Disclaimer:  I don't own anything from FFVII. Wish I owned Vinnie, though. ^^

A/N: This is the piece of writing that started this fic. Just something I came up with while thinking of a certain friend of mine who does all she can to avoid a photograph, and wondering why on earth someone would go to the lengths she does to be left out of them. I'm a freaky freak like that.

…not to say that I think she's mad suicidal or anything. She'd never. Which I'm profoundly glad of, because I think I'd die.

Lonely Miracle

Still Frames

So take the photographs and still frames in your mind

Put them on a shelf in good health and good time

Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial

For what it was worth, it was worth all the while

  ~ "Time of Your Life", Greenday

Yuffie recognised this night. The lights flashed brightly all around them, the noise of a thousand people screaming, laughing, having a good time was all around them. She could see them all standing in front of a giant moogle, could see herself jumping up and down with glee.

"Come on, you guys! We have to have a picture. It's just one of those things!"

She watched herself in fascination as the past Yuffie latched on to Cid's arm and began dragging him over to stand near Aeris and Cait Sith near the even bigger moogle. Cid grumbled, but Aeris looked at him so imploringly he had to stay. Barret strode over with a scowl on his face, but stood with his arms crossed over his chest, glowering at the photographer.

"Come on Vincent, you too!"

He stood behind the photographer, looking completely out of place. He shook his head once firmly. Barret uncrossed his arms.

"Vince, if we have to go through this, then so do you."

Vincent stood there, staring at them, eyes cold and distant as he replied.

"No."

It was simple, it was clear. There was no possible way she could have gotten him to change his mind. Still, she skipped back to him.

"Come on, Vinnie, please? Just one photo? You can just stand in the back if you want."

He had just stared at her, and a slow blush of anger and humiliation had covered her face. She had sneered, determined to cover her intense disappointment.

"You know what? Don't bother. Like I wanted you in a photo of mine anyway! You'd probably just make the lens break."

The vision faded and the footsteps of the real Vincent echoed loudly in the darkness behind her. She turned around to watch him carefully. If there was one thing she had learned here, it was that Vincent was not at all who he seemed.

"…Vincent? Why wouldn't you come have a photo with us?" Her voice was soft, masking the hurt she still felt at his refusal all that time ago.

Vincent's head dropped so that he watched his feet. "…I hate photographs."

"Why, Vincent? It's just a photo."

The air around them started to shimmer as Vincent began to remember something else. "…I hate them… always showing happier times… times better than they are now… it's like they're mocking me!" His voice was harsh and choked with bitterness and hate. "Mocking me for all I've lost…"

Yuffie saw Lucrecia again, this time out of her lab coat in a pale blue dress that covered her arms and her pregnant belly. Vincent, handsome in his smart blue Turks suit, stood behind her one arm around Lucrecia's waist. Yuffie stared in surprise, a tiny grin spreading over her face and blossoming into a face-splitting one. The Vincent in the still frame was smiling, and not just the sad half-smile he had given after they had seen Lucrecia in the cave behind the waterfall, but a wide smile of true happiness. Yuffie's heart ached.

"You were so happy together…" she whispered.

"We were so happy together… just look at what either of us have now…" Vincent responded. He banished the memory and turned to walk away into the darkness. Yuffie ran after him.

"Vincent! Vincent, you can't leave me here. I can't wander your memories forever…" She caught at his cloak. He turned on her with a furious snarl.

"You did not have to wander my memories at all! Why couldn't you just have died? We would be done with this place… these memories… these memories that I hate more than the Chaos demon…" His fingers, real and biomechanical, dug into her shoulders painfully. Yuffie barely felt them.

"Did you want me to die, Vincent? Would you have preferred it that way?" Her voice was cold enough to rival his, anger smouldering in the depths of her stomach, flaming out from the tip of her tongue. Vincent's grip relaxed as he faltered, but she didn't give him the chance to strike back. "Would you have liked it better, rotting in your coffin, dreaming your life away? Did you like your nightmares better than your friends, Vincent?" Her voice had risen to a shriek as the hurt poured out.

"Did you like lying there day after day, night after night, crying in your sleep? Was it better than your second chance? Then stay here, Vincent, just stay here and let me the hell out of your little nightmare world! Let me out of this hell you made for yourself because you were too cowardly to get up and do anything about it, too stupid to seize the opportunity you had! Do you think Lucrecia would have wanted it this way, you wasting everything, remembering it all and hating it and poisoning all the good you had? Do you?" She shoved at him, hard, rage lending her strength. Vincent took a step back, then another, and another. Yuffie advanced on him furiously.

"Don't be such a damn coward, Vincent! Stop running away from the truth."

"It can't be…" Vincent muttered. "It can't be… stop… stop it, Yuffie…" His eyes were wide with near panic. The air around them flickered with a thousand different images with Vincent's confusion.

"No, Vincent. You stop it. Stop deceiving yourself. Stop running. Please." Yuffie stopped in her tracks, suddenly drained. "Just listen to me. Please. Vincent, I want to go home. I want to get out of this place. Please, Vincent, I have to help you to see this. I have to help you to get home. I don't want to die."

"How can I help you… when I cannot even help myself? I don't want to wake up… just let me die…"

"God, Vincent, listen to yourself! You can't… I won't let you. Just… Leviathan! Help me, Vincent! Help me get out. Then if you still want to leave… if you still want to rot away in your coffin…" She looked up at him balefully. "…I won't stop you."

Vincent's eyes were clouded with grief and pain, but he had stopped shaking. "…I don't want to keep you here…" He said truthfully. "I don't want to condemn you to my fate… Yuffie…"

Yuffie closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms securely around his middle, letting out the choked end of a sob. "Good. That's good. Come on, Vincent."

Vincent stepped away from her embrace. "…what do you have to say to me?"

"All I did…" Yuffie returned softly. "Just… just that it's not your fault… it was never your fault. The rise of the Shinra wasn't your fault, Sephiroth wasn't your fault, Lucrecia wasn't your fault. You can't take the world on your shoulders, Vinnie, just the chunks that belong to you."

Vincent stared at her for a long time. Then he began to fade. Yuffie looked down at herself – she was deteriorating, too. Fear welled and then sad acceptance. Whatever happened now was up to Vincent.

A/N:  Well, that's that. I warned you I was weird. :P Please review. Next chapter is probably the last.

Thankyou to all my wondrous reviewers! ^^ You were great. I am indeed encouraged to finish this. :) To boost my esteem further… please read "Faith & Feather"! It's Yuffentine-y, too! *shameless plugging* Next chapter will be up as soon as I have a microt of free time, I swear to the gods.