Disclaimer: I told you once, and I'll say it again. I OWN FFVII! Haha, just kidding. Looks around furtively as SquareEnix's real, live Turks approach Don't sue me!
AN: Happiness! XD And thank you all for reviewing, once again!
.:Vicissitudes:.
Yuffie glanced down the shopping list that Cloud had hastily scribbled. "A gazillion Hi-Potions, two Tents, five Ethers, and—" her eyes widened with delight. "Three HP Plus materia!" An overjoyed smile spread across her face as the cogs in her mind whirled rapidly. "And he didn't even tell me not to steal materia!"
A gloved hand suddenly reached over her head and drew the scrap of ripped paper from her hands. She tilted her head back and looked up into the stoic face of one Vincent Valentine. A full ten inches taller than she was, Vincent had no trouble looking down on Yuffie. Long locks of his black hair hung down to tickle her nose and she blew at them. He paid her no mind, scanning the paper quickly with his sharp gaze. "No, Cloud did not warn you because I am coming with you. And I'll be sure that the owners of the materia shop will not suddenly find half their merchandise missing."
She pouted and pirouetted deftly to face him. "Aw, you're no fun, Vinnie. Don't you think you should live a bit?" The irony of her words struck her a second after she spoke them, and she clapped a hand over her mouth as she watched for his reaction.
But he seemed not to care, or at least his flawless poker face was perfectly in place. Only a slight smile appeared on his lips as he looked over the vermillion cliffs and cinnamon plateaus of Cosmo Canyon. The setting sun only deepened the warm tones of the ancient rock, which contrasted starkly with the coolly azure sky. The town, situated in a plenitude of natural beauty, had always instilled a sense of peace within his soul. "Yes, I do," he murmured. "If life is so…"
But Yuffie had already lost interest and was tugging on his cloak impatiently. "Come on! If I can't steal any materia, then we might as well just get this over with!" He sighed and shook his head, following her resignedly.
As they walked (or skipped, in Yuffie's case), the town's residents greeted them occasionally, though some glared as Yuffie mimicked one elder's rather pompous air. She only stuck her tongue out at them impudently, daring them to respond.
"Don't you think that excitement is good for your health?" she asked idly, hopping onto the posts of the railing and balancing with cat-like instinct. The sheer precipice dropped endlessly on the other side of the fence, but Yuffie did not seem to notice. Vincent's heart nearly burst when she wobbled a bit, and he resisted the urge to reach out and grab her down from the fence.
"No," he answered absently, keeping a vigilant eye on her feet.
"Psh. If we were all boring like you, we'd just sit on our big fat butts all day and do nothing. We'd all turn as fat as Barret is!" A slight breeze buffeted her, and she reached a hand out to grab Vincent's shoulder to keep her balance.
"Don't you think you should get down from there?" he asked, his arm ready to seize her should she fall.
"Naw. It's more fun up here!" Turning to grin cheekily at Vincent's exasperated expression, she suddenly crashed into a wall of rough rock and almost fell. But he caught her hand in his gun hand before she toppled, she righted herself to find that the railing had ended at an outcropping of sedimentary stone that jutted into the air. Glaring at the projection of rock that had ended her fun, she gasped when something shiny caught her eye. There, at the apex of the enormous boulder, was something that glinted in the setting sun. A mischievous smile stretched across her face as she blessed Leviathan for this serendipity. In her experience, sparkling objects placed in dangerous places were usually her favorite toys, materia.
Vincent's eyes had traveled along her the sheer wall of rock as well, and he realized what she was thinking. But before he could tighten his grip, she had slipped her hand out of his and leapt bodily onto the rock wall. Her shinobi training served her well and her limbs immediately found little footholds and handholds. Yuffie craned her neck back and discovered Vincent leaning against the railing, his face tight with worry. "Don't be so scared, Vinnie! I'm going to get that materia for you!"
He did not bother answering, but examined the boulder quickly, searching for a way to retrieve Yuffie before she mired herself in even more danger. The agile ninja girl, however, had no such thoughts of safety in her mind. She shinnied up the rock face quickly, slipping a few times but managing to catch herself; every time, a jolt of fear shot through his heart as harshly as Ramuh's Judgement Bolt.
"Yuffie!" he called. She only jerked her head in response, now just a few feet from the object. Extending an arm, Yuffie grabbed the final handhold and stuck her tongue out as she mentally calculated the distance she would have to reach. She hung at a precarious angle, her arms wrapped around the boulder and straining to carry her weight. This meant that she had no way of climbing over the tilted rock, and there were no grips for her either. She glanced down and saw the dizzying spectacle of the maze of cave-riddled canyons thousands of feet below, but she felt no fear. She was perfectly fine with heights, having climbed to the top of the pagoda at the age of six; it was only the horrific lurching motion of moving vehicles that struck terror in her. As a matter of fact, if Cid had not taught her so many excellent expletives, she would have avoided him as much as possible.
