Hey! I'm back with chapter 2! I polled my friends, and tallied up the reviews, and I have a result. However, I'm not gonna tell you! P You'll just have to read and discover. xDD

Again, I own nada. Nothing. Nil. Zip. However much I wish it were different...

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square-Enix (Squaresoft)

Chapter Two: Betrayal

-x-

"Reno!" My voice was just short of a squeal. "It's early; I didn't expect you so soon."

He adopted an expression of mock-surprise. "You didn't think I'd be here this soon? What, was I supposed to wait until midnight?" He stood up and crossed the hall to stand in front of me. With an exaggerated motion he bowed. "Delighted to see you, Miss Kisaragi." He kissed my hand.

I managed to avoid blushing. "What do you wanna do?" I asked, grabbing at a strand of conversation that floated so tantalizingly before me.

"Whatever. I mean, you're the Empress - what can't you do?"

I grinned. "Well," I said conversationally, "I can't jump off the Pagoda and expect to be fine when I hit the ground just because I'm the Empress."

"Yeah, but you could because you're the Great Ninja Yuffie, am I right?" He grinned.

Oh, he knew me pretty well. He knew that if he said I couldn't make that jump, he'd get a serious earful!

I sighed. "Ex-Ninja Yuffie."

His face clouded slightly. "Come on, let's go out and have some fun." He clearly wanted me to be happy again. How sweet.

"Sure. Um, shall we go have breakfast?"

"Good idea, I'm starving!" He offered his arm to me with a small smile. Tentatively, I smiled back and accepted.

As we stepped out into the early sunshine, my spirits rose. An entire day with Reno. Wow, this would be fun!

Is it normal to want to faint when you see someone? I swear, every time I look at her, my heart flutters, my head feels light, and I feel as though I am floating. The first time that happened, I had to pretend to tie my shoe just to make sure I was really on solid ground.

But to be honest, I love it. I never want it to end. Nothing could make this day better.

Except a 'yes' from her. The ring has been in my pocket all day. I've just been waiting for the perfect time to present it. Now might be a good time. We are sitting in a garden above the city. We're surrounded by blossoming colors of every hue. The sun is beginning to fall in the sky. A soft breeze blows across our faces.

She looks like an angel. The setting sun casts a glow on her face. Her hair shines like dark mahogany. There's a quiet peace about her. From up here, we can see most of Wutai. It's gorgeous at sunset.

"Reno?"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks a lot. Today was a lot of fun."

Boy was it ever. We went to a nice little café for breakfast. After that, she took me up Da Chao. That was quite an experience. The view up there is breathtaking. It took us several hours from start to finish, because we kept stopping to admire the view.

By the time we came down, we were starving. So we decided to visit one of her elderly lady-friends who made us a delicious lunch. She was such a charming woman.

Afterward we had some fun with practice-fighting. It must have been great for her: to throw off all Empress responsibilities and to become the ninja she is at heart, if only for two hours. Even after nine years of ruling, her skills are as sharp as ever. So is her shuriken. It hurts when you don't dodge just right and get it scraped across your arm. She flipped out and started ranting that she didn't have any -- Phoenix Downs. She really was upset, but I calmed her down. After all, when you're a Turk, you've gotta deal with a lot more than just a scrape.

That's when she said she was gonna bring me here. And that's where we are.

"You getting hungry, Yuffie?" I glanced at her, and my breath seemed to catch in my throat. I had to force my voice not to change.

"Huh?" She looked at me dazedly. "What? Oh! Yeah, I am. Should we go to dinner, then?"

I nodded. After dinner… after dinner, I'll ask her.

My feet stood on Wutaian soil for the first time in four years, and I breathed in the scent of sakura blossoms. The breeze blew my hair across my face, and I brushed it aside. My cape billowed behind me like a crimson cloud. My eyes scanned the faces. Every one looked the same – nervous, skittish, and uneasy. I had that effect on people. I lowered my eyes to avoid their judgmental stares. Hadn't I expected this? I stood out in the crowd of Wutaian citizens.

