Disclaimer – Prologue, my friend, prologue

Okay, so I've been busy. I'm not going to lie, I was busy until July, which is when I should have written and posted this chapter. But, I hit a dry spell, and you know. A creative slump, I guess you could say. But, here it is now!

Velveteen by Ilaria Graziano
Feel you in my hunger,
You're haunting my ambition,
Beautifully destructive attraction

Chapter 9 – Velveteen Moonlight

She backed away from the window as the movement inside her came to a sudden still. She hit something hard and unmoveable behind her, and turned her head to see Vincent staring down at her inquisitively. For a moment, she just stared up at him, and then proceeded in swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat, trying to keep both her heart and her breath steady.

"Look what he's doing to Shera. Why aren't they stopping him?" she asked, her voice a near whisper, and Vincent peered into the window from his place a few feet away.

"Cid's just holding her, she looks ill. I don't find anything wrong with that," stated Vincent, looking back down at the ninja's frantic face.

"No, not Cid you numbskull, the other guy, touching her face. Hello? Don't you see him?" she asked, twisting around to stare the gunslinger directly in the face.

"Yuffie, there's no one there other than Cid, Barret, and Shera," replied Red calmly, golden eye searching her face as bewilderment flared through him.

She raised her hands above her head, and looked into the sky, as if asking help from some unseen force, before letting her hands drop a few moments later, teeth grinding together in sudden irritation. She then walked quickly past both her comrades, and barged into the house, door forced open with a loud slam as it crashed against the wall.

"I'll show you," she snapped coolly at the pair as she stepped inside.

Both Vincent and Red hurried in after her, feeling not even a flicker of surprise at her sudden harsh action. Such actions were far too common from the irrational ninja, common enough that the shock value had been lost only days after they had met her.

"Hey, you, yeah you, look at me, asshole," she said, her hands gripping onto her slim waist tightly.

Cid looked at her, instantly infuriated. "Who are you calling an asshole, you dumb fuck?"

"Not you, moron, him," she said, pointing at the figure touching Shera's face, and he looked at her, surprised.

Cid looked to where she was pointing, and blinked, his anger instantly cooled by the sudden rush of bewilderment. Bewildered, but not surprised. It simply figured.

The other man's irises were darker than coal, black as the inky night, and empty, not at all unlike an endless abyss that took any and all emotions, and engulfed them. He blinked as she continued pointing and staring at him straight in the face, almost disbelieving that she could see him. It wasn't supposed to be possible to others unlike himself.

"You can see me?" he asked, and his hand dropped from its place on Shera's face, and she gave a quiet, almost inaudible gasp.

"No shit, Sherlock. What, do you think I'm blind?" she asked, and rolled her stormy eyes at him, to which he just shrugged.

"You're pretty well the first. This is quite the predicament, quite the predicament indeed…" his voice drifted off as he began to back away.

She felt the it fill her, and she allowed it to overtake her for just a moment, because it just felt so right then, so utterly perfect. For a moment, that instant, she felt almost complete, like that one piece of the puzzle had just been found. She felt the rush of a newly discovered power, and she charged, adrenaline rising at an immense rate.

She grasped her Conformer, detached it from her belt, and swung at him. The man moved as surprise rushed through him, shifting to dodge her blade. He was quick, but his speed didn't match that of the ninja's, and the conformer created a gash against the white flesh of his face. His hand flew to the wound, and he backed into the wall.

"How did you do that? You're a human, you can't…" he said quietly, coal eyes filling with the first real emotion she could see; fear. He sunk through the wall without another word.

Yuffie lowered her Conformer, and she felt the it resume its place deep within her, stilling once more into its semi comfortable spot. It was beginning to form a niche within her, and she was beginning to accept it. Was it to become a real part of her?

"What the hell was that? Have ya lost yer mind?" asked Barret, watching her with a certain puzzlement.

"You mean to tell me that none of you saw him?" she asked, looking at all their faces questioningly. As a reply, they all shook their heads in unison.

"Shera said she saw someone," said Cid quietly, anger tinting his voice. "Why the hell can you two see it, but not us?"

