Katori: alright, right off the bat with the Second Chapter, this one is going to be all in the present….. well…. Yeah…There isn't much action this Chapter, so I promise a lot of action next! OH MY GOSH! VINCENT VALENTINE WARNING! This is where I put my true writing skills to the test by portraying him! Wish me luck!
Sin: Yeah, you'll need it. So anyways, KatoriTsubasa is poor and does not own any characters or songs used in this fiction. Although she wishes she did… It's rather pathetic actually… oh and she pretty much FAINTED when she saw how many reviews she got on the FIRST chapter… so yeah… she thanks you… even though I don't know why you people think she's good…
Katori: glare You know what? Go to Hell!
Sin: I did, and I don't want to again; needs serious redecorating….
Katori: grumble grumble Fine…. Let's just do this…. And I warn you all now, don't expect another chapter for a while… I'm going to be busy with school and my goal is to always be two chapters ahead…
grumbles about stupid evil sciences and math
††††††††††††
Prison gates won't open up for me
On these hands and knees I'm crawlin'
Oh, I reach for you
Well I'm terrified of these four walls
These iron bars can't hold my soul in
All I need is you Come please I'm callin'
And oh I scream for you Hurry I'm fallin'
Savin' Me
Nickelback
Emotion:
Anxious
Yuffie had checked into a hotel soon after she was sure she had out-run or lost track of the guys on her trail. Although the place wasn't anything noteworthy, it was dry, and that had been all the newly titled Ninja needed. She slipped out of her shoes and ventured into the small hotel room, walking past the bathroom, she went to stand in the middle of her one bedded room and sighed. She barely had enough gil to buy this room, she couldn't afford to have this kind of luxury every night. Unless she fought a lot of monsters on her way, if she did that then she would need to buy potions, antidotes, eye drops and all the other necessities.
When she had made her trek to the City of the Ancients she had stupidly been in a rush, and in doing so, forgot to buy healing items. This had cost her, every monster she had encountered was either ran away from or knocked out with one swipe. She could not let the fiends hurt her because too much was on the line.
She stopped before a small dresser that had a half length mirror attached and peered into it's reflection and observing the waterlogged girl it showed her.
Her outfit had changed since her days in Avalanche and even about a year ago when they had all joined forces to stop the threat known as Weiss and the Tsviets. Even the geostigma incident's clothing had been discarded. In all honesty it amazed her how three guys could cause such a rukus. Firstly with the kidnappings that had gotten Yuffie's attention, the destruction of Neo-Midgar, the highways, the Church, and even the temporary resurrection of Sephiroth.
She supposed that even though they had totaled over half the city and a few people were injured, a lot of good things came out of that endeavor. They had cured Geostigma and she had been able to see all of her old friends, if even for a little while.
Even though Cloud just HAD to go be the show-stealer and save all the real fun for himself, but Yuffie was just glad she had returned the children safely without her dad having a heart attack.
Then there was the other reunion that had happened a year ago, the mass murders, the abductions of those who were 'pure'. Even thinking about what had happened made her sick, that Rosso the Crimson… she wanted to bring her back to life just to send her back to hell again.
Water ran down the sides of her face, her hair plastered to her skin and neck and her outfit clung to her cool and damp skin. She picked a piece of her shirt away from her body and watched as it dripped more water to the dry carpet. She vaguely wondered if she should have a shower, not sure when the next time she could have one would be. She took off her kahaki green, t-shirt sleeve jacket, slipped it onto the dresser chair and then her black fingerless biker gloves, and dripping wet socks.
She unhooked her leg strap and pouch that held her kunai's, then her other leg's strap that held a small dagger in place just in case she needed to cut something. She shrugged off her small beige backpack and threw it on the edge of her bed, finally she untied and slipped off the small red ribbon that was on her left bicep, a small gift Tifa had insisted all AVALANCE members wear.
Last of all was the bandage around her left arm, it hadn't been a cut since long ago, but it was a great place to hide small pins or paper bombs in since no one bothered to un bandage an arm if it was going to bleed. It was something she kept on to add character and hide things away in, sometimes her cleverness amazed her.
She paused to move into the bathroom before she continued to get out of the rest of her clothes. She looked down at her dark green halter top and beige shorts that weren't too short, but easy to move around in. Underneath her halter top was a shirt that cut across her shoulders and was made of black Wutainese netting embedded with a kind of cloth that is fire resistant and can stop a lightly held knife drawn across it. It reached past the bottom of her top and covered another inch of her shorts.
