What Friends are For

Chapter two of 'What Friends are For'

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'What Friends are For' Chapter 2: What It Means to Fly
Vincent repays Cid's kindness in a way only he can. [WAFF, Yaoi]

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It had been a while since I gave Vince the key to his gauntlet - I'd make a joke about giving him a hand, but I can already see the Valentine Glare. Things seemed easier now. He didn't hide his left arm as much. Maybe knowing it wasn't a permanent part of him was enough, even though he never took it off. He smiled more, too. I think that's even better than the arm thing, seeing him relaxed enough to smile. I saw it every time I closed my eyes now, and I didn't mind one bit. Even with that damn cloak hiding half his face, Vince was a good looking guy.

A knock at my door startled me - I'd been half-dozing on my bunk - and right away I knew who it was. Nobody else on the Highwind had metal knuckles. I hurried to the door and pulled it open, trying to ignore the fact that I was grinning.

"Heya, Vince, come on in." I waved him over to the lone chair at the table, though I knew that's where he'd sit anyway. It's where he always sat when he came for a visit, even though it wasn't often. I sat back on the bed, leaning against the headboard. "Didja need something?" Out of habit, I stuck a cigarette between my lips, though I didn't light it when I saw The Look.

"In a way, yes," he said, and shrugged. "I have been considering a way to repay you for the gift you gave me." He wiggled the fingertips of the gauntlet to remind me - as if I needed him to.

I sighed, and rubbed the back of my neck. "Aw, Vince, I told ya, friends help each other. Ya don't pay back gifts."

"Mm," he replied, moving his right hand in a dismissive gesture. "Then do not consider it a repayment, but my own gift to you. Either way, it is something I would like to do."

I stared at him for a moment, then shook my head, laughing. "Yer somethin' else, Vince. Since you insist, I'll let ya. What is it?"

The smile he gave me was secretive, the one I'd grown used to, but still didn't mind seeing. "It is not here," he said, then stood and opened the door. "Please, if you would, dress in something light and comfortable, and meet me in the cargo bay. I will be there shortly." And then he left, closing the door before I had a chance to reply.

Cargo bay, huh? I just shrugged, and went to dig out one of my lighter work outfits. This should be interesting.

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Vince wasn't there when I arrived; it was a minute or two before I heard him coming down the stairs. I'd been looking around, trying to see if there was anything different. If there was, I couldn't find it - but then, it was Vince. I've said it before and I'll say it again, he's unpredictable.

"It will be a moment before we are ready," he said as he stepped past me, moving to the control panel for the loading doors. His claw motioned for me to follow, and I did. By now, the curiosity was gnawing at me. "I hope you will enjoy this. I believe i know you well enough to say it is a suitable gift."

"What is it?" I asked again. I knew he wouldn't tell me, though, and I was right.

"You shall see," he replied. "We should be getting close."

As if cued by his comment, the intercom to the bridge clicked on with a hiss, and I heard my junior pilot speak. "Sir, we've arrived."

"Thank you," Vince answered. "You know what to do from here."

"Aye, sir." The 'com clicked off again, and I peered at Vince.

"I see what yer doin'. Incitin' a mutiny. Gonna throw me from the cargo hold." I was trying to hold back a grin, though I wasn't doing a good job.

He just gave me that smile of his. "Something like that," he responded, and motioned to the controls. "Please, if you would. You are the only one who can open them while airborne."

I paused a moment, looking at him curiously, then stepped past him to fit the override key into the box. I gave it a turn, and palmed the button to open the hold doors. We waited, side by side, as they drifted apart. The shorter one levered upwards, while the larger lowered; it served as the loading ramp when we took on cargo. But when it dropped far enough to stop blocking the view, I felt the breath catch in my chest.

It was beautiful. We were higher than we had ever been, almost dangerously high. The world stretched before us in a graceful, colorful curve - blues, browns, and greens mostly - with the soft whiteness of clouds gliding between it and us. 'This is why I became a pilot,' I thought. Seeing that view, something only birds and flying monsters saw, made me ache somewhere.

Before I realized it, I was stepping forward, but Vince's arms stopped me, as he wrapped them around me. If I hadn't've stopped breathing when I saw the world outside those metal doors, I would have right then, so instead I gasped, and somehow I could breathe again. Feeling him press against my back, his left arm draped over my shoulder with the claw against my chest, and his right tucked around my waist, and staring past the doors of my airship was just amazing.

I felt his head close to my right shoulder, his voice achingly close when he spoke, voice low enough to make me shiver. "Cid, do you trust me?"

"With my life," I replied without thinking, and I winced internally at how corny it sounded.

