Most people tended to think of Vincent as a creature of stillness, until they witnessed him in battle.
Cid knew better. Other people just weren't paying close attention.
To him, the gunman was always in motion. Though the manifestations of restlessness were subtle, they could still be easily interpreted. If Vincent climbed on the hull of the airship, there was an attack coming. To find him wandering along the rail meant there was conflict between members of the crew; even if it remained unspoken. Working elbow-deep in the greasy guts of an engine always followed his nightmares. Pacing meant something else entirely; and was always confined exclusively to Cid's presence.
It would begin slowly, at first. A few slightly nervous steps to the left and back again. A dozen more to the right. Gradually distance and duration increased until the gunman circled the confines of the bridge in agitated anticipation.
"Storm coming in?" The seemingly innocent question and its wordless answer was also part of the pattern as Vincent's ruby-jeweled eyes fastened with intensity upon the pilot.
"Then let's set this bird down," Cid replied, completing their exchange as he began searching out suitable cover.
They were crossing near Gongaga in high summer; ahead of schedule on their latest cargo run. The sky had yet to betray any evidence, but the jungle climate spawned some of the most sudden, and therefore the most spectacular thunderstorms on the planet.
Less than half an hour later, the Highwind was moored in a clearing and left to the care of the crew just as the first fat raindrops began spattering upon her hull. The Tiny Bronco took to the sky in her stead, carrying a single passenger.
Vincent was already well ahead of him, and Cid searched the thickening, swirling clouds for the gunman's darting form as Vincent adopted Chaos' persona in homage to the wild elements. Cid gunned his craft, increasing speed and altitude in pursuit. The upper level winds, gaining in strength, appeared to toss Vincent about as a victim of their capriciousness, and Cid was very wary of the deceptive sheer those currents hid; even as he watched the magic unfold.
To speak of Vincent as glorious when Chaos caught the first shattering bolt of lightning; riding it as the primal being he was would be to diminish him, for it seemed Vincent's duality embodied the very sky. Cid could not help but be awed anew by this deviation from Vincent's usual metamorphosis, so very different from the way the creature normally manifested. For Vincent, his relentless restraint of Chaos equaled slavery; an agony… a compelling, unwelcome transition he must control for the sake of others except in greatest need.
But for these few, precious, fleeting moments, Vincent and Chaos tasted freedom. And in their freedom was joy. A joy Cid was humbled to witness.
Within the rising storm, the transformation was almost instantaneous between the two; Chaos would momentarily appear, and then, just as quickly, the familiar form of Vincent would be again outlined against the driving rain. Light to darkness, and back again. Momentarily blending; Vincent's body, enhanced with Chaos' wings. They flowed one into another, without conscious thought. Cid could not help but wish the transformation could always be so fluid, rather than the brutally painful process he knew it to be.
The first time Cid witnessed what followed, his heart had been in his throat, unable to watch, yet equally unable to look away. The lightning Chaos embraced so effortlessly appeared almost as thick as Cid's own forearm, even from a distance. Most eerie of all was the rain of blue sparks surrounding it as the bolt split its way across the sky. Cold fear for Vincent's human form had a suppressed scream hammering behind Cid's clenched teeth.
Yet Vincent had emerged from the blinding nimbus of the lightning unscathed, haloed in silent ghostlight the pilot had sometimes seen running upon the masts of ships; even once upon the Highwind itself when they were caught in the edge of a fast-moving storm. It seemed the gunman would be consumed by such terrible heat and violence, his figure tiny and vulnerable against that unleashed power, but instead Vincent thrived; almost as if he were feeding upon it. Together, they gloried in Chaos' natural element, their primal duality unleashed, bodies giving sensual evidence
of the effect of the storm upon them. Diving, soaring, leaping…Vincent and Chaos danced among the clouds as would a dolphin among waves of the sea.
Cid focused as much attention as he dared upon his own growing arousal; the majority of his awareness required to fly the craft with a margin of safety. He's be damned if he was willing to be earthbound for this, even with the risk the storm presented. What he was doing was reckless, irresponsible, and completely insane; and yet for Cid, it was an ultimate expression of reverence and life.
Almost consumed in sensory overload, his body a screaming ache, Cid pursued relentlessly. Heat radiated from him, even as the driving rain plastered the loose coveralls he wore to his skin. The roaring of wind and thunder seemed as if it would shake his bones apart.