Her once bob-styled haircut was now grown down to graze past her shoulders. Her eyes were still the same stormy grey, but her skin had tanned lightly and her once innocent and round eyes were giving a more adult look. She had grown slightly in height reaching the tallest she was certain she would get, a normal Wutai 5'4. Even though that was nothing compared to Vincent and Barret's 6 feet and over, she was rather tall for her Wutai roots. Not many Wutainese females reached over 5'5, but she was still proud of her little growth spurt. Her assets had matured a little bit more as well, filling out her top and shorts more womanly, not boyishly. Never as big as Tifa or Aeris', but Yuffie was glad she didn't have huge breasts getting in the way of her swift and agile movements.
It wasn't like Wutainese people were KNOWN for their bust sizes, they were known for their tradition, skills in the art of the Ninja, and their food.
She slid out of the rest of her clothes then turned on the tap to the shower, she quickly discovered which was hot and cold and created a hot but not scorching temperature before stepping into the shower and drawing the shower curtains close.
She let the hot water fall upon her tired and sore muscles and ran her fingers through her hair to get the tangles out. She then took some of the water into her hands to wash her face and rubbed her tired eyes. She hadn't really noticed how tired she was until the warm water hit her and lulled her to a dull state of mind.
It wasn't long before Yuffie could feel her mind begin to wander and her eyes begin to droop at the sound of the calming water drops. She shook her head and quickly washed her hair with her traveling shampoo before climbing out and wrapping a towel securely around herself.
She walked into the larger room and decided to put her outfit into a more orderly fashion so it would dry (or at least be a bit dryer) in the morning. She picked up her shirts, shorts, socks and her bandage to place them in the bathroom's bath side to drip.
She wandered out into the open space, making sure the curtains were securely closed before stripping off her towel and pulling out her pack contents, inside was a plastic bag she kept her extra clothes in so that if the bag got wet, her other clothes wouldn't. It was a small backpack with a strap that went diagonally across her front from her left shoulder to her right hip. It wasn't too big because she had to lug it around from place to place so she only took as much as she needed. She hadn't expected Tifa to take her OTHER clothes, so all she had was her change of underwear and a black tank top with a pair of soft grey short shorts. It was hardly anything to wear outside so she used it as her night clothes.
Yuffie slipped the white materia from her pocket that was usually on her leg, to in a hidden pouch on the folds of her bag.
It was barely before her head hit the pillow that she heard it; the rustle of people outside her door talking in hurried whispers. She could hardly make out what they were saying but she knew by the panic in their voices that it probably had something to do with her and the organization tailing her.
"What are we going to do if she puts up a fight? The whole hotel will wake up!" Breathlessly choked out one of the men loud enough for Yuffie's sensitive Ninja hearing to pick it up. He rolled her eyes and wordlessly decided that this guy was a wimp with a capital W.
"Then we get rid of the witnesses, don't we?"
Her eyes narrowed and she threw the covers back and silently crept across the contents of the room, grabbing all her stuff hurriedly and stuffing it into her bag. She worked silently and swiftly as the two numb sculls outside in the hallway chattered about how to make her hand 'it' over.
She walked over to the window and pulled it open, luckily there was no sound made in doing so, she was just about to leap out when she stopped abruptly. The idiots outside were STILL talking, she spun around on her heels and decided to take some soap from the bathroom and those complimentary slippers.
She quickly scribbled a note on the notepad and hid it beneath her pillow, hoping a maid would find it, she also left the gil she owed and then scampered to the window once more as she could hear the two picking open her door. Se rolled her eyes, these guys were idiots, they would have woken up a normal person, let alone an awesome Ninja like herself. She turned towards the window, heaved her backpack farther up her shoulder and jumped out into the rain once more. Cursing her bad luck.
She knew that there was probably more awaiting her outside, but it would be easier to fight them off in the open space rather then clamped up in a small room with no space to dodge attacks. She heard startled yelps from behind her as she bounded off the slippery rooftops in search for Tifa's bar which would no doubt be open. She hated resorting to this, but she needed a place to stay and the only one she knew was Tifa's place.
