This is a long one! Don't own FF7, that's Square-Enix, blah blah... I hope you enjoy, since many of you were concerned about Vinny's behavior!
Vincent felt the truck come to a quick stop; it was obvious Cloud was trying to be fast, and gentle about the driving. After a few heartbeats, Cloud opened the double doors and the gunman could see Tifa running for the doors of the hospital. He managed to get himself and Yuffie out of the truck without jostling her. The gunman looked to the doors, nurses were coming through, with a gurney and the doctor and Tifa was trailing close behind. The raven haired man set her down on the rolling bed and immediately the doctors started to go to work on her, checking her vital signs and pushing her into the hospital. His red eyes were full of worry and one of the nurses came over to them. She asked Cloud some questions, but Vincent wasn't paying attention, he was too wrapped up in Yuffie's condition.
The nurse, a cute brunette, put her hand on Vincent's shoulder after Cloud was finished explaining. "You did the right thing. From what your friend said, you wouldn't have even been able to get her here if it wasn't for the field treatment she'd gotten. We'll do everything we can."
26 hours earlier…
Yuffie woke up, alone and a bit cold since the fire had burned itself out; she blinked the sleep from her eyes and looked around, wondering what had happened to Vincent. His clothes and equipment were gone, even his cloak that was giving her extra warmth. She pulled her clothes on, luckily they had completely dried during the night, and she moved to the opening in the cave. It was still raining, though not as bad as it had been, the sky was starting to brighten, though dawn was probably still an hour off. It was the beginning of autumn, and they were rather far north. Yuffie sighed, not knowing where Vincent had gone, but decided to give him some time to come back. He said that he wouldn't leave her, and she believed him. The gunman had probably gone out to scout, or get some food, any sort of thing. The shinobi went back over to the makeshift bed and saw that Vincent's pack was still there, which made her smile. That meant he wouldn't be going anywhere, that whatever he was doing, he'd be coming back. She restarted the fire then grabbed her own pack, interested to see what this new summon did. Yuffie, unlike Vincent, didn't have the sense to research before using a new materia. She took out her Rune Armlet and started looking at the set up. She had Added Effect linked with her Ice, to make her heartier in cold weather, a lot of good it did me last night… So she switched out her Ice for the new summon. The girl blinked, looking at the slight glow from the materia when she linked it, not having ever seen that happen before. "That's weird…" she whispered, then shrugged. Nothing else had happened, so she figured it was alright.
The ninja grabbed some supplies and started to make some breakfast, smiling softly to herself. She made some eggs and took some of the bread, making a type of sloppy sandwich that filled her up and tasted pretty good. All this activity had taken twenty minutes and she found herself really bored. Yuffie grabbed up her bag and slipped out her small photo album. She'd always carried a camera around with her, so she could catch precious memories and bring them with her; she had been rather upset when she'd lost it in Shinra Headquarters somewhere, during the fight with Omega. It really bummed her out, but she just hadn't been able to find another one that she liked. The shinobi started to thumb through her pictures, smiling a bit. There was one with Barret, dressed up in that white sailor suit; in her neat script the word "Marshmellow" was written in black. The next one was a picture of her, Tifa and Aerith, and she was pretty sure that Cid had taken that picture since there was smoke visible in the frame. Then there was one of Cloud, sitting next to the fire with his chin resting on the back of his hand. Yuffie smiled softly and ran her finger over it. "I need to give this one to Teef… I think she'd like it." She turned the page and smiled wider, seeing Cid and Nanaki asleep by the camp fire, the pilot's back was leaning on the lion's side, and the blonde's head was resting on the deactivated Cait Sith, like a pillow. She flipped a few pages forward and touched the next picture with the tip of her finger. It was Vincent, Reeve and herself, in the lobby of WRO headquarters. Vincent looked none to pleased that the picture had been snapped; Yuffie had each of her arms wrapped around one of the men's necks, with a huge grin on her face. Reeve was laughing, his hand over his mouth and eyes closed. If memory served, Shalua had been the one to snap that picture. The last one in her photo album, basically because she'd lost her camera right after she'd changed the film, was a picture of Vincent, on the bridge of the Shera, leaning against the bulkhead. It was the only picture where she'd been able to get his whole face, and the look he was giving her was soft. She didn't know at that time everything that was going on in his head, and his struggle to keep Chaos down, so the fact the picture seemed so tranquil made it her favorite in the whole book. If one concentrated hard enough, he almost had a smile in his ruby eyes. "Did you know?" She whispered to the picture, running her fingers over his perfect, heart shaped mouth, "that I loved you then? Do you know I love you more then anything now? I'll tell you soon, I promise."
