Pieces of April

Rating: PG
Category: AU
Pairing(s): Cid/Vincent
Warnings: Angst, death, mpreg.
Summary: Cid and Vincent spend some time together.
Notes: What can I say, I’m feeling a little blue. Song used is ‘Pieces of April’ by Three Dog Night.

April gave us springtime,
and the promise of the flowers.
And the feeling that we both shared,
and the love that we called ours.
We knew no time for sadness,
that’s a road we each had crossed.
We were living a time meant for us,
and even when it would rain
we would laugh it off.

I’ve got pieces of April,
I keep them in a memory bouquet.
I’ve got pieces of April,
it’s a morning in May.

We stood on the crest of summer,
beneath an oak that blossomed green.
Feeling as I did in April,
not really knowing what it means.
But it must be then
that you stand beside me now,
to make me feel this way.
Just as I did in April,
but it’s a morning in May...

“He’s on the hill,” said Barret softly.

Vincent looked in the direction Barret indicated, spying a small hill topped by an oak tree, the branches bursting with buds and new leaves. Beneath the oak sat a familiar figure in an old blue t-shirt, half hidden in the long grass, smoking a cigarette, his back to the people standing beneath the hill by a shallow pit.

Vincent walked away from the pit, past the little digging machine that had been scraping away the earth. He walked up the hill, reaching the crest and coming to stand beside the man there. Cid didn’t look at Vincent, but he clearly knew he was there. Beside Cid was a wicker basket full of things to eat, and a couple of rolled up blankets. Vincent wondered who the picnic was for.

“I bet you thought the smoking would get me, didn’t you?” said Cid.

“What happened?” asked Vincent, slowly sitting down. Vincent hated sitting on the ground, he always got dirt in his claws. However he was hardly likely to say anything at this time.

“Spore bomb,” said Cid, gazing off at some distant rabbits cropping the grass. “During the war both sides planted them. The army would drive heavy machinery over them, and they would crack open and release a slow-acting odourless toxin. By the time you knew you were sick it was too late. Well I was digging the new Rocket Town well, and… I found one. Blew right the hell up in my face. Went in my eyes and my nose and mouth… just sucked in a great big ol’ lungful. As we speak, trillions of little lethal mold spores are destroying my body.” Cid picked up a beer and had a long drink. “Only consolation is I won’t feel any pain. I’ll just… stop living.”

Vincent said nothing, watching as Cid drew on his cigarette. After a few moments Cid resumed speaking.

“Anyway, the rest of the crew showed up, of course, far be it from Tifa to let a man die in peace, and they asked me what I would like to do. Anything at all.”

“And you said you wanted to see me?”

“No,” said Cid. “I was pretty drunk. I believe what I said was, and I quote; “I’d like to haul Valentine up Oak Hill and fuck him ‘til he has a heartbeat”, end quote.”

Again Vincent said nothing, but his eyes showed surprise. Cid turned his head to look at Vincent, smiling. Cid didn’t look like a man who was dying. He looked fine. He looked as he always had. He just seemed a little more at peace with life than he ever had been before.

“I can tell you’re surprised.”

Vincent’s jaw dropped. He tried to think of something to say, then closed it again. Cid lay down in the long grass on his back, hands behind his head, gazing up at the blue sky.

“I thought I’d be scared, but I’m not. I can’t wait to find out what comes next, you know? I mean I don’t really want to die either, but… I wanna know, you know? I wanna see.”

“That sounds like you,” said Vincent.

“I have this whole day planned out,” said Cid quietly. “I want it perfect. One of those days just so beautiful and perfect that you carry pieces of it with you forever. Like that song by Three Dog Night, ‘Pieces of April’. You ever heard it?”

Vincent nodded. Cid resumed speaking.

“I love that song. It sends shivers down my back. I want this day to be like that song. I want all the people I care about to be able to carry a piece of it with them for always, so that when they think of me they don’t remember this was the day I died. They’ll just remember that I was here. There’s no time for sadness, that's a road we’ve all crossed.”

A soft April shower started, filling the air with a delicate golden mist and the green, eternal fragrance of spring. The pair said nothing, just watching the light rainfall, facing away from the town to gaze at the softly rolling hills covered in silky green grass and the occasional oak tree. Then Cid pulled a bottle of wine out of the basket.

“Care for a glass?”

Vincent nodded. Cid sat up and fished in the basket for the corkscrew and glasses.

The day passed slowly. They sat in the grass and talked, drinking wine, eating pheasant and stuffed mushroom caps. It was as if everything on the planet had stopped, and it was just the two of them. There was some discomfort when Cid finally reached for him, drawing him against his chest, but Vincent didn’t fight it. He allowed himself to be held, closing his eyes as Cid stroked his hair.

“You okay with this?” Cid asked quietly.

Vincent thought, then nodded. “Yeah, I am.” He smiled. “I guess my piece of this day will be unlike anyone else’s.”

