Longing

Summary: Yuffie reflects on Vincent, the one she wants as hers yet cannot obtain.
Theme: #19 red
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII does not belong to me. This is a purely fictional story based on the characters and story created by Square Enix, to whom they do belong.

~*~

Ever since she laid eyes on him, every other male on the planet dropped from her view. Laying there, sleeping what seemed to be peacefully within the coffin gave her a sense of reluctance to wake him. Yet when he opened his eyes, she saw an entire world of hurt and pain contained she felt like the wind had been knocked from her tiny body. When he spoke, his deep and enticing voice captured her immediately. She knew she was young, but she knew the instant she saw him it didn’t matter to her.

When they travelled, she was always grouped with him. He quickly became only one of two people able to tell her what to do, the other being Cloud but he was the ‘hero’ so you had to do what he said when it came to the crunch. But Vincent, he would only have to say a word paired with a look and it had Yuffie behaving like she never had before. When they went back to Midgar to help with the evacuation, it had been Vincent who quietly gave the orders. When Vincent decided he needed to go back up, she protested but gave in when he gave her a look. She understood, and helped the rest evacuate. Not wanting to risk his life any longer, she stole a hover craft and went after him despite her terrible airsickness.

He left them all during the night of celebration, not even telling Yuffie where he was going. Knowing him well enough by now that he desired to be alone, she went back to Wutai and taught the children ninjutsu for awhile. When she had heard nothing from him, she packed up and left to find him. When Yuffie found him, she immediately put an end to his self imposed silence. She was the one who kept him within the group and wouldn’t allow him to lock himself up in some hole and wallow away in self pity. It had taken a lot, but Vincent was a lot more relaxed around her. It made her happy to see the changes he made within himself each week. When the Geostigma started to spread, they had gone their separate ways; Yuffie back to her Father and Vincent to some unknown location. When they had all come back together to help Cloud out, the feeling that had been gnawing at her had been lifted.

Yuffie didn’t let him go again; the fear of Vincent falling back into his self titled ‘atonement’ was enough to drive her insane. For a time, Yuffie and Vincent lived together amicably. Yuffie grew into her looks yet still remained as cheeky and cheerful person she always had been. Vincent got better with her constant sunniness, slowly coming out of his misery enough to give her a glimpse of what sort of man he was before Hojo got to him.

For a long time, Yuffie knew he was the only one for her. She didn’t dare bring it up, however, knowing how he still mourned for Lucrecia and anguished over the atrocities that had happened to her. It was a hard thing for her to watch, and even harder to suffer in silence about it. She knew he still visited her and spent days wherever she was. She didn’t say anything because she didn’t want to hurt him. Tifa knew exactly what was happening to her friend, yet couldn’t reach out to Yuffie because it would frighten her away.

When Vincent eventually took on Omega, Yuffie had been distraught. She couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, and couldn’t do anything but keep looking for Vincent. The pain within her was too great to just sit still. When Shelke, someone who Yuffie barely tolerated, took them to where he was it took all her self control not to shove the girl out the way and go after him herself. But she waited impatiently for Shelke to bring him back to them, to her. As soon as she saw him, she ran down the platform and launched herself into his arms, taking the gunman by surprise.

“If you ever do such a stupid thing again, Vincent, I’ll find you and kill you!” she threatened, still hugging him tightly.

He eventually got over his surprise and hugged the young woman back.

“I don’t plan to, Yuffie. I’m sorry for making you worry about me,” he apologised, looking down into her emotional eyes.

It was in that moment, Yuffie realised, that maybe she did have a chance. Maybe now, now that he had put a lot of things to rest; she could make her longing a reality. This realisation, this ray of hope where there had once been none, put her in such a mood not even Shelke could bring her down.