Valentine's Day

Rating: PG
Category: AU, Songfic
Pairing(s): Cid/Vincent
Warnings: Cavities. Not in the fic I mean in your teeth after you read it.
Summary: Cid wants to say something to Vincent, but he can’t quite think what.
Notes: This story takes place immediately after ‘Garden Party’. I don’t normally do song fics, but… this time I gave in to my Inner Saccharine.

For Animama - thanks for all the art!

Song ‘Father Figure’ by George Michael.
To watch the video of this song on YouTube in a new window, click here
To listen to an extract of the song without the video, click here

“I’m not romantic. I’m not a poet. Truth to tell I’m not real fuckin’ bright either, but… I look at you and dammit, I wanna say something. I wanna say something so wonderful and beautiful that… maybe the whole damned world will end right then, and just seal the moment forever, and there won’t be any pain and nightmare after that. But… I’m not that gifted with words. I’m just a pilot. I know I’ve got an ego the size of three airships, and I’m certainly full of enough hot air to raise a dozen of them, but… sometimes I have to pull my head out of my ass and just say what’s in my heart. And… I… I love you.”

Cid stared at himself in the bathroom mirror, smoking, running the words over in his mind. Then he picked the butt out of his mouth and tossed it in the toilet.

“Crap,” he muttered. “It’s all fucking crap.” He let his head fall back and howled to the ceiling; “IT’S CRAP!”

Barret pounded on the door. “An’ it’s gonna be on the floor if you don’t open the damned door!”

Cid swore and yanked the door open. “Ya can’t give a guy five minutes alone to compose poetry?!”

“‘Here I sit, broken-hearted’, AIN’T poetry! And I got news for you, someone already wrote that.” Barret picked Cid up by the shoulders and moved him aside as if he was little more than a child. “Now get the hell out of the way before I shit myself.”

Cid opened his mouth and almost said something that would have started a fight, but didn’t. At the last moment he decided he had more important things to do than bait Barret. He had to think, he had to come up with something really beautiful to say, something wonderful. He needed the words to be perfect, but as skilled as he was with mechanical devices, true romance was a bit out of his league.

Cid leaned against the wall, placing a cigarette between his lips and lighting it, then stuffing his hands in his pocket, bringing one booted foot up to rest against the wall behind him. He turned his head and looked left, staring down the long corridor and into the bridge of The Highwind. He watched a slender, silent figure, clad in black and red, standing by the great window, looking out over the silver moonlit clouds with interest.

“What the hell is wrong with me?” Cid asked himself quietly.

Cloud walked up, standing beside Cid. He glanced at his friend, then turned his head to see what he was looking at. Reno approached as well, coming to stand near the two. He and Cloud exchanged glances, and Reno smiled.

“Freaking out?” he asked Cid.

Cid just kept staring at Vincent. “Think I might be.”

“Cid,” said Cloud, “he’s the same guy he was earlier.”

“No, he’s not,” said Cid. “Earlier I didn’t know he was…” Cid stopped talking, unable to say the next word. He turned his blue eyes to Cloud. “I mean what do I do, what do I say?”

“What’s the problem, yo?” asked Reno. “You were leaping twelve feet off the ground when you first found out.”

“I know, I just… I think reality is setting in.”

Vincent spied something outside the window, a bird perhaps. In order to see it better, he moved with the surreal grace his altered body gave him, hopping onto a rail with eerie slowness and looking out over the clouds. Cid forgot about Cloud and Reno and ran onto the bridge, stopping beneath the rail.

“Get down from there ya silly shit before ya fall and hurt yourself!”

Vincent stared down at Cid, blinking. Deciding to ignore him, Vincent continued looking out the window, a vague smile on his lips.

“Vincent… come on. Don’t make me come up there and get you.”

Vincent looked down at Cid once more. “Cid you have seen me stand up here a thousand times.”

“Yeah but you weren’t… I mean you… just get off the railing, will you?”

“Notice how he has trouble saying that one little two-syllable word?” said Reno in Cloud’s ear.

Cloud slid an arm around him and grinned. “I don’t think he thought he would ever be saying it, not while he was with Vincent. Poor Cid. First he had to cope with falling in love with a man, and now Vincent does this.”

