Longevity

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Sum: Seventeen year old Marlene finds a photograph of the team, taken just after they saved the planet thirteen years ago. She notices that everyone had aged visually, except Vincent – obviously – but more surprising, Cid. She confronts him about it.

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"Hey… Tifa? When was this photo taken?"

A soft hand gently pushed aside a few old papers to uncover the photograph underneath. It was picked up and lifted from the brown storage box.

Tifa appeared at the staircase of the attic, wiping her dusty hands on her old shorts. She climbed the few steps into the room and bent over the teenager knelt amidst a group of boxes. "That was just after Meteor Fall," Tifa answered, checking out the picture. She wiped her sweating brow under her bangs. Cleaning the house of junk and old items was sticky work in the summer.

"But look at Cid," the girl said, raising the photo higher for Tifa to examine closer.

Tifa looked at the man in question. His old pilot jacket had been torn and ripped, but he had still worn it for the photo. His white scarf had long been lost during their journey but his goggles sat safely on his hairline with barely the slightest mark. His blond hair had been finger-combed back but it had defied all attempts at management and instead retained its spikey look. He had a cigarette between his teeth and a rogue grin on his lips.

"What about him?" Tifa asked.

The girl looked up at the older woman. "This was thirteen years ago." She paused for effect. "He looks exactly the same."

Tifa frowned and looked at the man in the photograph again. "You're right… I never realized…" she awed, nonplussed.

"How is that possible?" The girl asked, turning her blue eyes on the picture again. "The rest of Avalanche have aged… well, except Vincent. But he's not all human, and Cid is."

"Maybe that's why," Tifa said, a smile curling her lips as a possibility crossed her mind.

"What?"

"Maybe Vincent is the reason Cid hasn't changed."

The girl frowned. "I don't get it. Vincent won't age because of the experiments. Cid didn't have those experiments."

Tifa tilted her head fondly and stood up straight. "Why don't you go downstairs and ask him?"

The girl looked up at her. "He's here already? I thought he was coming by later with Vincent for the dinner?"

"He's popped over to help with the clear out," Tifa said as she turned and stepped out into the staircase. "He only got here a few minutes ago so I left him in the study to sort out those heavy boxes under the desk." She paused. "By the way, where's your dad? I've found some old things he might want keeping."

The girl tucked the photo into her back jeans pocket. "He just went with Cloud to dump that old refrigerator and AC unit."

Tifa raised an eyebrow. "I hope they're not going to literally dump them."

"You know dad, he's all about clean energy, clean world, blah blah."

Tifa smiled, satisfied, and then proceeded to descend the steps back into the billiard room. The teenager dropped a few things into the open box before her and then stood, making her way down the narrow steps, too. She stepped out onto the hallway and then down two steps into the living room. Denzel was just setting down three glasses of juice on the coffee table. The summer heat had forced him into a pair of shorts and tank top. He looked up as she walked in.

"How's it going up there?" He asked, picking one the glasses back up and offering it to her.

"Not much to save, it pretty much all needs throwing out," she said, taking the drink. She downed it in three seconds flat. "But I found a photo of Avalanche I wanted to ask Cid about. Here, Denz, look." She pulled out the photo and showed him. "How is it that in thirteen years everyone else has aged but Cid?"

"Touchy subject, but we're excluding Vincent, right?" Denzel smirked.

She threw a sardonic smile back at him. "As always. Just look at Uncle Cid. That's not normal, right?"

"Marlene, the whole team has never been normal."

The girl shook her head, using the photo to slap the taller teenager's arm. "You know what I mean. I just wanted to ask Cid. Just curious, is all."

"Maybe Vincent has this invisible aura that slows aging around him," Denzel suggested, sitting back on the couch and dropping his long legs onto the table. "But it only works on a long-term exposure."

"You make it sound like Vincent's leaking radiation," Marlene rolled her eyes.

"You won't know unless you ask. Or until we're all, like, two hundred years old and Cid still looks like he does now."

The girl shook her head, bemused, and then left Denzel to himself as she walked through the house to the study, trotting up the two steps into the room.

Cid had pulled the study chair from the desk to the middle of the room so he could lean over a large, open box in the comfort of a seat. He cradled a glass of juice in one hand and had the other rummaging in the contents of the storage box. Even he had been forced to shed his usual favored t-shirt and had opted for an army-green tank. No combat pants, either; instead he wore cut-offs. Around his neck was a wedding band on a gold chain; the other one hung around his partner's neck. He looked up as she walked in.

