A Clean and Cool Cotton

Costa Del Sol wasn't exactly the place he wanted to be. For one, it was far too bright and had few shadows to blend into. For another he stuck out like a sore thumb even more than usual, making it hard to be ignored. Not only that, but the man he hated more than anyone else in the world had been on this beach once, and this made him want to come out even less. The sun constantly beat down on the town, making it unbearably hot, so he retreated to the only source of air-conditioned comfort, his still overly bright hotel room.

Vincent sighed as he continued staring out of the window. Although the air conditioner had read a good 65 degrees, he was still hot. "It'd help if you took off the five pounds of red and 10 pounds of leather," Cid had snorted before he left the room a while ago. Yes, and then there was that. He was rooming...AGAIN...with one of the loudest and most repusive people he'd ever met, evidence only by the old and dying duffel bag that belonged to the pilot on the other bed across from him. The man had made no problem marking his territory, and had even, Vincent noticed from the flap of white hanging on the shower curtain rod, hung something up for god knows what reasons.

Vincent stood and walked towards the open bathroom door, intent on knowing exactly what it was that was hanging there. Cid had sprayed it with something and hung it up there earlier that morning, and there it would remain until someone took it down. His boots clicked softly on the bathroom tile, and he snatched the white object off of the rod. It was...a shirt. A simple, long sleeved, white, collared shirt. An amazingly CLEAN long sleeved, white, collared shirt. It bore no stains, no scuffs, no scratches, no holes, and...Vincent sniffed at it...no offensive odor. It was when he brought the shirt down from his face that the SMELL caught his nose, and he brought it up to smell again.

He sniffed cautiously at first, then with closed eyes and a small smile INHALED. It was his favorite smell, one that he remembered from his younger days as a Turk. It smelled like CLEAN, cool cotton, with a hint of something he couldn't quite place mingled in. He kept the garmet to his face for a while before he opened his eyes again, blinked, and pulled the shirt back to look at it. Clean. In tact. Smelled good....this could in no way be Cid's.

He turned and walked back into the room with it in his hands, and he sat it down on the bed before he acquiesed to the heat pouring in from outside and took off his cloak. He spread it out over the bedspread and sat on it before he took the shirt in his hands again. The bright white of the fabric was even brighter in the sunlight, and he smelled it again. The dominant smell he knew- it was a fabric freshener, a pretty generic one at that. The other...he sniffed deeper..he couldn't place. It was part musky, part spicy, part....something. He couldn't place it.

His face was buried in the fabric when the hotel room door opened, and he was glad they couldn't see his eyes go wide as they spoke.

"Uh, Vince...what're you doing?"
* * * *

Alright, Costa Del Sol, land of sunshine, surf and good looking women! It'd been Cloud that reccomended they come to the beach town, and it'd been a small vacation for the pilot when he recommended they stay for a while. Hey, Spike's reasons were his own, and far be it from him to disagree.

He'd gone to the bar for a drink while he waited for his shirt to finish drying, and now Cid was heading back to his room to toss it on. It was, he was sure, the only unstained, unripped, untorn and un-everything peice of clothing he owned. People owned smoking things; smoking jackets, smoking hats- Cid had plenty of those. This was what he supposed he could call a NON-smoking shirt, and it was waiting for him, clean and cold from the sub-zero temperature that the thermometer had been set to by his room mate.

Cid shook his head as he walked into the inn and towards his room, wondering just how someone with zero body fat could like it so cold. Well, he decided as he turned the knob, THAT would be changed by tonight for sure. He'd gotten a foot in the room before he spotted said-mentioned man sitting on his bed, face deep in his shirt. "Uh, Vince...what're you doing?"

There was a pause before Vincent reacted, slowly pulling his face out of the fabric. His face was composed as always, even though it was a little red. "Trying to mentally confirm this is yours and not someone's you stole, Highwind." Cid caught the garmet as Vincent threw it at him, and smirked to himself as Vincent looked back with a haughty, albeit embarassed, look towards the window.

"Yeah, it's mine. Don't believe me, all you have to do is look on the tag. That is..." Cid smiled wider as he walked over to his duffel bag and unzipped it, "if you could get your face out of it for five seconds." As he shuffled through the bag, he waited for the snappy retort to come, but as he took off his jacket and shirt and stuffed them into the bag, none came. He unfolded the white shirt, and with a smile slipped it on. It was just the way he wanted it, so cold that as it contacted with his skin it gave him goosebumps. It fit just right, he thought; not too tight in the arms and shoulders, but enough so that it wasn't baggy. And it smelled GREAT.

He glanced over at the still, silent figure on the other bed. The small flush from his face was gone, and it was emotionless as he continued staring out of the window. He noticed, with another smirk, that the cloak had come off, and now it was just Vincent in his full body leather outfit (he'd called it a cat suit once; swore if Vincent's looks could kill he'd be dead by now), his long black hair falling down his back and slightly over one shoulder. "Are you going to stay in this hotel room all day, Vince?"

"I have no desire to go outside in this dismal heat."

"So you'd rather freeze to death in here? Comon! Sure it's hot, but the tide is in, the surf is up and the view's great!" Cid looked out of the same window Vincent was, seeing three VERY pretty, very scantily clad women walk under it towards the shore. "I mean GREAT."

"No thank you."

Cid sighed and rolled his eyes as far skyward as possible. "Fine, sulk. Ah'm gonna enjoy this as much as I can, thank you Mr. ANGST." Cid buttoned his shirt up halfway, rolling up the sleeves as he walked towards the door. "You change your mind, you come find me and we'll get you into something other than that cat suit." With that, knowing Vincent was glaring at him behind his back, he walked out of and shut the room door. Oh well. He wouldn't let Vincent's sourpuss mood get him down- he would be ignorant to the fact, as ignorant as he was that his shirt clung in all of the right places.

The man in the other room was not.
* * * *

Door closed behind Cid, and Vincent waited for a minute to see if the pilot would come back before he let the blush creeping under his skin come out.

He'd shared a room with Cid many times- he'd seen the man undress for bed and dress for the day many times, but he'd never payed attention to the other man OR the way he looked. He didn't notice until now how tan his skin was, or the way he was built until he watched Cid don the smell-good peice of clothing. It wasn't until he'd sauntered out of the room that Vincent noticed the way he moved when he walked, or how the muscles in his back rippled under the fabric, and that bothered him immensely.

Vincent frowned he stared at the closed door, and he turned around to look out of the window that looked over the small square in front of it. It was the way, Vincent knew, that Cid would be going if he really WERE going to the beach. He waited for a moment, and was about to turn back in before the bright white fabric coupled with the tan skin walked underneath. A slight wind was pulling the fabric against Cid's body, making everything stand out in releif. Vincent watched the man walk off before he turned back in, his frown deepening.

Cid had taken the smell away, and he knew there was only one way to get it back.

He'd have to follow the other man. Damn.
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AN- meant to be a one shot, but as alway my inability to shut up while typing is apparent. More to come. :D