"I probably can because of Aeris' oh so awesome present," she paused for a moment when she noted their questioning gazes, "Don't ask, I don't want to explain it to you, it's too complex for your tiny brains. Shera probably can see him because it's actually happening to her. Anyway, I think I scared him off, damn right I did, and I doubt he'll be coming back."

"Maybe, maybe not," said Red with shrug and a flick of his tail.

"What do you propose we do?" asked Vincent, glancing over at him.

"We're all exhausted, I suggest we take shifts through the night to watch her," said Red, and glanced around at their sceptical faces. "It's true that only Yuffie can see the intruder, but everyone can still notice if anything unusual comes to pass."

"Good damned idea. The sun's pretty well already down anyway," he muttered with a quick glance at the clock on the wall. "A bit after nine. We should all get some shut eye, eh?"

"Sounds fine by me, who's gonna take tha first watch?" asked Barret, leaning up against the back of the worn and torn couch.

"I'll do it first. I'll put her in our bedroom, two of you can sleep on the couch, and the other two can go in the extra room. Sound good? Well too damn bad if it doesn't. Suck it up ninnies," said Cid, and he stood up, picking up his fiancé, and waltzed out of the living room.

With that, there was no more conversation, other than organizing shifts and who was going to sleep where for the time being. They also found that it would be best if they just went to sleep where whoever they were switching shifts with slept, to avoid the noise that bumbling around in the dark could possibly make.

Yuffie laid herself down in the bed in the extra room, pleased with herself for having so masterfully argued with the others enough that she'd won one of the two actual beds. So much better than the couch. Fools.

She glanced over at Red in the next bed, his back rising and falling as he laid on his side, head on the pillow, and unusual sight to say the least. He was already sleeping, his snores soft, and his breathing deep. The room was slightly on the chilly side, as it always seemed to be wherever she was, and she pulled the covers tightly around her, attempting to gather as much heat as possible to chase away the goose bumps from her arms.

She found herself flowing in and out of sleeping, dreaming dreams that she couldn't seem to remember from one minute to the next. She heard the shifts change, and people move around, although it wasn't long before the noises disappeared, and she was back in her shallow sleep. Her body was so tired, completely and utterly exhausted, but her mind was full and anxious, most commonly thinking about it, and other things that she tried not to let her mind stray to. A subject with deep crimson eyes.

She'd been doing it commonly recently, although she'd never admit it, nor would she acknowledge that something else that was roaming around her mind and in her gut. A feeling that rivalled the annoyance that it provided her. Of course, it was nothing, right? She was probably just hungry. She had to be just hungry. God, how she wanted to believe that was the simple truth. Unfortunately, she knew that things were rarely ever just that simple.

The ninja knew that it wasn't hunger she felt plaguing her, but living in denial about such things seemed to be working for the time being. Although it was proving more difficult to ignore as time progressed. Whatever, she didn't care. Just sleep, she just wanted to sleep. What she would have given just to be able to sleep her worries away.

She heard the door open, the hinges crying out for a good oiling, and Yuffie opened her eyes to two thin slits, curiously watching whoever came in. It was the gunslinger, and she observed as he tapped on Red's back, and the beast raised his head slowly, before nodding his head, and hopping off the bed. He padded silently out of the room, pulling the creaking door shut behind him.

Vincent took a seat at the edge of his bed, back facing Yuffie, the moonlight soaking in through the window, and it immersed him in its milky glow. He undid his cloak, placed it on the floor next to the bed, alongside Death Penalty. He proceeded in unbuttoning the first few buttons on his obsidian shirt, movements so slow and graceful that she couldn't help but watch. He pulled the opening to his shirt over to look at his injured shoulder, touching and shifting it, as if unsure that it still hurt. He winced faintly, and rubbed it automatically, a poor attempt to soothe the dull ache. He sighed to himself, and closed his eyes for just a moment.

Moonlight's radiance slid along his porcelain skin, caressing it as a lover would, as his off white flesh gave an otherworldly glow in its sumptuous rays. His coal hair cascaded down his back, and ran along his shoulders with what looked to be with the utmost silkiness. His lips were parted slightly as he breathed faintly, crimson eyes—oh, such a rich shade of red—observing it with the utmost dissatisfaction.

