I really, really haven't forgotten this story. I've just been really busy, and sick, and school is almost over. but this fic is my current inspiration and I'm happy with how it's going so far. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter and thanks so much for the reviews for last chapter!
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Guardian
…
"Hey! How about drinks after the mission? I need to unwind, and the wife is over with her mother for the night. Commander Kisaragi? Andrews? Harris?"
"Ha, are you sure that she won't be calling to check up on you every five minutes? You know how she gets when you don't answer the phone, Keith."
"Hardy-har-har, Harris. You always talk smack because you think you know better than the rest of us…"
"Pipe down you two," Yuffie scolded, eyes scanning the wreckage of what had once been a metropolis of a city.
"Sure thing, commander."
Yuffie rolled her eyes but grinned to herself. "Besides, he does know better than the rest of us. Harris is about to hit the big 2-5 with his wife."
"No shit?" asked Keith, one of the younger recruits. "You've been married that long?"
Harris was not amused at the amazed tone in the younger man's voice. "Why is that so shocking?"
"He didn't think you were that old," Yuffie said, smirking.
"What is this? Gang-up-on-Harris day?" he asked, shifting his weapon and glaring at the hotheads around him. "And yes, Commander Smartass, I'm that old and I've been married that long."
Everyone broke into snickers and chuckles at the man's words, and Yuffie just shook her head as they moved ahead. It was good to know that Reeve trusted her enough to lead a squad. These men and women had quickly become her good friends during training, and while she hadn't really taken a squad out herself, it was a nice change of air. It made her feel more mature and responsible.
Crunching broken concrete under her boots, Yuffie's eyes scanned the broken terrain, wondering how much of Deepground was still lurking about and trusting that the ones in charge of the scanning device would give them enough of a warning if they were ambushed. Nothing seemed out of place in the barely standing buildings, but they would not let their guards down in a place where so much had already happened. The stragglers were usually killed on sight, seeing as they were always hostile, but a few had been captured to be examined by WRO scientists. It made a shudder run down her spine to wonder what had been done to those men and women who had "volunteered" for the Deepground program.
"Check your communicators to make sure that nothing is running interference," she told them, making sure to check on her own. Reeve had stressed the importance of having open communication while he was briefing her, and while she had rolled her eyes at him, she'd made sure to remember to do everything he asked; he was, after all, the boss and he always seemed to be right about everything.
Reaching the reactor didn't pose a problem for them, and as she looked at it, Yuffie wondered why they were investigating it. The thing seemed to be nothing but a pile of scrap metal, ready to be recycled and with no power coursing through it.
"Five of you are with me," said Yuffie, motioning for a hole in the side of the reactor. "The rest of you follow at a distance. Watch our backs and yours."
The inside of the reactor wasn't any different. Everything was powered down, loose wires, crumbled cement walls and warped metal. The place gave her the creeps and a shudder ran down her spine.
"Check the lower levels," she whispered into her ear piece.
The five she had taken ahead with her moved forward, flashlights bright in the shadows of the reactor. The sun outside was high and bright, but the ruins of the ruins of the ShinRa headquarters seemed to cast everything around it in darkness.
A clanking noise ahead of them made them all stand at attention, weapons drawing up. Yuffie pulled her Conformer forward and motioned for the person ahead of the group to search out the sound.
They all followed after him from several directions, and Yuffie only hoped that it wasn't one of the kids from Edge, trying to find a hiding place from his friends, or maybe some stray dog. She'd give the kids a piece of her mind if she found them lurking around the ruins again…
"Grenade!" came the loud, sharp cry through the reactor and their ear pieces. "Run! Move! Move!"
"Fall back!" Yuffie screamed. "Everyone out of the reactor now!" But it was too late.
The inside of the reactor ignited around them, the pressure and heat so suffocating that she didn't even have time to lift her arms to protect herself. She felt the person next to her turn and attempt to shield her from the blast—she hadn't even known who!—but they were both knocked back and through a still-standing wall with enough force to make her black out for a few seconds, precious oxygen being sucked out of her lungs.
