No, I haven't played the game, so this is an approximation
of characterization. It's also YAOI and LEMON, so if
male/male sex bothers you, don't read this.

None of this is mine.


SHATTERED


Lori McDonald
April 13, 2000


Someone was cooking sausages. Yawning loudly, Cid Highwind stretched and opened his eyes, then squinted at the sun coming in through the curtains to flood his bedroom. "What time is it?" he grumbled, glaring at the clock. Ten minutes past when he should have woken. Cursing, he rolled over the man stretched out on his belly beside him, kissing his cheek roughly before landing on his feet on the carpet and stomping off to the bathroom, scratching his head as he went.

Vincent Valentine's eyes snapped open. For a moment he blinked, orienting himself, then sat up. "Sausages?"

"I ain't makin' them!" Cid yelled from the bathroom. The shower started.

Vincent sighed and stood up, reaching for his robe. His hair was a tangled mess around his face, his red eyes blinking sleepily as he pulled on the robe and belted it while he silently padded towards the kitchen. A brown-haired woman with glasses was in there, standing over the stove humming to herself happily while she turned the sausages in the pan. She was dressed in a pretty pink dress with an apron over it, a far cry from her usual grease stained coveralls.

Vincent watched her from the door. Cid might be oblivious to it, but he could recognise the signs of someone in love. Someone whose love wasn't returned. He'd seen it enough times in himself, after all. Shera continued her cooking, not aware of his presence in the doorway, humming to herself, deluding herself; that she could somehow make Cid love her. She reminded Vincent so much of himself and Lucretia that his heart tightened. He'd lost Lucretia to Hojo- no, he'd never had her and refused to admit it, and spent thirty long years in hell because of it. He could see Shera heading the same way, for the same reasons, and sighed.

"Shera."

Startled, Shera spun, one hand up to her throat as she saw him and Vincent bowed his head in acknowledgement of the quickly hidden flicker of raw hate in her eyes.

"Why are you here, Shera?" he asked her quietly, not sure where to start, but knowing something had to be said before Shera's heart was shattered any further.

"Making breakfast," she mumbled, flipping an egg savagely.

Vincent sighed again, walking into the kitchen towards her, watching as her back tightened at his closeness. "Shera, he doesn't love you." The back tightened further. "I'm sorry, but he doesn't. Don't waste your life trying to force him to, it's not worth it. I know, I've been there."

He put his hand on her shoulder and she turned fast, her palm cracking across his cheek. "Whore!' she hissed. "Freak! I hate you!" Throwing the spatula on the floor, she stormed out.

Vincent massaged his cheek, working his jaw to ease the brief stinging. "I know you do, Shera," he whispered and picked up the spatula to wash. A few minutes later, he was finishing the last of the breakfast when Cid came into the kitchen, towelling his short hair dry.

"That smells good," he commented as he put an arm around Vincent's waist from behind and nuzzled the back of his neck, just where he liked.

Vincent smiled, tilting his head forward to give him more room. "Shera started it for us."

"Hmph. Nice a her."

Vincent started dividing the food onto two plates. "Yes. It was."



Rocket Town was a small town, its main claim to fame the big rocket that it earned its name from, and the notoriety of its mayor and his lover as members of the team who saved the world. Most of the people there worked for their mayor as rotating crew for his huge airship and to maintain the warehouses of supplies the town owned. Rocket Town didn't make anything, but they stocked almost everything imaginable and shipped it anywhere.

Muttering to himself and wishing he hadn't decided to cut down on the swearing as well as the smoking for a certain black-haired beauty who hadn't even asked him to, Cid tapped numbers into a calculator and tried to figure out if he could afford to build another ship like Highwind. With only one, they were very limited in what they could ship in what amount of time. Highwind was the biggest ship on the Planet, but her competition could very easily put her out of business by having lots of smaller ships.

Perhaps that was what he should do. Keep Highwind but invest in some more medium range ships to transport more cargos at once. Tiny Bronco was good for courier work but not anything larger, so they would need to be larger than that. Perhaps a third of Highwind's size, so that he could buy half a dozen or more. There were enough pilots in Rocket Town to fly them and the town could certainly use the revenue. Cid started punching more buttons, coming up with new figures.

He was almost sure it would be affordable, if tight, when Tiny Bronco roared overhead, landing lights on as it dropped towards the runway. Cid grinned at the sight of it, deciding numbers could wait. He'd given Vincent the Tiny Bronco so he could have some independence and the ex-Turk had gathered quite the reputation for being able to get the most sensitive of information safely to its destination. So far no one wanted to try and take any information away from a man who used to make his living as a hit man.

Tiny Bronco headed towards the runway and Cid swore as it abruptly wobbled in the air and hit the ground, bouncing off its wheels and nearly crashing into the side of the warehouses as its brakes squealed, the little ship still moving too fast. It started to lift up again and wobbled more as Vincent tried to set it down without crashing.

Cid started to run, barely aware of the maintenance crews racing with him towards the veering plane. Cid knew that Vincent was nearly indestructible, that even if the plane crashed and exploded he would heal, but that was just in his head and his heart didn't care as he ran towards the runway, cursing himself for ever letting his lover into the air.

Tiny Bronco touched down again, rapidly running out of runway and Cid winced as it swerved and went into the sand, the front wheel buckling under it as it buried its nose, its rear high in the air.

"At least he's down," one of the mechanics gasped as they all ran towards it.

Spurred by the desire to make sure Vincent was all right, then strangle him for scaring him like that, Cid reached the little ship first. A moment later, the hatch banged open and Vincent gingerly climbed out of it, dressed in a dark flight suit with his usual red bandanna holding his long hair out of his face.

"Vincent!" Cid yelled, grabbing the ex-Turk and checking for damage. Except for a cut on his forehead that was already sealing itself, he looked fine. "What the hell kind of landing was that?? Are you okay?" He looked at the little ship. "My poor baby!"

"She's my baby now, remember?" Vincent reminded him, sounding amused. "And I'm fine. I just got into some trouble with a dragon on my way back."

Everyone stared at him. "A dragon? You sure you're okay?"

Vincent nodded wearily. "Yeah. He was kinda, um, interested in Tiny Bronco. I think it must be mating season."

Cid gaped at him, then took a closer look at the little ship. The stern looked somewhat dented. "Can't keep `em off you, can you, Vince?" he asked, earning himself a glare and weeks of teasing for the ex-Turk from the mechanics who renamed him `Dragon bait.'



"What a mess," Cid grumped, glaring at the broken ship lying on the floor of one the hangars. "Fuck," he added a moment later as an afterthought.

"What about not swearing?" Vincent asked him mildly, now in jeans and a t-shirt, his hair tied back and his claw covered by a work glove.

"It's a special fuckin' occasion."

"I see."

The two men looked at the remains of Tiny Bronco. It was repairable, but it would be a nightmare of work getting all the dents out and replacing all the components Vincent had managed to fry in his crash landing.

"So much for delivering that batch of government files on time," Vincent observed idly.

"No shit. SHERA!" Vincent winced at the bellow right into his ear as Cid glared over his head. "Where is that damn woman?"

"What is it, Cid?" Shera asked, walking into the hangar and smiling.

Cid pointed at Tiny Bronco. "Fix this pile of shit."

Vincent eyed the pilot. "I can repair her, Cid."

