A/N: My second VincentxYuffie story! It's a simple lil story. I like simpleness. Hehe, anyways! I hope you enjoy reading!

Disclaimer: FF7 doesn't belong to meee… only the idea of this story.

The Evening Rays Will Shine

"Are you still angry about the materia, Vinnie?"

"…"

"Gragh! Answer me already!"

I sighed and turned away from Yuffie. She should already know how I feel about… what happened before. Since she had been with us for some time, I would think I could trust her with our belongings. However, I guess I was wrong about that. As we were passing through Mount Corel, I entrusted Yuffie with our materia. I had no choice. She kept complaining about how she was so careful with things. I knew I shouldn't have bought that act. No matter how much she says she changed, she's still the same ruthless ninja from when I first saw her. It happened right on the bridge. We encountered numerous enemies that moment. I hadn't realized until after we defeated our enemies. Yuffie's head hung over the rope bridge and muttered out the words, "…the… material fell." Since then, I haven't talked to her about that little event. Those were the only materia that Cloud had given us and we lost them. In total: eight. Eight very important materia.

"Geez! When is this piece of junk gonna move already! Cloud's gonna wonder where we are!"

I lifted an eyebrow as Yuffie bounced up and down on the seat of the Ropeway car. The engineer announced that we were finally departing. As the cart's engines roared loudly, a wide grin appeared on the ninja's face. Now that I realized it, this was only her second time on the Ropeway car. Her childlike actions made me want to strap her into the seat. I swear that sooner or later, she'll find herself flying right out the window. I couldn't help but tap my foot on the ground. I was getting pretty irritated with all her racket and I was pretty sure the other passengers were thinking that as well. Yuffie smiled nervously then concentrated out the window.

"Vinnie! Look! It's the Gold Saucer!" she tapped her finger against the glass window. "I forgot how huge and… bright it was!"

"This would be your second time here?"

"Yeah! I- Hey! You talked!"

I folded my arms over my chest. "So I did."

That made Yuffie smile. I guess that made her less worried about me. I admit that I felt bad giving her the silent treatment. However, that still doesn't change the fact that I'm still pretty upset about what she had done before.

Yuffie resumed looking out the window. "I really hope Cloud will let us play this time! Last time I been here, we only talked to this old guy, then left. Geez."

"Don't get your hopes up. Cloud probably called us down to discuss important business. We were supposed to deliver a few items to several towns."

"But… why the Gold Saucer? Why not… Nibelheim or something? Or Cosmo Canyon? Or even-"

At that, the Ropeway car came to a sudden stop. The engineer announced that we had arrived at the Gold Saucer. As we exited out of the car, Yuffie ran straight for the entrance and pouted at me.

"Come on, slowpoke!" she yelled. "Let's meet the rest so we can have some fun!"

Once I caught up with Yuffie, the woman in the entrance smiled and lifted her hand up. "Are you from Mister Cloud Strife's party?"

"Yuh huh!" Yuffie happily responded. "Yuffie Kisaragi and Vinnie Valentine!"

"Ah, then it's no charge. Cloud had already paid for you. Please enjoy the rest of the evening."

I bowed. "Thank you."

Once we finally entered the building, we noticed that the whole party had already arrived. Cait Sith was the first to notice our appearances.

"Hey, hey! There they are!" he exclaimed.

Cloud nodded his head at me as I did the same to him. "You guys are pretty late," he joked. "We were getting worried."

"We encountered a few problems on the way here."

"Oh? Like what?"

"Yu-"

My arm tugged back at that. I shifted my body around and spotted Yuffie with a worried look on. I stared into her eyes for a second then turned to Cloud. I knew I was going to regret it later on, but I knew that she didn't mean to do what she did before. Of course she didn't… I sighed and finally answered.

"You… wouldn't… want to hear it. Too… personal."

