Thanksgiving

Rating: PG
Category: AU - Fits into the Rabid Tiger AU, but is a stand alone tale.
Pairing(s): Cid/Vincent
Warnings: Mpreg, possible non-con, swearing.
Summary: Parenting doesn’t stop when the kids grow up.
Notes: I was asked for a fic with Benji and Aiden all grown up. I won’t be writing any sequels to this (We shall see, the campaign has already begun - PEBT). The idea of Cid and the crew all getting old and slow was just too depressing to bear.

The picture at the end is by Animama and shows the Highwind clan. You really don't need a roll call of who's who though.

“DADDY!”

“Oh gawd.”

“Give us a HUUUUUUUG!”

Cid was swept up into an embrace and squeezed against a huge chest. He noted dryly that Benji smelled of the same expensive cologne that Rufus Shinra liked to wear. Nice to know the kid could afford to shop in fancy places, or at the very least had a rich boyfriend.

Benji had met everyone’s expectations when it came to size. He was huge. He could look Sephiroth in the eye, and was broader across the chest and shoulders than Barret. He had Cid’s massive powerful build, but years of dance had made him more lean. He was tall, with a perfectly balanced frame; light, graceful, gorgeous. Women crashed their cars watching him. A few men did as well. He was perfectly tanned, perfectly dressed, perfectly coiffed, and could not possibly be the same kid who once chopped wood on the carpet while wearing ice skates. Cid grinned as Benji hugged him.

“Good to see you again, Benji.”

“Oh I missed you!” Benji released his father. “And guess what! EEEEEEE!” He screeched in delight. “Guess who is playing Simon in the Midgar City Music Hall production of Jesus Christ Superstar?”

Cid reached out to take a bit of Benji’s long hair, examining the silver highlights. “I dunno, is he about seven feet tall with frosted tips?”

“You guessed! I’m so thrilled! OH! And I brought a friend! Daddy, meet my friend Byron! Byron this is my dad, Cid. You two make nice, I have to go see Mom.”

“Don’t break him!” said Cid.

He watched Benji flit into the next room. How the hell anything that big could flit was beyond Cid, but Benji managed. He then turned to look at Byron, narrowing his eyes at the artistically scruffy young man with the perfectly polished sullen attitude. Byron and Cid hated each other on sight.

“I’m gonna tell you the same thing I tell all of Benji’s boyfriends,” said Cid.

Byron delicately arched a lip into a disdainful sneer. “And that would be?”

“Hurt my kid and I will personally fuck you up the ass with a broken piece of rebar.”

Benji poked his head into the kitchen. “Daddy, I said make nice! What I just heard was not nice! There will be NO inserting of rebar into rectums while I am present!”

“Go look at the new airship, then.”

Benji rolled his eyes. “Be nice, Father.” There was a loud gasp of delight. “MUMMY!”

Cid could practically hear Vincent flinch. Vincent loved his son, but Benji and Benji’s personality took up a lot of room. It was a bit intimidating for him. Cid growled at Byron, then walked into the next room, where Benji had Vincent in an embrace that left his parent’s feet dangling about three feet off the ground.

“Mummy you look faaaaaaaaa-bulous! You know that uncombed matted look is sooooo ‘in’ right now.”

“There ya go, babe,” said Cid. “You’re finally in style.”

“Or he will be as soon as he looses those shoes. Honestly, Mother I have to take you shopping. Mom, this is Byron, Byron this is the dear man who sacrificed his comfort and waistline for nine months giving me life.”

Cid watched Vincent as Byron walked into the living room. Good. Vincent hated the little barf-sack too. Meanwhile the kitchen door opened.

“Dad! Can’t find the fucking blue prints for that half-assed engine you rigged up!”

“I’ll have you know I used my whole ass for that one!” said Cid. “Get in here and say hi to your fag brother.”

“Benji!?” There was the sound of a leather tool belt hitting the floor, and moments later a tall woman with long white-blonde hair ran into the room, pouncing on Benji.