Reno nibbled Cloud’s ear. “C’mon, it’s late, and I’m drunk, yo. Why don’t you bring me back to our cabin and we can grope each other in a desperate attempt to have intercourse before we pass out.”

Cloud looked towards his lover, who blinked feline eyes at him. Saying nothing, he picked Reno up and slung him over his shoulders, carrying him to their cabin. Cid meanwhile was left alone with Vincent, who was still perched on the rail like some large impossible bird.

“VALENTINE! DOWN!”

Vincent stared at Cid. Once upon a time, Vincent would have promptly done as he was told, but thirty years in a coffin had given him a healthy disrespect for orders and demands. He considered doing a few gymnastic moves, but thought Cid would likely lose his mind. What was he so upset about, anyway? Oh. Right. That. He’d finally told him he had a passenger. Still, Cid was his lover, not his commanding officer. Vincent crossed his arms and looked down from his lofty perch, uttering that quiet little almost-laugh.

“Say please.”

Cid almost exploded. “WHAT?! ’PLEASE’?!”

“That’s better,” said Vincent. He stepped into the air, landing with slow, ethereal silence. He faced Cid, who stepped forward, cigarette quivering as he gazed back at him.

“I ought to spank your ass.”

“That would require catching me.”

“Don’t think I couldn’t if I wanted to.”

Vincent smiled, and the red eyes glittered with mischief. Then he turned and ran. His brass shoes should have banged loudly on the ship’s wooden floor, but he didn’t make a sound. He moved with perfect silence, keeping low, dodging and darting around and behind rails and crates and bulkheads until Cid had completely lost track of where he was. Cid stopped, and sighed heavily.

“I am gonna spank your ass,” he muttered, and headed for his own cabin.

They were all too damned drunk to be flying home, except for Vincent, and he had no idea how to fly. Cait Sith did know how to fly an airship, but Reeve was drunk, which meant Cait was drunk. So The Highwind would stay by Zack’s hill until morning came, and they were sober enough to know their assholes from their elbows. Cid reached his cabin and opened the door, not surprised in the least to see red eyes gleaming at him in the darkness. Cid closed the door, and walked over to Vincent, drawing him close, kissing him.

“You’re awfully playful tonight.”

“Relief has that effect,” said Vincent.

Cid closed his eyes, resting his cheek against Vincent’s brow, and sighing. “Sorry I scared you.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t have more faith in you.”

“Yeah, well, seems like you have good reason to be wary. But for future reference, I want you to know that you can tell me anything.” He squeezed him gently, then, resting his hands on Vincent’s shoulders, stepped back to get a look at him. “You sure you’re… y’know..?”

“Absolutely. I didn’t want to say anything until I was positive.”

“Well where are you keeping it? I’ve seen you gain more weight after eating a grape.”

“It will show soon enough. I’ve been gaining weight rapidly. Even if I had not told you, you would know soon enough.” Vincent looked at him with those soft, expressive eyes. “You are pleased?”

“I’m… thrilled, actually.”

“You look terrified.”

“I’m that, too. I’m still trying to take all this in. I wish you had told me earlier, you must have been going through hell dealing with this. I mean you had no idea you could get… did you?”

“No. But I confess when I realized I was pregnant my initial thought was; ‘I should have known’. Hojo knew how upset I was about Lucrecia. The uterus is probably the first thing he put in.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t know the guy but he sounds like a right son of a bitch. We still have to figure out how that baby got inside you, though.”

“We will.”

Cid nodded, then raised his head to look into Vincent’s eyes. “Wanna hear something stupid? I just spent forty-five minutes in the bathroom trying to think of something to say to you.”

Vincent looked puzzled. “Why?”

“I dunno. I just… wanted to say something to you, something… something to make you trust me, to make you understand what I feel for you. Everything I came up with just sounded like empty platitudes. If you repeat this to anyone I will hang you by your ankles off the observation deck, but… being around you makes me feel like a complete noob.”

“But I love you.”

