Chapter 21: Promise

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII. It belongs to Square Enix.

But the plot is mine. All mine. Heck yeah.

Booyaka.

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Vincent awoke in the infirmary of the airship, his head spinning. As he opened his eyes, the light of the room nearly blinded him. He began to sit up, but the pain that racked his body would not allow it. As the brightness of the room slowly dimmed, he saw three people standing above him. As his eyes began to focus, he could make out three worried faces belonging to Cloud, Tifa, and…Yuffie.

The bar-hostess let out a relieved sigh.

"Thank goodness you're awake. We thought you were a goner."

Cloud nodded in agreement with the woman holding his hand.

"Yeah, you were pretty roughed up when we found you guys."

Vincent expected Yuffie to say something next…but never did. She stood a few inches behind her comrades, but did not make an effort to move forward. She smiled, but with sadness with was very unlike herself. Her eyes seemed to glaze over. She was making eye contact, but seemed very dazed.

The injured man took notice of this, speaking is his usual deep monotone.

"Yuffie, why aren't you resting?"

She jolted slightly, his words yanking her out of her reverie.

"Oh-I'm okay. Just a couple of burns and bruises, really…"

She seemed to have lack of interest in her own words, causing Vincent to press the issue further.

"You look tired."

Yuffie, mindful of the fact that she had been staring off into space, smiled a very cheesy smile to cover up her cheerlessness.

"Oh you know me! I'm probably just moody because I haven't showered since Wutai. I guess I should go get cleaned off, huh? 'Cause I feel like week old crap…"

As she rambled out her last sentence, the door was flung open by Cid Highwind followed by Nanaki. The smell of cigarette smoke filled the air, causing Cloud to begin hacking.

"Cid, you know you're not supposed to smoke in the infirmary. We've got very sensitive equipment in here."

The smoking man doused his cancer-stick on the bottom of his shoe and then proceeded to make his way over to where Vincent lay.

"I'm glad 'yer back to the world of the living, Valentine."

Nanaki, alias Red XIII, padded over to the cot.

"I too, am thankful you are finally awake. I was beginning to worry. Everyone was."

Yuffie found this the perfect opportunity to slip out of the room. She for once didn't want to be surrounded by a group of people. She headed to her room that she occupied on the Highwind. Everything in it was so familiar: old weapons adorned the wall, origami sat upon the dresser; Wutai scrolls hung above her bed, an extensive materia collection was spread out on the shelf that wrapped around the upper-most part of the wall which Barret had installed with Cid's permission.

Yuffie chuckled. She remembered that incident well. Cid had a hangover the morning she had asked him about putting up the shelf. It didn't take much persuasion. The next day, when he was in his right mind, he threw a fit over it. Barret was confused as well; the shinobi hadn't told him that Highwind was getting over chugging twenty-one shots of whiskey. She had been in deep crud after that one, but Cid got over it.

'He always does,' she thought to herself.

She lay on her back and stared at the ceiling from her bed for an hour, maybe two, contemplating the events that had unfolded within the week. She had been in the City of the Ancients when Cloud had called her. She realized that she went there a lot after she died—no, killed by Sephiroth. The beautiful Cetra had been her best friend in the whole world. Back in Wutai, she never really had a friend; she had always been too busy hunting materia and stealing from unsuspecting tourists.

Then, she met Aeris after she joined AVALANCHE. She had changed her life completely. When she was killed, she had no one. Or, at least she thought that way. She had the rest of the group: Cloud, Tifa, Cait, Nanaki, Barret, Cid…and Vincent…yet, what if-? Yuffie shook her head and spoke aloud to herself, looking out the window at the nighttime sky.

"You shouldn't think like that, Yuffster. You'll see everyone again…" Even to herself, she sounded doubtful. Where would she go? To Wutai? No, she couldn't go back there. Not with Godo gone.

She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. Yuffie walked over to the mirror that hung on the wall and closely inspected her own self in the mirror. Her hair was damp; not with water, but with gunk and grime and sweat. Small scratches adorned her arms and legs. Getting from Wutai to Gongaga wasn't exactly 'easy-sailing'.

Yuffie looked at her alarm clock which read 11:49 PM. I really should get cleaned off before it gets too late. She lay her night-clothes on the top of the dresser. Where does Cid keep the towels?

She walked out of the room into the hall. She decided that it would in all probability be better to ask Tifa where the towels were kept, coming to the conclusion that Cid probably wouldn't know, even in his own Airship. As she walked down the hall, she silently wondered if Cid had ever taken a shower.

