Life as a SOLDIER

Disclaimer: Vincent gets a two-part thing too. Nice.

A/N: Yeah…and enter Yuffie Kisaragi. Lets move on…

Chapter Forty-Eight: The Advent of the New Year! Part 3
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Vincent climbed out of the attic of Reeve's trick house, coughing. "It--It was trapped up there," he informed Reeve. "Everywhere I stepped, bags of dust fell on me. And I didn't see no Moogle doll up there…"

"Oh, that's too bad," said Reeve. "I'm pretty sure I saw one up there…" he shrugged. "Oh, well, it's no big loss. I guess we're through with searching my house."

"Yeah, and it's now deemed a perfect trick house!" said Cait Sith happily. "Thanks for your assistance, Vincent!"

"Whatever," muttered Vincent, dusting his shirt and pants off.

"Before we let you go back to work, we need you to check one last thing with us. It's this scooter I have. I need two people to test it out."

"Me, all right, and who else?"

"We'll drive out to meet her," answered Reeve, leading Vincent and Cait Sith outside. "Behold, Vincent!" exclaimed Reeve. "The white scooter bike Miracle!"

Vincent stared blankly at the scooter. "That's a scooter…You seriously aren't going to ride this, are you?" asked Vincent skeptically.

"If it's safe, sure," answered Reeve. "Now let's hop on and meet my partner!"

"Whoa, wait, we're both gonna ride it? Where on earth is Cait Sith gonna sit?"

"Cait Sith is gonna sit here!" answered Reeve, placing Cait Sith in the scooter's basket.

"I'm comfy in here!" said Cait Sith happily.

"And we're gonna drive to Yuffie? Why?"

"She'll explain it all when we meet here. Now hop on."

"Forget it, I'm not holding on to your waist," said Vincent.

Five minutes later…

Vincent sighed, sitting behind Reeve, holding on to his waist as to not fall off. "Why are we headed for Midgar? Is Yuffie there now?"

"Yep! You and her have been given a special mission," said Reeve. "I don't know the details myself, but like I said earlier, Yuffie will give you the details."

Great, now I'm stuck with a special secret mission with Yuffie… Just my luck…

A few minutes later, Reeve brought Miracle to a halt and hopped off. "Come on, we'll meet Yuffie at the 7th Heaven Bar," he called over his shoulder.

Cait Sith hopped out of the basket and followed Reeve. Vincent shook his head and followed. They entered the 7th Heaven Bar and Vincent looked around. "A bit late for Christmas décor, don't you think?"

Tifa looked up from the bar. "Oh! Good evening, sirs! But no pets are allowed inside," she said, pointing to Cait Sith.

Cait Sith gasped and quickly pretended to be a doll. Reeve laughed and said, "No, no, this is my doll! A good luck charm I had ever since I was a wee little boy! I never leave home without my good luck doll."

"…oh…" said Tifa slowly. "I could've sworn it was walking…" she shrugged it off and asked, "You boys like a drink?"

"Yes, actually, can we see the menu?"

"Here you go."

"Thanks," said Reeve, taking the menu. "Sit down, Vincent, and have a drink."

"I don't drink," answered Vincent bluntly.

"Come on, just one drink!" prompted Barret, coming downstairs. "I just put Marlene to bed, so she'll be fine," he explained to Tifa.

"Good," said Tifa.

Vincent sighed resignedly and glanced at the menu. "Hmm…I'll have…water."

"I'll have a glass of the Good House Milled Beer," said Reeve, folding the menu. "That sounds good!"

"It is good!" agreed Tifa, getting a glass of Good House Milled Beer while Barret got some water for Vincent. "You're gonna love it!"

The door burst open and a girl of about 11 years old entered the bar. "Reeve!" she called. "There you are!" she squealed in delight when she noticed Vincent. "And Vinceypoo is here too!"

Oh, great, thought Vincent. It's Yuffie the stalker… He drank his water as Yuffie sat down next to him. "So what are we doing here now?"

"We're applying for jobs here," answered Reeve, taking a 'help-wanted' application. "Yuffie, fill Vincent in."

Cid opened the kitchen door. "I kinda burned the steak, so don't be alarmed if the smoke detector goes off…" he trailed off when he spotted Yuffie. "…!" he rushed back into the kitchen.

Tifa stared after Cid weirdly. "I'll go ahead and turn the smoke detector off then," she said, turning the fire alarms off.

"Ooh, steak!" said Yuffie excitedly. "Can we have some?"

"Uhm…sure," said Tifa. "But aren't you a bit young to be coming to a bar?"

"I got a license to drink when I was 5 in Wutai," answered Yuffie. "Kids drink there all the time."

"Wow," commented Barret.

"…okay, if you say so. I'll need to see that license," said Tifa.