“You came!” she exclaimed! “I’m so glad!”

“Well I had to come,” said Benji. “I mean my gawd Dad’s going to be sixty in February, really how many years left do we have with the old fart? Byron, this is my sister Rhiannon.”

Rhiannon turned to look at Byron and wrinkled her nose. “Eyew. Benji why do you always bring home the rejects?”

“He didn’t reject me, that’s why I brought him home.” Benji gave her a hug, then looked around. “Where’s Aiden?”

Vincent quietly walked away, finding a place to be alone with his emotions, as he had done since Cid had known him. Cid watched the small silent shape walk away, then looked at Benji.

“Aiden’s not coming.”

Benji shook his head, as if not quite believing what he had just heard. “Excuse me? Not coming? It’s October eighth, it’s Thanksgiving for crying out loud! In five days it’s going to be Mom’s birthday!”

Cid shrugged. “I called. He’s not coming.”

Benji blinked, taking in this information, then raised his hands in a gesture of annoyance. “Oh somebody is SO getting a big gay ass-whupping. Where’s my… and just where do you think you are going, Mister?”

“I don’t do family drama,” said Byron.

Benji raised an eyebrow, shifting his weight to one leg, hand on his hip. “Well I’ll tell you what else you’re not doing.”

Byron left.

“You want to go after him?” asked Cid.

“Oh hell no, I only invited him because I needed a ride. And now I’m here so… fuck him! Is Sephy the Wonder-Bitch coming?”

“I thought you loved Seph.”

“I do but it pisses me off I can’t get my hair to grow long like his. What was I doing? Cell phone!” Benji pulled out his cell phone with the pink sparklies on the back and called a number. “Aiden? Aiden why is your skinny angst-riddled butt not here?”

Cid and Rhiannon watched as Benji listened, walking away from them, his voice lowering so he could argue privately with his twin. Father and daughter exchanged glances.

“Why is it we are always the last to figure out what those two are up to?” asked Cid.

Rhiannon shrugged. “I guess it’s just a twin thing.”

Cid and Rhiannon watched Benji argue with Aiden, then finally cut him off.

“I don’t care what you say. Dad and I are coming. Now. Deal with it.”

Benji hung up, looking upset, running one large hand through his frosted blonde hair.

“Benji,” said Cid. “Is Aiden okay?”

“It’s… complicated,” said Benji. “It’s better if we just go over there and talk to him.”

“I’m coming,” said a soft voice. Benji almost leapt out of his skin, putting his hand over his heart.

“Mother for god’s sake wear a bell!”

“If my child has a problem I want to be there.”

“Well while you are all off doing that, I’ll start dinner,” said Rhiannon. “It is supposed to be Thanksgiving after all.”

“Just throw the turkey in the oven,” said Benji. “Leave the actual food preparation to me. I’ve tasted your cooking, and sister it is time to join hands and make the suffering end.”

Rhiannon crossed her arms. “Just go get Aiden before I tell Mom and Dad you’re actually straight.”

“Don’t worry, Benji,” said Cid, patting his son on the shoulder. “We know you’re gay. Your mother and I practiced our ‘surprised’ look for years waiting for you to come out of the closet. Trouble is you were never in the closet.”

“And hide this perfect ass? Girlfriend, please.”

“Just take us to your brother.”

“Your wish is my command, Daddy.”

***---***

They reached the loft apartment Aiden called home in just under an hour, parking before the gothic-looking structure and getting out of the car. They could see candlelight in the window, and the faint shadow of somebody moving inside. Cid got out of the car and began walking towards the building, Vincent at his side. Cid glanced at him, putting a gentle, protective arm around his husband. Vincent smiled.

“Funny how after all these years you still want to keep me safe,” said Vincent.

Cid smiled. “Ah I just want everyone to know that, even though I’m turning into an old fart, I still have a pretty young husband.”

“Cid, I’m going to be eighty-five.”

“Yeah but you look twenty-seven.” Cid nipped at Vincent’s neck. “And you smell good.”

