was she supposed to act around him? She already heard that some of his suppliers were starting to back-out because of the rumors. She didn't want all his hard work to go down the drain, so what was she supposed to do?
"Yuffie!"
The loud voice made Yuffie roll her eyes. Why she chose Cait Sith as her bodyguard, she would never know. She briefly thought about running away from him and have a little game of hide and seek, but brushed it aside. She needed to go to the private library and research more about the mako-reactors, and their effects on the planet.
"You really shouldn't walk without me, you know!"
"I'm just going to the library..."
Caith Sith pretended to be shocked. "You? Going to the library?"
"For the meeting next week... I need to know what I'm going to say..."
"Simple, just tell them that if they activate the reactors, we'll just blow them all up!"
Yuffie turned red. "I already suggested that, but Godo told me that I need to learn to deal with things in a diplomatic manner." She snorted. "Diplomatic my ass, those people would use the reactors if it means more money,"
There was a flash of light, and they both blinked as they looked around to see where it came from, and Yuffie groaned when she saw a horde of photographers from a distance taking their pictures. "Cait..."
The cat grinned before winking at Yuffie. "I'll take care of it!"
She felt a heavy weight on her head as Cait placed an enormous headphone over her head. Yuffie could only look as the photographers clutched their ears while running away. After a few moments, she felt the weight of the headphones being taken off. "There, see... aren't you glad I'm around?"
"What the hell did you do?"
She looked at the wide beam on the cat's face. "I'm a genius!"
"No... Reeve's the genius. He created *you*"
"Hey! I'm my own mog now! I hardly need him to control me!"
Yuffie rolled her eyes as he began walking to the library. "Shouldn't you be somewhere else recharging?"
"Nope! I have a full day worth of solo power..."
/Unfortunately./ She looked around her, hoping that there was no more photographers hiding somewhere. She didn't even want to think about what she'd see in tomorrow's paper.
*-*-
The next day, President Reeve greeted the day with a smile. The 400-meter run with Reno did him good. After getting himself freshened up, he took a seat, newspaper in hand with his coffee on the other. He sipped the hot liquid carefully, opened the paper... and spat his coffee out.
"What on earth?"
On the front page, was a colored picture of Yuffie with Cait Sith, but what shocked him was the headline: "President Reeve creates a bodyguard for young lover!"
He didn't even bother to read the rest of the article as he dropped the newspaper down at the table. Next week was Yuffie's first official appearance as Lady Kisaragi out of Wutai. He knew that these rumors were being created to discredit her, but what puzzled him was Kitani. He knew the president of Kitani Corp had a slight infatuation with Yuffie, even Reno mentioned it. So why the hell was he allowing his people to do this to her?
"So, any more of your buildings burned down?"
Reeve looked at Reno and shook his head as the Turk sat in front of him, a bottle of light beer on his hand. "You're drinking that?"
"Hey, it's light." He replied before taking a sip. "Aaahhh, nothing better than beer first thing in the morning." He grabbed that paper before Reeve could stop him.
Reno's eye narrowed as he saw the coffee stained picture. Reeve held his breath, not knowing why he felt afraid. There was this expression on Reno's face that he had never seen before...
"I need to call Yuffie. Maybe it would be better if she sticks with the Royal Guards. She's got too much to worry about. Her first public appearance outside of Wutai as Lady Kisaragi..."
"Don't bother." Reno told him after a small sip of beer. "Whatever you do, they'll bound to make something new out of it."
"What am I suppose to do, then?"
Reno shrugged. "I'm just here to watch your back. Don't ask me a question if you know you're not gonna like the answer."
Reeve rubbed the back of his neck, trying to get enough courage to ask Reno a question that's been nagging him. "Is there.... is there anything between you and Yuffie?"
"No." Reno replied as he looked at Reeve. "Is there anything between *you* and Yuffie?"
Reeve blinked, Reno's question catching him off guard. "Of course not!"
The serious look on Reno's face disappeared as the Turk winked at him. "Relax, cat-boy. I was just playing with you."
Reeve scowled at him just as his PHS rang. "Hello? Shake?"
Reno took another sip of his beer as Reeve massaged his temple with his free hand. "Is she okay?... I understand."
The President of Shinra Inc sighed as he turned the connection off. "Yuffie's having another fight with her father." He watched as that dangerous glint appeared on Reno's eyes again as he took another sip of beer.
"So, what else is new?"
"He just asked Vincent Valentine to take Cait Sith's place as her bodyguard."
*^*^
"Are you serious?" Yuffie shrieked at her father, while Vincent Valentine waited outside Lord Godo's office. "How the hell did you find him? I couldn't find him half the time I needed to!"
