A/N: I know, two new story beginnings in one day. But this one just hit and you know me- I love a good Yuffentine! Please R&R!

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy, and I am not making any profit from this fic (however, if someone wants to send me booze, I would happily accept). :D

The Fire

Chapter One: Separation

Yuffie sat quietly in the small Wutai bar, staring absently into the near-empty glass at her fingertips. Outside the rain poured down on the village, only adding to the disdain she was diligently attempting to drown with liquor.

Beside her, her phone buzzed on the bar top. She glanced at the screen- "Vinnie Valentine." Ignore. Sighing, she threw the last of her drink back and waved the bartender down for a refill. How long had it been since she'd actually spoken to him – two, three weeks?

After defeating Sephiroth for a second time- two years after the original "ending" in the Northern Crater- the group had once again drifted apart. It all started with Cloud, of course. As much as that bastard seemed to have lightened up after the last battle, that damn pessimism of his came back weeks later. The group had tried to hold together- Tifa even relocated her bar to Rocket Town- where the village was rapidly re-developing thanks to Cid's successful space exploration program. Yuffie had relocated too, staying in one of the rooms above Tifa's tavern and teaching ninjitsu at the local school to save up money until she could open her own dojo. She was well on her way, until things started to fall apart…

~
Cloud started disappearing for days at a time. At first, they'd all just assumed he'd gotten his delivery service started up again. He'd been so happy, why should they have felt the need to question him? Naturally Vincent was the first to do that. Only- as Vincent normally did- he didn't actually ask questions. He just got curious and followed Cloud when he left one night. The ex-Turk had been staying with Tifa too, right next door to Yuffie. The night Cloud snuck out, the ninja was the only one who heard Vincent follow suit- and what had she done? What ninjas do best, of course- she had watched him stealthily from the shadows.

…Unfortunately that didn't last long. Skilled as she was- you can't be one with the shadows while spying on a shadow. Vincent knew she was there before she'd even found him in the dark. Damn him and his creepy heightened sense of awareness.

"Why are you following me?" He didn't even look at her.
She huffed, slinking from the corner like a child that had just gotten caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "Why are you following Cloud?"
"His trips are becoming more frequent, and his aura has begun shifting toward the Greater Darkness once more."
Yuffie scowled. "What the hell are you talking about, Vinnie? We killed the Greater Darkness, remember? We totally kicked its ass!"

"No." Her skin prickled oddly as she watched him snap his shotgun shut, holstering it before turning to face her and silently striding toward the door. "As long as Cloud and I exist there will always be a piece of the Greater Darkness on this planet."

She rolled her eyes. "Gawd, always so morbid, aren't we?"

He passed her, moving to walk down the hallway. It was late- Tifa, Denzel and Marelene were asleep, Barret was over at Cid's, Red had gone back to Cosmo Canyon to take care of some Elder business and Reeve was in Midgar and wouldn't be coming out for another week. So it was just the two of them creeping around 7th Heaven at two in the morning. Being the stealthiest ones in the group, Yuffie wasn't worried about waking Tifa or the kids, at least not with movement.

"What are you going to say to him?"
"Nothing, I'm only going to watch."
"Then I'm coming with you."
"Absolutely not."

He practically glided down the stairs, the ninja close behind. As they entered the bar area she stopped, putting her hands on her hips.

"How are you going to track him?"
"The same way I always track people- alone."
She pouted. "I'm way better at it, you know. I could help."
"I can't allow it."

She groaned, tossing her hands in the air as she crossed the floor to try and catch him before he could slide his cloak on.

"I'm going with you-."
"Yuffie." Damn, had his voice gotten deeper? That skin-prickle came back as he turned to her, amber-red eyes nearly glowing in the dark as he stared down at her. "You have to stay here."
Her mouth hung for a second, and she almost forgot what she was doing when she managed to squeak out, "Why?"

"Because." The dangerous, protective tone she had been distantly familiar with during their escapades two years ago came back in full force as he stepped toward her, leaving little more than a few inches of space between them. "If Cloud is up to something, I can't risk you being in the middle of it. I need to move quickly, and for that to happen I can't have any distractions. Do you understand?"

It caught her completely off-guard. Vincent Valentine- cold, emo-ass of the century, was caring…for her safety? While he had always been protective of her in his own gentlemanly way, she'd only ever seen him be this…reverent…with Tifa and Aeris- with women. Why was he talking to her like this? And here of all places- a quiet, dark tavern where they were the only ones up and aware of Cloud Strife's late-night shenanigans?

...That was the first time she ever felt her stomach turn at the sound of Vincent Valentine's voice. In the worst way.