"Uh uh. You're thirty years out of date on electronics. I ain't taking no chances on you wiring something backwards and flying into a cliff or something." He gripped the ex-Turk's chin and kissed him. "Let Shera do it. Make her earn her keep for once."

Vincent winced. "Fine. But I'm going to help her. Got it?"

Cid grinned. "Fine." He strode towards the hangar doors. "Looks like you got yourself a helper, Shera." He stopped to look at her intently. "Make sure you double-check his work, got it? I don't care what he says."

Shera sighed and nodded. "Of course, Cid."

Cid headed out the door, yelling at the crew to load Highwind faster and Vincent looked at Shera. She glared at him. With a sigh, he turned to the ship and got to work.



Shera had never hated working on any ship as much as she did the Tiny Bronco. She'd fixed it before, many times, but never had doing so required her to be in close quarters with a man she loathed.

Every time she looked at Vincent Valentine, her stomach clenched until she thought she'd be sick. He was just so beautiful, it was no wonder Cid thought so highly of him. His skin was pale and flawless, somehow resisting burns or tans no matter how long he worked outside. His hair was a luxuriously thick black that tumbled down his back and framed red eyes that sparkled like rubies. Even the claw that replaced his left forearm was merely exotic rather than horrifying. She'd heard the other crewmembers talking about how gorgeous he was, seen the women in town swooning over him as he passed. He was quiet but articulate, unflappable in the face of Cid's anger, watching everything like he somehow knew more than anyone else.

Worse, he knew exactly how Shera felt about Cid and he pitied her. She wanted to spit on his pity, wanted to tear out that beautiful hair and scratch that flawless face so that he wouldn't look so perfect and Cid would leave him. She'd known Cid her entire life, loved him for that entire time, and it was only because of that beautiful freak that he wasn't hers. She'd waited years, then he just walks in and steals him, and has the gall to feel sorry for her as he did.

Now she had to work with him. It was just added insult to injury. Vincent was a fairly good mechanic, only making a few mistakes she had to fix and that made it worse. Could he do everything she could? Replace her in everything?

Shera muttered to herself as she crossed the airfield towards Cid's house. It was an hour after dawn. The crews were arriving for the day and Vincent was ten minutes late meeting her at the Tiny Bronco. She hated working with him, but she hated the idea of him being out of her sight, and what that might mean even more.

Cid's house was a tiny bungalow set under a tree just off the airfield, near to the rocket he'd once tried to take into space. It was because of her that dream failed, Shera remembered guiltily and pulled a key out of her pocket. Cid hadn't given it to her, but he'd never seemed to care she owned it, which she'd always taken as a sign that she was welcome in his home and his bed, though she'd always been too shy to go farther than the kitchen on her own. Now she wondered if it only meant he didn't care about her at all but pushed that thought away. Cid could love her, if only that freak weren't around.

Shera walked quietly into the kitchen. There was no one there, breakfast not even started yet and she glanced towards the bedroom with a frown. Could they still be asleep? Suddenly angry, she headed towards the door to the bedroom, which was three quarters of the way shut.

A groan from inside stopped her before she flung it all the way open. Eyes wide, she peeked around the edge of the door instead and her heart jumped into her throat.

Cid was kneeling on the bed, nude. Shera had never seen him naked before outside of her dreams and she drank in the sight of him. Two inches shy of six feet, big boned and burly but not fat, his pale blond hair cropped close around his head and his chin dark with stubble. He had his head tilted back, eyes closed as he panted up towards the ceiling and Shera's eyes got even wider as she saw he was erect, his penis standing up away from his body enough that she could see it even with him kneeling almost away from her.

She started to tremble, watching him, loving him and he shivered as well, moving slowly up and down.

"Vincent," he whispered, spoiling her fantasy of being with him right now. "Vincent"

To her horror, a golden claw reached up, the sharp points gently scraping down her Cid's chest to tease a nipple. Cid cried out, his body tensing in pleasure.

Shera looked down at the bed. Vincent lay on his back on it, half hidden by the rumpled blankets but just as nude as Cid, his long hair swept out and around his gasping face. Cid straddled his hips, Vincent moving in concert with his movements, and Shera felt ill as she saw the freak sliding in and out of her Cid, slowly bringing him to gasping, shivering orgasm.

Shera couldn't watch it, not her beloved with that monster. Turning, she fled out of the house, sobbing as she ran across the airfield, not stopping until she reached the hangar she'd been working in.

Tiny Bronco sat there, its panels off so that she could reach its innards. Wiping away the tears, Shera went towards it. The other day, Vincent had finished rewiring the guidance system, needing very little help from her. He'd insisted on doing it on his own and her quick check when he finished had shown he'd done it right. Picking up her tools, Shera started to redo what he'd done, changing a connection in one spot, bypassing a safety feature in another. Making small, simple, easily overlooked mistakes that were more than enough to get a pilot killed.



"So, you gettin' used to Rocket Town? Kinda boring after all the big cities you've probably been to."

Vincent smiled over his shoulder at Cid as they walked along a desert path, just enjoying the quiet of the night.

"I haven't been to all that many cities," he admitted. "Just Midgar and I always thought it was dirty. I like it here. I'm starting to feel like I know everybody."

Cid chuckled. "That happens in a town this small. Everyone knows everybody else and the gossip is horrendous." He stepped up behind the dark-haired man and wrapped his arms around his body, burying his face in his neck. Vincent sighed contentedly. "You shoulda heard the noise when I first brought you home to live with me. Everyone was yammering non-stop, wondering how someone like me managed to land such a gorgeous guy like you."

Vincent tilted his head back as the pilot kissed his throat. "Oh? I didn't hear any of that."

"'Course not. No point gossipin' behind someone's back if you're in front of their face. Plus they didn't know you. Wait until the next scandal, you'll hear no end to it then." He nipped Vincent's neck, his hands sliding up under his shirt to stroke his chest. "So tell me," he continued in a deeper voice. "How did a guy like me land someone like you?"

Vincent chuckled, turning in his arms to face him. "You made me feel alive," he whispered and bent his head to kiss him. "I think I'd die without you."

Cid kissed him softly. "Don't worry, I ain't going nowhere." His grin turned into a leer. "Wanna do it?"

Vincent blinked. "What, here?"

"Sure," he grinned. "Why not?"

"Think `sand', Cid."

"So?"

"Think `snakes', Cid."

"So?"

"Can't you focus on anything else?"

"Nope. So, wanna do it?"
"Okay."



Idly, Cid tapped a pencil against his teeth as he stared at the final figures before him. The price for the four new cargo ships and the payment plan to actually pay for them. Things would be tight for the town for a while, but it was worth the cost. He hoped.

Behind him, the door creaked as Vincent opened it and came in. "Tiny Bronco is finished," he told him as he filled the kettle and plugged it into the wall, letting it boil water for tea while he filled the sink and started on the dinner dishes. "I'll be taking that dispatch to Wutei in the morning. It's already been sitting here too long. Another day and we'll owe them money."

"Um," Cid grunted in agreement, trying to balance equations in his head. Vincent looked back at him, in suds up to his elbows. Beside the sink, the tall kettle started to warm up.

"Did you hear me?"

"Um." Cid tapped the paper. "It's going to be a year before we turn a profit with these."