To her immediate surprise a gunshot went off quite close to her left and she ducked out and sped up. Pumping her legs as fast as they would go she heard another one go off to her right and muttered mild Wutainese curses underneath her breath. She needed to lead them away from Tifa's then double around when she knew she'd lost them. Yuffie pulled out the Conformer and whipped it ahead at two guys who had just jumped up to the roof in front of her. They scattered and she retrieved her weapon and spun around midair to aim and fire once more. One went down and the other seemed to have fallen off the first time.
She continued straight ahead and veered off course entering the slums and into the pitch black of the area of the city. She ventured down the darker alleyways, barely able to verify where she was in the darkness that consumed her.
Eyes flashed as she picked up on shouts far behind, she could have sworn that she heard 'she went into that alleyway' and with that she jumped out into an intersection of streets and dove to her left, hoping to drive them off of her trail. She weaved in and out of the dark streets and garbage cans, she wondered vaguely that the people she passed would give away her location, but none seemed to head her so she prayed that the idiots wouldn't stop to ask directions. She was actually impressed that they had found her so quickly. Then again, a bit of money and a willing customer for information went a long way in this world, she heaved in a deep breath in preparation for the next few minutes of running.
She was taught that if you took in deep breaths while running you could keep going farther then if you continued to take short small ones. It saved oxygen or something like that, she hadn't really paid attention when her teacher told her that.
She sped around the edge of the city and made her way in behind Tifa's Bar, she stopped when she reached the back door, listening for anything that would tell her someone had SOMEHOW tracked her. She heard nothing for a few tense moments and then carefully opened the door and slipped inside, this door was more like a cubby hole, but it opened to the second floor, which was the living quarters. This place served as a hotel, home, and bar all in one. People who needed a place to stay for the night (usually one of Avalanche or a friend) stayed one floor up in one of six rooms with two bathrooms.
The bottom floor was the Bar and she knew that Tifa was there right now, she tried to make herself presentable and looked down at her tank and shorts, she knew where Tifa's room was and ventured up the few steps to make it to the third floor. She didn't sense anything waiting for her at the end of the hall so she walked brusquely to the last door on the left and swung it open.
The room was simple with a bed in the corner to the left of the door when you entered, to your front was a desk that was like a bedside table for the bed as well. On it were a few scattered books, a new black laptop, a lamp, clock that read12:07 (Yuffie cringed), CD holder, pencils, pens and even a photograph that they had all taken in the Church. To Yuffie's immediate right was a large dresser and on the opposite wall of the bed was a closet.
She set down her backpack to the right of the door and trekked over to the closet, opening it wide and digging out some clothes that Tifa had leant her once before. It was nothing to special, but it sufficed.
A black T-shirt and a pair of soft grey capris.
She shrugged off her wet clothes and slid these on, careful to pull the drawstrings tight before venturing back down the stairs; obviously unable to sleep for a while longer.
When she was about to walk onto the base floor she stopped and hesitantly let her foot dangle on the next stair. She wondered if perhaps there was a man out there that would recognize her and tell his friends.
She hesitantly slipped out into the bar and was relieved to see Tifa cleaning glasses at her bar, Cloud sitting on a stool in front of her talking in whispers and only a few scrawny men that Yuffie recognized were regulars.
Tifa must have caught movement out of the corner of her eye and snapped her head in Yuffie's direction, Cloud's gaze fallowed and he nodded at her in acknowledgement.
"Yuffie," Started Tifa, placing down the wine glass and beckoning her over, "Hey what's up? You're soaking wet." The Ninja smiled sheepishly and had a seat beside the blonde swordsman, focusing her attention once more on the others in the room who didn't seem to notice her arrival.
"Heya Tifs," greeted the youngest, turning back to grin at her best friend and then turning towards her silent companion, "And Spikey, how are you guys?"
Tifa noted that Yuffie easily avoided her question but replied to hers anyways, she told Yuffie she was fine and Cloud was too. She also added that Denzel was asleep upstairs and Marlene was over as well, Barret had been away on business.
Life had been pretty quiet since the whole Vincent escapade, Tifa enjoyed her time just living a normal life with her friend and her adopted son. It had been three years since Denzel had entered her family and the little boy was growing up so fast, he was turning 13 in a few weeks. His birthday was close to Yuffie's they were only a few weeks apart so they had both their parties on the same day usually.
This year was different, Yuffie was turning the big 20 and Tifa really wanted to do something special for her closest friend out of their group.
The ninja had always taken time away from Wutai and her work to come and visit Tifa on a monthly basis, even if it was just for a few days. The martial artist secretly knew that Yuffie enjoyed the excitement on her journey, feeling like she was back in her Avalanche days.
