Author's Notes: This chapter gave me some trouble in the beginning, if you'd believe it. Nida and Yuffie just didn't seem to want to get along. But I think I've got the hang of it now.

Chapter 4

The scent that met Nida's nose when he reentered the house was enough to send an already embarrassing loud stomach into overdrive. By the time he had reached the kitchen Nida could have sword that the growling could be heard all over the village. It didn't help that Yuffie chuckled at every growl. Still, as Cid had not eaten yet, he didn't seem amused, which was a small victory. Neither of them had much noticed the passage of time while working on the Tiny Bronco. It always seemed to get like that when you worked on something you loved with someone who loved it as much as you did.

"Looks like you found someone as silly as you Cid," the girl laughed. "Never thought there would be another person stupid enough to miss a meal for a beat up old piece of junk."

"She's not a piece of junk," Nida nearly hissed, his words perfectly in time with Cid's own protests to the same idea.

"Woah, woah," she said, holding her hands up before her in a defensive way. "No need to bite my head off about it all. Can't you take a joke?"

There was silence from the pair, obviously still upset about the insult to the little plane. Meanwhile Shera was already bustling around the kitchen to prepare a meal for the two men and the newest guest. The scent of bacon hung heavily in the air and the sound of her slicing of a large tomato kept a pretty nice rhythm to some music that no one else could hear. Nida couldn't help but think that the way she handled the large knife almost made it seem as if she had been born with it in her hand.

He would have kept watching her were it not for Cid moving past him to seat Yuffie at the small table. Once the young woman was seated Cid pointed to the seat opposite her, encouraging Nida to take it. As subtle as Cid thought himself to be, Nida saw right to the heart of the matter. They wanted to question him, wanted to give the girl a chance to look him in the eyes, not that he was sure that it would help much. The only human lie detector he knew had warmed his bed for a night after all. Still, they were going to try it, and he wasn't going to attempt to dissuade them from their efforts. They'd only get their answers once he got his.

"Well, Mister Nidus," Yuffie said once he sat down after washing his hands in the kitchen sink, "would you mind answering a few questions for me?"

"Of course, Lady Kisaragi," he responded, tone sweet and a gentle smile carefully set in place, "I only hope my answers satisfy you more than they did Captain Highwind."

Over the years Nida had come to know that when dealing with people of rank in an official capacity meant that you had to treat them in a bit of a detached manner. Nothing could be taken personally, and you couldn't allow them to feel offended. So he'd developed a way of handling those that were above him whenever they would take their little official mantle upon their shoulders. His tone, his words, even that little smile were all just parts of that attitude that kept him from trouble in most situations. After all, he'd managed to deal with both Laguna and the President of Galbadia in one night like this.

For the effort all he got from Yuffie was a bit of a chuckle (not to mention a bewildered look from Cid. He was good at getting those). Apparently she saw straight through the act.

"Well, I believe that leaves a few of my questions answered already."

There were several seconds then that the two just stared each other down and the line was drawn on both sides. She wasn't going to let him leave a question unanswered, and he wasn't going to give her all the answers she was looking for. It was a look he'd seen passed between political rivals on several occasions when other people were watching for hostile words or anything that could be sold to the press. But it was a civil understanding. More ground rules might even had been laid down were it not for Cid.

"Like?" the blond demanded, frowning at first Nida, then Yuffie.

"For one thing, Nidus here knows my position back home, which I assume is due to you Cid. For another, he's dealt with people in my position before, and I don't scare him."

"Anything else?"

Nida answered this time, smiling softly, "Of course. We've come to an understanding that I'm not allowed to call her 'Lady' anymore."

"The mere fact that he even used that shows he's never set foot in Wutai," she continued, smiling widely. Apparently she did not get to speak down to the chain-smoking pilot very often.

"And why would ya say that Yuf?"

"No one back home would dare to call me 'Lady' to my face, unless my father was in the room."

"Well then, don't bother me until you've gotten some real answers from the kid Yuffie."

"I didn't bother you. You bothered us," she countered, turning to smile at Shera as the woman set a BLT before her. "Thanks Shera."

"Any time my dear," the older woman responded before setting food before the two men and sweeping out of the room. She was not to be involved in this.

