Disclaimer: Don't own Final Fantasy VII, or Vincent, or Tifa, or any of the other Final Fantasy VII characters. Just inserting them into the machine of my imagination and watching what pops out.
Destination: Common Ground
by: thelittletree
(Thanks for reviews, everyone! I was frustrated writing the last chapter, but this one feels more on track. Happy, happy, to be writing again!)
"True love is knowing a person's faults, and loving them even more for them." -- Mandy Hampton
* * *
Vincent jerked the cigarette out of its package and put it between his lips before making a hurried search for his lighter. Too impatient for the nicotine, he knew, to take his time. Once, he'd hated this dependency -- hated the fact that he couldn't go a few hours without a smoke -- but, like others in his occupation, he'd stolidly defended the habit because it had kept him sane. And not only the drug; it had been the steady, mindless repetition, the idea that there was always something you could do to keep yourself busy when the job became too much.
When Lily had offered him that first cigarette, almost a year after he'd moved into her upstairs apartment, the memories of blessed escape had come back to him like waves of relief. And he'd been powerless not to fall right back in where he'd left off.
Keys, a receipt, some gil, more keys. He pursed his lips and began to search through his pants' pockets even though he knew they were empty.
"Shit." No lighter. On the kitchen counter, he suddenly realized. He'd put it there while putting on his coat. And never picked it up again.
"Hey."
Being addicted, however, could sometimes make you distracted.
Cid had come around the corner of the building and found him there in the shadow. Legs apart like the flagstones might suddenly roll beneath him, goggles holding back swells of his dirty blond hair, chin and cheeks spotted unevenly with five o'clock shadow. He looked like he had any number of the times Vincent had seen him, as if he might've just stepped out of the sky onto terra firma.
"Didn't know you guys had even arrived."
His face was still lined with past grins and grimaces, his eyes bright and candid over a mouth that had always seemed on the verge of a scowl. Sometimes, despite his temper, the most level-headed of their group, and in some ways the most experienced. Vincent had, to a certain extent, respected him -- partly, perhaps, because Cid had always minded his own business.
The old pilot turned to glance around the corner before straightening back up and pulling out his own package of cigarettes.
"My third in six hours," he muttered around the butt as he slipped a hand into his bomber jacket. "But, all those idiots. Make me so friggin' edgy, caught up in this whole 'reunion' thing. I gotta relax before I bite someone's head off." He pulled out a small book of matches and gestured with them, only meeting Vincent's eyes for a second. "You need a light?"
Vincent was very tempted to say no. To take the cigarette out of his mouth and walk away. To be what they remembered. It would be easier, and they would likely shrug it off the way they always had. He didn't want to make small talk, or pretend to reminisce, and he especially didn't want to answer questions.
But the moment he smelled the phosphorus of the burning match, he knew he was caught. He needed a cigarette, and for that the loss of his privacy suddenly didn't seem like such an unreasonable sacrifice. He took a step forward and Cid shielded the small flame with his hand as he lit up.
They smoked in silence for almost a minute. Eventually, Cid dropped the spent butt of his cigarette into the grass and smothered it with his boot.
"Didn't know you smoked."
Vincent didn't reply. Cid seemed to wait a second for a response, before lighting up again.
"Hear you and Tifa have a baby on the way."
He sighed inwardly and battled momentarily with the desire to ignore the comment entirely.
"Mm."
Cid chuckled suddenly, a quick breath of air, and then he raised his head and took a drag. "Okay. That hasn't changed." He kicked at a crack in the flagstone and knocked a loose chip into the grass. "I'm not really in the mood, either, to tell you the truth. Didn't even want to come. I knew it was going to be the same shitty dramas. Barret trying to get into everybody's business, Yuffie tryin' to worm her way under everyone's armpits. Fuck." He kicked the crack again, and then began to work at it with his heel.
He seemed determined to break something loose. Vincent glanced at him a moment before putting the cigarette between his lips, recognizing that Cid had been working toward something, but had suddenly shut his mouth.
Cid took another drag and ceased his attack on the old flagstone. "'M supposed to be quitting. For the baby."
