Categories > Games > Final Fantasy 7
When Cid came outside that morning, cup of iced tea in one hand, it was to find Vincent perched on the back porch railing brushing his hair.
With a sigh, he sank into his chair and took a sip of the tea. The weather the last couple weeks had been a real bitch, with temperatures over 100 during the day, and while Vincent would never say it, Cid knew it was bothering him. You could gauge how much it was bothering him by how many items of clothing he'd taken off. The last two days, he'd been cloak-less, shirtless, and bootless; wearing nothing but his pants and the red headband. Cid had come into the kitchen the first morning he'd appeared that way to find Shera sitting at the table regarding him in open-mouthed amazement. Cid didn't blame her-he wasn't sure he'd seen that much of Vincent's skin uncovered himself, and they'd been sharing a bed going on nearly two years. Apparently, he'd finally taken Cid seriously when he said the scars didn't bother him, because he seemed totally unconscious of the attention he was attracting. Even a couple of the crewmen from the ship had noticed.
The hair, alas, wasn't as easily removed. Cid had already made the mistake of suggesting he cut it. When the whole thing with Deep Ground went down, he'd seen some pictures of Vincent back when he was still a Turk. His hair had been long then, but not nearly as long as it was now, and Cid had suggested maybe he could cut it shorter.
That suggestion had earned him one of Vincent's patented death glares. He'd since taken to wearing it in a ponytail, but it still got stuck to the back of his neck. Cid didn't think the headband was keeping the sweat out of his eyes anymore either.
He sat down his cup. "Hey Vince, Come'er."
Vincent stopped brushing and regarded him warily. "I am not going to sit on your lap to amuse your co-workers again, Cid."
He looked completely serious, but Cid could see the tiniest hint of a curve at one corner of his mouth. He snorted. "Lucky for you, they've got the day off. I just thought of a way to keep the heat from botherin' you so much."
"The heat is not bothering me." Vincent replied coolly, and Cid couldn't help laughing.
"Then you want to explain to me why you're wanderin' around practically naked? Sweet Shiva, Vince, you wear more clothes when you're taking a shower!"
There was something very cat-like in the way he slid off the railing and walked over to where Cid was sitting. "So you've noticed?"
"For fuck's sake, Vin, the whole damn town's noticed! It's not like you haven't spent the last year wrapped up like you were allergic to sunlight! Course they noticed. We're a small town, but we're not stupid."
Vincent regarded him a moment, then smiled. "No, you're not. It's just...you have no idea how refreshing it is to be able to wander around like this and not have anyone making remarks."
"Hey." Cid grabbed his nearest arm and pulled him down onto his lap. "Nobody would ever make remarks about you. In the first place, they all like you too much to be sayin' hurtful things. In the second place, they'd have to answer to me, and I wasn't just made honorary mayor cause I'm good at flyin' an airship, okay?" Vincent nodded. "Now gimme the brush and sit down."
They eventually ended up with Vincent sitting on a low stool in front of Cid's chair. Cid spent a few minutes just brushing his hair. "You know I wouldn't want you to get it cut, right?"
"I'd gathered as such, given that you can hardly keep your hands to yourself half the time."
"Low blow." Cid answered, pulling the hair back into a tight ponytail, and securing it with the band Vincent gave him. "I ever tell you I've got four sisters?"
"Really? I'd assumed you were an only child."
Cid snorted. "I wish. All four older than me." Vincent looked at him sideways. "Yeah, they were tryin' for a boy. I'm not sure who was happiest when I was born, my mom or the old man. From what Sophie says, they both cried hard enough."
"And how do your four sisters relate to what you're doing with my hair?"
"I'll get to that. Problem with you, Vince, is that you 're in too big a hurry. Need to let the story unwind at it's own pace, okay?"
"I'm presuming that will be some time within the next several hours?" Cid thumped him with the hairbrush. "Ouch!"
"Have respect for your elders, kid."
It was Vincent's turn to snort. "I'm 30 years older than you, Cid."
"Yeah, and when you start lookin' like it, feel free to smack me upside the head all you want. Anyway, when I was born, Sophia was 16, Eileen was 13, Maggie was eight, and Connie was five. All of'em in school, which meant all mom had to do was take care of me..."
"And do the dishes, and the laundry, and repaint the house..."
Cid ignored him. "By the time I was old enough to start school, Sophie had already graduated and was workin' in Junon at a tailor shop. Eileen was in her last year of school and wanted to go to Midgar and be in the theater. One of her boyfriends took her to see 'Loveless' once, and she decided she had to play the leading role in it some day. So she an my mom spent a lot of time fighting." Cid chuckled. "Mom viewed the theater as being maybe a slight step up from standing on street corners. Always warnin' Eileen bout the sort of men who hung around places like that just lookin' to take advantage of young women."
