Recollecting

Mornings in Wutaii always surprised him. Despite living there for many years before going to work with ShinRa, Reeve Tuesti never could get used to the chill every morning brought. It was the kind of chill that sunk right through the skin and to the bone. That’s why the Gods invented central heating, he figured..oh, and five star hotels that sported such central heating that had big rooms and allowed a newly-fledged president to get away from any MAJOR business.

He leaned against the window over looking the majority of the town, taking a sip of the cup of hot coffee in his hands. The morning mist was beginning to lift as the sun began to rise, and he could start to make out people walking calmly through the streets...minus one person that just ran by his overlook for the third time, probably going in a large circle around the town. He glanced up at the clock on the wall, smiling to himself. Well, Tseng DID tell him Cid had gotten into town yesterday.

He walked over to the phone on the night stand, sitting his down his coffee as he picked up the telephone. He wasn’t sure if Cid had his cell phone on him, but it was one of the only other numbers of Cid’s he knew other than the house number, and he sure as hell didn’t want to wake Shera this early in the morning. Reeve cringed a bit at the last memory he had when he had done, but forced it to the back of his head as he heard the phone start as ring. It took a few rings until it was picked up, and a gasping voice said “hello?”

“Good morning, captain. Glad to see you’re up and awake.”


He waited a minute for Cid to think about who it was calling him at seven in the morning, but when the pilot answered he could hear the smile in his voice. “Reeve? Reeve Tuesti, you son of a bitch! What are you doing up at this time of the mornin’?”

“Calling an equally crazy friend. I take it you’re in the middle of a morning run?” Reeve quietly took a sip of his coffee as Cid answered.

“Yeah, I’m guessing the heavy breathing gave it away, huh? Whatcha need, buddy?” Reeve heard the slap of Cid’s feet on the gravel roads stop as the pilot stopped to catch his breath.

“Well, I was standing at my window, thinking about my life in a general whole, when all of a sudden I saw your body run like a man from a married woman’s house, and thought I’d give you a call to reminisce...so, how are you?”

“....You are so full of shit, Tuesti.”

Reeve laughed then, almost choking on his coffee. Leave it up to Cid. “Alright, smart ass, I called to see if you would run your ass back up this way and meet me at my hotel room.”

“Wow Reeve, ever since you found out I’ve been with Vince you’ve made your needs obvious, ain’t cha?” There was a smirk over the phone, for sure.

The WRO president snorted and rolled his eyes. “Oh yes, Cid, you know I want you and your hot, hot redneck body. Just get over here. Top floor, just knock when you get to the door. Smart ass.” Reeve shook his head as he set the phone up and returned to his place at the window, waiting for the familiar form of the pilot to run back towards the hotel. He finally saw Cid jog towards the hotel a few minutes later, and Reeve stayed by the window watching the foot traffic until he heard Cid’s familiar, annoying knock- ‘shave and a haircut’. He leaned up from the wall he was against and walked to the door, opening it. He almost dropped his coffee cup as he found Cid leaning against the door frame, legs and arms crossed with a charming grin on his face and one eyebrow lifted.

“Hey, good looking. You call for an escort service, stud?” Cid lifted his eyebrows some and winked.

Reeve just snorted as he skeptically eyed his best friend. “Not one sweating as much as you, but I’ll suppose you’ll do.” Reeve shook his head, snorting into his cup as he took another drink and turned back into the spacious suite.

“Hell, I just got done running for two hours, waddya expect?” Cid followed the brunette into the room, wiping his sweat brow with the edge of his shirt.

“Well, if you’re still my size like you were fifteen years ago, you may borrow some of my clothes and take a shower. Maybe AFTER you get out we can talk about your ‘escorting’.” Reeve just pointed at the closet at the other side of the room as he sat down on the couch across from it. “Just grab a pair of black slacks, some shoes and a button up and you’ll be fine.”

Cid snorted as he rummaged through the closet and pulled out some clothes and headed towards the bathroom. “I’ll take that as a compliment, I guess.”

Reeve watched Cid as he disappeared into the bathroom, the sound of the shower starting. He just prayed Cid would be better now than he was when they were basic training as bunk mates and later in school as roomates and actually picked UP his towels and clothes off of the floor. He allowed his vision to zone out as he kept staring at the closed bathroom door. He barely even noticed when the water stopped, and the closed bathroom door opened ten minutes and a clean Cid stepped out. “Reeve? You spacing out on me, buddy?”

Reeve lifted his head, his vision coming back into focus as he stared at Cid standing in front of him, and he smiled. Rather nice fitting black slacks, black wing tipped dress shoes and a baby blue button up shirt could certainly make Cid look like a different person, he mused. The blonde even had his hair slicked back and (this only slightly irked Reeve, as it was probably HIS razor the blonde used, as usual) even clean shaven...for a while, anyway. The brunette smiled, letting it reach his eyes. “You always were even more good looking dressed up, Cid.”

