-1Cid was about three-quarters of the way through his plate of mashed potatoes and about to ask Vincent if he was going to finish his half-touched plate when Yuffie waltzed into the WRO Headquarters' mess hall. The slight bounce in the young ninja's step as she walked into the room said to Cid that she had something planned. Judging from her gaze and the fact that she was headed straight for Vincent's seat, he guessed that that something was planned for the crimson-cloaked gunman. Cid quickly muttered an excuse, shoved his remaining potatoes into his mouth, grabbed his can of beer, and snuck off. Vincent didn't even seem to notice. Rather, he seemed to be lost in a world entirely contained within his own blood-red eyes.

Cid took a safe position a couple of seats down, hopefully safe from involuntary collateral damage from whatever maniacal plan Yuffie had, and then resumed his attack on the can of beer.

"Heeeey! Vinnie!"

Good. Just in time…maybe Yuffie hadn't noticed Cid and would not bring him into whatever she had in mind. Hopefully. Yuffie's schemes usually either involved "borrowing" everyone's materia or something that resulted in spectacular failure. Or both. Usually both. Either way, Cid didn't really feel like getting involved.

"You mind if I sit here?" Yuffie took the seat immediately to Vincent's right just as he began to snap out of his daze.

"Huh?"

Yuffie apparently took that as a yes, since she planted herself in the seat before Vincent had even finished his short, one-syllable reply.

"Sooo….what's bugging you?" she said, launching immediately into her topic of choice for the day.

"Hmm?"

"What's bugging you? You look kind of…distracted. Distant. Well…more distant than usual, I mean, less distant than if you were asleep, but not by much and…"

At this point Cid decided it would be a good idea to go get more mashed potatoes and avoid being anywhere near Yuffie and her infamous motor mouth. He pitied Vincent, who would have no real choice but to sit and bear through the ranting, but there really wasn't much Cid could do to help. Well, nothing short of throwing a materia across the mess hall in hopes that it would distract Yuffie, but Cid really didn't feel like contributing to the "Restore Wutai Foundation" today. Sorry Vince, but you're on your own.

Vincent actually didn't mind Yuffie's rants that much to be honest. They were part of what made Yuffie Yuffie, and there wasn't really much he could do about them. Thus, he might as well learn to deal with them. They weren't all that difficult to tune out if one tried hard enough, either. Vincent returned to his previous chain of thought after the third or fourth sentence that came tumbling out of the ninja's mouth, pausing every few seconds to make sure Yuffie was still talking or to nod a bit here or there.

Occasionally it wouldn't work and Vincent would actually have to insert a comment here or there, but on the whole it usually allowed him to ignore the girl without seeming to incredibly callous.

This time, it didn't work at all.

"Vince? Are you even listening to me?"

A question…time to nod. Vincent nodded.

"No, you're not listening at all."

Silence. Yuffie groaned. She reached forward and grabbed Vincent by the chin.

"See? This is exactly what I'm talking about. You've been really distracted ever since that Deepground incident and I'd like to know why."

At the mention of Deepground and something that had the slightest potential of being important, Vincent put aside his thoughts to actually pay attention to Yuffie.

"I'm sorry. Deepground? What about them?

"Ohhh! Exactly! You weren't paying any attention. I asked you what you were thinking about!"

"What…I was thinking about…?"

"Yes! Exactly that!"

This gave Vincent some pause. What HAD he been thinking about? It was odd, most of the time his thoughts remained rather clear, straightforward and easy to remember later, in case he needed them. And yet, somehow, the more he thought about his previous chain of thought, the more it eluded him, much like a mouse from a cat. Odd.

Cid came out of the serving line and took a glance at his usual spot, where Vincent joined him for lunch on occasion, when one or both of them wasn't out shooting stuff or flying an airship or something. Vincent never really said anything, he didn't even eat much. Cid sometimes wondered if Vincent really needed to eat at all or if he just ate out of habit. Occasionally Vincent would ask Cid for a report on how, say, Red XIII or Barret was doing, but other than that, he mostly stayed silent. Cid didn't mind. That was Vincent. Tall, handsome…and extremely fucking quiet.

Nope. Yuffie was still there. Oh well. She seemed to have stopped ranting by now. Maybe it would be safe to sit just a few seats down and make sure to always have his mouth full…

"…I don't know what I was thinking about."

"You don't know? You don't know or you don't want to tell me?"

"…Both." Vincent picked up his tray (half-eaten mashed potatoes and all) and got ready to leave.

Then Yuffie said something that nearly made Vincent spill mashed potatoes all over his cloak.

"It's about that Deepground girl, Shelke, isn't it? You were daydreaming about her, right?"

Vincent wanted to deny it…but that rang true with whatever was left of his train of thought. So he just said nothing.

Yuffie managed to catch the very slight twitch Vincent made, however.

"HA! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! All hail master psychologist Yuffie Kisaragi!"

Yuffie would have then proceeded to perform a short little victory dance, but Vincent began to slink away while she was shouting, so she was forced to chase after him instead.

"WAIT! Vincent!"

This was actually getting interesting. Who'd have thought that Vincent (of all people) would actually have a crush on someone. And that that someone was (of all people) that ten-year-old girl from Deepground? Oh, Cid knew that she was actually nineteen, but…she looked ten years old, so…

In any case, Cid was suddenly more interested than hungry. Cid promised his potatoes he'd be back, then rushed off after the ninja and gunman through the mess hall doors. Quietly as he could of course.

Vincent really didn't have much time to wonder what that loud crashing noise he heard behind him as he left the mess hall was before Yuffie caught up to him. She might be noisy, but Vincent had to hand it to the Princess of Wutai…she was fast.

"Wait! Vince! So it's true, then?"

Vincent tried to sidestep the kunoichi into another of the WRO Headquarters many hallways, but in a flash she was there. Damn, she was REALLY fast.

"Have you tried talking to her? Maybe? Huh?"

Vincent ducked under Yuffie's outstretched arms (outstretched in an attempt to block Vincent's progress, most likely) only to find that in the next second, she was right in front of him again. Vincent made a mental note never to make Yuffie mad. Getting away from her could be rather difficult.

"You haven't even breached the subject with her at all? No, no, that won't do at all."

And before Vincent could protest, Yuffie shoved something into his hand.

It was a ticket. Or rather, two tickets.

"I won them in Gold Saucer while on leave last week. I most certainly don't need two tickets to 'Loveless', so I thought to myself, 'Yuffie, who could you magnanimously give gratuitous tickets who really need them?' And the answer I gave myself was 'Yuffie, you need to give those tickets to Vincent, because you just know he's dying inside for an excuse to ask that Shelke girl out.' So that's what I did."

For once in his life, Vincent was completely dumbfounded. If only he'd had these back when…

"And don't you DARE start thinking 'what-if' scenarios about Lucrecy-whatever."

Vincent nearly jumped at this one. It was actually starting to get creepy (even to someone who until recently had a demon sealed within him) how quickly Yuffie had read his mind.

"Moving on is healthy, Vince. Ask the girl out. That's all I have to say."

And then she sauntered off, whistling some Wutai folk song and looking rather pleased with herself, leaving Vincent to stare at the crumpled tickets in his hand.

Two tickets to "Loveless"… Heh. How ironic life was sometimes.