Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII
A/N: Happy Valentine's Day! Here's a fic dedicated to the dreaded holiday by single woman everywhere! Hope you enjoy, and forgive the errors, I'm practically half asleep right now. ...Must have coffee... Hope your romance day is better than mine, -_- ...
Vincent had known it would be dangerous to let the young ninja stay with him.
She was always doing little things that made him question his 'only friends' feelings for her.
He had known it the moment she showed up at his door. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to turn her away when she arrived on his doorstep a few months after the Deepground fiasco. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she had a smile on her face that did not quite reach her eyes as it usually did.
To be quite honest, to see her so sad made his stomach uneasy, and he would soon add it on his list of self questioning.
He had eventually learned that soon after Godo remarried, he had gotten in a fight with the younger woman and said some nasty things regarding her loyalty to Wutai, and the 'supposed' shame she had brought upon him and her dead mother.
"Okay, well, get down here and I'll go over everything with you, alright?" The ninja's voice carried throughout the hollow halls of the mansion.
Vincent slowly made his way to the library, where her voice had been coming from, and found Yuffie huddled in front of the fireplace, a book in hand, and her PHS by her sock covered feet.
"Who were you talking to?" Vincent asked, making his presence known.
Yuffie looked up from her book, and smiled at Vincent. "Oh, hey Vinnie! Cloud called me for some advice."
Vincent hid a skeptical frown behind his cloak. "Advice...?" He trailed off.
Yuffie looked at him, her brow furrowing. "Yeah. Advice. Hello, 'thee day' is going to be here in a week! You don't expect him to not come crawling for woman advice, do you? I mean, no offense, but we both know he's not the brightest crayon in the box."
"The day? What day?" He asked, truly confused.
Yuffie laughed when she realized he was serious. "Geez, only you, Vincent. You even have the same name and everything."
At his furrowed eyebrows, she could tell he was still not getting the memo.
"Hello," she yelled, book now forgotten, while she got up and placed her hands on her hips. "It's Valentines Day in 7 days!"
Vincent didn't have any reaction to the information. "The holiday for romance," He mused aloud.
Yuffie snorted, causing Vincent to eye her curiously. "Yeah, right! More like the day of depression! I bet there are more suicides on this day than any other day of the year!"
Vincent looked at Yuffie surprised. "Why would you think that?"
"Come on, think about it Vince," She said, sitting herself on the desk nearby. "All these single women having to be reminded that they're all alone, and completely unloved. It's totally depressing."
Vincent had never viewed the holiday like that and wondered briefly is Yuffie felt alone and unloved because she had no one to woo her on that special day. I'm sure you can do the honors of wooing, Valentine, a voice murmured in the back of his mind, which sounded suspiciously like Chaos.
He shook his head at the ludicrous (but not so ludicrous) thought.
--
About two hours later, Cloud had arrived looking completely frantic and disheveled and now, the three of them were sitting at the dining room table, having coffee. Cloud and Yuffie were trying to come up with ideas on how and what to do for Tifa, while Vincent sat and listened.
"You know Tifa almost as much as I do Yuffie," Cloud said, running a gloved hand through his blond spikes. "What do you think would be the best thing to give her?"
Yuffie rubbed her chin and thought for a second. "As cliché as it may sound, I think flowers are your best bet. Simple and beautiful."
Cloud looked nervous as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, velvet case.
Yuffie's jaw dropped, and Vincent's eyes widened momentarily.
"You're going to propose!?" She shrieked, grabbing the case and opening it to reveal a beautiful diamond ring in a silver band. "It's gorgeous!" She gushed, handing it back to a slightly pink cheeked Cloud.
"Thanks," He muttered. "So... flowers?"
Yuffie nodded and folded her arms in front of her. "But since you're going to propose, a change in plant is in order. You have to get her red roses with assortments of yellow and pink in added in the batch."
Vincent looked at Yuffie. "Why yellow and pink?"
"Well," She started, both men listening intently. "Red means love and passion, the symbol of commitment. Yellow means friendship and appreciation. And pink is the rose of Tifa."
Both men looked confused, so she explained with a sigh. "Okay, so you know how I'm known as the 'white rose'? A pink rose symbolizes joy, gentleness, grace, and beauty, which is totally Tifa."
Cloud nodded, taking in every bit of information while Vincent controlled his mind from drifting to certain thoughts.
"Alright, I think I've got it." Cloud said getting up, running a hand through his hair once more. "Thanks Yuff, Vincent."
After Cloud left, Yuffie went to the kitchen to prepare some lunch, as usual. For a few minutes, Vincent played the image of Yuffie receiving flowers from some other man, over in his mind.
What was unsettling for Vincent wasn't the fact that he somehow couldn't stop Yuffie from appearing in his thoughts more, as of late, but rather, the thought of her with another man brought a various waves of negative emotions deep inside his gut. Ones that he thought had been stowed away on a dusty shelf long ago.
He got up quietly and peered at her from the kitchen doorway.
He had begun to notice a few weeks after she began staying with him that she always hummed a low tune while she cooked, and sometimes even sang quietly in her native tongue. He allowed himself a small smile.
It was little things like this that, once again, made him question his feelings for the young ninja.
"Yuffie," He quietly spoke, grabbing her attention. "Have you ever received gifts for Valentines Day?"
Her eyes widened for a split second, but she quickly grinned afterward. "When I was four, my mom bought me a giant stuffed moogle that had a pouch where it could fit chocolates in. Godo was furious when he figure out the cause of my sugar high was chocolate overload." She chuckled at the memory and folded her arms over her chest.
Vincent had always noticed that Yuffie's eyes held a certain sparkle to them when she talked about her mother. It was another little thing that was added on his list of self questioning.
They spent the next hour talking about random things, and he, from time to time, gathered information about the small Ninja that he never knew before.
Again, the list seemed to be becoming endless.
--
A week later, Yuffie arrived back from a WRO assignment and entered her room. After turning on the light and throwing her conformer on a nearby chair, something caught her eye.
She gazed at the giant moogle, stuffed with little chocolates, and the bouquet of roses of red, white, and yellow with overwhelm, fascination and complete awe.
She noticed a card lying next to the moogle and she hastily opened, and read it:
Do not ever feel lonely or unloved.
You can and never will be neither.
Happy Valentine's Day.
Yuffie laughed breathlessly, and allowed herself to squee into her moogle before running to find a certain gunman.
Okie dokie, no flamage!
Again, forgive me for any mistakes, or if it was rushed, or if it was just plain OOC.