“I know, but… for the first time in my life I have someone who makes me stop in my tracks and just say ‘Wow’. And I know it’s been a few years but… that feeling is still there. I am completely blown away by you. By how incredibly pretty you are, by your intelligence, your gentleness, your power, the way you look so delicate and helpless I just want to wrap you in velvet and take care for you, and then you completely throw that concept out the window when I see you in hand-to-hand combat and you put your fist through some monster’s head. For the first time in my life I’m in a relationship with someone who outclasses me in every way and dammit I just want you to know how fucking much I love you.”

Vincent threw his arms around him and held him tightly, an uncharacteristic display of emotion that took Cid by surprise. He held him close, squeezing his eyes shut and running his hands over Vincent’s seemingly fragile body, breathing in his scent. They kissed, Cid bringing one hand up to take hold of Vincent’s black hair, laughing quietly as he felt a brass claw with lethal delicately slash the shirt off his back.

“Don’t do that to the pants, I only brought one pair. I ain’t showing up on the bridge in my shorts.”

Vincent kissed him. “Then you take them off.”

Cid released him, and they undressed, dropping their clothes to the floor and falling naked onto the bed.

“Are you going to be okay if we do this?” asked Cid.

“I was okay last night and this morning.” Vincent kissed Cid. “Get on top of me.”

Cid did, moving his large, powerful body onto Vincent’s and kissing him. “Yeah but I didn’t know you were… I mean you’re…”

“Say it with me, Cid. Pregnant.”

“I can’t say that. Don’t ask me why, just give me a couple days and I’m sure it will come.”

“Fine, but I would like you to come before then.”

“That’s another issue, this whole lack of orgasm thing…”

Vincent passed him a small jar of red, cherry-scented oil. “Shut up and fuck me.”

“Oh well if you insist.”

***----***

It was a weak and weary, and decidedly hung-over lot gathered at the breakfast table in the galley the next morning. Reeve was face down and a strange shade of grey, swallowing occasionally as his body worked up to venting last night’s merriment.

“How ya holding up there, Reeve?” asked Barret.

Reeve said nothing. Barret grinned.

“Bit sick?”

“Mph.”

“Like some tapioca and runny eggs?”

Reeve fled the room. Tifa kicked Barret’s ankle.

“That was mean!”

“Aw lighten up. Besides, he deserved it for giving my daughter a mechanical cat that pukes real hairballs.”

The door opened, and Yuffie walked in, stretching and clad only in a flannel nightie and fuzzy slippers.

“Cid’s cracked,” she announced.

“Another news flash from the department of redundancy department, yo,” said Reno. He was a lovely shade of green that complimented his hair beautifully.

“No, I mean he’s cracked. I saw him about five this morning walking towards the bridge with three cans of spray paint, and when I asked him what he was doing he said it was Valentine’s Day.”

“That’s odd,” said Tifa. “It’s August the eighteenth, he knows that’s not Valentine’s Day!”

“Depends on the Valentine, doesn’t it?” said Aeris.

Tseng kept eating and said nothing. He was a quiet man, but he was capable of expressing much with very few words. However in this case he had Barret to bellow his thoughts for him.

“He’s gonna do something huge and romantic to make the rest of us look like crap, ain’t he? Damned queers keep making us straights look like thoughtless jackasses.”

“If the long ears fit…” said Reno.

“You just shut the hell up. Now I know why everyone hates gay men. Now my ass is gonna be in the doghouse.”

“Well instead of complaining about it, why don’t you go do something about it?” said Cloud.

“Precisely,” said Tseng. “Like befriending a gay man. That way when you find yourself sitting at a table discussing how thoughtless straight guys are, you can do things like this.”

Tseng reached into the inside pocket of his jacket, and pulled out a small box, which he passed to Aeris. She accepted it, and gasped as she opened it.

“It’s the kitty-brooch I’ve been pining for! But I didn’t say anything to you about it, how did you know I wanted it?”

Tseng looked pleased. “I have my sources.”

“And he’s tall with red hair and a fantastic regional accent, yo,” said Reno.

Aeris pounced on Tseng and kissed him. Barret just sat and grumbled.

“I’m gonna kick both your asses later.”

