Just a random story, because I felt like it =) I do realise that the members of Vincent's family have a habit of changing in every story I write... but still, I'll try make it clear who is who.

There will be some Veld/Vincent slash, but not much...

There is a bit of swearing too.

Hand Cut Confetti

It was a cold morning. The wind was biting and the clouds hung low. Grimoire was still up. His work had kept him awake, carefully scribbling down different hypothesises in the particular notepad. He gazed out the window of his study. It was separate to the rest of the labs. He'd complained enough about the labs, and their smell. He didn't want to work on the same floor. He'd been moved elsewhere.

Grimoire stood and wandered over to the bench by the southern wall. He flipped the plug switch and clicked on the kettle, before searching through the cupboards for some tealeaves. He should go home, get to bed. His wife had rung a few hours ago, to check he was ok. He'd told her he'd be home when he got a chance, but would crash at Vincent's if he had to work late again.

His only son... Vincent... the boy was nearly 22 now. Not so much a boy really. A man... grown... the idea was strange. He thought about his own father. The man had barely spoken to him since the birth of his eldest child. Grimoire had been young, just 19, when Vincent had been born. He'd gone away to a museum in Mideel for the summer and fallen in love. He'd never planned to have a child. It had been a shock to find out the woman was pregnant, but she had sent him to Grimoire and pretty much dropped the basket on his door step.

He'd kept in touch with her. She had been depressed, and then killed herself a fair few years later. He had told Vincent that his mother had died in an accident. It could be rationalised. She had been ok so long as she took her medication. He had spoken to her a few days before and she'd lost it; she'd been panicking. The loss of her medication was an accident, and that resulted in her death.

His wife, Elle, was lovely. Vincent had not liked her, at all. He had tried his best to drive her away, and eventually Grimoire had had to tell his son to back off. The result had been silence. The boy had barely spoken to him for months. When he found out his dad was getting married to Elle he'd ran away. A phone call off his father had been unexpected, they hadn't spoken since he first got Vincent left on the doorstep. An irritated phone call off his father questioning why he had a 7 year old sat in his front room was not something he wanted.

Vincent had matured though. He joined SOLDIER, then the Turks and was moving up still. He was clever. To be expected, both he and the child's mother were very intelligent. Vincent loved to read, he was very close to the few friends he had. But he was cold to everyone else. Unfortunately, Elle was still included in that. He made no attempt to get close to her. He was close to his 2 half sisters though. Lulu and Quistis, his 2 little gems.

Vincent was a wonderful brother. He took the girls out to the park, or for ice-cream, or let them sleep over at his apartment. He sat through many animated films with them, though he usually did so with a book.

Grimoire grinned as he poured water into his cup. He was proud of his son. Even if the boy wouldn't hear him say so. Vincent tended to take compliments as insults. He wandered over to the window and stared out. It was starting to rain, a cold spray covering those outside, so small from where he stood.

"Dad?"

"Hm? Oh Vincent. I was just thinking about you."

"Right... Elle rang me. She said you didn't go home."

"No. I was working."

"Ok. Breakfast time then. Let's go."

"I'm fine. I have tea here."

It didn't work. His son grabbed his cup and dragged Grimoire out of the study. They made their way along the corridor to the stairs. His boy was weird about elevators.

It was a familiar journey to the cafe, a few floors up. He was glad it was up. It was easier to go down than up when he was full. He hadn't realised how hungry he was, his stomach was protesting his lack of food now that he was climbing stairs.

They entered the cafe and his son pointed him over to a seat in the corner. Grimoire walked over and sat down, taking a minute to look over the drinks menu. He'd finished his mug of tea. The room was mostly empty, just the 2 men and a young woman who was staking two plates full of food for Vincent. Great...

The overflowing plate was put in front of him, and another one opposite him, before his son sat down and grinned at him.

"She's gonna brew some tea for us, so don't worry about it. And she'll bring some orange juice over in a minute. Just putting everything onto the card first."

That said, his son dug into the breakfast he'd gathered. For someone so thin, his boy certainly ate a lot.

"Valentine! You're up early. Valentine mark II, how we doing?" Jonathon was a friendly man. A few years older than Grimoire, the man was about level in terms of 'rank' ... though, Grimoire's work was followed much more closely than Jonathon's.

The man sat himself down beside Vincent, who had turned to accept the drinks off the woman, and was accepting his sleek Shin-Ra Benefits card back.