"…Okay," she whispered, feeling that it came out more helpless and breathy than she'd intended it to, but Vincent didn't seem to notice. He only nodded, tightening his cloak as he exited the bar.

"I'll be back soon."

He wasn't back soon. It was a week, actually. An entire week of Tifa worrying and Barret and Cid leaving in the Shera to go look for the missing warriors. An entire week of Yuffie pretending she didn't know where they'd gone. After the first few days Tifa started to break down. She and Cloud still weren't technically 'together,' but you wouldn't know it by the way she fell apart. On night four of the two's hiatus she had a meltdown, and it was Yuffie's duty as her friend to hold her as she cried herself to sleep. Three nights of crying, of wondering what had gone wrong- wondering if they would ever come back...

Yuffie could admit, after seven days she'd started to worry too. He'd said it would be soon…he would be back soon… She tried to reassure herself. The guy had been locked in a coffin for like, a billion years or something, and his general sense of time was pretty fucked up, but seriously- seven days?

The afternoon they finally came home was only a happy one for about ten minutes. The entire group had assembled to go look for them; they were standing around in the bar, gearing up to head out when the two showed up; Vincent practically threw Cloud through the door- both of them waterlogged and out of breath. Everyone panicked, rushing to Cloud's side to make sure he was okay.

Everyone but her, that was. Yuffie had stayed off to the side, tucking her shuriken away as she watched Vincent quietly. He returned her gaze and she shuddered inwardly, but didn't look away. It was strange to say in the least; this was the first time she could ever remember since meeting the group that anyone aside from Aeris had looked at her like she knew what was happening. Only when Vinnie looked at her, a knot formed in her stomach and her heartbeat sped up…

(Get a hold of yourself, Kisaragi,) she interrupted her own childish form of fawning to scold herself. (This is stoic-ass, 'woe is me,' demon-hag Vinnie, for god's sake. And we've got more important things to worry about right now.)

She swallowed hard, glancing at the group, then back to the gunslinger, and for the next ten minutes the two held a silent conversation that told her things had gone horribly wrong on his little journey.

Ten minutes. Then all hell broke loose. To make a long story short, Cloud was quick to turn the situation on Vincent- a move that caught Yuffie off-guard. She knew Cloud was the one in the wrong, she knew it. But Vincent never said a word. Cloud told everyone he'd been running errands for some of the developing villages, delivering medicine. Vincent had intercepted him on the road and accused him of all kinds of wrongdoing and a fight had ensued that lasted days. The story was bogus- it should have been obvious to everyone there…but no. The group didn't necessarily turn on Vincent- but it was apparent they wanted him to leave. So he did- without so much as a word, he went upstairs, gathered his armful of belongings and left. Yuffie tried to go after him- tried to stop him and ask him what really happened- but the moment he stepped out of town he disappeared. He disappeared and left her alone to deal with the aftermath of what only she knew was caused by a lie...

~
Yuffie sighed, staring into her drink. That was only the beginning. She'd tried to call Vincent every day for the week after that- part of her worried about him, another part wanting to feel that strange prickle again. It wasn't right, the way things had happened. She was confused, hurt. How could Vinnie leave her like that? He didn't return her messages until nearly two months later, but it didn't matter. After that night, things really started to unravel.

~
Less than two weeks later Cloud left again. Yuffie heard him go- in the middle of the night, just like before. She wanted to just let him leave, to not even try to stop him, but the spiteful part of her wouldn't allow it. She was at the door before he even came down the stairs. His hand was on the hilt of his sword in seconds, but she just laughed.

"Whatever, Cloud. We both know I'm way faster than you."
"Oh, Yuffie," he started awkwardly. "…It's you."
"Yeah, cut the shit." She felt righteously indignant as she crossed her arms and strode into the dim light. "I know what you're up to. I knew you were up to it last week, too. When Vincent went after you."
His act had dropped impossibly fast. "What do you know?"
"I know that whatever happened wasn't Vinnie's fault, and that stuff about you 'delivering medicine' is total bullshit."

"You don't know what you're talking about," he muttered, moving to the bar to grab a few things from behind the counter.
Yuffie raised an eyebrow. "You're not coming back this time, are you?"

He paused, not looking up. "…What does it matter to you? Since you know 'the truth,' you'll leave too."
"I don't know the truth," she quipped, taking a few steps toward him. "I do know that you're up to something."
"Leave it alone, Yuffie," he grumbled, moving around the bar and tucking away the stolen items as he headed for the door.
"I could wake her up, you know. Tell her you're leaving again. Tell her I knew you left last time and that I know it had nothing to do with Vincent."

Cloud paused, turning to face her. "Yuffie. Stay. Out of it."