"Hey, lashes, how's it goin'?" He asked in his accent. He had taken to calling her that since he caught her curling her eyelashes one time.

"Almost done in the attic," she replied, coming to a stop by the container. She glanced in. It appeared to be full of document binders, folders and box files. "I did find something, though." She flourished the photo in her hand, catching Cid's attention. Even as she looked at him now, it was clear he had aged very little, if at all. He should be going on forty five, but he still looked thirty two!

"What's that?" Cid asked curiously, his eyes following the picture until she handed it to him. He took it and studied the photo for a second. A smile crossed his rugged face. "Damn. I remember when this was taken." He paused. "I miss that jacket."

"Notice anything?" Marlene prompted.

Cid studied the photo longer. "Yeah, yer Uncle Vincent looks like a miserable bastard."

"Noooo," the girl rolled her eyes yet again, this time in mirth. She stepped around the box to stand behind Cid, leaning on his shoulder to look at the picture with him. "Look how much younger dad looks. And Tifa, she looks noticeable younger here, too – "

"Shh!" Cid hushed, glancing about in mock paranoia. "Yer want her to kick our asses?"

Marlene gave him a look. "Even Cloud looks older now than when that picture was taken…" she considered this. "Not by much – but he has Mako in his veins," she added in defense.

"Where yer goin' with this?" Cid shrugged in bafflement.

Marlene stabbed the photographic version of him. "You haven't changed at all. You still look the same."

Cid tried to control a smile that was threatening to break. "Must be the tea…?" He tried.

The teenager wasn't falling for it. "You know why, don't you?" She accused fondly. "Why you haven't physically aged even though you're completely normal."

"Thanks," Cid deadpanned.

"C'mon, I'm curious," She whined, dragging on his shoulder. "You have to admit – ignoring the fact that Vincent's a walking scientific impossibility and Cloud's an ex-not-ex-solider – not aging is pretty much impossible. It's a big deal. So how is it you look the same then," she pointed at the photo, "and as you do now?"

Cid shrugged. "No clue."

But his dismissive behavior only piqued her curiosity even more, and she was certain he did know. She told him as much.

Cid sighed. "Yer dad would kill me if I told yer."

She gave him a look. "You also said dad would kill you if I ever saw you and Vincent doing the naugh-tay," she smirked, "and that was five years ago. You're still alive."

It was Cid's turn to roll his eyes. "I hate teenagers. I hated Yuffie when she was a teenager."

"Liar, now tell me. Please?"

Cid looked away, giving the floor a muted glare as he muttered to himself. "Fine, but close that door."

She did as told and then leant against the large study desk, watching her uncle patiently.

"It's Vince's fault," Cid said. "There, I told yer. Now get lost."

"Cid," she moaned, stretching out his name.

"Lashes, it ain't exactly somethin' yer might wanna hear," Cid told her. "Once I tell yer, I can't untell yer."

The girl considered this, but it only made her more interested. "I'm guessing it's something gross," she finally realized. "But still, I really want to know." The main thing she admired about Cid was how he never treated her delicately, never hid anything from her simply because she was a girl. That wasn't to say he didn't care about what he told her, though.

Cid sighed again and leant his elbows on his thighs. "Gotta word this right or it's gonna sound really bad. But, yer know how Vincent's different from us, right? Yer know how medicine and drugs don't work on him? That's cause his blood is… different, infused with his demons' DNA and whatever chemicals Hojo pumped into him." He waited for her to nod, prompting him to continue. "That's part of what keeps him from agin'. Well… it's not just his blood that's like that… " He trailed off meaningfully, half-grimacing as he watched the cogs in her brain connecting. She didn't quite get there. "Yer know what? Let's just say I accidentally swallowed a bit of Vincent's blood. The effect on my body was that my agin' slowed right the hell down."

"Aaah," Marlene said slowly. "Wait, just one little bit of blood? Wouldn't you have to keep swallowing it to… Ooooh!" She cottoned on. "When you mean it's not just his blood…" she understood as he nodded quickly so she wouldn't continue that thought aloud. "Aah, I get it." She probably should have been embarrassed, but living with Avalanche had eliminated that feeling long ago. "Did you know that was going to happen when you started to… you know?" She asked.

Cid sat back in the chair and considered her question. "No. Actually, Vince pretty much thought his body would be poisonous to normal people. He was right, but I'm a stubborn bastard."

