"I'm getting married."

And that was how it started. In all honesty, had Vincent Valentine known that those few words would start a chain reaction that would eventually turn his life on its head and send his whole world spiraling out of control, he would have got up right then and there and walked away.

Instead, in his surprised state he somehow failed to dodge when Cid sprayed hot tea and jumped to his feet to shout at Shera. "You're what?" he all but shrieked, blue eyes wide. Vincent calmly reached across the table and put out the cigarette the pilot had dropped on the table before something could catch fire.

"I'm getting married, Chief," she said, grinning from ear to ear. Cid's jaw went entirely slack now.

Vincent wiped the tea off his face and offered Shera a smile. "Congratulations, Miss Shera, may I inquire as to who?"

"Tseng," Shera's green eyes were alight in a way Vincent had never seen before, bright so amazingly full of happiness. "He proposed last night!"

There was a startled squeaking noise and a thump. Vincent offered Shera more congratulations as he walked over to the sink to fill a glass with water. "Do you have a date for the wedding yet?" he asked conversationally.

Shera was giving Cid's unconscious form a worried look. "Not yet," she said, "I want to get married in the spring when the cherry blossoms are blooming."

"That sounds wonderful," Vincent said, giving her a rare sincere smile, made rarer still by the conspicious absence of his cape, which Shera had insisted on washing the previous night, before he dumped the glass of water on the unconscious Cid. Cid jumped up cussing and shouting death threats on the sorry bastard who would dare dump water on him. "Good morning to you, too, Highwind," Vincent said, setting the cup down.

Cid spun around and pointed at Shera, "You can't get married! And to a Turk, no less!"

"Says who?" Shera asked, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at the mechanic. She pointed and accusing finger at Vincent. "He was a Turk and you've got no problem with him!"

"No problem?" Cid roared, "He's a fuckin' emo vampire! Of course I got problems with 'im! I just got a helluva lot more problem with you marryin' a current Turk!"

"He would appreciate if you left him out of this," Vincent said with a note of exasperation. In all honesty, he was starting to miss the shy, mousy Shera he had met last year. This rebellious, argumentative woman tended to get into too many headache inducing fights with Cid.

Shera glowered at him. "Fine!" she shouted, spinning on her heels, "I'm leaving! You can fend for yourself, Cid Highwind! I'm sick of taking care of you!"

"Fine!" Cid roared at her back, "I don't need ya anyway!"

When the door slammed, Cid fell into his chair and put his face in his hands. "Very good, Chief," Vincent said sarcastically. "You just pushed away the best friend you've ever had and the only person willing to cook for you. Do you even know how to boil water?"

"Of course I can fuckin' boil fuckin' water!" Cid snapped. He slammed his palm down on the table. "Fuck!"

"Eloquent," Vincent muttered.

Cid fell into silence again. While he fumed, Vincent cleaned up the remains of their breakfast and made his first attempt and doing dishes. As soon as he began to think that this might not be as hard as he thought, the soap-covered plate slipped out of his hand and hit the floor with a crash. 'So much for easy.'

"How could she be getting married?" Cid, well, more groaned.

"Normal people get married, Highwind."

"But Shera's miiine," Cid whined horribly immaturely. Vincent rolled his eyes. Another plate slid out of his hands. "What was that?" Cid asked.

"Nothing," Vincent lied, pushing the plate shards under the counter with his foot. "Do you have any idea how immature you sound? Besides, unless she is wearing your ring you have no claim on her." Cid grumbled something about fucking rings and no warning and damn Turks. Vincent dropped a glass this time and wisely gave up on his efforts. With a sigh he returned to his seat and glared patiently at Cid.

"Are you done yet?" he asked.

"Fuck you," Cid grumbled before returning to muttering incoherent curses.

Once he was sure that Cid would not do something drastic and stupid like go to Midgar and try to kill Tseng, Vincent decided it might be a good idea to search out Shera and make sure she was alright. Cid was an insufferable jerk some days and for some reason he always ended up being twice as mean to Shera even when he tried to be nice. Even though Shera knew that as well as anyone, even Vincent could tell it was hard for her to take the abuse some days.

He found her in what was obviously Shera's favorite place to brood and fume, the remains of Cid's attempt at a rocket. With a sigh, he sat down on a piece of shrapnel near her and waited for her to speak.

"How's he doing?"

Vincent smiled. "How do you think he's doing, Miss Shera? Neither of us are even capable of doing dish work much less cooking. I am thoroughly surprised he has not had some kind of panic attack."

Shera adjusted the small bag on her arm and gazed sadly up at Vincent. "Should I come home for the night?" she asked.

I would prefer it if you did," Vincent admitted. He smiled ruefully behind his cape, "I would really rather not suffer through Highwind's pathetic attempts at cooking any soon than I have to." Shera giggled. "But in all honesty, Miss Shera, we have both become accustomed to your care and nurturing. He needs to understand that you will not always be there to care for him."

"What about you?" Shera asked, a knowing smile playing across her face. "Believe it or not, Vincent, he is a lot easier to get along with when you are around. The Chief really does like having you here." She could still remember the day that Cid returned from the fight with Sephiroth, bursting in the door and announcing that the "goddamn emo vampire" was going to to be staying with them until Cid convinced him not to go crawling back to the "creepy-ass coffin in the even more creepy ass Shinra mansion". He had stayed for a week before finally disappearing into the night.

A month later, Vincent had reappeared, just out of the blue shown up on their doorstep one night in the middle of a roaring thunderstorm, Cerberus still warm from a recent battle. He had offered no explanation, but no one really expected one. Shera still had his bed in the guest room made and waiting for him and Cid just retreated into the kitchen and returned with a steaming mug of coffee and the leftovers from the dinner Shera had made for them.

For almost a year, that became the routine. Vincent would randomly appear, stay a few days, and then disappear into the night again. It became as normal to them as Cid's obsession with tea or Shera's insistence that Cid quit smoking. If the residents of Rocket Town knew or cared about their strange visitor, no one said anything, probably for fear of incurring the Chief's increasingly volatile temper when Vincent was not around.

Now that she thought about it, Vincent was due to leave any day now. Shera inwardly winced. No wonder Cid was being moodier than usual.

"I'll be back in time for dinner, alright?" Shera said, offering up a smile to him. "But don't tell Cid," she warned, wagging a finger at him, "I want to keep him scared."

"Of course."

As he watched her walk away, Vincent could not help but think that part of his twisted sense of humor had rubbed off on the woman. It was a worrying thought.