Author's Note: Hey again everyone. I want to apologize briefly for the amount of time it took to get this stupid chapter written. I'm not even all that pleased with the results. Hopefull you guys like it, but feel free to give me some feedback on how to make it better. I think it's mostly a problem with fluidity. It seems choppy to me. Anyway, enough of that. On with the next chapter!


I figured that when the time came for revenge, I would know exactly what she was worth. It was with this mindset that I carried on throughout the day, seemingly very unconcerned with the fact that the ninja was probably doing a number of various things to my personal belongings while I was out of the office. She would get what's coming to her, and I didn't need to worry about how or when I was going to exact that revenge, because when the time came, I would know.

It came quite promptly, much to my schedule's dismay.

My two o'clock was with Tseng in my office, much less of a meeting so much as a discussion, which proved to be quite lively and informative. We proposed strategies for launching the new program, argued over policy, but most of the time there was a balance; consisting of honesty and compromise. My mind was almost entirely off of Yuffie and we tossed ideas back and forth; I hadn't had a discussion as good as this in a long time. It was invigorating, really; almost made you work up a sweat.

Speaking of which, I had noticed the difference in temperature the moment I had come back from my board meeting, but I hadn't thought anything of it.

It was not until I had stripped my coat and Tseng had pulled his hair uncomfortably away from his neck that I clued in to the possibility that the air conditioner might not be working.

"Hold that thought, Tseng," I muttered, striding across the room to the register, waving my hand palm down over the vents. "No activity, it's as I thought."

"Central air is down?"

I nodded. "Well maybe they're working on it. Carry on."

They weren't working on it. They didn't even know there was anything to work on, because Yuffie had only mucked with the system to affect this room. Instead of the vents pouring refreshing cool air into my office, she had messed around with the thermostat and raised the temperature several degrees above comfortable.

Of course, I didn't realize this until my sleeves were rolled up, neck tie loose and the top few buttons of my dress shirt were undone. Tseng looked no less ragged, but every time I asked him if he wanted to reschedule, he promised he had experienced worse, and reminded me that we were making good progress. Indeed, genius is a process that should not be interrupted at any expense.

It was a work of mastery. I had to give her that. I chuckled at the thought of her poking at wires, cackling manically, thanking Leviathan I had insisted on giving her a basic electronics lesson. And here I thought she hadn't been paying attention.

Tseng, hearing my laugh turned to me, eyebrow cocked. "Something funny, Tuesti?"

His usually neat and tidy appearance had been sacrificed to the heat; and I laughed again. "As a matter of fact, yes, quite."

I was useless for the rest of the conversation. My mind was caught up on both my discomfort in temperature and the fact that Yuffie was the cause of it.

We were both down to our button ups by the time Tseng called it quits, his face directed at the electric fan I had dragged out of the closet; hair whisking away in its breeze. "I'll be here first thing tomorrow morning, if you have time."

I cracked half of a smile. "I thought you'd never ask."


I explained briefly to Pamille about the issue and she jumped to attention, calling up maintenance and sending them to my office, insisting that I take the rest of the day off. I protested, but as I saw the Turk out, I rethought my decision; instead a large part of me wanted to find Yuffie and perhaps use this whole ordeal to my advantage.

... I didn't know how I was going to do so, but I was already well on my way to finding her before that problem entered my head, and I figured it was too late now. I'd just have to roll with it.

I found her in the break room, not quite sure how my feet had gotten there; but when I spotted her talking casually to an officer, leaning up against the counter, I stopped in the doorway, staring at her.

There was none such thing as an intention in my gaze; my mind was far too blank for such a thing, but I must have sent out some kind of vibe, because as soon as my presence was realized the lingering officers made excuses to go and quickly slipped out, offering 'good afternoon, sir' s as they passed. They almost looked a little afraid of me, and I would have taken some perverse pleasure in that if the look I was getting from Yuffie wasn't one of complete confidence. She looked so confident, even, (with her smug little smile and one hand on her hip) that it was starting to make me a little nervous.

I cleared my throat and shifted my weight off of the door frame. "Good trick, that."