The pilot blanched for a moment as he shifted his weight to the other foot, sure his face was turning slightly pink and his response slightly hesitant. “Um....thanks...ANYway,” Cid sat down beside Reeve, running a hand through his hair, “Did you have a reason to invite me up here, or you just wanna see me squirm?” Cid grinned slightly, hoping the joke would carry over to Reeve and relieve the akwardness.

“Well, seeing YOU blush from such a small compliment certainly makes MY day, Cid, seeing as when we were younger you would streak from one side of Shinra academy to the other would no shame...but no. I actually need to talk to you ABOUT the upcoming training for this new program. I wanted to thank you for reconsidering, though I have a feeling it was partly due to Tseng making you think twice about it. I couldn’t think of anyone more qualified for you for the unit I want you to train.” Reeve reached over and picked something off the table in front of them, and Cid noticed it was a large, overly stuffed manilla envelope which Reeve handed to him. “You’ll find all of the necessary information in there. To put it to you shortly, you’l be training a unit equal in talent to the Turks.” Reeve took another sip from his coffee, judging from the surprised look on Cid’s face the pilot was just as shocked as he thought he’d be. “But let’s not talk about that right now.” Reeve smiled, waving a bit. “Worry about it later. So, tell me, how’s your situation with Vincent and Shera going?”

Cid sighed, leaning back as he face fell to one of exhaustion. “Let’s talk about THAT later as well, huh?”

“Hmm..how about over breakfast? My treat, of course. If not to talk about your at home problems, than your promotion to an OFFICIAL captain, Rank AND title. Increased pay raise, hmm, my friend?”

“NO SHIT?! I mean, you’re not joking?” A huge grin split Cid’s face as he turned to look at Reeve, his blue eyes noticeably brightening, making Reeve chuckle a bit.

“No shit, as you put it.”

“DAMN! Thanks, buddy!”

“You’re welco-..” Reeve’s word was cut off short as he felt Cid wrap and arm around his waist and give him a tight squeeze, and he blanched for a moment as next to him Cid wondered what was wrong. “...What..the hell..was THAT?”

"Um, it's called a hug. You do know what a hug is, don'cha Reeve?" Cid lifted a brow, wondering exactly what was wrong with the small show of affection.

"Yes, I know what a HUG is...but if you would look and see exactly WHAT your arm is around and WHERE your hand is, " Reeve paused as he glanced down at the pilot's hand casually sitting too close to his groin, "I'm sure you'd realize OUR friendship, unlike your's and Vincent's, hasn't been to that level..."

"Enh?" Cid frowned a bit, wondering just what the hell Reeve meant when he looked down to see exactly what the brunette was talking about. A few shifts of the precariously perched fingers brought the situation home quickly, and he snatched his arm away before he either felt something he didn't want to, or caused a...reaction, accidentally. "Shit, sorry Reeve. S'pure habit from Vince, didn't mean to freak you out there."

“Well good... AHEM!” Reeve cleared his throat and stood, taking his coffee cup into the kitchenette the suite had and set it in the sink. “Well, aside from that...interesting distraction, if breakfast still sounds good, I’ll go change and we can go get something to eat.”

“Sounds good to me.” Cid smiled as he said it, clapping his hands together as he watched the brunette walk to his bedroom door and open it.

“Maybe after a date or two we can pick that back up?”

Cid's face formed into a glare, and he picked up one of the pillows on the couch and chucked it at the swiftly retreating president. “SHUT IT!!” was all Cid yelled at the closing door and the laughter from behind it.
*********************************

“Pregnant?”

“Yup.”

“Wow. I bet that was rather shocking news.”

“No shit, Sherlock, and you come back with ‘keep digging Watson’ again and I’ll pop ya one.”Cid took a gulp of his morning tea, cold and sugared just how he liked it as he leaned back into his chair. “I mean, I’m almost 38, Reeve, what the hell do I know about raising children?”

“About as much as I know about cooking something without burning it, I suppose.”

“Yeah, and you’re a horrible cook to begin with so that doesn’t make me feel ANY better.” Cid swirled the tea around in his cup, looking around the (much too expensive for his morals but HEY Reeve WAS buying) restaurant, watching the waitresses taking other people’s orders.

“Well, let’s not talk about this anymore until it gets closer to going back home and you have a better idea of what to do and expect. You’ve always been a very smart man, Cid. You’ll figure something out. SO,” Reeve smirked, not missing a beat, “you’ve been staying over at the Willow house, hmm?”

“The what?” Cid lifted a brow.

“Oh, that’s Tseng’s last name...one of them, anyways, the other one is like....Song, or something like that, but he goes by Willow. How ARE things going over there for you and Vincent?”

