Reasons to Smile

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and all its characters, places, and events belong to Square-enix/Squaresoft. I'm just borrowing the characters to write a little story for fun.

A/N: Another freakin' one-shot. Some Vincent and Marlene interaction again—My interpretation of them meeting for the first time. This implies a possible VincentXTifa thing, but only because of Marlene's thoughts. And because I need an excuse to put those two together. Enjoy.

It was so good to see her daddy home safely, after all the sitting and worrying, mindlessly drawing pictures and staring at the wall thoughtfully. Who knew living could be so tough? Maybe she'd bring that up to him later.

She stepped away from Elmyra to the door, unable to hide her smile as her dad went down on one knee and opened his arms invitingly. She launched herself at him and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face into his chest. It was so good to see him.

He laughed and stood up, holding her with one arm, and looked at her face squarely. "Been a good girl, Marlene?" he asked, white teeth dazzling with his smile, as though he already knew the answer.

She nodded slowly and rested her head against him, so relieved that he was well that she now barely had enough energy to spend.

"Thanks, Elmyra," he said in his smooth baritone, "for watchin' her…"

"It wasn't a problem, Barret… She's a very sweet girl…"

"Tha's what I wanna hear," he acclaimed, and set Marlene down to delve into his pocket. "Hey baby… I got you somethin'…"

Her eyes went wide. "What is it?"

Something smooth on a silver chain. A pale blue, tear-shaped gem… A necklace from… Well, she couldn't really tell where it was from, but it looked familiar.

She cupped her hands in supplication and he let the chain slip off his fingers into hers. She gazed down at it fondly. "I love it," she breathed.

"Dyne… would be happy then…"

She vaguely remembered the face to go along with the name, but Daddy's voice was so somber and vulnerable that she wasn't sure if it was a good idea to ask about it or not. Maybe she could ask him about that later too.

"Oh, and I have a friend for you to meet, Marlene…"

Still clutching the pendant in her hand, she lifted her eyes—impossibly high—to the tall man's face, taking in the ivory skin and blood-red eyes, as well as the high collar of his crimson cloak concealing the lower part of his face. Raven-black hair spilled down his shoulders and back, with a few long bangs falling into his pale features. Clad in black with gold-tipped, dark brown boots, he had a gold hand attached to his left arm at the elbow. And she could see part of a firearm visible beneath his cloak.

The man lowered his gaze to her and gave her a brief nod, his eyes revealing nothing.

"Vincent Valentine, this is my daughter, Marlene… and a good friend… Elmyra."

Intuitively, she took a step back, bumping into Elmyra and blinking stupidly in her surprise at the imposing sight of this stranger.

"See, Vincent, she's shy. Jus' like I told ya…" Daddy looked over at her and winked. "S'alright, Marlene. He won't hurt ya…"

Cloud—the spiky haired one—came from behind Vincent and brushed past him. He noticed Marlene and smiled weakly. "Hey there."

She smiled shyly in return, remembering that he was the one who gave her the flower. It was so hard to keep track of Daddy's friends when he had so many.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Valentine," Elmyra said politely.

Vincent regarded her with a cool nod.

She smiled warmly and glanced over at Daddy. "Barret, will you all be spending the night here?"

"I jus' came to visit… to check on Marlene…"

"Well, make yourselves at home… It's nice to have visitors in a time like this."

Once Daddy and Cloud settled down at the table, they talked with Elmyra about their travels and possible dangers ahead. Marlene watched them for a moment, a bit unsettled by their discussion about something called Meteor and about a man named Sephiroth. The look in Daddy's eyes appeared a bit frightening too; his dark brown eyes were burning and he let a few swear words slip out…

…And a chill went up Marlene's spine when she realized Vincent, who never joined the three at the table, was standing behind her. She turned around slowly to look up at him; he still stood in the doorway. She tried to figure out why he wasn't sitting down like everyone else.

Her gaze lingered on his face for awhile. Aside from blinking and breathing, he looked like a statue, making no discernable expression except for the crease between his dark eyebrows. Maybe he was just bored.