“Oh get a room you two,” said Benji.

They walked up three flights of stairs to get to the black-painted door with its array of sigils and glyphs painted in silver on the door. Cid sighed.

“Kid’s twenty-three and still painting on walls.”

“It’s art,” said Benji.

“It’s a damage deposit I’m never gonna see again.” Cid tapped on the door. “Aiden? C’mon kid, open up, it’s Dad.”

“No,” said a small voice.

“Aiden…”

Vincent gently edged passed his husband. “Aiden, let us in. Please?”

There was a long pause. “Can… can I just talk to Dad first? I don’t think I can handle everybody at once.”

Cid glanced at Vincent, knowing he would be hurt by the request. Aiden had always been a little distant with Vincent; they were too much alike.

“You know he loves you,” said Cid softly, putting an arm around his shoulders.

Vincent nodded, but he was still hurt. Cid kissed him, and then as Aiden unlocked the door, slipped into the room while Vincent stood in the hallway with Benji. Vincent looked towards his largest child, who looked uncomfortable.

“You do over-react a little,” said Benji.

“How can I over-react? I almost never open my mouth.”

“Well, gee, Mom, I don’t know, could it be the sudden growing of wolf jaws and fur that gives it away?” Benji put an arm around him. “And then there was the time you went Chaos on my friend Nick.”

“He had it coming.”

“He did.” Benji gave him a gentle hug. “Aiden loves you, you know he does. It’s just you and he and complications tend to make for a lot of dark brooding angst and sulking and hiding in attics and the playing of organs in big scary castles.”

“One time we did that.”

“Mom, you broke up with Lucrecia and lived in a casket for thirty years.”

“I was upset.”

“Well you and Aiden get upset the same way, and if he talks to you first, then Dad and I will have to get the both of you out of the casket and nobody needs that. Because if the two of you lock yourself into Aiden’s loft then Rhiannon will cook and I’ll have to organize a fundraiser for the victims.” He studied himself in a large mirror at the end of the hall. “Do these jeans make my butt look big?”

Vincent looked up at Benji. “Do you know what I would give to even have a butt?”

“The butt-less look is very in right now, Mom.”

Cid meanwhile was in Aiden’s loft. Aiden had only moved out of the house in which he grew up a little over two months ago, which was about when all this ‘not-showing-up’ business had started. It was true that Aiden was very much like Vincent, and preferred solitude. But he had never been one to turn down a Thanksgiving dinner. And no matter how reluctant he may be to share his problems with his mother, Aiden knew how important these times were to him. Aiden would not hurt Vincent this way, not without reason. Which meant Aiden was sitting on something big.

Cid looked around the loft. True to his nature, Aiden had gone for the Goth look – black walls, black bedding, black curtains, candles everywhere, and Victorian furniture. Paintings lined the wall, some finished, most not. The loft smelled of oil paint and turpentine, with an underlying aroma of strange incense. The music that played was soft classical.

“Aiden?”

“Here,” said the quiet voice.

Cid looked around, and finally spotted his son; a small black shape lost among other small black shapes. He was seated on the bed, gazing at Cid with large eyes. They were brown, but there was a faint ring of hellfire around the irises; a sign of how very much he was like his mother.

“What ya doing hiding in the dark, ya silly shit?”

“Didn’t want you to yell at me.”

Cid grinned. “Aiden if I’m gonna yell at you, I’m gonna do it regardless of whether the lights are on.”

Cid walked over to the bed and seated himself on the floor, ignoring the way his bones protested. Cid might not be young anymore, but he’d be damned if he would admit it fully to himself just yet. He looked up into Aiden’s eyes.

“Do I need to yell?”

“I really would rather you didn’t. I sorta feel dumb enough already.”

