"I asked you what you were doing," Vincent repeated. There was something underneath his tone of voice, something cold and icy. It made Yuffie shiver. His eyes gleamed in that reddish way that they used to.

"I…I…." Yuffie whispered, putting a hand on her chest nervously. "I…was just…." Her throat felt dry. She sucked in some more air, trying to calm her nervous, fluttery breaths.

His ears pulled back. "You are looking at my paintings." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yes," Yuffie admitted, hanging her head. She fingered the edge of the painting of herself. It was truly beautiful, the detail, the loving care that Vincent had managed to work into the canvas fibers. She longed to tell him that she loved the painting, all of his paintings, but her voice caught. She was trembling now, hoping she hadn't lost everything she had worked for with Vincent. Yuffie held up the painting of herself. "It's so beautiful," She started out, looking up at him.

Vincent started across the room, his footsteps echoing on the bare floor. He was wearing black pants and a very dark shirt, with his wet hair, freshly combed, still dripping. He approached Yuffie faster than she thought possible and suddenly had the painting in his hand. "These were my private thoughts…my private feelings…worked into these paintings. Why are you looking at them? Can't I trust you?"

"I'm….I'm sorry," Yuffie shivered, her eyes wide, filling with tears. "I just…I stumbled upon them a long while ago…it was by a mistake. I came up here…and then I accidentally found these paintings, I--"

"You accidentally found the paintings?" Vincent's tone was one of cold disbelief. "You accidentally found them, you accidentally KEPT finding them, you accidentally CAME back up here, EVEN THOUGH you knew you were WRONG to!" He was practically bellowing now. Yuffie cringed, pulling back from Vincent. Midnight, who had followed Vincent up to the loft, turned and ran away from the room. Yuffie followed him with her eyes, wishing she could do the same.

She looked down with shame.

"Vincent, please…" She begged. "It wasn't like that…I came back up here after…"

"After what?" He demanded icily. "What lies do you want to feed me now?"

"I'm not lying…" Yuffie murmured to him softly. She couldn't rise her eyes to meet his. She felt so ashamed, so sick of what she had done. But yet some part of her couldn't comprehend why Vincent was so mad. I looked at his paintings, but I didn't do anything REALLY wrong, so what's the big idea….?

"YES, YOU ARE!" Vincent practically roared. She jumped back at the cold fury in his voice. "Yuffie…I…you came up here and saw things you shouldn't have. When you saw the first painting you should have PUT IT BACK. Why did you continue to look at them?" His voice shook, and Yuffie felt the anger practically vibrate in the air. She shook, trembling.

"Vincent…" She wanted to retch on the floor. How could she possibly undo all of this? It was spinning out of control, so fast, so quickly. How could she stop this train from wrecking? How could she stop the fury raging in Vincent's red eyes. She put her voice into what she thought would be calm, soothing. "I saw your paintings by accident…and when I saw them…I thought they were beautiful…I couldn't stop. It was like…an addiction…I…"

"An addiction? So you're addicted to lying, sneaking, and reading into MY private things?" Vincent snapped back. There was more than fury in his voice. There was…disappointment.

Disappointment in me, Yuffie realized.

He shook his head, his hair dripping out onto the floor. "I thought better of you, Yuffie. I thought you knew my limits. I thought you knew when to stop pushing me, I thought you knew…I thought you knew me."

Suddenly his tone had changed from one of anger to one of cool disappointment. The grief tinged in his voice. Yuffie tried to read between the lines. What was he talking about? How had the conversation turned so rapidly from her crime from looking at the paintings to…this? It was getting way out of hand and she had to stop it somehow. Or she was going to lose the Vincent she had worked so hard to dig into…

"I do know you," Yuffie argued softly. "I do!"

He shook his head again. "No," Vincent almost whispered. "I was foolish to think anyone could know me the way that…" His voice trailed off, only leaving Yuffie to think of what he was going to say. Her mind reeled, and she stumbled back a little.

"The way that what?" She questioned, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer. Not sure if she wanted to have her heart break.

For a moment she wasn't sure that Vincent was going to answer. Then he spoke up so softly she had to strain to hear.

"The way that Lucrecia did…."