“Well Barret was my first choice, but you know what he’s like. Besides he looked terrible in the French maid’s uniform.”

Vincent smiled. “Are you sure no one can see us here?”

“What do I care? For that matter what do you care?” Cid unbuckled the formidable array of straps that held Vincent’s cape closed, gently removing it, setting it aside as he gazed at Vincent. “How can you be so tall and yet so little? There’s nothing but little bird bones in here.”

“My mother was tiny. I got her bones and my father’s height.”

“Now see that makes me a little sad,” said Cid.

“What? That I’m tall and skinny?”

“That I’m never going to get a chance to have kids. Probably just as well. They’d be swearing and chain-smoking by age three.”

“At least it would be a whole year after you started swearing and chain-smoking.”

“You’re a funny guy, Valentine.” Cid began opening the straps and buckles on Vincent’s leather suit. “How do you get out of this in time to go to the bathroom?”

“I don’t wait until I’m not going to make it.”

Cid slowly undressed him, finding the slender body beneath the leather. He stroked his hand over the pale flesh that shone silver in the fine misting rain. “I wish I’d done this years ago.”

“So do I.”

They spread the blankets on the grass, then lay down on them, drawing close. They didn’t say anything more to one another, there wasn’t any need. They had been friends for so long that they moved into their embrace with casual ease, their bodies joining as if they had been lovers for years. They made love in the April rain for hours, clinging to each other, until at last they were completely spent. Then they rolled themselves into the blankets, closing their eyes, Vincent dozing off to the sound of Cid’s heart.

***---***

When Vincent awoke, it was early evening. The sun was setting, the rain had stopped, and Barret was gently picking him up, still wrapped in his blanket.

“Come on, Vincent,” Barret said softly.

Vincent looked at Barret in confusion, then looked down at Cid. He was lying on his back, one hand across his stomach, cigarette in his mouth. His other arm, the one he had around Vincent moments ago, lay limp on the blanket. He looked asleep as his friends gathered around to sit on the grass with him a while.

“Let’s get you down to the house and dried off. You must be cold.”

Barret began walking down the hill, Vincent in his arms. Vincent watched from over Barret’s shoulder as Cloud raised a shovel to stab it into the soft earth of the hill.

“A bunch of us were talking,” said Barret, his voice vibrating ever so slightly. “We’re gonna come back here next year. Like a reunion sorta, but… you know… without the Jenova cells. Think you might want to do that? Oh… uh… Tifa stuffed your clothes into a bag and brought them down. They were kinda damp.”

Barret carried Vincent into the happy little dump that was Cid’s house, putting him down on the couch. “I’m uh… gonna go back up the hill and help Cloud. You uh… need anything?”

“No,” said Vincent softly. “I’ll… just dry my clothes and try to warm up.”

Barret nodded. “Okay,” he said softly, and left Vincent seated alone in Cid’s house.

***---***

It took Vincent a long time to get the little house just the way he wanted. He wasn’t really any cleaner than Cid, but he liked having a table he could find the top of and a floor that wasn’t covered in engine parts. He didn’t really change much, just tidied a bit. The engine parts and tools were stored in their shed, the blueprints and schematics put in their case, the work clothes hung in the closet. Finally the boots were left on the mat beneath the little window that let in beams of sunlight on fair days, streaks of gold and red quietly creeping across the floor and over the boots as the sun set behind a hill with a lone oak tree on it. Vincent would sit at the table and sip tea in peaceful solitude, listening to old Three Dog Night records as the sun would slowly, reluctantly depart. Finally, when all was dark, he would rise from the table and make his solitary way to the bedroom, getting into the bed with the creaky mattress and close his eyes.

Spring turned to summer, then to winter, and snow covered the tree and hill. His friends called to check on him once in a while, though he hadn’t seen them since the day Barret carried him down the hill. The little house was a bit too remote for them to reach easily, which was just as well because he neither wished nor needed to be relentlessly fussed over. Vincent liked his secrets to be just that – secret. Not gushed over and photographed. At least not yet.

Winter slowly passed and became spring. Vincent stood in the doorway of the little yellow house outside of Rocket Town, watching as a large truck drove up, parking before the house. Nanaki hopped out of the truck and shook, then padded quietly up to Vincent, raising his nose to sniff the tiny bundle he held wrapped in a soft yellow blanket.

“What’s this?” asked Nanaki, brows furrowed. Behind him the others were getting out of the truck. Tifa waved, then Yuffie got out from behind her and ran over to Vincent, all energy as usual.

“Vincent!” she exclaimed gleefully, then paused, her eyes on the roll of fabric in his arms. “What’s in the blankie? A puppy?”

Vincent reached up and gently pulled the blanket down a little so Yuffie and Nanaki could see what he held wrapped in his arms. A tiny face with clear blue eyes and a somewhat irate expression peered out at the strangers.

“Just my own piece of April,” he said quietly.