"Though, it looks as though we haven't gone down to get up at all. Not slept yet?"

"Nah... I'm nearly there with it. It's just off centre in my head. A little more turning and I'll know what's what."

"Sure. How's Elle?"

"She's good. Probably a little pissed at me. We were meant to be going to Elaine and James's tonight, but I don't think I'll be joining her now."

"Hey, Dad? I'll be a minute."

"Ok."

"Ah, a missed appointment. Your poor wife. How are your girls?"

"Lulu has reached the stage of stubborn teenager, unfortunately..."

"Hey, she's what? 14? My girls both became right little madams at about 11."

"Oh, lucky me." They laughed. He looked over at his son. Veld was there, and the two were talking very quietly. Rapid hand movements and a deep frown made Grimoire worry.

"Dad?" Called across the cafe. "I'll have to go. Give me a call if you need me."

The young man hurried off. It was so annoying. His son was high up in the Turks, but they should be able to get through a whole meal without interruptions. Especially this early...

Vincent hurried along beside his partner. Tamara was in trouble. Her solo mission had gone wrong, and they had to go get her.

They grabbed the pre-packed bags nearby and went to the copter. They had starting setting pre-packed bags in the Turk rec room after Tamara got pissed off with how long people took to shove a few things into their bags at their apartment.

He began prepping the copter to go. His movements were fairly jerky. He was angry. He didn't get to spend much time alone with his father, and this was not something he wanted to do. It had to have been Harry's idea to send himself and Veld. The second in command had rather large issues with him. The glue incident had been really funny at the time, stuck up man was the only one who didn't think so.

"Don't worry."

"Hm?"

"You're scowling at that stick like it's the cause of all yer bothers."

"Fuck off."

"Can't. We're in the air."

"Bastard."

"Whiney bitch today, aren't we?"

Vincent rolled his eyes, but couldn't help the smirk from tugging at his lips.

"Love you too Veld."

It was a long flight to get Tamara. He hoped she wouldn't die though. He liked having her as his boss. Life would seriously suck if Harry was in charge.

Veld shifted. It was cramped. He was crouched down beside his friend. They were hiding, waiting. Tamara was in the compound. He'd tracked her previously movements to the small village, then had spent a few hours gathering information. Vincent had been the one to track some men here. He'd heard them talking about 'the Turk bitch' and followed.

Currently, he was trying to figure out how to get into the place. The high concrete walls, sturdy metal gates and guards would prove a challenge. Veld spotted a tree, it was fairly high, and not that close to the wall. Much too far to jump from it, but they had rope and other stuff with them. He followed Vincent and interlocked his fingers into a foot hold for the kid. He boosted him up, and grabbed the offered hand.

Vincent was carefully running the parameter of the compound, in the shadows of the wall when he felt his pager bleeped. He cursed softly and glanced at the black box of metal and wires. It was his Dad, but he'd give the man a call when they got Tamara out safely. He turned it off, and crouched down beside a crate.

He was not sure where Veld had gone. They had split up. Vincent was going to get straight to Tamara; Veld was going to clear out as many guards as he could. Basically, he'd get them a path out of there.

The guard turned and wandered slowly over to another guard and struck up a conversation. Vincent took his chance, and slipped away from the crate he was by to crouch beside the steps, then push back the gratings and slip into the building. He'd start off in the basement, but he was assuming Tamara would be kept lower down.

He dropped in and took in his surroundings. It was empty, and dark. There were tables stacked up throughout the room. He had landed on a stack, but it felt quite steady. At the opposite end to the door, the tables were lodged firmly in position.

He slowly made his way over them, jumping lightly off them and crouching beside the door. He opened it slowly, and looked out, gun ready. The corridor was empty. He stood and slipped out, shutting the door behind him. A quick glance told him there were no CCTV cameras here to worry about and he moved along, glancing in each room he passed.

Veld sighed. He was making his way slowly towards the control room. He'd calculated were it was likely to be, and was moving in that direction. But it was cold. The wind was harsher here, far further north than Midgar. He rubbed his hands together and blew into them. He was making good progress.

He was in the buildings, via air vents. He had been reluctant to use them at first. Most buildings did not build them to support the weight of a human body. Why make them that strong? People were meant to use the set corridors. They were usually fairly loud too; the clunking of his hands, knees and feet would be problematic. Luckily, he was one of the best stealth agents Shin-Ra had. He could move without noise when he had to, it just wasn't easy. The worst part was definitely the cold though. There was a noticeable draft, that wouldn't be too bad if it wasn't for the heat he could feel coming from below. The contrast was nasty.

