Disclaimer: All characters belong to Square Enix
Yuffie watched as the tattered red cloak swayed with his movements. She was walking a little bit behind him, and she let herself get lost in her thoughts as they walked toward the nearby town. He wasn't going to talk to her, so there was no point in trying to strike up a conversation.
Vincent Valentine… He was the epitome of dark and mysterious. When had she started caring for him as more than a friend? When had she fallen in love with him? More importantly, why? Why in the world did this cold and silent man mean so much to her, more than life itself? It didn't make sense to her, especially since he had never treated her with any kind of warmth or affection despite the many times she had tried to melt his frozen heart. She remembered the first time she saw him, flying out of a coffin in the basement of the ShinRa mansion in Nibelheim.
"Aaahhh! Vampire!" she had screamed. Despite being nearly scared to death, she had noticed how eerily attractive and handsome he was. After that, he joined her little band of misfits on their journey to destroy Sephiroth. She was pretty sure he wouldn't have joined them had it not been for his intense hatred for Hojo and his experiments that made him a "monster" as he liked to call himself.
No one knew much about the mysterious figure that had joined them. He rarely ever talked about his past except for the little bits of information they needed to know, like how he became what he was and why he decided to join them in the fight against Sephiroth. It was probably that aura of mystery surrounding the man that drew Yuffie toward him. It was like going on a treasure hunt. She wanted to break open his shell and see what his cold exterior was hiding. What little she knew of him consisted of the facts that he had three demons inside of him, saw himself as a monster, had a painful past love, and could not get over his past "sins." She knew his cold attitude toward all of them was to keep them away. She knew that he was afraid of getting too close and possibly hurting them. She knew that he was afraid of losing control of his demons and killing them. She knew that his past love had scarred his heart and made him afraid of love. She hated seeing him so lost in past and refusing to let himself be happy. That was probably another reason why she felt herself pulled to him. She wanted to take away all that hurt and heal his wounded heart.
How or when this "crush" evolved into something more, she still didn't really know for sure. All she wanted was for Vincent to end his self-induced suffering. She had seen enough suffering during the Wutai War to last her a lifetime, and she wanted to stop it. During the journey, she had showered Vincent with affection and talked to him the most, but he always pushed her away. All her efforts to warm his icy heart had seemed like failures, but who knows. Maybe he had changed but was refusing to let it show. He was already so used to hiding all his emotions behind that cold mask of his. His cold attitude didn't really faze her at first, but at some point, it started to hurt her. Whenever he pushed her away like he always did, she had felt a stabbing sensation in her chest. It confused her at first. Why was she feeling this way? Why did it hurt so much when he rejected her but no one else? She didn't want to think about the reasons why. Honestly, she was afraid of what it meant. The Great Ninja Yuffie, scared? It was laughable, and she didn't want anyone knowing that she had weaknesses too. She was always the one to put on a cheery and strong front to keep the morale up. Not to mention that it would ruin her reputation as the mighty and invincible ninja she believed herself to be.
It was inevitable, the day when she recognized and accepted what her feelings for Vincent meant. She was in love. The realization scared her at first. She had never fallen in love with anyone before, and of all people, her love interest happened to be the coldest and most anti-social person she had ever known: Vincent Valentine. She kept this revelation to herself, fearing that the secret would get around to him and that he would shove her away even further and permanently. She didn't want to destroy the fragile "friendship," if you could call it that, to be destroyed with one sentence. Therefore, when he disappeared from her life with no prior notice, he still had no idea how she truly felt. The sudden departure had nearly torn her heart into pieces. He was gone. He was gone, and she had never told him how she felt, never gave herself a chance. If only she had known that he would leave her.
But now, by some strange twist of fate, she meets him again. She had been elated to see that familiar red cloak once more, and she wanted so desperately to run to him and hug him and never let go. However, his cold attitude still hadn't changed. Despite the fact the he only wanted to use her for a mission, she was still overjoyed to see him and be in his presence once more. His aloofness had once again thrown a wall between them, but this time she was determined to tear it down no matter what. She was determined to show him how much she loved him through her actions if not words. She would prove it to him that she was no longer the noisy, bratty little ninja he once knew.