::sweatdrop:: Sorry it took so long to update this, guys! I didn't expect life to get in the way, but it did! So, anyway, here's the next chapter. I'm having far too much fun writing this!

Thanks so much for the watches! Reviews are always appreciated, though!

The Core of The Heart
Chapter 3

Cid could not understand why Shera kept pacing by the phone. It was starting to get ridiculous. He was getting dizzy from watching her go in circles like that!

Two hours! For two hours she had been pacing in front of that phone, all other chores forgotten. Cid had been forced to race into the kitchen to stop their dinner from catching fire because Shera had completely forgotten about it. Every time he tried to ask what was wrong, she just shook her head and went back to pacing.

"This is insane," he muttered as he downed his eighth cup of tea. It must have been Tseng. That panicky, frantic aura she was radiating must have meant that something had happened to Tseng. 'Damn you, Rufus Shinra,' he thought angrily, 'at least let the man get married before ya go and get his ass killed!'

Tifa could only watch Tseng in mute fascination. Every five seconds he would flip his cell phone open, glare at it as though it were responsible for some great tragedy, and then snap it shut again and take a sip of his beer. Elana, Rude, and Reno all sat around him, looking somewhere between puzzled and worried.

"You're sure you don't know what's going on?" Cloud asked Elana.

Elana shook her head. "He's been like this all afternoon," she reported sadly.

"Won't tell us anything, yo," Reno grumbled.

"Could there be something wrong with Shera?" Tifa asked. She had been one of the few outside the Turks and Cid to know about the engagement, as Shera had asked her for permission to have the reception dinner at the bar.

Tseng's hand gave a spastic twitch. "I wish," he said and checked his phone again. He was starting to understand why there were husbands that were absolutely terrified of their wives. The tone of Shera's voice when he had told her that Vincent Valentine was missing... he would rather have faced Sephiroth again than face her if he had to report that something had happened to that man.

He took a much larger gulp of his beer and checked his phone again.

It took a few painfully groggy minutes for Vincent to comprehend what had dragged him out of a rather bizarre dream involving a teenage girl with glowing yellow eyes and wings chasing around what appeared to be Sephiroth on a pink chocobo. It took another minutes for him to figure out why there was a body curled up next to his and why he was so cold.

'Tseng, Yuffie, Cosmo Canyon, ringing any bells?' the sarcastic voice of Chaos asked form the back of his mind.

Vincent calmly told him to go to hell as he carefully shifted Yuffie's sleeping form away from him and peered out around his sanctuary. He had fallen asleep behind a small line of stalagmites trying to escape the wind, but now it was serving as the perfect hiding place.

Three figures were hunched just inside the cave with a blazing fire in the center of their small circle. "Goddamn snow," the smallest of the three was grumbling.

"At least we lost those two that were following us," the middle one murmured as he put his arm around the smaller one.

Vincent could have smacked himself for the irony of it. He and Yuffie had spent an entire afternoon chasing these three around Cosmo Canyon and here they were, right in front of him, stuck in the same blizzard-sheltering cave.

"I hope they're alright," the third one, this one much larger and more muscular, muttered as he looked out at the snow, "It's really cold out there."

"Don't worry about them, Loz," the small one grumbled, "if they'd caught us they probably would have brought us back to ShinRa. Do you really want that?"

Vincent's crimson eyes went wide. So Tseng had known more about their targets than he let on.

"No," the big one muttered.

"Let's get some rest," the middle one advised, "Hopefully this storm will let up soon so we can find somewhere warmer to go."

The three fell asleep surprisingly quickly, all piled on top of each other like a litter of puppies waiting for their mother to return. Something about it was oddly cute to Vincent even while another part of him was disturbed by it. He considered trying to capture the trio while they were sleeping, but some part of his mind was just too honorable to do that.

Besides, he would just be grateful if they all got out of here alive.

"Would you fuckin' stop pacing!" Cid finally exploded.

Shera gave a small scream of surprise and spun around. "Chief!" she gasped, "I forgot you were there. Is everything alright?"

Cid glared at her. "Ye've been pacin' there for almost four hours, Shera! What the fuck's goin' on?"

"Four hours?" Shera repeated blankly. She glanced over his shoulder at the kitchen clock, which indeed read almost ten to ten. Tseng had called her at 6. She gave a small squeak and accepted the cup of tea that Cid handed to her.

"What happened?" he asked carefully. The last thing he wanted was for Shera to do something crazy like start bawling on him. He hated dealing with crying women.

Shera took a long sip of her tea before speaking. "Vincent's missing," she said, doing herself to brace for the inevitable explosion.

"So?" Cid asked, "Shera, Vin's always goin' missin'."

"No," she shook her head violently, "Tseng asked him and Yuffie to check something out in Cosmo Canyon and they got caught in a blizzard down there! They've been missing for two days!"