Vincent realized in some surprise that he wouldn't have minded if Cid had continued. Tifa listened, sometimes teased him, but she never really commiserated about his social discomfort.
"So am I."
The pilot looked over at him, his mouth turning up in a lop-sided smile. Then, after a moment, he turned his attention back to the flagstone. Took another pull of his cigarette.
"Can I ask you somethin'? You play poker?"
* * *
It was only partly the baby in Shera's arms that drew Tifa over. And she cooed and smiled over little Jeremy for a minute or two before asking her question.
Shera's expression became one of unsurprised amusement. "Does Vincent know how to play poker?"
Tifa felt her eyebrows twitch upward as she blinked. "Yes. Why?"
Shera looked at Jeremy as he began to whimper and put the soother back into his mouth. "Because that's where Vincent probably is. Cid's been trying to get someone to play for hours."
Tifa shook her head and couldn't help a small laugh. "Cid's going to lose some gil, then."
Shera chuckled. After a moment, however, she glanced up seriously. "How much gil?"
* * *
"You do these exercises for your back?"
Tifa nodded and sat down on the mat Yuffie had laid on the floor. It took her a moment to make herself comfortable, and then she glanced at the closed door. "No one's going to come in here, right?"
Yuffie shrugged and lay out her own mat. "No one has so far." Dressed in shorts and a tank top both made for working out, she looked even thinner and more muscular as she began her stretches. "I think I'm the only one who knows this room exists. Well, now you, too." She grinned over her shoulder and then stood to switch legs.
"And you've been here...?"
"Two days. Barret asked me to come early to help everyone find the place." She smiled a little, almost awkwardly, before turning away again. Obviously pleased with having been given some responsibility, and old enough now to realize that it was childish to be too proud of the distinction. When she was on both feet again, she sighed and brushed a lock of hair from her forehead.
"Barret doesn't seem very happy about you and Vince being together."
And Yuffie, Tifa thought, probably didn't yet know where she stood on the subject. "I know."
"He seems to think you and Cloud were made for each other."
Tifa pursed her lips and began the first of her exercises, mostly for warm-up. "He told you that?"
"Well...no. Not exactly. I heard him talking to Cid."
Overheard, Tifa substituted automatically, and probably not by accident. "Barret's entitled to his opinion."
Yuffie looked at her for a moment before turning back to her stretches. There were a few seconds of silence.
"He thinks you should at least talk to Cloud."
Tifa sighed, suddenly wondering if Vincent might have been right about not wanting to come. "Well, he should mind his own business."
Yuffie glanced at her, as if surprised by her tone. After a pause, she continued. "Don't you think it's a little selfish of Vincent not to let you?"
Tifa struggled against the desire to take offense. "It's not about Vincent 'not letting me'. It's about me respecting his feelings. He's uncomfortable with the idea of me being alone in a room with a man I used to love. And I can understand that. If it were reversed..." This was something she'd realized after a particularly nasty fight, after an hour of crying in the bath. "...and it was Lucrecia, I wouldn't want him talking to her alone in a room, either."
Yuffie seemed to think about this for a second before shrugging. "I guess."
"And another fight about Cloud definitely isn't what we need right now." It felt like she'd been saying this to herself, like a mantra, for days.
"What do you mean?"
She felt surprised by the question, and realized belatedly that she probably shouldn't have said that last part out loud. "Well, there are just some things...some other things we're dealing with."
Tifa didn't miss the look on Yuffie's face as they gazed at each other for a moment. And she shook her head a little, unable to keep herself from feeling that familiar stab of betrayed anger.
"Barret told you, didn't he? That it's not Vincent's."
Yuffie wasn't looking at her, but she gave a quick shrug with one shoulder.
Tifa rubbed her face with her hands, feeling suddenly tired. "God, he used to be on my side."
"Maybe he thinks he still is."
Tifa frowned and took a breath, forcibly restraining all of her thoughts about Barret's overprotective-ness from shooting out of her mouth in the wrong direction.
"So it's true?"
She determinedly started her exercises again. "Well, technically."