Vincent started scrubbing plates. "It's worth it, isn't it?"

"As long as nothin' expensive happens between now and then." Cid sneered at the calculations. "I hate risks like this."

Vincent smiled back at him, bumping the kettle as he turned. "So says the man who once tried to blast into space," he commented as he steadied it.

"That was just me. Not the future of the whole fuckin' town."

Vincent shrugged, carefully cleaning a glass and glad that his claw was both watertight and rustproof. "The town won't have a future if we get outbid by some other company with more ships."

Cid scowled. "I know."

The kettle started to steam. Leaning around it, Vincent grabbed a wire brush to work on an especially dirty pot and knocked it over as he brought it back, his attention more on Cid than on what he was doing. Immediately it toppled into the water and the ex-Turk yelped as he was thrown back by the electrical shock.

"Vincent!" Cid yelled, running to him.

Dazed, Vincent lay on the floor, clutching a left arm that was numb up to the shoulder. His claw was frozen, the fingers locked into a half open grip. "Ow," he managed.

Cid sat him up. "Are you okay?"

"Ow. Yes." Vincent looked down at his claw. "I think I fried the motor."

"Asshole. Be more careful next time." Grunting at his weight, Cid lifted his lover into his arms and carried him to the bedroom.

"Cid, I can still walk."

"Shut up. I'm enjoying this."



"How's your hand?"

Scowling, Vincent made a tiny adjustment with a small screwdriver and watched his middle finger flinch. "Slow. It's going to take me hours to repair this."

Cid shrugged, brushing his teeth with a towel around his waist. "So? Not like you're going anywhere."

"The dispatches, remember? We'll forfeit the fee if it's not there tonight."

Cid vanished into the bathroom and gargled. "I'll take it for you. The crew can handle things here for one day."

Vincent sighed, glaring at his claw in frustration. If he'd stayed up and spent the night working on it, the hand would have been repaired by now, but other distractions had gotten in the way. "Fine. It's your fault I didn't get to work on this until this morning."

"Hey, can I help it if you're sexy when you're helpless?"

Vincent gave him a look that was half smirk, half glare. "Right. Better get going."

Grinning, Cid leaned over the bed and kissed him. "Yeah. Sooner I get back then." Quickly, he finished getting dressed and headed out. Tiny Bronco was sitting on the runway, waiting for Vincent and Cid whistled a song to himself as he climbed aboard, went through the pre-flight check and then raced her down the runway, lifting away from the ground as gracefully as a bird.



As Tiny Bronco lifted off, Shera stepped out of her house and watched it head towards the horizon, already turning into a dot on the horizon. She hadn't dared come out sooner. She wanted the ex-Turk dead, but she didn't have the courage to look him in the face when he got into that plane.

Still, he was gone now and she wouldn't let herself worry about it, or feel guilty. Cid would need some time to recover from the freak's death, but she would be there for him while he did. And once he had recovered, she'd be waiting. She would be his everything.

Smiling to herself faintly, Shera went back inside to make breakfast.



It was a beautiful day and the Tiny Bronco responded beautifully. Inhaling cigarette smoke, Cid blew a ring towards the air filter. Vincent couldn't give him that look for smoking if he weren't around to see it and he luxuriated in the nicotine.

With a touch of the controls, he sent Tiny Bronco into a series of loops. Vincent had done a good job repairing her and she was just as responsive as she ever was. When he'd first built the little plane, he never would have dreamed he'd ever give her away, but he had no regrets that she was now Vincent's. Giving to the ex-Turk was easy.

"Makes these old bones feel young," he muttered with a grin and flipped on the comm to Rocket Town's control town. "Hey, it's me."

"Hi, boss," Will, his air traffic controller answered. "What's up?"

"You got that fucking cargo for Icicle Inn loaded yet?"

"Half done, boss. That's an awful lot of road salt and snowploughs."

"Yeah. Just so long as it gets there on time." Cid peered at his control panel as a red light suddenly came on. "What the fuck?"

"Problems?"

"Yeah. The damn light for the guidance system came on." Cid tapped it and sat up straighter in his chair. That was one light he'd never seen come on before. "Weird."

"Maybe Dragon Bait put the bulb in backwards," Will teased.

"Very funny. Better not let him hear you call him that, asshole."

Seeing that he was drifting off his flight path, Cid pulled back on the controls to bring her around and swore as Tiny Bronco suddenly veered wildly to starboard and plummeted.

"Boss?" Will yelped. "BOSS!"



Shera looked up from her work as two of the crew ran by, whispering excitedly. Blinking, she saw that the entire crew of the Highwind was running towards the control tower. She shivered, reminding herself that what she did for Cid, for them, and walked slowly towards the control tower. Cid would need her.

Since there wasn't enough room in the tower to hold everyone, someone inside had turned on the outer speakers to transmit whatever signal was being picked up inside to the people waiting. At the moment, all that could be heard was the sound of a laboured engine.

"What's happening?" a newcomer asked.

"Tiny Bronco is flying crazy. The controls aren't working right," a mechanic answered worriedly.

"Yeah," another one added. "It's all Cid can do to keep her from crashing."

The world shattered around Shera, the horror of that name shocking her to her soul as Cid's voice echoed over the speaker, sounding tinny and desperate.

"Shit! She ain't responding! Damn! The guidance system is totally fucked!"

"Can you get her nose down?" the controller asked in a remarkably calm voice.

"Fuck, I can barely get her to do anything! The connection to the stick is just about gone. She's flyin' on her own. Damn, she won't go straight!"

Shera started hyperventilating. She could hear the Tiny Bronco's engine labouring, the onboard computer shorting as the wires leading to it sent surges of power instead of a steady flow. They fried the components they were supposed to feed, forcing random course corrections, unpredictable turns and twists. She could almost feel the g-forces the little plane was forcing on its pilot. She felt like the same was crushing her chest and heart.

"Why is Cid flying?" she heard herself whimper.

"Filling in for Vincent," her neighbour shrugged. "Damn, c'mon, Cid. Pull her out of this."

He couldn't. Shera knew that. The failure would cascade, getting worse until the plane crashed. Tears filled her eyes. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. It was supposed to be Vincent up there.

"Oh, God," she whispered. "Oh God, oh god, ohgodohgodohgod"

Someone hugged her, but she didn't feel it. She was too cold, shivering even in the hot desert air.

"Oh, shit," Cid gasped. "I can't pull her up g-forces uh tearing me apart damnit I can't"

The sound of the transmission cutting off was horribly abrupt.

Everyone was silent, staring at the speaker, but the static and Cid's voice didn't return. "Oh, shit," someone murmured. "What are we gonna tell Vincent?"

At the sound of that name, Shera's shattered heart filled with hate.



Delicately, Vincent soldered the final connection to his fingers and closed the panel on the back of his hand. Then he flexed it and smiled as the fingers all responded the way they were supposed to. He hated the look of the thing, but having only one hand would be awkward as anything, even if this one was sharp enough to tear flesh. Perhaps Cid could replace the tips with something less pointed, he mused to himself.

Suddenly, the door banged open and Shera stormed into the kitchen. Vincent started to stand up, startled by the tears and rage on her face, then rocked back in his chair as she slapped him as hard as she could.

"You BASTARD!" she screamed. "You evil freak! You killed him!"