"A stroke of luck, he was seen by one of my men just outside Wutai. I requested to meet with him, and he agreed."
Yuffie buried her face in her hands. It was hard enough to get away from Cait Sith so she can do her experiments, and now she was going to have Vincent... "This is so not happening to me!"
Lord Godo looked at his daughter. "I thought he's your friend."
"He is!" Yuffie replied.
"Then what's the problem?"
"I don't need a bodyguard! I don't want someone following me around... I need my privacy!"
"You were nearly assassinated. I'm not taking the chance to let our guard down..."
He didn't wait for his daughter to reply as he walked towards the door and opened it, and motioned for Vincent to walk in.
"Hi Vinnie." Yuffie greeted. Sure, she was happy that Vincent was around, but it wasn't like they were out on an AVALANCHE mission. Or hanging out together or something... He was here to *guard* her.
Vincent greeted Yuffie with a slight nod, his eyes resting on the half-charm that he had given her. He wasn't surprised that she gave the half away already, and somehow, he knew exactly whom she gave it to.
"Well," Lord Godo said, obviously pleased with himself. "I'll leave the two of you. I already gave Mr. Valentine your whole schedule for the month."
Yuffie watched her father walk away and sighed. /Great. How the hell am I supposed to get away from Vincent and do my experiments?/
"Ummm, How are you?"
"Fine." Vincent replied as he looked at her. "You're supposed to have a meeting with the council soon."
Yuffie rolled her eyes. "Gawd yes! Every single day all we do is talk about this, talk about that..."
"Some things are better resolved if you talk them through,"
"Not if all you do is talk!" Yuffie replied, trying not to feel awkward. "We'll be seeing Barret and Reeve at the conference next week. Maybe Cloud will be there... it's almost going to be like a mini-reunion or something..."
Vincent just nodded, and Yuffie fidgeted. She hated silence.
"So, let's go?" She asked, not knowing what else to say. Vincent nodded again and held the door open for her. Yuffie blushed slightly as she passed by him. The thought that he was going to be around her practically 24/7 was driving her insane. Her hand touched the pendant and she smiled. /I wonder what Reno's doing now./
*-*-
Reeve watched as Reno's grip on the bottle tightened, then relaxed as the Turk flipped the newspaper to the sports page. "Well, Yuffie's going to bring Cait Sith to the conference, so we'll all be seeing each other there."
Reno didn't reply but continued to read the sports page.
The two men stayed silent as Elena and Rude walked in, the female Turk with a huge smile on her face. "I have good news."
"What is it?" Reno asked, not really showing his interest at the information Elena has.
"I have the complete, hard proof that Alec Kitani was part of the assassination plot."
Immediately, Reno's head practically turned at an almost impossible speed as he watched Elena drop a tape on the table. "That was a security footage from a bar in Corel... you have to watch it to believe it."
Reno grinned as he took the tape and headed towards the TV set and played it. All four of them watched as an unknown man was practically shouting at Alec Kitani.
"... I told you not to take part in the assassination! I told you!"
"Shut up." Alec replied as he took a drink of red wine. "Everything's under control."
"Under control? AVALANCHE has..."
"They have nothing!" Alec spat as he looked around them. "They have no proof I'm involve, if they know what's good for them, those stupid bounty hunters won't talk."
"And the council?"
"Don't worry about that, already took care of it..."
Reno paused the tape and looked at Elena. "I could kiss you."
None of them noticed Rude tense up.
"So, you're going to show that to Yuffie?"
Reno scratched his chin. He needed to shave. "No, not yet. I have bigger plans for this tape."
"What? Are you serious?"
"Very. Make about three copies of that. Give me everything you can find about the security, the lay out, and all the works for the conference."
Elena suddenly had a bad feeling about this. Even with all the time she had spent with Reno, he could still surprise her with his callousness. He was planning something, and she knew it wasn't going to be pleasant. "What exactly are you going to do?"
"I'm going to give Alec Kitani a taste of his own medicine."
*-*-
Alec Kitani, on the other hand, had other things on his mind. The missiles were ready. All it will take was one word from him, and Wutai will once again fall. He clenched his fists as he stared at the newspaper. It was all her fault. If Yuffie only accepted him, then he wouldn't have done this, but she needed to know that he was someone that you just can't push away.
/She won't refuse me again. Not when she finds out what I can do to her precious town./
Yuffie Kisaragi will belong to him, as Wutai will be. Just as it was meant to be.
Years ago, his grandfather left Wutai to join Shinra Inc. Of course, nobody knew that.