The wind tearing at the Bronco, the rain pelting into his skin like needles were mere distractions as Vincent plummeted in freefall from far above into a rolling dive to the side, sweeping a long arc out of Cid's line of sight into a cloudbank below. Reappearing suddenly at his shoulder, Vincent stole a kiss and a momentary caress before darting away once more. Cid laughed. A song came to his mind, and he mentally rearranged the lyrics to the music that was Vincent.
'Come and take a dive with your lover in the rain…
Let him talk about the things you can't explain…'
Cid found himself slung suddenly into a sidespin, as if his craft had been struck by the hammer of the gods.
In the space of time it took to blink, he had come out of a cloudbank almost into the edge of a boiling, sickly, yellow- green funnel snaking its way to the ground.
Chaos was instantly at his side, and Cid heard him laugh, his golden claws flashing as the creature threw himself into the center of that roiling mass, spinning in counter motion and shredding the monster wind from bottom to top, dissipating it harmlessly away.
Cid's fighting to bring his craft back under control was aided as Chaos caught him from beneath and slowed his own spin. The Bronco's structural integrity had been stressed to its furthest tolerance, yet Cid instinctively knew that whatever happened, Vincent would not let him fall.
'To touch is to heal…'
Cid followed Vincent as he spiraled down, seeking out the nearest place to land. It was in these moments, even in mind of the danger just past, when Cid always felt a pang of disappointment. If they could, he and Vincent would have consummated their bond midair; as dragons did. The scent of his own arousal, the burning touch of hands and lips when Vincent would momentarily alight above and behind him, the rumbling roar of the storm around them, all combined to bring him to a height where Cid began to understand; if only a shadow, of what Vincent must feel.
'If you want to kiss the sky…'
As it was, Vincent hovered impatiently, his wings snapping in agitation, barely tolerating the time it took for Cid to bring the Bronco to a full stop. Cid was out, leaping to the ground before the sound of the motor had wound halfway down, peeling his coveralls away to reveal bare skin.
The pilot was slammed to the muddy ground; Vincent at last fully inhabiting his own form. He would never take Cid as Chaos, knowing the creature's capacity, even unintentionally, to harm his mate; especially within the mind-shattering force of what they had unleashed.
Even so, Cid felt the echo of Chaos' barely-leashed strength in Vincent's almost savage claiming of him, his body still only marginally under his own control. Cid abandoned himself to exhilaration as his length was swallowed down in nearly scalding heat. Gripping his fists in rain-soaked raven hair, he arched, thrusting upward as Vincent growled in appreciation of his uninhibited response. A purr of contentment followed, when Vincent's hand discovered his lover already prepared for him and he rose up, burying himself deeply in Cid's welcoming body in one swift seeking.
The quiet, sometimes gentle and submissive lover Cid knew his mate to be, the one who willingly placed himself in the care of his Chosen was nowhere in evidence. Here was a force of nature, demanding all he could give. Cid met him in that place; reveling in Vincent's dominance joyfully and without hesitation.
'Lift my days, light up my nights…'
And still the rain pelted down, slanting upon their faces. Head thrown back, his teeth bared, a primal keening almost beyond the range of human hearing; Vincent gave voice to words too deep for speech.
Cid laughed inwardly, knowing there would be hell to pay tomorrow, but loving the cost of it. Cura would mend the worst of the damage inflicted by nails, teeth and the abandonment of their wild coupling; but the pilot knew he would, as always, refuse the fullness of that healing. He wanted, needed the sweet ache of remembrance; the passion-inspired marks he wore with pride. To Cid, the love of the wild, magnificent being who was Vincent was worth any risk.
The planet itself seemed to bless them, for they soared in shattering, shared release as the final lightning streaked across the skies; their twin cries of completion mingled within the thunder. The last, departing drops fell softly as they rested upon the rain swept earth.
And Cid's song quietly found voice as he held his miracle close.
'He moves in mysterious ways…'
A/N: Much appreciation goes to U2 for their lovely song 'She Moves in Mysterious Ways'; one of my absolute favorites. (And something I've been wanting to work into a Valenwind fic for a very long time!) Glad I got the chance at last…and hope y'all enjoyed.