Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII, its characters, places, and anything else in it do not belong to me. I am not creating this story for profit. I am creating this story for the entertainment of myself and, most hopefully, others.

Note: Naw, I ain't always as proper as I was in that there disclaimer.

Second Note: Vincent may be a bit OOC in the entire fic, which makes sense considering what this fic is about, and I apologize if any of the other characters are.

Third Note: I love Cloud! He's one of my favorite characters! But I couldn't think of any other reason for Vincent to kidnap Tifa without making the fic completely AU, so I did this. Minor Cloud bashing—I apologize. Also, my summary is correct: NO SLASH. That means NO VincentCloud pairing. Sorry if you thought there was.

Summary: VinTif. Vincent's fed up with Cloud: He never stopped mourning after the loss of Aeris, he does stupid things, and he stole something precious from Vincent—his solitude. So, for revenge, Vincent steals something precious from Cloud…

Chapter 1: Vincent's Evil Plan

Lightning never stopped flashing outside Rocket Town, making the team stuck inside the inn. Cid had refused to fly his precious Highwind in such stormy weather; it was Cloud's fault they were stuck in the town anyway. The team was ready to go to Northern Crater and defeat Sephiroth once and for all—but the spiky-haired man wanted to stock up on supplies and see everywhere they'd been once more in case they never made it out.

That didn't make him a wimp; no, Tifa wanted to do the sightseeing thing as well. Yuffie'd put off the big fight as long as possible. Cait Sith was scared stiff. Cid didn't want to leave the Highwind so soon. RedXIII wanted to visit his grandfather a lot before he actually died. Barret wanted to find Marlene. It wasn't a bad thing—honestly, it was almost everyone's fault. But it was Cloud, the leader, who let them all put it off.

Even Vincent had a reason not to want to go to the Northern Crater—he'd have to kill his son. But he was ready; the lone gunner had never really bonded with his son, and probably never would.

Maybe it was the storm that was pissing Vincent off; maybe it was everyone's procrastination. He respected everyone on the team, yes, but that didn't mean he actually liked anyone.

But it was CLOUD who was starting to aggravate him.

Long, long before he was stuck in this lightning storm, Cloud was the one that had stolen Vincent's prize: his solitude. Continually on the trip, right on the precise moment that the dark-haired gunner wanted to be alone, Cloud would call him down for a group meeting, or send someone else—"Cloud wants to meet us in the hall, Vince, come on."

Don't misunderstand. The ex-Turk liked that spiky-haired man

Don't misunderstand. Yes, Vincent respected Cloud, even admired his bravery at times, but enough was enough! He had stolen the ex-Turk's solitude, his prized feeling, so the crimson-eyed man pondered over a way to return the favor.

There would be no killing, of course—he didn't want any more blood on his hands than his past already granted him. Besides, Vincent had no great desire to dispose of the ex-SOLDIER. Even if he wanted to, the others would be upset, and he respected them enough to not want them upset with him. He wouldn't care too much, but enough that murder was a route he did not want to take.

So how would he make his revenge? Steal something back?

Vincent moved slowly across his temporary bedroom, staring out the rain-splattered window, into the darkness and the vague reflection the window gave.

"I've tried to tolerate it, but even now I can't be alone," he muttered softly to himself, his stare sliding over to his sleeping roommate, RedXIII. "I can't be alone ANYWHERE. I could steal something precious of his, but what? His sword? That would be pointless, as he could easily buy more…kidnap someone, perhaps? Yes…that may work…it wouldn't give me much solitude though."

RedXIII snorted, but luckily for Vincent he was still asleep.

"It may get the point across, though…but who do I kidnap?"

He pondered over his teammates. Yuffie annoyed Cloud. Cloud didn't seem close to Barret or Cid. If he kidnapped Cait Sith he'd only be doing everyone a favor. Aeris was dead. RedXIII was friends with Cloud, but they weren't that close. Vincent couldn't really kidnap himself, and the spiky-haired man might not have much use for him anymore anyway, not after he had already revealed everything he knew about Sephiroth.

That just left Tifa.

But what exactly was the relationship between Cloud and Tifa? Tifa was very close to Cloud, as she stayed with him when he had Mako poisoning, and they had known each other for a very long time. Cloud did seem to value the woman…

"Then she's the target," Vincent breathed.

"Hmm?" said the red dog-like teammate Vincent was rooming with.

