*Insert standard disclaimer here*
Ninja
~*~2~*~
{Oh, my head.} Yuffie sat up slowly, her head feeling as if a thousand tiny Sephiroths were inside her skull and slicing her brain into a thick gumbo. {Please stop, chibi Sephys.}}She stared at a spot in front of her as she waited for the glare to die down.
{Aw man, did I oversleep again.? Chekov is so gonna kill me for missin' early mornin' practice today.} A musty smell wafted through her nose, sending the small ninja into a sneezing fit that threw her back. and off the bed.
"Ow! Goddamn it! Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow! Gawd!" Yuffie winced as she rubbed her throbbing shoulder. "Oh, that's gonna leave a bruise." {Wait, a bed.? I don't have a bed. Oh yeah.!} Yuffie's eyes widened as she remembered the nights previous events. {Oh! Vinnie! I wonder where old El Gotho went, anyway!}
It was as Yuffie was stretching that she noticed something wasn't quite right. There were sleeves. She stared down, trying to get a look at the unfamiliar garments that bedecked her body. A long, black silk button down shirt hung from her loosely, coming down to about mid-thigh, having obviously been made for someone much taller than its current occupant. Pants of the same shade and material clung loosely to her hips, and fell off completely as she took a step towards the mirror. She shrugged and kicked the cumbersome material onto the bed before facing the mirror and striking a pose.
{Damn, I don't look half bad in Vinnie's things.} She stopped mid- pose, her eyes becoming impossibly large. {Wait wait wait wait wait, hold UP here! Vinnie's clothes!? That means. he.} "Oh GAWD!"
Yuffie shrieked, panicked, and ran around the room before stopping, her eyes seemed to glow faintly with the righteous flame that only a violated female could achieve.
"Vinnie Valentine, you are so dead!" She screamed, running out of the room to search for the absent ex-Turk. "Oh Gawd!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/Subject having incredible reaction to Ghalion Beast cell injection... Next administration to be made the 8th... Subject Vincent Valentine is remarkably the only patient to survive second Ghalion injection... Mako reaction to foreign cells up 15%...\
Vincent Valentine rubbed his temples in frustration. He'd been up all through the night, poring over the late Professor Hojo's reports, seeking an answer to a question he wasn't sure of. What was he looking for? Why, after all these years of semi-stability, was his body starting to change again? What was Chaos all worked up about? Why was Yuffie acting so strangely around him? Sure, she'd always tried to avoid his gaze, but never to such an extent. And she'd never once fainted, or drifted off into space like that. {What's going on...?}
It was at that moment that he heard the echoes of footsteps running through the corridor. He looked up towards the study door as he heard the slam of someone kicking open the other door that led to his coffin. He winced, and heard shouts of "Oh Gawd!" rumbling through the tunnel. He marked his place in the journal as he went to investigate the strange noises.
He was halfway from the book-lined hall of the study to the door when it slammed open, momentarily startling Vincent. Before you could say 'materia', the form of a young girl zipped in, jumped, and, using Vincent's shoulder for support, gracefully flipped over his head, latched onto his back, and was attempting to put him in a stranglehold. Vincent only blinked in surprise as he was thrown against the wall, knocking musty books off the shelves as he struggled for balance.
*Nice moves on that one.*
{Not now, Chaos.}Vincent wrapped his hands around the girl's arms in an attempt to pry her from his neck as she shook his head violently.
"Vincent Valentine, you pervert! Removing a girl's clothes while she's sleeping, Gawd! Taking advantage of my innocent state! I've got half a mind to shove this shuriken up your."
"Excuse me," he interjected, grabbing her arms more tightly, "But could I breathe, please?"
"Ow! Okay, okay! Ease up with the claw, Vinnie!" Her voice took on a whining tone as she stopped trying to obstruct his windpipe. "But you'd better start explaining, buster! Ow, I think I'm bleeding." She clutched his cape with one arm as she held up the other for examination, never moving from his back.
He sighed as he collected his thoughts. {This reminds me why I dislike visitors so much.} "First, I removed your clothes because they were cold and wet. I could easily have let you catch pneumonia, if you'd like. Second, I have no interest in 'taking advantage' of anybody. And finally." he allowed himself a small smirk, "would you rather I waited until you were awake to remove your clothes.?"
He felt her release his cape in shock as she slid down his back to the floor. He turned to trail his garnet eyes on her. Her stormy eyes were wide and her mouth hung open slightly as she blushed furiously. She clutched her right arm and he could see blood trickling slightly around the edges of her hand. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up over her elbows and threatened to fall down over her slender arms. He ran a finger through his long ebony hair and fixed a worried glance at her arm. "I'm sorry. We should put some bandages on that."
She gaped, obviously trying to sort out his statements. She shook her head and fixed him with a strange look that seemed to be half disbelief/half humor. "Gee, Vinnie. I think that's the fist joke I've ever heard you make. Never thought you'd be such a pervert, though." A grin lit her face as she stood up. "Vinnie's a p-erv!"
He heard Chaos snicker in his mind. *Yeah.Vinnie's a p-erv! I knew you had it in you, 'Vinnie'.*
{Shut up, demon!} Why in the world had he said that to her.?
*Yeah, yeah.*
"An-e-ways, weren't you gonna get some bandages? My arm really hurts." He started out of his internal conversation at the sound of her voice.
