By Kristen Gupton-Williams

Later that evening on the airship found Brad and Cid sitting together in one of the cabins. Cid's son was down for the night amongst a small nest of blankets that his father had arranged on the floor. With his parental responsibilities for the day more or less at an end, Cid hadn't hesitated in the least when Brad had shown up at his door with a case of beer. Now, several hours later, both Cid and Brad were enjoying inebriation and sat talking as retired military men often do.

Brad sat in a chair, swirling the remaining beer in his last bottle. "How you feelin' about going back to Wutai?"

Cid scowled for a second as he thought out his answer. "You know, I wasn't all that thrilled about being there seven years ago, not after serving in the war. We lost a lot of friends there and it just sucks. Too many reminders."

Both pilots had been in the Shin Ra army during the second attempt at subduing the country. The Great Wutain War had taken place some seventy years previous, with Shin Ra the loser. However, the company wasn't above reattempting dominance and had tried a second smaller invasion of the land shortly after Cid and Brad had enlisted. This smaller war, if it could even really be called that was short lived, but bloody none the less. The Wutains had resisted fiercely, being too proud a people to roll over in submission to anyone, much less the world dominating company. Still, over three thousand people on both sides had perished, many of them pilots as Shin Ra had attempted to make it an air war.

Veterans such as these two rarely if ever visited the lands where the worst days of their lives had played themselves out and there was still some animosity in the two men toward the Wutain citizens, whether their bid to maintain sovereignty had been legitimate or not.

Brad nodded after considering Cid's words. "I hear you. Besides, the food is hideous."

"I know." Cid flipped the top of yet another bottle. "Would it kill them to cut the fucking heads off of the animals they cook up?"

The chopper pilot laughed, "Exactly. There's just something really nasty about your dinner staring up at you."

"Yeah, and the women ain't go no figures either." Cid sighed.

"Damn straight." Brad laughed again. He had always been a happy drunk if nothing else. "If it wasn't Tseng we were going there for, I sure as hell wouldn't be on this ship."

"Yeah," Cid hadn't even really known Tseng all that well, but he still had accrued a healthy level of respect for the man, even if he had rarely displayed it in the way he tended to refer to him. "He was all right."

"You ever miss the old days?" Brad asked. Even though their shared military service had been hard, there occasionally was a part of him that missed it.

Cid shrugged. "I dunno. Some parts of it maybe."

"You've got to admit, we did have some good times during our trips off base." Brad raised an eyebrow as he recalled their frequent drunken escapades.

"Amen to that!" Cid reached out and let his bottle clink against Brads. "We raised our share of hell didn't we?"

Brad chuckled. "We sure did."

***

Tifa undressed and slipped into bed, trying not to disturb Vincent who way lying asleep on top of the sheets. Despite her best attempts to not wake him, just as she lay back and placed her head upon her pillow his eyes flew open.

Tifa remained motionless just looking back at him, half hoping that he would simply go back to sleep.

He didn't though and soon rolled onto his side and propped his head up on one of his arms. "Hey."

"Hey yourself." Tifa smiled through her tiredness. "How did it go?"

Vincent made a nonchalant expression. "Fine. What did you and Jaras do?"

"Gave Reno a hard time." Tifa's smile broadened. "And I hurt him."

"Who, Jaras or Reno?" Vincent's sleepy mind wasn't making connections very fast.

"Reno, silly." She reached out and tugged on an errant tendril of his hair. "But seriously, how did it go?"

"Well, Jeanine's a pretty sharp girl, I'll tell you that much. Cuts right to the chase," he replied.

"So what do you think? Do you think you'll talk to her again?" Tifa asked, continuing to twirl his hair around her finger.

"She said we will get together again in a few days." Vincent forced a frown. "I didn't manage to scare her off, apparently."

"Good, I really am proud of you for going through with it." She finally let his tress slip from her grip.

Vincent rolled his eyes. "I didn't really feel like I had much of a choice. I'd do anything to make you happy, you know that, right?"

"Oh Vincent," Tifa moved a little closer to him, "I just want to see you feel better and not act like you have to hide and push everyone away."

"I'm trying to get my head screwed on straight." Vincent draped his free arm over her middle. "She did have a suggestion for me though."

"What's that?" Tifa was intrigued.

"She said I need to vent my anger; to go and scream or break dishes." Vincent smiled at the thought.

"Well, can we maybe wait 'til tomorrow to start your anger management therapy?" Tifa let her eyes close. "I'm to tired to go destroying things tonight."

Vincent feigned disappointment. "Okay, if you insist."