Grinding

Final Fantasy VII, all rights to the Square-Enix.

XX

She kept the door opened making it easy for her to come in. Tifa kept feeling uneasy with her, probably because she was handicapped. She chose a table and Tifa tried helping her sit but she made her understand it was something she was able to do on her own. What strength must she have brought to those arms she thought.

"So…" she sat in front of her "…Belinda Carlisle…is t?"

"Yes" she nodded with a smile.

Silence. Tifa raised her hand to make sign for a waiter. The situation was embarrassing and that was the only thing that could make things easier.

"Can I have a coffee?"

"Sure" the waiter nodded and turned to the lady with a smile. She was a well-known client.

"I'll have my usual mate."

The lady hoped Tifa would start a conversation but she just seemed unabled.

"So you're Valentine's girlfriend?"

"Wha…" she startled "…girlfriend? Man sounds so weird but now that you mentioned it would have seemed so. Did he say so?"

"He told me little about you but in my personal opinion you mean a lot to him."

"And how did you meet Vincent?"

"We worked together…as Turks."

She remembered hearing about it though she never had gone further than that.

"You became unable to walk because of your job, right?" she asked trying not to seem too shameless.

"Yes…" she looked sad "…I'd rather not speak of that."

"O-ok."

The lady started moving towards her chair as Tifa observed her closely. She had some wrinkles showing perhaps she was above her forties but she couldn't understand clearly and she couldn't possibly ask. So when Belinda left Tifa felt relieved to start forgetting about her.

Therefore, Vincent hadn't betrayed her. But why didn't he just say so? Why is he meeting with her in such a secret? She really wondered if Vincent knew exactly how she lost her ability to walk.

XX

Yuffie had finished preparing her luggage. She had definitely made her mind up about leaving. Cid was taking her and Red back to their respective homelands. Eventually Cid decided to head back to RocketTown. Nobody knew why he had decided so. Only Yuffie knew.

Tifa came for the last group reunion taking her chance to speak with Vincent. He was sitting on a bench outside. She sat near him without saying a word. She hoped he'd start but he didn't. He kept looking straight.

"Wouldn't it be pathetic if I were now to say I'm sorry?"

She tried to make a smile.

"That's not how it works. You can't make it look like nothing happened."

"I'm not doing that. That's why I'm saying I'm sorry."

"What made you change your mind?"

"I met Belinda."

Vincent turned to her.

"You shouldn't have."

"But I did. And I'm glad I did it."

He just shook his head.

"She is an old friend. She lost her family during the catastrophe."

"That's how she became unable to walk."

"No." he got up "It was my fault. A stupid mistake of a stupid me."

"No, don't go" she pulled him.

"I want to atone for what I've done."

"It's going to take time for that."

She got up.

"It's not fair. It's not fair that if I accuse of something you're not guilty of you should not try to explain the truth. It's not fait that I should guess the answer."

She got angry.

"I saw you whit a woman…I thought what it was natural. I was meeting with Reno and he suddenly ends up dead."

"I heard…" he turned to her once more "…he was shot by his own comrades."

"That I stopped believing even before Belinda."

"How come?"

"You couldn't have possibly done that. I was furious with you and started making the most stupid ideas. For that I'm sorry."

"I guess you might be right about me…"

"It's alright. I know why you did it."

"Huh?"

"You were looking for an excuse to let go of me."

"That's not true."

"It is…you're afraid to get too caught up with someone so much to get hurt. Let go before they let you go. A manual case" she smiled.

"So…are you some expert I can trust?"

"Yes, I'm you're girlfriend. Find a better psychiatrist and I'll pay you two times your apartment."

"It's yours" he insisted.

"Ours!" she added.

Things seemed to start peeking up again. Cid came running to them.

"Hey hey you two! Time for dinner."

"Coming!" she got up "I wouldn't miss our last dinner all together for nothing in the world.

Cid went inside, surprisingly not trying anything dirty on Tifa as usual. He was bound to marry Shera and was probably set on that now. No more fooling around. Then again, he didn't want to deal with Vincent again.

She grabbed his hand and helped him get up even if unnecessary.

"So…can we delete about 3 days?"

"We'll see."

XX

Fin! Yep…sorry but that's it. The ending was supposed to be bad originally but then again…I'm going on holiday soon and I definitely had to end it one way or the other. In a sort of way, I guess it was the best ending I could come up with.

I have other stories coming…