"Then jump," he whispered. His lips were close enough that I could feel them move against my ear as he spoke. "Jump, and I shall show you what it means to fly." His arms fell away, and I almost moaned in disappointment when he stepped back.

I didn't look back at him; I did trust him.

I took as much of a running start as I could, and leapt off the lip of the door. The sensation of leaving something solid and flinging myself into the air was the most exhilarating thing I'd ever done in my life. Gravity grabbed hold with both hands, and pulled me downward; it felt like I'd left my belly back on the Highwind, but I didn't care. Why would I? I laughed giddily; I had no parachute, no way to stop my fall, but I wasn't afraid.

The touch of a body against my back returned, and I heard Vince's voice, loud enough to penetrate the rushing wind. "Spread your arms," he said, "and press your legs close together."

I did as he asked; it was the same pose I'd take when my dad would make me 'fly', one arm under my chest and the other under my legs as he spun me around and around until we were both dizzy and laughing breathlessly. I hadn't thought of that in years, and the memory comforted me. 'If only he could see me now,' I thought to myself.

Vince's arms wrapped around me again, this time both around my torso, and his legs curled around mine tightly. I heard something like canvas unfurling, and a snap like wind catching in a sail, but the sound was wet, almost leathery. And then we weren't falling, but gliding, and I laughed again. 'This is wonderful!'

A look over my shoulder showed me what the sound I'd heard was: A pair of bat-like wings spread on either side of Vince, curved to meet the air. He was grinning when he saw me look at him; I couldn't remember seeing him looking so delighted, so full of enjoyment. And past him was the Highwind, quickly receding in the distance.

Without warning, his wings thrust downward, startling me enough to cry out; it was his turn to laugh. I clutched at one of his arms, the metal one against my chest, and turned my attention forward again. He was right; this is flying. We didn't have to rely on machines to hold us, there was no thrum of an engine or whir of propellers, just the beat of wings and the passing wind. Seeing everything like that made it all more beautiful, without having metal or a padded seat under me. Just the two of us, me and Vince. He could let me go at any time, but I knew he wouldn't. I trusted.

The land rushed below us, plains and mountains and waters, as if we were the ones at rest and the world was rolling by, in a hurry to go where ever it needed to go. He guided us over the ocean, where his wings stilled, and we glided in lazy circles to let an updraft from the warm waters lift us higher. And then he was moving again, slow thrusts of his wings pushing us over the land once more.

Vince's wings began to push harder at the air, as if it were something solid, lifting us higher and higher once more. We followed a mountainside so far below that there were no details, only brown and gray and green blurs, and then the white of snow speckled by evergreens that seemed to thrive in the cold.

I looked up just in time to see the pure whiteness of a cloud approaching, and then we pierced its underside, suddenly surrounded by the misty haze. It seemed to glow with its own internal light from the sunlight being reflected and refracted by the water, and my lungs filled with the pure smell of unfallen rain.

We burst through the top of the clouds, and everything stilled with the breathtaking view. The earth had been replaced by a sea of rolling white, almost blinding thanks to the sun above. Mountain tops pierced the clouds, like islands in that perfect sea. Vince's wingbeats held us there, with our feet just above the wispy mass that stirred with the thrust of the leathery limbs. We were suspended weightlessly in that perfect world of white and blue.

"This, my friend" I heard him whisper. "This is your gift. For you, and no other."

His wings stilled and wrapped tight around us both, like a cocoon, and we began to fall, returning to the featureless whiteness of the cloud, and I couldn't help but gasp. Despite the increasing speed, I had never felt safer, all wrapped up like that with Vince's soft laugh in my ears. And then the cocoon opened, wings unfurling to catch us once more, guiding the drop into becoming a glide. We left the clouds behind and drifted toward the land below, until I could see our shadows following us over the fields and diving into rivers and lakes, weaving over trees to keep up with us. There were animals too, both monstrous and natural, and a flock of chocobos we chased over the plain.

It seemed to last forever, and yet not long enough, before we began to slow, drifting down until we were a few feet above the earth. It was then that he dropped me, now that we were slow enough, and the world flipped around me as I tumbled across the grass until I came to a stop on my back with my limps sprawled. I glanced over when Vince landed a few feet away. His wings seemed to melt into his back as he stepped over, completely gone by the time he sat down next to me.

He leaned to tug one of my cigarettes from the pack in the headband of my goggles and tucked it between his lips. "So," he said, "was it good for you?"

I laughed breathlessly and shook my head, then sat up and stole my smoke back, before giving his shoulder a playful shove. "Are ya kiddin?" I replied, as I replaced the cigarette in its pack. "That was the most amazin' thing I've ever done."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," he responded. I could hear the amusement in his voice, though from this angle his collar hid the smile I knew was there.

