>From his vantage point in the shadow of a transport tube, Vincent had
stood and watched Zack Strife pace back and forth across the Battle
Square lobby for the better part of an hour. Occasionally, he would stop
and look around him, as if listening for a signal, and then he would
resume his pacing. 

At one point, Zack had stopped, looked around, and then homed in
directly on Vincent.

/I see you,/ the boy's voice had sung to him, although Vincent had seen
no movement of his lips other than a slow curl into a sweet and terrible
smile. They had both been touched by Jenova at some point in their
lives, and it was through this connection that Zack was able to transmit
that thought, phrased in a mocking schoolboy singsong. /I see you. Yes I
do. I see you./

And then Zack had once again resumed his pacing.

Now Vincent stood there, obscured by shadows although they did him no
good against Zack's heightened perception, watching the boy pace back
and forth. One thing was certain: Zack intended to get the sword on
display in the museum. Why, he did not know. He only knew that for
whatever reason, to let that sword fall into the hands of that boy would
spell disaster.

Vincent did not intend to let that happen.

He emerged from the cover of the shadows and crossed the Battle Square
lobby, all the time fully aware of Zack's eyes tracking him. /Let him
watch,/ he thought, not breaking his stride for a moment. He had no way
of knowing that Zack would let him pass, but his instincts told him that
he would. And, as they almost always were, Vincent's instincts were
right.

He passed into the museum and took up a position near the sword and
stone. If that sword were to leave that room, it would have to get past
him first.

*			*			*

In the end, Reeve and C.J. decided that there was only one place in the
entire Gold Saucer where they could go have their talk in private
without even the remotest possibility of interruption: the gondola.

They boarded the first available car, settled themselves in on opposite
sides of the thing, and patiently waited for the ride to begin.

And once it did, the first three minutes or so consisted of C.J. oohing
and aahing over the view and Reeve sitting there trying to put together
what the hell he was going to tell her.

As the gondola passed the chocobo track, he finally bit the bullet.
"Listen...C.J...there's something I gotta talk to you about..."

C.J. tore her eyes away from the spectacle below and turned tham to
Reeve. "Yeah?"

Reeve cleared his throat nervously. "Well...first...I think you should
know something about Cait Sith."

"Oh no..." C.J. sighed.

"No, no, it's not--he's fine." Reeve laughed and tugged at his collar.
"He's not..." He sighed. "He's not a real cat."

C.J. laughed softly. "Yeah...I know, I kind of thought so...when he
got--when he got messed up, I thought I saw some wires and stuff, but--"
And her brain began to put two and two together. Cait Sith. Wires. Reeve
breaking something apparently very heavy to her in reference to the cat.
"Oh no," she said again, in a much smaller voice. Spots of color began
to creep into her cheeks.

With another, heavier sigh, Reeve reached into his pocket and pulled out
a small device, much like Elena's little computer; he handed this little
device across the gondola to C.J., who took it with a trembling hand.

When opened, it had a small screen and a keyboard with a few buttons
normal computers didn't have. Buttons like "walk," "speak," and "fortune
machine."

When closed, it had a little brass plaque on its cover that read "Cait
Sith IV."

"Oh /shit,/" C.J. whimpered, handing the little computer back to Reeve.
"You--you heard me when I--" And with that, she hid her now extremely
red face in her hands and began to sob.

"Hey--" Quickly, Reeve stuffed the controls back into his pocket and
reached over to lay a hand on C.J.'s arm. "Hey. Don't do that. It's
okay."

"God, I feel like such a dork," she hiccuped.

"It's okay," Reeve repeated, with a nervous little laugh. "C'mon. Don't
cry." He patted C.J.'s arm and reached up to pull one of her hands away
from her face. "Oh, damn..." The sight of half of C.J.'s face, streaked
with tears, nearly broke his heart; he quickly extracted a handkerchief
from his pocket and handed it to her. "I owe you one of these anyway,"
he said as he pressed the hanky into her hand, and she laughed feebly.

The gondola passed over the Ghost Square hotel, and little animatronic
bats flew into the air in a living cloud. 

"Listen, C.J..." Reeve sighed and shut his eyes. "I have been spending
the last couple of days and nights telling myself exactly /why/ this is
wrong." He opened his eyes and saw C.J. watching him, dabbing at her
eyes with the handkerchief, lower lip trembling. "I have reminded myself
no small number of times that you're a six-year-old girl that just
happens to have grown-up outsides..." 