"O-of course. This way," he led her towards the back of the study where he'd been searching the journals. There was always a medical kit back here, though there'd been no need of it until today. He gestured towards the chair and she sat as he kneeled, searching for the medi-kit. Within seconds he had the white box open on the desk.
"Let me see your arm," he told her, selecting a few anti-bacterial liquids and unraveling some of the gauze.
"Sure," she removed her bloodied hand from its spot on her arm and the distinct smell of blood washed across his senses, sharp and metallic. {I wonder how it tastes.} He quickly shook thoughts of simply licking her wounds clean from his mind and held his breath as he washed the wounds with a damp cotton ball. What had gotten him.? The wounds were small; five punctures, no larger than paper cuts, really, and the blood had already stopped oozing out. He gently wrapped the gauze around her arm.
"Done," he said simply, gazing down at her. She seemed to be better since last night, as she met his gaze more often and hadn't once swooned. Perhaps she was right about it just being the journey.
"So, watcha doin' down here, anyway? A little light reading?" she grinned as she glanced around the piles of books strewn about the desk. "Can't say I agree with your choice of books, though."
Vincent saw no point in withholding the truth. "Actually, I'm searching for information regarding Hojo. Or, more specifically, any assistants he may have had."
"Really.? What about, you know, that Lucy person?"
"Besides her." Vincent didn't feel up to discussing Lucrecia.
"Oh." She wrinkled her brow cutely in thought. "How long have you been looking?"
He sighed tiredly and shook his head. "All night."
He eyes widened. "Geez, Vinnie, take a break!"
He just stared at her. What did she know? What right did she have to tell him to rest?
She must have sensed his thoughts, because she followed her statement with perfect logic. "I mean, endless searching without some rest can mess with your mind and make you skip something vitally important that you'd normally find." She paused, and her scholarly lecture was somewhat broken by a loud grumble from her stomach. She scratched her head and laughed nervously. "Besides, I'm hungry! What's for breakfast, Vinnie?"
Vincent just sighed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The smell of food was driving Yuffie crazy, and she jumped around the hallway in anticipation. Vincent had already kicked her out of the kitchen for being too hyper, so all she could do was wait around outside the door and drool at the heavenly aroma of warm food. She hadn't eaten since yesterday morning, if you could really call a strip of beef jerky and stale cheese 'food'. {Hell, Rikku ate better than I did.}
She shook her head. She had already fed the two chocobos while she'd waited for Vincent to make breakfast. Memories of having been lost in Vincent's gaze had washed over her when she looked into Auron's ruby eyes, but she'd ditched the memory with a laugh. But still, this made her think. {How come I was all wimpy around him last night, when this morning I can look him in the eye (somewhat) while he talks? That traveling must've taken more out of me than I thought.}
Her thoughts were cut short, however, as the door next to her burst open, Vincent emerging from the kitchen and balancing two large plates of food with all the grace of a cat. {Man, if I tried that, dinner would literally be on me!} She thought with a slight chuckle as she trailed after the dark haired man towards the dining room.
She leaned against the doorway and pushed the dark sleeves of the soft shirt back above her elbows. She probably should have changed before breakfast, but she'd been too lazy to walk all the way back up two flights of stairs when Vincent's shirt was so darn comfy anyways.
As if on cue, the previously mentioned man turned towards her. "Are you planning on eating? After all the havoc you caused waiting for it, I'm surprised it's not gone already."
"Touché, monsieur Valentine!" She performed an elaborate bow before sitting down in the proffered chair, using the funny accent she'd heard one of the ladies in Costa Del Sol use. She remembered having erupted into fits of giggles when the woman had said that, but had used it often the following month after learning its meaning. She'd driven everyone up the wall with that phrase.
She lifted a sausage up to her nose and sniffed it, allowing the aroma of warm meat and spices to engulf her senses before taking a delicate bite off the end. A look of rapturous bliss dominated her features and she closed her eyes in order to better savor the taste. After that first, slow bite, she proceeded to inhale the morsels on the plate before her, eating as a girl possessed. Her feeding was only interrupted when she took an occasional pause to drink some orange juice and fling a quick compliment in Vincent's direction. Before long the plate was empty, and was patting her stomach contentedly and sighing.
"Man, Vinnie, you can cook!" she grinned and leaned back in her chair. Vincent wasn't even halfway done, his eyes fixed on her and the empty plate before her as he slowly moved her fork to and from his own food to his mouth. "Hey, don't stare! It's not like I'm gonna snatch your food while you're not lookin'!"
"Are you sure? The way you inhaled your own food I wouldn't put it past you."
{Another joke.?} "Gee, Vinnie, you're on a roll. Keep it up and I just might think you've got a sense of humor!" She grinned at him. He coughed slightly and turned his attention to the plate in front of him once more. Yuffie sighed and fidgeted nervously in her chair across from his, staring about the dining room. Other than the kitchen, this was the only room in the mansion that was devoid of dust. Yuffie cleared her throat.
"So, um, what happened to all the monsters?" she finally asked.
Vincent just stared at her, as if she'd asked the most idiotic question in the entire world. Finally, he responded. "I. exterminated them."
"Oh, right," the young ninja couldn't take it anymore. {Maaaan, I really hate these long silences! I just feel so awkward.} She stood and stretched. "Well, that was the best breakfast I've ever had, Vinnie! Thanks so very, very much! Well, I guess I'll head upstairs and change. And no following me, you perverted vamp!" She winked at the last statement to show that she was joking and skipped out of the room before he could comment.
