"Hello.." his voice was soft. Warm. Wrapping Cid's ears in this blanket of tender sound. Just that single word, a simple greeting, amazed the gruff young boy. Vincent wasn't like any boy he'd ever met. He wasn't brash, obnoxious, crude. He was elegant, sophisticated, and beautiful.

"Uhh.." Cid snapped back into reality awkwardly bowing back. Everyone was staring at him. "Yo, name's Cid."

"Cidney." his father corrected.

Vincent just smiled. "Good to finally meet you, Cid. My father has spoke much of your mechanical skills." Cid grinned broadly, already impressing the guy and he didn't have to lift a finger.

"Talk don' mean shit. Why don't ya come out back and I'll show ya my skills firsthand?" He led the other through the hall out to the back door. The night was crisp and cool with blankets of stars lighting up the field crammed with tractors and airships and various other machines. Vincent slowly ambled along until he came upon the old clunker, slowly running a fair hand over the body. Cid came over with a cigarette sticking out of his mouth smiling triumphantly.

"Did you fix her up?" Vincent scratched at some rust on the hull. "She looks old."

"Sure did! She's an ancient old bird an' she flies a bit rough but she's a beauty. Took Dad and I about a month but we got her up and flyin' ag'in." Vincent nodded slowly. His eyes glazed with a far off look a man gets when dreaming of a better life, easier times somewhere far away. Cid couldn't imagine living the kind of high class life Vincent did. Dressed in those long, elegant red and black clothes longing for a life where he could govern himself instead of dancing like a good little marionette to the tune of everyone else's drummer. He couldn't imagine a life like that.

Vincent snapped out of his daydream and back to reality, sighing heavily. "My apologies, I spaced out."

"No problem." Cid waved it off. "C'mon, there's plenty more to see."

"He's a good, strong boy, Lev." Grimoire Valentine accepted the tea offered. "He's going to be a hard one to settle in."

Lev sighed. "He has no desire to settle down. He's quite happy where he's at." Grimoire gave a hearty chuckle, tapping the old mechanic on the back.

"Don't be too hard on the boy, Levian. He's young yet. Never can custom conquer nature for she is ever unconquered. Trying to force that boy to be something he isn't right now will only backfire on you."

"One could say the same for Vincent." Lev countered. Grimoire frowned, shaking his dark hair.

"Vincent is different. He was raised by feudalism since he was born. Cidney has known freedom his whole life. You cannot compare them. Now," the aristocrat leaned back in his chair. "I hear you know of a good girl for my boy."

"Indeed." Lev pulled out a picture from his pocket of a young girl with long, soft brown hair and motherly dark eyes. "This girl Shera that Cid knows introduced me to her. Her name is Lucrecia and she's a very beautiful girl. I'm sure Vincent will adore her." Grimoire scrutinized the pictrue carefully analyzing every inch of the girl's portrait. Something picked at the corner of the old man's mouth, slowly curling his lips up into a smile. This girl had a most radiant presence indeed. Perhaps it was what he needed to get the sullen, withdrawn boy to blossom out of his shell. Vincent needed a good, strong woman.

Lev offered his friend another cup of tea. "I could arrange for Shera to bring her over tomorrow. She's coming to see Cid anyway so perhaps this would be an ideal opportunity for the both of us." Grimoire sipped at the tea taking another careful look at Lucrecia's photo. It was high time Vincent settled down with a nice girl before there was another... incident. He'd seen that look in his son's eyes again tonight but he certainly wasn't about to tell Levian about it. No, Grimoire was certain that was nothing more than a wild streak hidden beneath his son's tender exterior he would never see again.

"That would be wonderful, Levian. Would you mind if Vincent and I stayed the evening here?"

"Oh not at all! We have no spare bedroom to offer but I could bring you down blankets. Vincent could stay in Cidney's room too."

Grimoire shook his head vigorously. "No no, that will be quite alright. Vincent can sleep out here where I can keep an eye on him. He's... not away from home too often and I don't want him getting any fool ideas to wander off. Honestly, Lev, Cid is a wild one."

Levian gimaced as he set the blankets out for his friend. Grimoire was hiding something... he just couldn't quite put his finger on it. He didn't appreciate the blame being place solely on his son either. Cidney was a wild child but he was still a good son. "Don't I know... Oh don't I know..." There was no use pursuing the matter further for the evening. Going outside Lev retrieved the boys who went their seperate ways. He slowly shut the house down and headed for the door watching the Valentines curl up on the living room furniture. He carefully eyed the slender boy curled up in the armchair, getting this unsettling feel he was going to be seeing alot of more of him in the future.

His son wasn't the only wild child in that house.