Love
At one point, when Yuffie was more comfortable around the dark gunslinger, she decided she needed help. With her feelings towards Cloud. So, she turned to the only member of AVALANCHE who could help her and also wouldn't tell Cloud.
"Vinnie?" She plopped down next to him one night, while all the others were soundly asleep. He cringed at the use of the nickname, but turned to her, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, Yuffie?" She squirmed, trying to find the words for her question. He sighed. "Go back to sleep, Yuffie. We'll be up bright and early in the morning, and you have first watch tomorrow night."
"I need to ask you something!" she protested quietly. He stared at her. She gritted her teeth, shut her eyes, and spat out, "How do you know if you're in love with someone?" He blinked.
She opened one eye, relaxing her jaw.
He blinked.
She opened the other eye.
He blinked.
She squinted at him.
He blinked.
"Excuse me?" Had he heard right? She was asking him, the generally acknowledged worst guy at love, ever, for help with romantic feelings.
"You heard me, Vinnie. How did you know you were in love with...um, Lucrecia...?"
"I never said I was."
She glared at him. "It's all over your face whenever you mention her."
He sighed his defeat. "I suppose...I felt...happy around her. I wanted to protect her, to take away her pain. To be the shoulder she could cry on, if need be. It was very rarely pleasant. Because of Project Jenova, she was preoccupied and under pressure. She said that, if she should become pregnant, she would volunteer the fetus for the project. When she was forced to choose who the father would be...She chose Hojo, the lead scientist of the project."
Yuffie Glanced at him shrewdly. "Part of you wishes it had been you, huh?"
Vincent shook his head. "Not really. I just wish that she could have loved me in return. Her prior attachment to my father...drove us apart."
Silence settled comfortably between the companions. Yuffie was lost in thought. Love meant that you wanted to protect a person, wanted to be the shoulder for them to cry on. To make them happy. Being happy around them.
She thought. Did she want to protect Cloud that way? Did she really care enough? But he always seemed capable. She took him at face value. He was a tough guy who was fucking scary in battle. She idly let her mind wander. Was there anyone whom she felt that way for? As a girl, her mother, but that wasn't quite the same. Aeris? Yes, but as a sister. Who did she really want to save, was there anyone whom she'd draw close and comfort, whose tears she'd kiss away?
Vincent, she realized with a start. She felt that way about Vincent sometimes. When he'd let down part of his guard and tell her things, when painful memories would twist his beautiful face, when the occasional nightmare rent his sanity. She'd seen him, sitting, thinking, tears streaming silently down his face one night during her watch. She'd wanted, in some way, to wipe away his tears, because they scared her. He was supposed to be unattached. A constant. And if Vinnie was different...
Since when, she asked herself, had she come to rely so heavily on his presence? Sitting beside him, she felt safe, the demons of her heritage and duty kept at bay by his silent welcome. Sitting with him, she felt that her father wouldn't find her, that she wouldn't have to face her own sins. Maybe together, they could keep their pasts away. After all, love was a powerful thing.