A/N: Hey guys! I am really, really sorry for taking such a long time to get this one out, but I ran into some problems along the way that were unavoidable (one being my computer crashing). So anyway, here is the next Christmas story installment! I hope you enjoy it!
This was written for coolgirl101213 over on deviantart! Hopefully she'll like it =]
A knock on the door.
Vincent let out a quiet sigh and shifted, but did not get up to answer it. He was perfectly happy to ignore whoever was outside no matter how long they waited and how many times they knocked. He was adamant. He did not want to be interrupted by anyone on this day because, no doubt, they would try to make him join in with the festivities.
As expected, another knock quickly followed the first.
"Hello? Please open the door, Vincent!"
Vincent groaned and sunk lower in his chair, closing his eyes in despair. Of all the people in the world who could have ended up on his doorstep today, it had to be her. Yuffie. The one person who was just as stubborn as he was and would be perfectly happy to stand out there knocking all day just to get him to open the door.
Rapid, loud knocks in quick succession.
"Hurry up! You do realise it's cold out here, don't you?"
Vincent rolled his eyes behind his eyelids but still didn't speak or move. Maybe just this once she would give up and leave before completely driving him to insanity.
"For goodness sake, it's Christmas! Open the door before I break it down so that I can give you your present! I hope you got me something, too, by the way. But if you didn't it's okay because I can always take you shopping to buy me something later. But come on, Vincent! I'm freezing!"
Vincent tried to ignore her, willing himself to fall asleep so that he wouldn't have to listen to her rambling or her persistent knocking that continued. He didn't even want a present, and there was absolutely no way that he was going to get her anything for Christmas either.
Unfortunately, Yuffie kept her word. When Vincent still didn't answer the door after ten minutes she promptly broke it down and bounced inside happily, ignoring the glare he directed her way as she threw a package to him. Vincent, incredibly angry that his door had just been smashed, shoved the package onto the floor roughly and folded his arms stubbornly.
"Come on," Yuffie whined. "I'm sure you'll like it!"
"Get out of my house," Vincent growled.
Putting her hands on her hips, Yuffie raised one eyebrow at him. "That's pretty rude, you know! Especially since it's Christmas. You should have a lot of people over to celebrate Christmas with! Did you know there's a party on at Seventh Heaven? We could go there later if-"
Vincent stood up and Yuffie shut her mouth instantly, her eyes lighting up in delight as she thought he was finally going to go along with what she wanted.
"If you don't leave right now, I'm going to remove you from this house myself."
Yuffie was silent for a moment as she seriously considered his words. Tilting her head to the side, she took a deep breath and slowly let it out again.
"Just open your present," she begged startlingly, changing the conversation and bouncing on her feet in excitement. "Open it!"
Vincent narrowed his eyes and took a step toward her, but in record time Yuffie darted around and picked the package up from the floor before moving back around to slam it into his chest, forcing his arms around it.
"Open it!" she persisted.
Vincent opened his mouth to protest even more but Yuffie hurriedly shoved him back into the chair he had been sitting in before, unwilling to take no for an answer or allow him to come up with an argument against her.
With a groan as he realised there truly was no way to get rid of her – he had remembered his smashed door which would mean that no matter how many times he shoved her outside she would just keep coming back in – Vincent settled back to begin opening the gift she had forcefully given him.
Yuffie couldn't stop bouncing excitedly as Vincent slowly peeled the paper away to reveal a box. She thought she was going to burst if he didn't hurry up soon, but now that he was actually cooperating she didn't want to push her luck any further by yelling at him to pick up the pace a bit. So she forced herself to be content with just bouncing and focused on his face, waiting for a flicker of emotion as he saw what she had gotten him.
It felt like forever. But finally he finished opening the box as well and was staring down at the gift.
"You bought me a bowl."
"Yes!" Yuffie shrieked, rushing over to pull the bowl out of the box. "Don't you just love it? Isn't it gorgeous?"
"It's... yellow," Vincent said awkwardly.
"Of course it's yellow!" Yuffie said with a roll of her eyes. "Can you guess what it's for?"
"…"
"Right, of course not," Yuffie said with a sigh and a shake of her head. "You really disappoint me, Vincent."
"Will you just tell me what it's for so that you can leave again?" Vincent snapped.
Yuffie narrowed her eyes immediately and took a step closer to him. "I am not leaving after I tell you what it's for!"
"Yuffie, please-" Vincent began with a sigh.
"For goodness sake, Vincent! I'm trying to be your friend!" Yuffie exclaimed, throwing her hands up. "I bought you the bowl because I also got you a chocobo. Okay? And I'd appreciate it if you could at least try to be a bit enthusiastic when I put so much effort into this present."
Vincent stared at her in shock, not quite able to believe that she had bought him a chocobo. What would he do with it?
"Sure, sure," Yuffie sighed. "You may not even want a chocobo, but too bad. You're stuck with it. I didn't know what else to get you so-"
"You didn't have to get me anything," Vincent interrupted her, a frown on his face.
"Of course I did!" Yuffie said quickly, ducking her head in embarrassment. "I'm your friend, aren't I? I'd be a pretty lousy friend if I didn't get you anything."
Vincent bit back a groan and closed his eyes momentarily. He wouldn't be surprised if she was deliberately saying these things just to make him feel bad as it was obvious he hadn't gotten her anything for Christmas.
"Anyway," Yuffie said with a quick shake of her head as if to clear thoughts. "Let's go somewhere! You can't stay indoors all day, you know. Especially since it's Christmas Day! We have to get out and have fun!"
