Now and Forever
By: Brittany Keeping
Chapter 2: Running into things
Yuffie awoke early in the mourning almost around dawn but it was still a little dark out. Yuffie sat up and looked over to where Vincent was sleeping last night, and she found nothing she started to panic. ' He's not suppose to go anywhere, because of what happen to him yesterday what if another one of those things comes after him, and he can't do anything.'
Yuffie bolted to her feet in a frantic search for Vincent. Yuffie looked all around the cave but found not a trace of him.
Then she raced to the entrance of the cave where she left the Chocobo, and sighed with relief that the chocobo wasn't gone but that still didn't make it any better because if he had taken the chocobo he would have an escape if something threaten him. Yuffie raced out of the cave and down the infected path of roots.
" VINCENT!" Yuffie screamed. She panicked even more when there was know answer, but the endless echo of her screaming his name.
" VINCENT WHERE ARE YOU! ANSWER ME PLEASE?" She yelled again this time she heard a flapping of a cape bellowing in the wind coming from behind her then a soft chuckle.
" Worried about me are you?" asked the voice as it chuckled again.
Yuffie span around with a angry and relieved look on her face. Her face soften a little but she still had a angered look on her face as she slowly walked to Vincent.
" Vincent Valentine you nearly gave me a heart attack. STOP LAUGHING! THIS ISN'T FUNNY! You scared me." Yuffie said as she stood in front of Vincent anxiety all over her face.
Vincent stopped laughing as his face grew soft as he reached out and took her in his arms.
" I didn't mean to scare you I just thought that since I was feeling better, I could go and inspect the creatures body to see if I could figure out what it was, and get back before you woke up, but I guess I misjudged you for being a person who sleeps almost all day." He said with a small chuckle as Yuffie looked up at him with a quizzical expression on her face.
" So what did you find out from the body?" She asked.
Vincent looked away from her as if he didn't want her to see the expression that was on his face.
" Well when I went there the body seemed to have been taken away from that spot. There was a trail of blood leading a path towards the north east, about around Rocket town but a little more east to that. I was going to find out where it lead to when I heard my name being called out so I decided to come back because I knew you would be worried." Vincent said as he looked down at Yuffie who had turned her head in obvious embarrassment.
Vincent continued.
" But I wanted to come back anyways because I was worried about you." Vincent said as Yuffie turned her head towards him, her cheeks as red as roses. They looked into each others eyes, they both leaned in simultaneously, then their lips locked in a passionate kiss.
When they parted they never took their eyes off each other they just stayed there in an unbreakable moment, until they broke it by letting go of each other and walking back to the cave.
When they got back to the cave they ate in silence until they were finished. Yuffie looked up from they're breakfast and studied the way Vincent at they she said.
" So we are going to go to your house right, because my PHS is broken, and you don't have one, and I need to phone Tifa and let Tifa know I won't be able to come to the party because we have to find out what that thing is and who sent it."
Vincent looked at her with a questioning look, then asked.
" What party?" Vincent asked between a mouthful of soup. Yuffie looked surprised because she thought that he, of all people, would be a person to remember her birthday.
" My Birthday. I thought you knew that my birthday was November 22nd?" A surprised Yuffie asked.
Vincent looked at her and said." Well it's just that while I was out here I lost track of time and of where I was. But I'm sorry, Happy Belated birthday." Vincent said with a smile. Yuffie's heart jumped right up in her throat when he said happy belated birthday, a single tear started to roll down her cheek only to be caught on a gold gauntlet.
Yuffie looked at the tear as it slowly roll off the metal hand. Yuffie lifted her hand from the place where it was rested to on her lap, and inclosed her molded hand in the mechanical one, that was twice the size of hers. She seemed to examine the metal digits of the huge mechanical hand, As if trying to figure out what they were, like they were a foreign thing to her.
Vincent looked down at the top of her head as if questioning why she was holding his hand, and examining it like she had just seen it, it's not like he could feel anything anyways, but there was a warmth from where her hand had been grasping the metal on the hand. Vincent watched Yuffie as she inspected the rest of the arm, he felt a little uncomfortable with her looking at her arm and touching it, even though he had forgotten about the past the only thing that was a lost memory was his monstrous mechanical arm that Hojo put there.