Vincent gaped at her. "What?"

"YOU KILLED CID!" she shrieked. "You screwed up the guidance system on Tiny Bronco and now he's DEAD! It's your fault!"

She hit him again, but Vincent didn't feel it. Cid was dead? Because of him? "Of course he is," he murmured, standing up and walking towards the bedroom. It made so much sense. He fell in love with Cid, surrendered to that love, and now Cid was dead. It was the most natural thing in the world.

"Where the HELL are you going?" Shera shrieked. It was an odd sound. Vincent felt like something inside of him was screaming just as loud but he couldn't make out the words. He could only feel a strange numbness and the eyes he turned on her only had the reflection of her face in them.

"Away," he told her and collected his clothes, the costume he'd been wearing in his coffin. He couldn't go back to his coffin, he mused idly as he changed into the black clothes and put the red cloak on. Cid destroyed it. He eyed the Death Penalty, his hands shaking non-stop as he put it on his back. It wouldn't kill him. It was the second most powerful weapon in the world, but it wasn't strong enough to kill him.

Vincent shook the endless screaming out of his head for a moment and brushed past Shera. She stared at him, her face red with tears and confusion. "Where are you going?" she repeated.

"I have to go to him," Vincent told her quietly, not looking back as he walked out the door, endlessly screaming inside, forever broken from her words.

"Him? Him who?"

"Him." Vincent didn't look back. "He killed Sephiroth. He's got to be able to kill me."



"Owww. Shit."

Everything hurt. Wincing, Cid opened his eyes to find himself sprawled in his pilot's seat at an odd angle, everything twisted around him and the sky showing through the broken windshield in front of his face. He could tell even without looking that Tiny Bronco would never fly again; he'd belly-skidded her across the ground to slow her speed before she crashed and he suspected if he hadn't been such a good pilot, he wouldn't still be alive.

"Better me than Vincent," he muttered to himself, ignoring the voice that pointed out that while Vincent wasn't as good a pilot, he was a hell of a lot better at healing. Cid felt like he had to have broken every bone in his body.

Ten minutes later, he came to the conclusion that he'd only broken his leg and a couple of ribs, as well as hitting his head hard enough to make moving a nauseating experience. Cursing non-stop and wishing he had some Cure materia, he checked the comm gear to find it smashed. "Shit," he muttered and settled back in his chair. He was in Wutei, he knew that much, and someone had to have seen the crash. He'd just have to wait until they came to investigate, and hope that they were human when they did.



One more hour and they'd be open for the day. Glancing at the clock on the wall, Cloud Strife went back to sweeping the floor of Seventh Heaven. It was fairly relaxing work, meaning boring as anything, but he was getting used to it. Being married to Tifa seemed to involve doing a lot of things he'd normally consider dull, but strangely enough he didn't mind. He wanted the bar to do well as much as she did and while running it wasn't as exciting as saving the world had been, it was definitely a lot safer.

Cloud smirked as he put the broom away and got the rag. The biggest thing he had to worry about now were drunk losers looking for a fight, who thought someone as short as he was could never make a good bouncer. He still got his fill of action taking care of them.

Cloud glanced at the clock again. Tifa was out running errands for the bar and he hated to be in the building alone without her. It always felt somehow unnatural.

The door opened behind him and Cloud looked over. "Hey, Tifa, you're-" He blinked as he recognised the black haired man in the red cape who came inside. "Vincent? Long time no see. What brings you by?"

Vincent closed the door behind him and walked over to the bar. There was something wrong with his eyes, Cloud realised uncomfortably. But he didn't know where he'd seen that kind of expression before. Vincent didn't say anything and Cloud shifted, inexplicably nervous. The quiet was almost deafening.

"Where's Cid?" he asked, just to have something to say.

Vincent's expression didn't change. "He's dead."

Cloud gasped in shock. "What?? What happened?"

"I killed him."

Cloud could only stare at him until Vincent suddenly swung his cloak back and brought the Death Penalty up. "Your turn," he told him and Cloud went diving for the floor as the big shotgun blew the whole back wall of the bar into ruin.

Now Cloud remembered where he'd seen that look in Vincent's eyes before. It had been the same look he'd seen in Sephiroth's eyes the day he went insane.



One of the worst things about being involved in a crash and unsure if anyone was going to find him, Cid decided, was how boring it was. He'd been able to reach the med kit under the control panel and take some drugs for the pain of his busted leg, and now that he wasn't in immediate agony, he was bored out of his mind.

"Shit," he muttered. "This fucking sucks. Where the hell is everybody??" he yelled. Wutei had people in it, someone should have seen the crash.

"Jeez, cranky, aren't you?"

Startled, Cid craned his neck around and looked up at the entrance to the ship, now above him. A girl with short brown hair was leaning in the doorway, grinning at him.

"Yuffie!"



Swearing, Cloud scrambled on his hands and knees towards the back of the bar, the wood behind him exploding systematically as Vincent destroyed his hiding place a bit at a time. Cloud was already bleeding from a dozen cuts from the flying shrapnel and he coughed in the smoke.

Vincent was completely out of his mind, as mad as Sephiroth had ever been. Fleetingly, Cloud wondered if it was the Jenova cells in his blood that did it to him and dove out of hiding towards the buster sword he'd hung on the wall as a trophy when the bar opened.

Vincent's red eyes turned to track him, completely lacking in emotion as he twisted the Death Penalty in his direction. Desperately, Cloud grabbed the big sword and dove out of the way, just as the wall where it had been exploded.

"Ow!" he yelped. "Damn it, Vincent! Don't do this! I don't want to have to fight you!"

In answer, Vincent fired again. Most of the shot, Cloud blocked with the buster sword, but still he screamed in pain as the power of it slammed through him, knocking him back. Mako cells got to work healing him but it hurt incredibly and Cloud felt his Limit Break stirring inside him, just as it always did when he was injured.

"Damn it, Vince," he gasped as he tried to gather the energy to move. It felt like that last hit had flayed the skin off him or taken a leg.

Vincent loomed over him, his eyes still locked in that blank stare as he brought the butt of his shotgun down. Cloud screamed as it crushed his shoulder blade and swung the buster sword up as hard as he could. The flat of it slammed into the ex-Turk, knocking him aside as Cloud forced himself in agony to his feet, the Limit Break building up in him. A few metres away, Vincent shook his head and turned towards him, shotgun at his side and claws clenching a moment before he lunged.

Cloud was caught almost completely by surprise. Vincent was not a close-up fighter. He preferred to hit from a distance, and hurt as Cloud was, he could blow him away with the Death Penalty before he would be able to build up the energy for the Omnislash and release it. Instead he closed with him, giving Cloud the chance to use the Buster sword. It was completely insane.

So was Vincent, Cloud thought as he blocked the man's claws with his sword. His wounds screamed at him, blood getting into his eyes, his left arm useless with the broken shoulder, his clothes in rags. Vincent slashed at him with his claws, ignoring his shotgun in favour of tearing Cloud apart and the young man shoved him away as hard as he could. Vincent stumbled back, his eyes still blank.

"Damn you, Vincent," Cloud gasped, his own eyes glowing a bright Mako blue as the Omnislash peaked. By his own admission, Vincent killed Cid, he was trying to kill HIM, even if he was using the stupidest way possible to do so. Probably the Omnislash was the only thing that could kill the ex-Turk with his Jenova cells, but Cloud refused to let the energy boiling inside of him free.

