Author’s Note: Thank you to all whom reviewed in the last chapter! I’m so appreciative of your guy’s thoughts!

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII.

Chapter 4: Quack, Quack, Vincent Goes

God, how he hated water. Water reminded him of tanks. Tanks reminded him of pain.

It was the worst experience in the world.

“Yuffie-cough-you can’t just…-cough-do that to people,” Vincent gasped, not opening his eyes as water continued to cascade down his face. Hands shuffled around the edge of the bath, trying to find something to dry his face off, when he felt the soft material of a towel doing the job for him.

“How else could I have gotten you in here?” the young woman asked while gently rubbing away the excess water, “I know you’re not the type to do something out of your bubble, so this was my only choice. Don’t worry, if you cooperate, this will be quick.”

“I could’ve hit my head,” he continued as he gave her a pleading look, even making the impossible ninja gnaw on her lip. “I could’ve gotten hurt.”

“But you didn’t,” she returned while kneeling down in front of him and grabbing a bottle. “Is this the shampoo? There are no labels on these things, so I had to assume.”

“I don’t know,” he responded, his arms still draped over the edge of the tub, looking as if he was ready to fall off the face of the earth rather than just being in the pool, “I don’t even know if those things are non-toxic anymore. I don’t know and I don’t want to find out.”

Yuffie stared at him for a moment, contemplating before she murmured, “Well, I guess we’ll just have to test it!”

“No, Yuffie, don’t,” the beast murmured as he stepped back away from her, falling into a deeper part of the pool that surprised him and had him underneath the barrier of the surface, sending him into panic. His arms flailed, attempted to reach something around him as his throat filled up with the horrible substance, really sending him into a state of confusion and fear. Beneath him, an endless abyss, his own demons would come up to snatch him and drag him down to the fiery depths of hell…oh god, he didn’t want any more pain! He didn’t want to be numb, but he didn’t want pain! Fear twisted in his mind, just before he found something in his reach and snagged it, when it began pulling on him.

Before he realized it, he had once more broken against the threatening surface of the water and gasped for air, distantly hearing the words, “Sh-sh, it’s okay…you’re all right…I’m here…”

For a moment, all Vincent could do was hang on paralyzed to the anchor, his limbs trembling as horrific memories flashed before his eyes. The experiments, the torture, the true face of evil as it tried to make a better, stronger man. But, in the end, what that evil made was no man at all…

Boy, Yuffie felt like crap. She wished she hadn’t done the stupid idea of a bath; she certainly hadn’t gotten to know Vincent that well to realize that he had a phobia of water. She sat on the stairs leading out of the pool, holding the other’s head in her arms as she gently comforted him by stroking down his face. He’d captured her around the waist by two powerful arms and didn’t seem to be letting go in the near future. A thumb smoothed down his cheek, briefly skimming over his bottom lip as it rounded his chin. Another hand ran a feather-light touch up and down his arm while holding him all the same, her legs keeping his upper body from slipping back into the clear, steaming pool.

Despite herself, she couldn’t help but feel content with the sensation of someone in her arms, trusting her, holding her tight in need.

“It’s okay,” she whispered, crouching moreso as she hugged Vincent’s head to her shoulder, his strained breathing making her heart beat with a solemn tone. “I’m sorry, Vinnie. I didn’t mean to scare you like that.”

“It…it’s okay…” he replied in turn, releasing a single cough, but still refraining to move.

“No it’s not…I should’ve known better,” murmured the young woman, feeling a true and deep regret for her mistake, “I should’ve been more considerate.”

“I…should’ve told you,” he said in a husky tone, “I don’t…like water. It turned me into this…thing.”

“You’re not a thing, Vinnie,” Yuffie stated, albeit a little harshly. “Whatever made you afraid of water was that person’s fault, not yours, not even the water’s. It was theirs.”

Vincent knew she was right, and knew he should’ve recovered by now and stood back, but for some reason, he had the hardest time pulling away from her arms. How long had it been since he’d been held like this? The feeling…the feeling was so lost on him it felt like the first time; and perhaps it was, considering the last time he was didn’t really count. Though he should’ve turned away from her, the way her fingers ran down his arm, the caress of her hand on his cheek melted his intentions of isolation and kept him bound in her arms. By the heavens, he wanted this.

Yuffie knew she should’ve stopped long ago. Long, long ago. She should’ve seen if he was okay and that be the end, but the fact that he was staying at all simply beckoned her to continue. The sensation of her gut twisting, her cheeks flushed and her heart skipping, she just felt so…needed. For the first time in her life, the young woman felt like she belonged somewhere, doing something good. It felt…so absolutely wonderful.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” she whispered, setting her chin on his forehead, “I’ve got you.”

