The blonde pilot was absolutely furious

The blonde pilot was absolutely furious. No, scratch that, he was beyond fury and if there was a word for that I would tell you, but there isn't so sadly – I can't. Now why was this pilot so detrimentally furious? The reason can be summed up in a few short words.

A black haired ninja brat. She was the cause of all of Cid's problems. The brat, Yuffie, decided to try and take Cid's airship, The Highwind, out for a little 'fun' if you catch my drift. The ending of the 'fun' was fireworks followed by a few screams and shocking news.

Yuffie had died. She crashed The Highwind while trying to figure out how to fly it. She never even intended to fly The Highwind, merely pretend that she was. She called playing pilot 'fun'. But she wouldn't be having anymore fun ever again because she was gone. Just like that.

Cid wasn't mad at Yuffie. No he would never be mad at her for this. This was simply his fault. Cid squarely placed the blame on himself. He thought to himself that if he had locked the ship, Yuffie would have never gotten into it. He also thought that if he had taken out the keys instead of carelessly leaving them in The Highwind then Yuffie would have never accidentally hit the starter.

In either scenario, Cid still had the blame and he was still infuriated at himself. Which brings us to where Cid is at now. The blonde, feeling still ever so responsible for the raven-haired ninja's fatal mishap, had decided to dig Yuffie's grave. By himself. He figured it was the least he could do.

Seeing as though the Lifestream took Yuffie's body, the AVALANCH group had decided to bury all of Yuffie's weapons as a sign of respect. The grave for the Wutai princess was near the old church in the sector seven Slums – 'Aerith's church' as AVALANCH dubbed it.

The other members of AVALANCH had offered to help dig the grave as well but Cid's hard-headedness did not allow him to accept help. And so, after much complaining and a bout of cussing from the pilot himself, Cid was finally able to dig Yuffie's 'grave' in peace.

The grave was going to be about three and a half feet wide and six feet under. The grave of course would be considerably smaller than normal graves but that's because normal graves aren't filled with kunai knives, giant scrolls and Yuffie's signature ninja headband – which was left behind when she returned to the Lifestream.

Currently, Cid was only a little over five feet under ground, and still had one more to go before he was somewhat satisfied. He decided that manual labor was better than mechanical labor when it came to friends.

Cid stopped to wipe the sweat from his brow. No one ever said that grave digging would be easy work. Dirt crunched from above Cid, alerting him instantly. He raised his shovel as a weapon; maybe it was a late night fiend on the hunt for food. That would be bad; he was stuck in a hole that scarcely topped his head – yes, Cid was a short man.

The 'fiend' stopped walking. "Chief, are you there?" Cid let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. "Yeah, I'm here Vince." The notorious Vincent Valentine took a few more steps and crouched to peer into the hole Cid was digging.

"Your hole sucks, you know that, right?" Vincent stated bluntly. He was never one to sugarcoat things. "Shut ya damn mouth." Cid then grumbled something along the lines of 'pesky vampire'.

Vincent chuckled which was rare for the ruby-eyed man. " I only meant that Yuffie would have liked it if you weren't so stubborn. One day, you will work yourself to death Highwind." Cid let out a full-blown laugh that startled Vincent and broke the serene nighttime magic. " Work my self to death?" He repeated. "I'm more likely to grow a tail and have sex with a seahorse."

Vincent smiled which nearly stopped Cid's heart in awe. "With a seahorse?" Cid nodded. " A grade A fuckin' seahorse." Vincent jumped down into the hole which wasn't technically a smart move seeing as though both men were shoulder to shoulder in the pit.

"Let me help you." And without waiting for an answer, Vincent raised his golden claw and slashed one side of the pit; widening it by several inches so they were no longer shoulder-to-shoulder. Both men missed the warmth that each other were giving off – because tonight was especially cold as well. Not the night for hole digging.

In a matter of minutes, Vincent had widened and deepened the pit immensely where as it had taken Cid about five hours just to get about five feet. "There, all done." Vincent stated, proud of his handy work. " Damn Vince, where the fuck were ya' five hours ago?" Cid gaped.

"Getting these." He pulled out several kunai, two scrolls that were two feet in length and Yuffie's headband. Cid's happy mood had quickly vanished like a ghost and he had to resist the urge to break down and sob right in front of Vincent.

These were all Yuffie's things and it was all Cid's fault that they weren't gong to be used anymore. Vincent sensed Cid's sudden mood swing and quickly pushed all of the late ninja's items under his cloak.

"Cid, what's wrong?" Vincent reached out to try and calm Cid's trembling form, then it hit him. Cid Highwind was crying. "God damn it!" He cussed. "It's all my fault! It's all my fuckin' fault! She's dead because of me! ME!" Cid nearly screamed.

Vincent did the only think he could think of. He kneeled down to the blonde and hugged his shaking friend. Cid had to repress the urge to gasp. "Vince, put me down I'm not a-" Vincent shushed him. "It's not your fault. It was never your fault Cid."

"But!" Again Vincent silenced him. "But nothing, it was a terrible mistake and destiny played a part in it. Not you, not me and not Yuffie. It was an accident Cid, do you understand?"

Cid nodded. "Vincent?" The raven-haired gunner responded with a 'hmm' sort of noise. " Thank you." And in one effortless motion, Cid leaned up and captured Vincent's lips. Vincent gasped which made Cid pull away in fear. "Shit! I'm sorry Vin! It's jus' that I really like you and all an-" The gunner cut him off "Why did you stop?"

"What?" The blonde gasped. Did he hear right? "Why. Did. You. Stop?" Vincent repeated. "I thought you didn't like it." Vincent shook his head. "I didn't" Cid looked down crestfallen. "I loved it." The gunner clarified.

Cid looked up and locked eyes with Vincent. Slowly they moved inward and closed the distance between them. The pit was now forgotten – even though they were sitting in it – and Cid's fury and sorrow washed away due to Vincent's compassion.

Somewhere, around the church doors, a sparkle of green light appeared and a hazy form of Yuffie became visible. The ninja smiled and had to resist the urge to squeal like a rabid fangirl. Cid could see and hear her just like Cloud could see and hear Zack and Aerith. If she squealed, then it would ruin the moment. So she settled for a quiet giggle.

Before she returned to her new home in the Lifestream, she whispered, "You owe me old man." And then she faded into small emerald orbs that faded into nothingness.

Back in the pit, Cid swore he could have heard Yuffie say, "You owe me old man."

But then again, it could have been just the wind. And he turned back to Vincent and greedily attacked his lips for all they were worth.

OWARI