The boom of the explosion left her with nothing but a loud ringing in her ears, disoriented and numb as she tried to rise once she regained consciousness.
There was a heavy weight still on top of her, but she couldn't quite figure out what it was because her world was spinning, and dust and fire were surrounding her. She coughed out and felt a bitter, coppery taste invade her mouth, choking her, making her want to throw up.
She cried out when she attempted to use her left arm because it hurt in a way she hadn't felt before. Her whole body was crying out in pain, and she still couldn't hear a thing, but she finally found a way to get out from what was weighing her down.
Then she realized that it was one of her soldiers… her face crumpled. It was Harris. Harris who had a wife, and a kid just a few years younger than her. Harris who'd never given her any grief about being half his age and still being his commander. Harris who had always been respectful, and a good father and husband. No, no, no!
She checked his pulse with her good arm and found none, her chest heaving with emotion. She couldn't break down. Not just yet. Looking up, Yuffie tried to locate any of the rest of the team but there was nothing but dark smoke and fire tainting the air.
Leaning on bleeding knees, she stood shakily and located two more bodies nearby, unmoving. A scream broke through the ringing in her ears and she turned, eyes wide in horror as another soldier burned from head to toe.
A sob tore through her chest at her inability to do anything for him.
What was she supposed to do? She couldn't think; couldn't breathe; couldn't even bring herself to take a step forward, or to attempt to call HQ for immediate help.
And still the nameless soldier was burning.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she found herself muttering, unable to hear her own voice over the roaring. Maybe it was the fire, maybe it was in her head. She could've been screaming it but she was too dizzy to know for sure.
When she looked back up at her burning comrade, he had taken on a familiar face, his golden gauntlet reaching for her, as if asking her to help. To do anything but stand there like an idiot.
She shook her head, chest heaving. "No! Vincent!"
This couldn't be happening. Vincent hadn't been there at the reactor! Why was he burning? She was beginning to feel on the verge of hysterical, breaths coming quick but not deep enough. She was suffocating and Vincent was burning—but then the reactor exploded again and there was nothing but red flames and green Mako surrounding her, pulling her down.
P-please, no! Vincent! Vincent!
Vincent!
"Vincent!"
"Yuffie—
"I'm here. Yuffie!" he was shaking her awake, hard enough to make her teeth rattle and her tender body ache in pain, but she continued to scream his name and thrash in his grip. "Yuffie!" he roared in a voice uncharacteristic of him; short of hitting her, it had been the only acceptable option.
She opened watery eyes, gasping for breath, and nearly felt her heart jump out of her chest at the sight of him. He was safe and unharmed. The fire hadn't burnt away his skin, and those striking crimson eyes were bright in his pale face, and filled with worry… over her behavior probably.
Yuffie realized that she was still crying rather loudly and attempted to stop, because honestly, it was getting hard to breathe and her ribs were hurting a great deal. But she couldn't stop, and she was beginning to hyperventilate.
Vincent sat her up and pushed her head between her knees so that she could calm down, but she was panicking still and her blunt nails were digging into her knees hard enough to break skin.
"Yuffie, you need to calm down. I'm here and you're safe. Just breathe."
His deep voice broke through the haze of terror clouding her mind from the memory-dream, and she was finally able to draw a true breath of air into her lungs. The echo of flames and smoke still filled her and she nearly toppled over face first onto the floor.
Vincent pulled her up gently as a wave of dizziness hit her after her panic attack and laid her back against the bed. "Yuffie?"
The room was spinning. "I don't—I don't know what happened," she admitted in a small voice.
Vincent glanced at the glowing orb peeking out from under her pillow and he pulled it up, showing it to her. "Did you use this?"
