Disclaimer:I don't own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters. This is only a fan story written by an adoring fan of the Vincent & Yuffie paring!
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Kalm was a tiny village built with the intention to remain quiet and peaceful to all who chose the quiet place as their home. After the many battles and near death experiences; it was the perfect place for the old Goth to claim as his new and final location. The other people living in the area were experts with keeping to themselves and outsiders only stopped in when they needed to take a quick rest on their travels to a better destination. No other city, town or country would be right for him.
The only moments of excitement in his life these days where when a tiny ninja would pop her head in and crash at his place. Vincent knew these moments were the times she needed to hide or get away. Her title of 'Princess' was lost when she officially stepped aside from her father's life and began helping Reeve clean up areas or fight away battles. No one knew why she chose to take on the battles after all they had done, but she wasn't slowing down any time soon.
Yuffie looked up from her phone and gave Vincent a smirk. "Do you know what Reeve asked me to do the other day?"
"..." Vincent shook his head and leaned back in his seat at the kitchen table. When she stopped by at his house, she either talked his ear off about her past missions or she went straight to the guest bedroom she claimed as her hideout. She even bought a new handle with a personal key for the door. He didn't really mind because he understood when someone needed to get away.
"He asked me to help a breeder move 30 chocobos to a new location!" she said. She threw her arms up and crossed her eyes. "Do you know how hard that was?"
"I imagine it was a bit of a challenge," he said with his rare clever smile appearing on his lips for a quick second.
"You bet it was!" Yuffie said hitting the table and jumping to her feet. She was growing more and more used to his little dabs at her outbursts. Her friendship with Vincent was on a different level than any of the other guys she spent time with. If felt as if he understood her much more than anyone else. All she could imagine was him seeing her like a daughter and only laughing at her like any loving father would. Not that he truly loved her or anything. "Those little devils were really pestering me through the whole trip. Look, I understand they are being used more for fancy shows or those fun races these days, but I don't get it! Why are we so wrapped up in them?"
"Didn't you want a pet chocobo for your birthday last year?" Vincent asked with his smirk appearing slightly longer.
"Shut up, Vinnie," she said and stuck her tongue out at him. "You're lucky I find you to be such a great friend. Or else I would totally stomp you right now."
"Really?" Vincent stood and looked out his kitchen window. It was becoming dark and he knew they were calling for a pretty bad storm over the night. He glanced to Yuffie as she stood at his fridge looking through the little supplies he had to hold her interest. "I take it you are hiding out here again?"
"Only if you'll have me," she said standing and closing the door with a quick snap. The refrigerator shook a tad and Vincent looked away before he revealed yet another smile.
"You can call for some pizza if you want," he said as thunder sounded in the distance. The storm was a lot closer than he originally thought.
"You rock!" Yuffie said and gave a couple jumps to his phone hanging on the wall. She dialed the number as if she had done it a thousand times before and placed their order for delivery. "We should give the deliverer a nice tip. This storm is gonna be pretty nasty."
Vincent leaned against the kitchen counter as Yuffie opened her tiny book bag to take out her wallet. In the beginning, they slowly began to develop a routine every time Yuffie called for a delivery. Vincent paid for the final bill and she always carried cash for the tip. It was a comfortable system and there wasn't a reason to change it.
"What have you been up to these days?" Yuffie said and walked around taking in every inch of his kitchen. He couldn't pay her enough to stand still. "I've been helping Reeve, but you are always hanging out here. Don't you get bored?"
Vincent shook his head. He knew everyone thought his time was spent alone at his house, but they were almost entirely wrong. No one made a point to ask about his free time until Yuffie opened her mouth. Only took them, how long?
"I help out around in the village," Vincent said.
She gave a frustrated sigh and pulled out a chair and motioned for him to sit. "I'm trying to have a conversation with you, old man! You could talk a little more just to entertain me!"
Vincent pulled a seat out for her next to the chair she moved for him. He would play along with her games. Chances were she held something important on her mind but was too afraid to say. He was getting better and better at reading the group's young ninja.