"I'm not doing this, Vincent," he gasped. "You don't have to fight me." He'd seen enough friends die.

"Cloud!"

Both men turned as Tifa suddenly appeared in the gaping entrance to the bar, gasping from running and her eyes huge. Cloud's heart sank. "Tifa, get out of here!" he yelled as the ex-Turk lifted his weapon. "NO!" Cloud screamed and let the power in him focus on the silent man.

Vincent dropped the Death Penalty and closed his eyes.

No Desperately, Cloud pulled the energy to one side and Vincent was thrown off his feet, his shoulder shredded by the edge of the blast as the Omnislash blew past him and out through the front of the bar, easily missing Tifa but vaporising everything else in its path. Gasping, Cloud dropped to his knees, too drained to move.

Vincent lifted his head to stare at him. There was emotion in his eyes now. Pure, unadulterated self-loathing. "Why??" he gasped. "Why didn't you kill me??"

Cloud shook his head painfully. "I don't kill friends."

"Damn you," Vincent whispered, his hand clamped over the wound in his shoulder. It healed at a super fast rate, reknitting itself even as Cloud watched. Painfully, Vincent pulled the Death Penalty to him and started to rise again. Cloud winced, not sure he had the energy for another blast.

"Cloud! CLOUD!" Aching, Cloud looked over as Tifa ran into the bar. "No you don't, you bastard!" she screamed and lunged at Vincent. He didn't even try to dodge her blow.

Tifa skidded to a stop kneeling in front of Cloud. "Baby! Are you all right? What happened?"

Cloud looked over her shoulder at the crumpled form lying on the floor of his bar in red and black. "I think he wanted me to kill him."

"Why?" she gasped.

"I don't know," Cloud admitted.



"Hey! Whatever happened to helping a friend out for free??" Cid snapped.

Standing at the side of his bed with a Cure materia in her hand, Yuffie glared at him. "Hey, I have to make a profit here, you know."

"Cure materia don't cost the gil you're asking for, girl!" he snapped.

"Jeez, you could be nicer to me and all," she grumped as she turned back to her case and put the glowing materia back into its holder. "Considering I saved your life. What would Vinnie think if he knew you were being so rude?"

Cid just glared at her. Yuffie had saved him, then proceeded to charge him for every aspect of his rescue, as well as a fine for not delivering the files he'd been carrying on time. At the rate he was going, he'd be bankrupt before he even got his leg repaired.

"I don't suppose you've got a phone I could use to call him and let him know I'm still alive," he grated.

"Sure. Just 500 gil."

"Yuffie!"



It hurt. Everything hurt, so badly he was afraid to open his mouth for fear he'd start screaming and never be able to stop.

Slowly, Vincent dragged his claw across the skin of his arm, watching the sharp metal tear through the flesh, blood welling up through it. Pain lanced through him, but it hurt less than what was in his soul. Only it didn't last long enough. The wound healed itself almost as fast as he could make it, leaving him with only the pain inside. That was so much harder to deal with. Impossible.

Vincent brought the claw up to his face, ignoring the voices that cried for him to stop, the hands that tried to bring his arm down, and razed it across his cheek and eye. The pain of it was glorious and tears made of blood flowed down his cheeks, since he couldn't cry tears of anything else.



Everyone poured out of the hangars and other buildings as the Wutei airship settled down and Cid climbed off. He grinned as he limped clear of the ship that Yuffie had charged far too much for him to borrow, and they all came racing up to him, screaming at the top of their lungs.

"Cid!" Shera shrieked as she threw herself into his arms. He hadn't known the woman could run that fast and she hugged him so tightly he grunted. "I never thought I'd see you again," she sobbed.

Cid grinned at her and the others as they surrounded him, pounding him on the back and shaking his hand vigorously, the yelling and questions so loud he couldn't figure out who was saying what. The pilot's grin widened. It was good to be home.

As they welcomed him back, though, he looked through the crowd, searching for one dark head in particular. "Hey!" he yelled. "Anyone seen Vincent?"

Suddenly, everyone quieted down as Shera's grip on him tightened nearly to pain for a second. "Um, he left," one tech admitted. "Right after you crashed."

Cid stared at him, his heard suddenly plummeting. "Left? Which way did he go?"

They looked sheepish. "Um, nobody saw. He was just gone."

Cid started swearing.



The hospital was surprisingly cheery, with far less of an antiseptic smell than Cloud would have expected. Tifa at his side holding his hand, he walked into the lobby to be greeted by friendly yellow walls and flowering plants. The bars on the windows were discrete, almost ornate. It didn't look like a place of its type should, he mused.

Quietly, he walked over to the reception desk where the nurse on duty smiled up at him. "May I help you?"

Cloud cleared his throat. "Um, I'm here to see a Vincent Valentine? He was admitted five days ago?"

She checked her notes. "Ah, yes. He's in the day room." She smiled at them. "You must be Mr and Mrs Strife."

Cloud glanced at his wife, then back at her. "Um, yeah. We would have been in to see him sooner, but we had to work on the bar and the doctor said it might not be good for Vincent to be around us. But the doc called last night and said there was a change in his condition." He realised he was babbling and trailed off. Tifa squeezed his hand.

"Of course. Please sign here and I'll call Dr Blackwell to escort you."

Cloud scribbled his name on the sign-in sheet and handed the pen to Tifa. Thanks to the Cure materia she'd stashed after their travels, he was fully recovered, but he still felt strange about everything. Vincent attacking him the way he did didn't make any sense, though there was no reason it should. If Vincent had been doing something logical, he wouldn't have been brought to this place.

A few minutes later, a doctor in a lab coat appeared. "Hello, Mr Strife," he said as he shook their hands. "Mrs Strife. I'm Dr Blackwell. Thank you for coming. Follow me." He led them into the hospital, where the halls was just as clean and cheerful as the reception room. A few people in pyjamas wandered by.

Cloud kept his stare fixed on the doctor's back. "How's Vincent?" he asked.

"Yes," Tifa added. "We phoned every day but no one would tell us anything."

The doctor sighed, bringing them into an office with a couch and desk, as well as a window looking over the newly rebuilt Midgar II. "I'm afraid Mr Valentine is very ill and isn't responding to treatment as well as we'd hoped."

Cloud sank down onto the couch with his wife. "What's happened? Did he really want me to kill him when he attacked?"

Blackwell nodded. "Vincent Valentine was lucid for a while when he was first brought in and admitted that he was in fact trying to get you to kill him, in retaliation for Mr Valentine apparently killing someone called Cid. Only he won't tell us who this Cid person is, or where this allegedly happened. When we tried to question him again, he refused to answer."

Cloud stared at his hands. "God. He said he'd killed Cid. I thought he was joking."

"You didn't tell me that!" Tifa hissed.

Blackwell picked up a pen. "And Cid is?"

Cloud gripped Tifa's hand warmly. "Cid Highwind. Mayor of Rocket Town. He and Vincent are, um, lovers."

Blackwell nodded and made a notation on the file before him. "Thank you."

"Do you really think Vincent killed him?" Tifa asked.