It was one of their family's best-kept secrets. It was his grandfather that saw Lady Misao Kisaragi and her talent with materia. However, her talent wasn't enough to save the town from Sepiroth.
/If only I could get the reports on what they did to Yuffie's blood, I'll be more certain!/
His father had told him about a certain experiment done to the blood sample. Some scientist named Hojo apparently discovered something very interesting in Yuffie's blood, and it was only another scientist that stopped him from asking the young general to bring the child in for further tests. Some woman named Lucinda? Or whatever her name was...
He also knew the rumors about Misao Arimi being a summoner of some sort, but as far as everybody knew, it was all rumors. To him, it was just probably a rumor that was created to justify why Lord Jin Kisaragi would engage his son to a commoner. But still, if Misao Arimi can use more than one materia at once, and if that scientist found Yuffie's blood to be so important, then maybe... just maybe Misao Arimi did have great power that was left undiscovered. If Yuffie also had that power, then all the more reason for him to claim the Lady of Wutai as his own.
/She will belong to me. I never loose.../
~tBC~
joy's little rant:
So, this is chapter 2. Thanks to all your comments, and once again, sorry for the delay.
Am I making Alec Kitani sound like a psycho? Well, I'm pretty much aware how many of you want him dead... but not yet! I need a villain!
I hope I didn't confuse anyone with the little info on Yuffie's mother. I wanted that part to be a hint. Just remember, this is an AU fic... so I'm taking my liberties here in giving Yuffie greater abilities. So I hope, I pray that you'll all keep an open mind when you read future chapters... PLEASE!!!
I'm not making this a Reno/Yuffie/Vincent/Reeve fic. Really I'm not! And yeah, Reno probably was angry because he wanted to be in Reeve's place! ^__^
Ja!
Joy
Sorry, just can't help it!! It kinda felt guilty when I read your comments on my writing stamina... I was supposed to finish this chapter last Sunday, but after Italy lost to Croatia, my heart broke ^__^ only to be fixed by Del Piero... I'm in love!
Anyway, sorry for the delay!
Usual Disclaimers Apply
Breath Away
Chapter 2
Yuffie took a deep breath as she walked out of the Council Chambers. The only place the media was allowed was in the residence and business district. Anywhere else was off limits, to which she was grateful for.
The meeting turned out better than she expected, no mention of any of the rumors was brought up. The land now belonging to Kitani Corp was top of the agenda, and Yuffie's participation in the Mako Conference next week. She knew Barret would be there, as well as Reeve. He also mentioned that Cloud might make an appearance, but he wasn't sure.
Yuffie's face darkened. The conference would also include the mako-lover Alec Kitani and his supporters. /Gawd, and I thought I never have to see his face again./
The thought of seeing Reeve made her feel uncomfortable. What would she say? Act normal or stay away from him? Sure, she still considered him as a friend, but with those stupid rumors flying around, how was she supposed to act around him? She already heard that some of his suppliers were starting to back-out because of the rumors. She didn't want all his hard work to go down the drain, so what was she supposed to do?
"Yuffie!"
The loud voice made Yuffie roll her eyes. Why she chose Cait Sith as her bodyguard, she would never know. She briefly thought about running away from him and have a little game of hide and seek, but brushed it aside. She needed to go to the private library and research more about the mako-reactors, and their effects on the planet.
"You really shouldn't walk without me, you know!"
"I'm just going to the library..."
Caith Sith pretended to be shocked. "You? Going to the library?"
"For the meeting next week... I need to know what I'm going to say..."
"Simple, just tell them that if they activate the reactors, we'll just blow them all up!"
Yuffie turned red. "I already suggested that, but Godo told me that I need to learn to deal with things in a diplomatic manner." She snorted. "Diplomatic my ass, those people would use the reactors if it means more money,"
There was a flash of light, and they both blinked as they looked around to see where it came from, and Yuffie groaned when she saw a horde of photographers from a distance taking their pictures. "Cait..."
The cat grinned before winking at Yuffie. "I'll take care of it!"
She felt a heavy weight on her head as Cait placed an enormous headphone over her head. Yuffie could only look as the photographers clutched their ears while running away. After a few moments, she felt the weight of the headphones being taken off. "There, see... aren't you glad I'm around?"
"What the hell did you do?"
She looked at the wide beam on the cat's face. "I'm a genius!"
"No... Reeve's the genius. He created *you*"
"Hey! I'm my own mog now! I hardly need him to control me!"
Yuffie rolled her eyes as he began walking to the library. "Shouldn't you be somewhere else recharging?"
"Nope! I have a full day worth of solo power..."