Vincent relieved a sigh, closing his eyes briefly before he nodded and—finally—pulled himself away from the young female. Yuffie seemed content with his decision, but resumed touching his bicep as she reached for the towel and the bottled of soap once more. “Now, just relax. If it’s starts to burn, then tell me. I’m not here to perform a vile experiment on you, y’know.”

If only you knew, he muttered to himself, before he responded, “All right.”

At this, the young woman took the bottle and poured some of the viscid formula into her hand—earning a rather disgusted expression from Vincent—before she beckoned him closer. “Turn around, now. There we go. Now kneel.”

When he did so, Chaos was well aware of how close the water was from drowning him again. Swallowing his fears, he forced himself not to show any weakness. It was already bad enough what he did earlier; he didn’t want to be quivering, but he knew he was. And though try as he might, it was getting harder and harder to control the contorted feelings of fear and apprehension that had built up in his gut. All those needles…the bitter concoctions that were forced down his throat…the countless surgeries…

“Vinnie?” Yuffie asked softly as she put her two hands on his shoulders and looked over at his face. “You’re trembling; is there something wrong?”

“No, keep going,” he said, though a little too curtly, but he couldn’t help himself. If she kept making all these stops, he was going to end up losing it. He was already aware that she had lathered up his headdress, washed behind his neck and was beginning on his back and wings. However, even as she took a cup and began pouring away the suds, he felt his heart go to his throat and his beast instincts kick in. What made him stop, though, was the man in him telling him that this was Yuffie—this was the one person in over thirty years that hadn’t abandoned him, left him to rot.

But that didn’t stop her from noticing that something was seriously wrong.

Taking his face into her hands, she murmured, “If you’re really this uncomfortable, just tell me to stop.” Her face suddenly contorted and he found himself distracted by this before she added, “Oh my god, it just sounded like we were having sex. Okay, anyways…”

The off-beat comment alone was what helped Vincent break from his trance, and before he knew it he was laughing softly, a gentle smile sewn across his features. The young woman in front of him was clearly shocked by his reaction to her statement, but found herself joining him before long.

“Sorry, random I know. But seriously, if you’re not feeling up to this—”

“No, go ahead, I’m fine,” he said in a tone with almost—or at least—ten times the more relaxation and humor.

He knew this girl wasn’t going to hurt him.

--

“I never knew that wings could be so ticklish!” Yuffie exclaimed as she attempted to dry the large beast, even as he continued to laugh.

“Neither did I,” he breathed before going into another fit again as the younger one took even the smallest of corners, being sure that he was clean beyond comprehension before she released him into the castle again. But seriously—it might even take longer than she proposed with the way they quivered like that and the fact the guy just kept laughing his butt off.

“Well, I’ll be sure to keep this in mind the next time you feel like being uncooperative,” she said with a grin, making Vincent pale.

“Th-that’s not fair, Yuffie!”

“It is, too! Seriously, you can just be so impossible sometimes!”

“Speak for yourself!”

“I know that I’m not some melodramatic bug-lover! Now kneel!”

“No, go away! I’ll air-dry!”

“Vincent, come back here! Vincent!”

Argh, he’s going to drive me crazy! The young woman thought with a growl, clutching the towel in her hand even as she saw the vampire disappear downstairs. Now he was going to get all dirty again and she would going to have to repeat the process—along with possibly having him freak out on her again. That thought alone was what made her stop as she glanced down at the towel, her grip loosening as she became lost in her mind. The way Vincent looked so helpless…he seemed like he could defeat anything with his might, but when it came to the simplest things like water, he…he got so scared.

What kind of person would do that to him?

Who was Vincent really?

Yuffie found herself needing to know; there was something in that basement that he was hiding, and that he didn’t want her to see or know about. But why would he do that? Was it because he was afraid of her abandoning him?

The young woman stared after the hall before she turned and went back into the bathroom, starting to clean up. Yet, she just couldn’t keep those thoughts from swamping her mind. Every time she would try to concentrate, she would just get that picture of Vincent in her arms again, his warm skin pressing against hers, his frame wracked with tremors as he sought comfort in the one person that had put him there. She almost wished she could just ask him to do it again, but damn, wouldn’t that be the most brainless thing she’d ever done in her life.

Besides, he probably didn’t even like her.

--

God, those hands.

Those hands…those beautiful, beautiful hands. Why did she torment him so? Why instead of allowing him to wallow in misery, as he had been doing for the past thirty bloody years, she pushed him into a world of emotion, yearning and care? It was getting too much to bare—if she stayed much longer the way she did, he might go berserk. In one instance he could hardly stand the hurricane of a female, and the next he felt so…damn appreciated…so belonged! He wanted to stab himself in the chest to stop this pain; he wanted the ache to go away and never come back.

But he knew it would come back; even if he would sent her to a completely different city, drove all evidence of her stay away, never saw her again…!