The doctor's eyes were very calm. "It's hard to say at this point, Mrs Strife. Mr Valentine was highly delusional most of the time until yesterday morning. He said a lot of things that can't be believed to be true, about monsters and demons inside him."

Cloud looked down again. "Um, yeah. Right. Wait. You said he was delusional until yesterday." He looked up again. "Does that mean he's okay now?"

Gently, Blackwell gripped the pen in both fingers and laid it on his desk. "I'm afraid not." He raised a hand. "Let me explain. Mr Valentine was very confused and depressed when he was admitted to the hospital. We've been working on developing a drug regimen for him which will make him able to function in society, but his unique physiology has made that very difficult. At present we have almost nothing that will work on him short of sleeping pills and in the little time he's been here, he's shown no response to therapy." He sighed. "The day after he arrived, Mr Valentine started to cut himself." They both stared at him and the doctor lifted his left hand to his face. "With his claw. He would tear it across his face, body or anywhere he could reach, then watch the wound heal. We tried to restrain him, but he's amazingly strong. Finally, we had no choice but to remove the claw to keep him from hurting himself further, or even turning the claw on someone else."

Cloud winced at that. Vincent hated the claw, he knew that, but to just have it removed like it was nothing had to be rough.

"The decision wasn't made lightly, Mr Strife, but we couldn't in good conscience allow any patient in this hospital to deliberately harm themselves, no matter how easily they heal. Unfortunately, since the claw was removed yesterday morning, Mr Valentine has completely withdrawn."

"Withdrawn?" Tifa whispered. "What do you mean?"

Blackwell stood. "Perhaps I should show you. I asked you both to come here since you're the only people we know of who Mr Valentine is acquainted with. We're hoping that you'll be able to get him to respond."

Cloud and Tifa followed silently as Blackwell led them back into the hall and to a set of double doors at the end. Through them was what appeared to be a rec room. Patients sat in one corner watching television, others played ping pong or looked out large windows onto a garden where still more patients walked around. The doctor led them over to one of the tables next to the windows. At it sat a figure Cloud barely recognised.

Vincent was dressed in the same soft blue pyjamas as the rest of the patients, slouched over with his hand in his lap. Not tied back, his hair fell softly around his face and shoulders. He didn't look up as they approached. Didn't look at anything. He just kept staring forward at nothing, his eyes blank.

Dr Blackwell bent over and brushed some of the hair out of Vincent's face, smiling. "Hello, Mr Valentine. Look who's here. Some of your friends came by to visit you." Vincent didn't even blink. "Aren't you going to say hello to them?"

No reaction.

Cloud felt a shudder go through his spine. "What's wrong with him?"

The doctor sighed and straightened. "Complete withdrawal. He's detached himself from the world." He gestured at the table. "Have a seat. Talk to him. Give him a chance to know you're here."

"He doesn't know?" Tifa asked uncertainly.

"We're not sure. But you are his friends. If he's going to react to anything, it'll be to you." He started for the door. "I'll be back in a few minutes. Call if you need any help and try not to upset him."

Cloud wasn't sure there was enough in the man TO upset. Vincent's eyes were completely vacant. Red pools of nothingness in a face that was as still as marble. Only his nostrils moved slightly as he breathed. He'd lost weight as well, the pyjamas hanging on him loosely. Someone had rolled up the sleeves though, showing how the left arm ended at a stump just below the elbow.

Swallowing, Cloud sat down across from him, Tifa pressing against his side. Her eyes were huge as she stared at the ex-Turk. "Vincent?" Cloud said. "It's me, Cloud. Can you hear me?"

Vincent just sat there, breathing slowly. Periodically he blinked, but it was an involuntary action only.

"He's so thin, Cloud," Tifa whispered. "He looks like he's starving to death."

Cloud waved his hand slowly in front of the man's eyes. "Come on, Vincent, snap out of it. You're scaring us." Vincent didn't move. "Shit, man, don't do this."

Tifa hugged her husband's arms. "What do we do, Cloud? He doesn't even know we're here."

"I wish I knew." Cloud sighed and slouched down, defeated. "I really wish I knew."



Feeling older than he was, Cloud trudged up the street towards the Seventh Heaven, on his way back from his third visit to the hospital. He kept going once a day, trying to get Vincent to recognise him from whatever dark place he was in, but always in vain. All he succeeded in was leaving depressed. The doctors were reaching the point they were discussing the possibility of things like shock therapy to bring the man out of his waking coma. The thought of Vincent strapped to a table with electrodes taped to his head made Cloud sick, but he couldn't think of what else to do.

Ahead of him, the Seventh Heaven appeared. The repairs were well underway thanks to the insurance money. Workmen tromped in and out, going around Tifa as she stood on the sidewalk scratching the head of a saddled gold chocobo. A second one stood beside it.

Cloud blinked and walked over to her, trying to affect a natural grin in spite of his mood. "Leaving me already, are you?"

Tifa smiled back. "No, actually, you're the one who's leaving."

"Huh?"

She handed the bird's reins to him. "Dr Blackwell called while you were out. He's phoned Rocket Town a dozen times trying to get in contact with Cid, but all he gets is some woman playing a run-around. I volunteered you to go and get Cid and bring him back."

"Volunteered me," he noted dryly. "Gee, thanks, Tifa."

She looked at him sadly. "You know as well as I do that Vincent's going to die if he doesn't wake up. The doctors can't feed him with an IV forever." Her eyes filled with tears. "I don't want another one of my friends to die. If anyone can snap him out of it, it's got to be Cid. He loves him."

Cloud sighed. "I guess you're right." He hugged his wife tightly, then mounted one of the birds, taking the reins of the other and tying them to his saddle horn. "I'll be back soon," he promised. "If Cid's alive, he'll be with me."

Tifa smiled, pumping her fist in the sign for victory and watched him as he rode away.



"Goddamned cheap woman and her second rate materia! I'm gonna kill her if I see her again!" Swearing at the top of his voice, Cid sat gingerly in his chair, leg extended before him. It was healed, just like his ribs, but it hurt like mad, making the chore of walking a near nightmare.

Shera smiled from the door to the living room. "Maybe if I massaged it, it would feel better."

"Maybe," he grumped.

She came into the room and sat on the footstool as he lit up a cigarette. Taking Cid's leg into her lap, she started rubbing it gently, working the endless series of knots out of the muscles. Cid watched her through narrowed eyes. It should be Vincent rubbing the pain out, he mused bitterly. Damn cowardly Turk. Just like him to run at the first sign of trouble. Damn it, if only he didn't love him so much.

Cid sighed in relief as one of the larger knots suddenly loosened. "Oh, thank God. I thought that one was going to fucking kill me."

Shera laughed softly. She was wearing her hair down, just like Vincent used to, Cid mused. He took a breath from the cigarette. "You're wearin' your hair different."

She shrugged. "I thought it was time for a change." She'd gotten rid of her glasses for contacts as well, and her clothes were darker, tighter. Cid had to admit she looked good.

Slowly, Shera worked her way up his leg, fingers kneading out the muscles one at a time. Cid let her, eyes closing as he thought about his ex-Turk. He'd find him. If he had to tear the whole damn Planet apart, he'd find him. Wouldn't even yell at him either. So Vince got scared, he'd been through so much shit he was allowed. Cid just wanted him back.

A weight shifted the chair slightly and Cid opened his eyes just as Shera leaned forward to kiss him. "Mm??"