Cloud lifted an eyebrow at that then shrugged. "Uh… okay. Whatever. Glad you guys're alright." At that, he turned to the rest of his friends who finally gave him their attention. "Alright. I know that we've been working extremely hard for the past few weeks and I thank you all for keeping up with me. It's been tough, but you guys were able to handle anything I threw to you. So, to show my appreciation… I would like to declare, as of tonight and tomorrow, rest day…s!"

Everyone gave a loud cheer at that. I could have sworn Yuffie was the loudest out of everyone in the group. I guess her little dream had come true. She could finally try out all the attractions and whatnot. As for me, I decided to rest up in the hotel. I wasn't exactly in the mood for any nonsense such as this.

"Cloud! Are you serious? We can have fun?" Yuffie squealed to him. She shook her fists around at that.

Cloud smiled. "Yes, Yuffie. I know you've been probably thinking about having fun earlier. You're lucky."

"Yay! I wanna check out the games!"

"Come on, Cloud! I wanna go on the Ferris Wheel!" Tifa grinned as she tugged Cloud towards one of the tubes.

"Ah, finally!" Cid said as he stretched his arms. "I'll be sleeping in the hotel in case anyone's wondering."

"I'm following," Red responded.

I watched as Barret followed the two as well. Cait Sith made his way to the Wonder Square, most likely going to tell fortunes to people again. I decided to head over to the hotel now. Before I could, I spotted Yuffie pointing at the Wonder Square tube. She grinned.

"Vinnie! Let's play games!"

I shook my head. Yuffie pouted at that then stomped towards me. She tugged my arm towards the Wonder Square, pointed to me then to the tube. I shook my head again. She pouted again.

"Go! I wanna play with you!"

"I don't feel like pl-"

I suddenly lost my balanced and found myself falling through the tube. I could hear Yuffie laughing from behind. I grunted to myself, knowing that I had no other choice. Perhaps, I would accompany her for a while.

"Ah! Vinnie! Look! I got a kitty!"

I watched as Yuffie grabbed the prize out from the machine. I yawned to myself and looked around for the time. We've been playing games for two hours straight and Yuffie showed no signs of exhaustion whatsoever. I leaned against the wall for a second before she dragged me to the other room.

It was completely packed. Practically all the games were being occupied and it looked like it would take forever until another one was open. Yuffie made a nasty-looking face at them. She grunted and looked around. Her expression changed when she spotted a huge crowd surrounding one of the games. She tugged me towards that direction.

"Hey, what's going on?" she asked one of the kids.

"We're trying to see who can beat Dio's highest score in snowboarding. So far, no one has ever done it."

Yuffie paused then snapped her head back to me. "Vinnie! You should play this game! You're good at these kinds of things! "

I remained silent. Me, an unusually tall man playing a snowboarding game with children surrounding me. I narrowed my eyes at her. I recall nothing related to snowboarding that I am good at.

"No," I finally said. "I told you, I'm not in the mood for g-"

"Attention people of all ages!" Yuffie announced to the crowd. Everyone turned their attention to her. I lifted both my eyebrows. She wasn't… she wouldn't dare. "My friend, Vinnie, would like to break that high score!

"Oh yeah?" one of the kids said in the crowd. "Is he truly that good?"

"Hell yeah!"

"Pff! I bet he's not!" another yelled out.

A teenager agreed. "I bet he can't even pass thirty seconds! That's how much he sucks!"

My eye twitched at that. That definitely got my blood pumping. I didn't know why I was feeling so eager to play such a silly game. I never… felt like this before. I removed my red mantle and handed it to Yuffie. She looked kind of shocked when I did so. I would too if I were her. I would never had expected such a change.

The crowd of kids and teens made a path for me as I jumped onto the snowboard. The choices, Beginner, Expert, and Crazy appeared on the screen. One of the kids chose Crazy. I crouched down, ready for the game to start. When the signal cued off for it to begin, I was off. As I maneuvered the snowboard around, I felt that I was actually snowboarding for real. The obstacles held no threat to me whatsoever as I easily dodged the giant Moogles. I could hear the crowd gasping in shock. I smirked as the sharp turns caused the machine's snowboard to move around like crazy. I admit that that was indeed, dare I say it, fun. As soon as the game ended, my score was compared to the champion's score. Everyone gasped as they discovered that my score was one point less than the top scorer's. However, everyone cheered that I was just as good as the champion.