Once she was out of earshot Yuffie rattled off in a language Nida did not even remotely recognize. One thing he was horrible at was languages, failed every exam he had taken. Luckily those courses hadn't been vital towards his success and graduation. Unfortunately it meant that he always had difficulty when he was dealing with Odine. Apparently the man was as bad at the common language as Nida was at foreign ones.

There were a few more moments of apparent rambling before Yuffie trailed off and sighed. "That is another one down. You can't speak a word of Wutain. Tell me Nidus, were your parents Wutain?"

How was he supposed to answer that? Of course they weren't, they couldn't be from here could they? Then again, he didn't know them. Hadn't ever.

"I don't think they were, but I can't be sure. I'm an orphan."

From the look on Yuffie's face she wasn't quite sure if she should give him a big hug or sigh. Finally she settled for the former and reached over the table to wrap her arms around his neck.

"Oh, you poor thing! That is just so horrible! When did you lose them?"

There were questions he didn't want to answer. There were questions he didn't know how to answer. And there were questions he just couldn't answer. Somehow this one fit into all three of the categories. He wasn't sure why that was, he just knew that was how it was.

"I really don't want to talk about it. Could we move on?"

Yuffie recoiled from the ice that he knew was in his voice. He'd never really known anyone, save Squall and Rinoa, who really knew their parents. Most of the children in the Gardens were either orphans, or didn't talk about their parents. It was usually a taboo topic.

"Of course… One last thing, Nidus… what's your real name? And please don't think me as gullible as Cid here. He's a good guy and all, but he wouldn't know a fake name if it bit him in the butt."

That was the one question he hadn't expected, and Nida was actually thrown for a loop. "My name is Nidus…"

"Listen," Yuffie sighed, raising a hand to silence Cid before he could speak up. "You're not a fool, and I'm not a fool. If you don't want to tell me your name, then I will accept it, but I don't like being lied to. I've had stuff like that told to me many times before. I might not be as quick on the uptake as others, but every time I said the name you gave, you actually seemed to hesitate for a moment. You knew I was talking to you, but it was as if you were expecting something else. I guess you don't have to use aliases a lot."

The SeeD sighed and leaned back in his chair. "It's Nida. Nida Nomura."

"Well, Mister Nomura, it's a pleasure to meet you," Yuffie said with a smile, holding out her hand to him. There was a moment of hesitation before he took it with a smile.

"The pleasure is all mine Yuffie."

It was a good afternoon, punctuated by a damn good BLT.

--------

Sundown had hit before Yuffie had left the house for the night. Once Cid had gotten over the initial stumbling over Nida's name things had gone smoothly. Yuffie had attempted to help the two work on the Tiny Bronco, but she was as good with that as they were with understanding the Wutain curses she managed to spew out every several minutes when she dropped something or set them back an extra ten minutes. And after a nice dinner of pot roast (Nida had never had such a wonderful meal) Cid had gone to escort Yuffie to the inn for the night.

Left to his own devices Nida had done the dishes, found a beer in the fridge, and headed out back to check on Cid's Lady. They hadn't actually gotten anything new done. Actually, since Yuffie began to help they'd actually been put back to about where they had begun in the morning. Not that Nida had minded so much. He hadn't had the chance to work with someone who knew a bird like this before. Cid knew every inch of his baby, even if he wasn't always sure how to repair things that went wrong. Nida had learned so much about old fashioned aviation just from listening to Cid explain how certain things should have been working if they weren't broken. And the company hadn't been half bad either.

With beer in hand the young pilot climbed nimbly onto the plane to rest upon a wing. Cid had, just to prove a point on the power of his baby, jumped up and down on the wing for a whole five minutes, and the sight of a man like him doing something as stupid as that had sent both Nida and Yuffie into fits of hysterical laughter. Now Nida stretched himself out on the wing and sipped at the chilled beer. The sun had set and the stars were slowly coming into view. They were still not his stars. This was not his sky. None of this was his home.

"Yo, kiddo, you out here?" came Cid's voice some time after Nida finally managed to finish of his beer.

"Up here," the SeeD almost cooed, a hand waving over the edge of the wing to show Cid where he was. He was very bad at handling his alcohol. It had been a cause for amusement at several parties.

"Why you up there Nida?"

"Thinkin'," was the response.

"What ya thinkin' bout?"

"Home."

"What is it like… where you're from? That Balamb place."

"Kinda like this, 'cept my ship is there. My home. My friends. Everythin' I know."

