Disclaimer: As I said before, I don't own Final Fantasy VII.

Note: …I'm not getting very many reviews. Please review. I don't want to think people don't like it because if not many people review, I'll take the story down.

Second Note: I think I'll add some fluff in the next chapter or so. I don't want to move them along too fast, though—their situation's confusing, you know?

Chapter 7: Coffee

Tifa was alarmed to find herself in the bedroom when she woke up. For once, it wasn't the bloodstains that worried her—it was the fact that she was in what was, as far as she knew, Vincent's bed with no clue of how she got there. Fear caused her heart to beat faster than it would beat when the final fight with Sephiroth came.

Her brain screamed a million commands at her at the same time, and she threw the covers off of herself, then stood up shakily, examining herself in the full-length mirror next to the closed door. Her clothes didn't appear to have been adjusted at all, despite the fact that they were becoming somewhat wrinkled from multiple days of being worn. She sat on the edge of the bed and squeezed her legs together and, making sure the door was all the way closed, opened them as wide as they would go with a skirt. She didn't feel funny; she wasn't in any pain.

If Vincent had done anything to her, he'd disguised it very well.

"V-Vincent," she stammered, sliding out of the bedroom. "Be honest with me…why was I—"

He raised his natural hand slightly to silence her. "I know what you are thinking, and I assure you that you remain 'untouched' by me. You did not look very comfortable on the couch, so I moved you to the bed," he explained, lowering his hand to pour himself a cup of coffee.

Tifa shook her head, her cinnamon eyes fixed in a slight, though still fierce, glare. "Why should I believe you?" she demanded, gloved fists clenched.

"I promise you, I'm telling you the truth. I am fully aware of the fact that you do not trust me; that is not something that can be helped. If you do not believe me, then I apologize, but there is nothing that I can to do make you believe me," the crimson-eyed man replied calmly (though pretty much everything he said was calm).

Tifa just shook her head, but she knew he wasn't lying. After all, he was putting a lot at risk by just kidnapping her—Cloud would most likely let him live after finding Tifa unharmed. But if Vincent were to go as far as to rape her, then, well, let's just say that when there's a six-on-one battle, the six (Cloud, Barret, Cid, Yuffie, Cait Sith, and Tifa) are most likely going to win and leave a very dead opponent (Vincent) behind after the fight.

"Coffee?" Vincent asked, breaking Tifa away from her thoughts.

"…Um, okay," the brunette shrugged, taking the mug of steaming hot liquid. It was just what she needed; the rough texture of the plain white mug and the steaming, bitter taste of the coffee were very real, something that she was sure existed compared to the seemingly unreal events of the past few days.

The reality of the coffee, strange as it may seem, also woke up the part of her that wished this were all a dream. Deep down, she still wanted to trust Vincent. Somewhere in her mind, she wanted to believe that this wasn't happening…but it was. The tears that she wanted to suppress silently fell down her cheeks. She trained her cup and handed it back to Vincent, wiping her eyes with her arm.

"Are you okay?" Vincent asked gently.

Tifa shrugged. "I don't know. Are you?"

"For the most part, yes, I am. Don't cry, Tifa. I have no intentions of hurting you," the red-eyed man said quietly. "If I do, please be aware that I am not myself and that Chaos or one of the other demons is controlling me at that time."

Tifa smiled a very small smile, and said nothing.

The Highwind was in much better shape, the sun shone brightly in the control room (as well as the rest of the ship), and there were now eight bedrooms, one for each team member (including Aeris, despite all logic).

All in all, the ship was in better shape after Cid was done with repairs.

…Of course, when a certain dark-haired ninja wouldn't leave you alone, you tended not to notice improvements, especially when you were a certain spiky-haired leader.

"Okay," Cloud grumbled, attempting to be calm as he glared at Red XIII. "Who gave her coffee?"

"FWEE!" answered Yuffie, jumping around behind Cloud.

"…I don't know," said the dog-like creature, backing away from the super hyper ninja.

Once again, Yuffie shrieked "Fwee!" and jumped on Cloud from behind so that she was now pretty much riding him piggyback.

"FOR THE LOVE OF—!" the blonde young man roared, attempting to pry the Materia thief's arms off of his neck. She wasn't choking him, but when you're already in a bad mood, having a young ninja leap on you really didn't help at all.

An insane grin spread on Yuffie's face and she refused to move.

"Why me?" Cloud whined.

"Well, usually," Red XIII started, "she bugs Vincent but as he's not here right now…" He stopped at the look that appeared on Cloud's face after mentioning Vincent.

"Only bad things come from him being gone, eh?" the spiky-haired man growled.

"…Cloud…in the note, he said he wouldn't kill Tifa," Red XIII said, trying to make a reason to calm his leader down.

"Yeah, but he also said he couldn't promise he wouldn't hurt her." When Yuffie's arms tightened around him, he remembered her presence. "By the way...WHO GAVE HER COFFEE?" he demanded.

Yuffie giggled. "I got it myself!"

Yumesuta: …Yeah, um, REVIEW! Please…?