"Wait," Marlene said, recalling something that brought a spark in her memory. "I remember when I was five you were seriously ill, and the doctors couldn't help. I made you a 'get well' card."

The pilot smiled. "Yeah, I still have that card."

The girl stood straight. "So, are you actually aging then, but just really, really slowly? Or have you stopped completely?"

Cid shrugged. "Don't know."

Marlene took the photo from Cid's hand. "You know… I sometimes think about the future," she said softly, looking at the faces of her family smiling up at her. "And how, one day, I'll be older than Vincent… "

Cid watched her, a little touched by her words. "Yer'll never be older than Vincent," he said gently.

Marlene's eyes fell to the sixteen year old Yuffie in the photo. She was twenty nine now. "Yuffie's older than Vincent, now… I bet it's so strange to him." She looked up from the picture to his sky-blue eyes. "Does it ever make you feel sad?"

The pilot said nothing for a long moment, and she saw something haunting pass behind his eyes. "Only when I let it," he finally said.

Noticing the need for a change of topic, she looked down at the photo again. In the picture Cid was stood beside Vincent at the back, a hand on a caped shoulder. "Were you two together when this was taken?" She asked curiously.

Cid cocked his head, perking up at the new subject of conversation. "Kinda," he smiled lopsided. "We both knew we were interested in each other, but Vincent was really reclusive back then. He had a hard time lettin' anyone close."

"Yeah, dad used to tell me Vincent was colder and darker than the Northern Crater," Marlene commented.

Cid burst out laughing. "Yeah, yer dad didn't like him very much durin' our journey. But that was 'cause I think he was afraid of Vince."

Marlene giggled. "He was, but he never said so." She gave the photo another long look. "Can I keep this?"

"You found it."

She smiled. "I'll put it on my nightstand right next to the one I'm going to take tonight of you all."

Cid groaned. "Yer not bringin' yer camera to that fancy restaurant Tifa's booked, are yer? They'll probably confiscate it."

"Not if Vincent's dressed as usual," she retorted wryly.

"Hey, this time I'm gonna get him in a suit," Cid vowed.

"And yet he continues to wear that raggedy cape," she smirked as she turned to the door. She didn't fail to notice Cid's own smirk. She pulled open the door and almost ran into none other than Vincent. Only he wasn't wearing his usual gear. Marlene turned to Cid. "Holy crap, you managed to get him in a tank?"

"Damn right," Cid grinned.

Vincent's left eyebrow rose. "I remember dressing myself, today." He walked in. Granted, it was a black tank, but still an overall improvement on his list of worn clothes. His charcoal jeans were marred with dust smudges.

"Let me get my camera now!" Marlene exclaimed, dashing past the gunman.

"Expect lots of flash photography tonight," Cid warned his partner, digging back into the box before him. "She's taking it with her to dinner."

"I sense I won't be present tonight," Vincent deadpanned.

"You better be," came Tifa's voice from the hallway. She appeared behind Vincent and brandished a feather duster at him. "Trincy's is non-refundable and expensive." She eyed his tank top. "And as much as I'd love for you to go like that, it's also formal wear."

"Why do yer have to pick these formal dinner places?" Cid complained. "A picnic in the woods around Kalm would be better."

"Last time we did that near Cobblesford you almost caused a forest fire and Vincent scared the life out of the nearby nursery," she reminded them, trying not to smile at the memory. "They made us promise we'd never let them see the scary man again." She absently began brushing down Vincent's back of dust, and Cid couldn't help but recall Marlene's conversation, he couldn't help but see how Tifa now looked older than Vincent. She was approaching thirty three and Vincent was still twenty seven… "But I wouldn't mind doing it again," Tifa continued. "Maybe back at Rocket Town." She paused. "Did Marlene ask you about that photo?"

Cid blinked and nodded. "Yeah." He tilted his head curiously. "Did she take it to you?"

Tifa nodded, as well. "I told her to find you and ask."

The pilot narrowed his eyes. "You know, don't yer?"

The woman nodded, smiling slyly. "Of course I do," she glanced at Vincent who seemed completely puzzled. "Doesn't take a genius to figure it out."

"Care to fill me in?" Vincent asked.

"Bad choice of words!" Cid managed to say as he laughed aloud along with Tifa. Vincent merely cocked an eyebrow again.

"Smile!" Came Marlene's voice.

Cid and Tifa were still laughing when the flash went off.

END