Am I back? 9 years later? Maybe. I started my funny-writing blog, (check it, link on my profile page!) and I got back into writing. Of course, I never stopped writing, but I did stop publishing. Obviously my writing has changed since the time I was 17. Re-reading the early chapters of this story, I realize it needs a major re-write. This is entirely up to you. If you still like and want to support this story, I will pledge myself to fixing the writing of the early chapters and finishing the tale. Heck yeah! I'm excited.

Story so far: Yuffie and Vincent's unlikely friendship in the midst of an arranged marriage with a certain ShinRa employee. That was more like a subtitle. It is the subtitle so far.

A Walk in the Garden

Yuffie may not have been very experienced in the ways of pleasuring men, despite the ambitious attempts of a jungle kid to teach her the way of the jugle, but she was quite experienced in the opposite. She knew there were many ways to make a man miserable. You could kick him in the jewels, you could remind him of his tragic relationship with his mother, or you could simply ignore him.

As they strolled past the Royal Fountain and toward the rose garden, Yuffie did her best to turn her nose up at the prospective room.

"Is that really necessary?" Tseng said, pointing at the tall man situated between them.

"Vincent is my chaperone."

"Is the parasol really necessary? It is not raining and it is five in the afternoon – ow!" he exclaimed, as the parasol that Vincent was carrying low over them poked him on the side of the eye for the third time.

"It is necessary," Vincent said darkly, and no one felt like arguing.

They carried on the pathway, stone over wood over grass over the tears of princesses forced to accept marriages with hairy older men past, Yuffie thought as she almost tripped on a ninja rock (high five, ninja rock) and one of the hairy older men caught her.

"Oww!" Tseng explained, when the parasol held broodingly by Vincent nearly scooped out half his face. "You know what? Can we just sit over there?"

Yuffie was silent.

"Yuffie?"

"Yes. Sit where?"

"Τhere," he pointed again, but Yuffie was looking in the completely opposite direction. Tseng sighed. "Can you please look at me?"

"Sure," she said.

"...You are still looking in the other direction," Tseng said, his voice rising to a higher pitch. Yuffie tapped her ornately clad and ribboned foot and pouted for what seemed like an eternity and a half until Vincent stooped into her line of vision and gently nudged her in her direction of a gazebo where Tseng's tall frame was hunched over and fuming.

Getting closer, Yuffie saw that he was actually smoking with an expression of a thousand spider bites in his mouth.

She plopped down on the cold marble. She wanted to hold her knees to her chest but she was wearing a hideous dress and ugly panties, so she settled for resting her chin on her hand. As far as expressions of boredom go, this one was quite universal. This gave her hope that she was getting the message across, despite her being so exceptionally subtle overall.

"Blaaarrrrgh," she exclaimed loudly at the smell. Vincent's sharp nose was also obviously affected by the cigarette smoke. Tseng sighed once again, and stomped on the cigarette.

"Ι understand this is unpleasant for you. It is not wonderful for me either," he said.

"My apologies. Is the free young princess bride, who is also a ninja and fit and has great fashionable hair not to your liking, old man?" Yuffie said theatrically, throwing her hands at the air.

Vincent exchanged a warning glance with the ShinRa man. Their long hair shone in the late afternoon sun with a warm glow. She immediately regretted the hair remark.

"That is not it at all, Yuffie. I like you. I respect you, in fact."

She raised an eyebrow.

"You better," she said and Vincent patted her hand. I have to shut up, don't I?

"This marriage would affect both our lives terribly. And yet, I do not think we are left with much of a choice."

"Not you two, but the ones pulling the strings for you should be. It is their choice. Do you know why?" said Vincent.

"I do not. I have my suspicions, of course, but nothing concrete. There are dissenting voices within the ShinRa council. Not everyone thinks this coalition is the way to go."

"There is also the way that this coalition is being made," said Vincent.

"Vincent Valentine, surely you of all people understand the concept of the end justifying the means," Tseng enunciated carefully, lowly.

"Not always, not anymore." Vincent met his gaze steadily. Words, unspoken but felt, electrifying the crisp Wutaian air, flew between them like darts.

"Maaaan, I'm bored. Do we really have to do the stupid ball tonight?"

Vincent's head turned fast, leaving the dart conversation on another frequency. His eyes were serious.

"Α ball?"

"It is tradition," Yuffie said. "We have to dance to seal the engagement. In front of a crowd." She grabbed his cape and pulled. "I don't want to dance. Not with him, in front of my aunt Millie who stinks and always told me I should pay more attention to dance class."

Vincent stood up, his face three quarters shadow.

"They are rushing it. We must go."

"I told you not to eat that egg roll, Vince."

"Yuffie, go now, please. You have a ball to prepare for," he said, gritting his teeth. "And I have a ball to prepare for too. Excuse us," he slurred at Tseng and walked back into the castle, following a few feet after the princess of Wutai, side-stepping the mud puddle, unlike the Princess of Wutai.