He looked unbelievable, stunning, and her heartbeat seemed to jump in her throat. He was something between being beautiful, and being handsome. His looks were too feminine to have been completely handsome, but he still held that masculine air that saved him from being completely beautiful. A word at the tip of her tongue to describe him, a word she couldn't seem to find in the back of her mind, so she didn't dare think anything else, for there was only one perfect word, and nothing else was just as good.

The ninja sighed to herself. To sum up all the poetic and eye pleasing words, she was finding him insanely attractive. Honestly, she always had, she could resist admitting it before, but she couldn't deny it now, not while she stared at him with his sheer magnificence, and was feeling what she felt. She couldn't say it was love. You don't love someone suddenly like that, she knew that. It must have been lust. Nothing more, just lust. Just a twisted infatuation with a polar opposite gothic creation.

One that she knew wouldn't be requited.

Yuffie sat up in her bed, and twisted to sit on the edge of the bed, still facing Vincent. The bed springs creaked, and the man spun around, surprised.

His crimson eyes met hers, and as the light crept into the room, and entered her eyes, his breath caught in his throat, as her heartbeat had in hers. Two orbs that danced with silver fire, blazing with mischievousness, glittering with deviousness.

She watched him closely, but didn't move in the least. The feeling, that feeling, it welled up so largely in her stomach, her insides spasming with a sort of warmth, as if she had been set on fire, and then doused in water so cold it felt hot. She felt like she would choke on it, that it would suffocate her. But it didn't, it just continued to move inside her, not like it had, but in a more welcoming way. It was supposed to be there, it was truly hers.

Vincent relearned how to breathe, and he turned away from her, closing his eyes tightly, trying to get rid of that vision of her face, with the eyes glowing of silver fire. Her image was disbanded when, in his desperation, Lucrecia came to mind, and any emotion he might have been feeling before was doused in the icy water of sorrow and anguish.

His love, his beautiful Lucrecia.

He didn't look at Yuffie after that, despite how he felt her eyes almost smothering him, memorizing his every movement. He simply slid under the covers, and turned towards the window, closing his eyes loosely. He could nearly see the light through his eyelids, but he didn't turn away.

He soon let himself succumb to sleep, letting himself fall into the dark chasm filled with no dreams, no nothing. Just unshakable darkness.

Morning came, as it always tended to do, and the morning rays slid deviously into the room, falling brightly into Vincent's face. The man's pale eyelids fluttered open, and he winced, turning away from the light as his eyes began to sting, shocked at the sudden impact of the bright rays.

He caught sight of the bed next to him, which was empty, covers thrown back in disarray, exposing the ivory cotton bed sheets that had been slept on. He was mildly surprised that she wasn't there, the ninja wasn't someone who commonly woke up early.

He pushed back his own set of covers, and sat up slowly, finding that his body ached for some reason or another. Not to mention that his left leg decided that it wanted a bit more sleep, shooting a sort of discomfort of pins and needles through him every time he attempted to move it. How bothersome.

He shook it off, and stood up, picking his cape off the ground in one smooth motion. He slipped it around his shoulders, and quickly hitched up the clasps in the front, holding it together comfortably. The gunslinger took his weapon, and he trailed out of the room, footsteps silent against the carpeted floor.

Vincent broke from the hall out into the living room, which also partially doubled as a kitchen. Red and Barret were sleeping on the couch. Barret's mouth was hanging open, a little trail of drool leaking from his lips, which was pressed into a pillow as he laid on his stomach. Charming.

He walked into the kitchen, and caught sight of motion outside the backdoor's window. His crimson eyes searched for the movement through the thick, partially scratched up glass of the window, and he saw it. A vision of black and green, and he instantly knew who it was.

He slung the weapon over his shoulder skilfully, and he moved with his catlike grace to the door, twisting the golden knob and pulling it open silently, making sure not to make any noise to disturb the other sleeping figures. Sunlight spilled out onto the tiled kitchen floor, and he waltzed outside, being as cautious to close the door silently as he had opened it.

