Injuries and Promises
24 - Good Night

Disclaimer: I am still me. Tetsuya Nomura is still himself. And I still don't own any rights to any of the Final Fantasy games, let alone the masterpiece that is FFVII. Therefore, this is still just fanfiction and not cannon (though if you want to count it as cannon, then by all means I won't stop you!)

Warning: This chapter does have reference to sex. Nothing too graphic, but there is a bit of sexual content. If you're not into reading that sort of thing, then I suggest you skip this installment. You've been warned, so no complaints.

Authors Note: Hey again. Would you believe I started this with the thought of a quick little drabble? You know, like one or two paragraphs. And then I started to scribble it down at work today and well... it grew into this? Perhaps I can keep up with a fast-paced posting, writing like this. Perhaps not. Right now the muses are behaving quite well. Hope you all enjoy.

Oh. I also wanted to make a note, I'll be at Anime North (Toronto) and Anime Central (Chicago) this year. If your there and you see someone running around by the name of Rachey (most likely in a Urahara (from Bleach) cosplay) then don't be shy to say hello. I'm pondering submitting one of these one-shots for the FanFic contest at AN too. Maybe. Or maybe I'll try and write something completely different. Anyways, no further delays, one with the next theme. :DEnjoy! And as always, don't forget that Feedback/Reviews LOVE!

---

Yuffie Kisaragi had had a bad day. Her shoulder was in agony and her ankle was swollen and sprained. To make everything worse then it had been, she hadn’t even won the fight! No, instead she had to rely on Vincent to come to her rescue from a bunch of ruffians! She was Yuffie Kisaragi, damnit! The greatest ninja in all of Wutai! One of the saviors of the world! And she couldn’t fend off three small time idiots without the aid of the crimson clad gunslinger.

She let out a sigh of frustration, just remembering everything that had happened was getting her angry again, and sunk further into the hot water of the bath. Thankfully, the hot water did make the aches and pains of her abused muscles relax, and she could almost forget the stinging of her shoulder, or the fact that her ankle looked like a frigging pumpkin, the way it was swollen. Almost. But she had promised herself, after the day she’d had, that she would not spend time in her relaxing bath dwelling on what had happened. No, tonight – she was going to draw out her bath as long as possible, then head straight to bed. Tomorrow she would wake up and find that this was either all just a bad dream or she’d kick someone’s ass – sprained ankle or not.

However, half an hour later, once her skin felt like it was as wrinkled as it would get from soaking too long and the water had cooled considerably. She exited the hotel bathroom, to find none other than Vincent Valentine sitting on the chair, watching her with nothing but a towel wrapped around her body. She had a pretty good idea too on why he would have stopped by her room, and she was not looking forwards to it at all.

“Pervert, haven’t you heard of knocking first?” Yuffie exclaimed, hoping he wouldn’t push the issue. Today had been bad enough, she didn’t need any arguments at the moment and her mood was far too homicidal to deal with it.

He did not meet her annoyed glare however, as he looked at the swollen ankle and studied the severity of her limp with a frown hidden behind his cloak. The bruise on her right shoulder too looked worse than she had let it on to be earlier that day. Though he had suspected by how quickly she had made an escape that she was trying to hide exactly how bad her injuries actually had been. Seeing her now, with only half her body covered in the white towel, his suspicions were confirmed.

“Yuffie,” he began.

Good ol’ Valentine, never one to beat around the bush. Yuffie thought, half amused and annoyed by the seriousness in his tone. She knew he wanted to touch upon the subject, and the tone in his voice mixed by the look in his eyes only served to confirm her suspicions. Sorry Vince. She inwardly apologized to the man, though she didn’t feel any guilt or remorse at all for cutting him off as she spoke. “Can’t this wait? I’m kind of in a towel here.” She pointed out the obvious. He may not be in the mood to play games, but he had some patience in him yet, that much she knew.

“I’ve seen you in less than that.” He reminded the lithe ninja of some of their other encounters. The reminder painted a blush across her cheeks and left her speechless, her mouth opened and closed a few times in an attempt to make some sort of retort, but no sound came out. He was already on his way across the room to her before she finally regained her composure, her shocked expression becoming an amused – and slightly teasing – smirk.

“You really are a pervert, you know.”