"Last weekend I helped Farmer Joe clean out his gutters because there were a good amount of leaves clogging the pipes on his house," Vincent said and looked to the ceiling as if it held all his past activities written above them. "Mrs. Butter lost her puppy a couple days ago and I found him playing with some neighborhood children. I guess he likes going to their homes and took a run out the open door when she was working on making a cake for her husband's birthday. And I've done other little jobs here and there to keep people happy."
Yuffie smiled and tilted her head in an innocently sweet way. "Cute."
Vincent raised an eyebrow to her odd word and waited for her to explain. A knock at the front door destroyed her chance and she jumped up to get the food. Vincent followed behind with his wallet to take care of the bill when the gentleman in the red uniform gave her small payment a funny look. He thanked them and wished them a good night.
"What was his problem?" Yuffie asked grabbing two plates from Vincent's cupboards. It was a little amazing how well she knew his house when she didn't even live there. Vincent rolled his eyes. He might as well put her name along his to own the house. She was becoming an every day occurrence as of late.
"He thought you were paying for the pizza," Vincent said as he placed pieces on their plates.
"But you always pay for the big part!" Yuffie rolled her eyes as if it were the most obvious thing to miss.
"Not everyone knows our system," Vincent said and shook his head with a laugh.
"Our system," Yuffie repeated and took a small bite of her pizza before she continued. "It sounds nice when you say it like that."
Vincent gave her another puzzled look as she joined him at the table. She sat right next to him and bit into her pizza again. Her eyes danced to the ceiling for the chance to steal her own explanation from the house. His patience was amazing when it came to the young woman. It would only take a little more time for an explanation to appear. But he did not expect it to come in a rush of words he could barely make clear.
"Vincent, I don't know how you really feel about what I'm going to say. I think our friendship is the greatest thing I've ever had in a really long time, you always silently gave me courage to keep fighting in all our past battles, you supported me when I backed away from my life as a spoiled princess, and you always let me crash at your house uninvited. But I would really like to be invited to stay, I would really like to be spoiled as the woman I've grown to be, and I never want to lose the courage you gave me."
Vincent set his plate on the table in front of him and leaned back in his chair. As his mind decoded her run of words she rushed off upstairs leaving him behind. He blinked a couple times and shook his head. She was much too young to be thinking such complicated things. Her rushed words put his mind into a mess of many thoughts.
Inviting Yuffie to stay at his house implied never leaving. They would be forced to talk every day and spend a lot more time together than they already did. Seeing herself as a grown woman was hardly a big issue for her to have. She was in her early twenties and becoming more and more beautiful as the days ticked by. He could close his eyes and picture the young girl he met many years prior and see the steps she to took to change into the lovely lady he knew. The most confusing bit was thinking of the friends they shared missing out on this mess. It wasn't only him supporting her through their life together.
Vincent closed his eyes and leaned his face into his hands propped up by his elbows on the table. She wanted much more than a friendship together. She wanted something bigger than a life alone. She wanted to spend it with someone. Yuffie wanted Vincent to be the other part of together.
He took in a slow, deep breath and closed up their pizza to prevent any bugs from sneaking in. He left the kitchen and headed upstairs. There was a new challenge placed before him and it was the biggest problem he could ever think up. He chewed on his bottom lip childishly and leaned against the wall across the from closed guest bedroom door.
"Yuffie," he said barely over a whisper and a minute almost passed before she responded.
"I'm going to bed. You know silly Yuffie being random and crazy. I think I'm just a little too worn out and I can't make sense of anything," she rambled in a rush of words and his ears caught the click of a button and his eyes saw light appear under the empty space under the door.
"If you really want to sleep you should keep your light off," Vincent said and took a step to the door. He hesitated as he placed his arm on the knob. "Can I come in?"
Nothing sounded to accept his entrance into her room or deny his request. It was becoming more and more obvious what he had missed so many times. The ways she always teased him more so than everyone else. How she always appeared at his side when he didn't even know he needed her. When she ran to him for help or support as her world crashed around her. Yeah, there was a lot more of him being in Miss Yuffie's life than a dark and broody best friend.
Yuffie's head was turned away from the door when Vincent opened the door and peeked to her bed. Her body tensed slightly as he took a step inside and the idea of the little girl vanished to what she really was.