They were afraid of me. The fear shone in their eyes. She was the only one who would not be afraid. She had surprised me when I first met her. I had expected her to treat me with contempt, but her reaction was different.

AVALANCHE stood in the dilapidated living room of Nibelheim mansion, conversing in low voices. Occasionally, they glanced toward the corner with tense looks. Vincent stood in the shadows, close enough to hear, but not close enough to be considered part of the conversation. His red cloak was wrapped tightly around his thin body. His head was lowered, so the cowl covered almost all of his face. All that was visible were his glowing red eyes which stared at the floor unseeingly. To any normal or sane person, this stance and appearance would scream STAY AWAY!

Yuffie was bored. She became bored easily; having little patience and lots of energy is not a good combination.

Not to Yuffie. She pranced over and stood in front of the man. Planting her legs firmly on the ground, she placed her hands on her hips and said, "Hey! Who are you again?"

Vincent stirred, raised his head, and glanced at the ninja. "Why does it concern you?" Thirty years of not speaking can do murder to a person's voice. It sounded like his voice was being dragged over sandpaper, and then scraped against barbed wire. However, there was an unmistakably cold edge to it.

This did not deter her. "Because if you're gonna help us against Sephiroth like Cloud said you would, then I've gotta know what to call you. If you don't feel like telling me, I could just call you Vampy. I mean, you kinda look like a vampire. Actually, you look a lot like a vampire. Aanndd, you were in a coffin. That's two points to Vampy. Then there's also the fact that you're still alive after however many billions of years. That's another point. I mean, seriously, was that coffin very comfortable?"

"Vincent."

"I mean, being cramped in a box like a cigarette can't be very – wait, what?"

"My name is Vincent."

"Vincent what?"

There was a pause, then. "Valentine."

"Vincent Valentine, huh?" She thought this over, and then smiled. "Well, Vinnie, you should be honored to meet the great ninja Yuffie Kisaragi!" She pulled her shuriken and waved it in the air for added effect.

Vincent couldn't help but find the ninja interesting. She was bold, he'd give her that. She was not at all nervous about stalking up to someone as intimidating as himself and begin a conversation. That struck him. Perhaps the world wasn't as harsh as he had thought.

Perhaps… it wasn't a bad idea to join with these people.

She hadn't been afraid then, and she still wasn't afraid of me. I glanced to the Pagoda. The sun had set behind it, but the edges were still outlined in fire.

My heart quickened as I thought of her. "Yuffie, why didn't I see before? Forgive me. Forgive me for making you wait so long."

Many mistakes. I have made many mistakes in my lifetime. The problem with my mindset had been the fact that I had believed there was no redemption, no forgiveness. AVALANCHE had begun to show me this. No one was perfect, and I didn't have to be.

I began walking. My limbs began to feel slightly weak. Adrenaline fueled my body. It was the only thing keeping me from stopping where I stood and not going to see her. Emotions flooded my brain.

Fear. The fear of rejection. However, after Lucrecia, I should be allowed a small bit of slack here. It was a hard lesson for me to learn. I took it to heart and refused to love again.

Hope. The hope of acceptance. I knew Yuffie was not the same as Lucrecia. She knew what that had done to me. She had helped me out of the shell I had formed. These four years had been a torment, but I had been too afraid to come. But now I had. I needed her. Four years of life without her seemed like dying again. Now that I was about to see her, I felt as though my dead heart had reawakened. She gave me life. She gave me so much. All I had was my love to give, but I would give it for the rest of eternity and beyond. She had gifted me the ability to hope again.

I approached the door. Reaching the threshold, I stood still. Emotions battled within my soul. Fear against hope.

I could not let fear stop me. Almost forty years ago, fear stopped me from speaking my mind, and allowed Lucrecia to go through with that experiment. Fear had been the cause of all my suffering. It would not stop me now.

I knocked. A maid answered.

"I am here to visit the Empress Kisaragi." I said to the girl in Wutainese, and was led into the entrance hall. It was a rather grand hall with intricate chairs along the walls. Someone had thrown a shimmering and silky scarf across the arms of one of these chairs. I examined it for a second. It was quite beautiful.

