okie, so a one shot done. I know that I should finish one of the two stories that I have, but like I said... I have way too many lurking up in my brain that I can't always form the correct one at that time. It's best to get them out before I forget them, no? Review if you want. Please no flames. :( Part two of April Fool's will be up before the end of the week, same thing with Come back, so if you wanna read something else of mine... there they are.

Side note: Don't own Yuffie and Vincent. I don't make money off of this. I'm doing it for my own pleasure and sharing it with you. :/ Carry on.

It seems to end like this now a days. Long days and even longer nights added to the stress of everything and it didn't help also that she ended up with nightmares and day terrors. Those were the reasons why she would cling to him (in the sense that she never let him out of her sight). Her bodyguard, her knight in rusty armor, she liked to call him, though never to his face. He would take on the roll then and become too serious and blame himself when things went wrong, or when she got hurt.

And she always got hurt, just not in the way that he would think. But he was dense when it came to matters of the heart. Having once given his heart out and having it squished, grated and put on display she wondered if he could ever will himself enough courage to ever feel that way for another soul. She wished, and rather hoped that he would, or well, more or less feel for her. But he didn't, or at least he tried not to let that get in the way.

Days of silence and still a few more days out on a mission would keep them together for a little while longer, but neither one of them realizing that the other was equally pining for the other.

Confusion and hurt were the outcome of his return into her life. She found Shelke wrapping her younger form around Vincent and trying to showing him off like new toy. Hurt feelings digging, twisting their way into her heart, like screws ever so carefully leaving little holes in their wake. But, Shelke was Shelke, his long lost love memories embedded into this 19 year old body and Yuffie was still ever so in denial that anyone would find her remotely attractive.

Though Yuffie had two years added onto her lithe frame and legs for miles but she still was rather small in other features. A petite frame with curves were anything but soft due to years of training under the best ninja masters and fights left marks, scars and muscle where normal womanly features would be. She was harsh, loud, and rather brandish. Where as Shelke was soft, quiet and reserve just like Vincent...

Four months into this silent treatment towards each other was killer for both parties, only both were rather too stubborn to notice and only wanting to dig the wound just a little bit deeper. That is... until the day showed up when Reeve asked for help from both of them. Little did they know that there was no dark purple colored materia...

Then it became for survival. With this endless repetition of busy work and trying to not focus on the fact that these two were actually alone for once since he came back. Totally alone…

It start with him setting up camp, making sure that their bedding would be just a few feet away from each other ( just in case she would need him in the night ), then start the process of making dinner. Not like she couldn't cook well, she could, just not that good. Yuffie would busy herself with gathering logs for the fire at night or the water for the next day. Travel, setup camp, sleep, on and on until day three happened and he finally realized that she has not issued a word this entire trip.

"Yuffie...?" His voice cracked with under use while she stopped dead in her daily tasks of busy work.

"Hm?" Storm grey eyes met with red while she pulled back her hair out of her face.

"Are you mad at me?" There he said it. Only took him four months, three days and ten hours before he could notice such things. Not like she was counting or anything like that...

"Why?" She replied coldly.

"Because you haven't said anything really to me since I got back." Strange that the tables would turn and she would be the one to give those one word answers while he would say anything to fill this ever present void between the two. He missed back how they were before he left, though he would never think that he would think that in his life, but, he missed the way that she would talk randomly about anything to anyone, or her enthusiasm for life and her over expressive hand jesters. He missed the way her hyper active mouth would constantly babble on and on. No, his missed the way her voice sounded when she talked about things she really enjoyed, things that mattered, and things that no one else but him was privy too. The swells of her voice and dulcet tones that only he could decipher to anyone else she was the same spitfire that everyone tended to avoid, but to him, she was… different. He just missed her. Now he was here and felt like she was on the other side of a mile long cliff, not that it would stop him if he wanted to jump, but that if he took a step the cliff would somehow just get wider and wider, like she was falling away from him.

He couldn't take that, wouldn't take that. This time he was going to do things different, this time he was going to fight for it. Not take it like a pansy, no, not Vincent Valentine.

"Oh. No. No, I'm not mad Vincent." His eyes squinted just a little at the lack of her nickname and he felt it. The way her words sounded heavy as they rolled off her tongue. Something was there, something was there blocking the two of them from being friends again if ever.

"Vinnie."

"What?" A curious squeak issued from soft lips while she continued to fiddle with her bag in her lap.

"Call me Vinnie" He stated poking the dying fire not looking at her while he spoke.

A nod of the head was given before a slight smile replaced her shocked face. "I'm not mad, Vinnie..." There she said it. Unlined everything she wanted to tell him, but some how couldn't. The tone, her feelings... and he felt it. Relief, love, and best yet… maybe even hope in those four words.

At night the embers of the fire slowly burnt out one by one while the winds picked up once more. He felt her shiver near him, heard her teeth clattering against each other and he couldn't stand to hear her in any kind of discomfort. Quickly he moved his pallet closer to hers placing his thicker blanket around both of them while he placed an arm protectively around her small waist. Instantly she turned following the warmth of that arm and rolling closer and closer towards him.

Her head shifted directly under his digging her nose into the hollow portion of his neck before breathing in deep. She murmurs in her sleep his name softly while a smile creeps across her face. A leg moves up and over half straddling his larger body while she tries to get herself comfortable letting a knee accidentally grind across a very sensitive area. He grunts at the contact and tries to calm himself down to her unknowing advances while he pulls her close. His eyes fading letting sleep overcame him now that he knows that she is as safe as she can be out in the open. Her fingers tenderly play with a few strands of his spider silk hair while she sighs again.

"Vinnie..." She forms sleepy words before her breathing deepens back into that REM sleep. Even if they can't form the words just yet on their feelings towards one another, their bodies know. Even in sleep they seem to get pulled together like magnets.