Vincent frowned. "A little more to the left. No, not that much. There. Perfect."

"Sheesh, Vince, does it really have to be perfect?"

Another frown crossed Vincent's face. What a silly question! Of course it had to be perfect. Everything had to be perfect. "You don't have to help if it's too much work for you," he said, cocking an eyebrow at Yuffie, who gave a dramatic sigh and moved on to the other side of the banner. "Make sure it matches evenly!" he barked as he turned his back on her to see how the others were doing.

Cloud and Tifa were blowing up balloons in the kitchen…at least they were supposed to be. When Vincent stuck his head through the doorway to check their progress, he saw Tifa sitting on the counter and Cloud…Cloud was nowhere to be seen. And the balloons! They were done with so little care…they weren't equal sizes –not even close in some cases!- and they were tied sloppily into bunches with clashing colors, and-

Vincent felt a tic begin in his eye. "What happened?"

Tifa regarded him mildly. "We're taking a break. Cloud's outside getting some air."

Vincent surveyed the balloons again. "Why? He hasn't been using it for the balloons. There's a helium machine."

"About that…"

With a shake of his head, Vincent walked out of the room. "I don't want to know," he said, throwing up his hands. "I don't want to know."

Barret had arranged for Cid's absence so far. They all knew the poor pilot would be especially irritated; he would want to come home and share the news with Vincent immediately. Through Reeve, however, all the others had found out before Cid had. Vincent had a feeling that wouldn't go over well at the beginning, but Cid had a way of melting under the right kind of attention.

While the others, under Vincent's supervision, put together the pieces of what would be an excellent party if all went well, Barret was giving Cid a tour around the oil field he'd found. As the world's best pilot and commander of the largest fleet in the world, Cid agreed that it was important for him to have in-depth knowledge of the fuel he used. He hadn't counted on learning about it today of all days.

Completely ignorant to the preparation going on in his home, Cid gave a heavy sigh and a forced grin as Barret took him to visit the scale model of the rig that was under construction. He just wanted to get home to Vincent…

Vincent had put himself in charge of the cake. No one else made things the way Cid liked them. It was in the oven now, and he'd glared at Yuffie several times, reminding her that if it fell, she would not be allowed in their home until she had made a cake perfect enough to replace it.

Cait Sith was set to signal when Cid came into his view. The megaphone, theoretically, would reach all of their ears and let them all know to move to their final positions.

Nanaki was given the most difficult job of all- distracting Cid at the last minute if things weren't ready. Until then, he was wandering around the house behind Vincent, stopping occasionally to smell the cake. After catching Yuffie eyeing it once or twice – and she was supposed to be hanging streamers, anyway- he put himself on guard duty and settled down in front of the oven. Soon the warmth radiating from it had him contemplating a nap.

The next time Vincent popped into the kitchen to check on it –by this time, Cloud and Tifa had taken over Yuffie's job of hanging streamers in the living room and dining room- he found a large, sparkly, red feline blocking his path.

Marlene had gotten her hands on the glitter. Marlene staying and being allowed to "help" had been the condition under which Barret had volunteered to take the full force of Cid's frustration with not being allowed to go home. Until then, she had been napping in the guest room. Now that she was awake…Vincent paused and started to panic. Marlene didn't know about bouncing around causing the cake to fall. She also didn't know that spreading glitter all over meant Vincent having to clean glitter later, and that cleaning it away was useless, because the stuff stuck around like no one's business. She also apparently hadn't realized that it was edible glitter, meant to go on the cake when it was done.

Nanaki, on the other hand, discovered just how edible it was within moments of waking, looking sheepishly at Vincent as he left the kitchen to lick the stuff off himself.

Shera was going to be pissed. Vincent had agreed that she was much better than he at decorating cakes, and had offered to let her decorate this one for Cid. She had been thrilled, and promised to be there at 11:30…which was in five minutes. She was probably on her way, and when she got here, there would be no cake-glitter. For now, he focused on tracking down Marlene.