Yuffie didn't realize that the materia was activating yet again, until she felt a sharp pain on her cheek. "Ow…" she said softly, touching her hand to the tender skin but found no evidence of injury. When she moved her hand, she caught the glimpse of the red summon glowing faintly. "What the…"
.:xXx:.
Vincent dodged out of the line of attack, rolling and gaining his feet again, letting a shot ring out and smacking the Master Tonberry square in the head. He'd never seen these strange creatures outside the Northern Crater, and he was glad he'd left Yuffie to sleep in the cave. This place was full of monsters, and she was in a weakened condition. He activated his Morph materia and hit the Tonberry one last time, before he turned into a Ribbon. Vincent picked it up and started down the only passage open to him. He'd already been at this nearly two and a half hours, though the monsters where getting more difficult the farther in he went.
.:xXx:.
Truth be told, when Vincent had walked out of the cave, he had every intention of disappearing again. He knew Eros would protect Yuffie, but… something stopped him. The nagging voice in the back of his head told him that he'd made a promise, he'd told the young woman he would never leave her, and what was he doing? Breaking his vow; adding to his long lists of sins. Normally when he did this to himself, thoughts of Lucrecia, and poor dead Shelke came to mind… but this time was very different. What came to his mind was Yuffie.
She slipped her arms around his shoulders, hugging close to him. "Vinny," she said softly, "We're your friends… we love you. Please don't push us away. Do you think Shelke gave her life for you so you could sit in a graveyard the rest of your life? You are obsessed with death; you can't pull yourself away from it."
"I am dead, Yuffie," he said softly, she could feel the reverberation though his chest as he spoke with that deep, rough voice of his, and the ninja girl found tears coming to her eyes. She didn't cry for the women buried in the cave, but rather the man who watched over them and the deep pain she could feel radiating off his warm corpse. A drop of water soaked into the thick, red fabric her cheek was resting against, and she shook her head, "You don't have to be."
"I can't do this," he whispered, bringing his hand to his forehead, he hurt terribly at the thought of never seeing the silly shinobi again. It hurt more then Lucrecia, it hurt more then Shelke, it hurt more then the experiments and the tests… it hurt more then betrayal. It stung so badly that he realized, finally, by pushing her away he was doing what Lucrecia had done to him. Yuffie had cried for him, cared enough to stay by him no matter how hard he pushed her away, she always came right back to weasel her way that much deeper. I might not deserve her… but she deserves to be happy, and if I'm what does that… then by the gods, I have to start trying. I've been dead so long, I don't think I know how to live, but for her, I will try. He finally understood, and he remembered back to what Eros had told him. "My love will protect her; she wants me to protect her… not like Lucrecia." He'd ducked back inside the cave and put his pack down, smiling gently as her sleeping form, then left again, this time with a clear purpose. Vincent needed to prove he was worthy; this was a test of love for him. He wanted to recover the weapon, for her, and he needed to do this for himself.
.:xXx:.
As he crept into the final chamber, he was pounced by a giant insectoid like beast, which almost looked like a Death Claw, but ten times bigger. The monster swiped at him, and he managed to get back enough to avoid major damage, only getting hit with a stinging cut to the cheek. He could feel the blood start to trickle down his face, but he just lowered the barrel of Cerberus and started firing. He knew these were normally deadly foes to begin with; the increased size of the monster did not bode well for the silent gunman. He rolled, squeezing off a shot; he knew he had to keep on the move in order to stay alive. He took another hit, this time across the bicep, snagging and tearing his cowl and sleeve. That cut stung as well and the gunslinger managed to move quick enough to critically wound the beast. Unfortunately that only served to anger it. The Claw started to flail about violently, crashing and slashing into Vincent. The dark man gasped as one of the spines along the arm of the monster pierced his side.
.:xXx:.
Yuffie whimpered as she felt a horrible pain in her side. The throbbing of her cheek and arm weren't enough, but now, it was a gut wrenching pain that was tying her organs in knots. Her eyes fell onto Vincent's pack, and intuitively she figured it out. "Vince…" She jumped up and grabbed her Conformer, running out of the cave, startling the golden Kokoro. The ninja stopped in front of the cave and looked around, not having any clue where he was, she just had his urgency in her heart that caused her to start running down the hill, toward another group of caves. The rain was still falling, but she paid it no mind, she had to find Vinny, he needed her. She had no idea why she knew exactly where to go, but it was like she had Vincent Radar or something. Yuffie felt like she had Sense on all the time, and it was directed right to her would be lover. The only thing that had changed was the fact she'd equipped the new materia, but she didn't see how that could do much, unless that was it's added effect to her armor. It told her the location and condition of the object of her affection?