Yuffie stared at it with eyes full of standing tears, chest still rising and falling too quickly, and nodded. "I—I just healed a small cut on my finger, to try and see if I had any reaction like the doctor said. Maybe then I'd be able to heal quickly and get back to work."
"There is a reason why the doctor advised against using it," said Vincent in a low voice.
Yuffie swallowed hard, somehow realizing that she had angered him. "I know. But I still had to try," she murmured, choking on more tears.
"Mako poisoning can cause hallucinations and fever," he said, pulling off one of his gloves and feeling her forehead. His fear was confirmed when he came into contact with burning skin, a thin sheen of sweat already forming.
Yuffie shook her head. "It wasn't a hallucination. I dreamt… I dreamt of the moment right before the reactor exploded. And before now it had been a great big blank."
"Don't think about that now," he tried to soothe.
"How can I not think about it? I—I saw that H-Harris sacrificed himself to save me. He shielded me from the blast and because of that he's dead!"
Vincent gripped her shaking hands, ignoring the clamminess of her skin on his. "Yuffie, he did what he thought was best, and in that moment, he thought it best to save you. There's nothing you could've done differently," he said in a firm, calm tone.
Her gaze was somewhat clouded with tears as she shook her head. "I should've died with them," she whispered.
"Is that really what you think should've happened?"
The intensity of his gaze was unnerving, and she couldn't hold it for long. She looked away, suddenly feeling so tired and heavy, her body too warm.
"Your fever is getting worse," Vincent said, standing and walking out of the room.
She lay there blinking, staring at the window, the sun high in the sky, and a few seconds later Tifa quickly entered the room with a bowl of water and a clean cloth. "What did you do, Yuffie?" she asked, upset.
"You should've just told me the truth from the start," Yuffie replied, allowing Tifa to place the cool cloth over her forehead. "I'm not a kid anymore, but none of you seem to grasp that."
"With this kind of behavior, do you think you're proving that you're mature to handle rough situations? The doctor told you not to use materia." And she'd thought she'd removed it all, Tifa thought inwardly. She should've known Yuffie would find a way to get her hands on materia.
"What did you expect when everyone is keeping important information from me, Tifa?" Yuffie asked angrily, though it came out weaker than she had intended.
Tifa sighed quietly and nodded. "You're the youngest out of all of us. We just wanted to protect you."
"I've seen death, Teef, and plenty of it. It was something that my father was never able to protect me from. What made you all think that you could?" Yuffie asked, quiet, disappointed.
Tifa looked away from her and nodded. "You're right, and I'm sorry."
Yuffie nodded once. "It's okay. At least we understand each other now."
"I know we've all been touched by tragedy and death," said Tifa as she removed the cloth and dipped it in cool water again. "But I guess it's just my mothering side that didn't let me see clearly."
The ninja gave her a crooked smile, eyes half-lidded from the fever. "You'll make a great mom some day. Cloud is a lucky son-of-a-bitch."
"Yuffie!" Tifa chided with a giggle. "But you're right; he is."
"Where's Vincent?" Yuffie asked after a moment of silence.
"I don't know. He walked down the stairs to tell me about your fever and then left the bar," said Tifa with a frown.
Yuffie sighed heavily. "I guess that it's my fault. I said something to him that I shouldn't have."
"Finally confessed, huh?"
"No."
Tifa smiled. "Then what?"
"Nothing. Just… tell him to come see me, yeah?"
"All right. Get some rest now. I'll be here until your fever goes down," Tifa said, beginning to hum a sweet lullaby.
Strangely, instead of feeling annoyed about another of Tifa's babying moments, Yuffie felt calm surround her just before sleep came along once again.
…
Her fevered sleep brought more nightmares and memories with it, and slowly the people in her dream changed and became her friends and loved ones. They all died before her eyes and she couldn't do anything to save them…
She was almost certain that she had woken up once or twice from her unsettling dreams to see Vincent sitting at her side, but she couldn't be sure. Sometimes the ceiling looked like the one from the hospital, and other times like the Seventh Heaven, but she couldn't recall what had been real and what had been a hallucination.
