Resurfacing

AN- OOOOOOOOOOOOOH Aris...I'm not done. =....=
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His body was all up for it, but his mind wasn't quite into it as he wanted to be. It was like the time he'd volunteered to do extra work during his days in Shinra acedemy, hauling box after box into a cargo hauler in Junon. He'd had fifty thousand things in mind that day, and didn't realize he'd ran out of boxes to pack until he groped for one and found empty air. THAT situation was much like this one...or was it this one was much like that?

"Cid?"

He biinked and looked up, unaware Vincent had barely moved. Wow- where was his mind that whole time? "Oh shit, Vincent...what were you doing, I wasn't even thinking 'bout this."

The gunman blinked and narrowed one eyebrow as he looked down at the blonde. "What are you talking about? Didn't you just hear me?"

"Oh. Sorry, wasn't paying attention."

Vincent sighed and dropped his head to the bed beside Cid's neck. "Why doesn't this surprise me?"

Cid sighed as well and dropped his arms down to pet Vicent's back. "Im sorry baby...I just got a lot of things on my mind."

"Like what?"

"Shera." Cid barely got the word out of his mouth before Vincent promptly sat up and stared down at him with a lifted brow. "WELL SORR-EE! Just in case you forgot I've cried more in the past 24 hours than I have in the past 24 years!" Cid sighed and sat up himself. "My head and my nose is stuffy and I can't stop thinking about all the crap that's been going on....first you and me then me n' Shera and then Shera an' her doubts and you actin' like you wanted to leave and me gettin all depressed..."

"Why in the world did you think I wanted to leave anyway?" Vincent was slightly more relaxed now that he knew the reason Cid was thinking about Shera, however it was still unnerving to hear her name come out of his mouth when he was in the mind to go down on Cid to prove a point. He reached down to the floor and picked up his shirt he'd taken off a few moments ago when he thought Cid knew what was going on and put it back on. His warmth was temporarily distracted in thought and the room was still cold.

"Just the things you said and the way you said it, I s'pose...now that you mention it, what WERE you trying to tell me if ya aren't going to leave?" Cid looked up at Vincent with a small scowl. It was bad enough he had a headahce, he didn't want to be confused all night, too. There was a small distance between the two men on the bed, Vincent now at one end and Cid at the other, but that was fine to the pilot. Less to distract him.

Vincent looked up at Cid and blinked a couple of times. "I thought I made it quite obvious."

"Gimmie a break, Vincent! You words were as abstract as a fuckin' Picasso painting that accidentally got thinner knocked on it!"

Despite the anger creeping into Cid's voice and the expression he wore to match it, Vincent smiled at the art joke that came out of nowhere. "I didn't say I wanted to leave, Cid. What I meant was...we have to say something."

"Say what?"

"Say what's going on to Shera."

"ARE YOU OFF YOUR FUCKIN' ROCKER?! If we tell Shera do you know what she's going to DO?!"

"Probably sit there for a moment full of disbelief, try to write it off as a joke or other wise. When she sees we're serious she'll be full of denial, then the denial will turn to anger and embarassment and she'll more than likely unleash her fury in the most obvious of fashions by making you feel horrible and kicking me out."

Cid sat there with his mouth hanging wide open in disbelief himself. He couldn't understand how Vincent could sit there and say that so calmly and with litle emotion. "and that doesn't BOTHER you?!"

"Of course it does, but-"

"BUT WHAT?!"

Vincent sighed as Cid cut him off, and he knew his reaction would just make him even more upset. "She would have every right to be that way and to do those things." He didn't wait for Cid to speak before he continued. "You're her husband, she's your wife and I'm the guy who just happened to fall in love with and are sleeping with you. Why shouldn't she be upset?"

He stared at the gunman for a minute, speechless. "Ah...ah'm not saying she shouldn't be, hell if I were her and found out something like that I'd probably try to kill em bare handed."

"Exactly, Cid, but you know what we have to do, consequences or not. She's your WIFE- you love her, don't you?" Vincent waited for a response and when none came he repeated his question. "Cid...you love her...don't you?"