But Yuffie had been suspiciously evasive this month, she stopped for a day and then disappeared the next morning dragging Cid off to the City of the Ancients and then never being heard from again until a week later today. Not only that but she didn't even offer a reason as to why she was in such a hurry.
Something she had said stroke Tifa as off, she had told her to keep living normally and she didn't want to disturb her again. The busty brunette was worried that her younger sister-like pal was in trouble and thought that she shouldn't involve people. She brought this up with Cloud and he did deem it possible, saying that Yuffie was right to assume no one wanted to uproot their lives to go on another misadventure. Everyone had their own responsibilities, and being the Princess she is the Wutainese girl knew the pain of leaving something comfortable to chase around ghosts or bad guys.
That was the ShinRa's job now, they had adopted a line of cleaning up after the mess their experiments and machines did to the earth. They also worked as a 'Peace-keeping' society, took down terrorists and helped the law enforcements. They had amalgamated with the WRO, or what was left of them, and together with Reeve they cleaned up the planet.
One of the more amazing things about the new and improved ShinRa company was the awe inspiring fact that RENO was the VICE-PRESEDENT and he was actually a good leader. He always stepped in for Rufus, and appeared to have completely forgotten his Turk days. But definitely not his 'charm' and easygoing attitude, the man still liked to go to bars and hang around Seventh Heaven to annoy the living daylights out of Tifa.
"You know," Tifa started up another conversation, "I forgot to mention, Barret wanted me to give you a message," This caught Yuffie's attention and she tilted her head slightly to the side, giving the bartender her full attention. "He told me to tell yah that he's been hearing something's going down in Wutai. It seems like they're mourning or something, all of the deliveries are pretty closed mouthed about it but-"
Yuffie suddenly jumped up as if she had been scolded by hot iron, she scurried off up the stairs and called back something about being really tired and getting up early tomorrow.
She wandered into the living area and sat down by the fire, there was no way in hell she was going to tell Tifa her father had passed away. A year ago she had been ranting about how her old man was saving Wutai from the attacks and now she was just gone. She couldn't worry about that now, Wutai wasn't the only place that needed her.
If she went back to Wutai to attend the funeral, no doubt those creeps would fallow her and assassinate the only remaining leader; Chekov. She just couldn't handle it if that happened; Yuffie had already been told that she had until she could find someone to marry her (they wanted Wutainese, but you can't be too picky these days) and produce an heir.
As if she was going to idly sit by and let some jerk rule her country and for her to be the baby machine. It would be a cold day in hell when Princess Kisaragi did as she as told without question and let someone else speak for her.
"Yuffie…?"
Her head snapped up to find Vincent Valentine standing in the doorway that lead to the bedroom stairs. His hand rested against the frame and he eyed her with a surprised expression, she blinked. As if confirming that she was, in fact, there and not a hologram, he walked over to the couch opposite of her and sat down. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh me? Just spending the night is all…"
His eyes narrowed as she danced around his actual question, her spending the night was obvious, but why was the question he had been getting at. He brought his knee up to the edge of the couch and rested his metal arm across it, surveying her. He switched tactics, she was obviously wet from being outside, perhaps she had news of the ShinRa Mansion.
"Yuffie," He caught her attention again, "An hour ago the ShinRa estate was brought to flames," Her eyes flashed and he caught her expression before she could mask it, it was proven, Yuffie was there before, "do you know of anything that might have caused this?"
She was silent, contemplating her answer, telling Vincent why the fire was lit, would involve telling him the whole reason why she was there and why the place had been broken into. But then again, that place was a sore spot for him, so many things had happened there, didn't he deserve to know if something happened to the experiment files he had suffered through? Sure, he had collected the Omega reports there, but there was still other valuable research contained there… perhaps a way to revert him to normal?
"It was broken into? Are you sure it wasn't some prank by the local kids?"
'The girl lies' hissed a low voice in Vincents mind, almost an un-catchable whisper, but the gunslinger heard him loud and clear.
'I am aware of that Demon' He replied, his eyes still fixed on Yuffie, 'but the question is if I should tell her I know that or not…'
'Perhaps you can get more out of her if you aren't accusing her, she may bring fourth a reason as to why in order to deem herself innocent.' There was a musing silence, 'The girl, Yuffie Kisaragi, she has an aura of destruction about her.'