Yuffie took the cue and turned back to her own routine. "By 'technically' you mean..."
"I went to a sperm bank."
"And Vincent...isn't happy about that?"
"Well..." She chuckled to herself, though not really out of amusement. "He didn't want a baby in the first place."
Yuffie glanced over her shoulder with a quick grin. "You obviously changed his mind."
She gave a wry smile and shook her head. "No, he changed his mind. I would never presume to be able to change anything about Vincent."
Yuffie smirked and moved into a sitting position on her mat, facing Tifa. "Sounds like Godo," she muttered.
They continued their respective exercises for a few moments in silence.
And then... "But why a sperm bank?"
Tifa wondered if the questions would ever end. Lily, even Aeris, would never have been so nosy.
"If he changed his mind, why would you need to go there?"
She tried to find a reasonable way around the answer, but as her mind blanked on excuses she finally had to settle for the truth. "Yuffie, I'm going to tell you something in complete confidence, all right? It doesn't leave this room."
Yuffie's eyes brightened with a familiar glowing mischief. "Of course. I wouldn't tell anyone."
Tifa pursed her lips, wondering if this was a good idea. Wondering how much trouble she'd be in if this ever made its way through the grapevine. "Vincent can't father children."
Yuffie's expression fell into a disappointed scowl as she sat back again. "That's not such a big secret. Lots of people can't."
"Well, he's embarrassed about it." Or he was afraid everyone would immediately realize that his sterility was Hojo's doing. "Just keep it to yourself, please."
"Okay, okay."
Nearly a minute passed. Tifa was just to starting to think that maybe the interrogation was over when...
"What changed his mind?"
She glanced up, searching for the last thread of conversation. "Whose mind?"
"Vincent's." Yuffie looked a little exasperated. "What eventually changed his mind about having a baby?"
Tifa was momentarily tempted to say it was none of her business. To say she was finished her exercises and to leave the room. Her initial supposition of being able to talk to Yuffie on some kind of level ground had been dashed away by the same obstacle that kept tripping Barret up, and she wasn't sure she could handle trying to convince two people.
But then she recognized that Yuffie had no real loyalties either way. Not rooting for Cloud or Vincent, but just trying to understand that Tifa was...happy. She licked her lips and knew this would be the deciding factor.
"Well, Vincent and I actually broke up for about a week over it," she confessed. "He went to Kalm and I stayed in Nibelheim."
"That jerk," Yuffie interjected suddenly.
"No, no," Tifa was quick to reassure her. "It was mutual. We felt we both wanted different things, so it would probably be better if we were on our own for awhile. And..." She smiled a little to herself. "...that lasted for about a week."
"He came back?"
"No, I went there."
She could still remember standing in his room at the inn, dripping from the rain, crying. Finally decided, after too long missing him, that she could live without a baby, a small stranger she'd never met. But she couldn't live without Vincent.
And he'd helped her out of her wet clothes. Wrapped her in a blanket. Pulled her onto his lap, on the bed. And he'd held her. Held her, tightly, silently, for a very long time.
"We talked for awhile, and then..."
Yuffie raised a hand and smiled a little uncomfortably. "That's okay, I don't need the details."
Tifa couldn't help her grin. "No details, don't worry. I had a shower, we ate some dinner, and in the morning he came back with me to Nibelheim."
Yuffie pursed her lips and met Tifa's eyes. "No offense, but your relationship seems so...complicated. I mean, I have enough trouble just dealing with Godo and all of his stupid rules. I wouldn't want a boyfriend who came with so much...baggage."
Tifa smiled. "I don't know. I have my own baggage, too." She realized suddenly that she'd been sitting comfortably for a little while and started her workout again. "We kind of keep each other balanced."
Yuffie seemed to think about this for a moment before shrugging. "Well, as long as you're happy."
Tifa smiled wider.
They spent ten more minutes on the mats before deciding that they'd done enough. As they headed for the door, however, Yuffie turned to her.
"So, now that you're pregnant, are you two going to, you know, get hitched?"
