Loving You Forever
A Final Fantasy 7 Yuffentine Fanfic
Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. All rights to Square-enix and appropriate companies.
"Hiya, Vinnie," Yuffie's voice crackled over the phone as Vincent listened to the voicemail he forced the ninja to leave. "Would it be cool with you if I crashed at your place for a day? I, uh, just need to get cleaned up a bit and then I'll get out of your hair, I promise."
Vincent raised an eyebrow at her weak promise. Last time he let an impromptu visit happen, she stayed for a month. Sure, she cleaned, cooked, did all the laundry, and helped fix the squeaky staircase, but it still wasn't a visit Vincent could happily anticipate. He refocused on Yuffie's message.
"I know I wasn't a good house guest last time, but I really mean it. If you could just let Cecil rest for a few hours," Yuffie's voice muffled under the warking of her chocobo when his name was mentioned, "I would really, really, really appreciate it. I don't even have to come in. I'll just stay with Cecil in the barn. Uh, yeah, so give me a call back if it's okay… If not," she sneezed, "no worries. I'll go with Plan B. 'Kay, bye!"
Though Yuffie's tone sounded light to the untrained ear, Vincent knew her too well and picked up on several odd pieces. Just a few weeks before, Cloud called on his routine checkup, enforced by Tifa, and they caught up on some information, one of which was Yuffie's sudden return to Wutai. It had been years since she last went home. Even though no one asked and Yuffie didn't offer, they all knew it was a serious decision when she had pointedly refused to return to her homeland before. Suddenly quitting her exciting job at the WRO to go home without saying why left Reeve in a tizzy.
Now, she called Vincent in the wee hours of the morning. In the middle of a heavy rainstorm. While riding her chocobo. Across the ocean.
Regardless to the levity of her voice, Vincent knew she was running away.
He pressed and held the number two key on his phone and waited for the speed dial to kick him over to Yuffie's phone.
"Hel-o?"
"Yuffie."
"Vin-nt? I can't –ear ver- -ell."
"Come here. I will leave the back door open."
"Rea-y? Than- -ou, Vin-ent!"
Vincent pulled the phone away and paused. Returning it to his ear, he heard the rain through the static. "Be careful," he warned and hung up.
Leaving his bed, Vincent walked through his house to prepare for Yuffie's arrival. Soon after the Deepground incident, Vincent purchased the mansion in Nibelheim. It did not hold many fond memories, but it was familiar and Rufus Shinra gave him a good price for the property. From there, he did various jobs protecting the town, as well as helping the WRO with missions.
Setting towels by the back door, Vincent also left the lights on before going up to check on Yuffie's room. It was supposed to be a guest room for anyone to use, but Yuffie was the only one who stayed there and she left spare sets of clothes and back up weapons, so Vincent was forced to accept that the room was hers.
He made her bed up with clean sheets and piled on several blankets. Having travelled with her, Vincent knew she did poorly once the cold fully seeped into her. She could handle low temperatures fairly well in her skimpy outfits due to her constantly expending energy, but once the chill crept into her bones, Yuffie became a chattering mess with no ability to maintain her own internal temperature. With that in mind, Vincent build a fire in her room's hearth and brought up extra wood.
Not knowing when she would arrive, Vincent decided against cooking, but prepared several ingredients for when in case she was hungry when she got in.
Then he waited.
Reading by the fire in the entry room of the mansion, Vincent whittled away the hours until just before dawn when his keen ears picked up the sloshing feet in the mud as Yuffie's chocobo trudged into the yard. Knowing that Yuffie preferred to care for her bird on her own, Vincent continued to wait, rather than dash across the wet yard to aid her. Instead, he boiled water for tea.
The back door creaked open and there was a symphony of noise as Yuffie peeled off her muddy shoes before removing thoroughly soaked socks. She sneezed several times as she padded over in the oversized house slippers she preferred to use when she visited.
"Hiya, Vince."
"Hello, Yuffie. Tea before bath?" Vincent reached for a giant mug Yuffie won at the Gold Saucer and left in his cabinet.
"Yes, please." She sneezed. "Maybe I'll take it in with me."
"Is Cecil settled in?"
"Yeah. I checked on Kain, too." Yuffie scrubbed at her wet hair with a towel as she continued to shiver. "Thank you, Vincent."
"You're welcome, Yuffie." Vincent handed her the gigantic mug of steaming tea and had her drink half of it before topping it off and helping her upstairs. With hot water filling the bathtub, Vincent told her, "I will put heating stones in your bed. Be careful not to burn yourself. And dry your hair before falling asleep."