This caught Vincent's attention, 'What do you mean? Speak demon!'
Yuffie sighed impatiently, "You know Vince, could you stop starting a conversation with me then ending it with yourself, you are getting into a bad habit of that…"
The gunslinger snapped out of his chat with the demon and looked concerned, he never knew Yuffie could tell when he was speaking with his inner demons. As if reading his confusion, Yuffie felt the need to explain. "Well your eyes go dull, you stare right through me, I can see the conversation flying back and fourth in your eyes but I can't hear the words…" she grinned at her little accomplishment, "So, what was dear old Chaos chittering about today?"
'Did she just call me old? I am NOT old! A few thousand years in NOTHING for my kind I'll have you know!'
Vincent looked amused, 'I do believe I sense some childish behavior from you,'
'Psh, I am simply proving a point… and I am NOT that stupid Chaos…' muttered the demon in a rather immature manner. 'Anyways, I would not ignore her, she'll grow suspicious…'
A shiver ran through Vincent, but he ignored the demons's comment and focused on Yuffie again.
"I was on my way here to speak with Cloud about some things and I came across the mansion in flames, from what I could tell, they were extracting data, before I could get close enough, they had already ran off…" He pulled out a piece of paper and put it on the table for her to see, "They left this behind. Do you have any idea as to what they might have been searching for, perhaps you can make sense of it?"
Something inside her told Yuffie that Vincent didn't believe her when she had faked innocence, but either way, she decided to play along, she picked up the paper and read over it's contents.
"Mako infusion processes with the tainted lifestream proved mildly successful, The materia in question could not stand the stress given to it under the circumstances that were presented." It was all jibberish to Yuffie, but she read on, "We've come to believe that the purer materia, such as a simple cure, had better wielding results but only for a few moments until the materia shattered into pieces. Other elemental materias like Fire and thunder, would not mix or the process would backfire completely. We used a simulated pure materia, with attributes similar to the………" Yuffie trailed off, the next two words sent her mind spinning… 'white materia…' She looked up at Vincent, he seemed to have a little more understanding about this then she did, but he beckoned her to continue.
"The tainted lifestream we created yielded great results with this simulation. By combining the white materia simulation with the tainted lifestream we created an all-use curse materia that can cast the effects of several incurable diseases. Unfortunately, it is uncertain which curse it would cast upon the victim, and not only that, but we must first obtain the original for this thesis to be correct… " Yuffie clutched her skull, everything was finally kicking in; they wanted to use the white materia to inflict incurable curses on people? Of what kind? Like darkness or sleep?
Or Geostigma….
Vincent's thoughts were along the same track, but his consisted of how they had received this 'tainted lifestream', he had vaguely heard of disappearances that had been occurring in the past year or so, could these people have something to do with it? What could they possibly want with Hojo's notes? There must have been more to this…
"From what I gather…" Yuffie tried to sound as if she had no idea what was going on, "These people, whoever they are, are trying to get some form of materia that can withstand their experiments… but, uh, maybe they want to inject this…power thing… into someone? Isn't that what Hojo was doing? Study of the human body and reactions to mako?" Her questions were timid, she didn't want to upset him with bad memories.
Vincent hardly noticed, Yuffie was playing dumb, she knew they were after the white materia, and he would bet his other arm she knew where it was. It was odd, something about the situation stroke him as wrong, since when did Yuffie avoid his questions? Or even have things to hide, she was usually so open with everyone, even when they didn't want her to be.
Where did the dramatic 'Ninja-hero-of-Wutai' go, and when was she replaced with the secretive woman before him?
Regardless of what anyone would say, he had found her optimism during their fight with Weiss refreshing, she made everything seem a little bit brighter. When he had turned into Chaos fighting the final battle, he could hear her voice the loudest, shouting out an encouraging 'Yeah!' She was that ray of sunshine that everyone could count on being the comic relief, no matter how random she was, he could find it in himself to be annoyed with her.
"Vincent…?" Her voice was reproachful, she tilted her head to the side, just so, and he couldn't help but be reminded of Lucrecia, "Is there something the matter?"
I'm-…§…Vincent…§…Live..
There she was again, that voice in his head that he could hear, it was just above a whisper and yet, he could never drown it out. She had pleaded with him to forgive her, and he finally settled things with her all those months ago. But now her pleads weren't of redemption, she was pleading with him for another reason, but he could never hear exactly what was said, even if he couldn't drown out her voice, half the words were muffled.