/Unfortunately./ She looked around her, hoping that there was no more photographers hiding somewhere. She didn't even want to think about what she'd see in tomorrow's paper.
*-*-
The next day, President Reeve greeted the day with a smile. The 400-meter run with Reno did him good. After getting himself freshened up, he took a seat, newspaper in hand with his coffee on the other. He sipped the hot liquid carefully, opened the paper... and spat his coffee out.
"What on earth?"
On the front page, was a colored picture of Yuffie with Cait Sith, but what shocked him was the headline: "President Reeve creates a bodyguard for young lover!"
He didn't even bother to read the rest of the article as he dropped the newspaper down at the table. Next week was Yuffie's first official appearance as Lady Kisaragi out of Wutai. He knew that these rumors were being created to discredit her, but what puzzled him was Kitani. He knew the president of Kitani Corp had a slight infatuation with Yuffie, even Reno mentioned it. So why the hell was he allowing his people to do this to her?
"So, any more of your buildings burned down?"
Reeve looked at Reno and shook his head as the Turk sat in front of him, a bottle of light beer on his hand. "You're drinking that?"
"Hey, it's light." He replied before taking a sip. "Aaahhh, nothing better than beer first thing in the morning." He grabbed that paper before Reeve could stop him.
Reno's eye narrowed as he saw the coffee stained picture. Reeve held his breath, not knowing why he felt afraid. There was this expression on Reno's face that he had never seen before...
"I need to call Yuffie. Maybe it would be better if she sticks with the Royal Guards. She's got too much to worry about. Her first public appearance outside of Wutai as Lady Kisaragi..."
"Don't bother." Reno told him after a small sip of beer. "Whatever you do, they'll bound to make something new out of it."
"What am I suppose to do, then?"
Reno shrugged. "I'm just here to watch your back. Don't ask me a question if you know you're not gonna like the answer."
Reeve rubbed the back of his neck, trying to get enough courage to ask Reno a question that's been nagging him. "Is there.... is there anything between you and Yuffie?"
"No." Reno replied as he looked at Reeve. "Is there anything between *you* and Yuffie?"
Reeve blinked, Reno's question catching him off guard. "Of course not!"
The serious look on Reno's face disappeared as the Turk winked at him. "Relax, cat-boy. I was just playing with you."
Reeve scowled at him just as his PHS rang. "Hello? Shake?"
Reno took another sip of his beer as Reeve massaged his temple with his free hand. "Is she okay?... I understand."
The President of Shinra Inc sighed as he turned the connection off. "Yuffie's having another fight with her father." He watched as that dangerous glint appeared on Reno's eyes again as he took another sip of beer.
"So, what else is new?"
"He just asked Vincent Valentine to take Cait Sith's place as her bodyguard."
*^*^
"Are you serious?" Yuffie shrieked at her father, while Vincent Valentine waited outside Lord Godo's office. "How the hell did you find him? I couldn't find him half the time I needed to!"
"A stroke of luck, he was seen by one of my men just outside Wutai. I requested to meet with him, and he agreed."
Yuffie buried her face in her hands. It was hard enough to get away from Cait Sith so she can do her experiments, and now she was going to have Vincent... "This is so not happening to me!"
Lord Godo looked at his daughter. "I thought he's your friend."
"He is!" Yuffie replied.
"Then what's the problem?"
"I don't need a bodyguard! I don't want someone following me around... I need my privacy!"
"You were nearly assassinated. I'm not taking the chance to let our guard down..."
He didn't wait for his daughter to reply as he walked towards the door and opened it, and motioned for Vincent to walk in.
"Hi Vinnie." Yuffie greeted. Sure, she was happy that Vincent was around, but it wasn't like they were out on an AVALANCHE mission. Or hanging out together or something... He was here to *guard* her.
Vincent greeted Yuffie with a slight nod, his eyes resting on the half-charm that he had given her. He wasn't surprised that she gave the half away already, and somehow, he knew exactly whom she gave it to.
"Well," Lord Godo said, obviously pleased with himself. "I'll leave the two of you. I already gave Mr. Valentine your whole schedule for the month."
Yuffie watched her father walk away and sighed. /Great. How the hell am I supposed to get away from Vincent and do my experiments?/
"Ummm, How are you?"
"Fine." Vincent replied as he looked at her. "You're supposed to have a meeting with the council soon."
Yuffie rolled her eyes. "Gawd yes! Every single day all we do is talk about this, talk about that..."
"Some things are better resolved if you talk them through,"
"Not if all you do is talk!" Yuffie replied, trying not to feel awkward. "We'll be seeing Barret and Reeve at the conference next week. Maybe Cloud will be there... it's almost going to be like a mini-reunion or something..."
