Be There For Me: Chapter 1

 In the wake of all that had happened, from the invasion of the Deepground to Vincent's revelation upon the Chaos within himself, things were winding together better than they ever had. 

The members of Avalance lived rather content lives after well-known series of events. Red XIII continued to prosper in Cosmo Canyon with his family; Barret had retired to the Seventh Heaven with Cloud and Tifa after finally finding the oil that Shin-Ra, now known soley as the WRO: World Regenesis Organization, needed to start giving the world power once more. Which of course meant that the WRO was constantly busy; the skies were watched over dilligently by Cid and his small fleet of airships, whereas Yuffie encompased the ground, leading the land-based members of the WRO to aid in operations.

Then there was Reeve. Now that the fact that Rufus ShinRa was the prime benefactor and founder of the WRO was out in the open, there wasn't much Reeve could do in the way of leading the Organization anymore. Once Midgar was reconstructed - sans the Mako Reactors - Reeve was placed as the mayor of the city by Rufus to keep him busy more than anything, but even that grew dull to him as all of the public's eye was upon the WRO.

One might wonder what became of the final former Avalance member, Vincent Valentine?

Well, tale tells that he continued to travel along with the WRO during its reconstruction missions. Others say that he took time to travel the world, seeing everything that he had missed while Chaos had its hold on him. Or maybe, just maybe, he never left Midgar at all. 

No one knew the truth, in the two years since the Omega Incedent, as it was to be called, where their enigmatic hero, Vincent Valentine had drifted away to. Not even the man that he had become to call his best friend. No, not even Reeve knew.

And this troubled the mayor. He spent many of his long and dull days thinking upon it, wondering what might have become of the other. One of those particular days, just as the sun was setting upon the vast city of Midgar, Reeve stood before his large office window, taking in all of the sights that he could grasp. Clenched in his hand was a tall glass of red wine, Midgar's finest. 

The day hadn't treated Reeve well in the way of work, hell, the whole week hadn't. He was bored, bored beyond all belief and hope. With Cait Sith's faults perfected long ago, he had little left that he could tinker with, so he'd resorted to drowing his own sorrows in Reno's private stash. At this point he was well into the bottle of wine, which sat half-empty on the desk behind him.

The mayor sighed heavily, furrowing his brows as he watched busy people shuffle about far below on the ground. He paid no mind when the door to his office clicked open and shut again. IT took a moment of feeling someone else in the room for him to finally whirl around to see who it was. 

As if he had always been there, the missing former Turk in question stood before his old friend's desk, casting a scrutinizing gaze over the wine bottle. "Since when have you been a heavy drinker. As far as I remember, that's never appealled to you."

Reeve wheeled around, less graceful than it normally would have been, with all of the alcohol in his system. The man was more than a bit dumbfounded that Vincent had suddenly shown up, out of nowhere, just as he had dissappeared. "Vincent...? Where the hell have you been?" His dictation had gone downhill noticably, with the application of wine. Out of nowhere, he also started to notice that his head had begun to spin. Maybe starting an alcohol kick hadn't been the best decision that he had made in his life.

Turning those bright crimson orbs upon Reeve, Vincent looked rather apologetic. "There were things that I had to finish. I didn't want to leave, but I knew that they - that you would follow me."

A scoff echoed loudly through the rather empty room. "You always have something to finish." He accented his sentence by slamming the nearly empty glass down upon the desk - not a smart decision in the least. It fell into several peices, grazing the top of the man's hand, causing blood to trickle forth from it. Intoxicated as he was, Reeve only stared blankly at the wound he had caused himself. 

Vincent resided to manuvering around the desk, catching Reeve's bloodied hand in his, looking it over carefully. "Vincent, I-I'm sorry about..." But, he was cut short from his ramblings by his comerade shaking his head, reaching up with his empty right hand to pull the strip of red from about his browline. Bangs fell loose into Vincent's eyes, but the pale man cared not of it. Instead, he settled for wrapping the material around Reeve's hand. 

Finished, he still held onto the other's hand, but leaned in to whisper in Reeve's ear, their cheeks brushing together. "I'm here now, don't be sorry or angry. This matters, does it not?"

In reply, the mayor could only nod, as he had resided to giving into his drunkeness. The man moved forward to rest against his friend, relaxed and finally satisfied that he didn't have to be alone in his boredom any longer. Vincent wrapped his arms around the other, a rare smile gracing his features. 

It was a heartening feeling to know that there was still someone that needed him, still someone he could be there for.