"She's through there." The young girl answered shyly, indicated the door, bobbed a curtsey and left. Cautiously, I approached.

I exited the restaurant on Reno's arm. The sun had not set yet. It was visible like a fiery halo around the Pagoda. All of Wutai seemed cast from gold.

I looked at Reno and laughed. "You look like your head's on fire!"

He pretended to be terrified. "PUT IT OUT, PUT IT OUT!!" He yelped, smacking himself on the head a few times before composing himself. "Is it out?"

"Yup – oh, no, now your face is on fire."

This was followed by a few half-hearted slaps of his face. "Gone?"

I scanned his face. "Um… oh! You missed a spot!" Leaning over, I kissed him.

He smiled. "You're a tricky one." He waggled his forefinger at me in a very condescending sort of way.

I put my hands on my hips. "How dare you treat the Empress like a child?"

"I'll do what I want." However stern he tried to appear, a sparkle of laughter shone in Reno's eyes.

Walking in this manner, we returned to my home. We entered, talking and laughing. I removed the scarf from around my shoulders and threw it on a chair. He led me into the other room, a small sitting room with two chairs arranged in a small and intimate seating area. He sat me in the one and took the other.

His manner had changed. He was no longer smiling, and his eyes weren't laughing. He looked serious… and scared? What was going on? I looked curiously at him.

Reno rose and walked over to the window, staring out at the sun. It was merely a thick round-ish line on the horizon. Turning back, I could see he looked scared now.

"Reno, are you all right?" I was truly concerned, now.

He put his hands in his pockets and nodded. "Yuffie…" he began tentatively. "You really are the most amazing person I've ever met. You're funny, sensitive, understanding, comforting-"

"Annoying, bratty, obnoxious… yeah, I know." I finished for him.

Reno shook his head. "That's just it. You're not. Not at all." He stared at me. "When I first met you, I was a wreck. A complete and absolute mess. Nothing about me was worthwhile. But I asked you for a chance. I begged… and you gave it to me. No girl, knowing my reputation, would ever have willingly given me a chance to prove her wrong. But you did. That changed me, then. I realized that if you saw hope for me, then I should start looking for hope myself.

"That was how I quit all my addictions. I started looking for hope. And I found it, too. I found it in you. You were my hope, and you still are. Without you, I'd still be a ruined man. So, I thank you greatly for that."

I nodded. "You know there's nothing to thank. It was all there, Reno. I just helped you find it."

Reno shrugged. "But then it continued. We saw each other even after you helped me break my habits. That first date, I realized that you weren't just a girl to me. You were much more."

My heart rate increased. Could he possibly be saying what I thought he was saying…?

"That hasn't changed. It's the same now. You mean the world to me." He paused again. When he spoke, his voice was a mere whisper. "I love you."

My head spun. I still don't know how I managed not to faint, but I did. I could scarcely breathe, but I managed to whisper. "Love? Me?"

"Yeah." He smiled. Stepping over, he gently took my hands and raised me to my feet. "I love you, Yuffie Kisaragi. Not like any of the other girls."

My eyes were beginning to swim with tears. It was the most amazing feeling. Unless you've experienced it, there is no way to describe the joy one feels when they're told by the person they love that the feeling is mutual.

"I could only think of one way of showing you how much I love you." Reno continued. He stepped back and lowered onto one knee. I could barely keep from crying. Leviathan, he's going to ask me!

"Yuffie Kisaragi… will you marry me?" His voice was soft and tender. His gaze was so loving, his touch so gentle. He was a changed man, and he loved me.

A sparkle caught my eye. I looked down. A gorgeous diamond ring shone before my eyes. I gasped, but was unable to say anything.

The door opened. My eyes flew to it. Vincent Valentine stood there, staring at us. A look of anguish and betrayal crossed his face, but was quickly masked. His eyes seemed deadened, however much his face might seem blank. "Forgive me for disturbing you." He murmured tonelessly. Then he turned and left.

Le gasp! VINCENT!!

What will happen?! Oh NO, this is a BAD situation!!

Leave me some lovin'. :3