Recollecting

He figured he might as well get all of the smoking he wanted to get in while he could. He more than likely would have to quit now more than ever, what with Shera pregnant and him going back into the military services, probably to do more than just run laps and say “YES drill sergeant”. On a plus side though, it’d get him away from all of the troubles he wanted to think about some other time, when his head was more into it, and it would entirely submerse him in his work. It’d be a nice change.

He stepped out of the door leading to the backyard out onto the cool green grass still damp and chilly from that morning’s dew, silently cursing at the instant, cold morning air hit his lungs, making them sting as he flicked the half done cigarette to the damp grass below and took a deep breath. It took a moment before the sharpness faded into numbness, and he could feel the goose-bumps rising up on his arms. The chill in Wutaii was stronger in the morning than in Rocket Town, and he wondered for a moment how someone as rail thin and pale as Tseng could possibly get around warm enough in that house robe called a kimono. Tseng- now there was a man that pissed Cid off to end, not so much for his insatiable and obvious (to everyone but himself) crush on Vincent, but because the man was just so...MEAN. There really wasn’t any other word for it. Maybe BITTER would be a better choice, but mean seemed to fit, especially concerning Cid. Exactly what the hell did he DO to get under the Wutaiian’s skin so badly, other than get together with Vince?

Cid snorted as he stretched his arms back, frowning a bit. He suspected that pretty much WAS what he did. He temporarily shrugged the thought to the back of his mind as he continued stretching. THIS was something he’d have to get used to again for sure, getting up as early, if not earlier, than he did today to go on a morning jog. He certainly hoped where he was stationed wasn’t quite THIS cold in the morning, but he doubted it. He sat into a squat, taking a deep breath as he stood up again, not even noticing the back door behind him close. He did shudder again, though- not from the cold, per-say, so much as the chill that crept into his body from the look he was getting from the person behind him.
********************************

What was that fool redneck doing getting up and tromping through the house like a herd of pandas (do pandas travel in herds? Tseng thought) at five in the morning? The bleeding sun wasn’t even up yet. Tseng opened the back door with a scowl that quickly turned deeper as he saw said hick standing on the grass standing up from the ground. Well, Tseng lifted a brow, if he was a redneck, he was a cold tolerant redneck, as the man was wearing tennis shoes, shorts and a tank top. The man was going to freeze to death, he was certain. “What in the name of the five Gods are you doing up this early in the morning, Highwind?”


It took a moment before the pilot got out of his stretch before he turned and looked up at Tseng. “Just stretching and going out for a morning run. Might as well start doin' it now since I gotta do it everyday for the next six months.” Cid followed his response with a shrug, like it was the most common thing in the world.

“I thought you would have more sense to at least take a jacket with you. This is not your Rocket Town morning air, you realize.”

“YES, I DO realize that, but do YOU realize..” Cid turned around rather quickly, the tone of his voice and the look on his face rising to match the ones Tseng carried, “that if I DID take a jacket and SWEATED in such jacket, my chance of catching ANY kind of cold here in your Wutaiian air is increased?” Cid scowled up at the Wutaiian on the top step, wanting him to be the LAST person he wanted to meet first thing in the morning. “Beside, if you’re complaining about how cold it is ANYWAYS, what the hell are you doing out here in your flimsy ass house robe?”

“It’s called a KIMONO, oh ignorant one, and what person that isn’t mentally CONSCIOUS wouldn’t notice someone TROMPING through their house at four thirty in the morning?”

“TROMPING....nice. You pick that word up in fifth grade and decide to hold onto it for a special time, or am I just LUCKY.”

“At least I GRADUATED the fifth grade.”

"You come up with that all by yourself, or'd you pick that up in the Turks?” Cid waved Tseng away as he turned back around and without a word took off in a jog, not even bothering to slow down as he turned down the gravel path leading into town. Tseng glared at his retreating form until it was lost in the fog before he turned back into the house with a huff. The early morning chill he usually felt upon getting up was gone now, replaced instead with the hot anger he could feel welling up inside of him.

“Stupid, uncultured, uneducated, sheep raping hillbilly son-of-a-bi-..” Tseng continued his rant under his breath as he passed by Vincent’s room on his way to the kitchen, knowing for one talking at the volume was right now would wake the other Wutaiian, and for two the older man would certainly know what Tseng was talking about, and not like what he was hearing either. Fuming quietly to himself, he walked back to his bedroom, shutting the door hard behind him as he made his way back to his futon, hopefully to get some more sleep seeing as his previous attempt at slumber was ended before he wanted it to be.
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The room was far colder than it had been just a while ago, and it was his shivering that woke Vincent up. His first reflex was to pull the heavier sheets up closer, then to open his eyes half way and look around the room. The sun had not yet risen, but he could tell even in the dark of the room that Cid wasn’t there. His ears scanned for sounds of footsteps outside the room, water running in the bathroom, maybe even yelling outside if Tseng was up as well, Gods knowing those two could go off at each other at any moment like a pair of active hand grenades. When he still heard nothing that gave away any signs of life he sat up, shuddering suddenly as the warm blanket fell down around his lap and the cold air in the room hit him like a blast. Instinctively he yanked the blanket back up, tossing it over his shoulders and around his cold, naked body as he stood up, walking to the door. A good bath, a HOT bath, he decided, was in order, and he made his way to the spacious bathroom Tseng housed. The floors beneath his feet were colder than the air in the hallways, and as he reached the bathroom door and entered the room, he sighed in relief.

Someone (probably Tseng) had thought it smart enough to light some coals in a make shift fire pit in the floor a ways away from the tub, making the floor wonderfully warm. Vincent dropped the blanket into the nearest dirty clothes bin and made his way to the deep, hot tub like bath and squat down, turning on the water so that it was slightly hotter than normal but not scalding.