She looked around for Tifa, but to no avail. Figuring that she had probably went to bed, the young ninja, determined to find those darn towels and began to search on her own. She looked in the bathroom, the cockpit, back in her own room, and even the chocobo pen. That only left everyone else's rooms and the infirmary. Deciding firmly that she didn't want to bug everyone else and that Vincent would be asleep, she crept across the hall to the 'medical wing'.

Peering into the room, she saw the sleeping man on one of the cots in the corner. Determining that the coast was clear, she tip-toed into the room to the various cabinets. She opened a few, finding they contained medicine, cure, heal, and revive materia. Opening the next, she found the 'long sought after' towels. Snagging one, she tip-toed quietly across the tiled-floor, not daring to look over to where Vincent lay. She had almost reached the door when she heard a voice behind her.

"Yuffie…"

The shinobi spun around. 'Was he even asleep?'

"What are you doing up, Vinnie?"

He lay facing upwards, but his glowing red eyes were directed at Yuffie.

"I could ask you the same," he dead-panned.

She let out a nervous laugh.

"Oh, I just came in here to grab something…sorry to wake you…"

Attempting to make a break-for-it, she took a couple slow steps toward the door.

"Yuffie, what's wrong?"

Yuffie rolled her eyes. Did he always have to know everything? She decided not to answer him, keeping her eyes on the towel bundle in her arms. After a moment, she broke the awkward silence, deciding that he couldn't be ignored away.

"Gawd, nothing's wrong! Okay! There is nothing wrong!"

Vincent turned his whole head toward her and sat upright, back against the wall.

"You're lying…to me."

Yuffie turned around sharply. 'He just had to add on the "to me" part…'

"I was just thinking..."

Vincent locked eyes with her.

"...thinking about what?"
Yuffie stepped decidedly next to the cot and sat down. 'He seriously isn't going to make this easy for me…isn't he?'

"Man, you're real talkative tonight, aren't you? Fine! I guess I'm going to have to spill my guts now, huh?"

She scooted her whole self onto the cot to get comfortable and then began.

"I was thinking…about what's happened recently. I mean, the whole 'evil-creepy-guy-after-Chaos-and-junk-and-me-getting-captured-and-you-saving-me-and-junk'.

Vincent tensed after deciphering the girl's rushed sentenced.

"Yuffie…it was not I who saved you."

The ninja furrowed her eyebrows. Obviously, she had said something wrong.

"W-what do you mean? Of course you saved me? Who else would've?"

The dark gunman hung his head, black hair falling into his face.

"Kyou did."

Kyou…. What had happened swarmed her brain. Her eyes widened with sudden realization. Kyou was dead. The young man that had set her free…was dead. Though they only spoke briefly, his story had touched her. He claimed to be without feelings. She knew, deep down, that he was wrong. If he hadn't any, he would have never released her…

She could have cried…but she didn't. She couldn't. She tried…but the tears wouldn't come.

"B-but, you got me out of there, right? Yeah, I know you did…"

Vincent nodded in agreement.

"Yes. I was forced to transform partially, resulting in my condition."

Yuffie lowered her head and stared at the floor, causing Vincent to grow concerned. There was more to this than meets the eye.

"That's not all. What else is wrong?"

The shinobi held the towel in her arms closer. She was this close to spilling everything… She felt a warm human hand hold her chin.

"Yuffie, look at me."

And she did, fighting back tears the whole time. Something in the depths of the young woman's eyes made the dark gunman's heart of stone quiver, uncertain of the emotion that moved throughout him.

"I'm…worried. Now that the danger is over…everyone will split up again. We won't be AVALANCHE anymore. We'll be eight separate people living out our lives as if none of this ever happened. I mean, Tifa and Cloud will go to Midgar and live happy little lives. Nanaki will go to Cosmo. Reeve is head of WRO. Barret is rebuilding Corel. Cid has Shera. You're going to go crawl into your stinky coffin and I'm…going to be all alone."

She closed her eyes, finding it hard to look into the gunman's demon-red eyes, though she snapped them open again when she felt herself being embraced.

"Yuffie…you won't be alone."

The shinobi was oblivious to the tears that were running down her face.

"…how do you figure that…?"

The digits of his false appendage stroked her hair.

"…because, you'll be with me. I won't leave you. I promise."

The tears fell freely now, letting the moment envelope her. And from that moment on, he kept his promise. He would never leave her.

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Author's Note: OMG I'm DONE!!! –dies- Okay, I know…that sucked, right? I rushed the ending. TERRIBLY SORRY! If I get enough complaints, I'll redo it. Promise. Anywho, in the near future, I'm going to revise the previous chapters. I won't change anything relevant to the plot. I'm already planning my next fiction titled 'Haunted'. It's a Yuffentine and CloTi. YEAH!