"No."
"...what?" Yuffie gaped at him.
"I'm not going outside. You said it yourself, it's freezing out there, and I don't want to run into anyone else that I know," Vincent said firmly.
"Just for ten minutes?" Yuffie begged, clasping her hands together desperately as she pouted at him.
"Why are you so eager to go outside?" he asked her, narrowing his eyes when he realised she was probably planning something.
"No particular reason..." she trailed off innocently, her eyes wandering around the room now as she avoided Vincent's gaze.
"Yuffie," Vincent growled. "Tell me."
"Well, okay," Yuffie sighed. "I really wanna go caroling!"
Vincent stared at her in shock, unable to comprehend what she had just said. C-caroling? She wanted to go caroling with him? Did she actually have a death wish?
"See? Doesn't it just sound like the most amazing and perfect idea to do on Christmas Day? I would have asked you to come with us last night but I didn't think you'd want all the others to see you-"
"I'm not going caroling."
Yuffie pouted again.
"It'll only be you and me! You don't have to be embarrassed," Yuffie explained, trying to reassure him.
"If it's just going to be you and me like you say, then why do you want to go outside?" Vincent snapped.
"Oh right... it would be you, me and the person at the door."
Vincent shook his head lightly to himself, surprised at how slow Yuffie could be despite the fact that he had known her for a while and should be used to it by now. She didn't appear too stumped by what she had just found out, though, which made Vincent slightly nervous. What was she thinking now?
"We'll just have to sing in here."
"What?"
"Simple," Yuffie said with a shrug. "We can sing for each other!"
Vincent wasn't liking the sound of this at all. Why was it that Yuffie always seemed to have an answer for everything, anyway?
"Stand up!" she demanded, putting his present on a table to the side and then promptly pulling him to his feet. "Are you ready?"
"Yuffie, you've got to be kidding," Vincent mumbled.
"I'm not, now come on!" Yuffie grinned and reached into her pocket, pulling out a red nose which she quickly donned. "You don't happen to have any antlers around here, do you?"
"...no," Vincent said.
"That's a shame," Yuffie shrugged. "Oh well, I'll just have to use my hands. Ready?" Yuffie lifted her hands to make antler-like shapes above her head and grinned at him excitedly before beginning to sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
All Vincent could do was stare at her.
Yuffie did not seem at all worried about Vincent's lack of enthusiasm as she continued to sing. Nearing the end of her song, she finished off, "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, you'll go down in history!"
"I'm not singing," Vincent said quickly as Yuffie lowered her arms and watched him expectantly.
"Isn't that what we agreed to do, though?" she asked, frowning. "Besides, no one but me is going to see so what's the problem? Are you embarrassed?"
"Yuffie, I don't sing. Ever."
"You can start today!" Yuffie grinned.
Vincent groaned and shook his head. "There is no way I'm going to sing just because you want me to. You'll prefer it if I don't, as well."
"Aww I doubt that!" Yuffie said sincerely. "I'm sure you'll be great!"
"Yuffie," Vincent stepped closer to her so that he could stare down in an intimidating way. "I will not sing."
Yuffie sighed, her shoulders sagging as she stared at the floor. "Fine."
They stood in silence for a while before Yuffie looked up at him again and he frowned, again wondering what was on her mind. She had a strange look in her eyes that he couldn't figure out.
"You really don't want a chocobo, do you?" she asked.
"Uh, not really," he confirmed.
Sighing loudly, Yuffie looked down at the floor again. "I really wanted to get you something, but I just didn't know what. I tried really hard to think of something you might like!"
"I told you," Vincent said quietly. "You didn't have to get me anything."
"I wanted to."
"It's okay," Vincent said with a sigh.
"But now I wanna get you something else that you will like! Since you don't want a chocobo," Yuffie explained.
"Yuffie, there's nothing I-"
"Maybe I could get you more materia! You'd like that, wouldn't you? I thought of it briefly before but didn't want to give from my stash. I guess I could for you, though."
"Yuffie if you really want to give me a Christmas present that I appreciate," Vincent interrupted her purposefully. "I would love it if you stopped trying to get me something. That, in itself, will be a gift."
Yuffie stared at him in confusion for a moment. "So, you're saying you don't want actual things for Christmas?"
"Um-"
"Okay!" Yuffie exclaimed. Bouncing towards him excitedly, Vincent barely had time to react before she had planted a kiss to his cheek and jumped back again, smiling serenely at him. "Vincent, thank you so much for being a great friend. I really love spending time with you and like making you happy, so as part of your Christmas present right now I am going to leave you alone to do whatever it is that you want. I hope you have fun!"
With that said, she grabbed all pieces of the gift she had given him – including the wrapping paper – and left his house quickly, even pausing to pull the door roughly into position again on her way out.
Vincent wasn't quite sure what had happened, but he suddenly couldn't keep a smile off of his face. He was certain Yuffie would never stop surprising him in one way or another.
Letting out a sigh, Vincent walked over to the front door and pulled it down again, stepping out to see Yuffie standing there innocently. Shaking his head lightly, he let out a soft laugh and pulled his door back into position behind him.
"Okay, Yuffie," he said to her, giving in even though he knew it had been a trap. "Let's go caroling."
A/N: Okay, to be honest I don't know much about caroling as I've never been myself. So, I don't know whether it's usual to go on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day or when, but I just decided that in this story they usually go caroling on Christmas Eve. Vincent and Yuffie go on Christmas Day because... everyone else is at a party in Seventh Heaven =] That's all I really wanted to say.