Fortunately, the ducts linked to all the major parts of the building, Veld dropped down just outside what he judged to be the control room and removed the safety. He slipped in and shot the 2 men inside, before placing himself in a chair before the screens. He slipped a headset off one of the men and began the real work.

Eventually, Vincent found his boss. She lay in the corner of a room, arms bound and mouth taped over. Her eyes were shut and the young man hurried over, desperately hoping she was still alive. He ripped off the duct tape and tugged his small dagger out his boots, cutting her bonds.

"Boss? Tamara? You ok?"

Her eyes fluttered and she shifted, taking a deep breath.

"Hey. How you feeling?"

"Take a wild guess." Her voice was flat, her mouth twitched and her eyes showed deep relief.

"Two?" She asked, wanting to know if both Vincent and Veld had been sent.

"Same as ever."

She smiled. Vincent felt relief flood his own veins and he handed her a spare gun.

"How'd it go?" Vincent asked as he sat down and dropped his rucksack down in front of him.

"Amazing. They were so friendly. Absolute dolls."

"Nice to know." He began to set the mines.

"Don't think they fully appreciated my sense of humour though."

"You didn't unleash that on them, did you?" He attached the detonator to his belt and stood up, just to receive a jab to his ribs from the woman.

"Brat. Now, let's get a move on."

He saw when Vincent and Tamara entered the corridor. The kid had been good getting in, but he'd not thought to take out every camera he'd seen. Veld would have to chastise him on that later. He had set his mines, and was waiting for them to reach Vincent's entry point.

Vincent entered the room, Tamara following and they shut the door.

"That's my cue to exit." He mumbled, giving the screens one last glance over. He left the room and pulled himself back into the air ducts, with use of the railings that lined the corridors.

The crawl back was not fun. He'd had a tense hour in that room and his muscles were objecting to the movement. Veld also managed to bang his head several time for looking up at clearly the wrong moment. He hoped it wouldn't leave a mark; the kid really didn't need another thing to tease him about.

Reaching the exit Veld looked out, and shot the 2 guards how stood nearby. A glance about told him it was safe to jump down, though the ground sure looked far away...

He grimaced, and jumped out, rolling as he hit the ground.

"Shit... that hurt..."

He stood up, and ran over to the rope they'd left hanging down by a corner of the wall. He scaled it quickly and spotted his two colleagues. Pulling the rope up, and chucking it down the other side, Veld sighed. Another jump.

He jumped, rolled, and then hurried over to Tamara and Vincent... without rubbing his shoulder. The all moved silently away, hugging the deepest shadows as they went. Once in the village, their detonators were removed from their belts and got a chance to fulfil their purpose.

With all the fuss over the nearby explosions, no one took any interest in the copter flying away.

Curled up in the co-pilot's seat, Vincent came to a decision. Veld really needed to cheer up. His friend was so serious all the time. A good thing on shift, but the rest of the time it really wasn't. He needed to relax. Plans of pub crawling drifted through his mind as he dozed off.

The flight back was long. Veld was a better pilot than Vincent though. So, they'd decided the kid was getting them there and he'd take them back. He was tired, and the thought of a hot meal, and hot shower and a soft bed called to him like a siren. Irresistible.

Beside him, Vincent was curled into a ball. His eyes were shut, and his shoulders rose and fell steadily. The kid was pretty. Veld could admit it to himself without a problem. He had a kind of gothic beauty to him; skin in its winter paleness, eyes dark from their recently outburst of long shifts and busy nights, black hair contrasting his skin as it hung long, in need of a cut. Veld's only objection to his looks was how thin he was, but the kid worked hard, both for Shin-Ra and with his family. His tendency to forget about eating seemed to be a family trait inherited from Professor Valentine.

Beautiful as the kid was, he was a nightmare. He had a tense presence that was hard to ignore at work, and he endlessly bugged Veld about going out after shift. Vincent seemed happiest when he had a pint in front of him. And Veld had no valid arguments now he was actually old enough to drink and the pubs they'd been going to for years.