There was an awkward silence as Cid shifted on the bed. He scratched the back of his head as he answered. "Yeah...but not the way she wants me to...she wants me to be head over heels in love with her and all of that fairy tale shit...but I'm not...I can't be...I might have been able to a long time ago if all of the stuff with the rocket hadn't of happened. I know now she really was just tryin to help and it saved my ass that one time**, but if she thought it would make me feel the way for her the way she wanted me to...I know I'm an asshole for saying this but...when I married her, I did it cause I knew it was what she wanted, and what she deserved, but not cause I loved her like a husband loves a wife. I feel like an ass saying it, and I know I AM an ass and an insensitive one at that for thinking that way, and I've TRIED to love her the way she wants me to, but...yeah." Cid shifted where he sat again, determined not to look Vincent in the eye. He didn't know why, but he was sure he was getting a very dissapointed look from the other man.

Vincent sat there in the silence that followed, staring at Cid and his head down form. He knew everything Cid said should have disgusted him, but it didn't. "...Just like me and Lucrecia."

Cid looked up, his face etched in confusion. "What?"

"I loved her more than I thought I could, and I hoped desperately in my heart she felt the same way...even though I knew she never could. I know now...I felt it in my gut..that when she looked at me, she wasn't seeing me..she was seeing my father, and whenever that happened she just felt guilty. Maybe at one point she felt something for me...but I'll never know now. I can only guess anymore, and that's worse than not knowing...Cid....Shera deserves for us to tell her..she needs to know. We can't leave her guessing."

"Yeah..ah know..s'just...how the hell am I going to tell her?"

"First thing in the morning."

"WHAT?! Tomorrow morning?!"

"The sooner she knows, the sooner we can know what's to become of this...I like Shera. I love you. I want to stay...but it's ultimately up to her if I can." Vincent stood up and walked over to the door, placing his hand on the handle. "You should probably go back to your room now and think about this. Prepare yourself."

Cid sighed and walked up to stand beside him, and he looked up at the gunner with a long sigh. "Yeah." He turned the doorknob and pulled the door open. "I know you're right."

"CID."

"I just....don't know how to tell he-...what's wrong?" He frowned a bit, looking up at Vincent's face. The gunman was wide eyed and looked slightly sick, his pupils constricting as he looked through the open door way.

"You DONT NEED to tell me ANYTHING, CID."

The pilot froze, and with a stiff body turned his head to look out of the door. Shera, not to his surprise what-so-ever, stood there, her face angrily contorted despite the tear streaks rolling down her face.

Cid, having the way with words that he did, summed it all up in one word. "SHIT."
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"I...I can't..BELIEVE THIS!" Shera's sentance was cut off with a sob, her face in one hand. "PLEASE, PLEASE you two, tell me this is a joke!" She looked up at both men for some sort of answer, but neither sets of eyes could meet her own.

Cid and Vincent sat there, as far apart from each other as they could, eyes cast to the ground and hands in their laps. Cid was wringing his hands out, and Vincent was twisting the gold, black and red band on his right had around and around.

"Oh God...it's not, is it?...." Shera's eyes went wide, and she seemed to sink back into the couch as far as she could without jumping behind it. "You two are really...?" She looked back and forth between the two of them, still receiving nothing.

Cid closed his eyes, trying to resolve himself. When he opened them, he looked up at Shera seriously. "Yeah...we are." He looked back down with a sigh and ran his hands through his hair. He saw her, momentarily, stand up and snap a hand back. Here it was, the initial slap before she started beating the crap out of him. He waited, heard the slap of flesh on flesh, and waited for the sting that never came. When he opened his eyes again he looked up at Shera, then over at Vincent who's one cheek was red. "What th-"

"I don't BELIEVE THIS!" Shera snapped her attention from Vincent to Cid,her face back to it's angry stage. "You think this is some kind of joke....you think this is funny?! WELL I'M NOT LAUGHING, CID HIGHWIND!"

"I'm not joking Shera...and you know that." Cid stared at her, straight into her brown eyes with as much seriousness as she could muster. "I should have told you, I know...but...I couldn't."

"COWARD! YOU LYING COWARD!...." Then something scary happened- Shera's face settled into one of no emotion at all before she backed away from him. "Well I've got news for YOU, Cid Highwind, one I'M not going to hide!"

"You're leaving me and slandering my very name, I kno-"

"NO."

"....no?" He was sure his voice was as confused as his face.

Shera crossed her arms, turned her face away and said with as much bitter triumph as she coould...

"I'M PREGNANT."


END RESURFACING
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