“The man’s one tick from either shooting me to get rid of me or dry humping Vincent every time he turns around.” Cid didn’t hide the venom leaking out of his voice, or the look on his face to match it. He took another loud and annoyed sip from his cup, earning (yet another) smile from Reeve. “It wouldn’t be so bad if he just got OVER the fact Vince ain’t his and MINE instead and didn’t OBSESS over it.”

“I take it he doesn’t like the fact that you and Vincent are together. Well, in all honesty I can see why he’d dislike that. After, you and Vincent are polar opposites in all ways, and the two Wutaiians are so much alike they might as related. Perhaps Tseng feels it’s unfair for you to be both married to a beautiful woman AND be the center of a beautiful man’s universe as well. It DOES make the rest of us wonder what inadequacies we must have to still be single like myself.”

“YOUR problem is your too busy and that the blue outfits you wear, while comfortable, also make you look like you’re wearing a dress. Top it off with the fact with the fact whatever Gaydar I have does go off around you....no offense.”

“None taken on both accounts. Perhaps my REAL problem is that the object of my attention happens to be taken everytime I get around to seeing them again.” Reeve only blinked as he took a sip of his tea, his eyes only momentarily catching Cid. Both men just stared at each other for a moment before it was Cid who looked away, clearing his throat. “Vincent is probably wondering where you are right about now, wouldn’t you say? It is past ten.”

“HMMMMM, yeah...I should probably get back and look these papers you gave me.”

“You mean the ones you left back at my apartment?”

“YEAH those would be the o- FUCK.” Cid scowled as he sighed again with a small frown. “Guess I gotta go back with you and get ‘em.”

“Don’t so sound so disappointed, Highwind.” Reeve chuckled, shaking his head. “Don’t worry, I only came to Wutaii to give you your information, then it’s BACK to Edge to try to do some more clean up work with the Shinra president. You’re can put up with me until then, can’t you?”

Cid smiled and leaned back into his seat, gulping down the rest of his tea. ”I did it for years in Shinra 'cademy, don't see why not."

“Alright then, now stop bitching and let me enjoy my tea, dammit.”

A very appropriate grin crossed Cid’s face as he just gave a small salute. “Yessir.”
*************************

The five minute walk back to Reeve’s suite took a little longer than usual, due to neither men being in any kind of hurry to get back. As they got to the top floor, Reeve opened the door for Cid, who just slipped in past the brunette and headed towards the table, snatching up the large brown envelope. “Got it!”

“Alright then, get to work reading Captain. I'll bring you reports on who you'll be working with, and the people you'll be training soon, alogn with anything else I think you might need in a few days.”

“YESSIR!” Cid started towards the door when he stopped, thinking about something and turned back to Reeve. He looked like he wanted to say something, and his words were a bit stuttered as he began speaking.”H-hey Reeve..when you said-“

"Hmm?"

"The thing you said back at the restaurant...when you said the one you wanted was taken...were you talking about..."

“I know what you’re asking Cid, and the answer’s yes.”

The words that were about to come out of Cid’s mouth next were abruptly cut off as whatever breath the pilot had suddenly went out of his body at Reeve’s answer. “..yah...yah serious?”

“Yes. Ever since I met you...or do you not remember my expression when we first met at academy? Or the huge fight we had when you turned 18?” Reeve gave a small smile, clasping his hands behind his back.

“I...I just thought you were surprised to see one of your very first blondes. An'...we talked about that.” Cid barely breathed out his answer, a thousand question whirring around in his mind. He found he was slightly shivering as Reeve took a sigh.

“That was part of it, I’ll admit..but the majority of it was you had..have..a life, an energy no one else did, and a personality large enough to choke a stand up comedian. It didn’t hurt that are very charming when you want to be...so does it really come as that much of a shock?” Reeve chuckled a bit. “When every single girl at camp was crushing on you, is it any shock that a guy was, too?”

“....why...did you wait to tell me this...NOW, and not....” Cid was still having trouble catching his breath, and he felt a little dizzy to boot. "ESPECIALLY now since everythin' with Shera an' Vince had been going on, you decided to tell me NOW an' not fifteen years ago?!"

“I didn’t say anything because I didn't think you weren’t that way, and I didn't want to ruin our friendship again...but when I learned that you were with Vincent I figured, sooner or later when I talked to you next, I could finally tell you, and get rid of the tension I've been feeling...oh, and do this.”

“And do wh-..” Cid was cut as Reeve, a faster mover than he would have given him credit for, stepped up to him and kissed him.
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AN- notice that this chapter has been edited. I've been rereading this and the previous story to this one and I'll be going through and changing things. I'll put a list of what changes I've made in what chaptes later, probably in chapter 9 or 10. ~dreams