As he waited for the tub to fill he sat down, his back to the door, took his hair in his hands and started putting it up into a high knot. He’d learned a long time ago from Shera how to do it without any kind of hair tie, minus a few wisps that fell down the back of his neck. Shera...Vincent sighed, long and hard as he watched the water and the hot steam from the top of it lift up. That was one thing he wasn’t sure what to do about, or even how to handle. He knew Cid wanted Vincent to go back to Rocket Town and live with Shera, help her out until he came back from camp. While he had no problem with that the idea of spending six months alone with the wife of the man he loved wasn’t, at most, a comforting one, especially since she was now...pregnant.

Vincent let out another sigh, and was about to lean over to turn off the water when the bathroom door opened. The gunman looked over his shoulder, wondering if it was his missing blue eyed pilot finally coming back from wherever he went to greet him with an early morning ‘wake up’ as he usually did. Red eyes blinked as they met not blue ones, but brown ones of the other Wutaiian that owned the house.
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Tseng found he could not sleep, no matter how hard he tried. His irritation at his encounter with the blonde that morning was still fresh in his mind, and the cold that had settled in the house also kept him awake. So, brows threatening to permanently fuse into a frown, he got back up and headed towards the bathroom. A hot bath always did him some good, and it would certainly help with the tenseness he was feeling in his shoulders. He opened the door to the bathroom like he always did, thinking nothing of it until the hotter-than-he-remembered-heat from the room met his face, making him shut his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, they instantly met the red eyes of the very pale and very naked Vincent Valentine sitting on the floor by the tub.

Tseng stood there for a moment, and the eyes that roved down Vincent’s frame grew wider as he went down and back up, from the long, elegant neck down his curvy back to the barest show of butt cheek, and the long, pale legs Vincent had folded underneath him. Tseng always knew the other man was breath taking, but never imagined this much so. Instantly he turned away, back towards the open door behind him. “F..Forgive me for intruding!”

He couldn't see Vincent’s amused smile but he could see it in his reply. “It’s alright..you shouldn’t have to apologize for wanting to use your own tub. Please come back inside..we’re both men here, are we not?”

“H-hai. Gomen.” Teng shut the door slowly, turning around twice as slow to look back down at Vincent, who was still looking back up at him. He had turned the water off when Tseng had turned around, and took the opportunity to slip into the water so now only shoulders up was visible. “I..I can leave if you prefer privacy.”

“I am fine with you, Tseng-san. After all, there’s nothing you have that I don’t, ne?” Vincent smiled, actually letting it reach his eyes. It was one of the most genuine Tseng had seen from the ex-Turk in a long time, and he was sure the blush that was on his face was not from the heat in the room. Tseng nodded, keeping his eyes trained in front of him as he walked to the other side of the tub, slowly unfastening his kimono. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Vincent look away to the side, as if his attention were caught by something over there, and Tseng silently thanked him as he slid quickly into the water.

“Did...did you sleep well, Vincent-san?”

“Hmm, very. But I find people always sleep better with someone lying next to them, hmm?” Vincent smiled again, his cheeks growing a bit pinker. Tseng forced himself to smile back and bite his tongue, least one of his less than friendly come backs he was saving for Highwind slip out. Vincent just nodded, and the smile slipped into a more serious face. “Tseng-san...I know I haven’t said this enough, much to my shame, but...thank you. Thank you for bringing him here, if only for a little while..but thank you. Thank you so much...Domo-arigatou, Tseng-san.”

Tseng just waved his hand slightly. “Turks are bound to help one another in and out of service, and I couldn’t just let an honored guest in my home be miserable, now could I? As long as Highwind behaves himself while he’s here, he can stay until he leaves. I promised you that, did I not?”

“Hai, you did...but I still sense that him being here troubles you, Tseng-san.”

The Turk furrowed his brows again at that. “Yes, well, his attitude and decorum leave much to be desired, in my opinion.”

“He cannot be anything else than what he is, Tseng-san, and he is an outright, honest, hardworking, very handsome, loving man.” Vincent lifted a brow as Tseng sniffed/laughed at the word handsome. “You think he isn’t?”

“Handsome? Hnn, ‘rugged’ is more the word I would use instead of handsome. If his mouth weren’t so foul and if he shaved once in a while, he could pass as ‘handsome’, blonde hair and blue eyes being exotic as they are here aside.”

Vincent frowned a bit. “Not everyone can be beautiful, Tseng-san.”

“That is true, and I believe there is no one out there quite as beautiful as you, Vincent-san.” Tseng paused, gauging Vincent’s reaction. There, he had said it...not quite the way he WANTED to, but he had said it. “And I believe someone AS beautiful as yourself deserves someone equally as stunning. Wouldn’t you agree?”

The two Wutaiian’s stared at each other for a while before Vincent spoke. “YES...I do agree.” Before Tseng could say anything, much less slip out a smile, the placid face of the ex-Turk slipped into a small glare. “And I look forward to seeing him whenever he gets back.”

The room, though hot from the fire pit and the steam rising from the water, dropped a few degrees, and Tseng cleared his throat. “Yes, he should be back soon, shouldn’t he?” He sat there for a few more awkward minutes before he cleared his throat again and slipped out of the water, quickly donning a new, clean kimono. “I will go prepare breakfast then, and we’ll eat when he gets back.”

With that, he left the room, pretending not to notice the insulted eyes that followed him, and wondering just how much more of an ass he could make of himself in front of the red eyed man.
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AN- hopefully I'll be writing more on this one. Heck, I've already got the side story (it will start coming up either in much later chapters or at the end of this one) practically finished. And don't worry- Tseng won't always be an ass. :P

Edited 3/14/08