It didn't hurt him to go back thinking about the time because he knows that if he did then he will start being his old self, put away from people an antisocial who had know friends, but even though back then he was he couldn't stop thinking about the friends he had. Cloud strife, Tifa lockheart, Barret, Red XIII, Cait cith, Cid highwind, The dearly departed Areis, And Yuffie who seemed to care more then anyone else about what happened to him.
Yuffie had stopped her observations on his arm, and was looking at the ground in embarrassment. Vincent watched her as her cheeks turned a tinge of red, he noticed this, and started to chuckle.
Yuffie looked up at him when he started to chuckle and a mischievous smile crept across her face. She knew how to embarrassed him, all she had to say was that his zipper was down, and he would turn blood red, she knew this from experience that he would be embarrassed because the last time he had laughed at her for being embarrassed, she had embarrassed him big time, by yelling out that Vincent's zipper was down right in front of a big crowd of people, at the Gold saucer.
Yuffie put her plan in motion when she pretended to blush from something different, and she knew Vincent couldn't resist the urge of asking why she was blushing.
Vincent eyed her suspiciously, thinking about what had happened last time when he had laughed at her embarrassment. ' Oh no, your not going to fool me this time.' Vincent thought when he decided he would play along with her.
" What's wrong, Yuffs?" Vincent asked as he put on his play face.
Yuffie giggled when she thought he had fell into her trap. " Well... You...See... It's Just that your...Zippers down." Yuffie said as she tried to stifle a giggle.
She turned around to see that Vincent was embarrassed at all, he was smiling and he had a amused expression on his face, and feeling a little proud of himself of realizing her trick to embarrass him.
" Nice try, Yuffs, but that isn't going to work on me this time." He said as he smirked smugly lapping up all the glory.
Yuffie seen how to get around this as she put on her serious face. " Vinnie, this time I'm not fooling with you, your zipper is actually down." Vincent went red as he looked down to see, that his zipper, wasn't down at all. Now he was more embarrassed that he had actually fallen for her trick. He looked up at her, his cheeks flushed, as he watched Yuffie crack up and fall on the ground in a fit of laughs.
Vincent sighed in defeat as he got up and walked over to Yuffie who was lying on the ground, and who was now, after five minutes of nonstop laughing out of breath. He put his hand down for her to grab onto it so he could help her up. Yuffie took his hand in appreciation, and let him lift her up to her feet. Yuffie smiled timidly at him when she looked up at him.
" So." Yuffie said as she watched him look at her with his red orbs. Vincent raised an elegant eyebrow questioning her thought.
" So..?" Vincent asked as Yuffie thought for something to say to him.
" So... are we going to your place soon?" Yuffie asked after a minute of looking around deciding on a way to say what she wanted to say to him, so he wouldn't take it in a wrong way.
Vincent smiled at her anticipation and childlike shyness, " Whenever your ready we will go." Vincent said plainly.
" Well I was thinking of going in like an hour because I want to phone Tifa, Because if I know Tifa, she is worried about us." Yuffie said as she gestured with her eyes, to tell Vincent that Tifa is probably ripping her hair out along with Clouds from worrying so much about them.
" Well if you want to go in a hour we'll get ready and leave." Vincent said as he put a reassuring smile on.
While Yuffie was putting stuff in her bag and putting her weapons on the saddle, she held the Shuriken that her mother had given her for a long time, before tying it on the saddle. Her thoughts escaped her back to when her mother had given her the Shuriken a day before she died.
FLASH BACK...
" Mommy what's this?" Six year old Yuffie asked. Her dying mother looked at her with death written all over face as she answered in almost a whisper, " This is my Shuriken, It's a family heirloom that I'm passing down to you since... since I will know longer be here to use it." The Women's eyes started watering as she thought of not being around as her little girl grew up.
" What do you mean Mommy, your still going to be here aren't you?" The young version of Yuffie ask not knowing what her Mom meant.
The women started crying, because she knew that if she told her daughter she will never be the same little girl she was now, Because the hurt of losing her Mom will come back to her every day, even when she is Nineteen she'll still remember the day when the world took everything from her.
The women wiped her tears and thought about how to tell her daughter that she won't know longer be with her.
" Well.. You see, honey I'm going to be with the angles now, so whenever you pray I'll be with you, and whenever you are crying or when your first boyfriend breaks your heart I'll be right there with you through everything, heartbreaks, hurting yourself, and through the good times I'll even be there with you, the only difference is, is that you won't be able to touch me or see me but, you'll know I'm there because you'll feel it in your heart."