She raced up the stairs two at a time, the excellently prepared breakfast having reenergized her young body to its peak teenage performance. In true hyper-Yuffie fashion, she jumped at the open door, using the momentum and swing of the door to launch herself feet first in a full-body horizontal kick.
And would have landed gracefully if her feet had not connected with something solid inside the room. She heard a thump and a groan as a figure flew across the room with the force of her kick. She stared at the scene before her.
A darkly hooded person was sprawled in the corner, Yuffie's bag lay open in the middle of the floor, and her shuriken lay gleaming on the desk next to her. Yuffie grinned, picking up her Conformer and glaring evilly at the would-be thief before her. She grabbed his cowl and shook him back and forth, holding her shuriken to his throat. "So you thought you could steal from a ninja, huh, punk? I'll kick yer hooded ass to the crater and back, buddy!"
The cowl fell away from her captive and she stared, her threats momentarily forgotten. This man looked almost like Vincent, his face was definitely that of her pale friend. But his hair. it was Sephiroth-white, though cut much shorter. Yuffie shook her head. A thief was a thief, and no one stole from Yuffie Kisaragi! She slapped him.
"Yo! Wake your pale ass up, buster! We have things to discuss!"
He groaned and rubbed his head gingerly before opening his eyes. These, too, caught her off guard, and she had to blink to make sure she was seeing right. His eyes were blood red, like Vincent's, and glowed with Mako, but they were shaped more like Sephiroth's had been. Currently, they were full of surprise.
"W-who are you?" he asked, his eyes locked on hers. His voice was deep but held a boyish quality, reminding her vaguely of Cloud. She glared at him.
"I think I should asking you that, mister! What the hell were you doing, rifling through my stuff!? That's private property!" she shoved the Conformer closer to his face. "You may begin with the explanations."
His eyes left hers to cross cutely at the shuriken point at his nose. He seemed to smirk slightly. "I really don't feel like it right now."
Yuffie's blue-grey eyes stormed over with rage. "W-what?!? You punk! I ain't givin' you a choice!"
He shook his head, the slight smirk turning into a mysterious smile. Yuffie fumed. How could he and Vincent still manage to look cool even after being beaten up? She'd never been able to.
His hand moved so fast that Yuffie barely had time to react, instinctively reaching to parry the blow with her Conformer as she kicked herself away from his body, digging the heel of her foot into his shin as she did so. She heard him curse as she took up her standard battle stance, shuriken held ready.
"Hey, you're pretty good," he said appreciatively, running a hand through his snowy hair. "The first person to dodge that blow since, well, ever!" He smirked once more. "But I'm afraid there's no time to play."
There was a blast of smoke that left Yuffie coughing and gagging, and she barely heard the sound of shattering glass as she wheezed for breath. She held the dark silk of her shirt over her mouth as she squinted into the smoke after the mysterious Vincent look-a-like. It was while she was waving the smog away from her face and beginning to change out of Vincent's shirt that the door to her room burst open.
"Yuffie, what-"
"Ahhhhh!!! Vincent, you pervert, I told you not to follow me!" she shrieked, holding the black silk garment in front of her protectively as she threw a shoe at him. He dodged and darted back out the way he'd come, his garnet eyes wide.
Panting heavily from the scare Vincent had given her (She'd thought he had been the white haired-man again, coming back for a sneak attack), she dressed into her outfit quickly and clutched her shuriken nervously before calling out. "Vinnie.? You can come in now!"
The door opened slowly, and a very distraught looking Vincent Valentine entered the room, his crimson gaze flicking from Yuffie to the window and back. "What.?
"That? Oh, some weirdo was in here looking for loot. I caught him rummaging through my bags, so I laid some total smack-down on him!" She grinned and punched an invisible enemy in the air before calming down a bit and sighing. "But then he whipped out a smoke bomb and dived through the window. Gawd! The nerve of some thieves!"
Vincent stared out the broken window and out over the small town of Nibelheim. "Describe him."
"I'd say, oh, half a head taller than me. white, I mean, Sephiroth-white hair to about his neck and stuck out in some places. kinda pale, not as bad as you, though. red eyes that glowed with Mako or something." She grinned. "And totally hot. if you like dark and mysterious type!"
He stared at her, and she felt herself blush slightly. Especially since the person she'd described had looked so very similar to Vincent. Lucky he didn't know that.
"Do you?" he asked.
"Huh? Do I what?" she asked, glancing quickly around the room.
"Go for the dark and mysterious type?" his eyes were boring into hers, causing the heat to rise to her face again.
"M-ay-be, may-be not!" she grinned and stretched her arms above her head as she dropped her eyes to his shoulder, trying to dispel her blush. "But regardless of my preference in guys, don't you have something you need to be doing?"
He furrowed his brow in concentration before nodding in agreement. "Yes, I must continue my search." He shifted his eyes to the broken window once more. "Will you be alright by yourself?"
"By myself.? Vinnie, I'm shocked!" She twirled, grabbing her bag from the floor and smiled up at him. "I'm going down there with you! After all." she balled her fists under her chin and did her best 'helpless maiden' impersonation. "It's just not safe for a young girl alone anymore!"
Vincent sighed and turned to leave. "Very well. Just don't be too much of a pest while I'm searching."