When she finally did wake up, she felt an unpleasant ache all throughout her body, which usually meant that the fever had just broken. Sighing quietly to herself, Yuffie wrinkled her nose at her own smell, wondering how long she'd gone without a shower after the fever had started. This was her own damned fault for not listening. She shuddered to think of what would've been the consequences had she decided to use the materia for one of her bigger wounds…
Glancing around her room, she noted that she was alone and wondered if everyone had gotten tired of watching over her every minute of the day. She wouldn't blame them, but she also had to admit that it stung.
Sitting up with some difficulty, she swung her legs over the side of her bed and sighed as they shook lightly underneath her when she stood. Her trek to the bathroom was a slow one, and she was kind of surprised that Tifa hadn't popped out of some room and scared the living daylights out of her before starting on a lecture.
She allowed herself a little grin when she made it and closed the door, locking it to make sure that no one walked in on her attempting to take a bath. Finding the strength to turn the water on seemed like another challenge, and when she finally did it, it took her a few minutes to get a good balance of hot and cold.
Next came the wounds, the burn, and the stitches… those would prove to be a problem. Plus the cast…
After much maneuvering and shifting in a small amount of water in the tub, she proceeded to clean herself up with a hand towel and some soap. She could do it on her own—without Tifa there to help her—and besides, she wanted to keep what little dignity she had left. Her wounds pulled and burned for a while, but she could deal with it in exchange for clean hair and skin.
When she finally finished, her muscles were aching and she felt a little weak, so she sat in the tub dozing in the cooling water, the arm with the cast hanging over the side to keep it safe from the moisture. Unaware of how much time had passed since she had left her room, Yuffie suddenly jumped at the sound of a sharp knock on the door.
"Yuffie."
"Vincent?" she squeaked.
"What are you doing in there?" he asked, tone dark.
"I—I'm taking a bath!"
He was quiet for a moment, maybe trying to decide if she was telling the truth and not finding a new way to hurt herself. "You've been in there for over an hour."
Her eyes widened as she slowly stood and toweled off with a towel she had pulled from the rack Tifa kept in the bathroom. Wrapping herself around it, she cursed when she realized that her wounds would need to be tended to by someone other than herself…
"Yuffie…" Vincent started, sounding impatient.
"Stop being such a perv, Vince! I told you that I'm fine. I don't have any materia on me. Or sharp objects. Or liquor. Or poison," she muttered, annoyed.
"Fine."
"Will you please call Tifa for me?" she asked.
There was silence for another long moment. "Tifa stepped out with the children."
Yuffie nearly cursed in frustration.
"…Is there something you require?"
She didn't know whether to tell him or not. It wasn't like Vincent would ever volunteer to tend to her wounds while she was half-naked, right? Right?
"Yuffie."
"I need to change the bandaging over the burn and the stitches," she said in a small voice. Unfortunately for her, the burn took up a large portion of skin between her shoulder blades, and the stitches ran from the right side of her ribs to just under her breast, and another one over her opposite shoulder. The other scrapes and bruises mattered little when compared to those.
The set of stitches near her chest she would handle herself, but the others…
"I can help if you'd like," he said, sounding nonchalant.
Yuffie blushed and stared at herself in the mirror. "Um… maybe I should put some pants on and then you can help me? Go downstairs for a few minutes."
"I will gather some food Tifa left for you and return shortly," he said, footsteps trailing off as he walked away.
Yuffie blew out a breath and slowly opened the door, making sure that he was gone. Her walk back was just as shaky as when she'd woken, but she made it before Vincent could show up again. As she pulled on her underwear and a pair of pants, she wondered what to do with her top. It wasn't like she could put it on and just lift it while Vincent cleaned her wounds… and she couldn't wait for Tifa because who knew how long she would be gone.