***---***

Vincent opened his eyes and lay in bed, feeling himself slowly come into wakefulness. He sat up, bleary and a little befuddled, resting a slender hand on his stomach, trying to determine if he was going to be sick or not. He decided he wasn’t, and stood up, walking over to the cabin’s one tiny closet. He left his cloak and headscarf where they were; it was too damned hot to play vampire, and besides the scar across his brow was nearly invisible, faded to a faint brown line. The one about his throat however was another matter; it was still red and angry after all these years. Vincent had no idea who had given it to him, but he hated it. Still, there were ways to hide it that did not involve wearing a cape in summer.

He picked up a wide black velvet collar that had an elaborate silver crest hanging from it, which sat in the pit of his throat when the collar was worn; his father’s heraldic emblem. It was an ancient piece of men’s jewellery that Vincent was never without, though few ever saw it, hidden as it was beneath the cloak. It was a bit warm considering the weather, but not as hot as the cloak would be, and he was not about to show off the scar.

He next pulled on a black silk shirt, rolling up the sleeves. He left it hanging loose, and the front only buttoned halfway up. Next came a well-worn pair of jeans with the knees ready to give way, which he usually wore only in the hangar with Cid. Currently, however, they were the only pair he could fit his expanding waistline into. Finally came the brass shoes and the gauntlet. He turned to look in the mirror, placing his hand on his stomach. He made a quiet sound of amusement.

“Starting to show, Valentine,” he said to himself. “At the rate this child is growing, I’ll be bedridden before its due.”

He moved his hand, and the loose silk shirt once more covered the very small bulge. He turned to leave the room, and noticed something on the floor. It was an arrow, spray painted crudely on the floor. Since it was not accompanied by a huge puddle of blood, Vincent had to assume that Cid was desecrating his own ship. He was the only one who could do so and live. The arrow pointed to the door, and Vincent followed it, stepping into the hall. There he saw another arrow, this one pointing to the bridge. Slowly he began walking, following the arrows, finally reaching the door to the bridge. There was a note taped to it. Vincent pulled it off the door and read the very simple, very brief message.

“I finally thought of something to say.”

Vincent felt nervous, uncertain as to whether he wanted to open the door. Putting the note in his pocket, he tapped the button beside the door to make it open. He stepped into the bridge, and stopped, eyes large, just staring at the column of writing that began near the ceiling and went straight down across the vast glass front of the airship. The letters were dual-toned, pink and gold, and written in a clear, elegant script. As he stepped forward to get a better look at the tower of words, music started, but when he glanced around, he saw no one. He seemed to be alone on the bridge, but somehow he knew he wasn’t. He turned his eyes back to the words, and read as the song played.

"That's all I wanted, something special,
Something sacred in your eyes.
For just one moment, to be bold and naked at your side

Sometimes I think that you'll never understand me
Maybe this time is forever, say it can be

That's all you wanted, something special,
Someone sacred in your life
Just for one moment, to be warm and naked at my side

Sometimes I think that you'll never understand me
But something tells me together, we'd be happy

I will be your father figure
Put your tiny hand in mine
I will be your preacher teacher
Anything you have in mind
I will be your father figure
I have had enough of crime
I will be the one who loves you
till the end of time

That's all I wanted
But sometimes love can be mistaken for a crime
That's all I wanted just to see my baby's blue eyes shine
This time I think that my lover understands me
If we have faith in each other
Then we can be strong

I will be your father figure
Put your tiny hand in mine
I will be your preacher teacher
Anything you have in mind
I will be your father figure
I have had enough of crime
I will be the one who loves you
till the end of time

If you are the desert, I'll be the sea
If you ever hunger - hunger for me
Whatever you ask for, that's what I'll be

So when you remember the ones who have lied
Who said that they cared
But then laughed as you cried
Beautiful darling, don't think of me
Because all I ever wanted
Its in your eyes…"

Something caught his eye, and he turned his head, spying Cid standing by the ship's wheel. He leaned casually on it, arms crossed, eyes glinting, cigarette in his mouth. Vincent walked towards the helm, hopping with spectral grace over the partitian and landing before him. He stepped close, settling into his arms, closing his eyes. Cid pushed a button on the control panel that locked the door to the bridge, and the two just held each other, saying nothing.