"Me? A pest? Whatever!" she stomped her foot indignantly and flipped her hair out of her face before following him back to the basement. {Well, it felt nice to kick some butt after such a large meal, anyway. At least this little stay in Nibelheim hasn't been boring.}
Upon reaching Hojo's old study/lab/really dusty old library, Yuffie immediately plopped down in a corner to do an inventory check. {Let's see. materia. brush. ugh, more jerky. picture of the old group, including Aeris!. Sephiroth's severed head. no, wait, that's just a doll. um, hey, where's my.?} "Aaahhhhhhh!!!!!" Yuffie let out a scream loud enough to wake the dead.
She was frantically pawing through her bag as Vincent rushed in, Death Penalty in his hand and aimed ahead of him. "What's wrong?" he asked, his eyes darting warily around the room.
She stared at him and sniffled. "My-my. That bastard stole my diaries! Not just one, but all of them! I've got some personal stuff in there!"
He stared at her in disbelief. "Your. diaries. All that screaming over some books?"
"Books!?" she wailed, turning a very evil death-glare his way. "How would you feel if someone stole your thoughts and feelings? If they perused your personal life over tea and crackers? Huh!? I don't know about you, but the thought of some strange guy laughing at my misfortunes does not amuse me!"
He didn't even have the decency to look abashed. He just stood there, all stotic and cool looking before calmly reaching a hand out to her. "I'm sorry about your loss, however there is nothing we can do about it at present. Why don't you do something else to take you mind off of it?"
She sniffed and took his hand, smiling grimly up at him. "Yeah, you're right, Vinnie. No use crying about it now, huh? Let's you and me get searching for this assistant or whatever. Two people search faster than one, right?"
"Right," he agreed and nodded towards the wall behind her. "Try searching this area while I continue going through those books in there. Tell me as soon as you find something."
Yuffie searched through book after dust-covered book, looking for information to help her depressed friend. She didn't know why he cared about Hojo's assistants, unless he was plotting revenge or something, but it did help her forget about her lost diaries, so she pored her heart into the search.
After what seemed to Yuffie like absolute days later, she thought she'd finally found something. She perked up and eagerly scanned the yellowed pages.
/Cyrus shows promise for such a young lad, and his ideas on the reanimation of flesh and the fusion of undead tissue to living are fascinating. I'm delighted to have him as an assistant. The idea of infusing subject V.V. with Death Gigas was splendid. to think I was just going to settle for the Ghalion Beast! Cyrus has also suggested trying another monster and I'm thinking of using Hellmasker. That should suit my assistant's tastes well enough, I think. Cyrus's Yin and Yangs are progressing brilliantly, much stronger than expected. I'm thinking of allowing him to infuse subject V.V. with these other creatures he's been talking about, though I don't think it's a good idea to use.\
The rest of the words were too faded and smudged to read, but she'd found what she needed. She ran to the back of the study, where she skipped happily to stand in front of Vincent, the journal behind her back.
".Yes?" he asked, not even glancing up from his book.
"Gee, no 'Hi, Yuffie, how're you doing, found anything?'? I'm shocked and hurt that you care so little for my welfare." She pouted and moved closer, so close she could hear him breathe. She placed a hand on his cheek and turned his head to face her. She smiled. "I've got a surprise for ya, Vinnie." she said softly.
"And what would that be.?" he asked softly, his garnet eyes meeting her gaze curiously. He was so close that just the slightest move forward would.
She blushed at the thoughts that swarmed through her head and pulled the journal from behind her back, placing it between her lips and his. "Read here," she told him, her lips brushing the paper.
The look on his face shifted from surprise to disbelief and finally to a look that suggested that, had that book not been in the way, he would have kissed her. "You found something?" he asked incredulously, pulling his head back slightly, excitement creeping into his voice.
"Yep! Someone named Cyrus." she shrugged. "You know him?"
He paused in thought for a moment before nodding slowly. "I think I remember meeting him once. Tall, athletic looking boy, not the type you expect to see in a lab coat. Blond, I believe. Very interested in undead." He read the passage that Yuffie had pointed out and stared off into space, lost in his thoughts.
"Vinnie?" she asked after a while, the silence getting to her once more.
He didn't seem to hear her. "It's too bad we can't read the rest of this." he mused, still staring off at something visible only to him.
"Well, there is one good way to find out what it says, right?" she offered, trying to lighten his spirits.
"Oh? And what would that be?" he asked, turning an amused gaze on the young girl before him.
"We could go find this Cyrus person and ask him!" she said, pleased with her obvious brilliance.
"Mm, there's just one problem," he said, standing up and walking back through the tunnel, the journal clutched in his claw. "We don't even know if he's alive anymore, much less where he resides."
"Oh," she pouted, crestfallen, "Right." Her head perked up once they left the winding staircase of the passage. "Hey, do you hear something?"
Vincent nodded. There was a pounding on the front door of the mansion. Yuffie raced to the window of the room to look into the front yard. "Hey, Vinnie, whoever it is came inside." she said quietly. {I bet it's the punk who took my diary!}
Vincent motioned for her to flank the door, ready to tackle whoever came through while he covered her with his gun. She nodded and got into position.
The door opened, and Yuffie instantly flew into the figure. She had him down with his hands pinned under her knees and her shuriken pressed against his neck as she found herself face to face with.
"Cloud!?"