"Damn! I've never seen anything like it before! Awesome job!" the teenager commented to me.

I nodded. "That was pretty good… for my first time." The room was silent as I left. Maybe… I shouldn't have said that it was my first time.

Yuffie ran in front of me and leaned forward. "Geez, Vinnie! You were awesome!"

"Thank you. But please, don't do that again."

"Hehe, okay." She stretched her arms out and yawned loudly. "Wow… what time is it?"

"Most likely passed midnight."

"Whhaaat? But I wanted to play more!"

I headed towards the warp tube that led to the hotel. "Yuffie. Once we get settled in, I would like to have a talk with you in my room."

Yuffie blinked. "Uhm… okay."

As soon as we arrived at the hotel, everyone was already present. Luckily, we didn't have to pay to stay for the night, thanks to Cloud. Yuffie and I were offered separate rooms. Good thing too. I always ended up with either Cid or Barret as my roommate and they made so much noise, even when they were together. I lied down on my bed and sighed. Tonight was so tiresome. What with all of Yuffie's nonstop game play and all the attention I received. However, there was something about them that I enjoyed but I just couldn't figure out what that was.

Putting those thoughts aside, there was something I needed to discuss with Yuffie. There was still the little matter of the lost materia that Cloud had given to us. I gave Yuffie a break before, but she wasn't going to get away with that.

A knock on the door sounded off. I sat up and said, "Come in, Yuffie."

The door opened slowly, revealing Yuffie with a worried look on her face. She tugged her shorts as she made her way inside the room. I stood up and offered her a place to sit on my bed. As she did, I turned away from her.

"Yuffie. You can't hide it from me anymore."

"H-Hide what?"

"Were you trying to make me forget about what happened before?"

She stood up at that. "N-No I wasn't! I wanted to have fun 'cause I never played at the Gold Saucer before!"

"Such an excuse."

"Hey! It's true! Look, if you're still angry about me losing the materia, then maybe you should have squealed on me to Cloud!"

I should have. I was starting to regret what I did before. I had a feeling that this would happen. But, this was something that had been bothering me for a while now. Telling lies to someone always made me feel uncomfortable. I knew Yuffie was used to this though.

I shifted my body to Yuffie. "I know. But, you have to think about it. Sooner or later someone is going to find out and you'll regret not telling."

Yuffie growled. "Quit complaining about the materia already! I had to ditch those stupid things back there! That was what those monsters wanted anyway!"

"But I entrusted them to you. You could have just simply attacked them. They were easy targets."

"There were hundreds of them attacking us at the same time! They may be easy for you, but not to me! You think nothing but yourself!"

I narrowed my eyes. "You said you could do it. You said that you held great responsibility to protect something simple as materia. But you showed no signs of that whatsoever. And tonight-"

"I… I get your point."

I paused and thought about what I just said. How could I have said something so cruel to her? They weren't true… they weren't true at all. That would have been my thoughts on her before I even got to know her. I rubbed my head and stared down at Yuffie. Her face was totally red and she wouldn't stop sniffing.

"Yuffie, I didn't-"

"No, I heard just about enough. I understand everything now," she lifted her head and stomped her foot in front of me. "I'm just the same brat from before. I'm the… don't-trust-her kind of person. Right? I had a side to this story too, you know? You never even gave me a chance!"

I remained silent. Everything was mixed up in my head now. I wanted to respond at that but nothing came out.

"…nevermind then! I'll just go tell Cloud what I did! Won't that make YOU happy!" At that, she ran towards the door and slammed it hard behind her.

I sat down on my bed, bowed my head and whispered, "…I'm sorry."