Tifa laughed. And she knew she'd come a long way if she could laugh about it without bitterness.
"Vincent is never going to marry me."
Destination: Common Ground
by: thelittletree
(Thanks for reviews, everyone! I was frustrated writing the last chapter, but this one feels more on track. Happy, happy, to be writing again!)
"True love is knowing a person's faults, and loving them even more for them." -- Mandy Hampton
* * *
Vincent jerked the cigarette out of its package and put it between his lips before making a hurried search for his lighter. Too impatient for the nicotine, he knew, to take his time. Once, he'd hated this dependency -- hated the fact that he couldn't go a few hours without a smoke -- but, like others in his occupation, he'd stolidly defended the habit because it had kept him sane. And not only the drug; it had been the steady, mindless repetition, the idea that there was always something you could do to keep yourself busy when the job became too much.
When Lily had offered him that first cigarette, almost a year after he'd moved into her upstairs apartment, the memories of blessed escape had come back to him like waves of relief. And he'd been powerless not to fall right back in where he'd left off.
Keys, a receipt, some gil, more keys. He pursed his lips and began to search through his pants' pockets even though he knew they were empty.
"Shit." No lighter. On the kitchen counter, he suddenly realized. He'd put it there while putting on his coat. And never picked it up again.
"Hey."
Being addicted, however, could sometimes make you distracted.
Cid had come around the corner of the building and found him there in the shadow. Legs apart like the flagstones might suddenly roll beneath him, goggles holding back swells of his dirty blond hair, chin and cheeks spotted unevenly with five o'clock shadow. He looked like he had any number of the times Vincent had seen him, as if he might've just stepped out of the sky onto terra firma.
"Didn't know you guys had even arrived."
His face was still lined with past grins and grimaces, his eyes bright and candid over a mouth that had always seemed on the verge of a scowl. Sometimes, despite his temper, the most level-headed of their group, and in some ways the most experienced. Vincent had, to a certain extent, respected him -- partly, perhaps, because Cid had always minded his own business.
The old pilot turned to glance around the corner before straightening back up and pulling out his own package of cigarettes.
"My third in six hours," he muttered around the butt as he slipped a hand into his bomber jacket. "But, all those idiots. Make me so friggin' edgy, caught up in this whole 'reunion' thing. I gotta relax before I bite someone's head off." He pulled out a small book of matches and gestured with them, only meeting Vincent's eyes for a second. "You need a light?"
Vincent was very tempted to say no. To take the cigarette out of his mouth and walk away. To be what they remembered. It would be easier, and they would likely shrug it off the way they always had. He didn't want to make small talk, or pretend to reminisce, and he especially didn't want to answer questions.
But the moment he smelled the phosphorus of the burning match, he knew he was caught. He needed a cigarette, and for that the loss of his privacy suddenly didn't seem like such an unreasonable sacrifice. He took a step forward and Cid shielded the small flame with his hand as he lit up.
They smoked in silence for almost a minute. Eventually, Cid dropped the spent butt of his cigarette into the grass and smothered it with his boot.
"Didn't know you smoked."
Vincent didn't reply. Cid seemed to wait a second for a response, before lighting up again.
"Hear you and Tifa have a baby on the way."
He sighed inwardly and battled momentarily with the desire to ignore the comment entirely.
"Mm."
Cid chuckled suddenly, a quick breath of air, and then he raised his head and took a drag. "Okay. That hasn't changed." He kicked at a crack in the flagstone and knocked a loose chip into the grass. "I'm not really in the mood, either, to tell you the truth. Didn't even want to come. I knew it was going to be the same shitty dramas. Barret trying to get into everybody's business, Yuffie tryin' to worm her way under everyone's armpits. Fuck." He kicked the crack again, and then began to work at it with his heel.
He seemed determined to break something loose. Vincent glanced at him a moment before putting the cigarette between his lips, recognizing that Cid had been working toward something, but had suddenly shut his mouth.
Cid took another drag and ceased his attack on the old flagstone. "'M supposed to be quitting. For the baby."