"Lady Yuffie," Vincent said giving her an adult title as he took a couple more steps to her bed. "Is there something I can do for you?"
Yuffie shook her head in response and a sniffle sounded as her arm moved to wipe her tears. He was curious to how long it would take but he was feeling an odd desire to play along grow inside.
"A funny way to word my question," he said with a tiny chuckle very unlike the Vincent he tried to be. "Lady implies you are a princess or a queen. But you chose to run away from that life a little while ago. What was I thinking?"
"Obviously, you weren't," Yuffie answered. Her voice gave away to a couple cracks signally the tears still falling.
"Well, maybe I was thinking a bit larger than a princess or queen of a tiny village," he said with a shrug she couldn't see. He sat on the bed next to her legs. If he looked straight ahead he could see the mirror on the wall bouncing off the reflection of the window revealing the rain falling outside. "Because my dear friend has slowly grown up without me keeping up. I missed the new woman forming before my eyes, but I don't think my heart missed a beat."
Yuffie's breathing froze and her entire body tightened with a combination of wonder and fear. She held no clue to where Vincent was taking his tiny speech. She wished he would just get to the end.
"My life without this woman would be pretty dull," he said and gave off a tiny chuckle. The laugh gave Yuffie a smile because it was becoming her latest addiction. "In fact, without her my life would probably be nothing at all. I'm a little slow with catching the hints in relationships if you really look at my past."
Vincent clamped his eyes shut and mentally punched himself for speaking before thinking. Little chance she wanted to hear about his past life with Lucrecia. Not that he worried about the woman any longer. Another woman was quickly becoming much more important than he ever thought possible.
"But I don't want to focus on the past anymore. I want to look to the future and see what I can do. A good start would be to make this a guest room once again and take away your key to this door," he said and smirked when she flipped quickly to her back and leaned against her arms as she glared at him.
"This is my room!" Yuffie said with her glare. She worked hard to steak the claim on the space and hell shall freeze over before she gave it away. Hell would also freeze if it could see the way Vincent was looking at her.
Vincent took advantage of her new position and moved closer to her face. He put each knee on different sides of her hips and put his hands on her pillow to hold his upper body above her. As he looked down to her dark brown eyes he could see the pink beginning to shade her cheeks. He leaned his upper body closer so their faces were only a couple inches from touching.
"I think you have a new room only a couple doors down from here," he said and closed the distance separating there lips. He intended the kiss to be simple and pure but all hope was lost when Yuffie's hands grabbed his sweater and made an attempt to pull his body down on top of her. Their tongues joined in the action and their hearts danced to an all new tune. As the kiss calmed down Yuffie's hands released their death grip of Vincent's shirt.
"When are we moving your stuff here?" Vincent asked and leaned back down to kiss her cheek. He continued the kisses down her neck and kept the line going across her shoulder.
Yuffie giggled and ran her fingers through his long, black hair. "The only things I have left to move here are the items I'm storing at Tifa's place."
Vincent gave a tiny groan and carefully let his body fall on the open spot on the bed. "We're going to have to spill the beans to everyone soon, huh?"
"Unless you want us to be a secret," Yuffie said with her smile only slipping for a second.
Vincent leaned forward to pull her closer to him and took a second to take in her smell. He didn't know what perfume Yuffie used, but he was already addicted.
"If we do that someone might try and take you away," he said and gave her a quick kiss. "I don't think I could handle the competition."
Yuffie took her turn to give him a kiss. "There is no competition."
Vincent smiled and let her roll away and slide off the bed. She stretched her arms over her head and rubbed away all the marks on her face from her many tears.
"Where are you going?" he asked sitting up and watching her hips move as she walked through the door.
"There's a new bedroom I need to explore," she called from the doorway. She stepped through and walked away. "Too bad I couldn't have a personal tour."
"Oh, I'll give you a personal tour," he said and moved from the bed as quick as he could. He rushed out of the room to see Yuffie stick her tongue out and run away to his room. His room was no longer only his room and he needed to welcome the new tenant. Vincent chased after her and pinned her down to yet another bed. Who needed to give a tour when there was somewhere so much better he needed to explore?