The warm red light of the sunset grew deeper and the clouds took on a crimson glow, the tides washing gently over the sandy shore.
Eventually, they broke from their reverie and Cid looked around. It was almost dark, and despite it being spring it was still not warm enough to be damp and naked at night.
"We've gotta find you something to wrap up in..." Cid said, holding Vincent to him. He was very reluctant to let him go.
Vincent just smiled, holding Cid's hand tightly.
Cid looked around, but saw nothing. "Hmm." He stood up and peeled off his wet jacket. "I'm wearing shorts under my pants, and a shirt under this, so you can put 'em on. They're soaking wet but at least you'll be wearing something..." He dropped the jacket onto Vincent's waiting hands and began to unbuckle his pants.
Vincent began to pull on the jacket. He shivered as the soaking material cooled his skin.
Cid stepped out of his dark green pants, darkened further still by the water held within the fibres. "There y'are, that should do it."
Vincent stood up and pulled on the pants, cringing slightly again as the wet material dragged up his legs with some resistance. After buttoning them up, he smiled at Cid, and Cid smiled back.
"What a pair we look." Vincent smiled.
It was true; Cid in his wet tee-shirt and shorts, still wearing his brown boots, and Vincent wearing a soggy flight jacket and pants that weren't meant for the long legs that he had. They almost came up to the middle of his shins.
"Not a @#$%in' word, Valentine," Cid warned, trying not to smile.
Vincent closed the distance between them and kissed Cid soundly on the lips. "Not a word."
"Good!" He grunted. "Well, now that we're all set and look like complete assholes, should we be on our way?"
***
Cid and Vincent walked slowly back to the house in Rocket Town, their arms looped about each other's waists.
Cid couldn't stop turning his head as he walked to look at Vincent; living, walking and here with him again. It seemed too good to be true.
But it was true, and Vincent felt very real to Cid as he clutched the pale man to his side as they walked.
He was strong, like he was when they'd gone on their journeys together in AVALANCHE, so unlike the frail shell he had become when he had been ill.
He walked now with tall, effortless strides and that undeniable sense of dignity that had always been a part of him, except he smiled now. He smiled a lot, and somehow it made him even more perfect.
Cid was smiling a lot, too.
He wondered, though, how Shera was going to react when they just strolled into the house together.
Actually, she did just what Cid expected she would do...
She opened her mouth to admonish Cid for being out late again, and then... she passed out.
"Shera, Shera!! Answer me, for @#$%'s sake! Open your @#$%in' eyes!"
"Shera, are you all right?"
Shera groaned. She was going insane. She had heard Cid's voice, and someone coming in through the door... but when she looked, she had seen Vincent, wearing Cid's clothes.
"Cid... I think I'm hallucinating..." She groaned as she came to, her eyes still closed. She frowned. She could hear two voices speaking to her, one was Cid's, and the other... so familiar...
It sounded like Vincent's voice, low and calm. Well spoken. She was still hallucinating!
"Cid, help me..." She whimpered. "I'm seeing things... I'm hearing things! I'm not well..." She sat up and opened her eyes to find herself looking into the blood crimson eyes of Vincent Valentine.
"AAAARRRRGGGHHH!!!" She screamed.
"Shera!! Shera!! It's okay, calm down!!" Cid grabbed her shoulders as she desperately tried to back away from Vincent. "SHERA!! Calm the @#$% down, willya?!"
Shera instinctively cowed under the force of Cid's yelling, but whimpered and clawed at his shirt.
"Cid... Cid... it's a ghost... can you see him?! But... he's dead!! He's dead!!" She was shaking.
Vincent reached out to touch her arm with his left hand, to calm her. It was then that Cid noticed it was flesh, and not a claw.
Shera instantly recoiled from his touch. "Stay away!"
"Shera, it's not a ghost!" He shouted. "It's Vin! He's back!"
"B...but he can't be... I - I saw him, he..."
"...He's got a second chance," Cid finished her sentence for her, gently taking her shoulders in his hands.
"He's home."
***
Cid woke up with a start. "Huh?! Ugh... not again. Vin, you awake? ... I wish that didn't keep happening. I..." Then he received that familiar sensation almost like a kick to the stomach of realising that Vincent wasn't there.
"It's okay, Cid. Come here."
Cid felt familiar slim arms curling around him, pulling him close.
Cid squeezed his eyes shut and smiled, as he welcomed the embrace.
He'd forgotten for a brief moment that now, Vincent was there.
"Vin... You're really here... I was expecting it all to be a dream..." Cid whispered as he traced over Vincent's skin with his fingers.
Vincent kissed Cid softly. "Yes," he breathed, resting his lips against Cid's temple. "I'm here. And I love you."
Cid let out a breath and closed his eyes, holding Vincent tightly to him as they lay there in the darkness. "You can't know how I've longed to hear that these past winter months. I prayed and prayed even for just a dream of you, just so I could hear your voice... I missed you so bad. I thought of killing myself a couple of times, but I know I'd probably go to hell," Cid laughed. "And there's no way you'd go anywhere else but heaven, so I was afraid of becoming even more separated from you than I already was, if you understand that?"
Vincent shook his head. "It couldn't happen. The only thing that counts for anything on the other side is love." Vincent smiled. "And you gave me so much of that. I couldn't ever forget."
Cid felt a tear roll down his cheek and he caressed Vincent's face tenderly. "Have I done a bad thing, Vin? Taking you from that special place, just because I couldn't live without you?"
"No." Vincent whispered, his eyes full of love. "There's nowhere I'd rather be than with you. To me, this is heaven. Right here in your arms."
Cid squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face in Vincent's hair. His emotions were overwhelming him, and the feelings flooding his heart were almost as painful as the grief he had once felt. But this was beautiful. It was good pain.
He felt Vincent's hands stroking over his pale spiky hair, and suddenly remembered something that he had noticed earlier.
Cid pulled back from Vincent gently and took his left hand between his own. It was flesh, not that metal claw...
"Vin... you've got two hands..." He ran gentle fingers over the slim pale digits of Vincent's left hand, softly marvelling at this one part of Vincent that he'd never seen before. It was perfect, just like his right hand, and Cid laid light kisses over the knuckles and the palm and the fingers and the wrist, almost as if he was introducing himself to these new parts of the one he loved. He smiled at Vincent and smiled back down at the hand, stroking it still.
Vincent's hand gently released itself from Cid's and moved up to rest on Cid's face. He leaned over and kissed Cid very gently on the lips.
The touch of lips to lips lingered for a long moment, and just that small thing meant so much to both of them.
*
Whew. That's as far as I've gotten for now. Epilogue chapter comin' up, with a few extras tacked on at the end. Kinda like a bonus DVD extra footage thingy. ^_^ Including the making of and a soundtrack!!