Wow… this is the last chapter! (Err, still PE4C, but what can you do!) Thankyou to everyone who read this and stuck with it, and double-thankyou to those who read it and reviewed it. I had the best time writing this, and I hope you enjoyed it!

Oh yeah… Vincent rules! ^^

It was a reunion, mostly. Celebrating a year after Sephiroth's defeat, although more like a year and a bit because we were too lazy to organize anything to the exact. And Vincent and I were celebrating something else, but… I won't get into that.

Cait Sith is happily announcing how he has been over the year, well, Reeve is through him. Because I don't think that it is physically possible for a stuffed toy to do what Cait is saying. Yuffie is going around, trying to get materia off everybody. Red XIII is lying down in front of the fire, tail flicking slowly as he talks to Vincent. Shock horror disaster, Vincent is actually doing some of the talking. Barret and Cid are popping down the drinks, one after the other. Who else have I forgotten?

Cloud is walking over. I freeze, thinking he will try to do something reckless and hostile. But he doesn't. He smiles, before hugging me tightly around the waist.

"Tifa. I'm so glad you're happy,"

"Even with a monster?" the words pop out of my mouth before I can stop them. He stops hugging me and looks at me, mako-blue eyes sad.

"I don't mind who you're happy with, now. Sometimes it makes me sad that it wasn't with me, but then I realize that Aeris would be the one for me. You told me that, didn't you? And we're still friends, so as long as that still happens, then I'll be happy for you,"

I smile, trying to stop the tears that threaten to spill from my eyes. "Cloud, I'll always love you. Don't forget that, okay?"

He nods, and his own eyes are filling with emotion as he embraces me again, before letting go.

"But…" he says, just before he walks away. "Don't let those fangs of his bite you. Because I don't know how the Kalm people will take to that. Cover your neck well, Tifa,"

"Very funny, Cloud," I mutter, poking my tongue out at him in a rather Yuffie-like way.

Speaking of Yuffie, she bounces over as soon as Cloud goes. She does look a bit more mature, at least physically. Because she definitely doesn't sound it.

"Tifa! How are you? Got any materia for me?" she grins, but when I shake my head the smile fades. "No materia? Oh well, no matter. I'll just go ask… Vinny!" she bounces back off again. I laugh as I serve up the drinks to Barret and Cid, that both of them have emptied within ten seconds, anyway.

Vincent is standing over in the corner. As I go to get (more) drinks for Barret and Cid, I flash him a smile. He nods back, before returning it with a smile of his own. Not exactly what you would call a big smile, but he's smiling, so that's all that matters.

I managed to find the key. Now he can be happy.

*~*

He was happier then he had ever been before. He had been trying to not let this fact seem so obvious, but as Yuffie had so bluntly put it, "You're saying more then three dots at a time, Vinny! Either you've had a… err… midlife crisis, or something good's gone on!"

Something good had happened, after all. Even if he was a monster. Even if he hadn't deserved it, it had still happened.

Perhaps there was more to life then met the eye, he thought distantly, staring wistfully out of the window.

Tifa had indeed managed the seemingly impossible. She had unlocked Vincent Valentine's heart.