No, he swore to himself as he halted in his steps, his breathing labored as he stared out into nowhere, it’s just your imagination. You haven’t seen anything that hasn’t screamed at you and ran away in the past thirty years; of course you’re…you’re going to…go after her. She probably doesn’t even like you.

--

Yuffie was on a roll.

Despite the fact that the rooms were far more formidable than she had thought previous, in the end she got on such a good vibe by doing all this stuff, she was hitting one right after the other. Unfortunately, however, it seemed that it would take a bit longer cleaning up the entire place than she had first considered. Most of the halls she saw were layered in a thick cake of dust, filled with bugs and rodents alike. In the end she had to wash all of the extra stuff rather than just dusting it, while she patted the walls from their dusty confinements. At one wall, and to her horror, there appeared to be a roach’s nest and the ninja practically rocketed down the stairs when she saw them come out of the wood.

Vincent had nearly been knocked over when she had tackled him, before practically yacking his ear off from her discovery.

That’s when things got good.

In order to get rid of the bugs, Vincent went into the main closet of the castle and found an entire chest of materia that made the girl nearly swoon. Before he could instruct her on the importance of precision and patience, however, she had already had dashed up the stairs and let loose one in the house. That had sent her into a little time-out, to say the least. From that point on, it was only Vincent who would be handling the materia.

“And if I see you with another of these damn things,” he said as he pressed the lump on his head with some ice, “I swear you’ll be sleeping with bugs for the next week.”

Point taken.

But the fact that he had shielded her from the blast was cute in itself—so much so that she couldn’t bring herself to by angry at him. As a matter of fact, she couldn’t even stop herself from smiling at him.

“What?” he asked as he gave her a decent glare, obviously still peeved from the earlier dispute.

“Nothing!” she exclaimed, that stupid grin still across her face.

He was starting to get crept out by the weirdo face she was making at him, but he couldn’t bring himself to get anymore more angry at her. After all, the way she smiling madly like that wasn’t what caught his attention compared to her huge, stormy grey eyes that shone against the sunlight that drifted into the room. Try as he might, things were getting more difficult the more she continued with her impulsive ways—they caught him off guard, forced him to act on emotions rather than on instinct most of the time. It was half-wonderful in the way he got to reconcile with them, but…on the other hand…

“Your room is next. One more night of having to listen to you stomp is going to kill me,” he muttered while sinking in the chair morso, setting his gaze on her of full authority.

Yuffie appeared a bit put-down from the command for a moment before she nodded once more, rising from her seat before taking all of her equipment up to the room. Vincent watched her go and couldn’t help but feel a little guilty that he was pushing her away so much when she only had good intentions, but it was for her own safety. He couldn’t bring himself to live any longer if he brought one more innocent life to its end—and the closer she got, the more chances of her getting killed was likely. Damn this curse, he hissed to himself, squeezing his eyes shut for a brief moment, what makes me stronger only bring me more torment.

--

“Vinnie?” Yuffie whispered, glancing around the dark, shadowed room. She could’ve sworn she heard something—and it definitely was not bugs this time.

Barely having put a leg into the soft, clean confines of her bedspread, a soft whisper over her shoulder send a wave of fear crawling up her spine and goose bumps rapidly make their way across her body. Turning swiftly around, she saw nothing out of the ordinary, but her senses knew better. There was something in this room…something watching her, ready to come down upon her with a vengeance.

The young woman wanted nothing than to go and retrieve her dark knight, but she knew that if for the third night she made a fuss, he’d be angry at her for sure and she didn’t want him to kick her out. She was really starting to like it here. Therefore, in an effort to actually give him some slack for once, she continued to slip into the bed. It’ll be morning before you know it, she pressed herself as she rested her head on the pillow. And Vinnie will be proud. Sarcastically proud, no doubt, but proud nonetheless. The idea of his freshly baked breakfast already was making her hungry, imaging the smells and the—

…creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak…

Okay, that definitely did not sound good, the young woman thought with a twisted gut, squeezing her eyes shut before allowing them to open once more. The wide orbs scoured the room in haste, looking for any signs of disturbance or misplaced particles of the room. Everything looked and appeared to where it should be, though the shadows looked particularly dark tonight. Something certainly wasn’t right—and it wasn’t Vincent, as ‘joking’ was not even a word in his vocabulary. Gulping loudly, Yuffie strained to see to the end of her bed.

That’s when she screamed, throwing off the covers and throttling herself down the grand staircase, not bothering to look back at the apparition that was closely following behind her. The image she had caught in her mind nearly made her have a heart attack; and not even Vincent’s strong, baritone voice would be enough to keep her away from the basement he continued to take respite/brood in. Meanwhile as she bolted down the stairs and through the hallway, windows and curtains opened and closed without external pressure to make them do so. A soft hissing appeared over Yuffie’s shoulder and she screamed yet again, kicking the door to the basement down with such power that it broke the hinges.