There was silence for a bit before Cid leaned against the side of the plane and stared up at the stars as well. At least, that was what Nida assumed he was doing. His mind was kind of out of it at the moment, so there were a lot of assumptions flying around in his head.

"Tell me about your ship."

It was a safe topic, and Nida knew it. Something that he could talk about without getting himself in a worse mood. Didn't matter how sad he was, or how bleak the future could be, just thinking about the Ragnarok made him cheer up.

"She's beautiful Cid," he said after a few minutes, his voice holding the utmost reverence. "Sleek, strong, and a perfect shade of crimson. I don't know how else to put it. She's just…"

"Right?"

Nida nodded, not realizing that Cid wouldn't be able to see the small gesture.

"When you think about her, not much else matters?"

"Yeah. Pretty much."

Were it summer there would have been the sound of crickets to fill the air, or something other than the silence. There wasn't even a breeze to stir up the leaves in the trees. Nida had to make do with the sound of Cid carefully hauling himself up so that he could, presumably, get a good look at Nida.

"Can't handle your liquor, can ya kid?"

There was a smile as Nida slowly lifted his head. He could actually look Cid in the eyes now. Not that it was that important. All he had to do was close his eyes and he could see those bright blues. Were he sober, that might have been a scary thought.

"Not a damn drop."

"Come on then," Cid said reaching out to grab his arm and haul him into a sitting position. "Time to get your drunk ass inside. It's supposed to rain tonight. Don't need ya getting another fever on my watch."

Nida agreed and slowly got to his feet, relying heavily on Cid's tiny bit of support to keep him from falling and getting seriously hurt. Of course that didn't help for long, and Nida hadn't even made it to where Cid was before he started to topple sideways. While he fell from the wing he didn't hit the ground, instead finding himself held loosely in the strong arms of the blond. Cid just smirked and shook his head.

"Ya know what Nomura? You ain't allowed near my beer again. Got it?"

"Yes sir, Captain," Nida giggled, waiting for Cid to release him enough that he could stand on his own. Once his feet were situated below him and he was leaning heavily on Cid, Nida made his way towards the house. Without the strong from of the other man he wouldn't have made it though.

Getting two people through a hall meant only for one at a time was quite a task, one the tipsy Nida was not helpful in accomplishing. Every third step seemed to result in the pair running into a wall or something. By the time Cid dumped the younger man into a bed Nida had earned a whole set of new bruises. He didn't notice of course, far too intent upon cuddling into the bed.

"Oh no ya don't kid," Cid grumbled, shaking him a bit, "ya ain't goin' to sleep in those old clothes again..."

Sadly, the reaction that came with Cid attempting to tug the shirt off of Nida was explosive. Despite the fumbling that he'd been doing before, NIda's hand flashed out with amazing accuracy, and fingers closed around Cid's wrist. Without really realizing what he was doing, the SeeD's grip tightened. It wasn't until Cid winced and pulled away that Nida's hand fell limply to the matress. The situation had sombered him up very quickly.

"Cid, I..." the youth began, frowning, but he was cut off.

"What, afraid I'm going to take advantage of you?"

Honestly, Nida didn't think Cid would, and he felt oddly sad about that. "No, it's just..."

"Everyone has their scars kid. They ain't always visible, but they leave their marks on us. You survived though, and they are proof of that. Never be ashamed of them. No man is more alive than one with scars to show it."

In the silence that followed Cid helped Nida out of the clothes he'd been wearing since the night before. In silence the man tossed the now dirty shirt and pants towards a hamper. In silence Cid helped a body that was shaking between sheets. And in silence Nida pulled the other man close, brushing his lips against those of the blond.

The action surprised Nida of course, as much as it probably did Cid. In fact, by the time Cid had pushed him away, eyes wide with shock, Nida was only just beginning to realize what he had done. By the time Cid was at the door Nida only just realized that Cid had pushed him away. When Cid was finally gone, a thick wooden door between them, Nida was only just beginning to question why he had done what he had.

For a while he laid there staring at the ceiling, but there were no answers to be found there. All Nida knew was that he'd done something unthinkably wrong, something he couldn't really explain away. Sure, he could plead loneliness, he could blame unbearable homesickness, he could even go so far as to say it was because of the alcohol, but it wouldn't be true. Nothing he said, thought, or did, changed the reality of the action.