Cid reached up to gently push back some of Aiden’s long black hair, smiling. Funny how they always thought Benji would be the one in make-up. Aiden was wearing enough black lipstick, eyeliner, white base, and silver-grey blush to do a chorus line of zombie night-club girls. He was a pretty kid, though. Very pretty. Cid would never say so out loud, but Aiden was his favourite. Partly because he looked so damned much like his mother, but mostly because Aiden needed him. Benji and Rhiannon were strong, assertive adults who knew what they wanted in life and where they were going. Aiden, like Vincent, was baffled by life, and a bit frightened by it. He didn’t know how to take care of himself, and was a little scared to try. Cid was determined to protect him from any Lucrecias the wind may blow his way.

“You don’t have to feel dumb,” said Cid. “We all screw up.”

Aiden’s eyes filled with tears. “I did everything you always told me not to. I thought… I thought if I pretended I wasn’t different, then I wouldn’t be. Doesn’t work that way, I guess.”

“Aiden,” said Cid, “I’m going to tell you the same thing I have been telling your mother for years. You are who you are. You know your mom is a pretty smart guy. He loves you. He’d be thrilled if you came to him and… you know… asked him some things.”

“Yeah well I have a feeling that Mom and I will be doing a lot of talking.”

Cid drew a steadying breath. “What’s the matter?” he asked quietly, bracing himself.

Aiden stared at his father, trying to think of what he wanted to say. Finally he took his father’s large hand, scarred from years of fighting and working on machinery, and put it on his belly. Cid’s heart dropped.

“How far?”

“Nine weeks.”

“Aiden…. How…?”

“I did everything you told me not to!” The words seemed to burst out. “I was at a party with some friends and I got falling-down loaded. A guy offered to give me a ride home and I said yes and when I woke up in the morning he was gone and I was…” Aiden wiped at his eyes. “I don’t even know if I said he could have sex with me or not. I have no memory. I don’t know his name or what kind of a person he is. I asked my friend Smoky if he knew him and he said no, he showed up with a friend of his.” He shook his head. “How could I be so stupid?”

“First things first,” said Cid. “Have you been to a doctor?”

Aiden nodded. “Yeah I saw Dr. Gaywell that day. I’m fine. No nasty diseases or anything, just… guacamole.”

Cid stared. “Guacamole?”

“Yeah, she uh… found… guacamole.”

“Well if you were using it as birth control I gotta say maybe in the future try something a bit more conventional.”

Aiden drew a shivering breath, trying not to cry. “Mom’s gonna flip.”

“Yeah, he probably will, but not at you. Does Benji know?”

“Yeah. I called him the day it happened. He’s the one who took me to the doctor.”

“Aiden I wish you two would share these screw-ups with your mother and me. I mean how long do you think it would have been before we noticed you were pregnant? When were you going to tell us?”

“Well I wasn’t originally planning on having the baby, so… never.”

“What made you change your mind?”

Aiden shrugged. “Just couldn’t make myself do it. And I know how Mom feels about stuff like that, and… it just seemed like adding injury to insult. But I don’t want to go looking for the father. I don’t. I don’t want to find out he’s a total sack of crap who will use the fact that he gave me a baby to make my life hell.”

“He might be a nice guy.”

“I’d just rather not put myself through anymore hell.”

“Then come on. Get your coat on. We came to get you for Thanksgiving dinner, and if we’re not back soon then Rhiannon will cook it. To quote Benji; “it’s time to join hands and make the suffering end”.”

Aiden sniffed. “I’m sorry, Dad. You always warned me and I never listened.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about. But now you understand what I’ve been telling you, right? Fathers are protective of their daughters because they know what sacks of horny crap other guys are.” Cid gently wiped a tear off Aiden’s cheek. “Same goes for sons with slight physical differences.”

The door opened. “Knock knock!” Benji stuck his head into the loft, looking around. He curled his lip. “Oh, how nice. Who did your décor, Count Dracula?”

“Go away,” said Aiden. “Pink triangles don’t go with Goth.”

“Well sure they would! Put one there, and one there, and a rainbow there, and a nice big statue of two men wrestling in the nude right in that corner there. OH! And a bouquet of sunflowers to brighten up that corner there.”