He wondered if it really was her, or if his mind was playing tricks on him, a year ago he would have given anything to hear her voice and be alone with his thoughts. But now, he felt as though he needed to stay out with people, to stop being the rock in the river of time. Yet, being there with Yuffie, it felt… strange… he didn't need Chaos or any of the other demons to tell him; something was going to happen.
And it involved Yuffie.
And she didn't want to involve anyone with it.
"Nothing is the matter with me Yuffie," His eyes locked with hers, and he felt that calm feeling whenever they had met gazes before. He would say it time and time again: There were only a few people who ever met his gaze unflinching… "However, I cannot let the thought pass that perhaps… something is bothering you?"
Yuffie Kisaragi was always one of those who met his gaze, except she always wore this quirky defying look, she was strong, maybe not just with her Shuriken, but in her mind. Perhaps that was what made anyone who met her feel a little more light hearted then they normally do.
Yuffie would be damned before she shied away from his crimson eyes, but she couldn't let him see her falter. His eyes bored into hers, he knew she was lying, but he respected her too much to accuse her of it. She knew that her expression was slipping, he would catch her, and she would tell him.
Why?
Why should she drag Vincent back into this!
He deserved a peaceful life, he deserved a life without more blood tainting his hands that convinced him he was even more of a monster then he really was. Yuffie would die if any of her friends killed for her; how could she drop this on any of them? It wasn't right; it wasn't fair.
"Vincent… we both know I have things I don't wish to discuss, I'd rather not lie to you, because that would only damage our rela-… friendship…" She caught herself just in time, and then grinned like her normal chipper self.
He was surprised at the sudden presence of maturity she had just shown, surely he had noticed all the growing up she had done in his presence, but sometimes he just couldn't shake that '16 year old' mold he had first met. Her first impression had been added to, but sometimes she did small things that were out of character to him… then he remembered she was 20, and all those things didn't seem so out of place to a normal 20 year old. But she was Yuffie, and regardless of how old she got, he was certain that Yuffie Kisaragi would stay a teen forever at heart.
"Yuffie," He sighed, knowing that even if he said this, it would get him no where, "I hope you realize that I respect your privacy, but you must know, that if this has anything to do with Cloud, the others or even myself, we deserve to know."
Yuffie stood up and stretched her tired limbs, she could feel that small nagging drowsiness at the back of her head. Now was the best time as any to go and catch some sleep until she was to leave in the morning.
"Don't worry Vince," She opted for the less childish nickname, Vince sounded much more… tolerable then her usual 'Vinnie', "As soon as this has anything to do with you, I'll let you know…" she paused at the doorway and turned around to face him, noticing his eyes on her, "Oh… um… and Vincent?"
"Yes?" His eyes fallowed her, a piece of stray hair falling across one eye. Damnit, why did she had to get all tongue tied when ever he looked at her like that? He was just so….. he was too damn attractive for his own good, that was for sure…
"… Can we… keep all of this a secret? I don't want to drag Tifa and Cloud all around the world and risk their necks again… they already have too much to think about… And you should… go visit Shelke," How it pained her to say that, "… I'm sure she misses you, and say 'hi' for me, ne?" Deciding that she needed to finish her little speech, she felt déjà vu kick in when she whispered, "Sweet dreams Vincent. Oyasumi Nasai."
She slipped from the room, already knowing that she could trust the gunslinger with anything, if she requested it, Yuffie knew he would travel with her and fight the group that wanted the White Materia. That was the thing she was scared of; she knew they all would, and sometimes, she wished that she hadn't gotten too attached to them.
Yuffie crawled into bed and when her head hit the pillow she realized the extent of her fatigue. She was out like a light in a matter of minutes, so she didn't hear the -chimes of the door below or the greetings Tifa, Cloud and two new guests exchanged.
----
"Wow, it's a storm out there!" Cried Reno, taking his and his friend's umbrella's and hanging them on the coat rack. "But its too hot to wear a rain jacket, say, you wet at all Rye?"
Reno turned towards the entrance to address his 'roommate', Tifa noted that they both looked a little waterlogged but decided not to comment on it. The other shrugged and grabbed their shirt and wrung it out a little, neither really minded the rain. "Say Tifa, you mind boiling up a cup of Coffee for us?"
