By Kristen Gupton-Williams

By mid afternoon Cid, Tifa, and Vincent had moved into the living room and were half-heartedly watching television. As time wore on, Tifa grew increasingly tired from getting up too early and the stressful morning. It wasn’t too long before she went to go lie down for a nap leaving Cid and Vincent alone.

Cid sat in his usual chair with the baby dozing in his arms. Vincent was on the couch, slumped over onto his side also feeling the fatigue from the morning. A long uncomfortable silence passed between he and Cid before Vincent finally spoke up. "You would kill me, wouldn’t you?"

After rolling his eyes, Cid looked over at his companion. "Well what in the hell do you think? I’m just gonna let that psycho living in you kill me, Tifa, and the kid?"

"No, of course not." Vincent didn’t really know where he was headed with this conversation. "Was there any reservation on your part about stabbing me, or did you just go for it?"

Cid cocked an eyebrow. "Look Sunshine, I know that wasn’t you."

"So you had no problem retaliating?" Vincent pressed on.

"You want to know the fucking truth?" This conversation was pointed at deciphering Cid’s feelings and he was getting annoyed. "Yeah, I hated to do it. In fact, I closed my god damned eyes ‘cause I didn’t want to look as I potentially killed you, Chaos or not."

"Really?" Vincent was, on some level very touched.

He huffed; wishing Vincent would drop it. "Yeah, funny seeing how I usually really enjoy trying to kill my friends."

"Did you just call me your friend?" Vincent asked, sitting up straight.

"You know, you’re as bad as Tifa needing to get into all this emotional crap." Cid scowled.

Vincent thought for a few moments. "What were you most afraid I would do?"

"Hurt Tifa or my boy." Cid said curtly.

"You were more concerned about them than yourself?" Vincent asked.

"More concerned for them than myself or you." Cid said. "Look, I know you’re gonna agree that if it came down to either killing you or having Tifa hurt you would want me to take you out. And protecting my kid is a no brainer."

"Yeah, you’re right." Vincent smiled faintly. "I would rather you do that than risk me hurting Tifa."

"So I figured." Cid shifted the baby in his arms.

"Well, thanks." Vincent laid back down.

"For what?" He glanced over at Vincent. "Almost killing you?"

"For putting Tifa’s safety before mine."

"Sure, anytime you need your ass kicked, just call me up." Cid grinned to himself.

"Will do." Vincent almost laughed.

Several more minutes passed before Cid spoke up in an uncharacteristic tone. "I don’t want it to come to that. Even if I killed you to save Tifa and the kid, I don’t think I’d be able to cope with it very well."

"You like me that much?" Vincent was shocked that the pilot was voluntarily continuing the conversation.

"No." Cid shrugged. "But I would have to live with Tifa knowing that I killed you. I know she would be good about it, that’s just her way but I would have to live with the knowledge that I took away the thing she loved most. That would just fucking kill me."

"Oh, yeah." Vincent just stared up at the ceiling. "You can always just wing me again if I get out of hand."

"You know, Chaos doesn’t really leave me with a lot of choices." Cid reached down with his free arm and started fidgeting with the remote control. "But hopefully we aren’t going to have to deal with that, are we?"

"I should hope not." Vincent sighed.

"Can I seriously ask you something?" Cid said; suddenly seeming to grow a little embarrassed.

Vincent was intrigued and craned his neck so he could look at the pilot. "What?"

"Why do you think that Tifa went for you?" Cid’s voice was hushed.

Vincent had no good answer for this. "I really don’t know, Cid. In light of who I am and what I’ve done, I don’t know why in the hell she would want to be my friend much less anything else. I was surprised when she agreed to leave New Nibelheim with me even though Cloud was supposedly dead."

"You think it was just a matter of you being in the right place at the right time?" Cid pried on, not entirely certain of why.

"I don’t know." Vincent thought back on his reunion with Tifa so many months before. "I hope not."

Cid twisted up a corner of his mouth in thought. "Maybe she suffered some sort of brain damage back in AVALANCHE."

Vincent leered over at his companion and hurled a pillow from the couch at him.

Cid easily deflected the projectile with his free arm. "You’re gonna wake up the kid, Sue. Act your age."

"Then I’d need a walker and adult diapers I suppose." Vincent joked half to himself.

"How fucking old are you?" Cid asked, not really certain.

"Sixty three." Vincent replied. "Of course, I was asleep for damn near thirty years of that."

"And when you get your new body, your gonna go for Tifa’s age?" Cid continued.

Vincent nodded despite his odd position. "Yeah."

"Wish I could get my body turned back about ten years or so." Cid sighed.

"Why? You seem to be in good shape." Vincent asked.

"I’m gonna be pretty near sixty by the time this kid is ready to fledge." He stared down at the baby. "And not the nice ‘still twenty-something’ sixty that you are. I just worry that I ain’t gonna be able to keep up with the critter."

"If anyone can do it, it’d probably be you." Vincent laughed, thinking of a very old Cid being even crabbier than he presently was. "At least you get the chance to raise your kid yourself. I screwed that up."

"Yeah, that really must have sucked." Cid thought how empty his life would be if not for his child. "Losing Sephy, Jaras, whatever you call him, and then having Angel made shake and bake in a lab."

"At least I know them now, and they are fine all considering." He thought about his adult children.

"Yeah, who would have figured, especially considering they are yours." Cid’s tone was filled with biting sarcasm.

"We’ll see who has the last laugh when your son is grown up." Vincent laughed.

Cid thought for a moment and smiled. "Yeah, who knows how I’m gonna mess this boy up."

***