Disclaimer: Same as always everyone! I still don't own anything!

Yuffie had more than had her fair share of sparring for the day. She was almost on the brink of utter exhaustion in an attempt to work out all the anger and frustration that had been sparked by "That stupid redhead". Reeve challenged her by using the latest upgraded model of his own personal stand-in; Cait Sith. He had developed the machine to be used as a means for him to travel to different places and observe people for Kisaragi taishou, without being recognized or noticed for who he really was. The little cat looked harmless perched atop a giant stuffed mog, but was a powerhouse when it came to fighting. If that wasn't enough, a few of the other Wutain elders had decided that they would love a turn against the scrappy, young Princess. This of course, she could not refuse. The sun was almost completely set when she stepped outside the Pagoda and slumped down one of the outer walls, looking pale and tired.

"Here, drink this."
handed her a bottle of sparkly blue liquid that only served to remind her of the color of Reno's eyes. Looking at it disgustedly, she handed it back to Reeve, pulling a face.

"I can't have you fainting on me...I would never hear the end of it from your father. Now drink it."

Yuffie reluctantly took back the drink and took a tentative sip. She was pleasantly surprised by the carbonation and sweetness of the drink. Within a matter of moments of the first swallow, she started to feel her energy come back.

"Heeeeey, this is pretty good Reeve. What is it?"

"I believe it's being sold under the name "Elixir"...though I'm not quite sure what kind of elixir it's supposed to be. Everyone swears by it. It's supposedly very good at replenishing your health in a short amount of time. Don't tell me you haven't had any before, especially after all that materia-questing you do!"

"Nope! I've never had any of these before. Usually I get some Hi-Potions and take those with me...but with the all-mighty Cure Materia, who needs dinky drinks like this?"

Reeve chuckled a bit at his ward's naivety.

"You do realize that as you use materia you drain a kind of energy from your body, right?"

"Of course I know that! I AM a materia aficionado, after all."

The older man's eyebrows shot up into his hairline hearing such fancy vernacular from the princess.

"Wow, I can tell you're tired, just by the way you talk. We better get you home and quick!"

He jokingly put a hand to her forehead which was promptly smacked away with a giggle and an admonishing look.

"Hey, you! I can use those big words too ya know! I just choose notta."

Smiling affably at her, he led the way back to the Kisaragi palace, glad to hear something other than how bent she was over Reno.

Reeve and Yuffie walked in just in time to see Kisaragi taishou walking down the stairs, looking for his daughter and advisor.

"Ah, I was wondering where you two were. None of the maids could tell me; yet I supposed my precious daughter was safe with my closest advisor."

Reeve shifted uncomfortably at the compliment. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Yuffie rolling her eyes at her father's unusually affectionate address.

"So what's the deal pops? You're not usually this nice..."

"Why, I feel as though I have a very compelling reason to be nice to my beautiful daughter, who is going to do something right for a change, and do something good for her country. As well as a great deal of praise for the man who is going to help her accomplish this."

Reeve inched back considerably, stuffing two fingers in the collar of his shirt, trying to alleviate the imagined pressure he was feeling at this very moment. Yuffie was also cringing considerably, full aware of the fact that these speeches always meant nothing good was about to come her way.

"Now, now...no need to get so startled and uptight you two. I'm only talking about your upcoming meeting with Vincent Valentine; the Crown Prince of Nibelheim."

Still looking a bit apprehensively at the old man in front of him, the two waited for him to continue.

"I was so certain that my dearest here would be able to scare off Rude..." Kisaragi taishou paused as he shot a meaningful look at Reeve, "That I sent a messenger to arrange a meeting date with Prince Valentine earlier this afternoon while you two were out. He returned a little while ago with word that Vincent would be delighted to have you two over next weekend for the Nibelheim Fair."

Yuffie's jaw hung agape as Reeve posed the question that she wanted to ask, but couldn't gain enough control over herself to do it herself.

"Sir, the entire weekend?"

"Yes. The ENTIRE weekend."

The king focused a stern look at the definitely nervous pair. The materia-hunting, ninja princess was on the brink of throwing up, her stomach was fluttering so hard. Her guardian smiled awkwardly and timidly posed the next question.

"But Sir...what if things don't go...as smoothly...what with such a broad timeframe involved...?"

"Why, Reeve, that should not even be a concern. Because for the next week you are going to send Caith Sith out to scout Nibelheim, as well as train our little princess accordingly to how one might think the Crown Prince of the town would want his bride to act."

A considerable amount of sputtering and choking could be heard throughout the palace as Reeve tried to regain enough composure to swallow his saliva through his esophagus and not into his lungs, as well as the start of another Yuffie-brand tirade about how she shouldn't have to change herself in order to find a suitable husband. Before the argument could even begin, Kisaragi taishou raised a hand to silence the both of them, forgiving only the coughing spasms that Reeve was still suffering from.

"There is no discussion. You are dismissed."

The king turned his back on the shocked pair and strode back up the stairs, his hands neatly folded behind his back.

"Reeve, we are in some serious shit."

