Too Much Trust
By: Adrienne Valentine
Disclaimer: I am poor. Need I say more?
Summary: Vincent on Yuffie's trust sometime before the battle with Sephiroth. Companion piece to "Trust". Mild Yuffentine.
Vincent simply nodded toward her when he noticed Yuffie sit next to him yet again. She was usually one of the loudest members of the group, but for some reason when she'd sit there with him at night, she wouldn't say anything. And niether did he. He didn't mind. He was even beginning to enjoy her company during these times. He suspected that she came here to get away from Cid or Barret, but he never asked. He didn't want to upset her and have her leave him there for the nights. Therefore, he never knew why she came to sit with him.
As unwilling as he was to admit it, he enjoyed her staying with him these nights. He was also dreading the battle against Sephiroth. He blamed himself for the entire ordeal and he was glad- albiet surprised- that not everyone shared that opinion. While sitting there she never asked him why it was happening. She never asked him about his past. Most importantly, she never blamed him. She never judged him. He knew he had misjudged her when they had first met.
He had assumed her to be another immature teenager. He hadn't been shock, or angry even, when she had stolen all of their Materia. He hadn't trusted her in the beginning anyways. When they had found out her reasoning he had started to understand her and even respect her. Something that their companions didn't seem to be able to do. Most of them focused on the fact that she had stolen from them and not looked at the why of it.
She was not mature, far from it even, but she was taking advantage of her youth. Something he'd rarely seen girls her age do. She was chosing it though. She was chosing her innocence. He wished he still had that option. It fascinated him. Aerith had been the only other one in the group who had seemed to recover from anything. Unlike Aerith though, Yuffie used it as her way of dealing with it. Much the same way Vincent used silence.
He frowned slightly. Not that it answered why she sought him out. He had wanted to ask her since the first time she had sat with him why she did it. Even he knew that his companions were afraid of him. A nessicary evil. That is how he saw it. The ninja sitting next to him seemed not to think that. She would fall asleep next to him night after night. As if she felt safe. Safe sleeping next to a monster. He sighed, he needed to know, and now was the time to ask her.
"Why do you come sit with me nightly, Yuffie?"
She had almost seemed to jump at his question, looking over at him. Thoughtful. It was the only word to describe the look on her face. The others would have said it was impossible for her to actually think. He knew differently, however. These nights that they sat together he knew she was often thinking. About what, he never knew and never asked. He could recognize it on her. A small smile would spread across her face and her eyes would sparkle, not looking at anything in particular. Except inward. Tonight though, she didn't seem to need to think for long before she answered.
"Because I trust you, Vinnie." She shrugged. Casually.
He didn't understand it. How could she trust him? He was to blame for everything that was going on. He could've stopped all of this. And yet she trusted him. It had been a very long time since anyone had trusted him. Even before meeting Lucretia, no one really trusted him. For good reason, too. He was a turk then. Even before that his father had never trusted him to make the right choices. For whatever reason, however, she did. She trusted him. Enough to fall asleep next to him. Enough to cry infront of him.
That was what had started this nightly ritual. He had been sitting alone, away from his companions. They knew what he was and he didn't wish to burden them with his sins. Then she had come running towards where he was and just sat next to him. She hadn't said anything to him. He hadn't said anything to her. He didn't know what she had been crying about and he did not believe it was his right to know. He couldn't tell her it would be okay. He couldn't tell her that everything would turn out in the end.
He didn't even believe it. They had just sat in silence, the only sounds were of her sobs and the Highwinds engines. When she had fallen asleep, leaning over, her head having fallen over onto his shoulder, he had stiffened. She had been so comfortable around him. He then did the only thing he could do. He had picked her up and carried her to her room, tucking her into her bed. He had stood there watching her for a bit, mumbling in her sleep. Not full of nightmares like he had or had heard her have before. It was peaceful. He had smiled then.
When she had taken extra time to smile at him the next day his guilt for not saying anything had absolved. She had looked grateful. He had nodded back to her and no more had been said about it. She hadn't seemed as annoying to him after that. She was human. She had come to visit him more after that. At frst it was just when she was upset. Then she would come and sit next to him some nights, looking tired and haggard, like she had awoken from a nightmare.
It quickly became every night. She would come there and sit next to him without fail. And everynight, without fail, she would fall asleep, her head always ending up against his body. At first he had been shocked and uncomfortable with it, but as time grew he became more comfortable with her touching him. Even if it was in her sleep. He would let her lean against him longer each night.
He had felt guilty at first. That he was somehow defiling her by letting her touch him. She never seemed to see it that way though. She would always just smiled at him. Warmly. As if she were the sun rising every morning. She never asked him how she got into her bed every night. She never accused him of doing anything to her. She never even said anything about it and his guilt had not lasted long.
He had grown equally comfortable in her presence. She had the innocence of a child, but the experiance of an adult. She was old enough to make desicions for herself. She wasn't sitting with him to look more thoughtful either, or brag to Cid and the others. In fact, she had never said anything to them. She didn't treat it like a secret. She just never told them. As if she believed that they really didn't need to know. So now when she laid her head on his shoulder he smiled slightly. She knew what he had done. Knew what he was, hat he had caused and yet she still trusted him.
He thought about it for a moment, contemplating his own feelings about the young ninja, absently stroking her hair as she slept, her head having slipped from his shoulder and into his lap, and he realized something. He had not even trusted anyone to be this close to him. Physically, or emoitonally. Even though they never spoke on these nights, a bond had formed between them. An understanding. He understood what it was then, with her sleeping, head in his lap.
"I trust you as well, Yuffie Kirasagi."
"The best proof of love is trust. "
-Dr. Joyce Brothers
"To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved."
- George MacDonald
Author's note: I couldn't get the idea of how Vincent would react out of my head, so I decided to write it down.