My God…It hit her like a slap in the face. He still hasn't forgot about her! What about ME? What about the fact that I thought…I thought we had something between us? I thought that he changed! I thought that we had moved beyond this obsession with a DEAD woman! I'm ALIVE! Look at me, Vincent! Look at me standing here, in front of you, look at me! I'm waiting for you to say something…I'm waiting for you to realize that…

She hadn't realized tears had begun to pour down her face. So this was what it felt like to lose. She hadn't realized it was a game until Lucrecia had "won." Again. Again and again Lucrecia had come back to haunt Vincent's mind and there was nothing she could do about it.

Yuffie jerked her head up and realized Vincent was staring at her in a way she never had seen him look before. The tears came down, getting bigger as she stared at all of the paintings that Vincent had so lovingly spent hours on. On Lucrecia.

Not wanting Vincent to see her cry, she put her face in her hands, and ran blindly out of the room, stumbling down the stairs, somehow managing to grab a thick sweatshirt. Pushing open the door like a robot, stumbling into the snow, grabbing for anything that would turn her world around…make her feel better…

Like home, a little voice in her head said quietly. Home would make you feel a lot better. Home is where you should have gone.

"That's right," Yuffie whispered into the frosty air, looking around. "Home."

She ran, and she kept running, leaving footprints of her snow behind. And those footprints were the only mark that she had ever been to Vincent's home--that she had ever managed to change the "Man of Ice's" cold heart.

And it snowed and the footprints disappeared.

****************

She had been walking for a very long time, so long that her eyelashes had become tinged with snow, and Yuffie was almost beginning to think that the snow would never end. Slowly she approached the first patch of green that she came to, breaking her trudging pace to an all-out run, knowing that more grass was ahead. True to the sign, it was.

The weather began to significantly warm up as she kept moving, and Yuffie even got to take off her sweatshirt. She had stopped crying long after she had begun to run, but she was still full of adrenaline. And she felt sick inside. God, how she wanted this day to end.

She felt like a part of her had literally been torn from her body. She hadn't realized how close she had been to Vincent until this had happened. At first her instinct had just been to go home, but now…Now she didn't know where to go. She realized she didn't really want to return to her father--her father who she would end up disappointing, her friends who were probably still worried sick about her, and that lifestyle of hers…it all seemed so surreal. The only thing that seemed real was her life with Vincent for a short while.

Now everything seemed dreamlike again to Yuffie. She looked up at the trees and wanted to tear off their leaves so see if they were real. Her world was crashing down around her and she couldn't hold it up any longer.

Why do I feel this way? She wanted to scream. He doesn't love me! Why can't I get over him??

Suddenly she knew where to go.

***********

There it was. She could hear the roar of the falls before she could even see it. Yuffie had braced herself, but nothing could have prepared her for…this. When she emerged around the rocky, grassy corner, her breath caught sharply and she sucked it in. It was beautiful…words couldn't even describe it.

The water droplets seemed to fly off of the waterfalls, flip-flopping into the crystal clear lake like dolphins with a life of their own. The spray at the bottom of the falls, soared up several feet, sending white foamy, frothy water into the air and down again. Reeds of different kinds surrounded the pool of water, and a rocky outhanging jutted out like a neck over the water. Almost like an intruder.

So this was where Lucrecia had stayed. Had lived. In exile.

Yuffie stared for a moment, her limbs unwilling to move. The sun made the water sparkle. Vincent had been a good artist, but nothing could capture this beauty. Still, it was almost like the painting had been brought to life.

She blinked, the spell finally over. She didn't even know what she was doing here. Some impulse had just forced her in this direction. Yuffie, confused, continued forward, her feet thudding softly on the ground. Her heart felt cold, broken. What else was there to lose? Why not break her heart more by looking at the place that Vincent had come to paint?

Maybe she could find one of Vincent's old paintbrushes and kill herself with the end of it. Maybe. If she was lucky.

How had Lucrecia gotten up in that little cave there? Yuffie realized she didn't care. Why should she care? Why was she here, anyway? Why was she torturing herself? Because it's better to do than pining over a man who obviously can't love anyone but a memory.

And still Vincent picked the memory over her.

God, that stung.

She put her palms on the cool rock, tinged with wetness from the spray of the falls. The roar was loud now, like the screaming voice in her head. Like the voice saying, 'You were an idiot, Yuffie. No one can ever love you.' No one…no one…Not even Vincent. Especially Vincent.

She had started climbing before she even realized it. The rock was slippery, but she managed to hang on. It reminded her of her birthday…how she had to climb the mountains to prove her worthiness of a ninja. What a piece of crap, Yuffie thought. Her birthday seemed years from now. From this day. Vincent had really opened her eyes, he had made her realize she could love someone much, much more than herself.