"Sure!" answered Yuffie cheerfully, handing Tifa her license to drink. "It's all right there. You can get drinking licenses in Wutai, didn't you know that?"

"Can you just hurry and explain to me why we're taking jobs here?" hissed Vincent as Reeve completed each application form. "I already have a perfectly good job with the Turks! …unless I'm fired?!" he gasped in shock.

"No, no, not fired," answered Yuffie as Tifa continued to examine the license. "You've been selected by me and Reeve, the heads of Intelligence, to…work with the employees of the 7th Heaven Bar. I'll explain in detail when we get upstairs."

"In-Intelligence?!" repeated Vincent.

"Here," said Tifa, handing Yuffie her license and a menu. "Sorry for being rude in my asking."

"It's no trouble," said Yuffie, taking the license and menu.

Tifa walked to the kitchen and came inside. "Cid, will you g0 take care of our customers? I'll start making the pie."

"No, it's all right," said Cid. "I'll start the pie."

"Don't be silly, you hate cooking," smiled Tifa. "Go on, Cid, it's all right."

"But--But I--" Cid was shoved out of the kitchen. He saw Yuffie reading the menu and quickly turned around. Hopefully, she won't notice me at all…! Maybe she doesn't remember me…

Yuffie set the menu down and said to Cid, "Hey, you!"

Cid glanced side to side, hoping she was talking to Barret. But Barret was taking the garbage out. Oh, no… now what? I can't just talk to her… Not after what happened… he grinned hugely and turned around. "Yes, miss?"

Yuffie blinked and said, "I'd like a glass of Châteaux '90."

"Châteaux '90?" repeated Cid, still grinning hugely. "That's our most popular drink, you know. I'll bet you'll love it."

"I'm sure I will…" said Yuffie slowly. Wow, this guy's acting weird…

Reeve asked, "Who do I give these applications to?"

"Just give them to Tifa when she comes out of the kitchen," answered Cid, his speech starting to sound strained due to his huge grin. He poured a generous amount of Châteaux '90 into a wineglass and handed it to Yuffie. "Here."

"Thanks," answered Yuffie, taking the glass and drinking it in one gulp.

"You'll get sick if you drink it like that," said Vincent. "You should try to take in your drinks slow and easy."

"You lose all the flavor doing that," countered Yuffie. "Châteaux is meant to be drunken quickly otherwise you'll taste nothing."

"That's true," said Tifa, coming out of the kitchen. "So you three would like jobs here, huh? That's excellent! Really excellent! Why not go upstairs and get your outfits fitted and such? The bar opened about 2 and a half hours ago, but some customers might show up."

"All right!" said Reeve. "Thanks soo much! We'll be right down!"

"Which rooms are ours?" asked Vincent.

"What are your names first?" asked Tifa.

"I'm Reeve," answered Reeve. "And these two are my buddies Vincent Valentine and Yuffie Kirisangi! We've always wanted to work at a bar, and you gave us that opportunity!"

"You're every welcome," said Tifa. "All right then, Reeve, you get the room across from mine; Vincent, you get the room next to Barret and Marlene's; and Yuffie, you get the room next to Cid's room."

Cid dropped a glass, causing it to break on the floor. "Ah!" yelped Yuffie. "Wow, be more careful next time!"

"Su-Sure…" stammered Cid, sweeping the broken glass.

Barret stared at Cid, then whispered to Tifa, "Cid's been acting really weird ever since that Yuffie girl came in. Does he know something about her that we don't?"

"Probably…" whispered Tifa back. "We'll ask him at closing hours."

Cid dumped the broken glass into the trash bag and hurried upstairs, calling over his shoulder, "I'm feeling tired tonight, so I'm going to sleep early!"

Tifa watched Cid hurry upstairs, and said apologetically, "I'm sorry about him. He's not usually like this."

"That's all right," said Reeve. "Now let's go upstairs and get our waiter outfits ready!"

"Sure," chorused Vincent and Yuffie. They followed Reeve upstairs. "Now can we talk in detail about our secret mission?" asked Vincent irritably.

"We're here to spy on the employees of the 7th Heaven Bar. Shachoo ordered us here to watch anyone considered to be a friend or family of Cloud Strife."

"And why are we spying on the friends and family of Cloud Strife?" asked Vincent.

"Shachoo wouldn't tell us the whole plans," said Reeve. "He just told us to spy, and when the time is ripe, he'll reveal the whole plan. But for now, we're to keep watching on them. If they mention Cloud, write it down. If Tifa e-mails Cloud, reroute the e-mail to your computer. Even a phone call must be tapped at all times."

"And I have a mission all my own," said Cait Sith, shaking himself from any stiffness. "I have to find out their life story, and see if we can learn Cloud's real life story from them. I being an excellent spy can do this!"

"I'm sure you can," said Yuffie, pulling out a materia.

"What's that for?" asked Vincent.

