Someone tells him once that Valentine's nothing but a pretty boy with a gun. Cid laughs shortly, flicks ash over their boots and walks away.

Cid Highwind knows Corporate when he sees it, no matter how outlandish the drone looks now. It's in the calculating glance that he uses, the way he moves and more importantly the way he holds himself still. It's in all the things he doesn't do rather than the things he does and it makes Cid think of dark suits and darker eyes and people with faces you don't see until you've hit rock bottom and there's nowhere left to run.

Valentine's tall and whip-thin and mysterious, though Cid can't quite work out what the penchant for the gothic's all about. Still, they all have their peculiarities and who's he to judge? Vincent's voice is soft and no-one listens to him when he speaks. His words are lost beneath the rumble of Barrett's voice and the whine of Yuffie's girlish proclamations. Cid listens to him anyway. You don't turn your back on a man like him, one who speaks of love and vengeance and loss in the same breath that he speaks of guns and self-worth. Men like him have potential in all the really dangerous ways.

Still, Cid watches Yuffie fuss over him and Tifa mother him, and Barrett stand in the line of fire when the going gets tough which makes the pilot shake his head and place a mental bet on how long it'll be before Valentine snaps and blows him away. Aerith never seems to know what to say to him and when he's around her eyes are distant and watchful. It's not until years later that Cid manages to figure that one out.

"What are you here for?" he asks one day when it's still four hours to the next town. Valentine takes a long time in answering and when he does he talks about love and loss and Hojo, which makes Cid spit because in the end it always comes back to that filthy little bastard.

The conversation dies after that because both of them have history and neither of them are particularly inclined to look for sympathy. Instead they sit in silence and watch the countryside far below slide beneath the airship.

It's not until a lot later that they start sleeping together, and when they do, neither of them can quite remember who started it.

Chaos takes them all by surprise, even Cid who saw something else in Vincent's eyes in the darkest parts of the night, and no-one knows how to react when he first manifests. Chaos-Vincent is black blood, black wrath and a cold insanity made worse by the awful intelligence that glints in his dark eyes. He tears their enemies apart with claws and teeth, and then looks them all in the eye afterwards and asks them what they're looking at. Vincent asks them the same question when he pulls himself back through the red mist of Chaos and sits shivering amidst the blood on the floor.

Cid makes his way over carefully, and helps him to his feet by one arm. "I don't need any help," Vincent says, "I'm fine, Cid."

"Yeah," Cid replies under his breath, "But we're not. Just let me do this, okay?"

Vincent regards him for a moment, searching his face for a long time, before nodding once and allowing himself to be helped away. By the time they've reached the exit it's less like Cid's holding him up and more like he's holding on to him.

It's a long time before the others follow them.

Later on, when they're tangled in bedsheets and hair and limbs, Cid asks him what he thinks he is.

"I don't know," Vincent replies softly, honestly. "I've never known. And now I never will."

They lie in silence for a long time and then Cid rolls over, covering the other man's body with his own. "Forget it, it ain't important," he says and silences denial with kisses.

It's years later, long after Midgar has fallen into abandonment when they make their return. It's the last stand effort of a group of freaks and half-dead heroes to take back a city overrun with the remnants of ShinRa's mutant soldiers and twisted monsters. It's a publicity stunt for Neo ShinRa and a holy grail for Reeve's young peace corps soldiers. And for them, that famous group of living legends, it's one last chance to prove they still have meaning in a world rushing headlong towards a bright new future.

Except right now the legendary Cid Highwind is feeling his age. The young peace corps soldier in front of him is having trouble laying down enough fire to keep the ranks of monsters at bay and somehow the pair of them have gotten cut off from the rest of the squad. There's winged nasties all around them and huge looming beasts that ripple with muscle and cyber-enhancements. Some of them even have built-in guns and Cid grabs the young soldier and pulls them both out of the line of fire, letting the monsters behind them fall instead.

It's starting to turn desperate and Cid stakes a huge lumbering thing through the heart as the peace corps soldier finalises the job with a round through its head. But there's six more like it and the air is full of the whining buzz of leathery wings and chittering cries and suddenly there's no way out. Cid thinks about being heroic and standing in front of the soldier, but in the end figures she has as much right to a stupid hero's death as he does and puts his back to her instead.

They're both down to the last of their ammo and strength and have just exchanged the last few words they think they'll ever speak ("It's been an honour, Sir Highwind." "Yeah, you too, kid.") when there's a sudden break in the onslaught. The lumbering cyber-beasts pause and look up to somewhere above and behind where the two beleaguered fighters stand. There is a pause for breath that seems to last an age, and then the air is full of blood and movement and a laughter that Cid hasn't heard for years.

"Hey, babe," he says softly, and puts an arm out to stop the soldier from shooting wildly over his shoulder. "S'okay, kid. Cavalry's here."

They watch in silence as Chaos exacts his pleasure on the hapless monsters and before his might all the technology of ShinRa's darkest labs is as nothing. Magic crackles on the air and raises all the hairs on their bodies and not all of it comes from their rescuer. When finally, the last of the creatures is dead, he turns to them, his body streaked with blood, riddled with bullet holes and burned from the magics they've thrown at him.

He grins and his teeth gleam a dirty off-white.

"What- who are you?" the soldier stammers and only Cid's hand on the barrel of her gun keeps her from pointing it somewhere unfortunate. "Are you..?"

"The Devil?" Chaos supplies innocently and then grins wider at her reaction. "Maybe I am..."

"With all due respect, sir," the soldier says. "The Devil's got nothing on you!"

"Take it as a compliment," Cid says lightly and after a moment the look on Chaos' face fades into a grin. He leads them both back to their lost squad and leaves them there before taking to the air again and heading back into the worst of the fighting.

Days later, when the fighting's over, the borders have been secured and the perimeters set up, Cid sits on the outskirts of the city and waits for Vincent to return to him.

He turns up by the third cigarette and seats himself quietly on the wall beside the pilot. Cid offers him a drag and Vincent shakes his head, flipping his cloak neatly across his lap.

"No thank you. It's bad for my health."

Cid looks sideways at him, laughs and pulls his head down to kiss him.