"So… You wish to marry my daughter." Godo, Yuffie's father sat across from them.
"Yes."
"But they say you will live forever…"
"Dad, I'll find a way, OK?" Yuffie insisted. "So please?"
"Not until that way is found." Godo scorned Vincent with cruel eyes.
"So… You've come to Shinra?" Reno listened to their story.
"Trust me, we don't wanna be here either." Yuffie shook her head. "But we need some way so that we'll age together and die together."
"Hm…" Dr. Grahme, the specialist at Shinra laboratories nodded his head. "Well, I think-"
Ring ring. Reno's cellphone rang in his pocket. He shuffled through his black coat and flipped open his phone.
"Yeah, Elena?" He leaned back in his chair and pulled out his keys. Silence occurred as his phone call went on. "Yeah, I know I'm late. I'll there in a sex. Whoops, did I say that? I meant sec." Yuffie heard a loud, embarrassed yell over the phone as he flipped it shut. "Sorry guys, I gotta dash."
"Mission?" Vincent asked quietly.
"Well, something like that… Elena's been at Junon headquarters for a while, so we haven't had time to see each other. Special mission: Operation date night." He snickered.
"I thought she had a thing for Tseng." Yuffie whispered to Vincent.
"And I care?" Vincent blew it off.
"Well, after I played the moves right, we went in bed and talked over our differences." He stuck out his tongue as he left, teeth showing.
"Ewww! Gross!" Yuffie yelled at him.
"You're getting married girlie! Get used to it!" He waved as he closed the door behind him.
"…As I was saying…" Dr. Grahme cleared his throat. "There is a procedure I can do. Will you come with me?"
"Ugh…" Yuffie woke up after the medical procedure. She woke up next to Vincent, who also lay on the operating table.
"Ah, good morning."
"Dude, what the crap?" Yuffie remembered what had happened. As soon as they got in the room, Yuffie knocked out for no reason.
"This room is filled with life stream controlling energy. It's no wonder you two lost consciousness." He sipped on coffee.
"That doesn't give you the right to-!"
"Vincent agreed to the procedure. After all, it doesn't affect you."
"What?" She sat up and looked down at her fiancée.
"All I did was use our technology to connect your life threads together."
"Life threads?"
"Yes… Life threads. You have seen images of the Lifestream, yes? Then you've seen the fibers inside of it. They connect each person to the Lifestream. When someone dies, their thread is cut and returns to the Lifestream. So, there was a study years ago about connecting two people's Lifestream threads in order to make them live the same amount. However, even if Vincent dies before you due to unforeseeable circumstances, you will live." He explained. "Although we did this before the wedding ceremony, think of it as your wedding vow."
"Wait, so Vincent will die when I do?"
"That's right. He'll age normally now, and die of old age with you." Yuffie looked down at him and smiled.
"I know that I'm shortening your life, but… I'm happy…! You can be a normal human now…!" She sniffled and wiped her eyes.
"Stop crying… You're getting your nose all red." Vincent groaned as he woke up. She hugged him tight and sobbed into his shoulder.
"Oh, and Mr. Valentine… There was a letter left with the research notes. It was addressed to you. After all, Dr. Lucretia discovered this method."
"Lucretia?" He exclaimed, and a dagger stabbed through Yuffie's heart. Even beyond the grave, Lucretia still held Vincent's heart. This scared Yuffie.
Dear Vincent,
It's me, Lucretia. How are you? I know that having an experimented body must not be great but…
I have found a method to save you. Not from your alteration, but to make you happy. One day, Vincent, I knew you would find your true love. If you are reading this, after all, you did. Now you can live a normal human life. To tell the truth, I'm a little sad… But I want you to be happy. Who's the girl? Introduce me to her.
Vincent, I loved you. I know that I was a fool. But even though you've suffered so much from my mistakes, please… Be happy.
-Lucretia
"Yuffie." Vincent told his fiancée outside of the hospital. "I have somewhere I need to go. Will you come with me?"
The crystals on the walls of the dark cavern made a slight light to see the water in front of them as they stood together, hand-in-hand at the lake's shore. In the center of the cave was a woman in a crystal. Dressed in a white gown, she slept peacefully inside her prison.
"Lucretia." Vincent started. "I got your letter. I had the procedure." He looked down into the reflection of the lake. "I had it with her. This girl's Yuffie. She's kinda dumb, selfish, loud and sneaky…"
"Hey!" Yuffie interjected at his description of his fiancée.