“I don’t want to die!” she sobbed, skittering down the narrow, rotted staircase. Darkness wrapped around her small figure as she tried to barely escape them, every nerve in her body quaking for the sake of her. The stairs forked at the bottom, leading left and right. Towards her left seemed an endless expanse, the shadow at the end beckoning her, laughing at her. Meanwhile to her right, something smelled really, really bad and a mass of flies hovered over the spot where a dark curtain barely managed to conceal its identity. Not that she would take the time to look, of course.

A shiver trailed up the young woman’s spine as she felt yet another soft murmur cascade from her feet and to her ear, yanking at her nightgown and tugging her hair. Before she knew it, Yuffie was eating away the distance of the left-side corridor with all the strength she had. Oh, this is awful, she whimpered to herself as she coughed once in the presence of dust and something else.

A door suddenly appeared at the end of the hall, giving Yuffie a brief light of hope before she skidded to a stop in front of it, tugging at the handle to gain entrance. However, it seemed like a lost cause as it was not only locked, but any occupants inside were probably either dead or dead sleep.

“Please, open up!” Yuffie cried as she kicked the door, sending a nice dent into its damp surface, a sign of its exterior decaying. “Please!”

A sudden and extreme pain lashed across Yuffie’s back and yet again she let out a loud shrill, whirling around just in time to see the grayish essence before her vanish in thin air. Behind her, there was a soft curse before the door whirled open, revealing a rather peeved Vincent. However, the young woman could care less of his irritation and immediately fled into his intimidating presence, right away feeling better that he was there, there to protect her. The beast, having no clue as to what was going on, simply stared at her for a moment as she threw her arms around his abdomen and began talking into his stomach, saying things he couldn’t hope to comprehend.

“Yuffie, what happened?” he asked, taking her forearms in attempt to pry her crowbars of arms off of his body. “Calm down.”

“There was—this thing—” she exclaimed through sobs, her tiny figure succumbing to tremors as she refused to be removed from her position glued against him. “It chased after me! It wouldn’t go away!”

“What thing?” he asked, glancing down the hall that was bare of pretty anything but—a hall.

“A ghost! It was awful, Vinnie!” after that statement, she went silent as she tried to hold back her flailing emotions, probably trying not to sound strident in the presence of her protector.

Golden orbs watched the corridor steadily, beast instincts coming into play as he sniffed once and quieted his breathing so he could hear more appropriately. He stood there, frozen, for a good thirty seconds before all he could sense and recognize was Yuffie’s poor attempt at hiding her trauma from the “ghost” that had just appeared. Finally, he relaxed and sighed as he glanced down at the young woman who remained clung to his side and looked absolutely rigid in her commitment to stay by his side for the rest of the night.

“I don’t see or hear anything, but you may stay here,” he said in defeat, finally closing the door. “Are you sure you saw something? Perhaps you’re just exhausted.”

“I did! I’m not! It was there, Vinnie! It tried to hurt me!” the girl croaked.

Vincent would feel annoyed if she didn’t look so broken up right now—even Yuffie could not fake emotions like this, and there was no point in doing so anyways. Despite her unpredictable, seemingly stupid personality, he knew she was more clever and smarter than what other people let her on to be, and he knew that she knew that he would’ve been happier to have her remain in her room and sleep through the night. His response to her one-more-night-stomping-bugs routine was probably what brought on that deduction, so the fact that she saw something might indeed be more of a truth than an excuse to be with him.

Whichever the case, he was now stuck with a trembling, spooked young woman.

“Calm down,” he murmured softly while placing the flat of his palm on her back. “It’s all right.”

Though no response came, Vincent could feel Yuffie physically relax against him and blushed somewhat, though didn’t hesitate to keep her in his arms. Something suddenly caught his attention, however, as he felt a viscid material against his hand and drew it back, wondering what could’ve possibly cause it. Upon looking at it, however, he noticed what it was and gasped—blood.

“Yuffie, turn around,” he ordered, his tone cloaked in a powerful spell of authority. She did as she was asked and he crouched as he saw the damage: the small ivory silk dress that was clinging to her body had a huge slash across it, accompanied by a gash that was deeply imprinted into Yuffie’s light skin.

Oh no…

--

A/N: Sorry this took longer for me to update; I had those three chapters written before I even posted the story, and the fourth was note. I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless! Ghost scenes are hard to write.

Also, the rating will be going up to Mature for the next chapter because of a scene…it’s not that bad, in all honesty, but I don’t want this taken down because of some noob. Anyways, this will be a fair warning. There isn’t any sex. Yet.

Read and review, please!