Chapter 27: Seventeen
(Same tags apply as in Chapter 1)
o-o-One Day Remaining-o-o
It had taken two days for the workers that Vincent hired to remove all of the debris from the Mansion and another two for the repair supplies to arrive. Tifa entered her small house to find Cloud and Vincent waiting for her in the living room.
"Where is she? Does she suspect anything?" Tifa asked quietly.
Cloud shook his head. "She's in the kitchen waiting for you to bring the furniture catalogue. No, she has no clue...I'd say her days are still a little off. Her birthday is tomorrow and I really don't think she remembers."
The gunman nodded. "That would be a fair assumption. We have been rather busy this week."
The chocolate haired woman smiled. "So, do you have everything set up at the inn and at Cloud's?"
"Yes. All the preparations have been made." Vincent said.
"Good. Well we better get in there Vincent. You have a lot of furniture to pick out." She said teasingly.
Claret eyes widened at the thought of shopping with two women, even if it was through a catalogue. "I think you and Yuffie will do fine without me. Whatever you choose will be acceptable." He said nonchalantly, hoping that she would not insist that he helped.
"Really?" She asked and watched him answer with a nod. "Don't worry Vincent, We'll choose something that will suite you well." She said as she bounded off to the kitchen.
Cloud stood next to Vincent as he watched his love enter the kitchen as images of various types of frilly feminine furniture invaded his mind. "You sure it's a good idea to let them choose?"
"It's better than the alternative…" Vincent mumbled. "Tell me Cloud, what would you do?"
The swordsman thought about the question for a few moments before sitting on the couch. "I see your point. So do you have something set up for tomorrow afternoon to keep her busy while we set up?"
"Yuffie wanted to start in the two bedrooms that had the least damage tomorrow around midday. That should take no more than three hours. I have reserved two Chocobos from the stable and we will go for a ride."
Cloud stood from his seat on the couch. "Well, I guess we should go finish the Mansion's stable. Cid will be bringing Tiko and Kira tomorrow and the heating element in the stable still needs to be repaired."
Vincent nodded and they headed back to the Mansion.
o-o-Zero-o-o
Yuffie ruffled the feathers of her rented black Chocobo. The air was warming slightly as they moved south from Nibelheim with Vincent leading the way. She had no idea where they were going, but she was just happy to be here riding behind her wonderful gunman.
She watched as the wind caused his cape the billow behind him as they raced across the plains, the late afternoon sun made his raven locks shine under its rays. His gun was securely holstered in the belt that went around his narrow waist as he held the reins of his Chocobo in his organic hand. Yuffie couldn't help but to stare at him in awe. He looked like he had leapt straight from a storybook, the dashing hero off to save his fair maiden from unspeakable horrors. She continued to gaze at him, no longer noticing the beautiful scenery as it passed.
.::-o-::.
After almost two hours of riding, Vincent steered his mount towards the banks of a river. The banks were lined with lush green trees, and the water ran clear. It was simply beautiful. He slowed the black bird and reached behind him, making sure the locks on nondescript black case that secured to the Chocobo, were still tightly closed. He glanced over his shoulder to find Yuffie staring at him, but at the same time, it was almost as if she wasn't seeing him. Both birds came to a stop near a group of large river rocks.
Vincent looked at her; she hadn't realized that they had stopped. "Yuffie? We have arrived." He said waving his claw in front of her, trying to snap her out of her self-induced trance.
She shook her head when his deep voice floated to her ears. She blinked and saw him looking at her and trying to get her attention. She blushed when she realized he had caught her staring. "Sorry." She said sheepishly as she hopped of her bird and removed her pack from one of the saddlebags.
"You have nothing to apologize for Yuffie." The gunman said as he gave her a slight smile to ease her embarrassment.
The ninja looked around the area where they had stopped. It was lush and green, one of the more beautiful areas on the planet that had been left untouched by man. "Vinnie, this area is beautiful." She took a deep breath and felt a sense of calm surround her.