Aiden looked around. “Where’s that ward I have that keeps away evil spirits? I want to see if it works on Benji’s shirt.”

Benji uttered a small noise of outrage. “Obviously not or your whole wardrobe would have flown away.”

Vincent stepped into the room, looking worried that Aiden perhaps would not want to see him, but Aiden himself put to rest any concerns. He leapt off the bed and ran to him, throwing his arms around him. Vincent returned the embrace, holding him tightly as Aiden burst into tears.

“I screwed up,” he said.

Vincent smiled, one of those rare smiles no one other than his family saw. “Proves you’re mine.”

“Then I must be the mailman’s,” said Benji.

“You’re not mad?” asked Aiden.

Vincent glanced towards Cid, who was sitting on the floor grinning. “Actually,” said Vincent, “I’d like to get my talons on the bastard who slept with you, but I’m not mad at you. I don’t know why you think you can’t come to me with this stuff.”

Aiden hugged his mother. “I would, but we seem to angst in the exact same way, and it’s not really helpful when we’re both staring at the rain thinking about how much we suck.”

Cid watched his husband do something he had never seen him do in the entire time he had known him; giggle. An actual nose-wrinkling giggle. Cid wished he had a camera – no one would ever believe it. He wasn’t even certain he believed it himself, and he had just seen it.

“Oh my gawd Mom giggled,” said Benji. “Call an exorcist.”

Vincent ignored him. “Just remember I love you, Aiden. Even if I’m not always the most upbeat parent.”

“I know you love me, Mom.”

“Awwww….” said Benji. “It’s a Kodak moment.”

“Cid?”

“Yeah Vin?”

“Benji’s father is actually the Tooth Fairy.”

“Then he owes us a shitload of child support.”

“And I need a wand with big sparklies,” said Benji.

Aiden was still hugging Vincent, revelling in the warmth and security as he spied a chance to bait his brother.

“Well there was that picture of you at that party, you had something a lot like a big sparklie wand in your hand.”

Benji screeched. “You bitch! Who told?”

“Craig.”

“That slut! I told him to burn that.”

“He did. Right to DVD. I have a copy.”

“YOU SHOW ANYONE AND I WILL BITCH-SLAP YOUR PREGNANT ASS ALL THE WAY TO MIDGAR!”

Cid stood up, making a gesture for Benji to follow him. “C’mon, Twinkie the Kid, let’s go sit in the car and wait for your mother and brother there.”

Cid and Benji left the loft, leaving Vincent and Aiden in peace. They said nothing for a while. They were too much alike to bother with words. That was the problem between them; neither of them were terribly good at expressing emotion, or seeking help. Vincent had always felt that Aiden’s birth had been a sort of omen, the way he had been tucked away behind Benji, undetected until he had no choice but to show himself. It was the way Vincent had lived most of his life.

Aiden pulled back slightly so he could look at Vincent. “I don’t know what to do,” he said.

“You can always come home.”

Aiden shook his head. “If I do people will just be in and out of my space. And you know Benji. I love him, I really do, but he has no understanding of what a lock on a door is for.”

“I do,” said Vincent softly, resting his brow against Aiden’s.

“Yeah, I guess you do,” said Aiden.

“I know our problem is that in many ways we are the same person. How about for once we let that work for us rather than against us? You can’t raise a baby all alone. Your father and I can convert all that attic space into a loft. That will be your private space, to paint, to hide, to meditate. I can help you raise the baby.”

“I don’t want to be…”

“Aiden, you’re my kid. And you’re coming home. To quote your father; “Shut up and deal”. Okay?”

Aiden smiled. “Okay.”

“Have you been checked?”

“Yeah, a few times. We’re both okay.”

“Is it a boy or a girl?”

“I don’t know, I want to be surprised.”

“I should think you’ve had enough surprises.”

Aiden smiled, then heard a soft knock at the door. Not Cid’s hard bang, or Benji’s little fast taps. Aiden released Vincent and went to the door, and opened it.