Vincent just nodded, and Yuffie fidgeted. She hated silence.
"So, let's go?" She asked, not knowing what else to say. Vincent nodded again and held the door open for her. Yuffie blushed slightly as she passed by him. The thought that he was going to be around her practically 24/7 was driving her insane. Her hand touched the pendant and she smiled. /I wonder what Reno's doing now./
*-*-
Reeve watched as Reno's grip on the bottle tightened, then relaxed as the Turk flipped the newspaper to the sports page. "Well, Yuffie's going to bring Cait Sith to the conference, so we'll all be seeing each other there."
Reno didn't reply but continued to read the sports page.
The two men stayed silent as Elena and Rude walked in, the female Turk with a huge smile on her face. "I have good news."
"What is it?" Reno asked, not really showing his interest at the information Elena has.
"I have the complete, hard proof that Alec Kitani was part of the assassination plot."
Immediately, Reno's head practically turned at an almost impossible speed as he watched Elena drop a tape on the table. "That was a security footage from a bar in Corel... you have to watch it to believe it."
Reno grinned as he took the tape and headed towards the TV set and played it. All four of them watched as an unknown man was practically shouting at Alec Kitani.
"... I told you not to take part in the assassination! I told you!"
"Shut up." Alec replied as he took a drink of red wine. "Everything's under control."
"Under control? AVALANCHE has..."
"They have nothing!" Alec spat as he looked around them. "They have no proof I'm involve, if they know what's good for them, those stupid bounty hunters won't talk."
"And the council?"
"Don't worry about that, already took care of it..."
Reno paused the tape and looked at Elena. "I could kiss you."
None of them noticed Rude tense up.
"So, you're going to show that to Yuffie?"
Reno scratched his chin. He needed to shave. "No, not yet. I have bigger plans for this tape."
"What? Are you serious?"
"Very. Make about three copies of that. Give me everything you can find about the security, the lay out, and all the works for the conference."
Elena suddenly had a bad feeling about this. Even with all the time she had spent with Reno, he could still surprise her with his callousness. He was planning something, and she knew it wasn't going to be pleasant. "What exactly are you going to do?"
"I'm going to give Alec Kitani a taste of his own medicine."
*-*-
Alec Kitani, on the other hand, had other things on his mind. The missiles were ready. All it will take was one word from him, and Wutai will once again fall. He clenched his fists as he stared at the newspaper. It was all her fault. If Yuffie only accepted him, then he wouldn't have done this, but she needed to know that he was someone that you just can't push away.
/She won't refuse me again. Not when she finds out what I can do to her precious town./
Yuffie Kisaragi will belong to him, as Wutai will be. Just as it was meant to be.
Years ago, his grandfather left Wutai to join Shinra Inc. Of course, nobody knew that.
It was one of their family's best-kept secrets. It was his grandfather that saw Lady Misao Kisaragi and her talent with materia. However, her talent wasn't enough to save the town from Sepiroth.
/If only I could get the reports on what they did to Yuffie's blood, I'll be more certain!/
His father had told him about a certain experiment done to the blood sample. Some scientist named Hojo apparently discovered something very interesting in Yuffie's blood, and it was only another scientist that stopped him from asking the young general to bring the child in for further tests. Some woman named Lucinda? Or whatever her name was...
He also knew the rumors about Misao Arimi being a summoner of some sort, but as far as everybody knew, it was all rumors. To him, it was just probably a rumor that was created to justify why Lord Jin Kisaragi would engage his son to a commoner. But still, if Misao Arimi can use more than one materia at once, and if that scientist found Yuffie's blood to be so important, then maybe... just maybe Misao Arimi did have great power that was left undiscovered. If Yuffie also had that power, then all the more reason for him to claim the Lady of Wutai as his own.
/She will belong to me. I never loose.../
~tBC~
joy's little rant:
So, this is chapter 2. Thanks to all your comments, and once again, sorry for the delay.
Am I making Alec Kitani sound like a psycho? Well, I'm pretty much aware how many of you want him dead... but not yet! I need a villain!
I hope I didn't confuse anyone with the little info on Yuffie's mother. I wanted that part to be a hint. Just remember, this is an AU fic... so I'm taking my liberties here in giving Yuffie greater abilities. So I hope, I pray that you'll all keep an open mind when you read future chapters... PLEASE!!!
I'm not making this a Reno/Yuffie/Vincent/Reeve fic. Really I'm not! And yeah, Reno probably was angry because he wanted to be in Reeve's place! ^__^
Ja!
Joy