"Trick?" she repeated, dumbly.

"The thermostat in my office? You learned that from me, you know. Crafty."

She smirked. "And here you thought I hadn't paid attention."

"I'm starting to wish that had been true. There are a few things I mentioned that could potentially destroy Edge."

She shifted slightly, folding her arms over her chest. "I know how to give Cait a sex change, if I wanted to."

I laughed, startled at the prospect, and half imagining what Cait would look like in a dress. And then I realized that she might actually have the gall to make it a reality, and my previous mission of revenge was brought to the foreground once again.

But how!?

I silently prayed for a sign.

And then I caught her gaze, and realized she was looking at me with interest. I suddenly realized I must have looked like a slob; no coat, and half of the buttons of my shirt undone; not to mention the musty smell of my sweat from being trapped in that office for so long.

Maybe now wasn't the time to be... I looked up from my dishevelled appearance and caught her looking at me again. Her confidence from before wasn't showing; it wasn't shining in her eyes like it usually did.

I wasn't sure what that meant, but in an act of pure chance, I went with my instinct.

"Yuffie, I was wondering if we could call it a truce."

Wimp, you say. You coward. You yellow-bellied nuisance to society. Well to you I roll my eyes and say, shut up and watch.

I strolled over to her, looking genuine.

She offered a meagre attempt at a scoff, and turned away from me. "You're just afraid you're going to wake up with an army of female Cait's tomorrow morning."

I gently grabbed her elbow, forcing her to face me. "Yuffie, it's been fun, but I've taken it too far."

She arched an eyebrow, and some of the hesitancy she had shown disappeared. "You've taken it too far? Is that implying that you're winning?"

I tried my best to look shocked; offended even. "Yuffie, that isn't what I mean..."

"Because I'll tell you Tuesti, you haven't got anything on me."

"I don't mean it like that, Yuffie. I'm not trying to declare a winner."

"Then just what are you trying to declare?" she accused, eyebrows drawn.

I sighed, shifting my weight. "Nothing. It's getting old; that's all."

"Bah, you're just complaining because I'm better at this than you." She was still not one hundred percent comfortable, and I was dying to know why.

"Yuffie, look at me."

She glared at me for a split second and then looked away.

"Yuffie..."

"Gawd, Reeve, don't you have other more important things to be doing?"

"Nothing in particular, why?"

"I don't know; you're boring me."

"Really."

"Really, really," she insisted, her hand pressing against my chest for a brief second before she retracted it once more, quickly.

"Well, then, do we have a truce?"

"Truce!? Hah! I see through this. This is a prank in and of itself! You think you can waltz on in here with your shirt all unbuttoned and your hair all..." she glared again. "Ruffled... and get me all hot and bothered, well you are wrong, mister! Dead wrong!"

She went on in this fashion for quite a time, but my mind had fixed upon her initial accusation.

She thought I was attractive? I felt a weight lift off of my chest, as another one settled in the pit of my stomach, a feeling that was not made any better by the knowledge that this was a physical attraction alone. There was part of me; a very horrible, awful part of me that didn't care. A part that would be happy with just sex and nothing more; but this was heavily outweighed by the rest of me, who couldn't bear to have it that way. There was too much to her that made me smile; too much to lose. My eyes softened on her, adoring, and rather sad, but I doubt she noticed as she wound down her rant.

"I mean, it's only natural, right?"

"Yuffie," I began, ignoring her. "Do you love him?"

Her eyes snapped to my face. "What? Who?"

I willed my hand not to shake as I lifted it to her face, brushing her jaw. "Vincent, Yuffie; are you in love with him?"

"Vinnie?" she exclaimed. "Oh Gawd no. Nope, nope, noperz." Her eyes flew around the room; to the ceiling, the door and finally to my shoulder, but she never looked me in the face. She looked frightened and vulnerable, and I felt some guilt for having brought it up.

Looking back, I'm not sure why I did it. I knew she was lying. First of all, she was never very good at it, and secondly, being around her so often had made me adept at deciphering her, and this was a classic lie. Perhaps, however, it was her very distinct (although deceitful) verbal dismissal that made me seem to think it was okay; that made me believe that her lips were fair game.