~*~End Chapter~*~
*Yes, I realize that the whole gag about the guy changing the girl's clothes in her sleep is cliché, but so is accidentally groping her breasts. It's still a classic element, and it's still amusing!*
~Kai~
Ninja
~*~2~*~
{Oh, my head.} Yuffie sat up slowly, her head feeling as if a thousand tiny Sephiroths were inside her skull and slicing her brain into a thick gumbo. {Please stop, chibi Sephys.}}She stared at a spot in front of her as she waited for the glare to die down.
{Aw man, did I oversleep again.? Chekov is so gonna kill me for missin' early mornin' practice today.} A musty smell wafted through her nose, sending the small ninja into a sneezing fit that threw her back. and off the bed.
"Ow! Goddamn it! Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow! Gawd!" Yuffie winced as she rubbed her throbbing shoulder. "Oh, that's gonna leave a bruise." {Wait, a bed.? I don't have a bed. Oh yeah.!} Yuffie's eyes widened as she remembered the nights previous events. {Oh! Vinnie! I wonder where old El Gotho went, anyway!}
It was as Yuffie was stretching that she noticed something wasn't quite right. There were sleeves. She stared down, trying to get a look at the unfamiliar garments that bedecked her body. A long, black silk button down shirt hung from her loosely, coming down to about mid-thigh, having obviously been made for someone much taller than its current occupant. Pants of the same shade and material clung loosely to her hips, and fell off completely as she took a step towards the mirror. She shrugged and kicked the cumbersome material onto the bed before facing the mirror and striking a pose.
{Damn, I don't look half bad in Vinnie's things.} She stopped mid- pose, her eyes becoming impossibly large. {Wait wait wait wait wait, hold UP here! Vinnie's clothes!? That means. he.} "Oh GAWD!"
Yuffie shrieked, panicked, and ran around the room before stopping, her eyes seemed to glow faintly with the righteous flame that only a violated female could achieve.
"Vinnie Valentine, you are so dead!" She screamed, running out of the room to search for the absent ex-Turk. "Oh Gawd!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/Subject having incredible reaction to Ghalion Beast cell injection... Next administration to be made the 8th... Subject Vincent Valentine is remarkably the only patient to survive second Ghalion injection... Mako reaction to foreign cells up 15%...\
Vincent Valentine rubbed his temples in frustration. He'd been up all through the night, poring over the late Professor Hojo's reports, seeking an answer to a question he wasn't sure of. What was he looking for? Why, after all these years of semi-stability, was his body starting to change again? What was Chaos all worked up about? Why was Yuffie acting so strangely around him? Sure, she'd always tried to avoid his gaze, but never to such an extent. And she'd never once fainted, or drifted off into space like that. {What's going on...?}
It was at that moment that he heard the echoes of footsteps running through the corridor. He looked up towards the study door as he heard the slam of someone kicking open the other door that led to his coffin. He winced, and heard shouts of "Oh Gawd!" rumbling through the tunnel. He marked his place in the journal as he went to investigate the strange noises.
He was halfway from the book-lined hall of the study to the door when it slammed open, momentarily startling Vincent. Before you could say 'materia', the form of a young girl zipped in, jumped, and, using Vincent's shoulder for support, gracefully flipped over his head, latched onto his back, and was attempting to put him in a stranglehold. Vincent only blinked in surprise as he was thrown against the wall, knocking musty books off the shelves as he struggled for balance.
*Nice moves on that one.*
{Not now, Chaos.}Vincent wrapped his hands around the girl's arms in an attempt to pry her from his neck as she shook his head violently.
"Vincent Valentine, you pervert! Removing a girl's clothes while she's sleeping, Gawd! Taking advantage of my innocent state! I've got half a mind to shove this shuriken up your."
"Excuse me," he interjected, grabbing her arms more tightly, "But could I breathe, please?"
"Ow! Okay, okay! Ease up with the claw, Vinnie!" Her voice took on a whining tone as she stopped trying to obstruct his windpipe. "But you'd better start explaining, buster! Ow, I think I'm bleeding." She clutched his cape with one arm as she held up the other for examination, never moving from his back.
He sighed as he collected his thoughts. {This reminds me why I dislike visitors so much.} "First, I removed your clothes because they were cold and wet. I could easily have let you catch pneumonia, if you'd like. Second, I have no interest in 'taking advantage' of anybody. And finally." he allowed himself a small smirk, "would you rather I waited until you were awake to remove your clothes.?"
He felt her release his cape in shock as she slid down his back to the floor. He turned to trail his garnet eyes on her. Her stormy eyes were wide and her mouth hung open slightly as she blushed furiously. She clutched her right arm and he could see blood trickling slightly around the edges of her hand. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up over her elbows and threatened to fall down over her slender arms. He ran a finger through his long ebony hair and fixed a worried glance at her arm. "I'm sorry. We should put some bandages on that."
She gaped, obviously trying to sort out his statements. She shook her head and fixed him with a strange look that seemed to be half disbelief/half humor. "Gee, Vinnie. I think that's the fist joke I've ever heard you make. Never thought you'd be such a pervert, though." A grin lit her face as she stood up. "Vinnie's a p-erv!"
He heard Chaos snicker in his mind. *Yeah.Vinnie's a p-erv! I knew you had it in you, 'Vinnie'.*
{Shut up, demon!} Why in the world had he said that to her.?
*Yeah, yeah.*
"An-e-ways, weren't you gonna get some bandages? My arm really hurts." He started out of his internal conversation at the sound of her voice.