The goateed man looked at her admonishingly for the use of such language, but said nothing, due to the fact that despite the cuss word, he could not have put it better himself.

"Tomorrow I am going to deploy Caith Sith just as your father said to. Although, to tell you the truth, I have no idea how I would even begin attempting to train you to be a Nibelheimian bride...that's just not something I'm versed in."

"Don't give me that crap, Reeve." Genuinely hurt, the young ninja jutted out a pouty lower lip as she trained her eyes on the ground in front of her.

"I don't understand..."

"I'm tired of hearin' about how no one's gunna wanna marry me just because I'm a lil 'immature'...I get it okay? Maybe I ain't the best example of how a grown-up girl who's the princess of some big, fancy country is supposed to act or supposed to be...but the most important thing is that through all of those fancy titles and crap, I'm still me. Yuffie Kisaragi. Not Lady Yuffie Kisaragi of Wutai. Just plain ol' materia-hunting, bad-guy ass-kickin', answer-my-dad-back-coz-I-don't-agree-with-his-stupid-ideas, Yuffie."

Somewhere between the start and the finish of this rant, big, salty tears began to roll down her face and plop unceremoniously onto her shirt. Reeve pulled a handkerchief from his coat and used it to wipe away the wetness from her face. He let her take the hanky to blow her nose with, and stuck a paternal hand atop her head, smoothing her hair in an attempt to comfort the girl in front of him.

"Hey...it's okay. Alright? You're doing your best to be true to the ideas and feelings that you hold to be true. And don't worry so much about trying to be something or someone you don't think you are. I've been watching over you since the day you were born, and there was never a moment I thought that you didn't have the potential to be something - anything - you wanted to."

"Why can't my dad think so too? Why can't my dad see that in me like you do?"

Her sobs had died down to sniffles.

"I don't know Princess. I really don't know. But you just keep doing your best, and one of these times you're going to prove him dead wrong, and he'll have to eat his words as you show him that plain ol' Yuffie is the best Yuffie, to run a country...and to have as a daughter."

The young girl appreciated what Reeve had said, and hugged him briefly before dragging herself up to her room to put an end to what had been a pretty miserable day. Her caretaker decided to go and mull over what she had told him with some warm sake, wondering if there wasn't any way to get Kisaragi taishou to try and understand his daughter just the slightest bit better. Releasing a heady sigh he gravitated towards the dining area.

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It was almost two-thirty in the morning when Rude decided to call it a night. After serving his last round of drinks and emptying out the bar, he finally flicked off the bright neon "Open" sign and started to clean up. Food was all over the place, as were watermarks, used glasses, napkins, bottles of beer, and other assorted trash. He sighed headily as he noticed the more raunchy rubbish beginning to line the further corners of the bar. After another hour of hard work invested in cleaning up the place, he checked in on Reno, who for all intents and purposes appeared to still be sleeping. Leaving the door cracked, the baldheaded Turk decided to go down to the basement to bring up more supplies for the coming day.

It must have been another forty-five minutes or so before Rude was finally done hauling crates and boxes of assorted beers and liquors, as well as replacement glasses for the ones that careless customers had destroyed, and placing them all in their respective areas. He poked his head back into the room to tell Reno that he was ready to retreat back to their headquarters for a little sleep after a hard night's work, especially with his best (and only) flair bartender having been out of commission for the night. He was surprised to see nothing more than rumpled sheets and a disheveled room.

He's a grown man, Rude thought to himself, He can take care of himself. He's a Turk too. I'll just see him tomorrow or whenever he decides to come back to HQ.

Rude rearranged the bed and left the door open to air out the last whiffs of reeking alcohol that his partner had dragged in, clicked off all the lights and and made his way out of the bar, locking the door behind him.

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Reno, on the other hand, had sobered up considerably after waking up from his humiliation/liquor-enduced nap. He had taken one of the Turk motorcycles that for some reason, was conveniently parked outside the bar, and rode off just to get some fresh air and clear his thoughts of drink and the brat. He only got as far as a lightly forested area near Fort Condor, when he idled the motor and decided to walk around and look for a few monsters or muggers to take all his aggression out on. He walked for a considerable amount of yards, and had yet to run into a single living baddie, though he was surprised to see corpses of said bad guys littering the forest. The prospect of a real challenge taunted him eerily,but thrilled his blood as he continued to walk on, shock-rod at the ready. Some rustling in a nearby bush set his instincts ablaze as he readied his stance to electro-bash the crap out of whatever came out; but was soon disappointed by the scampering of a small rabbit.

"Stupid rodent...get outta my way. I'm lookin' for bigger prey than you."

Shooing the rabbit away, he let his guard down long enough for a large metal object to come flying out at him, followed by what seemed to be an awfully acrobatic chunk of meat.

He easily dodged the flying object and aimed a blow at the figure who did a sharp back-handspring away from what would have been a very painful injury. With a whir and a thud, a young girl caught her oversize shuriken in a crouched fighting stance and finally took in her newest adversary.

In a matter of seconds from initially locking eyes, two voices could be heard in the night silence, exploding with surprise and accusation in unison.

"Rude!"

"Yuffie!"

Ohh crap.