FF7 and it's characters are not mine! Thank you to everyone for the great comments! Enjoy!

"Vincent, we need to get her to the hospital, now that she's not bleeding so bad. She needs blood. Here," Tifa grabbed bandages, though Yuffie barely noticed, unable to take her eyes off the gunman, who was still so close to her. The sadness in his eyes made her heart wrench in her chest, she didn't want to see that in those garnet orbs of his. No… not ever again… I know he doesn't age, and someday I'll die… but it won't be today.

"I'm not going to leave you," she whispered so softly only he could make out the words. "You were just starting to live, to feel and see the beauty in life… I'll be here to see you finally come out of your shell." She felt his fingertips trace along the line of her jaw, and she swallowed down the lump in her throat. "I'm going to hold you to that Yuffie…" The ninja let out a small smile, her stormy eyes seems a bit sharper then they had been. The gunslinger looked over to Cloud and Tifa, "I'll hold her up, get her bandaged and I'll get her to the hospital."

38 hours earlier…

"Vincent Valentine, I swear to Leviathan, if you don't lay down and rest, I will tie you down to a tree. You were just shot, and I saw all that blood go down the stream. I'm already injured, and you are injured… we can take a few hours to rest. We aren't going to miss the Shera, besides Cid will wait for us." She was currently sitting on the gunman's legs, her hands pushing his shoulders into the soft bedroll she'd set out for him. He was frowning up at her, normally a look that would cause grown men to mess themselves, but the tiny ninja was not going to be distracted. He was too annoyed at the moment to even realize how inappropriate their position was. "Yuffie…" he said, his voice careful, calm and cold, "get off of me this instant. I'm fine… you saw the wound close yourself. In the last two hours, the bruise is even gone."

In reality, he could have thrown the girl off, she barely weighed a hundred and ten pounds, and his three main guns weighed that, at least. He didn't, and he still wasn't sure why. Part of him liked the fact that her body was close, and warm. And a part of him was slightly excited by looking up at her. He put his hands on her hips and sat up, keeping her against him so she didn't fall, but he really was okay. His face softened as he got closer to her, and spoke softly, "I'm fine, I'm just glad that you weren't harmed."

Yuffie had managed not to make a surprised squeak when he sat up, but her cheeks turned a pale pink at the feeling oh his hands on her hips. Her arms bent and she found herself close enough do feel his breath as he spoke. The ninja focused on his lips, and started to move a bit closer, tilting her head just enough so she wouldn't bump his nose if she got close enough. The stoic gunman tensed a bit, not sure what she was doing, but not really wanting to move either. When she was close enough to brush her lips against his, her wayward chocobo came through the bushes, startling her enough to realize what she was about to do. Her cheeks went even redder and she swallowed the lump forming in her throat, and quickly moved off his lap, before she did something they would both regret. Well, she wouldn't regret a kiss, however she would regret the canyon she was sure would form between them. She liked him too much to force him away like that.

Vincent was a bit shocked, not expecting something like that would remotely happen, and he was finding himself sorely disappointed it hadn't. Perhaps she realized she didn't want to kiss me… she probably wasn't even going to kiss me. Why would she want to?

He cleared his throat; the silence was uncomfortable, even for him. After another minute, she jumped up, pushing the naughty thoughts out of her head, and going over to her pack. "Well, before that guy showed up, I was going to make some food. My growling stomach has now returned, with a vengeance, and isn't going to let us go anywhere until we, at least, eat something." She started moving to make a fire, humming a soft song as she did, acting as if nothing had happened. Vincent laid back down, feeling a bit light headed from the blood loss he'd suffered, even though he wasn't about to tell Yuffie that.

The ninja let Vincent doze while she cooked up something to eat, the half an hour going quickly as she thought about why she'd nearly kissed her friend. She knew part of it was she wanted him to be happy… it didn't seem like he'd ever, really been happy, except for a very short time with Lucrecia. She also found herself wondering just how many horrible things he was made to do when he was a Turk, and it made her feel as if the fierceness in which he fought now, was some how related to a need to atone for the sins committed thirty years ago. She glanced over at his peaceful features, well what she could see of them, and her heart thudded hard against her ribs. What is this feeling? I feel light and heavy at the same time… hot and cold. I feel feverous, and yet when I look at him, there is an uncontrollable shiver that runs through me… warmth, replacing chill. Is this love? Do I love him? I've known him for five years, fought and nearly died beside him… why am I only realizing this now? Am I just seeing the real him?

Questions were just thick in her mind, so much so that she nearly burnt the meager dinner of beans and salt pork. She really hated eating rations, but they didn't have much of a choice at the moment. She slid the fare into bowls, then moved over to Vincent, touching his arm softly and shaking him a bit. "Vinnie? Dinner is ready, if you want to move some more before nightfall, you should hurry… we only have about 2 hours of daylight left." His eyes slid open slowly, looking up at her, and then sitting up. He hadn't even realized he'd fallen asleep, but he took the bowl she handed him, starting to eat in silence. After a few moments, Yuffie looked back over to her friend and swallowed her bite. "Do you remember that man, the one that shot you?"

After a few heartbeats, he looked up from his food and sighed a bit. He sat the bowl down and ran his hand through his hair, "No… I don't remember him at all… he must have been a child when it happened, but back then… I had to block it all out, just to keep sane. I really thought it was the right thing, but the murders…" he stopped, and hid his face, his eyes looking anywhere but at the girl across from him. "Hurry and eat so we can get going."

Yuffie swallowed a bit, feeling bad for even bringing it up, and started to eat quickly. She dropped it, seeing it was obviously a hard subject for him. They ate the rest of their meal in silence, the ninja wanting to go to him to comfort his broken heart, and the gunman wishing she could…