He handed her a blanket and grabbed the handle of the case. Yuffie spread the blanket on the slightly damp grass and plopped down, savoring the peacefulness of the area.
Vincent was standing at the waters edge still holding the black case when he heard Yuffie's voice behind him.
"Hey Vinnie, what's in the case?"
Vincent removed his cloak and tossed it on the blanket. Yuffie unconsciously folded the red and black materia and sat it on her lap as Vincent walked over to a nearby rock and set the case on it as he opened it. The ninja gasped in delight and smiled brightly at him. "You found it!"
His lips turned upward as he removed the violin and bow, sliding it across the strings experimentally before tuning it by ear. "When you and Tifa went for lunch yesterday, I was able to locate it."
Yuffie lay back on the blanket and pillowed her hands behind her head. "So what are you going to play for me?" She said, not bothering to mask the excitement in her voice.
He turned to the water for a moment as he thought and then turned back to her. He didn't respond but began playing a slow but sweet melody. The chords were rich and vibrant as his fingers moved across the strings.
Yuffie stared in amazement as the music's tempo increase drastically. He did not hit one sour note as the bow in his claw moved rapidly across the strings. She sat up and attempted to follow the flurry of movement with her eyes, but that proved futile, he was just to fast. He eyes traveled to his face to find his eyes closed as he swayed to the music, she couldn't help but notice how serene he looked.
The music slowed and drew to an end and his eyes reopened. "Fantasia and Fugue in C minor." He said quietly as he moved to sit next to her.
She cuddled up to him and he draped an arm over her shoulders. "Vince, that was so beautiful. Thank you."
"It was my pleasure."
Vincent and Yuffie sat talking about plans for the Mansion as Yuffie repeatedly ran her fingers over Vincent's cloak. He covertly watched her movements and felt the now familiar sense of warmth that he felt around the ninja increase and suddenly, it was all so clear. 'I do love her and I want her by my side if she will have me.' He thought as he felt his heart rate increase. Now, all he had to do now is tell her, but the questions are, when and how. Vincent pulled her closer to him.
A few moments later, he saw Yuffie's brow furrow slightly. "Vincent, do you think Sephiroth would have stayed sane if he hadn't been sent to Nibelheim?" Yuffie asked quietly.
Vincent thought about her question for a moment and he nodded. "I do believe that it was his proximity to Jenova that caused her cells to surface from their dormancy which lead to his insanity so yes, I do believe that he would have kept his sanity."
"I think that once Jenova was destroyed, before we began the fight with Sephiroth, the real Sephiroth emerged but enough of Jenova's cells alive inside him to control him." She stated simply. "Did you see his eyes?"
"Yes. He was in battle, but it was not with us."
She nodded sadly. "You know Vincent, I don't blame him. He had no control over what happened, just like when Cloud was taken over because of the Jenova in him."
"I also believe that is true. His death brought him peace."
They sat on the bank watching the water, both deep in thought. Vincent glanced at the watch on the arm draped across Yuffie's shoulder. "Yuffie, we should return to Nibelheim."
She sighed and nodded. "Vince, could you play one more song before we leave? Please?"
He picked up his violin once more and began to play. Yuffie swayed to the sweet melody and let out a disappointed sight when the song came to an end. "That one was so…romantic. What's that one called?"
Vincent smiled at her as he placed the violin back in the case. "Romance in D."
Yuffie stood and stretched before refolding the blanket. "Vince, will I get to hear you play again?"
"If you wish." The gunman said as he secured the violin case on the Chocobo then taking his seat on the saddle.
Yuffie hopped up on her bird. "Well, I do wish." She said and gently kicked the Chocobo's side, leading the way back to Nibelheim.
.::-o-::.
Yuffie turned from the Chocobo attendant to find Vincent smirking. She cocked her head at him and smiled. "What?" She asked.
"You will find out soon." They walked slowly towards Tifa's home. "I had fun today Vince, I really appreciate it. It feels like it's been so long since I've had a chance to do something normal." She said wistfully.