Stop thinking about him, Yuffie ordered herself, before your heart breaks again…

She reached the top, and her limbs quivered. Yuffie pulled herself up on the top and gazed down at the crashing falls. Her arms relaxed. She relaxed. How little it would take to lean just a little bit forward…to fall from the cliffs and end this torture, this lifestyle of hers…

How little it would take to just lean a little too far and her body would tumble from the edge…once again, just like her birthday. Déjà vu, Yuffie thought wryly. In the short amount of time that it had taken to get from her birthday to here, she had grown…considerably. And gotten her heart broken.

She put one foot close to the edge. She knew her body would probably be sucked under the falls. She would really have to fight to get to the surface again. But why fight? Why bother? Why fight to live in a life where there was only pain, sorrow, and heartbreak?

Tears began to flow from her sad eyes again. She never knew the meaning of true heartbreak until today. When she was with Vincent it was like her emotions were somehow magnified. Let me die…get me out of this world! Choking back another sob, she stepped forward again.

"Don't do it."

The voice appeared so suddenly behind her that she almost tottered forward from surprise. She knew instantly who it was without turning around. Thoughts whirled through her mind--How did he find me here? What does he want? The tears continued to fall, but she didn't tip over the edge. She sucked back another gasp.

"Why?" She choked out bitterly, gazing down at the water. "There's nothing to live for."

"You're wrong." The voice was calm now, soothing. "You have lots to live for."

Why do you care? Yuffie asked in her mind. All you can think about is Lucrecia. Lucrecia, Lucrecia, Lucrecia. Lucrecia this. Lucrecia that. What about me? What do I look like, standing before you? A naïve little girl?

"No, I don't," She whispered. "Everything is gone."

"That's not true," Vincent shot back immediately. "You have your friends…your father…"

But not you, she thought painfully.

"My 'friends' haven't made any move to contact me in as long as I can remember," Yuffie whispered angrily, "and my father only wants me to run and get his materia for him. That's all I am. A gopher. Just like all the rest of his servants. Only I'm expected to bend over backwards to please him because I'm his daughter." She shut up immediately, feeling a new wave of pain wash over her.

There was a little silence after that. She felt a little proud that she had actually shut him up. Tears still rolled down her face at the fact that Vincent hadn't actually said why he followed her, why he was here at Lucrecia's cave…was he here to paint? Was he actually so unaffected by her disappearance that he came here to PAINT?

"There's no need to end your life because you think no one cares," Vincent finally continued. "I've been alone most of my life. I'm still alive."

"That's because you've experienced something I haven't," Yuffie retorted angrily, feeling hot tears roll down her cheeks.

Pause. "What's that?"

Yuffie eyed the falls longingly. "True love," She finally whispered. "It keeps you alive…it burns up in you, like an everlasting fire. Once you've felt this…this love, you feel so animated, so alive. You want to jump up and down. And you want to turn cartwheels. And you want to turn to the person you love and hold onto them so dearly before they vanish from your life and you never get a chance to tell them how you really felt…" She hadn't realized she was rambling. She abruptly stopped. "And once you've felt it…you realize how alive it makes you feel…it makes you realize you have a reason to go on…"

There was silence behind her. "Yuffie…" His voice sounded different.

"But something comes along…like an eraser…and erases the beautiful picture that there was of love…it erases all of the hearts, all of the beautiful, wonderful things you ever saw when you felt this emotion," Yuffie said, still not turning around. She clenched and unclenched her fists. "Heartbreak. It makes you want to die. It makes you want to crumple up into a little ball and curse the day you were born."

Yuffie took another few baby steps forward until now she was gazing down at the waterfall.

"It makes you want to give your life up…"

"Please…don't…" His tone had completely changed. Now it almost sounded as if he were begging. "Yuffie, don't…"

"Why shouldn't I?" Yuffie practically screamed. "It's my life! I can do what I want with it! Why are you trying to boss me around? A few minutes ago you were screaming at me over a bunch of your paintings, and now you're trying to tell me not to jump? Who died and made you king of the world? Why do you even care anyway, why do you even CARE?"