She explained as she watched her little girl choke up and start crying, the little girl jumped in her arms and cried, the Mother sat there with her arms around her daughter thinking about the good times she had spent with her daughter and how she will never be able to spend anymore time with her, because her time was nearing every second.
The little girl lifted her head and looked at her Mother with tear soaked face as she said, " You can't leave Momma because I need you, why don't you just ask the angels if you can stay forever." The little girl said as her Mom held her and laughed a little at her Daughters way thinking, then cried as she knew that her daughter wouldn't understand because she's too young, so all she could do was spend the little amount of time with her Daughter until her time on this earth was up.
The Mother put her daughter to bed after a day of having fun with her child, she could feel her chest get heavy as she walked to her bed and lead down as her eyes started to go black, as she knew that this was the time God had decided that she would leave. She closed her eyes and dreamt of beautiful things, and the memory of her Daughter kept replaying in her head as she stopped breathing.
The next morning a young Yuffie was crying in a corner by herself mourning about the love she had lost, and now she was alone in the world.
END OF FLASHBACK
Yuffie started to feel a lump forming in her throat so she hurried and stuffed the rest of her clothes in her bag, so she could go away from the eyes that were watching her.
As she walked by Vincent, Vincent asked, " Where are you going?" Yuffie didn't look at him because she knew if she did he would keep her there and make her tell him what was wrong, and right now she wasn't in the mood for talking, she said deadpan, " Out." And she was gone leaving a questioning Vincent behind.
Yuffie ran down a path far away from the cave when she started crying, she tripped up in a root that was stuck out on the path and tumbled until she was on her back, she put her hands over her face and sobbed.
" Mom why did you have to leave, I'm alone in the world now I don't know how to love people even though I love Vincent but you're not here with me, all I want more then anything is to be able to see you and say goodbye, which was something I didn't get to o when you left." Yuffie said while she sobbed.
' What is my purpose here if your not, I have know purpose at all, I can't save the world again without having someone to come home to and someone who believes in me and I will end up dying, because there is another person that is after us, I don't even think I can do it, I'm not as strong as you, why,...? why, did you have to leave because if you were here it would be a lot easier.' Yuffie said as she scolded herself for being so feeble minded. Yuffie stayed in that position with her hands over her face as she cried until she couldn't cry any more.
To her it seemed like her whole world was tumbling down, she had given up a long time ago then, when she found friends she had forgotten the past and was more concerned about her future, she even fell in love, but even though all this happened she didn't feel complete, she didn't know herself she didn't know what she wanted. Since her Mother died she lost a part of herself with her too.
Yuffie knew then that she had to find herself on this trip, but she didn't know where to start, she didn't know how to become herself again. Yuffie was suddenly furious with herself, that she got up and punched a nearby tree multiple times yelling.
" GOD DAMMIT, WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DIE, IF YOU WERE STILL ALIVE I WOULDN'T HAVE TO GO SEARCHING FOR THE REST OF ME! GOD DAMMIT!"
Yuffie's fist pulsed with pain as she put her head against the tree and sank down against it, holding her fist and crying.
She felt eye's watch her, Yuffie lifted her head, her face soaked with her tears, and her hand that she was holding was bleeding, and the blood was running down her hand, Vincent's face was calm, and saddened by what dramatic event that had just occurred. Vincent Kneeled down in front of Yuffie and looked at her, with a comforting look. Yuffie drop from where she was and fell on Vincent's shoulder crying and saying.
" Why did she live me, she knows I can't live without her." Vincent knew who she was talking about but thought that he shouldn't say anything just put his arms around her a listen to what she was saying.
" When she died Vincent, a part of me went with her, and now I don't know how to get it back." Yuffie said this and it shocked Vincent that she was pretty much saying what he felt like a year or two ago, and Yuffie had helped him become his self again, and since she did that for him he thought it would only be kind to return the favor.
" Well Yuffie, do you remember what you did for me? Well you helped me with the same thing, and you told me the only thing I could do was to talk to people about it, and to replay my whole life again, think about the old days, and what you did, and do the same things, look at pictures, and talk to your relatives, and when you do these things, then and only then, will you be able to find the true you, words of wisdom that you once said to me and I'm now saying them to you." Vincent said as he waited as Yuffie's tears started to turn into tiny whimpers, then she was silent.
She lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at him with her big gray eyes, that was straining to remember her childhood.
