A/N: Ok. Yes. I know. Nearly 9 and a half months. I know. I know. Trust me. I KNOW. Let me just say that this chapter has taken for fucking ever and that I've been working on it SINCE the day that I last updated (which was August 13th, 2005). I officially HATE this chapter and am not happy with it what so ever, but I decided that since people were all getting on my nerves with their "update update!" whining shit, that I'd better just give it a go and get it up. So, if things seem either rushed, badly written, if there are mistakes, WHATEVER don't blame it on me. :sighs heavily: Anyways, this chapter comes close to 4 thousand words, which I hope makes up for something, since the other two were like half that in length. Before anyone comments, I KNOW that Cid is severely out of character, but you have to remember this is my fic, I hate this chapter anyways, and Cid is heavily, heavily drunk. I think I made him say fuck too much... I mean it's not the only cuss word in existence. On another note, the beginning scene doesn't really fit in with the tone of the chapter, but I had to put it in there and it wouldn't fit anywhere else. And... if things at the end seem rushed, that's because they were. NOW! Onto the story!

Death and Rebirth

By Mizukithepanda

Chapter 3

I walked down the hall.

I could feel their eyes on me, burning, pulsating, with all the wonderment and curiosity of children. Every single one of them were staring.

Every single one.

It was so unnerving that I twittered and shivered and grabbed at the sleeves of my shirt furiously. Thousands upon thousands of sets of eyes followed me as I walked through the school with my adoptive brother, Vincent. They never expected him to walk with me, I think. I mean, I was only "the mute girl" to them. What would someone as popular as Vincent Valentine be doing walking with ME?

Vincent kept his arm around me and used his menacing "death glare of utmost evil" on anyone who even THOUGHT about approaching us. People shrank away under those malicious, flesh-hungry, blood-red eyes. It was comforting to say the least, but it still felt weird to walk through the school without every other person pushing me, shoving me, and calling me snide names. I guess over the two months that I had been here I had gotten used to the torment, but... now that's gone. I have Vincent here with me now...

Here to protect me –

Somewhat.

Cloud walked up to Tifa, Aeris, Barret, and Cid at their usual booth in the small restaurant.

"Hey guys," he said with a slightly depressed tone.

Aeris looked up at him calmly with her bright green eyes.

"There's something wrong with her isn't there?" she whispered.

He nodded his head.

"Yeah... I think so... the past few days she's done nothing but write. She's having nightmares about murderers and things and last night I'm positive I heard her crying."

"Whaddya think it's about?" Barret asked, downing an entire mug of beer.

"I think the brat jus' finally fucking realizes that she's nothin' more than a fuckin' messed up brat that don' fucking deserve to have that stupid fucker for a husband," Cid replied to Barret, taking a long drag on his cigarette.

Cloud was scowling at Cid, his lips twisted into a snarl.

"Cid. She's not a brat, and I'm not a stupid fucker thank you very much. We don't need your input."

Cid snorted and giggled, too drunk to reply without slurring.

"Sure ya don' Spikey."

Cloud leaned back in his chair closing his eyes. This was all too much.

She was at her computer once more. She was typing at a slower pace than usual for the memories plaguing her at the moment were happy ones, not the usual ones of sadness, death, and depression. Though it was disconcerting, the memories that plagued her made it possible for her to go on writing this. If she had just been reliving the good memories, or just the bad, she would've stopped before she started.

As it was, she had only gotten to the second major point in her story. The first was when she lost her family... and the second had been when she and her "brother" had become friends. The third point wouldn't come up for a while, so she was stuck trying to figure out what to write as filler.

A memory of a date she had had floated into her mind. That was it! It was the linking block between the second point and the third point! She started typing frantically again as inspiration took hold and began forming words on the page.

Life is wonderful at points you know that? It really truly is. Even though the bad can outweigh the good most of the time, the little bits of good that come out of it make suffering to obtain the good all the more worthwhile.

Wow... Look at me. Don't I sound wise?

And there was the mental sigh that everything in the world knew was coming.

I've been getting my personality back slowly. At first I was so dead that I could hardly show emotion at all. If I could've spoken my voice would've been a flat monotone. But now... Now, I can smirk and smile and mean it and I can voice my words in my head with emotion and think properly.

I guess time does truly heal all wounds, though that wound has yet to really heal. It still pounds, but the throbbing has quieted some.

I need to stop talking to you; you dumb stupid voice in my head. I have a feeling that it's only making me insane. Oh well.

School starts in less than ten minutes and here I am standing in front of my locker with the "Vincent Posse".

The Vincent Posse consists of three fifteen and sixteen year old boys and Vanessa. Vanessa isn't really part of their group, but she likes to tag along with them wherever they go, being the annoying, snotty bitch that she is.