Vincent realized in some surprise that he wouldn't have minded if Cid had continued. Tifa listened, sometimes teased him, but she never really commiserated about his social discomfort.
"So am I."
The pilot looked over at him, his mouth turning up in a lop-sided smile. Then, after a moment, he turned his attention back to the flagstone. Took another pull of his cigarette.
"Can I ask you somethin'? You play poker?"
* * *
It was only partly the baby in Shera's arms that drew Tifa over. And she cooed and smiled over little Jeremy for a minute or two before asking her question.
Shera's expression became one of unsurprised amusement. "Does Vincent know how to play poker?"
Tifa felt her eyebrows twitch upward as she blinked. "Yes. Why?"
Shera looked at Jeremy as he began to whimper and put the soother back into his mouth. "Because that's where Vincent probably is. Cid's been trying to get someone to play for hours."
Tifa shook her head and couldn't help a small laugh. "Cid's going to lose some gil, then."
Shera chuckled. After a moment, however, she glanced up seriously. "How much gil?"
* * *
"You do these exercises for your back?"
Tifa nodded and sat down on the mat Yuffie had laid on the floor. It took her a moment to make herself comfortable, and then she glanced at the closed door. "No one's going to come in here, right?"
Yuffie shrugged and lay out her own mat. "No one has so far." Dressed in shorts and a tank top both made for working out, she looked even thinner and more muscular as she began her stretches. "I think I'm the only one who knows this room exists. Well, now you, too." She grinned over her shoulder and then stood to switch legs.
"And you've been here...?"
"Two days. Barret asked me to come early to help everyone find the place." She smiled a little, almost awkwardly, before turning away again. Obviously pleased with having been given some responsibility, and old enough now to realize that it was childish to be too proud of the distinction. When she was on both feet again, she sighed and brushed a lock of hair from her forehead.
"Barret doesn't seem very happy about you and Vince being together."
And Yuffie, Tifa thought, probably didn't yet know where she stood on the subject. "I know."
"He seems to think you and Cloud were made for each other."
Tifa pursed her lips and began the first of her exercises, mostly for warm-up. "He told you that?"
"Well...no. Not exactly. I heard him talking to Cid."
Overheard, Tifa substituted automatically, and probably not by accident. "Barret's entitled to his opinion."
Yuffie looked at her for a moment before turning back to her stretches. There were a few seconds of silence.
"He thinks you should at least talk to Cloud."
Tifa sighed, suddenly wondering if Vincent might have been right about not wanting to come. "Well, he should mind his own business."
Yuffie glanced at her, as if surprised by her tone. After a pause, she continued. "Don't you think it's a little selfish of Vincent not to let you?"
Tifa struggled against the desire to take offense. "It's not about Vincent 'not letting me'. It's about me respecting his feelings. He's uncomfortable with the idea of me being alone in a room with a man I used to love. And I can understand that. If it were reversed..." This was something she'd realized after a particularly nasty fight, after an hour of crying in the bath. "...and it was Lucrecia, I wouldn't want him talking to her alone in a room, either."
Yuffie seemed to think about this for a second before shrugging. "I guess."
"And another fight about Cloud definitely isn't what we need right now." It felt like she'd been saying this to herself, like a mantra, for days.
"What do you mean?"
She felt surprised by the question, and realized belatedly that she probably shouldn't have said that last part out loud. "Well, there are just some things...some other things we're dealing with."
Tifa didn't miss the look on Yuffie's face as they gazed at each other for a moment. And she shook her head a little, unable to keep herself from feeling that familiar stab of betrayed anger.
"Barret told you, didn't he? That it's not Vincent's."
Yuffie wasn't looking at her, but she gave a quick shrug with one shoulder.
Tifa rubbed her face with her hands, feeling suddenly tired. "God, he used to be on my side."
"Maybe he thinks he still is."
Tifa frowned and took a breath, forcibly restraining all of her thoughts about Barret's overprotective-ness from shooting out of her mouth in the wrong direction.
"So it's true?"
She determinedly started her exercises again. "Well, technically."
Yuffie took the cue and turned back to her own routine. "By 'technically' you mean..."