The man standing there was small, and pretty in a masculine way. He was dressed in a manner similar to Aiden; black clothes, long black hair, black lipstick, silver blush, all carefully applied to make him look undead. He had eyes the same shade of green as the life stream, and had the same shy, slightly-baffled-by-life expression that Vincent saw so often in Aiden. He was holding a bouquet of black orchids.

“Just… came by to check on you,” he said shyly. “Oh, and… I brought you some of my orchids. I… I finally bred them black with the crimson lines. I wanted you to be the first to see.”

“They’re beautiful,” said Aiden, accepting the flowers, marvelling at the velvet-black petals, streaked with violent red. He looked over his shoulder at Vincent, and smiled, holding a hand out to him. “Mom this is my friend Matias.”

Vincent stepped closer, eyeing the small man. He could feel an instant like for Matias. They all understood each other. They all knew and understood internally to a primal degree just how very strange and frightening the world was. Vincent liked him. Aiden could sense his mother approved, and breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe things were okay after all.

“Aiden’s told me a lot about you,” said Matias. He suddenly looked uncomfortable and shy. “I… just popped by to drop off the flowers, I’ll…”

“Want to come over tomorrow night?” said Aiden. “I thought… we could hang. Read poetry. Just us.”

Matias perked up. “Really? I… I’d like that. What time? Sundown?”

“Yeah. I’ll make dinner.”

Matias smiled brightly, obviously delighted. “Okay! See you then.”

They kissed; a brief, self-conscious pressing of lips. Then Matias was gone. Vincent smiled as Aiden closed the door, almost swooning. He breathed in the smell of his orchids, then looked at Vincent.

“So what do you think?”

“I like him. Nice ass.”

Aiden turned several colours beneath his make-up. “MO-OM!”

“He’s hot.”

“GAWD don’t say things like that. My mother is not supposed to think anyone is hot other than my dad! And even then I don’t want to hear about it!”

“I’m married, not… actually I am dead. Put your flowers in some water and we’ll go before Benji makes your father insane.”

***---***

The ride home was interesting to say the least. Vincent drove, listening to Benji and Aiden squabble in the back seat as they had done since they were old enough to talk.

“Benji’s touching me!”

“Oh GROSS! I so am not, I bet you’ve had that same outfit on for three days.”

“Five thank you very much!”

“Well take it off. Eyew. NOT HERE! Gawd the world so does not need to see you naked.”

“Just because I don’t conform to your artificial definition of beauty?”

“Noooooo, because you’re my brother and it’s… icky.”

Cid grinned. “Well naked and icky is how you two got here.”

“DA-AD!” came in chorus. Then Benji added; “I so don’t need to be thinking about my fifty-nine-year-old father naked and doing the naughty.”

“I wasn’t fifty-nine at the time.”

“No but you can still go all night like a jackhammer,” said Vincent. An evil little smile crossed his face as Benji and Aiden screamed in horror in the back seat. Benji leaned forward to turn on the radio.

“That is IT! We need music so you two will STOP TALKING! Seriously it’s enough to turn me straight. Oh my gawd is Loz coming to dinner?”

“Yes,” said Cid and Vincent in unison.

“Can we make him… like… I don’t know… eat outside?”

“No,” said Cid and Vincent in unison.

“Is Yaz coming?’ asked Aiden.

“The whole clan will be there,” said Cid.

“Oh gawd that means Miki will be there too, gawd I hate that bitch!”

“Why?” said Cid. “Because she’s now happily seeing a guy you dumped?”

“I didn’t dump him! I just set him aside for a while so I could date Armando. I wanted him back eventually.”

“We should just be glad Miki found a man that her mother only somewhat hates as opposed to getting down and pin feathers and blood all over the carpet,” said Cid.

“Oh well I am just thrilled to pieces for Miss Miki.” Benji crossed his arms and pouted. “Hope he gives her a yeast infection.”

“Benji,” said Cid, “you have to stop changing your men like you do your underwear.”