She froze when I kissed her, and although my eyes were closed, I knew hers were wide open, staring in shock as her body stood paralyzed in the break room.

That small piece of man I had mentioned earlier; the asshole pig one? Yeah, you remember him. He took over; insensitive as ever, as greedy as men's sex drives are wont to be, but once he had his taste, the rest of me went with it, and as my hand tilted her neck back, and my tongue traced her lips, I wanted to believe her lie, more than anything in this world. I wanted to believe that when Vincent came home, her eyes would be fixed to mine, and I wouldn't see them flicker wayward to the doorway.

In an instant I will never forget until the day I die; I felt her lips respond beneath mine and hope rose in my chest. Her mouth opened ever so slightly and her tongue tentatively greeted mine, hesitant, frightened, but curious. I'm not a poet, and therefore incapable of doing justice with words to the taste of her, but beyond the surface sweetness it was coveted, forbidden, and entirely wrong. When her hesitancy began to slip away and it felt less like I was robbing her of this kiss and more like I was sharing it, I was almost fooled into thinking her lie wasn't so much of a lie anymore. I was almost convinced that I was what she wanted. Almost.

When her hand clutched the front of my shirt in an almost desperate fashion and she moaned softly; I was reminded of just what I was doing; of just how much I cared if this woman's heart was broken, by either someone else's carelessness or mine. I broke away from her, frowning.

She looked at me, confused; then looked away again.

"See?" I said, not bothering to look at her. I tried for my sake, for her sake, for the sake of something, to crack a joking smile. "I've taken it too far."


For the rest of the day, she made it her mission to make her pranks as frequent and disrupting as possible.

I didn't do much to stop them. I deserved every one she threw in my direction. She nattered constantly about nonsense, something she knew I hated, but I sat at my desk and took it, venturing to make a sarcastic remark every once in a while in a futile attempt to appear as if unaffected.

I was remembering Pemille's advice to take the rest of the day off, and thought about visiting Tifa's place to make sure the rascals were doing alright by themselves. Having Marlene beat me at video games would be unfathomably better than having to sit and think and rethink about the day's incidents.

With a sadistic smirk I saw Yuffie poke her head into my office.

"Yes?"

"Pamille told me you better get to the board office, your meeting started ten minutes ago."

My eyes widened. "I thought she had cancelled for me!"

Yuffie shrugged and looked at her finger nails, unconcerned. "Guess not."

I raced there as fast as I could, while still looking dignified, to find the room was empty and the lights were turned off. I rang Pemille to ask if they had left, and was informed it had been cancelled.

I laughed bitterly and hung up, glaring into the dark meeting room. It was eerily serene in this place, where usually it was a busy, stressful environment. I stepped into it, closing the door behind me, and leaning my back against it.

In exhaustion and agony my eyes fell closed, and my fingers blindly fumbled around my phone, finding the power button and turning it off. I could hide here safely without being disturbed; alone with my guilt, with my disappointment, and with the lingering memories of those few seconds wherein which I was almost disillusioned to the fact that she was in love with another man.

I had been there for at least an hour, sitting at the table, lost in my thoughts, when I heard the door knob turn and light flooded into the room. I blinked, trying to make out the silhouette.

"Reeve!"

It was Yuffie, she sounded out of breath.

"So you found me," I drawled. "Come to send me on another wild goose chase?"

I saw her shake her head, exasperated, out of the corner of my eye. "They-- they found him."

"Not falling for it," I muttered, hoping it was another prank. My stomach flipped at the possibility that she was telling the truth.

"How could you think I would joke about this?" she exclaimed, gripping the door.

I had to think about that. It wasn't really that I didn't believe her; it was that I didn't want to believe her. I wanted to ignore it. I wanted to be as far away from her or Vincent the moment she saw him again.

I stood from my chair and scratched the back of my neck. However, more than anything, I wanted to see her smile-- really smile-- again. "I'll drive."


Author's Note: Well, that's that! Another chapter down! Tell me what you thought!