There she was, the ninja was sitting atop the slanted platform that was used as a sort of steps to get to the inside of the airship. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, and her forehead was balancing atop them. Her puffy arms, credited to the olive green and obsidian parka, were wrapped around her knees, fingers linked together loosely. She pulled her knees even closer to herself, and sighed softly, almost inaudibly to Vincent.

He watched her, observing how her coat hadn't even bothered to have been zipped up, and was hanging open, revealing her forest green top which was flaunting her tanned middle. With that realisation, he noticed that it had grown slightly warmer than it had been the previous day, warm enough that it didn't bother her to have her coat open. Not to mention she didn't bother to put on her snow pants, and was waltzing around in her beige shorts.

He blinked, and she finally looked up, noticing his presence. He instantly noticed that there were dark circles painted under her eyes, helping her to look completely and utterly exhausted, as if she hadn't slept for a month straight.

"You appear to be tired, go try to get some rest before everyone awakens," he said, and she shook her head faintly, before rubbing her right eye with her hand tiredly. "I take it you've finished your turn for watch?"

"No, Cid woke up, and took Barret's place, stopping in to tell me that he wanted my turn, and that was that. It's not like I can sleep anyway. Last night was hell, complete hell. You'd think it would be paradise with having a real bed and all. Guess not," she said, words accompanied with another half-hearted sigh. "Guess how many hours of sleep I got. Here, screw guessing, I'm banking around two, if that."

"Why only two? What were you doing during the night?" he asked, and walked up the platform towards her, before taking a seat right beside her.

"Thinking. I kept waking up every now and then, say every fifteen minutes or so, and then it would take me forever to get back to sleep, because I would be thinking. I'm so damned tired, but I can't stop thinking long enough to get me to sleep. God, I feel like dying," she muttered, glancing at the gunslinger for a moment.

"Thinking about what?" he asked inquisitively, staring down at her with his crimson orbs, and she looked back at him, their eyes meeting for a split second before she broke their gaze.

"Things. Just things," she said, and she paused for a minute, before daring the ask the question that had been plaguing her since she'd read the journal. "Were you awake when Hojo… did that do you? Did you feel it all?"

His jaw tightened, and his muscles knotted themselves over a few times, winding himself up like a child's plaything. The question had taken him aback, one he had most definitely not expected to happen, and he continued to gaze down at her, puzzled.

"What brought about this… random question?" he asked, and she shrugged her shoulders quickly, too quickly that he found it suspicious.

"I dunno, I'm just a random person I guess," she said, and mustered up an innocent grin, which caused him to sigh. An obvious lie.

"You're a horrible liar, Yuffie. Tell me what provoked that question," he demanded.

"Only if you promise that you'll answer my question, and maybe some others I have," she said, crossing her arms arrogantly across her chest.

"Depending on the other questions, fine, now tell me," he said coolly, and she rolled her eyes at his persistence.

"Ok, fine, don't get your boxers all up in a twist… or briefs, I don't know what you wear. Maybe you go commando, which would throw that saying right out the window, but hey—"

"Yuffie. Avoiding answering the question isn't helping," he said, shaking his head, and she grinned slightly.

"Eh, fine, fine. Well, you see, I was reading Hojo's journal, and you know… stumbled across some things. I mean his scientific entries were just so fascinating I could hardly control myself—"

"Yuffie."

"Ok, fine, I was looking for blackmail. Are you happy?" she snapped, lips curling in a childish pout.

"Did you find what you were searching for?" he asked coldly, and her brows furrowed.

"Oh come on, it was only for fun. And obviously I didn't, or I would have brought it up already. Jeez," she said, and her playfulness seeped away, her serious façade replacing it. "You said you'd answer my question."

He simply stared at her for a long time, and she almost wasn't sure he was going to answer. Finally, he sighed, and his eyes flicked from her face, downward to the metal platform they sat upon.

"Yes, I felt everything. I didn't have the luxury of passing out, and escaping the pain. I felt it as he cut my flesh, as he inserted various things, I felt everything," he explained, glancing at her, watching her expression as a twisted look of sympathy crossed her face.