"Your health is returning Yuffie rapidly. Soon you will able to do your continue your normal activities." They arrived at the door and Vincent's hand paused before the doorknob. "You are feeling well, correct?" He asked at she nodded.
He opened the door and lead Yuffie into the darkened house. "I wonder where Teef and Spike are…"
"SURPRISE!!"
Yuffie jumped and looked around the decorated living room and kitchen seeing all her friends standing with smiles. Yuffie turned to Vincent and looked at him in confusion. "It's not my birthday for another two days."
Teef came up and hugged the ninja. "Nope, today is Thursday November 20th. We knew you were still a little off on your days." She bent to whisper in her ear. "It was Vincent's idea."
Yuffie turned to Vincent and blushed before turning to him and mouthing 'Thank you Vinnie.' She turned to her friends "Thanks you guys! As you can see, I had no clue…I didn't even know what today was."
Elmyra walked to Yuffie and gave her a hug. "It's alright dear, we know you're memory isn't the best right now, but that will pass."
"Yeah Yuffs, but it worked to our advantage." Cloud said from the back of the room.
Marlene came flying from the kitchen and leapt into the ninja's arms, nearly knocking her to the ground. "Auntie Yuffie!"
Yuffie gave the sweet little girl a hug. "Hey Mar, I'm glad you came!" She said and began tickling the girl.
Cid stepped forward with Shera by his side. "Well let's get this goddamn party started!" He said making his way to the drinks.
.::-o-::.
The party had been going for a few hours and was beginning to come to a close. Barret and Cid were in a corner trading insults, Cloud, Vincent, and Reeve were talking about the committee plans, and the women sat on the couch talking about the redecoration of the Mansion.
Marlene came into the living room carrying a box wrapped with glossy green wrapping paper and plopped the small box on the ninja's lap. "Auntie Tifa, can she open her pwesents now?"
Elmyra gave Marlene a slight scolding look. "Marlene, aren't you suppose to be getting ready for bed, its late."
The little girl gave a slight pout. "But Miss Elmyra, I wanna see Auntie Yuffie open her pwesents."
Elmyra looked lovingly to the little girl. "Okay…but after she's done, I'm taking you to Cloud's and you're going straight to bed." Tifa grabbed Cloud's hand, dragging him into the kitchen to help bring in presents.
Marlene squealed and hopped on Elmyra's lap giving her a kiss on the cheek.
Yuffie laughed and Shera called over to the men. "Hey guys! Yuffie's opening her presents. Get over here."
Tifa sat on the couch next to the ninja placing the gifts on the table. Yuffie glanced around the room with a large grin holding the green wrapped box on her lap.
"That's from Vincent." Tifa said gesturing at the gunman in the corner.
Yuffie opened the box and her eyes widened. She pulled out a bracelet made of white gold with the Wutain symbol for Leviathan. "Its beautiful Vincent." She said quietly as Tifa snapped the bracelet on her wrist.
Marlene peeked over from Elmyra's lap to see the bracelet. "Wow that's pwetty!" She said running a stubby finger over the Leviathan.
Elmyra's gift was next. She pulled two old books from the box and the older woman explained. "Those were Aerith's favorite books." Yuffie open one of the books to see one of Aeris' pink ribbons inside as a bookmark. "I think she would've wanted you to have something that was special to her…that one's called 'The First Christmas' and the other is called 'Alternate Dimensions.'"
Yuffie felt her eyes moisten as she ran her hand over the book covers then brought them to her chest. "Thank you so much."
Tifa kept the presents coming. "Okay, this one's from me and Cloud."
The ninja pulled the ribbon on the silver box and pulled out exquisitely cut pendant on a chain also of white gold. She brought the red stone closer examining it closely her eyes widened. "It's Leviathan!"
Cloud smiled. "You said that you wanted the new one and we thought that this would make it more special for ya. Tifa said it would go well with Vincent's gift also."