The three guys are Carlos Caliente, Brent Summers, and Mark Heidegg. Carlos is really, really cute. He's got wavy black-brown hair and midnight blue eyes. He's somewhat of a ladies' man though... It's kind of hard to think of him as a potential boyfriend when he flirts with every girl in the school...

The really tall, kind of heavy, sandy-haired one next to me is Brent. He's really sweet. No. Scratch that. He's the EPITOME of sweet. He's kind of like my brother. You know... kind of like Vincent... just a little less romantically... Heh...

Last is Mark Heidegg. He's the one standing farthest from the group and closest to that bitch Vanessa. He's got curly blonde hair, blue eyes, and he HATES. MY. GUTS. I honestly don't know why. He just... hates me. Well... now that I think about it... he's always shooting those kind of glances at Vincent... Maybe he's gay? But that wouldn't explain Vanessa... I know they do stuff... I walked by a supply closet one time and heard them yell out Vincent's name in what could clearly be identified by any NORMAL person as an orgasm... It was hilarious. Honestly.

Now don't think me a crazy person because I find hearing a couple of teenagers hit their orgasms together in a supply closet is fucking hilarious. I just really, really can't help it. It IS funny if you think about it. I still don't understand how he can shoot lustful glances at Vincent and then turn around and fuck Vanessa... Though they did both yell out Vince's name... Perhaps he's bi? I don't know... I'm gonna stop thinking about that.

I heard a question being aimed at me. I didn't exactly hear the question, so I just nodded my head. It seemed harmless enough at the time.

"Great! I'll pick you up at 7:00 pm on Friday night then?" squealed the voice of Carlos.

Uck. He squealed. I'm sorry but what kind of guy squeals... WAIT A MINUTE! I'll pick you up at 7:00 pm on Friday night! Oh no... he asked me on a date... again... and I wasn't paying attention so I answered okay... Fuck fuckitty fuck fuck fuck! A date... with Carlos... Vincent's gonna kill me...

I had no choice but to nod yet again...

His eyes brightened and started to do that weird sparkly thing they do when he's really, really happy.

"Great! See you then!"

With that he walked off heading to class, a huge monstrosity of a grin on his face. Brent turned and looked down at me. No! Not because I wasn't honest about wanting to go with him! He HAS to look down to see me! I'm only 5' 1" or something! Jeez!

Anyway, he turned and looked down at me.

"Yuffie... You weren't paying attention to a word he said until the time he was going to pick you up, were you?"

I hung my head in defeat.

'No...' was my silent response.

He sighed.

"Just make sure that you let him down easy, okay?" he sighed.

I gave a sharp nod and saluted like a soldier would. He chuckled at my antics.

"You're so cute you know that Yuffums?"

He mussed up my hair with an affectionate pat and walked to class.

That left me with the two terrors. Mark and Vanessa.

Vanessa whispered something into Mark's ear and then Mark sauntered over to me.

"Bitch," he muttered.

He shoved me against the edge of my open locker with hands above my head. I silently cried out in pain and tried to break out of the short boy's grasp. Too tight. His grip was too tight. I couldn't move.

"Bitch, you listen to me now and listen well. I know that you have no interest in Carlos so I won't go there, but I see how you look at your so-called brother. He's MINE. Mine and Vanessa's. We share him. He'll never be yours."

I raised my eyebrow but said nothing, not that I could even if I wanted to...

"Do we understand each other?" he hissed.

I didn't move. Not a single inch. Not even a tiny shake of the head.

"I'll take that as a yes. Remember, if you touch a single hair on Vinnie-poo's head in what we deem an 'inappropriate way' we'll make sure that you never get to see him again. Ever."

He let me go and stalked off with plain old Vanessa right on his heels.

He laid on his bed, red cloak splayed about him like the Blood Sea of Istar. God he missed her. How many years had it been? How many years had it been since he had seen his 'sister', his love?

Too damn many. That's how many.

He got up from his bed and moved to his computer. There he started up the internet and went to a website that had the words: Lost someone special? Enter their name here and we'll locate them for you! displayed across the top.

This is what his life had been reduced to: searching the internet for his one and only sister, his love.

He typed a name in the box and his search began.

I really regret not paying attention now. Vincent is mad at me for agreeing to go out with Carlos in the first place, Mrs. and Mr. Valentine are mad at me for going out with a 15 year old, Brent keeps giving me these weird glances, and Mark gives me a non-stop death glare whenever no one else in the Vincent Posse is looking! I swear I will never NOT pay attention to what people say ever again.

6:45

That's what MY clock says anyway. Maybe his is like fifteen minutes fast or something or maybe mine is fifteen minutes slow, but either way, Carlos is here and I'm shaking in my bell-bottom jeans and tank top. I REALLY don't want to go on this date with him, but...but... I can't just back out on him. That would be cowardly. Not to mention how much shame I would feel. I HAVE to go on this date. I really, really have to go on this date.