She only remembered vivid images and events that happened when she was a little girl, two events she remembered from her childhood was her fifth birthday and a Wutai festival, which was called the 'Red blossom' festival, which was a festival where the princess gets to pick a husband from different princes, this was after Yuffie's sixteenth birthday, which was when she met Cloud and the other members of Avalanche, also it was after they had found Vincent in the Nibleheim mansion. Her father had found out what his daughter was doing , and decided that she should come home because he didn't want her making friends, he wanted her to take things from other people for him.
She also remembered that when her father had sent 'His men' she had kicked all there assess, until he had sent more of 'His men' after her and made a trap for her to fall into.
The Avalanche members all tried their best to help her but they didn't get to far without being caught to. So Yuffie and all her friends were taken to Wutai, where Yuffie and the rest of the Avalanche members were ordered to go to the festival, or they would have to go to the prison.
Yuffie was forced to wear a dress, a big puffy red corset dress, it did look nice but it wasn't her type of outfit she would wear.
She had her hair up in a high ponytail, with a couple of chocolate locks hanging down in the front. One thing Yuffie was relieved that she didn't have to wear high heels, she was allowed to wear whatever she wanted when it came to her footwear. So she decided she would wear black sandals to highlight her dress.
All the Avalanche members had dressed up except for Red XIII, because he couldn't find anything that wouldn't burn because of his tail. Cloud had a tux, the same with Barret, Cid, and Vincent, but his shirt on the inside was red and his hair was put back in a ponytail showing off his masculine features, he also put on some cologne, Yuffie could still smell the sweet scent of his cologne.
Tifa wore a nice dark green dress, and she curled her hair, she also had on a necklace that Cloud had given her, for their first anniversary, she wore black high heels to.
Tifa and Cloud danced at the beginning before Yuffie was introduced to different suitors, which she wasn't to anxious to get started, because the suitors her father picked out for her were total snobs or just ignorant. When she heard the music for her introduction she had butterflies in her stomach. Yuffie didn't know what everyone would think if she tripped of did something wrong.
When she was walking down the long stairs towards her Dad ' The emperor of Wutai' she also noticed the gasps and surprises everyone had on they're faces, she had looked trough the crowd looking at her friends and how they were shocked then one face had caught her eye, one face, that face was looking at her with a loving stare, and he was almost in awe from the beauty that stood up on the stairs, looking intently at him.
Yuffie remembered how she felt when he looked at her with longing in his eyes, she vowed that she wouldn't forget this day, the day when Vincent valentine started to fall in love with her unknowingly, until he had caught himself watching her every move and looking at her like he once looked at another love who had died for another man she loved.
When Yuffie had fallen back into reality, she looked up at Vincent who had been waiting patiently, and she said in a smile shy voice.
" Vincent, really, the only things I remember really is my fifth birthday, and the ' Red blossom' festival, which was one of my most cherished memories that I will always remember." This made Vincent want to know why it was a special memory to Yuffie. He decided he would wait to ask her another day.
" Well like I said Yuffie, we'll just have to go trough everything together, even if it takes a long time I'm willing to wait and see the 'New' Yuffie." Vincent said with a warm smile, that almost made Yuffie's knees go weak. She smiled a bright at him to, and gave him a hug.
" Thank you, thank you Vincent, for always being there for me, and thanks for giving something to look forward to,... thank you." Yuffie said as a single tear fell down her cheek and onto Vincent's shirt. Vincent kissed the top of Yuffie's head and hugged her tightly.
" Know Yuffie thank you for letting me get to know you cause I think if I didn't I would probably, still be the emotionless me who cared for know one, but that's all changed and I care for you." Vincent said in response to her. Yuffie lifted her head from his now tear soaked sleeve and looked deeply into his eyes, her heart fluttered as his face got closer and closer to hers, both of they're faces being brushed by each others soft exhales of breaths. They' re lips enclosed in a passionate kiss, they found each other.
When they broke they both were almost breathless, they smiled warmly at each other and walked hand in hand back to the cave, neither of them spoke because they were afraid if they did it would break the spell they were both under. Vincent took both of their stuff and attached it to the chocobo's saddle. Yuffie fed the chocobo some coral greens that she found in her pocket.
The chocobo ate the greens hungrily, Vincent helped Yuffie on the chocobo then he seated him self behind. Enclosing his arms around her tiny, as Yuffie took the reigns and lead them out of the cave and one they're way to Vincent house.