"Oh, Cid," she whispered, putting her arms around his neck. "I love you."

Cid nearly dropped his cigarette on her. Shera?? She'd always been interested in him, but she'd never made a play like this before. She wasn't a half bad kisser either, he noted distantly as he gripped her shoulders and pushed her back.

"What the hell are you doing, woman?"

She smiled at him happily. "I'm here for you, Cid. I love you." A knock sounded on the door.

"Uh, I gotta go get that." There was something almost frightening about a Shera this intense.

"Don't leave," she whispered, one hand tracing down his cheek. "You and I were meant to be together, don't you see that?"

"Not really. Will you just get off of me?" The knocking turned into pounding.

"Oh, Cid." She kissed him again.

Cid tried to shove her off as he heard the door get kicked in, but she was sitting in his lap now and had a death grip around his neck. His temper started to peak until he heard someone stomp into the room.

"Cid Highwind!" Cloud barked. "You two-timing asshole! Did you know that Vincent's in a mental institution because of you??"

Cid pushed Shera so hard she fell to the floor with a yelp. "WHAT??" he yelled.



Trailing feathers, the gold chocobo sprinted at full speed onto the front lawn of the Midgar Mental Institution. Its rider jumped off and in relief it collapsed on the spot, panting for breath.

"Cid! Wait!" Cloud yelled from where his chocobo still ran up the street.

Cid ignored him, chewing on his cigarette as he limped at high speed into the hospital, swearing under his breath. A nurse smiled at him from the reception desk. "May I help you?"

"Cid Highwind to see Vincent Valentine," he spat at her. "He's a patient here."

She folded her hands on the desk. "I'm sorry, sir, but visiting hours are over for the day. You'll have to come back- ack! SIR!"

Cid didn't look at the woman he'd roughly shoved into the wall, along with her wheeled chair. He just leaned over the desk and typed Vincent's name into her computer. Room 214. Nodding to himself, he started limping hurriedly for the elevator. His leg felt like someone had smashed it into a few hundred pieces, it was so knotted up, and he wasn't sure he could handle the stairs.

"Sir!" the nurse yelled. "You can't go up there! Wait!" She tried to grab Cloud as he ran past, but missed him. The blond young man leaped for the elevator, barely getting into it before the doors closed.

"You realise they're probably going to arrest us," he panted, glaring at the pilot.

Cid just shrugged. "They try and I'll fucking rip their heads off."

Cloud didn't answer to that. There hadn't been much conversation between them. Just enough for Cid to know his Vincent was sick and needed him. He'd been out of Rocket Town heading for Midgar only five minutes after Cloud arrived and he could still hear Shera's screams of protest echoing in his ears. Not that he cared. His only thoughts were for his dark-haired ex-Turk.

"I'm coming, baby, wait for me," he whispered.

The doors opened. Cid stepped out, flattened an orderly who'd come to stop him with one punch and charged towards Room 214. Reaching it, he stopped in the doorway, staring inside in horror.

Vincent sat on one of the single beds in the room, curtains to either side of it to give him privacy from the other inhabitants. He was dressed in blue pyjamas that made his paler than normal skin look even more washed out and he was as thin as skin and bones. The stub of his left arm and his right hand lay limp in his lap while he stared numbly at the wall just past where Cid was standing. A nurse brushed his long hair.

"You have such beautiful hair, Mr Valentine," she told him in a gentle, friendly voice, as though he were listening. "I would give almost anything to have hair like this." She looked up at Cid. "May I help you?"

Cid gaped at her, pointing at Vincent. "What the fuck is this??"

Cloud skidded to a halt behind Cid. "Cid-"

"Don't talk to me!" Cid snapped at him. He limped over to Vincent and knelt down painfully. "Vincent? What's wrong with you, baby? Talk to me!"

Vincent kept staring, his gaze unfocused.

Cid felt a heavy, numb terror fill him. This wasn't the man he'd left behind in Rocket Town, this wasn't the man he'd fallen in love with. This was some kind of zombie. "Vince?" he whispered, gently cupping Vincent's face with his hands, his fingers tangling in the taller man's hair. He was so thin. The nurse stood up and stepped back. "It's me, baby. I didn't die in that crash, you can wake up now." To his surprise, he found tears running down his cheeks. He never cried. Men weren't supposed to, but now he couldn't seem to stop. "Please, Vincent, don't leave me."

"Mr Highwind?"

Slowly, Cid tore his eyes away from that empty gaze to look up at a man in a doctor's coat. "I'm Dr Blackwell, Mr Valentine's physician."

"Nice t' meet you," Cid croaked. "What the hell is wrong with him?"

"It's very complex," the doctor sighed. "Why don't you come to my office. We can discuss it there, as well as long term care options for Mr Valentine."

Long term care... Cid had had visions of busting Vincent out and taking him home. Now he had to discuss long term care options? To keep his baby in a mental hospital? Forever? He stared deep into those eyes, but all he saw was his own reflection looking back at him. "Damnit, damn damn damn," he whispered. "This can't be happening."

"Mr Highwind? Mr Valentine needs his rest. Please come with me. There's a lot of paperwork that needs to be filled out."

Gently, Cid leaned in to kiss Vincent on the lips, then again on the forehead. "I'll be back, baby," he promised him. "No matter how long it takes, I won't leave you in here alone. I'll move to Midgar if I have to. Fuck the Highwind. Shera can have her." Shaking, he hugged the man to him and stood, wiping his eyes.

"Are you okay, Cid?" Cloud asked miserably. He'd obviously expected Vincent to be all better when they got there too.

"What the hell do you think?" he growled, glaring around at the room. "You wanna talk long term care?" he snapped at the doctor. Turning on him, he strode out of the room towards the startled man, one finger poking him in the chest. "Let's start with that fucking circus you call a room. My Vincent gets a private room from now on, you got that? And none of that shit you hospitals call food. Only the real stuff for him! And decent clothes. Those pyjamas make him look like he's fucking ninety, got it?"

Blackwell stammered, trying to get a word in edgewise, but Cid just kept advancing on him, swearing up and down about the shoddy conditions in the hospital as he worked out his grief the only way he knew how. Verbally.



"Fucking, goddamned dump..."

So dark. So quiet. So peaceful. Nothing could reach him, nothing could hurt him. No memory, no thought, no pain.

"I wouldn't stable a lame chocobo in this shitty excuse for a hospital!"

That sounded like Cid, he thought, but pushed the thought away before the horrible pain could return. All he wanted was the soothing darkness.

"And another thing. Where the hell do you get off wearing some fucking labcoat like a goddamned scientist? My Vincent hates scientists!"

My Vincent? No...

Slowly, Vincent's eyes focused at the sound of a voice which was too loud and brazen to ignore. Too familiar. His Cid in full ranting glory. Blinking sleepily, Vincent found himself sitting on the edge of a bed, but he didn't bother to try and understand how he got there. He could hear Cid.

"Mr Highwind, please, let's be reasonable!" came from the hallway.

"You gonna take that shitty coat off or am I going to rearrange your fucking nose?"

"Cid?" Vincent whispered as he shuffled to the doorway. He felt so weak, like he'd been asleep forever. Reaching it, he leaned against the jamb and looked out.