Vincent looked over his shoulder—his roommate was merely talking in his sleep. The dog-like warrior rolled over onto his back and his leg twitched once; then he was sound asleep.

How would the quiet gunman manage to kidnap Tifa? He knew she was a very good fighter—a better fighter than Aeris was or Yuffie is, and you couldn't simply take away her weapon to make her powerless. She fought with her fists. Vincent certainly didn't want to make her look weak, either…he admitted that he might like her a little bit (not in "that" way), and he definitely respected her a lot.

"There may not be a choice," he muttered as he grabbed some of his Materia, his current gun, wrote a short note for Cloud, and exited the room.

Tifa stared out her window, watching the lightning flash across the storm-dulled sky. Though the sound of the pouring rain was loud, the woman found a kind of solace in its unsteady, though rhythmic, melody. She pressed her hand against the cool, smooth glass, feeling the icy coldness of the cool water on the other side.

"C'mon, Tifa, quit starin' out that window! You've been lookin' out it for fifteen minutes!" Yuffie groaned, bouncing on her mattress.

The dark-haired martial artist turned her head to look over her shoulder at her roommate. "Why don't you want me to look out the window?" she asked, smiling.

"I can't sleep with the light on and I'm TIRED! Your bed's the one closest to the window so you can stare out there all night if you freakin' want to!" The ninja sighed and stood up. "Come ooooon! Pleeeeease! At least turn off the light!"

Tifa laughed. "Okay, okay." She went over to the light switch to turn off the light, when there was a knock on the door.

"UGH!" Yuffie screeched, and dove under the covers in an attempt to block out the light. The storm raging outside gave up and became a weak drizzle.

The older dark-haired woman rolled her eyes and cracked open the door. "Hello?"

"Er…hello, Tifa," Vincent said in a slightly awkward tone of voice.

Tifa's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Vincent," she said, opening the door wider. "Hi there! Need something?"

"No, not really…" The man took a breath. "Do you want to go for a walk or something?"

"Well there's a surprise," the woman smiled, turning off the light switch (which was met by the joyous cries of Yuffie inside the room). She slowly, quietly closed the door behind her as she stepped out. "Is there something that you need to talk about?"

"Not particularly," Vincent said, a weak smile appearing on his lips. "Unless there's something you need to talk about?"

Tifa smiled, turning her head slightly, though still looking at him. She was suspicious of this new, more social Vincent; but also glad he had decided to loosen up a bit.

The new, dark green carpet that covered the otherwise wooden floor muffled their footsteps. The two were the only living creatures that seemed to be in that particular hallway; everyone else was in their rooms, either conversing or sleeping.

"The entire town's changed a lot," Tifa observed, glancing quickly out the window as they passed one. "I think the inn changed the most though…it's so much bigger now, and nicer."

"The last time we came here was a long time ago…weeks before Aeris died," Vincent muttered back, staring straight ahead of him. A small feeling of dread and regret began to grow inside him for what he planned to do; this feeling was washed away by his anger at Cloud—an anger that most likely was only reasonable to the lone gunman himself.

Tifa sighed, not really wanting to talk about Aeris. She wasn't the only one that had mourned the loss of the brunette Cetra. They had been friends. "I think the rain stopped," she said, not hearing the beat of the falling water anymore.

"In that case, would you like to walk outside?" Vincent asked.

"Sure, why not…"

Few stars were shining outside; the sky was still overcast even though the storm had completely stopped. Tifa wasn't really paying attention, though. In fact, she didn't even notice that she was walking alone and had exited Rocket Town until she looked up to speak to Vincent and found that he was gone.

"Vincent?" She called out. She wasn't nervous—she could fight off the monsters and right when her journey started, she knew that the dark was a silly thing to be afraid of.

When no reply came to her, she called out again. "Vincent?" At that time, she was starting to feel a prickle of fear grow inside her—the fear that something had happened to her companion.

Tifa turned around, and was surprised at how far away from Rocket Town she had walked, and wondered how long she had been alone.

"Vin—"

A muffled scream escaped her as a warm hand closed around her mouth and an arm wrapped around her waist from behind, pinning her own arms to her side.

Yumesuta: That's chapter 1! I know it moved kinda slow but I promise it gets better. Anyway, review! Please! If it totally sucks I'll take it down. I'll also take down the story if no one reviews…