A/N: I apologize in advance for the shameless fluff in here, but it's hard to rewrite songs from a play into whole chapters with stories! So this - as in the play - is a bit of a filler chapter. There is literally nothing in here but fluff and a bit of development on the events leading up to Vincent proposing. That being said, I hope you enjoy it! It follows the song in the play a lot more closely than the rest of my chapters, but it's unavoidable here. It was also impossible for me to write The Story of Schmuel with FFVII characters, as I couldn't find the right couple, so it's now The Story of Shuyin! (Yes, you're getting FFX-2 in a FFVII fic. I apologize.) Without further ado, here is "The Schmuel Song", transformed into "The Shuyin Song"

The Shuyin Song

Shouldn't I want the world to see
The brilliant girl who inspires me?
Don't you think that now's a good time to be
The ambitious freak you are?
Say goodbye to wiping ashtrays at the bar
Say hello to Yuffie Kisaragi, big-time star!

"Happy Yuletide, Vinny!" Yuffie yelled, opening the door to our apartment and hurrying in to hug me, smelling of cranberries and snow.

I hugged her tightly, shutting the door behind her with my foot. I didn't bother trying to avoid the snowflakes on her; she was covered in the stuff. After a moment, I released her. She tugged off her gloves and pulled her hat off, quickly shedding the wet outer layers she had on, leaving her in her jeans, sweater, and socks. She picked up the boxes she had dropped next to the door, and hurried to the fire, sitting cross legged in front of it. Yuffie looked over at me, smiling and patting the carpet next to her.

"C'mon, Vincent, it's time to open presents! You're going to love mine." She said, her eyes sparkling.

I smiled at her, grabbed a couple blankets, my little notebook, and the present I had bought for her months earlier. I wrapped a blanket around my longtime girlfriend's small shoulders before sitting down, slyly hiding her present behind me. She looked through the boxes, as eager as a little girl. Yuffie, being Wutai, had never celebrated Yuletide as a child. The winter festivals in Wutai were much different, and presents weren't customary. When she moved to Edge and discovered Yuletide, Yuffie was hooked. She started decorating her – well, now it was our – apartment a full month early. She had bought presents for everyone and thrown 2 parties, which would have been adorable if I hadn't had to clean up all the mess she left from trying to wrap the presents and from the parties.

"Okay, this is from Tifa and Cloud," she said, handing me a medium sized box.

We opened presents for almost an hour, stopping only to make some hot chocolate. Yuffie insisted on having a ridiculous amount of whipped cream on top of her drink, leaving her with a dollop of it on her nose. I couldn't bring myself to tell her it was there until I took a picture with her. It was much too cute.

"Okay, this one is from me, for you," she finally told me, handing me a small box that was wrapped haphazardly with a bow larger than the box itself on top and more tape than paper.

I held in a snort, and started to unwrap it slowly, just to watch Yuffie silently freak out. When I finally opened the box under the paper, my eyes widened.

"Yuffie…it's perfect." I whispered, looking up from the package and smiling at her. "Thank you."

She smiled broadly before kissing me quickly. "I'm glad you like it. I was really worried the colors would come out wrong."

I shook my head, staring at it in wonder. "It's absolutely perfect."

It was a notebook, clothbound, the way I preferred them. It was thick, but still small enough to fit in my coat pocket. The cover was a deep burgundy, and had my name embossed on the bottom right hand corner. I loved it.

"My turn?" She asked hopefully after another kiss.

She had whipped cream on her nose again, and her eyes were wide and sparkling. Her cheeks were flushed and the ends of her hair were still a tad wet. She had never looked more beautiful to me.

I stood up; my blanket still wrapped around me, and picked up my gift for her. She reached for it but I held it just out of her reach.

"Wait. First, a story; a Yuletide story, for my muse," I said, and held up my old notebook. "As you can see, it's new and unpublished. I finished it last week, so I didn't have time to edit it, sorry."

She shook her head and waved a hand, dismissing my apologies. "Just read me the story, Vincent." Yuffie told me, laughter dancing in her dark eyes.

I nodded and started reading.

"The Story of Shuyin, the Tailor of Zanarkand." I said, and Yuffie snorted. "It's a working title!" I protested.

She nodded, still chuckling to herself.

Trying my best to ignore her, I turned the page to read the beginning of the story. Taking a break from my traditional writing style, I had written this the way a fairy tale would be written, with an almost sing-song rhyme quality to the words.