"You felt everything. How… how could someone do that to you Vinnie? How could he?" she asked, staring at him, demanding an answer, and he chuckled bitterly, an angry sound that nearly made her jump in surprise.

"He was never particularly fond of me, and of course, I was a perfect candidate for such an experiment. I was the only one that was close enough to… to both of them to be manipulated. I was the only person assigned to watch them 24/7," he said, his words filled with some emotion caught between anger, bitterness, and anguish.

When he said them, Yuffie knew that he meant both Hojo, and his dear Lucrecia.

"You still love her, don't you? Even after all she did to you, even though what happened was partially her fault," she asked him, and her words held a sort of bitterness, and sudden resentment, that made him cock an eyebrow.

There was a long pause, and he was enraptured in his memories and thoughts once more.

"I'm not going to answer that," he said quietly, and her muscles tensed.

"That's a yes. I don't understand you, Vincent," she said, her voice suddenly very tired, and he twisted his head to get a good look at her.

"You don't chose who you care for. You just do. That's all there is to it," he retorted, his voice surprisingly calm. "It's not what one would consider logical. It just is."

A veil of silence fell upon them, and they both simply sat together, dwelling on their own unasked questions, and unsaid words. Memories of pasts you can't change, and of things now lost.

He heard the sound of muffled voices, and cocked his head as the back door was pulled open, and a drowsy Cid peaked his head out of the door. Something flicked in his periwinkle eyes, a sort of bewilderment clashed with surprise, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"So, now you two are best pals. The world really is going to hell," he muttered, leaning against the doorway as the door tipped open fully.

He winced as the bright morning light poured down into his face, rays weaved of gold, and he raised his hand to shade his eyes. Neither of them answered him, Vincent merely stared at him, crimson eyes drained of all and any emotion. Yuffie didn't even bother looking at him, she just pulled her knees to her chest, and balanced her forehead on them, returning to the position she had previously been in.

"Christ, why's everyone in such a depressing mood?" he muttered, and again, neither of them replied. His words were swept away with the faint breeze, drifting away as if it had never even happened.

"Well, are you guys just going to sit there like a pair of ninnies? Let's get inside," he growled, frustrated at their lack of responses.

Cid walked into the kitchen, not bothering to close the backdoor behind him, automatically assuming that they would do his bidding. Vincent sighed, not exactly wanting to move, but not wanting to start a pointless argument with him.

He forced himself up, giving a quick glance to the tired ninja, and began his way down the platform. His golden boots clicked against the metal rhythmically as he stepped down, and he paused as he reached the bottom, turning his form slightly to see if she would follow him.

She'd moved only slightly, only enough to cock her head and watch him, stare at him from her place at the opening of the airship. Her slate eyes were fixated on his face, lips parted, although only slightly, face filled with something he couldn't identify.

When she realised that he was watching her, she finally stood up, brushing off her shorts habitually, before sluggishly travelling down the metallic slanted platform towards him. With that, he turned around, and headed inside the house, cape trailing behind him, and Yuffie couldn't help but feel like she was stuck in one of those old Dracula films.

Yuffie stepped inside the considerably warmer kitchen, uncaring of the noise she was making when she slammed the door behind her, and gazed around, noticing that everyone was up and about, including Shera. However, she couldn't help but notice that they didn't look all that much unlike her, with their tired eyes, and sloth-like motions.

She smelled the bitter scent of coffee, and she glanced over at Barret, who was carefully trying to pour some into a chipped and faded mug, but somehow managed to spill some over the sides, and a long string of colourful words escaped his mouth. The near black substance was coiled around the mug, not at all unlike a snake, and Barret lifted the mug, revealing a liquid ring in its place.

He watched it, weighing options in his mind, as if considering whether it was worth it to take the time to clean it up or not. He muttered something to himself that Yuffie didn't catch, and merely walked away from the small mess he'd made, finding that it was too much effort to just wipe it up.

Yuffie sighed at him, and restrained a sarcastic remark from escaping the cage of her mouth, before taking it upon herself to clean it up. Not even she was even in the mood for some witty repartee that morning. Her mind was far too tired from the lack of sleep, and once again during that week, she found herself not wanting to open her mouth.