“I just haven’t found one I really like! Oooh so many studs, so little time.”

Aiden looked at his twin. “Ever hear of AIDS, genius?”

“Ever hear of condoms, Einstein? Whoopsie, guess not!”

Cid sighed as the inevitable tussle broke out. Vincent stopped the car dead; a tactic that seldom failed to interrupt fights as the combatants were jolted in their seat belts.

“Don’t make me come back there!”

“Sorry,” the twins muttered.

Cid and Vincent pretended not to hear the occasional whack during the rest of the drive home. They pulled up before their house just in time to see a beautiful and costly Mercedes Benz park with slow grandeur near the hangar.

“Oh there’s Yazzy and Andy,” said Cid.

Benji rolled his eyes. “And of course they had to bring the Mercedes.”

Aiden smiled. “Well the Ferrari was in the shop.”

“Hate the bitch. Both of them. When do I get a Mercedes?”

“You could always go see if any of Rufus Shinra’s adopted kids like cheap blondes,” said Aiden.

Cid closed the door and left the kids in the car to bicker, putting an arm around Vincent.

“C’mon, let’s get inside before a catfight breaks out.”

***---***

Vincent lay in bed, exhausted, his body gleaming with sweat. He smiled as Cid kissed him, moving off of him to flop down beside him, reaching for a pack of cigarettes. Even after all these years, Cid had not managed to shake the habit, but at least he had cut back substantially. Vincent was sure Cid could quit entirely if he wanted to. That was the trouble; Cid didn’t really want to.

“Was a great night,” said Cid, lighting his cigarette.

“Yeah. It was. Bit sad as well. All the kids are grown up, and now having kids of their own.”

“Yeah. It is sad. I still remember finding out you were pregnant.” Cid grinned. “I was so damned happy. It’ll be good to have little kids in the house again. I miss it.”

“Well if Aiden takes up with Matias, that’s exactly what we will have – little kids. I hope they get together.” Vincent looked at Cid. “What did Teddy say about what happened to Aiden?”

“He said it was drunken stupidity but it was mutual drunken stupidity. The guy didn’t force Aiden and he didn’t take advantage. And he says Aiden will have a little boy.”

Vincent breathed out a sigh of relief. “That makes me feel better.”

They snuggled together for a time, Cid dropping into a heavy sleep, worn out by the day’s events. Vincent lay beside him, watching him. Cid had aged, but he was still strong and handsome. He was not young, but it would be a few years yet before he could worry about being old. Vincent snuggled close, then felt something odd; a wet sensation, like something running down his leg. He reached down to touch it, then brought his fingers up to examine the fluid. It was clearish-white, and he knew the odour instantly; it was semen.

Vincent abruptly got out of bed and ran into the bathroom, fishing the recently-discarded condom out of the trash. A quick inspection revealed a clean, precise cut over the tip; no doubt some jerk’s idea of a joke, or perhaps payback at the place where the condoms were made. Either way the result was the same; he now had a bellyful of Cid’s sperm paddling around inside him, looking for something to get their heads into.

Vincent dropped the condom and ran for the door of the bedroom, scooping up a bathrobe along the way and pulling it on. He yanked the door open, and stopped dead as he saw Teddy before him, dressed in his usual tie-dye headband and t-shirt, and holding a cardboard box. It was clearly labelled in Cid’s handwriting;

Benji and Aiden’s baby-clothes – Storage.

“You’ll be wanting these,” said Teddy.

“For who?” asked Vincent.

Teddy’s eyes became large and innocent. “For Aiden of course! Who else?”

“Teddy…” Vincent growled.

“For Aiden,” he repeated firmly. Then from behind him stepped Reno, still young and beautiful at age sixty-three, Sephiroth’s blood shielding him from the effects of time. He handed Vincent a box of the beautiful and expensive designer baby-clothes Rufus had bought for Kin - clothes for a baby girl.

“Here,” said Reno. “These are for you. Happy Thanksgiving, yo.”