"Because…I…"

"You DON'T care!" She raged. "The only person you even remotely cared about was Lucrecia, and HEY, she's DEAD! What are you going to do now, huh? Are you going to paint more pictures? Maybe make a flipbook? Try and resurrect her like Cloud did to Aeris? Because I sure wouldn't want you to be lonely in this world when I died! Because I have to tell you something, Vincent, I CARED about you. I was probably the only person in this entire world who gave a DAMN about whether you smiled, or what you ate for breakfast. I was probably someone in the entire world who gave a damn on what you wore, or what you said to me. And you wanna know why? You wanna know why??"

She broke down into deep, convulsing sobs.

"Because I…"

Yuffie broke off and turned around. She was shocked at what she saw. Vincent was staring at her sadly, almost a peaceful look on his face. Gone was the rage, the anger, now replaced with a sad, miserable look. She couldn't recognize that look in his eyes, but it made her want to run to him, to throw her arms around him and whisper that she was sorry…

But she couldn't. Because she knew he would never, could never love her back.

"Goodbye," She whispered.

Then she turned around and jumped.

*****************

Vincent's eyes widened. He had to do something, he had to stop this from happening. Before he even knew what he was doing, he had run after her. Transforming as fast as he ever had done in his life, his clothes ripped and his muscles bulged as he neared the edge of the cliff.

Yuffie! He thought, panicked. How stupid this whole situation was. How stupid EVERYTHING was. Why couldn't he just tell Yuffie how important she was to him? Why did he keep clinging on to Lucrecia like she was still there? He knew why…you never forgot your first love. But if it interfered with--

He couldn't think about it right now. He leaped right off of the cliff, his new wings catching the air. He saw Yuffie falling ahead of him. He didn't have long. Maybe two, three seconds. Vincent propelled his body down. He had to catch her this time--had to.

He reached, LUNGED, for her. Missed.

Vincent let out a scream.

He lunged for her again. Missed.

Sweat appeared on his face and he swiped for her this time, fearing the worst. He caught a thin leg between his fingers. Carefully he scooped her up into his arms, reliving the moments when he had rescued her on her birthday. He hadn't recognized the turning point then, but he clearly saw it now. He cradled the sobbing, tearful girl into his arms and felt her heartbeat against his.

Gently they hit the water, away from the falls. Carefully Vincent turned back into human form, his jet black hair appearing on his shoulders, his wings sucking slowly into his back again. He looked at Yuffie, who was sobbing, sniffling. Her eyes were puffy and red.

He reached out a hand and tenderly brushed away a few tears.

Yuffie couldn't talk; she was crying so hard.

Gently he put his arms around her. She sobbed on his shoulder while he treaded water. No words were exchanged for seconds while she cried.

"Why," She finally sobbed, "Why did you save me again?"

A gentle smile appeared on Vincent's face. Could he say it…? Could he actually tell her why? Without falling apart. Some part of him was scared to let himself go. What if something happened and..

And what if she were to disappear just like…Lucrecia.

Somehow, thinking Lucrecia's name now didn't send the same chills through his body that he normally felt. Looking at Yuffie's face…just looking at it, sent those same chills automatically down to his toes. He realized with a jolt that he hadn't answered her question.

"Yuffie…" He whispered hoarsely, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. She looked up at him, her dark eyes swirling with soon to be spilled tears. "I love you."

She paused. "Love is a strong word, Vincent," She whimpered. "Never say it unless you mean it."

A slight smile appeared again. His words thrown back at him like a boomerang. "I love you," He whispered again, this time with more confidence and feeling. It was amazing to see a wavering smile spread over her face, to see her face glow and transform into a beautiful smile, one that made him smile himself. As tears continued to spill down her face, though this time out of joy, he leaned forward and softly pressed his lips against hers, the roar of the falls seeming to grow with the beating of his own heart.

Yuffie returned the kiss softer, then as it grew more passionately, she wrapped her arms around him, feeling the tingle in her own heart. Finally she could be happy. Finally.

Now, a painting hangs over Vincent's mantel, replacing much of the earlier ones that he used to paint. This painting is a very detailed one of waterfalls, with swirls of clouds and sprays of the water coming down over a very cloudy looking cliff. The sky is a brilliant blue and the sun's rays are reflecting off of the water.

A beautiful woman with a tender looking face and swirls of dark hair stands over the cliff, smiling down at the bottom, where, in the crystal waters, swim a very happy, embracing, Yuffie and Vincent.

And they're all happy and satisfied there together…under the waterfalls.