"Did she ever do it?" Vincent tried to crane his head around. "And what the hell are you doing to my hair?"
"Just never you mind what I'm doin' to your hair. Sit still and stop fidgetin', or I'm gonna mess it up. And no, she never got to go into the theater. Pretty girl, but she was NOT an actress. She came back home after a month or so, hangin' her head. Ended up marryin' one of her old boyfriends and havin' half-a-dozen rugrats. They eventually moved to Junon too. So the only ones that were 'round all the time when I was small was Maggie, who was goin' on 13 and crazy about soccer, and Connie, who decided that mom had had me so she'd have a new toy to play with."
"I'm going to ignore the fact that statement sounds totally risqué and ask what you mean by her playing with you."
"Ah, she used to dress me up an wheel me around town in the carriage. Problem was, she kept dressin' me like a girl. Me...hell, I was too young to know the difference, but the old man sure did. Liked to have blown an artery the first time he ever saw me done up in one of her dresses from when she was small."
This time, Vincent actually pulled away so he could turn and look at Cid. "Your youngest sister dressed you up like a doll?"
"Oh, that wasn't all she did, believe me. Maggie was just gettin' to the age where boys were startin' to notice her, and she'd talked Eileen into buyin' some make-up for her. Used to hide it in her purse, then stop at her best girlfriend's house on the way to school and put it on. She always washed it off before she came home, otherwise my mom woulda killed her."
"Now, I don't know why it was mom waited so long to get me my first haircut. Most little boys back then got hauled off to the barber when they were two or three and buzzed. Maybe it was me bein' her last kid, or her only son, but she an the old man used to get into it ever so often, with him screamin' I was gonna end up a fag, or worse, an' mom tellin' him she wasn't cuttin' it till I went to school."
"Did she?"
"She didn' hold out quite that long. She used to leave me with Maggie an Connie when she had to go shoppin', cause it was easier than haulin' me along. I'm not sure who's idea it originally was, but by that time, my hair was almost down to my shoulders. Truth to tell, I did look kinda girly..."
"I want to see pictures."
"I just bet you do. Anyway, the whole thing came to a head one day when mom can home and discovered that not only had Connie put me in a dress again, Maggie'd made up my face and braided my hair." He pointedly ignored the fact that Vincent's shoulders were shaking. "I really do wish I could remember it, cause all I have to go on is what Maggie an Connie told me later, but I guess mom damn near had a heart attack on the spot. Once she'd recovered sufficiently, she told them to take me into the house and clean me up right this very minute, or she was gonna whup both of'em so hard they wouldn't sit down for a month."
Vincent attempted to stifle his giggles and gave a very inelegant snort. "Well at least you're lucky your father didn't see you."
"Did I say he didn't see me? Came home from work just about the time Maggie decided they needed to take a picture of me 'so we'll remember it when he gets bigger.' I'm fairly sure that was girl talk for 'we'll use it to blackmail him into lettin' us get away with murder,' though I don't have any proof." Cid chuckled. "I guess once they got the make-up off and had me out of the dress, the old man personally walked down to the barber shop with me and had them damn near shave my head. I was into second grade before it grew out enough to need cuttin' again. And there ya go." He let go of Vincent's hair and sat back. "Neat as you could please."
Vincent pulled it around so he could see the end. "You braided it?"
"That's what Connie used to do when it got real hot. Maggie just cut her's short, but Connie'd braid it. It's hard to braid your own hair, though, so in the event mom Or Maggie weren't around, she taught me how to do it."
Vincent turned to look at him. "Thank you."
"I figured it'd be better than havin' it hangin' loose."
"It is." He leaned in and kissed Cid."So. What are the chances of me ever getting to see that picture? And don't tell me they don't have it any more; your mother never throws anything away."
"Damn. You take someone home to introduce'em to mom and dad, an all of a sudden they think they can just ask for anythin' they want." Cid grinned. "Actually seein' the picture will require some negotiations."
"Negotiations?"
"A favor here an there. Like...you spend more time dressed like this an less wrapped up like you're allergic to air?"
"Only while it's hot. I do have some dignity left, you know."
"That's another thing. We need to work on loosenin' you up."
Vincent propped his chin on his hands. "You didn't seem to have any complaints about my 'looseness' the other night, Cyndy."
Cid opened his mouth to answer, and then his eyes grew wide. "You sneakin' little ex-Turk bastard! Mom showed you the picture the last time we were over there, didn' she."
Vincent grinned. "You made an adorable little girl. But I prefer you the way you are now." He raised a finger to trace Cid's lips. "For one thing, you simply don't have the complexion to be wearing tangerine glow lipstick."