"My dinner," answered Yuffie, taking a bite out of the materia.

"Oh my goodness!" yowled Vincent, standing up. "You just took a bite out of that materia!"

Yuffie stopped chewing for a few seconds, looking around with her eyes. "So?" she asked with a mouth full of materia.

"But--But materia is as hard as rocks! It can't be taken a bite out of so easily, can it?! What if you break your teeth?!"

"Hah ha! I can't," laughed Yuffie, taking another bite out of the materia. "I've been eating materia ever since I was a little baby! I literally live off of this stuff! It's good!"

"Where do you get yoru hands on such materia? They're so hard to find!"

"I find them here and there," answered Yuffie mysteriously with a smile. "I'm very sneaky." She held out the half-bitten materia. "Want some?"

Vincent made a face. "Ugh… no thanks."

Yuffie shrugged. "Suit yourself." she stuffed the last of the materia in her mouth, and took her outfit to the bathroom to change.

Reeve glanced at Vincent. "You've never eaten a materia before?"

"No…" said Vincent slowly, staring at Reeve weirdly. "You'd have to be really nuts to eat a materia."

"But materia is good," argued Yuffie, coming out of the bathroom in her waiter outfit. "I'll be downstairs getting started. See you down there!"

Yuffie came downstairs, nearly crashing into Cid. "Man, I think I'll start calling you Mr. Clumsy!" said Yuffie playfully. "Be more careful, huh?"

"…sure!" said Cid cheerfully. I shouldn't try to act weird around her…but…what if she finds out? he followed Yuffie downstairs.

"Cid, can I have a word with you really quick?" asked Tifa.

"Of course," said Cid, following Tifa into the kitchen. "What's up?"

Tifa leaned against the counter, eying Cid for a few seconds. "You're not acting like yourself, you know. It's got me and Barret worried. You suddenly acted nervous and jumpy after you saw Yuffie."

Cid opened his mouth, then closed it.

"See, there!" exclaimed Tifa, pointing at Cid. "Normally, you'd come out right and say nothing's wrong, or tell me what's wrong." Tifa crossed her arms. "Now tell me what's happened."

"Like I said, you're mother hen," smiled Cid. "Nothing's wrong! I'm just fine!"

"Fine is not breaking yoru favorite wineglass and throwing it away rather the fixing it," said Tifa. "Come on, Cid buddy. We're friends, after all…and I'm your employer. I want to know if there's anything wrong with my friends and employees. So, go on and tell me what's wrong."

Cid looked back, and forth, and back again, and said to Tifa quietly, "Can you keep a secret?"

"Yes, of course," said Tifa.

"All right…just don't tell anyone…" Cid looked around again, and whispered to Tifa, "I'm Yuffie Kirisangi's father."

Meanwhile, over at Shinra Company…

Cloud sat down on Sephiroth's couch, shaking any dizziness from himself. I have to keep a clear head, or who knows what Sephy will do…

Sephiroth was watching Cloud. "And that's all you remember?" he asked disappointedly. "But you won't tell me who that brown haired lady was?"

Cloud shook his head. "No, I won't tell. I can't ever tell anyone about it. I've told you this before, Sephy. Can't you just drop it?"

"No, I can't, cause I'm very curious."

"…aren't we done yet?" asked Cloud wearily. "I'm pretty tired, and I'd like to get some sleep."

"Fine, you big baby," sighed Sephiroth. "We can continue tomorrow if you want. It is past your bedtime."

"I usually go to sleep at 11:00...it's about 8:43 PM…" Cloud yawned and stood up. "Oh, Sephy, one last thing," he said, looking up at Sephiroth. "Have you seen the gift that Zack gave to me? It's a dolly of me."

"No, I haven't," said Sephiroth with a smile. "But if I do, I'll let you know."

"And my black ribbon… Can I have that back too?"

"…maybe later," said Sephiroth slowly. "You go get some sleep."

"…all right," yawned Cloud again. "Boy, I'm soo tired… good night, Sephy…" he trudged out of the room and closed the door behind him.

Sephiroth stared at the door. "Hey…you kidnapped my fluffy light blue slippers… Oh, you'll be back in a few minutes for your boots…"

Sure enough, Cloud opened the door. "Sorry, I forgot to change my shoes," he muttered, kicking the slippers off and putting his boots on. "Good night again, Sephy."

"Good night, Cloud," answered Sephiroth. Cloud nodded sleepily and closed the door behind him. Sephiroth stood up and went to his bedroom, flopping back first onto his bed. Good night yourself, Cloud…and I can't wait to say good morning to you tomorrow… he lifted his head a little to glance at Cloud's doll and ribbon. He smiled to himself and drifted into an easy sleep.
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Thus endeth part 3 of 6. We're halfway through! I bet you can't wait to read Cid's chapter coming up next! See you then! Bye for now!