C.J. sniffled again and sat quietly in the other seat, waiting for Reeve
to finish.

/I am going to have a migraine before this ride is over,/ Reeve thought
grimly, rubbing his forehead as if to ward it off, and he let out
another nervous laugh. "I have tried to convince myself that your dad
will pound me into the ground if he even /thinks/ anything is going on
between us...but the more I think about it, and the more I talk to you,
the more I realize it wasn't just your outsides that grew up in the
Lifestream.../you/ grew up. You don't act like a kid, you don't think
like a kid. And everyone can tell, C.J...everyone knows it."

C.J. sniffled again. "Dad doesn't."

Reeve reached out again to pat her arm. "I think he does. He's
just--he's just not ready to deal with it, that's all. Give him some
time." He closed his eyes again. "I need to know something, C.J...do
you--do you still feel that way--about me?"

For a long moment, C.J. just stared at him, eyes wide. And then she
nodded. "Yeah," she whispered, and Reeve let out a sigh.

"I've been thinking about this ever since you pulled me out of that gas
chamber," he said softly, his hand still resting on C.J.'s arm. "And
I've been trying to tell myself this is wrong..." /Tell her already.
Just tell her "no can do" and be done with it./

/I can't,/ Reeve thought grimly, watching C.J. as she sniffled and
dabbed at her eyes in the other seat. /God help me, I can't./

"...and I can't do it anymore." 

C.J. frowned at him, confused, and he continued. 

"I can't lie to myself, and I sure as hell can't lie to you..." He took
C.J.'s hand in his own; his fingers curled around hers gently. "I
think...I think I'm falling in love with you too." His voice cracked a
little, and he cleared his throat, trying to think of something else to
say...but in the end, that was all that /could/ be said.

And C.J. burst into fresh tears.

Reeve cast a glance around the inside of the gondola. "Would this thing
fall off the track if you sat on this side?" he wondered aloud, and C.J.
laughed.

"I hope not," she replied, and carefully picked her way across the car
to sit next to Reeve. His arm went around her shoulders as she sat down;
her head rested on his shoulder.

Just before the gondola pulled back into the station, something
interesting happened.

C.J. picked her head up to say something.

Reeve bent /his/ head /down/ to say something.

And they met halfway. For a second, both of them froze, shocked and
trembling, their lips barely touching, both of them blushing madly.

"C.J.?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I...can I kiss you?"

C.J. thought about it. "Yeah."

And Reeve did; the contact was almost as soft as that accidental touch,
but he did. 

*			*			*

C.J. stood in the door of her room at the hotel; Reeve stood just
outside it. They were staring into each other's eyes, both of them sure
they looked goofy as hell, neither of them caring all that much; in
fact, they were both standing there snickering softly at the thought.

"I...uh, I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" Reeve said softly, and C.J.
blushed. Reeve was sure he was red as a damned beet, too. 

"Yeah." She giggled a little, which set Reeve off again. "Good night."

Reeve leaned over and kissed her softly on the lips, and they stood
there for a few more minutes staring at each other like
goofballs...which led to more giggling...which led to one more goodnight
kiss and trading of parting sentiments...

"Okay. Look, we've got to go to bed," Reeve finally said, and kissed
C.J. one more time. 

"Okay. Good night," she laughed a third time, staring up at Reeve. For a
second, it looked as if the whole thing was about to start over again.
But this time, she slipped behind the door and closed it.

Reeve stood there, alone in the hall for a long moment. Then he laughed
softly. "Good night," he said to the closed door, and then he turned and
started down the hall toward his own room.

He wasn't paying much attention to the intersection he was passing. So
naturally, he did not see the hand snap out behind him as he passed.

Something grabbed Reeve's collar and yanked backwards, hard enough to
pull him off his feet. A small choked gagging noise issued forth from
him as he was forcefully hauled around the corner.

---

Author's notes: Well, this was a novel, wasn't it? ^^; Boy, C.J. learned
a lot tonight. First, the facts of life, and then the Truth About Cait
Sith. Heavy. And yes--Archer is the illegitimate son (probably one of
several) of President Shinra. Yup, a bastard in every sense of the word.
^_^
________________________________________________________
NetZero - We believe in a FREE Internet.  Shouldn't you?
Get your FREE Internet Access and Email at
http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html