Reeve and Nanaki came forward. Nanaki had a package in his mouth and put it in her hand and they both waited for her to open the package. Inside was a picture of the entire group, taken their first time at the Canyon in a gorgeous crystal frame. The men stood in the back with Aeris standing between Tifa and Yuffie in the front. "Thanks Red!" She smiled at the picture and as she held it up a clear lens fell in her lap.
Yuffie picked up the lens and looked at it in confusion. "What's this?"
Reeve smiled at her. "That, my dear, is only part of your gift. It's a lens for a telescope."
"Thanks Reevie, this is so cool!!" she said putting the lens in her pocket for safekeeping.
Barret dropped another box in the ninja's lap. "Yuffs, that's from me."
She tore through the paper and opened the box. Yuffie pulled out a new shuriken. "Wow Barret, Thanks!!" She gave it a quick spin, testing the weight of her new weapon.
Barret nodded. "Its called tha Masara. The blades are reinforced with titanium and tha thing hardly needs ta be sharpened." He said as Tifa passed Yuffie a very flat gift.
"That one's from us. We didn't know what the hell to get ya." Cid said as he stood next to Shera.
Yuffie pulled out flat card from the small box and opened it. Yuffie read the card and smiled. "Thanks you two! This'll be so much fun!"
"Well does it say?" Cloud asked.
Yuffie looked down at Shera's elegant handwriting.
We didn't quite know what you give you but figured you could use a break. You can use this gift anytime you see fit. Enjoy!
Yuffie, for your seventeenth birthday we wish you the best.
Cid & Shera
Yuffie held up a second smaller card showed everyone the raised gold lettering.
"Two weeks at the Kalahou bungalow at Costa del Sol with transportation provided by the Highwind, of course." The group gave appreciative nods at the thought of spending two weeks relaxing in the sun.
Yuffie looked at all of her friends. "You guys…" she didn't know what to say besides, "Thank you for everything." She finished quietly.
.::-o-::.
Tifa and Cloud walked Barret, Elmyra and Marlene next door to make sure they were settled for the night while Yuffie and Vincent escorted the others to the inn.
"Goodnight guys, thanks for coming."
"Night Yuffie, Vincent." Reeve said as they went into the inn.
Vincent noticed that she looked exhausted, and at any moment, she would fall asleep, but there was still one stop that they had to make. They began walking slowly back to Tifa's home when Vincent started towards the mansion. Yuffie looked at him in confusion. "Vince, where are you going?"
"Yuffie, there is one more gift that you have yet to receive." He held his hand out to her and she gently took it and allowed him to lead her to the Mansion.
He led her up the staircase to the door of one of the recently painted rooms. He gestured to the door and she slowly entered and stopped dead as her eyes trailed around the room. The room was filled with a large easel, a vast array of high quality paints, canvases brushes, pencils, sketchpads and even a potter's wheel. Her eyes fell upon the table to see a camera resting on the table with a red bow on top.
Vincent stood quietly behind her as her heart swelled, she turned around and with amazing speed, leapt into his arms, taking surprising him and knocking him to the floor with a thud. She landed on top of the gunman and hugged him, pressing her face into his chest. He placed his hand on her back as she gazed into his eyes. "Vincent I-"
He interrupted her and rest his chin on the top of her head. "I know Yuffie." He tilted his head slightly looking down at her beautiful face and laughed when she yawned. "Lets go back, you need to rest."
She nodded pulled him to his feet with a grunt. "Geez, Vinnie, how much do you weigh?" She said with another yawn as they walked back to Tifa's home.
Vincent was about to open the door when she stopped him. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him gently on his wind-chilled cheek.
'I can't believe I just kissed him!' She thought, her mind spinning from the brief contact of her lips to his skin.
The ninja stepped back and gave a slight chuckle when she saw the red tint to the dark man's face. She opened the door and stepped in, savoring the warmth and noticed Vince was still standing there.
"Well are ya comin' in or not Vince?"
