New chapter, longer this time. Thanks to PfenixB for the inspiration and the wonderful betaing!
15
When Cid finally emerged from the bedroom, first morning cigarette dangling from his lips, he almost let the lighter tumble from his hands as he saw a tall, dark man standing in his living room.
Cursing, he caught the item mid-air and ran a hand through his messy hair, breathing out, "Dammit Vince! Can´t ya yest knock like any decent neighbour?!"
The pale man inclined his head, answering calmly in a deep, slightly raspy voice, "I did, actually. It seemed you were busy, so I invited myself in. I did not know you had company, however. My apologies."
The mechanic stared at him blankly for a moment, before he became painfully aware of how it must have looked when Yazoo came out of his bedroom, wearing nothing but his sleeping shirt (and hopefully some underwear, Cid hadn´t paid much attention to that. Though if he thought about that now a strange jolt shot through his guts).
"What da hell?! It ain´t like dat, okay?!" he blurted out, feeling his cheeks heating up. "I ain´t screwin´ him or anything, what ya think I am?!"
"I do not judge you," Vincent replied quietly, his eyes briefly darting towards the closed bathroom door before his heavy, unreadable gaze came to rest upon the flustered blond again. "I just came to re-borrow five eggs, a cup of salt and half a bottle of milk along with a package of flour and two loafs of bread. I will get the bottle of whiskey another time. And since I am here already I would like to offer my congratulations as well. I do not want to sound offensive but I am happy for you to have found another mate, it certainly was about time."
Cid clicked his gaping mouth shut, thinking that this was certainly the longest monologue he´d ever heard the guy say and instantly felt like pointing out in very colourful language that he didn´t have a new mate and that Vincent Valentine could shove his damn congratulations back up his friggin skinny ass! Instead, he walked over to the kitchen though, feeling those creepy eyes follow him, and replied testily, "Look, sorry ´bout da food stuff, I swear I ain´t forgotten dat on purpose. Yest, lotsa things goin´on recently." He shot the man a sharp look over his shoulder "An´most certainly nat da things ya pervy self's thinkin´, ya got me?"
Vincent remained silent, but his impassive look probably said more than any words of doubt could ever have. Unnerved, Cid finally lit his cigarette, snorting out the warm smoke through his nose, and opened the fridge to see what he could probably shove into the guy's face to finally get him and his unsettling attitude out of his apartment. Seriously, as if he´d take advantage of a mentally unstable young man who just had lost the love of his life! What kind of animal did they think he was?! Though, if he thought about it more, it was actually Yazoo taking advantage of him by just crawling under his blankets…
Angrily shaking his head, Cid grabbed for a bottle of milk – which could very well have been the same one he had borrowed three weeks ago from Valentine- and two eggs, shoving them into the man´s arms.
"I´ll get da rest back ta ya later," he grumpily announced, closing the fridge door and leaning against it with his arms crossed in a defensive manner.
Vincent looked at the bottle with a lifted brow, shaking its almost solid contents a little and being glad that it was closed (at least he got himself some quark).
He gave a slight nod then, attempting to leave the smoke infested apartment and its grumpy occupant in denial, when Cid scratched his chin and came after him, grabbing his arm.
"'Ey wait!"
Vincent turned his head in question and the mechanic scratched his chin again.
"Ya still doin´that shootin´stuff?"
"Target practice, you mean? Yes, I do."
Cid nodded, asking himself for the thousandth time what exactly it was Vincent earned his money with – but then he maybe didn´t want to know too exactly. It sufficed that he knew that the man was quiet and always fully stocked when he had forgotten to go grocery shopping.
"Yah… Ya think ya could teach a pal o´mine da basics? Ya know dat guy´s weak like a bloody kitt´n an´ drops dead when ya only lookin´at him in da wrong way…" Unconciously his eyes drifted back to the bathroom door, where the noise of the running water had stopped.
Following the man´s gaze Vincent defied a small, amused smile spoiling his aloof features and answered calmly "I would be delighted to teach him." He secretly felt rather relieved to see his friend finally take an interest in another person again. God knew he had been moping about his wife´s death long enough now…
"Great, I´m gonna send ´ím over after work," Cid quickly said, licking his lips and then practically pushing the man out the door. The last thing he needed was the two of them getting to meet in his corridor and make the situation even more awkward.