Vincent glared at me all yesterday and today telling me that I wasn't allowed to back out on this date and yet he's mad at me now for NOT backing out on it! If I didn't know any better I'd say he was on his period! Either that or he was bi-polar.

I could hear Vincent and Carlos talking downstairs. Vincent was telling Carlos that if he tried anything "funny" he'd personally rip his vocal chords out making him muter (if that's even possible) than me. Carlos was saying encouraging stuff like: "Don't worry man, I'm not gonna do nothing to her, she's your sister bro." and "She's only thirteen dude. That would be totally disgusting if I like screwed her in an alley or something, so you have nothing to worry about!" I have a feeling that Vincent didn't take those "encouraging" words too seriously.

I carefully walked out of my bedroom and down the stairs, trying to make as little noise as possible so that I could scare the living shit out Vinnie. Carlos saw me I'm sure as I came up behind my brother, but thankfully he didn't say anything.

I jumped on Vincent's back and blew in his ear.

The reaction I got from him was tremendous! He jumped out of his skin and SQUEAKED! DO YOU HEAR THAT! HE S-Q-U-E-A-K-E-D SQUEAKED! That was definitely enough to make my bad spirits about this date vanish into thin air. I'm sorry, but THE Vincent Valentine squeaking is something the world has never heard of before.

Mrs. Valentine was hiding her giggles behind her hand and Carlos was on the floor laughing his guts out. I even laughed, though my laughter couldn't be heard and could only be noticed through my shaking shoulders.

Vincent turned around to me, clearly ruffled and obviously pissed off.

"You think that's funny do you?" he said to me.

I nodded vigorously. It WAS funny. Actually it was MORE than funny. It was down right hilarious!

He walked towards me slowly with this predatory look on his face.

"You really think that's funny?" he asked with a lilt.

I nodded yet again, trying to stifle my silent giggles.

Suddenly he pounced on me, knocking me to the ground, and tickled me mercilessly. I writhed and silently (goddamn it I hate being mute) squeaked and giggled. This torture fortunately only lasted all of two minutes before Carlos pulled him off me.

"Dude. Me and the Yuffster have a date here, think we can get going before you make her run to the bathroom and never come out?"

I glared at him and so did Vincent, making him gulp and stagger back a few steps.

"Easy on the death glares people please! I only have so many lives you know!"

We didn't let up and kept glaring until he said, "Alright, alright I get it. No "Yuffster". It's just Yuffie or Yuffums right?"

I let up my glare and nodded sharply, before bursting into silent giggles again. Vincent, however, wasn't nearly so nice.

"You call her that again and I'll personally castrate you. She's not an item you know," he snarled.

I stood up and brushed my jeans off. I really wanted to say something like: Aww come on Vincent, don't be so hard on him I'm sure it'll be fine... or: Hey Vincent, don't hassle my date! Or just something... but I can't, and at the moment I'm fearing that I never will...

Carlos cut my depressing thoughts short however and said, "Well, let's get going Yuffie! I have a HUGE night planned for us!"

Seriously... What have I gotten myself into...

Cloud walked in the door with Tifa on his heels.

"So where is she?" Tifa asked.

Cloud grunted, "Probably at the computer typing..."

Her eyes softened at his expression.

"Cloud... I'm sure that it's nothing. I mean... if it was something big, she would have told you before you two got married wouldn't she?"

Cloud turned to face her.

"At this point Tif, I'm not so sure. Hell... right now," he lowered his voice to a bare whisper, "right now, I'm not sure that we should have even gotten married..."

Her eyes widened.

"Cloud Strife you take that back right now," she snarled. "Your wife happens to be one of my good friends. If you say stuff like that then I WILL tell her and then you'll be sure about that not married to her part."

At that moment, said wife walked into the room.

"Not married to who what? What the hell are you guys talking about?" she asked with her hands on her hips and her eyebrows raised.

Both Cloud and Tifa looked away and muttered incoherent snitches of phrases.

She took a deep breath.

"Well whatever. I only came out to get a sandwich. I'll be going back to my rat hole," she snickered, "in just a minute. You don't have to worry. I won't spoil Tiffy's visit."

"Wait... but Yu – " Tifa was cut off.

" – You aren't spoiling anything. Come out and sit with us Honey, you've hardly spent any time with any of us recently. You've been all holed up in that "rat hole" of yours. What are you doing in there anyways?" Cloud rushed.

"I – I'm writing a story, Cloud. I told you that already. I'll be done in a few days I think. Then... Then I'll tell you everything that you want to know. I promise, but now I have to go work on it some more. I have INSPIRATION!" she said, raising her fist up into the air.