"O-of course. This way," he led her towards the back of the study where he'd been searching the journals. There was always a medical kit back here, though there'd been no need of it until today. He gestured towards the chair and she sat as he kneeled, searching for the medi-kit. Within seconds he had the white box open on the desk.
"Let me see your arm," he told her, selecting a few anti-bacterial liquids and unraveling some of the gauze.
"Sure," she removed her bloodied hand from its spot on her arm and the distinct smell of blood washed across his senses, sharp and metallic. {I wonder how it tastes.} He quickly shook thoughts of simply licking her wounds clean from his mind and held his breath as he washed the wounds with a damp cotton ball. What had gotten him.? The wounds were small; five punctures, no larger than paper cuts, really, and the blood had already stopped oozing out. He gently wrapped the gauze around her arm.
"Done," he said simply, gazing down at her. She seemed to be better since last night, as she met his gaze more often and hadn't once swooned. Perhaps she was right about it just being the journey.
"So, watcha doin' down here, anyway? A little light reading?" she grinned as she glanced around the piles of books strewn about the desk. "Can't say I agree with your choice of books, though."
Vincent saw no point in withholding the truth. "Actually, I'm searching for information regarding Hojo. Or, more specifically, any assistants he may have had."
"Really.? What about, you know, that Lucy person?"
"Besides her." Vincent didn't feel up to discussing Lucrecia.
"Oh." She wrinkled her brow cutely in thought. "How long have you been looking?"
He sighed tiredly and shook his head. "All night."
He eyes widened. "Geez, Vinnie, take a break!"
He just stared at her. What did she know? What right did she have to tell him to rest?
She must have sensed his thoughts, because she followed her statement with perfect logic. "I mean, endless searching without some rest can mess with your mind and make you skip something vitally important that you'd normally find." She paused, and her scholarly lecture was somewhat broken by a loud grumble from her stomach. She scratched her head and laughed nervously. "Besides, I'm hungry! What's for breakfast, Vinnie?"
Vincent just sighed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The smell of food was driving Yuffie crazy, and she jumped around the hallway in anticipation. Vincent had already kicked her out of the kitchen for being too hyper, so all she could do was wait around outside the door and drool at the heavenly aroma of warm food. She hadn't eaten since yesterday morning, if you could really call a strip of beef jerky and stale cheese 'food'. {Hell, Rikku ate better than I did.}
She shook her head. She had already fed the two chocobos while she'd waited for Vincent to make breakfast. Memories of having been lost in Vincent's gaze had washed over her when she looked into Auron's ruby eyes, but she'd ditched the memory with a laugh. But still, this made her think. {How come I was all wimpy around him last night, when this morning I can look him in the eye (somewhat) while he talks? That traveling must've taken more out of me than I thought.}
Her thoughts were cut short, however, as the door next to her burst open, Vincent emerging from the kitchen and balancing two large plates of food with all the grace of a cat. {Man, if I tried that, dinner would literally be on me!} She thought with a slight chuckle as she trailed after the dark haired man towards the dining room.
She leaned against the doorway and pushed the dark sleeves of the soft shirt back above her elbows. She probably should have changed before breakfast, but she'd been too lazy to walk all the way back up two flights of stairs when Vincent's shirt was so darn comfy anyways.
As if on cue, the previously mentioned man turned towards her. "Are you planning on eating? After all the havoc you caused waiting for it, I'm surprised it's not gone already."
"Touché, monsieur Valentine!" She performed an elaborate bow before sitting down in the proffered chair, using the funny accent she'd heard one of the ladies in Costa Del Sol use. She remembered having erupted into fits of giggles when the woman had said that, but had used it often the following month after learning its meaning. She'd driven everyone up the wall with that phrase.
She lifted a sausage up to her nose and sniffed it, allowing the aroma of warm meat and spices to engulf her senses before taking a delicate bite off the end. A look of rapturous bliss dominated her features and she closed her eyes in order to better savor the taste. After that first, slow bite, she proceeded to inhale the morsels on the plate before her, eating as a girl possessed. Her feeding was only interrupted when she took an occasional pause to drink some orange juice and fling a quick compliment in Vincent's direction. Before long the plate was empty, and was patting her stomach contentedly and sighing.
"Man, Vinnie, you can cook!" she grinned and leaned back in her chair. Vincent wasn't even halfway done, his eyes fixed on her and the empty plate before her as he slowly moved her fork to and from his own food to his mouth. "Hey, don't stare! It's not like I'm gonna snatch your food while you're not lookin'!"
"Are you sure? The way you inhaled your own food I wouldn't put it past you."
{Another joke.?} "Gee, Vinnie, you're on a roll. Keep it up and I just might think you've got a sense of humor!" She grinned at him. He coughed slightly and turned his attention to the plate in front of him once more. Yuffie sighed and fidgeted nervously in her chair across from his, staring about the dining room. Other than the kitchen, this was the only room in the mansion that was devoid of dust. Yuffie cleared her throat.
"So, um, what happened to all the monsters?" she finally asked.
Vincent just stared at her, as if she'd asked the most idiotic question in the entire world. Finally, he responded. "I. exterminated them."
"Oh, right," the young ninja couldn't take it anymore. {Maaaan, I really hate these long silences! I just feel so awkward.} She stood and stretched. "Well, that was the best breakfast I've ever had, Vinnie! Thanks so very, very much! Well, I guess I'll head upstairs and change. And no following me, you perverted vamp!" She winked at the last statement to show that she was joking and skipped out of the room before he could comment.