However the light touch to her shoulder stopped any other words she had to say, as a hiss of pain escaped and she spun around, aiming to send a good punch to his cheek. Instead, her wrist was easily caught with his golden claw and she could only glare up at him.

“Yuffie, your injuries need to be properly checked.”

“I can tell you know how it is.” She replied, trying to avoid having her injuries poked and prodded at byanyone. Let alone while she wore nothing but a towel. “They hurt like hell; I’ll survive with a minimum amount of complaining if you leave me alone.” Vincent was ruining her plans for simply slipping into bed and sleeping the night away.

Bastard.

“You could have broken something.” Vincent pointed out, once again reminding her of the obvious information that she was neglecting to acknowledge. Injuries like this weren’t something to be taken lightly.

“I’m fine Vinnie!”

“Yuffie.”

He really isn’t taking no for an answer, is he?

Left with no other option, Yuffie caved, sitting down on the edge of the bed while she felt Vincent’s weight settle behind her. His touch was as gentle as possible, she noted, as his fingers barely grazed the skin around the bruised and sweltering skin of her shoulder. There was a light tugging at the towel, wrapped around her body for protection, and she felt it slipping further as she went to secure it in place. “Vinnie!” She warned.

“I need to see the bruise.” He informed, tugging harder at the material. She could feel his gaze locked firmly on the marred skin of her back and shoulder. Yet it didn’t help her feel any better about this whole situation. In fact, she felt even more self-conscious because he was being so very professional about this, as he examined the nasty gash that she hadn’t had a chance to wrap up yet, just one of the gifts that those idiots had left. The injuries – whether it was the dark purple skin of her bruised shoulder, or the large gash that she had mostly ignored till now – that covered her back made her uncomfortable. Of course, they weren’t pretty to look at, but that wasn’t why.

It was because Yuffie shouldn’t have had trouble with those guys. She was stronger then they were, and more skilled. However, they had fought dirty, always attacking from the side or behind her, always distracting her with one while the others got the jump. She had held her own just fine until she twisted her ankle in an attempt to dodge and then… and then they took advantage of the distraction and hadn’t given her the chance to recover herself.

She hissed in pain at the unexpected pressure to her shoulder blade. She felt Vincent’s touch lighten, though it was still present. “I am sorry, Yuffie.” At least he actually did sound regretful for having to put her through this, but she understood, he had to feel to be sure the bone wasn’t injured as well as checking for the severity of the injury. Something like internal bleeding was also a risk that she could only hope against.

Yuffie wasn’t a little girl anymore. “It’s okay. Just don’t take too long.” She bit her bottom lip, as he went back to applying more pressure. It hurt. It really, really did. But Yuffie Kisaragi wouldn’t be able to call herself a ninja if she couldn’t deal with pain (although she did hope to avoid it whenever possible like any sane person would). She instead tried to focus her thoughts somewhere away from the pain in her shoulder.

A task that was made easier once she felt hot breath at the back of her neck, running across the skin and ticking the hairs at the base of her neck. Despite his hand still exploring the overly sensitive skin, his golden claw had wrapped around her torso, pulling her close to him as her breath caught in her throat and her heart skipped a beat. “I’ll make it up to you.” The low note in his voice sent a shiver of delight racing down Yuffie’s spine, as his lips barely touched upon her bruised shoulder. “It’s a promise.”

In the next second, Vincent’s claw had unwound itself from her waist, and the sudden closeness of his body was gone. Yuffie felt herself aching for that closeness again, and grinned, despite the pain in her back as he did what he had come to do. In fact, her entire outlook had changed. She wanted nothing more than for Vincent to finish the task he was doing, while she went about changing her plans for the night to something a little more enjoyable than sleep.

She wanted to feel that heated closeness again, as they would kiss in heated passion. Simply waiting while he worked made her even more anxious as she could feel the excitement his promise had left growing in the deep pit of her stomach. Her womanhood called out, in a comfortable aching way, as she could only bide the time until she could feel him inside of her once again.

Yes, tonight was going to be a good night indeed.

“Ouch! Be careful, will ya?” She yelped, jumping at as Vincent found another overly sensitive bruise. At least, it would be a good night once he finished poking and prodding her goddamned bruises.