She took a cloth in her hand, and she wiped up the mess, mildly annoyed that the big black man couldn't even take the whole two seconds to just clean up after himself. Two words came to mind with that realisation, and it danced in front of her eyes in big bold letters. Lazy ass.

Barret put the navy cup, worn and faded from overuse, to his lips, and chugged half of it down, ignoring the burning sensation as it ripped through his throat. He just needed caffeine, just needed that good kick to get him started. It had been about as good of a night for him as it had been for the young ninja. He just kept thinking of Marlene, his sweet girl. What if she got it? What if she got it and was dying? What if he wasn't there to help her?

It was a stupid thing to think, very irrational, because if something was wrong with Marlene, he would have been called… or something. She would have made sure he knew that something was wrong with her. That was a semi comforting thought, but it hadn't made the what ifs go away. The human mind was usually very irrational when it came to fear.

"Are ya feelin' better, Shera?" he asked, finally breaking the thick silence the whole room had been caught in.

She nodded her head and smiled faintly at him. "Yes, very much so," her smile then wasted away. "He's, he's a horrible man… or whatever he is."

"Hey, didn't I tell you all that there was a man? Did I not say that he was there, and you guys didn't believe me at first, you thought I was a loony. Oh no, don't believe the smartest, greatest ninja on the face of the Earth. I was the one who chased him off, oh yeah, I'll bet you guys are happy you have me," she said, tiredness momentarily forgotten.

"More or less," muttered Red, drawing Yuffie's attention, and she crossed her arms with faux anger.

"Jerk," she snapped, and stuck her tongue out at him childishly.

Vincent cleared his throat, which silenced the mutters of the room, and turned everyone's attention to his sun deprived face.

"We're going to be heading to Icicle Inn shortly, just thought I should inform you so you are not puzzled when we depart," stated Vincent, and for a moment, he was sure that Cid's eyes were going to fly out of their sockets.

"What! You can't leave, what happens if that asshole comes back? Shera can't fight him in her condition, and Yuffie's the only numbskull who can see him," said Cid, standing up so quickly that the chair gave a cry and flew backwards, crashing into the floor loudly.

"Hey, who are you calling numbskull, you jackass?" said Yuffie, immediately jumping to her own defence, brows furrowed with annoyance.

"Cid," said Shera, and reached over to gently touch his arm, and he gazed down at her, mildly surprised.

His muscles seemed to relax, and he sighed loudly, exhaling sharply. With that exhale, it seemed that the anger that had inflamed him so suddenly, seeped away into calmness. Her touch tamed his fury in a way that amazed most of the room, and caused them to watch, stunned to silence.

"Shera, if they leave, and he comes back, we'll be fucked," he said, his voice gruff, though a little softer.

"Cid…" she said, words barely above the tone of a whisper, and she sighed.

"He's right, god, that's new, eh?" said Yuffie, stormy eyes fixated on Shera's surprised visage. "Yeah, wherever I go, you go. That's how it's gonna be from now on, if something happened to you, Cid would try to skin me.. not that that old geezer would ever catch such a great ninja like moi, but you know what I mean."

"We must go to Icicle Inn, Yuffie, and Shera's not in the condition to do so via chocobo. Sending her out in such cold weather would put both her and her unborn child at risk," stated Vincent reasonably, crimson eyes meeting her slate ones.

"Yeah, but if he comes back, she might die… in a way, and what happens then? The kids probably a goner anyway," she retorted, eyes flicking over to the pregnant woman for an instant, before returning to the gunslinger's pale face.

"You were given the ability to destroy the being that's the cause of this all, we don't have many options here," he said, bloodstained eyes piercing downward into her face, as if trying to intimidate her into submission.

The ninja wasn't someone who was easily intimidated, particularly by someone she had come to know so well, so that idea was shot to hell.

"Both of you, stop bein' idiots. Just tell Cloud 'n 'em to come 'ere, instead of you going there. Holy shit," snapped Barret, his patience finally wearing thin over their consistent, stubborn bickering over their options. "Solves that problem right there."