"Yes, sir," Yuffie barked with a salute, using a final spurt of energy.
"Call out if you need anything," Vincent ordered before leaving the bathroom to do as he said.
Using the age old tradition, Vincent filled Yuffie's bed with fire heated rocks before he made sure the fire would last a few more hours. He went downstairs to give her some privacy, but kept his ears trained for her general movements and relaxed when he finally heard her settle down into a deep, snore inducing, sleep.
Vincent made a point not to wonder about Yuffie's situation. Having gone through a laundry list of unfortunate situations himself, he knew that, no matter how life changing they may be, sometimes people didn't want to be asked. Instead, Vincent attempted to give Yuffie normalcy. When she finally woke late in the afternoon, he fed her a warm, filling meal and asked if she felt ill.
"I have medicine for a variety of symptoms, if you feel unwell," he offered.
"Why do ya have medicine, Vinnie? I thought your friends stopped you from getting sick?" Yuffie asked between forkfuls of food.
"I keep the cabinets stocked for emergencies. Several WRO agents have made use of my supplies as well," he replied, halting Yuffie's thought that he did it just for her.
"Oh," she answered and chugged her scalding tea. "I'm gonna go check on Cecil."
"I already did." Vincent cleaned up the dishes. "He's dry, wearing a blanket, fed, and I checked his claws for dried mud. He's fine."
"Oh," Yuffie said again, this time with a little sigh of relief. "Thanks, Vince."
"You're welcome." Vincent looked over his shoulder at her tank top and shorts. "Are you warm enough in that?"
"Honestly, no."
"Follow me," Vincent sighed. He didn't want Yuffie to know, but he believed that if he asked her sincerely, she would not tell anyone.
Leading the way up to his rooms, he opened the doors to his closet.
"Wow. Vince."
"Please, do not tell the others."
"But…"
"Please, Yuffie."
"Sweatshirts? Comfy pants?" Yuffie pulled out a soft hoodie and wiggled her way into it and sighed at the fuzzy warmth. "I won't tell anyone. Promise."
Vincent stared at Yuffie's left pinky finger she thrust towards him. Frowning at it, he hesitantly lifted his claw. He watched as Yuffie wrapped her warm digit around the harsh metal and give it a hearty shake.
"Done. Now, why do you have such delightful things hiding instead of wearing them?" Yuffie returned to pawing through a variety of comfort clothes, suits, and his tattered old cloak.
"Do you really believe people would accept the idea of me walking around in a sweatshirt?"
"Sure? Why not?" Yuffie asked honestly. She pulled another hoodie out and handed it to him. "Just inside the house. It's raining and no one will be visiting, right?"
Vincent did not take the article of clothing from her.
"For an hour?" She wheedled, "Put it on so I can see?"
"No taking pictures."
"No pictures," Yuffie swore and held her hands up while Vincent pulled on the virtually new sweatshirt. When he head popped out and he pulled his hair free, Yuffie gushed, "Oh my GAWD, Vinnie, you are too cute! Is this what you were like as a kid? A goth kid with loose hoodies and tattered jeans and edgy sneakers?"
"No," Vincent replied and decided that wearing the warm top wouldn't be terrible. The house was pretty cold. He turned to leave the room. "I wore suits basically my whole life."
"Even as a kid?" Yuffie flailed her arms, the long sleeves hitting Vincent as they descended the stairs. When he nodded, Yuffie answered, "That doesn't sound like fun."
"I did not have a fun childhood."
"No," Yuffie intoned, her voice indicating that she had her own understanding of a difficult childhood. When they reached the fireplace where Vincent was originally sitting when Yuffie woke, she held out her arms. "Vinnie, can you help me?"
He carefully rolled up the cuffs to reveal her hands. She pulled away to finish getting the sleeves just right, but she knew Vincent saw.
"Yuffie."
"Yeah?" She crawled onto the couch and curled around a cushion.
"You know I will help you in any way I can."
"I know." Yuffie blinked her dark eyes over at him. She trusted him; knew that he meant his words. "You're already doing what I need most."
Author's Notes: Thank you for reading chapter one of "Loving You Forever"! This is a 10 chapter story that is already typed up, it just needs some cleaning up before it hits the web. This story would not have happened without my lovely reviews from my previous Ruffie fic "A Long Time Coming". Especially Tintinabar7 and RosettaS! I hadn't thought about writing a Yuffentine for a while, but reading the reviews showed that Yuffie and Vincent still have that spark. So, here it is! I hope you all enjoy it. And if you do, please leave a comment! Chapters should be up soon!