Closing the door in Vincent´s face with another distracted, hasty nod of gratitude he sighed as he finally got him out and went back to the living room. There he was greeted by Yazoo, bent over and drying his long hair with a towel, another one draped around his slender hip.
Groaning Cid rolled his eyes and turned his head away from the pretty boy standing almost naked -and rather unfazed about it- in the middle of the room. Just what was it with kids these days?! No respect for older people's concepts of decency nor any consideration for their… well, rising discomfort due to the strange excitement building up in his stomach. Damn, it hadn´t been that long since, had it?
"Who was that?" Yazoo calmly asked, laying the towel aside and starting to go through his plastic bag to find something that certainly wouldn´t cover much more of his exquisite body than the tiny towel did.
"Ma neighbour," Cid grunted, walking back into the kitchen to make something to eat. His apprentice quickly followed, drawing his long hair up into a ponytail since it was more practical, and started to heat some water.
Seeing Yazoo reaching for the tea bags, the mechanic pushed the coffee machine away and instead started to search for something edible in the cupboards.
"I didn´t know you had neighbours… I never saw nor heard him before," Yazoo marvelled, stopping in his task of putting tea bags into two cups to look over at the blond.
"Yeah?" Cid said, stubbing his cig out in one of the many ashtrays littering his apartment. "He´s a quiet guy." Shrugging, the older man smelled at a bag of cereal and decided that it seemed relatively okay, so he put it on the table. He almost wanted to go over to the fridge to get the milk when he remembered that he had given it back to his infiltrating neighbour –the goddamn gods knew how he had come here in anyway.
So he simply sat down, grabbing the hot steaming cup of tea Yazoo put down before him and started to mix the dusty, dry mass in his bowl with chamomile tea. The youth sat down opposite him, crossing his long legs and, after a sceptic look at the cereal, decided that he was fine with just tea.
"A´right. About dat earlier: ya can´t yest sleep in ma bed," Cid suddenly decided.
Yazoo looked from his tea, cocking his head slightly to the side. "Why not? I slept very well and since you won´t try anything I do not see any problems with it." His eyes then narrowed suspiciously as he added critically "You won´t, will you?"
"Wha- Damn sure I won´t! But dat´s nat the point – Eat ya damn cereal, will ya!" Cid returned in an irritated manner, gulping down a large sip of his own tea to hide his flustered state and morosely motioned with his head at the bowl he had prepared for his apprentice.
Yazoo reluctantly prodded with his spoon in the crispy mass and then obediently ate a tiny bit, answering with a lifted brow, "What is the point then? You slept better as well, didn´t you?"
"Yah- No. Well… Maybe, a little…" the mechanic frowned, his own spoon pausing halfway to his mouth.
"Hn. It is merely a practical arrangement," Yazoo pointed out boredly, eyeing his food before his jade gaze went up to rest on his employer´s scrubby face again. "I work better when I am not sleep deprived. And my mood profits remarkably from that as well."
"Ya ain´t-" Cid flared up again, but then he paused, thinking about it with another frown. Bitchy, dour Yazoo vs. the nice, pleasant-to-be-around guy; it wasn´t really a tough choice.
"What da fuck…" he muttered again, rubbing at his temple and the upcoming headache until he let his spoon sink down in favor for another much needed cig and announced with a grumpy look, "Fine, ya win. But no cuddling, ya hear me?"
"Hn." Yazoo smirked, and guided another spoon full of the disgusting cereal to his mouth.
*
Panting, Yazoo grabbed for a water bottle on the counter. He almost regretted his move on Cid, namely sneaking into his bed to get some much-needed sleep, since it seemed that his employer took a certain delight on getting back at him with driving him around the block to the point of a near collapse. Worst thing was that he actually ran beside him the whole time, prodding him to go faster and stop 'sauntering like a damn pussy'. With the consumption of his daily amount of cigarettes that consisted of at least one package, Yazoo seriously wondered what he did wrong, because while he was ready to drop dead, Cid had enough energy to curse his 'girly ass' and not even break a sweat.