Before a restless sleep settled over him, the SeeD had made up his mind: tomorrow he was leaving.

--------

A warm summer sun smiled down upon Balamb, the Garden radiant in the light as if it was some little bauble. The light twinkled happily off the gold and blue tings that encircled the grounds and ringed the top of the building. All of the old grounds and water features had been reinstalled since the war and the sound of flowing water and droning bees filled the air. But that was where the similarity of the school he had known and the one before him ended. No students lingered in the sun, no combat classes were being held in the open, and not a single soul seemed to stir. The more that Nida looked upon the place, the less like home it looked and felt. Grass and hedges were over grown, the waters were murky and smelled of swamps, and the pristine building seemed to be falling apart. Everything about the place warned him to stay away, but nothing in him could. This was the only home he'd ever really known.

Each step the SeeD took seemed to pull him further and further away from the Garden he knew even though each step brought him deeper and deeper inside. His boots on the stone floors echoed not only in the halls, but in himself. No matter how far he went, there was no change in the emptiness, the wrongness, the feeling of death that permeated the place. So it came as no surprise when the elevator didn't work and he was forced to use the stairs in the dormitory area to get first to the classrooms and then office of the headmaster.

Squall was exactly where Nida knew he would be, standing behind Quistis's desk, looking out through the windows towards the mountains. While Squall actually had his own office in another part of the building, he was always here pondering many things other than the view. But the familiarity of the man, the way he stood, even what he wore was enough to shake previous feelings of dread from Nida. If Squall was still here then things had to be fine.

"Squall…" Nida said, but it didn't sound right. Why was his voice weary and shaky, and even broken?

Slowly, painfully slowly, Squall turned to regard him, but it waasn't the Squall he knew that looked back. Where moments before there had been a young, powerful General Leonhart with his back to a subordinate, there was now an old man. It was obvious that he was barely standing on his own two legs, and it was only an old stubbornness that kept him so. Proud gray eyes had been made glassy by time, and even his scar was hard to see for all the wrinkles in his face. This was not his companion, his superior, his friend. This was an old man. A sort of man who had grand-children and told them stories about when he was younger about how hard life used to be. It was most definitely not the warrior he'd found himself infatuated with.

"He can't answer you, and even if he could, he wouldn't know what to say," came a familiar and arrogant tone, though with a far gentler edge.

Time had been far kinder to Seifer than it had to Squall. While he did look smaller, more fragile, the man carried himself as proudly as he had in his youth. The skin was paler, his hair bleached pure white by time, and even wrinkles seemed too fearful to perch upon his brow. Somehow Seifer avoided most of the cliché attempts made by time, though he obviously had not escaped completely without being marked.

"Seifer! What is going on here?"

"I should be asking that of you," he responded, moving through the door to join Squall and Nida in the office.

"Why isn't Squall talking to me? Why is Garden in such a poor state? What…"

Seifer raised a hand to silence him. "Slow down. First, Squall got injured not long after you disappeared, you ass. A mission in the Centra area, the Ruins. Refused to replace Shiva with Diablos or Tonberry King. You know how he gets about the ice queen… For some reason, a Tonberry went for his throat. Poor guy barely survived. If someone had been with him, or had gotten there when the distress signal went us, he might not even have gotten a scar. Instead he lost his voice."

The pilot backed up a step, unable to accept the news. Truth was that he was the one that accompanied Squall to Centra. The Tonberrys just hated Seifer too much, and Nida had a pretty good bond to Tonberry King. It was his fault, and he couldn't believe it anyway.

"What it came down to was the fact that Squall just prefers not to talk. When he became unable to even voice an opinion he withdrew more and took even further to the use of GFs. You know what a few months does to the mind? Imagine ten years Nida. Imagine ten years of constant junction! His mind never recovered. And without its Lion, Balamb fell when Rinoa went all psycho bitch on the world. She killed his father, Nidus Nidulus, and when he sealed her away, after promising all those years ago to protect her, he broke down."

Still Nida backed away, covering his ears. It was a lie, all a lie. It couldn't be true, he refused to believe it. None of this could be real. Not a single word.

"Amazing what can happen when one asshole goes AWOL for sixty years…"

"No," Nida mumbled, "I don't believe you! This isn't happening! This isn't REAL!"