Tifa stared at the vice-president as if she hadn't heard him correctly, normally the first thing out of his mouth was his need for a cold beer. Then again, it may have had something to do with his new companion.
"Oh, Coffee would be heaven right about now that is, of course, if you don't mind Miss Tifa?" Tifa grinned and set herself to work on preparing that pot of caffine, snapping out of her stupor.
"No problems, say Reno, aren't you going to introduce us?"
"Oh geesh, where are my manners?-" He started as he sat down on one of the stools and then beckoned for his companion to have a seat beside him.
She swiftly cut him off, "-where your common sense is, no doubt," She grinned at him and then sat down leaning over Reno to shake Cloud's hand, "Ryona Koeya, pronounced 'Rye-oh-nah', I hate when people mess it up with 'Ree-oh-nah', pleased to finally meet you Mr. Cloud and Miss. Tifa; Reno never shuts up about you guys."
It didn't take long for Tifa to realize just how well the two of them got along, Ryona wasn't afraid to tell people what she wanted, but she was also terribly polite.
Ryona was an average height of around 5'5 and had long beautiful dark blonde hair that reached down to her elbows in long silky strands ending in slight curls. Her hair was layered and cinnamon streaks in it, her shortest layer (as well as her bangs) cupped her chin, and the longest reached just past her elbows and almost to her waist. She had a pretty face, a oval shape, with a soft curve to the cheeks and a slightly rounded nose that wasn't too big. Her skin was flawless, no acne or blemishes crossed her skin, and she had quite a pretty smile. Her eyes were the most peculiar thing; swirled green and blue, so in one look they could be considered aqua.
She also had a similar body type to that of Tifa, although, not as graciously bestowed in the bust area but she had larger toned thighs, which gave her a more fighter look then that of a girlish appearance.
She extended her hand to Tifa and the bartender hand to wash her hands before clasping it in her own. "I hear you're a martial artist?"
Tifa grinned, sensing a slight challenge from that question.
"Yeah, I am,"
Ryona beamed, "Great! We can spar sometime! It's nice to meet another girl who takes fighting seriously, I also hear there's a ninja amongst you as well, perhaps I'll get the pleasure of meeting her as well?"
Cloud was impressed at how well Tifa and Ryona had gotten along, they instantly became friends, even though they had just met. Reno had been speaking of his new roommate that he shared his apartment with, but no one had ever seen her. The two only had a friendship, never anything more, or so Reno told everyone. He even once hinted that he should go out with her, considering the fact that they already did everything else together.
No one was too sure what tamed the once flirtatious, but dangerous red-head, perhaps it was his new job and responsibilities, or maybe it was his new friend. Either way, no one really knew that someone who seemed so insignificant could bring fourth such an impact on any of their lives…
††††††††††††
Show me what it's like
To be the last one standing
And teach me wrong from right
And I'll show you what I can be
Say it for me, Say it to me
And I'll leave this life behind me
Say it if it's worth saving me
Saving Me
Nickelback
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Katori: second done, whee… yes, I know, there's an OC, but bare with me OK? She's gonna grow on you guys, so please stay with me! She won't rule the story, this is still a Yuffie Vincent rule all thing!
Sin:….. Ryona's too pretty, I was expecting someone… I don't know…. A little more bulky who plays her role…I also expected her to be brunette…
Katori: Well you can't judge all by appearances… anyways, I do believe I deserve applause for the Vincent and Yuffie part. For all those who still have doubts about how Vincent should act, I advise you, PLAY Dirge of Cerberus before you judge me. I totally agree with how they portray him. HE IS NOT AN EMPTY SHELL! (As DND so perfectly pointed out in the plus side of insomnia) I also think that I got his personality very well portrayed in this chapter, I've played DoC, studied AC and played the game, I finally think I can get how he acts a year later. Notice how he's still secluded, but he speaks like a normal person? He's not from the mid evil era you know, HE USES TODAY'S GRAMMER CONCEPTS!
Sin: Yeah, she re did that part…. Fifty times until she was positive it was perfect… I know the whole bloody scene off by heart now….
Katori: This is going to be a long haul guys, you won't see much Yuffentine until… um.. ((/Looks up planning booklet…/))
Sin: Yeah, she planned it all out, she's really serious about this one…
Katori: Ah! Around Chapter 7!... PLEASE STAY WITH ME! I PROMISE THAT EVEN IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE ROMANCE YOU'LL LOVE THE STORYLINE!
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