Cloud and three men dressed like orderlies stood in the hallway, along with a nurse and an uncertain looking man taking off a lab coat under the snarling gaze of Cid.

"Cid," Vincent whispered again.

Cloud looked over at him and his eyes widened. "Vincent!"

Cid turned around. "Baby?"

He was alive, limping but alive. Vincent's eyes brimmed with tears, his smile so wide it hurt his face. "Cid!" he whimpered and threw himself at the man.

Cid caught him, laughing. "Oh, God, I thought I'd lost you," the pilot breathed into his ear. "Don't ever scare me like that again."

Vincent hugged him as tightly as he could with one and a half arms. "I thought you were dead!" he moaned. "It was all my fault! I'm so sorry!"

Cid's head shook in the negative against him. "No, Vincent. It was an accident. May as well blame Shera for not checking the damn circuits well enough. It's not your fault."

Vincent buried his face against his neck. "I wanted to die so badly, but I heard you swearing. I had to come back."

The pilot chuckled. "Knew my mouth had to be good for something." He hugged him tighter and his voice dropped to a whisper, for Vincent's ears only. "I survived your curse, Vincent. I didn't die. That means it's broken, baby. It's all going to be okay now."

Vincent couldn't stop crying, sobbing into Cid's neck like a child. Cid just ran his hands up and down his back, cooing to him soothingly. Through damp eyes, Vincent saw the doctor and nurse smiling at them both, while Cloud hurried off, saying something about calling Tifa.

He just closed his eyes again. None of it mattered anymore. He was home.



"Yeah, yeah, listen to me, Shera. You have a brain somewhere inside your head. Work out a piloting schedule for the new ships. You don't fucking need me for that... Yes, I know I've been gone a month. They ain't worked out Vincent's medication yet. He won't be discharged until the end of the week at the least... Watch your mouth, woman."

Cid hung up and glanced over at the single bed in the private room. In spite of his loud cursing, Vincent was still asleep, arms folded on top of the light blanket. The doctor had been testing antidepressants on him again, trying to develop one that wouldn't be fucked by his Mako and Jenova cells. Whatever the latest one was, it had knocked the ex-Turk out like a light. Blackwell had decided that it would make an acceptable sleeping pill, if nothing else. Vincent didn't sleep much otherwise, unless Cid was there.

The pilot smiled at his dozing lover. Vincent was even quieter than before, if that was possible. Thinking Cid was dead had shattered his soul. Cid's smile faltered. Vincent had even warned him he'd die without him but he hadn't thought anything of it. Leaning over, he kissed the dark-haired man on the forehead.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere for a fucking long time," he promised him softly. Vincent wasn't going to leave his sight. It was part of the agreement he'd had to sign to get Vincent released from the hospital, and it took a lot of bellowing and Reeve's interference to get the agreement at all. Cid was now legally responsible for everything Vincent did and according to Blackwell, Vincent became depressed when Cid wasn't around. Not a big deal. He liked the company and there was room in Highwind's cockpit for the ex-Turk to ride with him on cargo runs. Tiny Bronco would have to wait for a new pilot when it was rebuilt, unless he had it rebuilt as a two-seater. Vincent wouldn't be going anywhere on his own for a very long time.

"A lifetime of shit just came to a head, didn't it, baby?" he murmured to him. "Don't worry, you're past the worst of it. It'll be blue skies from now on if I have to make Lady Luck smile on you by force."

A soft knock sounded at the door and Cloud and Tifa peeked in. "Aw, he's so cute when he's asleep," Tifa laughed as she came in with Cloud.

"Keep your hands off my man, woman," Cid grinned and she raised her hands in mock defence.

"Be nice, or we won't let you stay with us anymore."

Cid grinned. "I didn't figure you two would be here today. How goes fixing the bar?"

"Slow," Cloud grimaced. "Won't open again until the middle of next month." He looked at Vincent. "Has he said anything about what happened there?"

Cid sat down in a chair beside the bed and wished for a cigarette, but Blackwell had told him he'd throw him out if he dared smoke near his patient. "He doesn't remember."

Both of the Strifes blinked at that. "You're kidding. How could he forget?"

Cid shrugged. "How the hell should I know? Last thing Vince remembers before waking up in here is Shera telling him I crashed. I'm gonna slap that woman for breaking it to him that way. Fucking idiot."

"Are you going to tell him?" Cloud asked.

"Tell him what? That he nearly blew away one of his closest friends? No fucking way. He's got enough shit to deal with. Doc says he won't remember until he's ready. I'll worry about it then."

Tifa smiled at him. "I'm glad you're happy, Cid."

"Who the hell says I'm happy? I'm stuck in this damn dump all day."

"Your dimples are showing."

Cid started cursing while the Strifes laughed. "Cid..?" Vincent murmured sleepily, his eyes opening. "What's happening?"

Cid glared at Tifa. "She says my dimples are showing. I don't HAVE any dimples."

Vincent smiled. "Yes you do. They're cute."

"Traitor," he muttered, but leaned over to kiss the ex-Turk anyway.



"Hey, Cid's back! And he's got Dragon Bait with him!"

Shera looked up at the sound of whoops and cheers as everyone poured out of the hangar towards the gold Chocobo trotting into the town. Two men sat on it, one waving and pumping both arms over his head in a victory sign, the other sitting behind him with one arm around his waist, long black hair blowing in the breeze.

For a long moment, Shera looked at them both, then slowly crossed the runway towards them. Cid didn't know what she did, he had no reason to blame her for more than not checking Tiny Bronco well enough. She'd get her chance to kill Vincent again. Again? She took a deep breath, watching the man she loved put his arm around the freak's waist, holding him close to him as everyone surrounded them. Cid loved her. She'd felt it in him when she kissed him, but still Vincent stood between them. As long as he lived, he'd keep them apart. But she'd have to be careful when she did strike, and she'd have to wait for the right moment.

Forcing herself to smile, Shera went forward to welcome her lover and her enemy home.



"Shit. Think they gave you enough pills?" Cid muttered, but still he read each bottle carefully, along with the doctor's instructions, and measured out six of them. One antidepressant, one anti-nausea to counter the antidepressant's side effects. Two vitamins, a weird thing that was supposed to prevent the Jenova cells from affecting Vincent's thought processes - not necessary he was sure, but he wasn't going to argue after seeing what happened to Sephiroth - and a sleeping pill. Cid cupped them in his hand, poured a glass of water and went into the bedroom.

Vincent looked up at him from where he sat in the bed, rubbing the stump of his left arm and smiled slightly. His eyes were sad though, the hurt still reaching deep. Cid forced himself to smile back. He'd never realised how fragile someone could be until Vincent thought he'd died. The pain his lover had gone through terrified the pilot. He hadn't thought human beings could be so delicate, and from the sorrow in Vincent's eyes, he hadn't either. It would take him a very long time to heal, if he ever did fully.

Cid sat on the edge of the bed and fed the pills to Vincent one at a time, since the ex-Turk could only hold the water. Vincent swallowed five of the pills with only a grimace in protest, then looked up at him. "Is that it? Aren't there supposed to be six?"

"Yep. Owe you a sleeping pill. I'll give it to you later."

"But why? Don't you- mmph." His words were muffled by Cid's kiss. "Oh. I see."

Cid grinned and climbed into the bed with his lover, to give him his official welcome home.