He didn't notice that only two minutes remained before the timer would sound. He also didn't notice that Cait Sith had gone into sleep mode due to prolonged inactivity; that was a bug Reeve was still trying to work out. Cloud had disappeared again, and Yuffie was outside –oh, thank goodness- entertaining Marlene, who still had the glitter gripped in one hand and was decorating the flower garden with it. Vincent elected to leave her to it and pray instead that Shera didn't really need the stuff.

Cid had finally just ditched Barret. There was only so much he could take, and he wanted to see Vincent's reaction when he told him the good news. He was lucky in that they really didn't live very far from where Barret had taken him; Cid had ridden there on his new motorcycle and gotten there in less than two hours. Now, however, he wished he'd flown. He could have been home in fifteen minutes if he'd taken the Bronco II.

Barret gaped as he watched Cid drive away, turning around and waving brashly as he took off down the road. "Aw, shit!" he yelled, and fumbled for his phone to warn everyone else. After several attempts to call out, he realized he had no signal. Though the situation was decidedly not funny, Barret was nearly doubled over in laughter as he imagined the look on Cid's face when he arrived home and found a half-baked party going on.

Cid pulled into the garage, removed his helmet, patted the bike for a job well done, and headed toward the house. He was greeted with the sight of Yuffie sprawled on his front lawn, groaning dramatically as Marlene assaulted her with…well, he wasn't sure what it was, but it looked an awful lot like one of his tulips…oh, hell no. He was not dealing with this today. The mild irritation building in his mind increased when he noticed Cait Sith "sleeping" on the roof. Was the entire gang here? Of course they would be. When he wanted to see them, they were busy. When he wanted to be busy with Vincent, they wanted to see him.

Typical.

He had to force himself not to yell at Marlene for pulling up the flower, especially after he overheard her saying that she was Cid Highwind, world's best pilot and master dragoon. "It's cold out here, kids. Don't y'all wanna come inside?" he asked, and was perplexed by their reactions.

Marlene squeaked, and Yuffie sat up quickly, knocking the tulip flying and the girl off balance. Yuffie pushed Marlene, and she ran inside while Yuffie stood and darted over to Cid, glomping him and staying attached.

"Get off me, y'damn freak," he said good-naturedly. An ego boost was a sure cure for irritation in Cid.

"But I loooove you!" she whined theatrically as he tried to shake her off. Finally he succeeded, and she went sprawling all over again, rubbing her head as she sat up and glared at him. "Fine, go inside, but Vinnie'll be mad if you do."

"What?"

"Nothin'," she said innocently, grinning as he looked at the house, at Cait Sith, at her, and then tried to peer into the window.

"He plottin' somethin'?"

"Maaaaybe."

"…"

"…Ohmigawd, do you two just have entire conversations like that? I'll bet you do. And you call me a freak!" she exclaimed, throwing up her hands.

"Aw, get outta th'way."

Vincent scrambled to double-check everything after getting the alert from Marlene. Shera was trying to make him calm down; she claimed it made her nervous the way he was flitting all over the place and snapping at everyone about hurrying up but not rushing.

"I'll never get this finished if you keep hovering like this! Trust me, Vincent, it'll be done before he sees it. Go check on everyone else. Oh, where's that glitter?"

Vincent brought his palm to his face as Nanaki sauntered back into the kitchen. "On me, in the garden, between the couch cushions, all over the dining room table –you forgot the cloth, by the way, Vincent, and the table's already set- and a good bit of it is in the master bedroom."

Vincent was not around to hear that last part, as he had all but dashed off to un-set the table, toss on the cloth, make sure it was even, and replace all the dishes. The balloons looked awfully sorry to him, but there was little he could do, since Cloud had managed to partially dismantle the helium machine, which he'd have to pay for now, as it was rented and was now no longer of use to anyone. The streamers were also a bit droopy, but perhaps they were better off that way. The banner had sagged on one side, and he was silently fuming at Yuffie for not securing it properly as he climbed the ladder to attempt to fix it before Cid came inside.