With a sigh, he sank into his chair and took a sip of the tea. The weather the last couple weeks had been a real bitch, with temperatures over 100 during the day, and while Vincent would never say it, Cid knew it was bothering him. You could gauge how much it was bothering him by how many items of clothing he'd taken off. The last two days, he'd been cloak-less, shirtless, and bootless; wearing nothing but his pants and the red headband. Cid had come into the kitchen the first morning he'd appeared that way to find Shera sitting at the table regarding him in open-mouthed amazement. Cid didn't blame her-he wasn't sure he'd seen that much of Vincent's skin uncovered himself, and they'd been sharing a bed going on nearly two years. Apparently, he'd finally taken Cid seriously when he said the scars didn't bother him, because he seemed totally unconscious of the attention he was attracting. Even a couple of the crewmen from the ship had noticed.
The hair, alas, wasn't as easily removed. Cid had already made the mistake of suggesting he cut it. When the whole thing with Deep Ground went down, he'd seen some pictures of Vincent back when he was still a Turk. His hair had been long then, but not nearly as long as it was now, and Cid had suggested maybe he could cut it shorter.
That suggestion had earned him one of Vincent's patented death glares. He'd since taken to wearing it in a ponytail, but it still got stuck to the back of his neck. Cid didn't think the headband was keeping the sweat out of his eyes anymore either.
He sat down his cup. "Hey Vince, Come'er."
Vincent stopped brushing and regarded him warily. "I am not going to sit on your lap to amuse your co-workers again, Cid."
He looked completely serious, but Cid could see the tiniest hint of a curve at one corner of his mouth. He snorted. "Lucky for you, they've got the day off. I just thought of a way to keep the heat from botherin' you so much."
"The heat is not bothering me." Vincent replied coolly, and Cid couldn't help laughing.
"Then you want to explain to me why you're wanderin' around practically naked? Sweet Shiva, Vince, you wear more clothes when you're taking a shower!"
There was something very cat-like in the way he slid off the railing and walked over to where Cid was sitting. "So you've noticed?"
"For fuck's sake, Vin, the whole damn town's noticed! It's not like you haven't spent the last year wrapped up like you were allergic to sunlight! Course they noticed. We're a small town, but we're not stupid."
Vincent regarded him a moment, then smiled. "No, you're not. It's just...you have no idea how refreshing it is to be able to wander around like this and not have anyone making remarks."
"Hey." Cid grabbed his nearest arm and pulled him down onto his lap. "Nobody would ever make remarks about you. In the first place, they all like you too much to be sayin' hurtful things. In the second place, they'd have to answer to me, and I wasn't just made honorary mayor cause I'm good at flyin' an airship, okay?" Vincent nodded. "Now gimme the brush and sit down."
They eventually ended up with Vincent sitting on a low stool in front of Cid's chair. Cid spent a few minutes just brushing his hair. "You know I wouldn't want you to get it cut, right?"
"I'd gathered as such, given that you can hardly keep your hands to yourself half the time."
"Low blow." Cid answered, pulling the hair back into a tight ponytail, and securing it with the band Vincent gave him. "I ever tell you I've got four sisters?"
"Really? I'd assumed you were an only child."
Cid snorted. "I wish. All four older than me." Vincent looked at him sideways. "Yeah, they were tryin' for a boy. I'm not sure who was happiest when I was born, my mom or the old man. From what Sophie says, they both cried hard enough."
"And how do your four sisters relate to what you're doing with my hair?"
"I'll get to that. Problem with you, Vince, is that you 're in too big a hurry. Need to let the story unwind at it's own pace, okay?"
"I'm presuming that will be some time within the next several hours?" Cid thumped him with the hairbrush. "Ouch!"
"Have respect for your elders, kid."
It was Vincent's turn to snort. "I'm 30 years older than you, Cid."
"Yeah, and when you start lookin' like it, feel free to smack me upside the head all you want. Anyway, when I was born, Sophia was 16, Eileen was 13, Maggie was eight, and Connie was five. All of'em in school, which meant all mom had to do was take care of me..."
"And do the dishes, and the laundry, and repaint the house..."
Cid ignored him. "By the time I was old enough to start school, Sophie had already graduated and was workin' in Junon at a tailor shop. Eileen was in her last year of school and wanted to go to Midgar and be in the theater. One of her boyfriends took her to see 'Loveless' once, and she decided she had to play the leading role in it some day. So she an my mom spent a lot of time fighting." Cid chuckled. "Mom viewed the theater as being maybe a slight step up from standing on street corners. Always warnin' Eileen bout the sort of men who hung around places like that just lookin' to take advantage of young women."
