Cid's friendship with Vincent falls apart when his roommate begins a relationship with a young woman from Midgar, Adelia Clarke. Their quiet life falls to turmoil as Cid begins to realize that Vincent's new love interest may be the woman he never knew he wanted.

Chapter One

Cid hadn't really ever thought seriously about leaving Shera's house in Rocket Town, but after the whole Kadaj ordeal, it had seemed like a lazy excuse to still be living with someone by means of a guilt trip. Partly thanks to Yuffie's constant teasing (although he insisted on telling himself that it didn't get to him), he realized that he was getting a little old to be dependent on someone else for a house, and, furthermore, that Shera wasn't getting any younger, and had done nothing with her life but help nurse an old pilot's hard feelings. And so, after many nights of mulling it over in bars, Cid had packed his things and had said goodbye. And, in his own way, thanks.

Although he loved his ship dearly, he had no desire to spend the rest of his days living in her. She was a beautiful thing, but, by Holy, Cid wanted a real bathroom. If he didn't have a ship or two to take care of, he probably could have managed an apartment on his own, but a man with children has a lot of expenses, and he couldn't afford those and a decent living space, much less one with a real bathroom.

And so he found Vincent.

Thank Holy, he had though at the time. If Vincent hadn't decided to buy that damn cell phone of his, I'd've never been able to track the bastard down.

By some means, the rest of Avalanche had managed to convince Vincent not to go back to that dreary mansion they'd found him in, and to get a life. Cid didn't know if that was possible for Vincent, but the freak show had agreed, miraculously, that they were probably right, and had wandered off somewhere to find some sad excuse for one, although Cid wasn't sure that Vincent even knew what that meant. After all, the sorry bastard had been sleeping in a coffin for who knew how long, and who could be sure that he even was alive? But Cid didn't really like thinking about that possibility.

Vincent had spent his time wandering around aimlessly, and from what Cid could tell, obsessing over the same old shit, but he had decided that the two of them sharing living expenses was a good idea and a nice place to start a new life, so the two had rented an apartment on the outside of Midgar and settled down.

In general, they didn't do a whole lot together. They were friends, yes, and enjoyed joking together (well, Cid did, anyway), and spent some time together every so often. But mostly they simply moved on their own tracks, Cid dealing with his precious ships, and Vincent doing…whatever Vincent did.

And so, Cid hadn't really noticed when Vincent had begun to go out more often. The man often went on evening excursions, probably to sit and be his own little dark self, Cid figured, and it wasn't a huge change when the man began going more frequently. The pilot took no notice.

At least, he didn't take any notice until Vincent brought back something extra one day.