"That went beyond enjoyin', Vince," I sighed, laying back again and folding my arms under my head. "That was flying. I didn't know ya could do that."

"It's because of Chaos," he said with a shrug, before he laid back beside me, and rested his hands on his belly. "they are his wings I borrow. It is not something I do often. The sensation when I grow those - or force them back - is not pleasant. But I do occasionally. The discomfort is more than worth it." He paused, glancing over at me. "This time more than usual, I think."

"Yeah, sometimes it hurts when we do the stuff we like. I mean, I'm always gettin' cuts and scrapes and bruises, sometimes even broken bones." I held up my right hand and gave the fingers a wiggle - it wasn't too long ago that one of them had a cast - then returned it to being a pillow. "But you, Vince. You can do somethin' I've only dreamed of. You can fly, and ya don't need a plane or an airship to do it." I broke off, and sighed, closing my eyes. 'No wonder I love ya...'

I heard Vince make a sound, though I wasn't sure what it was - a hiss? A gasp? Whatever it was, he sounded startled. "What did you say?" he asked in a disbelieving voice.

I froze, almost literally - it felt like my blood had turned to ice. "Oh no," I whispered. I'd said that out loud. I just told him I loved him. Something I barely admitted to myself, and I'd let it slip because I was still giddy from flying. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid!' "...Nothing?" I replied hesitantly; my voice sounded shaky even to myself.

"Cid," Vince said warningly as he sat up, peering down at me. "What did you say?"

I sat up too, and stared at my hands where they lay on the grass. I couldn't handle that look right now. "I'm sorry, Vince," I said quietly. "I shouldn't have said that. Just... Let's go back to the Highwind, and I can--"

"Please."

That single word stopped me. I was about to start rambling, I knew it, and that one word broke my train of thought. He sounded hurt, pleading, and when I finally looked over at him, I saw something in those beautiful red eyes of his that I'd never seen before.

Hope.

"Vince," I sighed, "I guess... I love you. I have for a long time now, I just... I didn't want to admit it. I was scared ya wouldn't want to hear it, and it'd make ya leave." 'I didn't want to risk losing you...'

And then there was quiet, as if the world itself held its breath, waiting anxiously. It stretched, until I felt like I was going to explode from too much waiting. Just when it seemed something was about to snap, Vince moved.

He stood with the creak of leather and the jingle of metal, without saying a word. I knew, then, that I had made the biggest mistake of my life; having Vince around not knowing how I felt about him was infinitely better than not having him around at all. 'He's leaving me,' my mind whispered in horror, and I dropped my head into my hands, trying desperately to choke back whatever it was trying to break free.

The grass shifted slightly behind me as I felt something lower to the ground. Arms tucked around my torso for the third time that day, the same way they were on the airship, the metal one on my chest and the leather one at my waist. They pulled gently, my mind too confused to resist, until I was leaning against Vince's chest. I looked up at him, and blinked in surprise.

The cape was gone, laying somewhere on the grass beside us. His face was bare, and smiling down at me with an expression that I had never had anyone give me. It was tenderness, and affection, yet somewhere beneath that was a little fear, and while I liked the first two, I would have done anything to get rid of the third. When he spoke, I felt like the whole world stopped around me.

"What took you so long?"

I just stared at him, hardly daring to believe what I was seeing, what I was hearing. 'Maybe I passed out and this is a dream, or I had a heart attack and now I'm in heaven.'

His lips - those pale soft wonderful lips that I am captivated by every time I see them - lowered until they kissed softly at my neck, right in the curve of my shoulder, and I swore my heart stopped beating.

"Even knowing what and who I am, you have never feared me, or felt disgust or pity for me," he murmured against my neck. "You have always accepted me, even knowing where I came from, what was done to me, what I have done to others." His head shifted, drifting to the other side of my head to place another kiss there. "You offered to share rooms and tents to me when others were afraid. You fought beside me without fearing I would turn on you when the change came over me, time and again." Vince's clawed hand lifted, gently tugging away the goggles strapped around my forehead, tossing them and the cigarette pack near his abandoned cloak. "You offered me friendship when others hesitated to speak to me."

He gave me another kiss, this time on my now bare forehead, and I closed my eyes, savoring the feel and the sound of his voice. "And then, when everything was said done, when the world was free, when everyone expected me to disappear, to vanish from their lives... You gave me a home, somewhere I can stay other than that accursed prison where I was forced to sleep for thirty years. You gave me something to do besides fighting, besides searching for the atonement you made me realize I never needed to begin with."