The next day, I woke up early. I couldn't sleep last night. I still felt a little guilty about all the things I said to Yuffie. The first thing I had to do was apologize. However, that wasn't going to be easy. Whenever I tried to talk to her, she would just give me the cold shoulder. I knew I deserved it, but I really wanted to tell her how sorry I was. For the rest of the morning, I spent thinking of ways to talk to Yuffie. I sat on the bench at the Wonder Square and watched Cait Sith tell fortunes to the passersby. After he finished with his last fortune, he walked towards me.

"What's wrong there, Vin?"

I sighed and turned away. "Nothing."

"Hey, hey! Want me to tell you your fortune?"

"No, thanks."

"Aw, c'mon! Hey, for you, it's for free! Pleeeaaasseeeee?"

I sighed and nodded my head. "Fine. Only once."

"Yay! Alrighty then!" Cait started to dance around at that. Soon, he handed me a piece of paper from behind. "There we are!"

"'The evening rays will shine upon those who seek nothing but the truth.'" I made a face. "…I don't understand this."

"Hey… that sounds like the…" Cait paused and quickly shrugged. "I-I dunno. I just tell 'em. Not explain 'em." He grinned nervously and walked away.

'The evening rays will shine upon those who seek nothing but the truth.' I recited the whole fortune in my head. I had no idea what it meant, but I felt that it had something to do with Yuffie and me. I guess… I would find out sooner or later.

Afternoon soon arrived. I hadn't eaten anything since morning, but I wasn't really hungry anyway. I found my way back to the Wonder Square. Cloud and Tifa were sitting on the benches this time. Cloud seemed to notice me as I made my way towards them.

"Hey, Vincent," he said. "What's up with you? You look a little paler than usual."

I hesitated. "…did… Yuffie talk to you last night?"

"Yeah. I'm… quite shocked to hear what happened."

"I apologize for lying to you before. But…"

"Nah, I understand. I know that you were only trying to protect her. You must care about her if you actually went and lied like that, right?"

I paused and thought about that for a while. I smiled to myself. "If you'd like to go with that. I did, actually."

"Good thing you told me soon," he pulled out a small brown bag and handed it to me. "Take good care of those now, alright?"

I bowed my head. "Thank you."

Tifa smiled. "Aww, you should really take care of her. I know she seems a little untrustworthy on the outside, but, you must've thought about how sweet she was on the inside."

I felt lightheaded for a moment. What I said before wasn't true! I just wanted to say that simple line right in front of her. I truly… wanted to know her side of the story. I rubbed my forehead.

"If you see Yuffie… please tell her that I am… sorry."

"Vincent? Are you feeling alright?" Tifa asked so worriedly.

"I just… need to lie down."

The day was almost done and I failed to talk to Yuffie. I had to think of something fast because this was my last chance to apologize. But first, I had to rest for a while. I couldn't find anything that sounded appetizing to eat in this hotel. Gushing Head Corpse was definitely not on my menu. I sat on the bed and fell back. My stomach made an unusually loud grumbling noise. I quickly sat up and wrapped my arms around it.

'I deserve this,' I told myself. 'You deserve everything.'

A soft knock against the door sounded off. I lifted my head at that. "Y… Yes?"

The door flung open and Yuffie immediately stomped inside. She furrowed her eyebrows at me before she swiped her hand hard against my cheek. I widened my eyes and slowly turned to her. Her cheeks were red and her eyes were red and filled with tears.

"You're such a jerk!"

"…Yuffie…"

"Why do you always put yourself into such stupid situations like this!"

"I don't… understand."

"You know EXACTLY what I'm talking about! Say it! Just say it to my face! I don't want to hear it from Cloud, Tifa or anyone else! Only you! Just SAY IT!"

I looked away. "I…"

"What? I can't hear you!"

"I… I'm truly sorry for what I said to you before. Everything I said was not true. I was just jumping into conclusions and I never even heard your side of the story. I apologize for everything I did last night."