She raced up the stairs two at a time, the excellently prepared breakfast having reenergized her young body to its peak teenage performance. In true hyper-Yuffie fashion, she jumped at the open door, using the momentum and swing of the door to launch herself feet first in a full-body horizontal kick.
And would have landed gracefully if her feet had not connected with something solid inside the room. She heard a thump and a groan as a figure flew across the room with the force of her kick. She stared at the scene before her.
A darkly hooded person was sprawled in the corner, Yuffie's bag lay open in the middle of the floor, and her shuriken lay gleaming on the desk next to her. Yuffie grinned, picking up her Conformer and glaring evilly at the would-be thief before her. She grabbed his cowl and shook him back and forth, holding her shuriken to his throat. "So you thought you could steal from a ninja, huh, punk? I'll kick yer hooded ass to the crater and back, buddy!"
The cowl fell away from her captive and she stared, her threats momentarily forgotten. This man looked almost like Vincent, his face was definitely that of her pale friend. But his hair. it was Sephiroth-white, though cut much shorter. Yuffie shook her head. A thief was a thief, and no one stole from Yuffie Kisaragi! She slapped him.
"Yo! Wake your pale ass up, buster! We have things to discuss!"
He groaned and rubbed his head gingerly before opening his eyes. These, too, caught her off guard, and she had to blink to make sure she was seeing right. His eyes were blood red, like Vincent's, and glowed with Mako, but they were shaped more like Sephiroth's had been. Currently, they were full of surprise.
"W-who are you?" he asked, his eyes locked on hers. His voice was deep but held a boyish quality, reminding her vaguely of Cloud. She glared at him.
"I think I should asking you that, mister! What the hell were you doing, rifling through my stuff!? That's private property!" she shoved the Conformer closer to his face. "You may begin with the explanations."
His eyes left hers to cross cutely at the shuriken point at his nose. He seemed to smirk slightly. "I really don't feel like it right now."
Yuffie's blue-grey eyes stormed over with rage. "W-what?!? You punk! I ain't givin' you a choice!"
He shook his head, the slight smirk turning into a mysterious smile. Yuffie fumed. How could he and Vincent still manage to look cool even after being beaten up? She'd never been able to.
His hand moved so fast that Yuffie barely had time to react, instinctively reaching to parry the blow with her Conformer as she kicked herself away from his body, digging the heel of her foot into his shin as she did so. She heard him curse as she took up her standard battle stance, shuriken held ready.
"Hey, you're pretty good," he said appreciatively, running a hand through his snowy hair. "The first person to dodge that blow since, well, ever!" He smirked once more. "But I'm afraid there's no time to play."
There was a blast of smoke that left Yuffie coughing and gagging, and she barely heard the sound of shattering glass as she wheezed for breath. She held the dark silk of her shirt over her mouth as she squinted into the smoke after the mysterious Vincent look-a-like. It was while she was waving the smog away from her face and beginning to change out of Vincent's shirt that the door to her room burst open.
"Yuffie, what-"
"Ahhhhh!!! Vincent, you pervert, I told you not to follow me!" she shrieked, holding the black silk garment in front of her protectively as she threw a shoe at him. He dodged and darted back out the way he'd come, his garnet eyes wide.
Panting heavily from the scare Vincent had given her (She'd thought he had been the white haired-man again, coming back for a sneak attack), she dressed into her outfit quickly and clutched her shuriken nervously before calling out. "Vinnie.? You can come in now!"
The door opened slowly, and a very distraught looking Vincent Valentine entered the room, his crimson gaze flicking from Yuffie to the window and back. "What.?
"That? Oh, some weirdo was in here looking for loot. I caught him rummaging through my bags, so I laid some total smack-down on him!" She grinned and punched an invisible enemy in the air before calming down a bit and sighing. "But then he whipped out a smoke bomb and dived through the window. Gawd! The nerve of some thieves!"
Vincent stared out the broken window and out over the small town of Nibelheim. "Describe him."
"I'd say, oh, half a head taller than me. white, I mean, Sephiroth-white hair to about his neck and stuck out in some places. kinda pale, not as bad as you, though. red eyes that glowed with Mako or something." She grinned. "And totally hot. if you like dark and mysterious type!"
He stared at her, and she felt herself blush slightly. Especially since the person she'd described had looked so very similar to Vincent. Lucky he didn't know that.
"Do you?" he asked.
"Huh? Do I what?" she asked, glancing quickly around the room.
"Go for the dark and mysterious type?" his eyes were boring into hers, causing the heat to rise to her face again.
"M-ay-be, may-be not!" she grinned and stretched her arms above her head as she dropped her eyes to his shoulder, trying to dispel her blush. "But regardless of my preference in guys, don't you have something you need to be doing?"
He furrowed his brow in concentration before nodding in agreement. "Yes, I must continue my search." He shifted his eyes to the broken window once more. "Will you be alright by yourself?"
"By myself.? Vinnie, I'm shocked!" She twirled, grabbing her bag from the floor and smiled up at him. "I'm going down there with you! After all." she balled her fists under her chin and did her best 'helpless maiden' impersonation. "It's just not safe for a young girl alone anymore!"
Vincent sighed and turned to leave. "Very well. Just don't be too much of a pest while I'm searching."