Vince moved me in his hold, until I could lean against his left arm with the golden claw on my belly. His right hand came up, leather fingers resting on my cheek to turn my head toward him. I opened my eyes, and met the most amazing sight: Vincent Valentine's ruby gaze staring down at me, inches from my own. Even if I wanted to move, I couldn't; I was held bound as tight as iron with the touch of his fingers and the look in his eyes.

"Just when I thought I could not possibly love you any more," he continued, head lowering until his lips were nearly brushing my own, "you returned to me a part of myself I thought lost forever. After all that... After all you have done for me, how could I not give my heart to you?"

I felt this incredible surge of joy, more intense, more painful than when I had leapt from the safety of my airship, trusting my best friend to not let me fall. 'He loves me!' the voice shouted inside my head, the way I wanted to shout, but my voice wouldn't work. And just when I opened my mouth to speak, his lips closed over mine, and I died.

That's what it felt like, this electric shock that went from my lips into every nerve of my body, warm and tingling and perfect. He was tentative, almost nervous, as if he'd never kissed before; I know I'd never been kissed that way. His taste was amazing, better than I could have ever imagined; like the rest of him, it was unmistakably Vincent. I ached to devour him, though I didn't know where to start, and the now-hazy voice inside my mind whispered, 'Here's a good place.'

It was right, too. I felt his lips part, and my own were teased by the tip of his tongue, so I returned the touch, wordlessly asking permission. He made a soft sound against my mouth, and I echoed it - or maybe it was the other way around. I didn't know, and I didn't care. All I knew was that Vince's lips were against mine, and then I was inside his mouth, exploring, tasting, caressing. It was intoxicating.

And then he turned the tables, and he was inside my mouth, following my example. His tongue was everywhere, restless and loving. I kept distracting him with mine, until he gave a low growl and broke away.

We sat there for a moment, panting for breath. I realized my hands had moved sometime during that eternity; one was cupped behind his neck, while the other had laced between the fingers of his gauntlet. When I opened my eyes, he was smiling at me again, though he had this look of amazement that seemed somehow so innocent. It made me want to kiss him again.

"Vince," I said softly, "I told ya before, friends aren't supposed to repay gifts. But I'll forgive ya this time."

He just stared at me in surprise. With a shake of his head, he laughed, and dropped his hand from my cheek to wrap that arm around me as well. Both gave a tug, pulling me closer to him. "You insufferable man. I should leave you here and fly back to the Highwind on my own."

"Nah, ya wouldn't abandon me," I replied, and leaned up to give his throat a lick. Like everything else about him, his throat was perfect, and when the touch made him growl again, I nipped there softly. "Though how are we gonna get back? I don't think they could'a followed us, what with all that flappin' around ya did."

"'Flapping around,' hmm?" he repeated. I was delighted to hear his voice shake slightly. "If that is what you think of it, perhaps I shall avoid subjecting you to such unpleasantries in the future."

Oh, that was just mean. "Vince, that's not fair, ya can't take a guy for the most amazin' ride of his life and then not do it again," I sighed. "It'd be like mind-blowing sex on the honeymoon and then never having--" I stopped when I realized what I was saying, and who I was saying it too. I don't blush often - It's hard to embarrass Cid Highwind - but right then, it felt like my face was on fire. "I mean, I'd like to go again sometime, if ya don't mind."

He chuckled, and then gave me another kiss. It was soft and sweet, almost chaste, and I could have melted right then. "I would enjoy taking you, Cid," he murmured in a low voice against my lips. I stared at him. 'Was that innuendo? From Vince?' "But, speaking of flying, I believe our ride is here."

I looked up, and there was the Highwind coming down to land. I realized they could see us - their captain, tangled in the arms of his best friend - and I tried to get away. "Vince!" I hissed. "They'll see us!"

"Do not worry, they already know," he replied casually. He took advantage of my slack-jawed expression to give me another kiss, tongue delving in to tease my own briefly, before he pulled away and stood. While he reclaimed his cloak, I scrambled up from where he had all but dropped me on the grass.

"What?" I finally managed to exclaim, staring at him as he walked toward the opening cargo doors.

He motioned behind me as he receded, and I heard his words over the rumble of the airship. "Your cigarettes are blowing away."

I aimed a few choice swear words at Vince's back as I chased after them, then grabbed my goggles and followed him inside. I hardly noticed when Junior passed me the keys I'd left in the override.

"Welcome back Cap'n, Mister Valentine," he said, hitting the switch to close the bay doors.

"Thank you," Vince said with a nod, though I just grunted and followed him up the stairs, trying to ignore that smug grin on Junior's face.