Emptying half the bottle, he leaned against the counter, his lithe form heaving with deep intakes of breath. Leaning his forehead against the cool bottle, he closed his eyes to rest for a moment before the lunch break was over – which actually hadn´t really been a break at all- and they opened the shop again. He had just enough time to take a quick shower and change clothes before he went down again and prepare for re-opening…
The sudden shrilling of the telephone going off right beside him made him flinch, but not enough to abandon his lazy posture. Looking at the phone in slight annoyance he reached for it and said languidly into the speaker,
"Cid Highwind´s repair and assembling shop, Yazoo speaking, what can I do for you?"
Hopefully it wasn´t another super-excited agent who wanted to sell his overpriced screws, happily exclaiming that their shop had been chosen to get a 'special dumping price' that still cost twice as much as any regular price on the market.
There was a pause in which Yazoo almost cut the line (prank calls seemed to have become rather popular amongst the runts that weren´t old enough to shoot their fellow coevals on the streets yet), but then a familiar voice finally spoke up.
"Yo, babe."
"…Reno?" Surprised, Yazoo stood from the counter, briefly looking to the garage where Cid was currently working on something and then pulling the receiver closer.
"Yeah, it´s me."
Tilting his head, Yazoo remained quiet, waiting for the other to speak, but as nothing came he said,
"What do you want?" The coldness of his tone surprised him a bit, but then he didn´t feel as excited as he usually would have upon hearing from his boyfriend.
There was a laugh from the other end of the line that sounded a bit forced as Reno started to pace the apartment with one hand at his hip, saying, "No need to be so hostile, yo, just wanted to hear how ma princess is doin'."
"I am fine," the silver haired youth replied dismissively, intentionally not asking how Reno felt in return.
"That´s great."
"Hn."
"Soo… Any idea when ya comin´back?"
"I don´t know."
"I see… Ya still angry, or what?"
"Maybe."
There was a brief pause again, during which Reno, at the other end of the line, rubbed over his face, saying quietly and with evident remorse, "I´m sorry, I love you."
"I love you too." Yazoo replied, briefly closing his eyes. This wasn´t easy for him, either, but Cid´s words and actions had started to make a frightening amount of sense to him. Strangely enough he didn´t see himself as a victim here, a damsel in distress or as someone helpless. In a way it had been his decision to let Reno have his way when he was drunk and felt like beating the crap out of him. He had simply remained impassive and not spend much thought on it. But it was different now. He didn´t want to get beaten anymore. Reno simply had to understand that, somehow…
"I know baby, that´s cool," the redhead exclaimed enthusiastically, sounding relieved. "And I totally get that you felt like taking a pause to think and all, I did really bad things – or rather almost did them… But you can come home now, we can sort this out together, yo!"
"Reno… I don´t think so. I´d rather stay here for a few more days…"
"Oh, c´mon! I said I was sorry, didn´t I ? I´m really really really sorry, okay? I didn´t mean to do those things, you know that, damn!"
"… Are you drunk?"
"And what the hell if I am?! … Sorry, didn´t want to yell… Look, I´m sorry. It´s just… I miss you, yo."
"I miss you too. I just don´t feel that it´s a good idea to come back right now. Just be patient with me for another few days, hm?"
The line remained silent, until Reno eventually gave a snort and a cold "Yeah, sure. Whatever" and just hung up.
Looking at the dead phone, Yazoo briefly shook his head and put it back, almost glad that he could open the shop and distract himself from the unpleasant thoughts that the bitter aftertaste of that conversation brought.
TBC
They got a neighbour, yay ^__________^ But, admittedly, they only got one because someone mentioned (I can´t remember who, please forgive me, whoever the great inspirator was!) that Cid´s neighbours had a pretty hard life with him stomping through his apartement at 2 am XD. Thanks for the idea^^
luvyuyu: Hehe, Cid´s still in denial, or rather: he just starts to become aware that Yazoo has other qualities and that they get to him, indeed. Even if he rejected Yazoo´s former attempts to 'seduce' him. But now that Yazoo doesn´t try and the two get closer and start to like and respect each other it´ll become difficult for Cid to tell himself that he doesn´t want Yazoo at all ;)
Valitiel: Yes, he really should pay Yazoo already!!! Hm, but then again he lets him live in his apartment, use his bathroom and electricity, gives him food and lo- *cough* We aren´t there yet, damn it *wants it all to go faster*
Review please?