"Naw…" she whispered and ran into the cave, looking for any sign of Vincent. She hurried through the first chamber and into the second, finding several corpses, all nasty looking monsters. "Vincent!" She called, running on; passing room after room of dead things, as the ground gently sloped downward and led her east. The pain in her side was getting worse, which only served to push her to run faster. When she finally reached the last room, her eyes got big at seeing the terrifying monster and was surprised to find the familiar magical warmth already built up in her body, which normally would have required her to be injured, multiple times. Vincent was hit… maybe that also brought me closer to my limit. She didn't question her fortune; she just brought her Conformer up and planted her feet. "All Creation!" she called out, internally triggering the magic release, causing a bright beam of light to shoot from her weapon, striking the huge monster in the abdomen. The shinobi watched the thing fall, creating a loud thud against the rock and didn't move after that.
"Vincent!" Yuffie called again, running toward the back of the cave where Vincent was laying, a puddle of blood was forming under him. She knelt down beside him, moving his hair from his face to see his eyes open, and for a moment she thought he was dead. But his chest was moving shallowly and his eyes moved up to her face. "Yuffie?" He said weakly, clearly not believing that she'd found him in time. The ninja nodded and activated her restore, then looked to the wound. It seemed that the spine that originally pierced him had broken off and lodged there, not allowing his regenerative abilities to tend the wound. She took one of her arms and held Vincent firmly, while using her free hand to grasp the thorn and pull. There was a sickening slurp and the thing came free, followed by a pained grunt from Vincent and a new flow of blood. "Cure 3," she called, the green magic settling around him and closing the wounds on his cheek and arm, and stopping the stream of blood from his side. The gunman blinked and let out a small sigh, and looked up to his savior. "How did you find me?"
"I don't really know, but I think it has to do with the materia we found last night. I could feel the pain you were going through, and I could just sense where you where. Then when I got here, I didn't even fight and I could already use All Creation! I think the hits you took also served to build the magic up in me!"
Then, something happened that Yuffie could never have expected, not in a million years. Vincent was lying there, bloody and wounded, and he started to chuckle. He put his arm across his stomach to hold the muscles there, and he laughed, a full on, deep seated laugh. "I'm such a fool…" The plans that fate had set out to teach him his place were just too perfect. It tickled him to think about it, "He wasn't testing me… he was testing us."
Yuffie looked at him strangely, "Uh Vinny, what's going on? You're kinda scaring me. I've never heard you laugh before, and now you're doing it when you almost died. You didn't crack up, did you?"
That sobered him up, but not for the reasons anyone could guess. He gave his temple a small rub, to clear his head. There was something wrong and sad about the fact he scared her by laughing, I used to laugh all the time… where did that man go? I want her to laugh with me…I want to be that man again… He felt what was left of that wall around his heart break, and while he was far from fine, some one could now get in there and glue the fragile, shattered thing back together. Vincent reached up and gently caressed her cheek, causing her to smile and close her eyes, nuzzling against the gloved flesh. She was like a kitten, completely self sufficient and stubborn, but when she was shown affection, she just melted into it.
"What did you mean, 'testing us?' I was pretty confused by that." The ninja kitten looked down at him with those big, stormy eyes and he got a completely soft and sweet look on his face. "I'll explain on the road." Vincent gently stroked her cheek, he could barely feel her warmth through the glove, and he found himself desiring to touch her skin, and hold her like he'd been doing last night, and this time it wasn't accompanied by a huge cloud of soul crushing guilt. He sat up and pulled her to him, so she was sitting on his lap, and pulled a strip of material from his pocket. The gunman gently moved his hands to her hair and swept the silky strands up, making a sort of pony tail, and tied the Ribbon in her hair. It was a blue that matched her tiny shirt, and besides looking pretty, it would protect her.
Yuffie's eyes searched his face; he seemed different, warmer almost. There was a light to him that she'd never seen before. Vincent Valentine was probably the most beautiful person in the whole world, right at that moment. She wasn't going to ask where he'd gotten the ribbon, and really she would have rather he kept it, to keep him from harm, but it was the first present he'd ever given her, and she wanted to be selfish. "Thank you," she whispered and wrapped her arms around his neck, gently brushing her lips against his, not wanting to commit to the kiss if he was going to pull away again.
