25. Lurk
Yuffie feels that awful, awkward prickly sensation that people get when they're being watched. She's used to it by now—the feeling has been going on for years now, and she figures that if the watcher was going to harm her, they'd have done it by now. Then again, she thinks, she might also just be crazy.
The only time the watching stops is when she's with AVALANCHE. After the Remnants are defeated, she returns to Wutai for a bit, and there the tingly feeling starts. It bugs the crap out of her, so she looks all around for the watcher.
Needless to say, she never finds them.
On the anniversary of their first defeat of Sephiroth, she leaves her dad with the promise of an eventual return, and goes to Edge for the AVALANCHE reunion. She is chased by the tingly watching feeling the whole way.
The feeling goes away the moment she steps into Tifa's bar. She is greeted by the busty barmaid and Cloud, their adopted spawn running around and hollering. She laughs at Denzel's outstanding new hairdo, rainbow-colored from ribbons and clips, and laughs with Marlene as she crows over her creation.
Roughly half an hour later, Vincent arrives. He is travel-worn, and wont tell anyone where he's been, but they are all happy to see him anyway. He drinks a sedate glass of whiskey at the bar with Yuffie sitting next to him and chattering. Finally, she tells him about the watcher she's never met. Vincent raises an eyebrow, but tells her that he's sure if it's a sinister thing, she'll be fine taking care of herself. She laughs, agrees. She says she knows she can take care of herself, but she still wanted to tell him. He smiles a little, and she is pulled away by Marlene.
That night, her watcher returns, and she feels the tingling recommence. She shrugs her shoulders, crawls into bed.
She is awoken by the absence of the watcher, and makes her way to Vincent's room, where she has stayed every night in the bar since the Meteor.
The watcher doesn't return that night.
After the party, she decides to go visit Wutai for a month or two before putting on her traveling shoes again. Staying put for so long has made her restless, and she's finished her ninja training. She leaves Seventh Heaven, and within two hours, the tingle of the watcher is back. A sigh and an eyeroll are her only reactions.
A month later in Wutai, she received a call from Tifa. Vincent, she was informed, had left the same day she had, and no one had seen or heard from him since. Yuffie laughed. Vincent was always disappearing.
Four months later, when she is camped in the jungle near Gongaga, she finds a Grand Horn dead by her campsite very early one morning. It definitely hadn't been there the night before, and it looked as though it had been killed by a person. There were bullet wounds, but she knew that a gun's sound would have woken her. Puzzled as she was, she decided the watcher must have killed it.
The knowledge made her feel safer. Still, the next night, she stayed in an inn.
She returns to Edge for the first anniversary of the Remnants' defeat, passing through Wutai to check in with her father. The tingly watched feeling leaves her about a day before she enters the town, and she is a little disappointed to feel the tingling cease—the watcher seems almost like a protector, feels like a friend.
Walking in Edge the next day, she sees Vincent at the guns and ammunition store. She calls out, and joins him in haggling over the price of bullets for Cerberus. Hours later, she collapses into bed by his side, barely noticing the lack of her watcher. She rolls over, grins at Vincent sleepily, and enfolds herself in his embrace.
When she is next traveling, she goes to Nieblehiem, Coral Canyon, and Rocket Town. In Rocket Town, she stays a night with Shera and Cid. The prickle goes away while she stays there, but picks up the moment she exits their house. That night, she turns in early, not having been able to sleep without the omnipresent sensation of the watcher. Just before she falls asleep, she finds herself basking in the gentle tingle like warm sunlight.
It continues. She visits people, the tingle turns off, but mostly she is followed by a silent, faceless watcher, who guards her at night.
One month she is staying with the recently married Tifa and Cloud. She fidgets, twitches, can't pay attention to anything; her watcher is not there.
She nearly cries with relief when Vincent shows up, on the fourth night of her stay. She collapses into his arms and wonders why she is no longer bothered by the lack of her watcher.
Very shortly afterward, she ceases to care about her watcher.
A few days afterward, she is sitting with him on the steps outside the bar, talking. He announces that he wants to start traveling again. She asks if she can go with him, and the sun cannot outshine her smile when he agrees.
As they travel Gaea, stopping here and there, Yuffie misses her watcher less and less. Traveling with Vincent, learning him, puts all thought of the watcher out of her head. After all, she can sleep in Vincent's arms every night.
They speak often, watching the stars until late at night, moving far and wide during the days. Yuffie often wonders how she ever lived otherwise.
He often knows about her past travels , things she's fairly sure she's never told him. Once she is driven to invasive curiosity.
"Hey, Vince, how do you know so much about me, anyway?"
He shrugs. "I lurk."