She flicked her gaze up again and the shiny thing glinted tantalizingly at her. But her mind told her quite sensibly that she would slip if she tried to reach that far. It was then that she made her decision. She had been speaking of excitement, right? Why not put words into actions? With a devilish grin, she turned back to Vincent, who was still standing at the railing, his agitation manifest.
"Hey Vinnie! Catch me!" And she leapt from her perilous perch and stretched her arm as far as she could. Her eyes narrowed in concentration, and in less than a second, her hand grasped a string of material and held firm. She would have smiled in satisfaction, but just as quickly, her body began to fall through the rushing air. As the sickening feeling of freefall twisted her gut, a rush of adrenaline coursed through her blood. She fell as a bird flew—as if there was nothing to hold her to the world of the mundane.
But her fall ended abruptly when an arm wrapped around her shoulders tightly, and she was pressed against Vincent's chest. He reached out with the claw and slammed it into the rock face, stopping their fall with a jerk. The momentum would have dislocated a normal person's arm, but it only strained Vincent a bit before he used it to flip gracefully up to the railing, landing with only a soft thump and the muted clink of his metallic boots.
As soon as her feet touched the ground, he released her and checked her over for any injuries, but she was perfectly fine except for a slight brushing of dust on her clothes. As a matter of fact, she was so fine that she burst into a fit of giggles as he glared at her disapprovingly. Inside, Chaos rumbled in displeasure as Vincent's Death Glare seemed to just bounce off of Yuffie's invisible shield.
"Yuffie…" he said warningly.
Her giggles transformed into rather hysterical laughter, and she started clutching her stomach instead of being frightened by his sternness. "Oh my god, that was fun. Wasn't it?" she inquired.
He thought about the surge of dread that had bled through his mind the moment when he saw her let go. No coherent thoughts had run through his mind at that point, just the need to save her. And just a moment ago, when they had regained safety on the solid, worn floor of the Cosmo Canyon plaza, his relief had been disproportionate to the situation. For a group of battle-hardened warriors, that had been little more than a slight complication, but his heart had told him otherwise.
While Vincent took his sweet time thinking over his surprising reaction, Yuffie had long given up on getting an answer from him and was examining her prize. Opening her fist, she found a length of tough black string, tied at the ends to form a necklace. Two glass beads were strung through the string, and in between them was a glowing orb of green about the size of a large marble. She gasped—it was materia! "Look, Vinnie, look!" she said, pulling his hand.
He glanced down at it and identified it as quickly as she had. Revive materia. Her face glowed with childish amusement as she brandished the necklace in his face, nearly whacking his eye. "Yes, you got your free materia for today," he remarked.
She smiled, and suddenly reached up to grip the high collar of his cloak. At the light tugging, he obligingly leaned down, wondering what she intended to do. She slipped the necklace over his head and gently pulled his hair out from under the string, her warm fingers brushing his skin. "There!" she said, surveying her work. Still at her eye level, Vincent caught her gaze and smiled slightly, the small sentiment touching his heart.
She was startled by how incredibly handsome he was when he smiled. As soon as the thought ran through her head, she blushed and realized that they were only three inches apart. "Umm…let's go! Don't want to be late for Cloud!" she lied, hoping that he didn't notice the flush on her cheeks.
"Hm," he said absently and straightened. She breathed a small sigh of relief as he drew away again and tried to calm her racing heart. As they began walking, she became highly aware of how close he was to her, and nearly tripped several times from her hypersensitivity. She became absorbed in attempting to walk without tripping and falling that when he spoke, she was surprised.
"Why did you do it?"
"Why what?"
"Why did you jump if you knew you were going to fall?" She whirled and cocked her head at him.
"Because..." At the pause, he stopped as well and looked into her eyes, silently waiting for her to continue.
"Because I knew you were going to catch me." She smiled, beaming at him before turning and running ahead to hide the furious blush.
It took a few seconds for him to react and begin walking again, and she was already enthusiastically beckoning him to come by that time. As his heart lifted pleasantly every time he saw her smile, he realized that any excitement would be good for him, as long as it involved Yuffie.
…
AN: Fremont is currently under siege by a deluge of thunderstorms and hail. I'm freezing my butt off even at home. I am also cultivating a love for FFX, even though I barely know the story. I saw the first kiss scene on a website and my reaction was something like dies from the sweetness, slumps over keyboard, then jerks up to replay the video 20 more times.
Sigh…if only I could play FFX. Then I'd write fanfics for that genre as well! Haha…I am a diehard Yuffentine fan, but the FFX storyline intrigues me. And it is undeniable that the graphics are absolutely beautiful…I don't even know most of the plot, but watching the ending scene already makes me cry.
Thanks for reading and reviewing! And the next chapter will be happy as well, so don't worry about the painful angst I had last chapter…