"But… She's a wonderful woman. She's spunky and like a firefly. She truly cares for others, and over all, she loves me." Vincent gripped tightly onto her hand, and she hugged against him, holding his arm snuggly against her face. "And so… I'm saying goodbye, Lucretia. I loved you, I really did. But… Now, I love Yuffie. Even more than I did you." His light wispy black hair drifted into his face. "Lucretia. I'm OK now. Rest." He placed a flower in the water, and it reached the middle, slowly sinking to the bottom. When the two looked back up, only a slight glow was left where her body had been. She was gone. She had moved on.
"Was this OK?" Yuffie tightened her hand. He nodded and looked at her silently. Brushing her bangs off of her forehead, he placed his lips on it softly.
"Let's go." And so, Yuffie walked beside him, quiet. She knew there was nothing else to say or argue. Lucretia had finally moved on. And that was a great burden off of both Vincent and Yuffie's shoulders.
"I saw the test results." Godo said gruffly. "Although I scorn you, Yuffie, for getting the operation without my permission…" He looked to his daughter, who nervously turned her eyes away, "I do give you permission to wed.
"Thank you, Godo." Vincent bowed his head, and Yuffie did as well.
"Father… Is fine." Godo coughed with a red blush on his face. Vincent smirked and nodded.
"Thank you… Father."
"Well, it's about time." Tifa put her hands on her hips, dressed in Chinese robes, the dress for the priestesses (and female friends) for the wedding. She looked like a goddess who had stepped out of the fountain.
"You got married first, so I thought 'Hey, what the hell!'" Yuffie laughed, trying to maneuver her way into her Chinese wedding dress. Tifa had married Cloud earlier that year, finally. Now, Tifa was pregnant with their first child.
"Hahaha…" Tifa laughed softly. She looked over to a chair where another Chinese dress lay. "Is that…?" Yuffie nodded sadly.
"…Yeah. If Aeris were here, that would be her dress. …I wanted to have a dress prepared so she would feel left out."
"Yuffie…" Tifa looked over softly to the bride.
"UGH!" Yuffie screamed and tossed off the Chinese wedding dress. "I can't take this stupid thing anymore! I already did the photos for my dad, so no more!" Yuffie opened up the closet and pulled out a wrapped package on a coat hanger.
"Huh? Yuffie, that's-"
"Hoho… I sold some of my trained material." She said with a tinge of regret and sadness in her voice. "But! I bought this!"
Vincent waited at the front of the wedding line, waiting for his bride to come.
"You sure about this? You can't go back once you do this." Cloud warned tuxedo-clad Vincent.
"Do you regret yours?" Vincent slightly glared at his friend.
"Not one bit." He smiled softly.
"I love Yuffie. Everything we've been through together, it's shown me the deepness behind her selfish exterior."
"Exterior, huh?" Cid chuckled. "I guess you do know the little girl. A LOT more than we do."
"Well, good luck." Red closed his eyes and sighed. He wore a little bow tie around his neck.
"Oh so, Red! Where's yo' wife and kids?" Barret looked in the crowd.
"In the back. They didn't want to be noticed. We do stick out, after all." He motioned his head towards a beautiful lion-like creature who had gorgeous red fur and opal eyes. Around her rustled their little children.
"Don't be wussin' out now, man! You'll be makin' one of those right after this." The perverted Cid laughed, and Vincent coughed and looked away.
"What about you n' Shera?" Barret elbowed his friend. "I heard she got one on the way."
"Hm…" Cloud looked dully at Cid.
"Ah, well, yeah…" He blushed and scratched his head. "Seems Shera really had it in her!"
"Literally." Red said sarcastically. Suddenly, the Chinese music began to play. Alone at the front was Yuffie, and behind her, her friends and hand maids. However, Yuffie was not dressed in the Chinese dress her father had prepared. Instead, she was in a long, strapless white dress that was opened at the back. Around her neck, she wore a white choker, and on her wrists she wore diamond bracelets that belonged to her mother. In her hair she wore a white lily, freshly picked.
"Yuffie?" Godo exclaimed quietly, trying not to interrupt the ceremony. But then he smiled, knowing that this was her wedding.
"You look beautiful…" Vincent whispered in his deep voice as they joined both right and left hands together. Forehead-to-forehead, they stood and heard each other's breaths go in and out.
"Well, you're spiffy." She giggled quietly. The wedding ceremony of Wutai was simple. Each took a drink of the holy water from the Water God, and then kissed each other on the lips, their life flowing through each other. They were now married.
The night moon shined on the window and onto the bed where the two of them slept, bare bodies against each other. Yuffie felt his black hair drip across her breast bone after they made love.
"Vincent…" She whispered to him. "I love you." He looked at her and leaned over to her, kissing her on her cheek and then on her ear, his breath flowing onto her skin.
"Yeah. Me too."