Since Now

Gabreilla Moushigo

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Things were not going great. The level of intimacy they were sharing was almost down to nothing. When he touched her she would either be fine for only a little while or unresponsive. He waited a while for the fight with Cloud to die out of her mind. Surely a week afterwards she wouldn't still be so upset over that yellow hair brat that he couldn't at least kiss her senseless every so often. She kissed him true enough, but there was this strange anxiety when she did it that he couldn't quite understand. It was unnatural and frightening although he didn't know why.

He wanted to ask her desperately what the matter was. He did a few times and she said she was still 'upset' about what happened 'that day', being very vague. Of course, when she was so vague, it made it easy for him to come up with a slew of possible problems in his own mind.

He already ruled out Cloud, Tifa was not one to hold a grudge, even if the twerp did bruise her arms in a scuffle. So that only left him. What the hell did he do? He thought things were going great. Then again, women were said to be complicated at times. Tifa had almost always been straightforward with him… nothing ever like this.

Was it too soon? Did he misread her all together? Was she just faking being alright with him? Maybe he should try to be more gentle and submissive. It wasn't really him – but he loved her enough to change that particular part of him. If he had done it for Lucrecia than he certainly could do it for Tifa.

When he put his gentling to practice Tifa only became more distant. She went from fine some of the time to none of the time. They barely kissed anymore. She barely stayed at the house unless she wanted to sleep. Other wise she was at the stables and running around on that Chocobo. He wanted to pull out his hair in frustration. It didn't matter that he wasn't getting any – what was a few weeks when he hadn't got any for thirty plus years? He just wanted to know what in the world he had done wrong. What could he do to get everything back to normal? He never knew she was thinking the same thing as he.

He was staring at the back of her head as she chopped up vegetables on the counter, wondering what in the world she was thinking right now. He also tried to think of questions to ask her that he hadn't – wanting to get some kind of answer to this madness. He was about to speak up when he heard his phone ring from the other room. "If you'll excuse me." He got up from his seat and went into the foyer and found his phone. He had caller ID so he could tell who was on the other end. He inwardly sighed, it was Reeve. He punched the button to talk. "What is it?" He didn't bother with a greeting, and Reeve naturally took notice.

"What? No hello?" Reeve sounded almost hurt, but Vincent knew better. The man was a great actor. "I have a favor to ask…" He went on tentatively.

"No." Vincent answered right away; he already had enough problems at home.

"But you haven't even heard what I was going to say." Reeve said childishly. Vincent felt an odd prickle go down his neck. The man had no shame. He was like a whiney little brother. Reeve took that since Vincent was still on the phone as a good sign. "Look, I just wanted to ask you if you wouldn't mind going into the Shinra building once more… the Sietz might be gone… but we missed quite a few of the soldiers. We just need to make sure that everything is taken care of."

"I have better things to do than to pick up your trash, Reeve." Vincent said coldly, he didn't like this one bit. It was almost insulting. "Why don't you have your WRO flunkies take care of this?"

"I would Vincent, really." Reeve sounded sincere this time, the usual 'feel sorry for me voice' finally ebbing away into seriousness. "But there aren't many of them left, and what few are… are absolutely terrified of the place."

Vincent imagined so; the place was like a nightmare… as close to a living hell as possible. How any sane human could engineer Deepground was beyond him. "I'm not so thrilled about that place myself." He grumbled. He had way too many memories of that building as it was, he didn't want to go back and relive them.

At his softening voice, Reeve added in quickly. "I can pick you up at your place, and I might even pay you this time." He joked.

Maybe this was the shot he was looking for. Maybe if Tifa and he went away they could rebind their relationship. "Oh, you will pay me." Vincent's voice was hard again, wondering how in the world Reeve knew where he lived already.

"Splendid!" Reeve said in that way of his, he must have been wearing a head set because Vincent could hear him clap his hands together happily.

"Oh, and Reeve?" Vincent had a catch to his voice and Reeve's small celebration quieted down a bit.

"Yes Vincent?"

"Whatever you are going to pay me… double it."

Reeve sounded a bit flabbergasted. "What on earth for?"

"You're going to have to pay my assistant for her time as well."

"You have an assistant?" Reeve shook his head, although Vincent did not see. "Since when have you had an assistant?" He couldn't believe his ears.

"Since now." Vincent stated, pulling the phone away from his face and pressed the end button.

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Author's Notes:

Like I've said before, I totally love Reeve. He was hilarious in DoC – especially with that doll he made of himself. I loved that look it had on its face when the head blew off and Cait popped out… very funny.

I'm not sure if he's going to play a bigger part in the story than this, but I wanted him to show up at least once.

Sorry for the short chapter again – I just wanted to separate this chapter from the next. It was originally longer – but I thought the subject kinda changed a bit too quickly to keep them together.

That – and I can put more story out if I do it this way.

Review:

Lady Shiva: Wow that was quick! Thanks for the review! Don't worry – it'll get better eventually.

Vinny the Vampire: Hehe – I wanted to make him a bit more gentlemanly, but God… you know that if he had permission to look he would get an eye full. Thanks for the compliments about the scenes. Those always make me happy.

Since I work with people – I had quite a few people named Valentine come through my office. I think the name is terribly romantic for obvious reasons. My last name is a dish easily found in any Taiwanese restaurant. A Cookie to anyone who can guess my name hehe!

Tell me if your boyfriend ever gets famous – I'll buy his CD hehe.

I dated a guy named Gray when I was younger – I think we joked about kids once – saying we should name our daughter Jean – like the X-Men. (hehe)

Jen: Because he was a little distracted… that and other smells were interfering… heh… heh… heh…(winks)