"I went to a sperm bank."
"And Vincent...isn't happy about that?"
"Well..." She chuckled to herself, though not really out of amusement. "He didn't want a baby in the first place."
Yuffie glanced over her shoulder with a quick grin. "You obviously changed his mind."
She gave a wry smile and shook her head. "No, he changed his mind. I would never presume to be able to change anything about Vincent."
Yuffie smirked and moved into a sitting position on her mat, facing Tifa. "Sounds like Godo," she muttered.
They continued their respective exercises for a few moments in silence.
And then... "But why a sperm bank?"
Tifa wondered if the questions would ever end. Lily, even Aeris, would never have been so nosy.
"If he changed his mind, why would you need to go there?"
She tried to find a reasonable way around the answer, but as her mind blanked on excuses she finally had to settle for the truth. "Yuffie, I'm going to tell you something in complete confidence, all right? It doesn't leave this room."
Yuffie's eyes brightened with a familiar glowing mischief. "Of course. I wouldn't tell anyone."
Tifa pursed her lips, wondering if this was a good idea. Wondering how much trouble she'd be in if this ever made its way through the grapevine. "Vincent can't father children."
Yuffie's expression fell into a disappointed scowl as she sat back again. "That's not such a big secret. Lots of people can't."
"Well, he's embarrassed about it." Or he was afraid everyone would immediately realize that his sterility was Hojo's doing. "Just keep it to yourself, please."
"Okay, okay."
Nearly a minute passed. Tifa was just to starting to think that maybe the interrogation was over when...
"What changed his mind?"
She glanced up, searching for the last thread of conversation. "Whose mind?"
"Vincent's." Yuffie looked a little exasperated. "What eventually changed his mind about having a baby?"
Tifa was momentarily tempted to say it was none of her business. To say she was finished her exercises and to leave the room. Her initial supposition of being able to talk to Yuffie on some kind of level ground had been dashed away by the same obstacle that kept tripping Barret up, and she wasn't sure she could handle trying to convince two people.
But then she recognized that Yuffie had no real loyalties either way. Not rooting for Cloud or Vincent, but just trying to understand that Tifa was...happy. She licked her lips and knew this would be the deciding factor.
"Well, Vincent and I actually broke up for about a week over it," she confessed. "He went to Kalm and I stayed in Nibelheim."
"That jerk," Yuffie interjected suddenly.
"No, no," Tifa was quick to reassure her. "It was mutual. We felt we both wanted different things, so it would probably be better if we were on our own for awhile. And..." She smiled a little to herself. "...that lasted for about a week."
"He came back?"
"No, I went there."
She could still remember standing in his room at the inn, dripping from the rain, crying. Finally decided, after too long missing him, that she could live without a baby, a small stranger she'd never met. But she couldn't live without Vincent.
And he'd helped her out of her wet clothes. Wrapped her in a blanket. Pulled her onto his lap, on the bed. And he'd held her. Held her, tightly, silently, for a very long time.
"We talked for awhile, and then..."
Yuffie raised a hand and smiled a little uncomfortably. "That's okay, I don't need the details."
Tifa couldn't help her grin. "No details, don't worry. I had a shower, we ate some dinner, and in the morning he came back with me to Nibelheim."
Yuffie pursed her lips and met Tifa's eyes. "No offense, but your relationship seems so...complicated. I mean, I have enough trouble just dealing with Godo and all of his stupid rules. I wouldn't want a boyfriend who came with so much...baggage."
Tifa smiled. "I don't know. I have my own baggage, too." She realized suddenly that she'd been sitting comfortably for a little while and started her workout again. "We kind of keep each other balanced."
Yuffie seemed to think about this for a moment before shrugging. "Well, as long as you're happy."
Tifa smiled wider.
They spent ten more minutes on the mats before deciding that they'd done enough. As they headed for the door, however, Yuffie turned to her.
"So, now that you're pregnant, are you two going to, you know, get hitched?"
Tifa laughed. And she knew she'd come a long way if she could laugh about it without bitterness.
"Vincent is never going to marry me."