Disclaimer: I do not own Yuffie and Godo Kisaragi, Vincent Valentine, AVALANCHE, all characters and concepts related to AVALANCHE, or, in fact, anything that is from Final Fantasy VII (that honour goes to the wonderful bunch at Square-Enix).

Claimer: I DO, however, own the concept of this story, the name Phe Tsen Shu, the rest of the Shu family, the concept of North Wutai and South Wutai being separate countries, the city of Le Phe Tan, the bastardization of the name Leviathan into Le Phe Tan, and other things not found in FF7. I also own the concept of Heavenly City Da Cha O, the bastardization of the name Da Chao into Da Cha O, and the concept of the Wild Ace's Deuce's Wild Casino. Feel free to use my ideas and original characters, but please give me credit. If you don't give me credit, Tsen Li will turn into a Gary Stu, ruin your story, and then eat your liver.

And When that Day Comes

Dig my head down deep so I can't hear the cars

Outside on the street, and the stars are laughing

They get a kick out of my misery.

I've tried everything short of Aristotle,

Dramamine, and the whiskey bottle,

I pray for the day when my ship comes in

And I can sleep the sleep of the just again

—Insomniac, Straight No Chaser

Chapter Five

One Week Later

Island of Wu Tai --- City of Wutai (formerly Da Cha O)

Yuffie forced a smile onto her face as the car rolled up to the gates of her city. From there, they would walk. Wutai's streets couldn't handle motored traffic. It filled her with a vicious sort of glee that her fiancé would walk to her palace… And she would ride a motorcycle.

Yuffie could feel people watching her. She'd gotten very good at knowing when something was watching her.

She looked backwards. There, standing in plain view, was a man with a camera and an insanely long lens.

She grinned cheekily and held out her fingers in a V shape. The paparazzi hated it when she did that. Make it clear that you know they're there, that they didn't catch you unawares, and it ruins all their fun.

But this was starting to get annoying. People randomly popping up and taking pictures of her every five minutes... It felt weird. The modern media had never cared about Wutai before. Wutai was just some dinky tourist trap.

And now they cared. Because she was part of AVALANCHE, and happened to be the future ruler of a tiny country.

"Come on, come on, what are you, five hundred years old?" She mumbled to the family departing the car. "It shouldn't take this long, dang it!"

It turned out that her fiancé's old man, Mao Li, was in his eighties. She felt slightly sorry for her ill thoughts when it became clear that he had trouble walking, but still…

Ha-ha, Tsen Li was going to have to walk. And she would ride a motorcycle.

Yuffie adjusted the detachable sleeves. She had agreed to wear a nicer kimono.

She'd never agreed not to wear a mourning one.

Godo was going to be so pissed.

Tsen Li blinked at the sight of the young woman moving towards them. She was prettier than he'd expected her to be, but not as pretty as his father had told him she'd be.

"Father? Is that her?"

"I wonder if she killed Godo," his father replied.

It was then that Tsen Li noticed that the woman was wearing a black kimono. The silk trims had spider-web patterned eyelet.

Detachable sleeves. Dark colours. Sober trim. It was a mourning kimono.

"Kisaragi Yu Fi," Tsen said. He offered her a bow, lower than he should have, probably, but he was beyond caring.

He was going to be polite, damn it. He was going to act love-stricken for those idiotic foreign cameras, and then when they got to the palace, he was going to tell her he hadn't the slightest interest in her. He would tell her that the minute they were married, he would go home and announce his claim on his Intended. She could do whatever she liked.

"Shu Tsen Li."

"It is a pleasure," he said.

"Of course. Charmed. Enchanted. Utterly thrilled to meet you."

She didn't sound thrilled. She sounded like she was trying to scream Die, die, die and wasn't quite getting it right.

"Show me around your city."

"I'll help you put your bags in the cart, and then I'll show you back to the palace."

"The palace can't be that hard to find, girl."

His father just had to ruin polite conversation, didn't he?

"I'm an old man. I'll just ride in the cart back to the palace… Why don't you show my son around your city?"

Yu Fi gave his father a predatory grin. She turned to him and pointed at the street beneath him. "Road." She pointed to Da Chao. "Da Chao." She pointed at something he couldn't see. "Business district."

And then she laughed. "You've seen Wutai. Maybe, if you're nice enough, I'll show you the cemetery."

"You don't seem to like your city much."

"I've never seen it. When I was a child, I never left the Academy. When I graduated the Academy, my father let me stay two months in my house before he sent me out of the country. This is the longest I've stayed here since I was twelve."

Tsen Li nodded. "I don't see much of Le Phe Tan. For entirely different reasons, though… Forty years ago, somebody kidnapped the then-heir to the Pagoda. They never found him. I've never been anywhere without a guard before."

She laughed again. "You're still not."

"What? I don't see them…"

"You're looking at her."

"Oh."

"Yeah. My father pretty well never wants to see me around. I look too much like my mother, or something."

"I see."

A world where his father wouldn't look at him? Constantly having a guard detail sucked, but that would suck worse.

How had she stood it? Why wasn't she insane or wanting to kill him or something?

Yu Fi bowed to his father. "Your son's safety in my presence is assured. So long as he is with me, nothing will harm him."

And then a group of foreigners rushed into the city. Two blond men and a brunette.

"Yuffie," the brunette gasped in the Midgarian tongue. "Yuffie, you aren't really doing this, are you?"

Yu Fi sighed. "My apologies, Tsen Li. This is Tifa Lockheart of Midgar. With her are Cloud Strife and Cid Highwind."

"Yuffie, you $&in' idiot! The hell you think you're doin'?"

Yu Fi switched to Midgarian. "I'm getting married, Cid. Cid, Cloud, Tifa? Meet Tsen Li Shu, of Le Phe Tan. Meet also his father, Lord Mao Li Shu."

"Yuffie, we need to talk."

"If you're going to try and talk me out of it, don't bother."

"An audience, Yuffie. Please." This came from the younger blond. Tsen Li recognized him from the newspapers— this was Cloud Strife, of AVALANCHE.

"Fine. Later. Right now, I have to help them with their luggage and get them to the palace."

But Cloud only grinned. "We'll help you with that."

"Do what you want."

Cloud turned to Mao Li. In awkward, but passable, Wutaian, he said, "May I help you with your bags?"

Well, sort of. Tsen Li figured it was something like that. He saw Yu Fi's eyebrow twitch. He saw his father's eyebrow twitch. He felt his throat spasm as he fought hard to keep from laughing at his father's attempts to puzzle out the man's Wutaian.

"He wants to help with the luggage, father. I think," Tsen Li offered.

"By all means." And his father began to order the poor fool around like a dog.

Poor hero, Tsen Li thought to himself. He should never have made the offer. Father would never treat Yu Fi like that, but foreigners…