"What?!" the sheer volume that Cid's voice rose to made Shera drop her cup. As many times as she had seen the pilot lose his temper, never had it been this bad. It was testament to just how mad he was when Cid did not seem to notice the shattered mug on the floor.

As Cid rushed out of the room, most likely to get the Tiny Bronco, Shera reached for the phone to call Tseng. It would probably be best if Tseng was nowhere to be found if he chose to go to Midgar.

"Vinnie! Vinnie, wake up!"

Vincent glared at the ninja. She was leaning over him, a look of panic written across her face. "They're here!" she whispered urgently.

"Yes, and?" Vincent asked impatiently. He peered over the top of the rocks. The three silver-haired teenagers were still sleeping, the largest of the two leaning against a rock with the smaller cuddled comfortably in his arms. He did not much feel like getting into a fight with three unknown enemies and risking any of them getting hurt when they had no way of getting help.

Yuffie stared at him with a look of pure shock. Vincent rolled his eyes and rolled over, trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in that did not include Yuffie leaning over him or getting hit in the face by cold wind. He was really starting to miss Cid's nice, warm, comfortable house back in Rocket Town. And Shera's tea.

"Shouldn't we do something?" Yuffie asked frantically. "What if they wake up and kill us while we're asleep or-"

"Go back to sleep, Yuffie," Vincent grumbled. "They don't want to fight us and I don't want to fight them, so unless you do something remarkably stupid we can go on with them being happily oblivious to our presence."

Yuffie leaned against the rocks behind her and huffed. "What do you have waiting for you when we get out of here anyway?" she sniped. "Gonna go back to your coffin in that creepy mansion?"

"I'm going back to Rocket Town," he replied evenly. "Shera has asked that I be there to help with the plans for her wedding."

"Wedding?" Yuffie squealed, clapping her hands in delight. "Are Cid and Shera finally getting married? I wanna come!"

Vincent chuckled. "Cid isn't going to get married, and certainly not to Shera. She's marrying Tseng from the Turks."

Yuffie blinked. "Tseng? No way!" She stared at Vincent. "I thought for sure she was gonna marry Cid!"

Vincent shook his head and laughed. "Cid's never had any interest in marrying Shera."

"You're laughing!" Yuffie shrieked, pointing accusingly at Vincent. "Oh my gawd! You're laughing!"

"I am capable of laughing, Yuffie."

"Coulda fooled me! You don't even smile, Vinnie! Well, except around Cid..." Yuffie suddenly looked like someone had smacked her in the face with something very large and probably quite random. She pointed a finger and at Vincent and shouted at such a volume that he worried it would wake their cave-mates. "You're in love with Cid!"

Vincent rolled his eyes. "I'm going back to sleep now. Stop screaming random things." And, indeed, he stretched out against the rocks and went back to sleep.

When Cid landed the Tiny Bronco in Cosmo Canyon barely an hour later, Nanaki was waiting for him. "Shera called and told me you were coming," the fire beast explained as Cid followed him inside.

"Any luck?" he asked.

Nanaki shook his head. "The wind and the ice are too bad for anyone with less than an armored tank to travel through. I only pray the two of them are out of the weather. I'm actually amazed you made it here without crashing, Chief."

Cid gave a snort. "I'm Cid fuckin' Highwind! I can fly through anything!"

"I'm starting to believe that," Nanaki muttered.

But, even if the brave pilot could fly through anything, sitting through a snow storm seemed to a little more difficult for him. Within an hour, the pilot had paced so many circles in Nanaki's living room that the fire dog was starting to get dizzy. "How much longer until this damn snow lets up?" Cid asked.

"Hopefully soon," Nanaki grumbled, shaking his head, "because you're going to drive me crazy if you keep pacing like that." A few of the men from the search party that Nanaki had gathered all nodded in agreement.

Someone outside shouted that the weather was clearing. It was all Cid needed to take off running into the storm outside. "Damn idiot," Nanaki murmured, shaking his shaggy head.

Tseng nearly jumped right off his stool when he cell phone rang. Reno, who had been snoozing on the bar next to him, fell over with a yelp and dragged Rude down with an equally startled yell.

"What time is it?" Elana murmured, rubbing her eyes.

"Well?" Tseng asked, snapping the phone open.

"We've found Yuffie," Nanaki reported. Tseng slumped gratefully in his seat. "And Vincent?" he asked.

The line was silent for a moment. In the background, Tseng could hear Cid shouting curses and threats at such a volume Tseng felt bad for the residents of Cosmo Canyon. "No sign of him," Nanaki admitted. "Yuffie said that he was in the cave with her when she fell asleep but when Cid woke her up he was gone."

Tseng made a small whimpering noise. "Thanks Nanaki," he said and snapped the phone shut. "Damn," he muttered and began shamelessly beating his head against the bar top. Shera was going to kill him. This was not a good way to start a relationship with someone.

Please R&R~