W-what if her towel slipped? What if she flashed Vincent and he accused her of attempting to seduce him and then ran off back to his coffin? Yuffie cursed up a storm loudly and simply grabbed a towel to cover her chest with. A glance at the mirror showed her that she was blushing again…
Vincent knocked and entered just as she was in the middle of cursing again. He raised a brow in curiosity but refrained from asking; sometimes it was better if he didn't know what was going on. He set the tray of food on the nightstand and stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, waiting for her to say something.
"Here," she muttered, not meeting his eyes as she handed him gauze and the balm the doctor had prescribed her for the burns. She then turned her back to him and slipped the towel over her front, stiffly covering herself as she sat on the edge of the bed and waited for him to get to it.
Vincent sighed inaudibly and pulled off his gloves before leaving the room to wash his hands. He returned shortly and took up the disinfectant he would need to clean the wounds. He tried not to wince as he removed the soiled gauze and saw the angry burn on Yuffie's back. It would scar… he knew from personal experience.
Yuffie bit back a curse of pain as Vincent began to clean the burn quickly and efficiently, taking care to not hurt her more than he had to. The pain didn't allow for the feelings of embarrassment she had felt when he had first entered her room, and for that she was thankful. The last thing she needed to think of was Vincent staring at her naked back.
She sucked in a breath when he placed the balm onto her raw skin and felt her ribs protest. But then Vincent placed the protective bandages on her burn and stepped back, gathering the bloody pieces he had removed. "Do you need help with the rest?" he asked, quiet.
"Just the stitches on my shoulder," said Yuffie, feeling a little queasy from the pain.
Vincent sighed to himself and wondered at the various small scars she had scattered across her back. None of them were an indication of abuse, but he did wonder how she had received them. "What are these from?" he asked, finger dragging down two thin, fading lines that crossed.
"Double ninja stars," Yuffie said with a faint smile, cheeks warming at Vincent's touch. Had he been aware that he had just touched her in an intimate way? Still, it made her happy that he cared enough to ask. "My father had started to train me himself and he didn't think much of it when he let them loose."
"How… old were you?" Vincent asked, faintly scandalized.
"Four."
Vincent sighed quietly and shook his head. Somehow he felt happy that his mother had never enforced a lot of their Wutain culture, but he supposed that only the royal family would've enforced shinobi training so early in a child's life. While she should've been playing with dolls, Yuffie had been training in how to wield kunai.
"You all right, Vince? You went all broody on me," she said, fidgeting in embarrassment that he was staring at her back still.
"Apologies," he said, finishing up with the stitches on her shoulder before gathering everything up and making for the door without any other incident.
Yuffie sighed to herself and pulled on the oversized pajama shirt that Tifa had given her. Paired with her sweats, she looked like a little girl with no curves, she mused randomly. Moving slowly again, so as not to upset her ribs or her new bandaging, she pulled the linen from her bed, sighing when it remained stubbornly on the mattress.
She couldn't very well lay down on the dirty sheets, since she knew she'd been sweating out the fever, and she wasn't about to wait around for Tifa to do the work for her…
"What are you doing?" asked Vincent, catching her while she was still pulling half-heartedly at the sheet.
"Nothing," Yuffie muttered with a sigh, glancing up to see him holding a glass of water and a pill.
"Please, I don't want to go back to sleep," she moaned, shoulders sagging.
Vincent nearly rolled his eyes at her actions. "It's a painkiller. It'll help with the ache you're feeling after the fever broke."
She eyed it suspiciously before taking the pill and water from his hands and gulping both down. She would trust him to be honest. "Thanks."
He nodded once and moved to take over the task of changing her bed.
Yuffie stared, wide-eyed and shocked that he was doing such a thing for her. But really, she shouldn't have been so surprised. This man had been by her side since she had been taken to the hospital, and even though she only had flashes of memories from that traumatic experience, she could remember seeing his face. "Vincent?"