She couldn't help but feel startled. Who was this person? She'd seen Cloud irritated- even angry- before, but not toward her (at least, not without her actually doing something first). At the same time though, there was something familiar about this form of asshole he'd become, as if he'd been this way before…

That's when it hit her.

Yuffie sighed. Contrary to her instinctive move to become a bitch, she felt herself feeling…sad.

"Just…promise me you're not out looking for her again."

That got to him. The irritation fell from his face, and he looked almost as sad as she felt. When he didn't respond, she shut her eyes.

"Cloud-."
"Don't," he cut her off. "Yuffie, you don't understand-."
"She's dead!" she yelled, a wave of emotion crashing over her nearly as strong as it had the day that bastard Sephiroth had killed their friend. "It's been almost three years now, Cloud." she lowered her voice, shaking her head. "…Aeris is gone."
"I didn't expect you to understand."
"I don't." She answered tersely, her tight throat strangling her voice to sound like someone much older than herself. "I don't understand how you can keep doing this to yourself- to Tifa."

Neither of them spoke for a while. When Yuffie knew there was nothing she could say to make him stay she sniffled, wiping a few angry tears away quickly with the back of her hand.

"What should I tell her?" she asked. "When she wakes up and sees you're gone again?"
"Tell her I'll be back soon."
"She isn't stupid, Cloud." The ninja gritted her teeth, narrowing her eyes at him. "The way you've been leaving? It's just like last time. She knows it won't be long before you don't come back."

A cool breeze chose that moment to sweep through the bar, blowing out the few candles that lit the room and throwing them into darkness. She still knew he was there though. She felt him staring at the floor between them, ashamed.

"…Tell her…tell her I'm sorry."

Yuffie only nodded- something she was fairly certain he couldn't see, but it didn't matter. Cloud walked out the front door and took off into the night, leaving her to sit alone at the bar and treat herself to several shots of whisky. Tifa came down an hour later, pulling a glass for herself as she sat on the stool next to the teenager, sharing a knowing, silent drink with her for about five minutes before Yuffie finally found the courage to mutter.

"He told me to tell you he was sorry."

~
Yuffie shut her eyes, bringing herself back to the reality that was the bar she currently sat in. She'd moved back to Wutai nearly three weeks after that night- when she finally couldn't handle seeing Tifa so sad anymore. There wasn't anything she could do about it- the Martial Artist turned to Barret and Cid more than she did the then 19-year-old, and Yuffie couldn't help but feel somewhat responsible for Cloud leaving in the first place.

"I shouldn't," she muttered into her glass. "He's the dumbass with dead girl issues."

She regretted the words the moment she said them. How could she refer to Aeris as a 'dead girl'? Even if it were true, something about putting it that way… it made her uneasy. She took another drink, shifting her focus to the phone that now displayed a new voicemail alert. He'd actually taken the time to leave a message. She smiled slightly.

After moving back to Wutai she'd taken up teaching children's classes in the village at her father's dojo. When Vinnie finally called her back for the first time she'd been in the middle of a lesson but dismissed it early to catch up. Granted he hadn't said anything extraordinary about what had happened that day in Rocket Town, even when she tried to pull it out of him incessantly, but in all honesty she was just glad he hadn't given up on life altogether and holed himself up in some cave somewhere for all eternity.

That would have so been like him.

After that, her routine was set. Tifa called her on the weekends, Red and Reeve came to visit every other week, Barret and Cid stopped by a couple of times a month, and called her at least once a week to check on her. Vincent though…he called her every Tuesday and Friday. The conversation was usually a routine 'How are you?' and 'How are classes?' Most of the time she didn't answer, but it was always nice to know he cared.

It had been that way for nearly two years now.

She actually hadn't spoken to him in three weeks. Something about his voice, the way he talked to her, it brought back that strange skin-prickling feeling she didn't understand- every time. But she refused to acknowledge it, shoving it to the back of her mind after every phone conversation and moving on with her life as if she didn't care whether or not she would ever hear from Vincent Valentine again.

Her phone buzzed once more, and this time she gave an amused laugh when she looked down to see that she had a text from the gunslinger. When had he learned how to text? And how? Surely not with that weird-ass clawed hand of his. She picked it up, sliding the screen open and clicking the message.

"Run."

The smile fell from her face. She had barely enough time to look up at the bartender in front of her before a bullet found its way through his neck. Yuffie gasped, dropping her phone to the table and moving to grab Conformer from her side, but it was too late. Two sets of hands were on her and a bag was over her head before she could even scream. The bite of metal pierced her neck, and the last thing she heard before losing consciousness was a man's voice.

"Hurry, before he gets here."