"That's what I thought!"

"To tell you the truth… I care for you."

"Uh huh and… wait… what?"

I stared into Yuffie's dark eyes and repeated, "I care for you."

Yuffie stepped back and shook her head. "Uh…u-uhm… h… honestly?"

"I couldn't be more honest."

She turned her back at that. I tilted my head as I spotted her shoulders shaking. I smiled to myself. Must've surprised her with that comment. I was completely honest. I did care about her…

She finally faced me and handed a brown bag to me. "I-It's some food I picked up in the lobby. You better eat something before you get thin as a pipe cleaner."

As she made her way out of the room, I stood up and said, "Yuffie. After I'm finished, would you like to… ride the Ferris Wheel… with me?"

After eating the food Yuffie gave me, I brought her over to the Ferris Wheel. There weren't a lot of people actually. I'd think it would be quite crowded. As we waited in line, I noticed that Yuffie was unusually quiet. This was going to be the first time she ever rode on a Ferris Wheel. I wanted her to experience this before it was too late. The employee gestured for us to enter the car. Yuffie sat straight across from me with her head bowed down. After a few moments, we were moving, but it soon stopped for another couple to enter their car. It was too quiet so I decided to start up something.

"You're… probably wondering why I invited you here."

Yuffie snapped out of her thoughts and looked up. "U-Uh… yeah. D-Don't tell me that you want to make it up with this. Because, if it is, it won't help. I'm still angry with you."

I shook my head. "Yuffie, now's your turn to tell your side of the story. There's nothing here to interrupt us so I will listen to you."

She slowly nodded her head. "W-Well…you know those monster jerks that were attacking us on the bridge. They weren't there to attack us actually. I think they were after our materia, because when one of them attacked me, it was trying to reach for the bag. The number of monsters attacking us was just ridiculous so the only way to get rid of them was to give up the materia. It was a hard decision though, considering my love for materia, but I did it to save both of us. I… still feel bad that I lost your stuff. You got one thing right about me… I'm not responsible enough to take care of things. I'm sorry."

I shook my head. "No..."

"…w-what?"

"You are responsible. If I held onto the materia, I swear I would never let go of it and those monsters would have defeated us easily. But you, the 'Materia Lover'… sacrificed them for our sake. That is how I define 'responsible'."

Yuffie smiled at that and bounced up and down. "R-Really? Does that mean I can be responsible enough to carry your guns around?"

"…let's not get too carried away."

"Hehe, okay!" She leaned forward on her chair. "So… did you really mean what you said to me there?"

I gave one of my rare smiles to her. "Yes. I'm glad I had the chance to get to know you much better. Or else, I would always see you as that untrustworthy ninja. You might not realize it, but you helped me open myself up to others. You helped me a lot and I thank you for that."

"I soooo realized it! You were having fun with that snowboarding game!"

"Well, I guess I enjoyed it for a… tad bit."

"Oh, oh… what is this?" Yuffie leaned forward and poked my nose with her finger. "Vinnie! You're blushing!"

I blinked and leaned back on my seat. "I-I'm not." Although… I did feel my face getting hotter each second.

Suddenly, fireworks appeared outside the window. We both gazed out the window in amazement. The glowing lights of the Gold Saucer were absolutely spectacular. Everywhere we turned, more lights seemed to shine onto us all at once. I leaned back and paused. Why did this seem familiar?

"Hey!" Yuffie exclaimed. "It's just like that fortune Cait gave me!"

I widened my eyes. "Cait Sith gave you a fortune as well?"

She nodded. "Yuh huh!"

We paused for a while before grinning at that. As we stared back at the glowing lights outside, we recited our fortune in unison:

"'The evening rays will shine upon those who seek nothing but the truth.'"

A/N: Yay! It took me a while to think of a good, yet simple fortune-telling line thing. And… those are the results. I thought it was cute. Hehehe. Anyways! I hope you enjoyed reading and please tell me how you thought of it!