"Shuyin would work until half past ten in his tailor shop in Zanarkand, then get up at dawn and start again with the hems and pins and twists. Forty one years had come and gone in his tailor shop in Zanarkand, watching the winters soldier on; there was one thing that Shuyin missed."

Yuffie was hooked. I could see her leaning forward, her blanket sliding down her arms. She was already staring at me with childlike intensity, and I was barely a paragraph in. Stifling a smile, I continued reading, adjusting my voice for Shuyin's dialogue.

"'If I only had time,' old Shuyin said, 'I'd build the dress that's in my head. A dress to fire the mad desire of the girls from here to Baaj, but I have no more hours left to sew.'

"Then the clock upon the wall began to glow." I continued, lowering my voice for effect.

"And the clock said, 'Shuyin, you'll get to be happy, I grant you unlimited time! So Shuyin, go sew and be happy!'

"But Shuyin said, 'No, no, it's not my lot. I've got to make due with the time I've got.'

"Shuyin was done at half past ten and he said good night to Zanarkand, put on his coat to go, but the clock cried, 'Wait, not yet! Even though you're not rich or grand, you're the finest man in Zanarkand. Listen up, Shuyin! Make one stitch and you'll see what you can get.'

"But Shuyin said, 'Oh clock, it's much too late! I'm at peace with my life and I accept my fate.' Then the clock said, 'Shuyin, one stitch and you win! You will unlock the dreams you have lost.'

"So Shuyin, with reluctance, took his thread. He pulled a bolt of velvet and he said, 'I should go home and go to bed, but I'm sitting here with talking clocks instead.'

"The clock continued to urge him forward, whispering promises of unlimited time as Shuyin put the thread through the needle's eye. The moon stared down at them from a starless sky, and as Shuyin pushed the thread through the velvet black, he saw that the old clock was turning…back."

Yuffie gasped, and I smiled at her, looking over the top of my notebook at her in amusement.

"Don't stop!" She whined, wrapping her blanket around her shoulders again. "Keep going!"

I cleared my throat and took a drink of my now lukewarm hot chocolate before continuing.

"So he grabbed his shears and he cut some lace as the hands moved left on the battered clock face. Shuyin's fingers flew and as the fabric swirled, it was 8:15 all around the world. Every cut and stitch was a perfect fit, as if the Fayth themselves were controlling it. And then Shuyin cried through a rush of tears, 'Take me back! Take me back all forty one years!'

"And on it went, down that silent street, until Shuyin's dress was at last complete. He stretched his arms and closed his eyes as the morning sun finally started to rise.

"Now, the dress he made on that endless night was a dress that could make any soul take flight. Nothing had gone to waste; every ribbon and button was perfectly placed. And sewn into the seams were forty one years worth of dreams, dreams that you could feel coming real."

I recited the next part from memory simply to be able to watch Yuffie's reaction to the ending.

"And that very dress, or so the papers swore, is a dress that a girl from Southern Zanarkand wore on the day she promised forevermore to love a young man named…Shuyin."

Yuffie's eyes lit up, and a smile spread across her lips.

"Now, plenty have hoped and dreamed and prayed, but they can't get out of Zanarkand. If Shuyin had been an adorable Wutai woman, he'd have looked a lot like you. I'm not sure what's worrying you so much to stop you from trying to act again. Maybe your heart is completely swayed, but your head can't follow through. But Yuffie, I want the world to know you. You're brilliant and talented and inspiring, and I think that now is a damn good time to be the ambitious woman I met in Tifa's bar. So stop settling for serving peanuts at 7th Heaven, because baby, you are so much better than that!

"Now, I say, Yuffie, you'll get to be happy. I'll give you unlimited time! So go, and be happy. Here's the address of a headshot guy, and the newest copy of Back Stage."

I handed her the magazine and the sheet of paper before grabbing the box with her gift again, holding it so I could snap it open at just the right moment.

"Take a breath, take a step, take a chance, take…your…" I opened it, "time."

Inside the box was a thin and feminine white gold watch with Yuffie's birthstone in the middle. I pulled it out and fastened it gently on her wrist as she stared at me with tear-filled eyes. I brushed some whipped cream off her nose and smiled tenderly at her.

"Have I mentioned today how lucky I am to be in love with you?" I whispered.

She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me hard, making me topple onto my back. When she released me, she grinned down at me. Her smile was radiant, and I knew then and there that I would propose to her before springtime.

"Happy Yuletide, Vincent." She told me, still smiling.

"Happy Yuletide, love."

Merry Christmas, everyone! I'll have the next chapter up sometime around New Year's Day. As always, thank you for reading.

xoxo,

Meyx