Disclaimer: Do not own. At all.

Cid Highwind, being a man who was mechanically inclined, liked to fix things when he was bored. With all the excitement after the Deepground incident over and Vincent Valentine safely found (and living with him in Rocket Town, nonetheless), the Captain was becoming bored more and more often. This wouldn't have been much of a problem, although admittedly irritating, except for one thing.

Cid Highwind had run out of things to fix.

It was to be expected, really. In a town full of mechanics and scientists, there was very little to fix – everything was in perfect working order, and anything that wasn't was very quickly fixed. It was only when Vincent, having taken his gauntlet off so he could shower, tore apart the entire house looking for it only to find Cid trying to tinker with it that it became a problem. It became so much of a problem, in fact, that Cid was booted out of his room and onto the couch for the night.

"But Vin— "

"No, Cid."

That night, as he lay on the couch waiting for Vincent to wander downstairs and take pity on him, Cid Highwind came up with a plan. He would win the fight against boredom if it killed him.

--

Vincent was worried. After the previous night's events (which included Vincent coming downstairs and molesting the pilot on the couch, which quickly turned into on the floor), Cid had been unusually quiet. Deciding that the pilot was probably planning something, Vincent went to pick up a book and read it – only to look over and realize that Cid was reading the newspaper.

Vincent dropped his book.

Cid never read the newspaper. Hell, Cid never read anything – any of the books in the house were either Vincent's or the few that Shera had left behind. Pausing, Vincent remembered Cid finding a romance novel and loudly reciting the sex scenes.

Okay, so other than that time, Cid never read anything.

Not only was Cid reading the newspaper, but he had a pen out and seemed to be circling a few things. Staring at him in shock from the other end of the room, it took Vincent a moment to recover before he cleared his throat.

"Oh, hey there Vinnie!" Hastily folding the newspaper, Cid strode across the room and kissed Vincent's cheek. "Look, I gotta run a few errands. I'll be back later, okay? Love ya."

It was only after Cid left that Vincent realized he'd taken the newspaper with him.

--

When Cid got back, it was around ten o'clock that night, but the blond man didn't come in until closer to one. Vincent had been pacing their room, checking out the window every so often to try and catch a glimpse of the brash pilot. Cid, however, must have been on the other side of the house closest to the rocket's original launch site (which was now a field), because even Vincent's keen night-vision couldn't detect him.

"This could be trouble," Chaos grumbled, irritably shifting his wings within Vincent's mind. Curled up, Galien Beast let out a rumble of agreement.

"There is no reason to think that. Perhaps he simply had work to do," Vincent replied. At this stage of their relationship, the gunman had learned to trust his lover, and it wouldn't do to give in to doubt now. However, as Cid finally crawled into bed with him, Vincent wondered just what it was that had kept Cid from him all day. After all, it wasn't like Cid to be so secretive…

Vincent sighed, snuggling into his already snoring bedmate before shutting his eyes. He would, doubtlessly, find out tomorrow.