Wrapping the necklace around her hands restlessly, she let her gaze fall from Vincent's face to the golden appendage that replaced his left arm. Or maybe it was a glove? It looked pretty wicked, with the long, sharp metal fingers hanging at his side. Her gaze shifted to his right hand. Long fingers there too, but they weren't sharp-looking. Instead, they looked somewhat elegant. She wondered if he could play the piano like Tifa could. Or maybe he couldn't, because of his metal hand. In that case, she hoped that was just a fancy glove and not a real—

She drew her eyebrows together in consternation. Maybe… was it like her daddy's arm?

Quirking an eyebrow, she slid her gaze up to his unreadable face again. He didn't seem to notice her presence, or to even particularly care that she was studying him so intently.

"…difficult to smile when the Planet is in danger," Elmyra was saying.

"No kidding," Cloud agreed. "But there are always reasons to smile. Right, Barret?"

"Oh, look at ya. All goodness an' happiness an' shit… You surprise the hell out of me sometimes, Strife…"

She tuned out the three at the table once more so she could look up at Vincent. Did he have anything to say? Anything at all?

And did he ever smile? Scrutinizing him now, she concluded that he probably never did.

Impulsively, she took a step towards him and tugged down on his cloak. At first, he completely ignored her. She did it again and he bowed his head to look down at her, lifting a black wing of an eyebrow at her.

She tugged him again, motioning to get down to her level. She didn't want the others to hear.

With some apparent reluctance, Vincent lowered himself down to the floor on one knee, so they were somewhat at eye-level.

"Yes?" Ah, so he could talk... He wasn't completely a statue then…

"Do you ever smile?" she asked softly. She realized she was still holding his cape, and instantly released it, clutching the pendant to her chest as though it had powers to protect her from the response she feared from him.

"I haven't done so recently, no…"

She shook her head at him in bafflement. "Really?" she asked incredulously.

He nodded in confirmation, and she was at once saddened by this confession. She held her hands out to her sides. "But why?"

"…I do not know," he answered smoothly.

He had a nice voice, she thought, but he didn't have much… what was the word? Infection? Or maybe it was inflection… She'd ask her daddy about that later too. She hoped he'd be ready for all her questions…

"There are always reasons to smile, Vincent," she informed him. "Pretty things make me smile. Here, look at this…" She dangled the pendant in front of him. "Isn't it pretty?"

Without looking away from her eyes, he gave a single nod. She thought about chiding him for not looking at the necklace at all, but decided to give a challenge to his assessment instead.

"Well, why don't you smile then?"

"Because… pretty things… haven't always made me smile…"

A deep scowl came to her face then, and she thought this man to be very miserable indeed. There was still hope for him, however. Maybe if he saw more pretty things, he'd be happier. Tifa was pretty and cheerful. Maybe she'd make him smile…

"Well, there are always reasons to smile," she repeated. "Maybe you'll find some pretty things to smile about…"

She blinked and thought there was something different about his face in that moment. She couldn't see much because of the hair in front of his face and the high collar of his cloak, so she didn't think that what she saw was a smile… but it seemed close... and that was a start.

"Perhaps," he remarked softly, his eyelids fluttering downward.

"I'm going upstairs now," she informed him flatly. Then she remembered Daddy telling her about manners. "It was nice meeting you, mister… Mr. V," she amended.

"…Likewise, Miss Wallace."

She gave him a tiny wave and then hurried upstairs, peering through the railing just in time to see Vincent rise to his feet before the wall blocked her vision.

He wasn't as scary as she first thought. Maybe she could talk to him more and see what would make him smile. It was worth a try…

Sitting on her bed, she peered down at the necklace, mesmerized by the shine on the light blue gem and silver chain cupped safely in her palm.

So pretty.

An uninhibited smile spread across her lips.

A/N: Cloud gave the flower to Marlene in my game. (I was so hell-bent on making it a VincentXTifa story at Tifa's expense… Didn't help though, really.) Ya know, it looked like in the game that Barret gave the pendant from Dyne to some guy in the Desert Prison after Dyne committed suicide, but I think that Barret would just show it as evidence and take the pendant to Marlene. Whatever. What the hell do I know? Review if you wish.