"See ya later Tifa, I'll see you when I go to bed Cloud."

With that, she turned back around, sandwich in hand and strode back into the aptly named "rat hole" to write more on this "story".

Cloud pointed to her retreating back.

"THAT is why I'm worried Tif."

Tifa merely nodded.

"Hey Yuffie, I thought that first we could go eat at this awesome little food shop I found the other day, then stop at this dancing club for teens. Whaddya think?" Carlos asked me.

I couldn't really state my full opinion on it, so I just smiled and nodded. It was better to go along with it and come out unscathed (for the most part) than butt heads with him and cause whatever friendship we had to go down the tubes eternally.

He grinned back at me and shouted out to the world, "Then OFF WE GO!"

Oh my god... This was SO going to suck.

We reached the restaurant in record time, much to my relief, for Carlos was rattling on and on about video games and sports and stuff that I had no clue what was. It turned out to be a really small little place with only six tables inside and two outside. Ruby red lighting gave the place a bloody glow and paintings made with only black and red paint gave the whole place an amazingly creepy feel. Carlos opened the door for me and gestured me in with a, "Ladies first, eh Yuffums?" I shook my head with a sigh and entered the creepy restaurant.

Carlos walked to the back where a bar took up almost the entire wall.

"Hey, we'd like a table for two as well as a couple of menus."

The lady behind the bar nodded and said, "Right this way sir," grabbing two menus off of a shelf.

After we were seated and had ordered, (I pointed out what I wanted to Carlos and he ordered it for me) silence reigned supreme. I couldn't speak, and all of a sudden Carlos had stopped sprouting useless information to keep the noise flowing. I looked at him curiously, since the kid NEVER stopped talking for ANYTHING, and was shocked to see him looking at me with a frown. As far as I knew, he wasn't capable of frowning.

I started to ask what was wrong, but nothing came out and it looked more like I was a gaping fish than anything else.

"Yuffie..." he started, "Do you realize how much Vincent actually cares for you?"

My eyebrows rose to the tips of my hairline and my mouth was open in the "Ehhhhh?" position.

"I'm serious Yuffie! If I didn't know that you two were like brother and sister, I'd say he was desperately in love with you. It's THAT strong!"

I blinked several times and then nodded cautiously. It had never occurred to me that Vincent and I could ever be anything but foster brother and sister, though many people had yelled at me as of recent for thinking otherwise. I mean... what the hell? Did they really think that a thirteen year old little girl was going to be thinking about fucking her foster brother into oblivion? HELL NO! Ugh. Just... Ugh.

Carlos was about to say something else, but then our food arrived and he was effectively shut up for the rest of the meal.

I stood staring at the teen club that Carlos had taken me to. Did he.. Did he REALLY expect me to go in there? It was jam-packed full of rowdy fifteen years+ wackos grinding into each other like it was going out of style.

"Come on Yuff! It isn't that bad! I swear! You'll get into the mood once we get to dancing!"

Horror was finally registering on my face as I watched one guy push the girl he was dancing with against the wall and push up her short dress while she was unzipping his pants. I spared one look at Carlos who was about to grab my hand and pull me into the mess of horny teens and ran.

There was NO WAY IN HELL that I was going to lose my virginity at thirteen against the wall of a club. NO WAY.

Streets blurred by and cars zoomed past, honking and buzzing and screeching like a mother falcon who had had her chicks eaten. It was too much. It was too, too much. I couldn't take it. I didn't know where I was. Damn my lack of attention. Damn Carlos for taking me out and pointing out something that I really shouldn't have been thinking about. Damn Vincent for caring.

Damn my parents for being murdered.

I stopped and leaned against a brick wall to take a breath, when a familiar voice called out to me, "Yuffie! Are you alright? Where's that bitch Carlos?"

Vincent...

I panted and waved my hands around wildly. Vincent came running up beside me. He put his hand on my shoulder and asked, "What happened Yuffie? What happened?"

I gave him a look that clearly said, "I'll tell you when we get home."

"Alright, alright," he conceded, "But you have to write it down in detail, okay?"

I nodded and then he picked me up and carried me home on his back.

A/N: Um... the man in the little cut scene... was totally and completely pathetic. It made me crack up many, MANY times while reading over this piece of horse shit. Any guesses who it is? Anybody anybody? I think it's obvious, as well as who the "she" is... Anyways, sorry for my big stupid mad, angry rant up there... I'm just frustrated today is all... well... I hope I didn't scare you all off... Read and Review! The button that is SUPPOSED to SHINE WITH NEED (aka the little 'go' button) wants you to press it! Uhhh... anyways, til next time... I promise it won't take as long...

Ja ne

Mizuki