"Me? A pest? Whatever!" she stomped her foot indignantly and flipped her hair out of her face before following him back to the basement. {Well, it felt nice to kick some butt after such a large meal, anyway. At least this little stay in Nibelheim hasn't been boring.}
Upon reaching Hojo's old study/lab/really dusty old library, Yuffie immediately plopped down in a corner to do an inventory check. {Let's see. materia. brush. ugh, more jerky. picture of the old group, including Aeris!. Sephiroth's severed head. no, wait, that's just a doll. um, hey, where's my.?} "Aaahhhhhhh!!!!!" Yuffie let out a scream loud enough to wake the dead.
She was frantically pawing through her bag as Vincent rushed in, Death Penalty in his hand and aimed ahead of him. "What's wrong?" he asked, his eyes darting warily around the room.
She stared at him and sniffled. "My-my. That bastard stole my diaries! Not just one, but all of them! I've got some personal stuff in there!"
He stared at her in disbelief. "Your. diaries. All that screaming over some books?"
"Books!?" she wailed, turning a very evil death-glare his way. "How would you feel if someone stole your thoughts and feelings? If they perused your personal life over tea and crackers? Huh!? I don't know about you, but the thought of some strange guy laughing at my misfortunes does not amuse me!"
He didn't even have the decency to look abashed. He just stood there, all stotic and cool looking before calmly reaching a hand out to her. "I'm sorry about your loss, however there is nothing we can do about it at present. Why don't you do something else to take you mind off of it?"
She sniffed and took his hand, smiling grimly up at him. "Yeah, you're right, Vinnie. No use crying about it now, huh? Let's you and me get searching for this assistant or whatever. Two people search faster than one, right?"
"Right," he agreed and nodded towards the wall behind her. "Try searching this area while I continue going through those books in there. Tell me as soon as you find something."
Yuffie searched through book after dust-covered book, looking for information to help her depressed friend. She didn't know why he cared about Hojo's assistants, unless he was plotting revenge or something, but it did help her forget about her lost diaries, so she pored her heart into the search.
After what seemed to Yuffie like absolute days later, she thought she'd finally found something. She perked up and eagerly scanned the yellowed pages.
/Cyrus shows promise for such a young lad, and his ideas on the reanimation of flesh and the fusion of undead tissue to living are fascinating. I'm delighted to have him as an assistant. The idea of infusing subject V.V. with Death Gigas was splendid. to think I was just going to settle for the Ghalion Beast! Cyrus has also suggested trying another monster and I'm thinking of using Hellmasker. That should suit my assistant's tastes well enough, I think. Cyrus's Yin and Yangs are progressing brilliantly, much stronger than expected. I'm thinking of allowing him to infuse subject V.V. with these other creatures he's been talking about, though I don't think it's a good idea to use.\
The rest of the words were too faded and smudged to read, but she'd found what she needed. She ran to the back of the study, where she skipped happily to stand in front of Vincent, the journal behind her back.
".Yes?" he asked, not even glancing up from his book.
"Gee, no 'Hi, Yuffie, how're you doing, found anything?'? I'm shocked and hurt that you care so little for my welfare." She pouted and moved closer, so close she could hear him breathe. She placed a hand on his cheek and turned his head to face her. She smiled. "I've got a surprise for ya, Vinnie." she said softly.
"And what would that be.?" he asked softly, his garnet eyes meeting her gaze curiously. He was so close that just the slightest move forward would.
She blushed at the thoughts that swarmed through her head and pulled the journal from behind her back, placing it between her lips and his. "Read here," she told him, her lips brushing the paper.
The look on his face shifted from surprise to disbelief and finally to a look that suggested that, had that book not been in the way, he would have kissed her. "You found something?" he asked incredulously, pulling his head back slightly, excitement creeping into his voice.
"Yep! Someone named Cyrus." she shrugged. "You know him?"
He paused in thought for a moment before nodding slowly. "I think I remember meeting him once. Tall, athletic looking boy, not the type you expect to see in a lab coat. Blond, I believe. Very interested in undead." He read the passage that Yuffie had pointed out and stared off into space, lost in his thoughts.
"Vinnie?" she asked after a while, the silence getting to her once more.
He didn't seem to hear her. "It's too bad we can't read the rest of this." he mused, still staring off at something visible only to him.
"Well, there is one good way to find out what it says, right?" she offered, trying to lighten his spirits.
"Oh? And what would that be?" he asked, turning an amused gaze on the young girl before him.
"We could go find this Cyrus person and ask him!" she said, pleased with her obvious brilliance.
"Mm, there's just one problem," he said, standing up and walking back through the tunnel, the journal clutched in his claw. "We don't even know if he's alive anymore, much less where he resides."
"Oh," she pouted, crestfallen, "Right." Her head perked up once they left the winding staircase of the passage. "Hey, do you hear something?"
Vincent nodded. There was a pounding on the front door of the mansion. Yuffie raced to the window of the room to look into the front yard. "Hey, Vinnie, whoever it is came inside." she said quietly. {I bet it's the punk who took my diary!}
Vincent motioned for her to flank the door, ready to tackle whoever came through while he covered her with his gun. She nodded and got into position.
The door opened, and Yuffie instantly flew into the figure. She had him down with his hands pinned under her knees and her shuriken pressed against his neck as she found herself face to face with.
"Cloud!?"
~*~End Chapter~*~
*Yes, I realize that the whole gag about the guy changing the girl's clothes in her sleep is cliché, but so is accidentally groping her breasts. It's still a classic element, and it's still amusing!*
~Kai~