"Did she ever do it?" Vincent tried to crane his head around. "And what the hell are you doing to my hair?"
"Just never you mind what I'm doin' to your hair. Sit still and stop fidgetin', or I'm gonna mess it up. And no, she never got to go into the theater. Pretty girl, but she was NOT an actress. She came back home after a month or so, hangin' her head. Ended up marryin' one of her old boyfriends and havin' half-a-dozen rugrats. They eventually moved to Junon too. So the only ones that were 'round all the time when I was small was Maggie, who was goin' on 13 and crazy about soccer, and Connie, who decided that mom had had me so she'd have a new toy to play with."
"I'm going to ignore the fact that statement sounds totally risqué and ask what you mean by her playing with you."
"Ah, she used to dress me up an wheel me around town in the carriage. Problem was, she kept dressin' me like a girl. Me...hell, I was too young to know the difference, but the old man sure did. Liked to have blown an artery the first time he ever saw me done up in one of her dresses from when she was small."
This time, Vincent actually pulled away so he could turn and look at Cid. "Your youngest sister dressed you up like a doll?"
"Oh, that wasn't all she did, believe me. Maggie was just gettin' to the age where boys were startin' to notice her, and she'd talked Eileen into buyin' some make-up for her. Used to hide it in her purse, then stop at her best girlfriend's house on the way to school and put it on. She always washed it off before she came home, otherwise my mom woulda killed her."
"Now, I don't know why it was mom waited so long to get me my first haircut. Most little boys back then got hauled off to the barber when they were two or three and buzzed. Maybe it was me bein' her last kid, or her only son, but she an the old man used to get into it ever so often, with him screamin' I was gonna end up a fag, or worse, an' mom tellin' him she wasn't cuttin' it till I went to school."
"Did she?"
"She didn' hold out quite that long. She used to leave me with Maggie an Connie when she had to go shoppin', cause it was easier than haulin' me along. I'm not sure who's idea it originally was, but by that time, my hair was almost down to my shoulders. Truth to tell, I did look kinda girly..."
"I want to see pictures."
"I just bet you do. Anyway, the whole thing came to a head one day when mom can home and discovered that not only had Connie put me in a dress again, Maggie'd made up my face and braided my hair." He pointedly ignored the fact that Vincent's shoulders were shaking. "I really do wish I could remember it, cause all I have to go on is what Maggie an Connie told me later, but I guess mom damn near had a heart attack on the spot. Once she'd recovered sufficiently, she told them to take me into the house and clean me up right this very minute, or she was gonna whup both of'em so hard they wouldn't sit down for a month."
Vincent attempted to stifle his giggles and gave a very inelegant snort. "Well at least you're lucky your father didn't see you."
"Did I say he didn't see me? Came home from work just about the time Maggie decided they needed to take a picture of me 'so we'll remember it when he gets bigger.' I'm fairly sure that was girl talk for 'we'll use it to blackmail him into lettin' us get away with murder,' though I don't have any proof." Cid chuckled. "I guess once they got the make-up off and had me out of the dress, the old man personally walked down to the barber shop with me and had them damn near shave my head. I was into second grade before it grew out enough to need cuttin' again. And there ya go." He let go of Vincent's hair and sat back. "Neat as you could please."
Vincent pulled it around so he could see the end. "You braided it?"
"That's what Connie used to do when it got real hot. Maggie just cut her's short, but Connie'd braid it. It's hard to braid your own hair, though, so in the event mom Or Maggie weren't around, she taught me how to do it."
Vincent turned to look at him. "Thank you."
"I figured it'd be better than havin' it hangin' loose."
"It is." He leaned in and kissed Cid."So. What are the chances of me ever getting to see that picture? And don't tell me they don't have it any more; your mother never throws anything away."
"Damn. You take someone home to introduce'em to mom and dad, an all of a sudden they think they can just ask for anythin' they want." Cid grinned. "Actually seein' the picture will require some negotiations."
"Negotiations?"
"A favor here an there. Like...you spend more time dressed like this an less wrapped up like you're allergic to air?"
"Only while it's hot. I do have some dignity left, you know."
"That's another thing. We need to work on loosenin' you up."
Vincent propped his chin on his hands. "You didn't seem to have any complaints about my 'looseness' the other night, Cyndy."
Cid opened his mouth to answer, and then his eyes grew wide. "You sneakin' little ex-Turk bastard! Mom showed you the picture the last time we were over there, didn' she."
Vincent grinned. "You made an adorable little girl. But I prefer you the way you are now." He raised a finger to trace Cid's lips. "For one thing, you simply don't have the complexion to be wearing tangerine glow lipstick."
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