He made a small noise to indicate that he was listening.
"I—never mind," she muttered, sitting down near the window, eyes on the setting sun. She didn't even know what day they were currently on.
"What did you wish to know?" he asked her, pulling new sheets onto her bed.
"How… how did it feel to die?" she asked quietly.
Vincent froze at her question and had to refrain from shutting himself down and leaving her there alone. Yuffie was in an emotional state, and he knew that she wasn't asking out of morbid curiosity the way it would've been before her own near-death experience.
"It was painful," he said after a moment. "I… was filled with regrets over things that I didn't do. Acceptance that it was the end. Sadness over the fact that I had done so little with my life," he admitted for the first time out loud. "Why did you want to know?" he asked in a carefully blank tone.
Yuffie bit her lip and stared down at her hands, at the cast on her wrist. "Because I didn't get time to think about anything. It all happened so fast. My life didn't flash before my eyes, and I didn't even have time to think about any of you," she said, mournful. "It was all… dark."
Vincent stopped what he was doing and turned to look at her. "Darkness and blankness are better than being bombarded with a thousand thoughts and feelings at once, Yuffie."
"Maybe at the time. But now… now all I can think of are their faces, and what I could've done differently. Questions over why it happened and why I'm still alive," she whispered, voice cracking.
The gunman stepped silently closer and kneeled in front of her, reaching out without thought and touching her damp cheek. "Harris was a soldier, trained to protect. He made the decision to give up his life so that you could get a chance at living yours. Do not spit in the face of his gift by thinking that you'd be better off dead."
Yuffie stared at him, so close and with his touch so warm on her face. Was he even aware of what he was doing? She smiled gratefully and slipped a hand over his against her cheek. "Thank you," she murmured, sniffing quietly.
Vincent nodded once, feeling an odd sensation in his chest as Yuffie's warm, brown eyes closed and she leaned into his touch with a sigh. He waited, wondering why he wasn't pulling back his hand when her eyes opened again and she smiled. It was still an echo of her usual, cheerful self, but he held hope that she would eventually return to the Yuffie they had all come to care for.
Her eyes were bright in her youthful face, but still he couldn't help noticing the subtle changes in her features. She had grown up while he had been away, and he had no doubt that she would've had a long line of suitors had she allowed herself to stay in one place for long. Somehow though, the thought of Yuffie held back by some man didn't sit well with him and he decided that it wouldn't be wise to delve into the why of that particular thought.
Gently he pulled back his hand, only to find that she wasn't letting go of his pale fingers. Her touch was warm but not overwhelming, the way it had been in the throes of her fever, but still it somehow burned through him.
He wasn't sure if he liked the feeling that Yuffie was invoking in him. It made him feel old and wrong, as if he were taking advantage of her somehow.
He knew his next words would push her back into a state of sadness, but he had to tell her. "The WRO will be holding a memorial for the fallen tomorrow. Will you be assisting?" he asked, quiet.
She almost, almost said no, but she couldn't do that. She couldn't turn her back on her friend's sacrifice. Yuffie knew that she would have to give Harris' wife an explanation face to face. An apology, too. "Will you be there with me?" she asked, giving him the full force of those beguiling eyes.
Vincent almost let out a mournful sigh and wondered if there would ever be anything he would be able to deny her from now on. "I will remain by your side through it all," he promised.
Her smile warmed him in a way he hadn't felt for thirty years, and this thought scared him more than anything else ever had. He knew he needed to be careful; he was not willing to lose himself as blindly as he had the first time.
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The angst isn't over for Yuffie, but I thought I'd give you a taste of the romance that's to come. Anyway, I hope everyone has a great weekend and that those of you celebrating enjoy your time with mom!
P.S. Please excuse any typos and grammar issues. I thumbed the end of this chapter on my phone. We're on our way out of the city so I'll do corrections when I get home.