Both Vincent and Yuffie were stunned into silence, and they gazed over at the large man, surprised that he'd come up with a reasonable suggestion that none of them had even thought of. Vincent nodded his head slowly, and pulled out his PHS, flipping it open with ease.

Without a greeting, Vincent simply instructed the blond man to come to Cid's house instead, and without an explanation or a goodbye, he flipped the phone closed, convinced that Cloud would do as told.

Shera sighed and slouched in her seat, convinced that it was her doing that was screwing things up. Cid looked over at his discontent soon-to-be wife, and smiled faintly, his eyes glittering with pleasantness that he had won the dispute after all.

Yuffie took a seat in one of the empty wooden chairs, and sighed, rubbing her eyes as the exhaustion decided it was time to kick back in, and overtake her in its unpleasantness. Vincent glanced down at her, her sudden movement drawing his crimson gaze.

"Yuffie, go try to get some rest. It will be a while before the others get here, and it may be better if you're at least slightly rested," he said softly, quiet enough that it didn't distract the others from the poor conversation they had somehow worked themselves into.

"You know, Vinnie, that's probably the best idea you've had all morning, and though I don't think I'll be able to go to sleep, I'll try anyway. Get me when they're here. God… so tired," she muttered, and slowly stood up, before leaving the room, her movements incredibly sluggish.

"Hey, where're ya goin'?" asked Barret, surprised as the ninja moved slowly across the room, very obviously having no intent on coming back.

Yuffie paused, movements frozen in the middle of the doorway, but she didn't turn. She seemed to contemplate if it was worth it to take the little energy she had and tell him that it was none of his business, or to just ignore that he said anything at all, and continue walking. Someone decided to answer the question for her, however the words used probably weren't the ones she was considering using.

"She's going to get some sleep, don't bother her. She will be needing it," said Vincent, eyes flicking from Yuffie's back, to Barret's shock-stained face.

The ninja sent a glance over her shoulder, stormy eyes meeting his bloodstained ones for half a second, before she twisted her head around, and continued her way to the guest room.

She couldn't help but notice a mild, but obvious heat slowly caressing her insides once again, a feeling whose meaning she feared. She licked her dry lips as her mind searched for options other than the one she feared for the heat. She didn't need that, not now, not about him. God, something was wrong with her. Definitely wrong with her. Maybe she was more exhausted than she thought.

But she knew that wasn't the reason. She'd been denying it for a few days now, it had begun to get painfully obvious in the ice pit that she was feeling… something, but by golly, did she want to admit it? Hell no. Did she want to admit it now? Doubly hell no.

So, she wasn't about to. As far as she was concerned, there was no heat. No way in hell. After this was over, they could go on their merry way, and it would have been nothing more than a tad of lust. So she thought he was hot, big damned deal. So she had a bit of a crush, also, big damned deal.

She needed to stop spending so much time around him, really, she did. The least thing she needed was to have an oh-my-god-I-think-I-love-you-so-please-make-out-with-me-right-here-right-now-damn-it kind of infatuation.

That would suck, especially with Mr. Happy, the king of angst and destroyer of fun. The opposite of her awesomeness. And still, there it was, happy as a clam, residing inside her, probably having a party with that power from hell that Aeris gave her.

Bastards were probably mocking her. Having a little get-together, while gossiping about her failure of a love life. Screw it.

She growled to herself, and pulled the covers up to her chin, and closed her eyes tightly, disbanding all of the useless, insignificant, and irrational thoughts that were ploughing through her mind viciously, a violent tidal wave driving her to the deep end.

With her mind clear (or as clear as it would get), and the house silent aside from the murmurs from the kitchen, she felt herself fall into asleep, where she seemed to be too exhausted to even dream.

Okay, so I'm not sure if I'm rushing the Yuffie/Vincent part of this, and should have made it happen more subtly for a longer period of time or something, if you see what I'm saying. Oh well. My bad.

As per usual, constructive criticism is deeply appreciated, and I give my thanks to anyone who gives it to me. XD. Tis definitely a good thing.

Another thanks clearly goes to all who reviews for this story, because it's also a mighty good thing. It deeply pleases me. .