As far as he knew, the kid only had one friend outside the Turks, and she lived in Mideel. He didn't mix well with strangers, so it was no surprise the kid came to him for company when they clocked out. He didn't mind though. The kid was quiet when they went out, just enjoying the chance to relax. Veld found it hard to unwind after a busy week, so he understood Vincent's wish to have a drink. Shame he didn't quite get Veld would rather curl up in bed with a glass of wine and a good book.

"C'mon kid. Time to move."

He blinked, but everything was blurred.

"Vincent? C'mon."

He blinked again, and this time he sat up, twisting his back to crack it.

"Back already?"

"We flew for nearly 3 hours... no 'already' about it."

"Oh."

It was late, and Vincent was famished. He wandered sleepily along behind Veld and Tamara to the medical unit. The temptation to sleep on one of the examination beds was high, but he wanted a warm and soft bed.

As the doctors fussed over Tamara, he and Veld made their way to the train station. Time to go home.

"Oh, Vincent? Apparently your father is sleeping at yours. Dr. Heartily asked me to tell you."

"Shit... he's a light sleeper."

"Then you don't need to be at this station. Try station 3, with me."

"Eh?"

"You're coming home with me and I'm going to make us some dinner."

Vincent stared blankly. It took a few moments to process what was being said, but he nodded his head and stuck close to Veld.

The kid looked exhausted. Veld knew that Harry had been pushing him even harder than usual with Tamara gone, so he probably did need sleep. Veld did too though. Harry objected to Vincent's physical training, because the man was very fit and very strong. The kid could never really compete with him physically, which gave Harry an upper hand in training. Vincent was always going to be more brains than brawn, so Veld didn't object to being the brawn of their duo. They worked well together.

Their training hours had dramatically increased over the past fortnight. The kid didn't cope well with Harry's in-your-face bullying and often accepted extra training that was pushed at him. Veld wouldn't leave him alone to it though. They were partners, after all. And that way, he got to know before anyone else what Vincent was planning to do to get Harry back. Kid was a prank master when he wanted to be.

The train was mostly empty, a few others who had worked late and a tramp that was always there. Veld nodded to the man, who responded with a toothy grin.

The journey seemed mercifully short, and Veld couldn't believe his relief at seeing his apartment block. Vincent was trailing slowly behind him, but he didn't comment. He debated what to heat up for a meal as he waited. They took the stairs up to the third floor and he pulled out his key.

Once they were inside, Vincent collapsed into a chair at the table and shut his eyes.

Veld prodded him as he passed to pull some boxes out of the fridge. He looked at what was inside, gave them a sniff to check how fresh they were, and then shoved them into the microwave. He grabbed two glasses, poured out some juice and placed one in front of Vincent.

"Don't sleep yet..."

"I think I'm so tired I feel sick..."

"Lovely. Here, eat up."

Veld pulled out two bowls and divided what he had. He grabbed two spoons and gave Vincent his food.

The meal was warm. Vincent slowly spooned his food into his mouth, mechanically chewing and swallowing. He stopped fairly soon, his mind too blank to consider eating anymore.

Veld looked over at him, and he tried to give his friend a confident smile. It didn't work. He couldn't quite remember how to smile, and it felt strange and foreign on his face.

Vincent stood up and began to undress. He tugged his shirt over the head, not interested in working the buttons. He unbuckled his trousers and tried to push them off, then toed off his shoes and finished removing his trousers. He toes off his socks and considered cleaning his teeth.

He decided not. The bathroom was just too far away. He curled up in Veld's warm, soft bed and relaxed. When Veld settled nest to him, he curled around his friend and fell asleep.

It was a few days later, when routine returned to normal and Veld was visiting Vincent that Quistis and Lulu came over. Lulu flung herself into the sofa and pulled out her book on black magic. Quistis was a cheerful 8 year old who was happily cutting up tissue paper.

"Quisty? What you doing?"

Vincent was watching his sister make a mess of his carpet. Veld looked over and grinned as he continued cutting carrots for their dinner.

"Making confetti."

"Right... Why?"

"For when you get married."

"What?"

"Everyone has to marry their partners." She nodded with this undisputable logic.

"I don't have a partner."

She looked over at Veld then returned her gaze to her brother with a look that said 'duh'...

"A partner is some who you live with and love. They cook and clean and help you with everything. You spend a lot of your time together and know each other well."

She continued to give Vincent her 'duh' look, and Veld smirked.

"We work together honey. We're work partners. Not life partners."

"Sure... Whatever you say."

There... fairly long, but I enjoyed it. Please let me know what you think?