He nodded and the went to their room and quickly changed with their backs to one another, both too tired to shower, and climbed into their beds.
Yuffie turned on her side to look at Vincent. "Vincent, that was the first birthday that I didn't spend alone since my mom passed."
His red eyes opened glowing warmly as he gazed at the little Shinobi. "Yuffie, you won't be alone anymore." His eyes close and the both fell into a deep sleep filled with extremely pleasant dreams.
o-o-Author's Notes-o-o
-Dodges the fruit being thrown at her.- I'm sorry! I'm sorry!! I didn't mean to keep you all waiting so long for this update. I really apologize.
I've been trying to get this update up for a few days now, and since my 'puter decides to freeze up when I'm doing too many things, I've been sorta discouraged to write. You don't know how many times I've started adding to a chapter or starting a new one, that my computer has frozen and I've lost everything. Pretty soon, I'm gonna have to completely wipe my hard drive again…GRR!!!
ANYWAY!! Everyone has returned and is ready to come to you for visits!!! From Aeris to Zack, both male and female, they've all managed to escape squares basement, and after my 'forced vacation' from posting, they ready to go out once more!
I'm gonna finish watchin' the X-files so Reno is gonna finish these short AN's for me:
Ez: Reno-baby!!! I missed you!!!
Reno: Ez, you just saw me yesterday!
Ez: -grins sheepishly- hee hee, I know! -Turns back to the tv-
Reno: First off, The titles for the books that Yuffie got from Miss Elmyra are actually stories found here on The First Christmas (ff7) was written by Angel280….
Ez: Angel is my buddy!!! Her account got removed from for no reason and without warning! GRR!!! -Readies her whip-
Reno: Calm down babe! Its okay! Angel opened a new account! Her new pen is Shadowbeaw and her stories will be up in a few days.
Ez: -Puts her whip away…for now- Good! They better not fuckin' mess with the accounts anymore. Like Deplora and I discussed, they wouldn't have to screw with peoples accounts if the just brought back NC-17! Damn Censorship! -mumbles- Just because some people don't seem to understand that if a story is rated NC17 ITS GONNA EITHER HAVE GRAPHIC SEX OR VIOLENCE!!! DUMB ASS COMPLAINERS!!!
-Turns away from the TV and to her reader- Sorry guys, It just really pisses me off that someone is going around and messin' with peoples accounts!!! ARGH!!!!!! -Turns back to watch Mulder chase someone-
Reno: -Sighs- When she gets pissed…watch out! Um, yeah and the second book she got was based on Alternate Dimensions (ff7) written by Aloria.
Ezri: Thank you Angel and Aloria for allowing me the pleasure of using the titles of your awesome stories in this one. I really appreciate it and you both do great…no, AWESOME work!
Reno: Thanks for reviewing Exterminating
Angel280 (Shadowbeaw)
Deplora
Sakura Yosei
Lone Gunmen
YK2
Sexynun
Konie Hime
Eerian Sadow
Kidbuux (sorry she didn't get a chance to chat with ya)
Sephiroth2021
Hotaru170
KittyPersona
Charles Xavier
Sebastiana N D
TheEvilOne69
Swtlil-azn
BlueEuedDemon1
Aurbryn
She's just wants to take a moment to thank all of you who have reviewed the last chapter and the ones before. She really wishes that she could name you all, but you know who you are!
Ez: Yeah! You all get cookies!!!
Reno: Ez doesn't own Final fantasy 7 or or else things would be run a helluva lot different!
Ez: DAMN STRAIGHT!!
Reno: -Picks Ez up and tosses her over his shoulder and turns off the tv.-
Ez: HEY!! RENO!!!
Reno: I'm putting her to bed…she has to work in the morning and she hasn't been sleeping because she's be RP-ing til the wee hours of the morning since she can't get her puter working right. Night all
Ez: Bye bye!!! I love you all!!!
8/8/04
Edited 1/14/07
7/26/07
Edited because of change in formatting. Also re-numbering chapters. Minor content edits.