Bolt
I stood under the crying sky, tilted my face up and grinned. A low chuckle sounded from behind me. Arms started to slide around me and then Reno 'oofed' as he received an elbow to his gut.
"Meanie," he muttered. I just laughed at him.
"That's what you get for trying to sneak up on a ninja."
Cloud chose to join us then, picking his way gingerly along the slippery rocks. "Hey ninja, hey flamer."
Reno scowled. "Are you insinuating something, Spike?"
"Nah, just commenting on your hair."
"Good."
"Although," Cloud continued a minute later, "you do spend an awful lot of time alone with Rude..." he ended teasingly. Reno growled and mock-swung at him.
Unfortunately, Vincent had ducked out of the waterfall at just that moment and Reno's fist caught him across the side. Vincent hissed and slid sideways, and probably would have been fine except that the stones were slick from rain. He lost his balance and vanished neatly under the water of the lake.
"Vincent!"
"Vinnie!"
I dove into the lake after him, just catching Cloud's yell to Reno over the rain before the blond swordsman joined me in the lake.
"Vincent can't swim!"
I kicked frantically towards a flash of gold. Vincent's claw was dragging him towards the bottom of the lake. I reached him, but it took me long enough that he'd fallen unconscious from lack of air. I grabbed his claw and tugged it loose. Suddenly Cloud was beside me, grasping Vincent's other arm and helping me to pull him up.
Between the weight of the water and his clothes and claw, though, the two of us together were still struggling. A flash of red dove past me and Reno helped us propel Vincent to the surface. The three of us together dragged him back into the cave, where Cloud got a fire going.
We were all shivering badly. I stood up. "Gonna go get some dry clothing for everyone," I said in response to Cloud's glance. Reno was still staring at Vincent.
I came back a few minutes later, fully changed, with an armful of dry clothing. Which I promptly dropped on the floor.
"Vincent!"
His eyes were open, but he was pretty clearly not seeing anything. He was thrashing wildly as Cloud and Reno tried to get his soaked clothing off. Cursing, Reno muttered a Stop spell.
At first it didn't work, then Cloud succeeded in tugging off Vincent's Ribbon, if not his shirt. Then the Stop spell took hold and Vinnie went rigid, his eyes still open and unseeing. "Hojo..." he muttered, and I shivered more than I had when I was soaked to the bone.
I turned away as Cloud managed to get him into dry clothing and Reno built up the fire. When I turned back, Reno was gone.