To the ninja's supreme relief, he didn't run, and he actually let his hands slip from Yuffie's hair and down to her waist, pulling her close and pressing into the kiss. This time, she was fully awake and completely pressed against his unyielding body, his soft lips leaving a tingling sensation every where they touched, sending fireworks through her whole body. She sighed against him, parting her lips to allow his tongue entrance into her mouth, which he met with gentle pressure. Her hands slipped up into that mane of raven hair, which caused him to deepen the kiss, his movements becoming more heated and his body moving to lay her down on the floor. He crawled over her, letting his claw run up her side as the kiss turned hungry, their motions nearly bruising in their haste to find comfort with the other.
When they were both out of breath, they parted, and Vincent moved to rest his forehead against hers, and closed his eyes. "I want to continue, but this isn't the place…" The crimson gunman didn't want her to think that he was rejecting her, because nothing could be further from the truth, but they were in a cave, surrounded by his blood and the carcass of the monster that had nearly killed him, and he wanted their first time together to be done properly. He wanted to have her dress up, and take her out to dinner, then lay her on a soft bed full of pillows and satin sheets. He wanted to take his time and languidly ravish her, memorizing every piece of her flawless skin. The thought only caused him to become aroused further, but luckily for him, he'd developed patience in his thirty years of captivity.
Yuffie nodded in understanding, and not really wanting to have sex around dead things either. Vincent smiled, glad she agreed and gently moved to kiss her neck, "mine," he whispered breathlessly against her soft skin at the base of her neck, "my Yuffie." The ninja let out a soft moan when he lightly bit down on her neck, giving her a mark. "I'll make you mine before that fades." Yuffie whimpered and sighed, trying to keep her desire and emotions in check. The way he was acting was so… un-Vincent-y. But then again, the utter passion he'd held for Lucrecia all those years, it didn't surprise her so much after all. The ninja moved the collar of his cloak down and kissed his neck gently, before sucking on the skin and making a hickey. "Ditto buddy… you are already mine."
The shinobi grinned at the deep, almost primal growl that came from her love, and she moved to look back into his eyes. Vincent was smiling, his eyes were almost predatory with his desire, and he took her in another, passionate kiss. She responded fully, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and matched lust he put into it.
It was harder for the lovers to part this time, but they did, and Vincent got up and looked down at her. Yuffie sat up and smiled softly at him, "You know Vincent, I really love you a lot. I'd have to, too put up with your shit." This time when he laughed, she laughed with him, and Valentine said something he swore he'd never say again. "I love you too." The ninja wrapped her arms around him again, this time just resting against his chest with her eyes closed. She enjoyed listening to his heart beat, something she found completely amazing, since there was a time when it hadn't. Thank you Lucrecia, for bring him back. I think you're pretty lame for picking Hojo over him, but thanks all the same.
After a few minutes, Yuffie looked back up at him and gave him a quizzical look, "Why are you even in here to begin with?" Vincent gently moved her head so she could see the treasure chest five feet away from them. "Oohh," she said and scrambled off of him, hurrying over to the chest. He found it humorous that she was always so distracted by treasure. The ninja popped the lock on the chest easily, opening it up. Inside were two weapons, one was a rifle, and the other a shuriken. Both looked to me back out of red crystal that looked deceptively fragile. Yuffie blinked, thinking it strange that they would each find a weapon in the same chest. They each had four materia slots, but the crystal itself seemed to plus with magic. "Vincent… these weapons are made from mako crystals… summoning crystals…" She picked up the shuriken and inspected it. The weapon was incredibly light, even lighter then the Conformer, and that was saying something, the four points curved clockwise in gentle arches, completely organic looking. She looked at the materia holes, and they looked odd, the holes were huge, with an apparatus to keep the orbs in place. She'd seen something like this before, but this was even bigger then the ones on Cloud's sword, Apocalypse. "These are quad growth weapons Vinny, Quadruple growth! I've never seen one of these before!" She ran her hand over the crystal and felt an engraving, which caused her to look harder. Yuffie smiled a bit when she read the name of the weapon, The Valentine, so even when you aren't protecting me, you will be in spirit. How is it such a perfect weapon came to be here? It's like it was made, just for me.
Vincent came over to the chest and reached down to pick up the rifle. There were also quad growth slots in his weapon, four along the bottom of the butt. The mechanical parts of the gun were brass, and matched his claw, while the stability was given by the red mako crystals. The gun was an absolute work of art, light and solid. He spun it on his finger, smiling a bit when it performed perfectly. Along the barrel, the name Shattered was etched there. It obviously was linked to Yuffie's weapon; they gave off a soft, red glow when they were both holding them. The weapon against my shattered heart is Yuffie, I see, clever Eros… I finally get the point.
Vincent slipped an arm around her waist, "Lets get out of here. We've taken too long already, and if we don't hurry, we'll have to ride Kokoro all the way to Edge." She nodded and let him lead her out, still marveling at the new weapons in their hands.