The last word was almost screamed as the SeeD sat bolt upright in the bed. A cold sweat had caused his hair and the sheets to become plastered to his body. Every inch of him was shaking, his body betraying him for a single dream.

There was a loud 'rustle-thunk', a groan, and then a rather worried Cid was at his side. The presence of the blond did little to calm Nida though. In fact, it was just the opposite. An already rapid heartbeat nearly doubled, breathing did not relax, and the whole of his body remained strung tighter than a bow.

"Shhh," Cid whispered, leaning in to put his arms around Nida's shaking body. "It's okay. You're safe here kid. It was only a dream. Just a dream. Shh… Just a dream."

In the shelter of Cid's embrace the tense body relaxed, at least somewhat. Here and now, despite the awkwardness of what could have been minutes, hours, or days before, he was finding comfort. There was safety to be had here, wrapped in strong arms and blanketed in a voice that would otherwise have sent shivers down his spine. Desperately in need of the warmth, the care, the comfort, Nida pressed into the hug, burying his face in the shirt Cid was wearing. And, for the first time since coming to this place, Nida cried. He cried for missing his home. He cried for letting Squall down. He cried for being apart from the ones who were his family. He cried for the Ragnarok and those mindless idiots who were his students. He cried because he couldn't have it all back. He cried until he couldn't find any more tears, and then he cried without them.

When he couldn't cry anymore, even without the tears, the younger pilot remained where he was, held tight in the warmth and safety of Cid's arms. Part of him wanted to know why Cid was doing this for him, but it was afraid of asking and afraid of the answer. So he just, very carefully, tilted his head to look up at Cid, knowing how silly he must look with his hair plastered to his head and his eyes all red and puffy. Honestly, he must have looked like he was no more than a little kid terrified by a night mare. In fact, sitting as he was, pressed against Cid (when had the man started running his hand through his hair and why did he make him feel so much more relaxed?) he almost felt like a child held by their parent. At least, that was what he thought it must feel like.

"You okay now?" Cid asked, his voice still gentle and his hand still running through the wet hair.

Knowing his voice would betray him if he even tried the littlest peep, Nida merely nodded.

"Want to talk about it?"

The younger man shook his head, no way in hell.

"Want a glass of warm milk? Maybe some cookies?"

There was another 'thunk', but this time it was proceeded by a 'whap'. Nida couldn't help but smirk triumphantly at Cid on the floor, glaring up at him and the pillow in his hand. What could he say? He hated to be patronized.

"Okay, okay, I get it. I'll leave you alone," Cid grumbled, standing and rubbing his head in a highly exaggerated manner.

"Don't." For a second Nida wasn't sure where the pathetic little yelp had come from, until he saw Cid nod. So that weak and scared voice had been his own. Great. This was all just great. He frowned down at the pillow in his hands, toying with it to try and distract him from the weight that settled beside him on the bed.

"Okay kid, I'll stay, on one condition."

Nida looked up, frown still in place, punctuated by an attempt at a pleading look in his eyes. The sort of look that turned Irvine to putty in Selphie's hands. Cid seemed immune though, probably due to Yuffie, and the blond ran a hand through his own hair as he pondered his condition.

With a nod from Nida, Cid continued with, "Why did you… Earlier you… I was just wondering…"

Ah, the kiss. Nida's cheeks burned, an odd contrast to the chill going through the rest of him. He worked his lips a bit, trying to convince his voice that it should work the right way. Luckily it obeyed.

"I wanted to."

There, now there was no need to blame it on anything else, because blaming it on anything else would invariably lead to questions about the nightmare.

Cid took the answer in silence. Really, he was handling it a lot better than Nida would have thought him capable of. So, taking the chance to interrupt the man before he could think upon it too much and decide to throw him out, Nida posed his own question.

"Why have you stayed in here when I've been sleeping?"

With a smirk Cid threw Nida's answer right back at him.

"I wanted to."

Three words, simple enough, and all the previous confusion, animosity, and misunderstandings between them melted away. Cid didn't need to say anything for Nida to crawl out of the bed to change the soaked sheets. Nida didn't need to say anything to get Cid to open a window to bring in the clean smell of a spring night. Not a word was needed from Cid to get Nida back in bed. Nor was one needed for Nida to coax Cid to join him.

Of course, words weren't needed for them to bid each other good night, but they used them anyway. Just not the sort you said out loud.