All of Vincent's unnatural grace was useless to him as Cid threw open the door with a large grin on his face that immediately changed to one of confusion, and then shock as Vincent's foot slipped on the ladder. There was a collective "Oof!" that came from Vincent, Cid, and Nanaki, the quietly gleeful bystander and only witness to Cid catching Vincent with perfect timing.

Cid blinked down at Vincent and then glanced up at the top of the ladder. There was no reason for Vincent to have been up there…wait, what did that banner say? "Congratulations," he read aloud, frowning and forgetting to set Vincent back on his feet. "You knew already?"

Vincent stopped struggling as he saw Cid's brow crease in a pronounced frown. "Reeve wanted everyone to know, and we thought we'd surprise you." Cid's expression didn't change, and Vincent asked quietly, "Are you upset, Chief?"

Cid was silent for another few seconds before grinning widely. "Y'got glitter in yer hair, Vincent."

Vincent's relieved smile faded into an expression of annoyance. "Put me down, Cid."

"Huh? Oh, sorry," he said, and eased Vincent to his feet while keeping his arms around him. "Marlene dug up m'flowers an' put glitter all over 'em."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"There's a dead helium machine on th'front porch."

"I know."

"Th'balloons on my chair look funky an' deflated. Th'streamers're droopy. Shera's in my kitchen."

Vincent sighed. "I know."

"But that banner right there?"

Vincent nodded for him to go on.

"It's perfect," Cid said, grinning, and leaned in for a kiss that Vincent willingly gave. "Th'whole damned party's perfect, Vincent. But what's Shera doin' in the kitchen?"

Vincent winced. "Decorating your cake."

"Dammit, we ain't never gettin' cake!" Cid announced loudly, laughing at the concerned look on Vincent's face. "Thanks," he said, kissing Vincent again just in time for Marlene to run past them and bestow upon them another handful of glitter. Cid blinked. "This is my decoratin' glitter."

Vincent nodded again.

Cid grinned slowly and proceeded to kiss the glitter off Vincent's face.

Eventually, Shera did finish the cake, but not before Barret arrived, disgruntled and expecting the worst. Marlene made it better by giving him the last bit of glitter and informing them all that it was magic dust that would make you happy forever if it landed on you. Cid looked sideways at Vincent and found that he couldn't agree more.

The cake came out, and Cid remembered why he had come to respect Shera all those years ago. She took more than her fair share of time, yes, but the finished product was always wonderful. She had trimmed the cake into the shape of an animated rocket and used the leftover crumbs to form a wide banner flying behind it that bore the words, "Congrats to our very own spaceman." It was goofy, but the sentiment was there.

Cid stood before the cake was cut and proposed a long-winded toast, in short, to "learnin' lessons, second chances, an' good friends."

Everyone cheered, and then cheered louder when Vincent pushed Cid back into his seat. "We've been waiting on that cake for hours, Chief. If you don't cut it now, I will." He cocked an eyebrow and brandished the gauntlet.

"Aw, no y'don't! Took me hours t'fix it last time y'did that!"

Everyone stayed around for another hour or two to enjoy the laughter and good company, but they all had other places to be, and besides, no one wanted to be there when Cid found glitter in his bed.

Shera stuck around a bit longer to help them clean, and then disappeared after shooting a wink in Vincent's direction.

Hours later, after they had gotten rid of most of the glitter and had each taken a shower, it was time for a more private celebration.

"I may not be the world's best party planner," Vincent whispered, leaning over Cid, "but I'm not entirely hopeless when it comes to being in charge."

"Don't I know it," Cid said, grinning.

"Would you like an example?" he asked, one inquisitive eyebrow going up as he bent his head to lick a stray bit of glitter from Cid's neck.

Cid answered by humming happily and reaching up to wrap his arms around Vincent's shoulders, only to frown as the light caught on something and shimmered. He sat up quickly and looked behind him, lifting his arm to show off the clinging bits of shimmery plastic. "Vincent?" he asked weakly. "How, uh, how'd all this get here?"

Vincent just shook his head. One more thing he just did not want to know. And anyway, it was edible, he remembered, and flipped Cid over to begin cleaning his back with a new enthusiasm.