A restless current caught his hair and toyed with it, lovingly stroking his face before whipping it teasingly with the long, dark strands. He brought his hand up to intervene between the stinging tendrils and his skin, keeping them from obscuring his vision. Vincent wanted to see everything tonight. He wanted to memorize the current landscape and remember that which lay dormant under the touch of winter. All if it was beautiful.
He closed his eyes briefly against the ache in his heart. Beautiful. Cid always called him beautiful. Said he was more beautiful than anything in this world. Together, they would come to this very spot, away from the town and the eyes of the curious. They would sit among the fragrant flowers with their many hues beneath the sky filled with swirling clouds, absorbed in each other and their love.
Vincent had known happiness during the years he shared with Cid. Fifty-two years with the pilot and yet it felt as if it had only been a mere moment. In the blink of an eye, Cid was gone. It had been one month since that day.
Fifty-two years and Vincent was unchanged in appearance and forever altered in spirit. Fifty-two years that added to the total count of his lifespan making him one hundred and nine. Wasn’t that long enough?
There was no comfort to be found. No words that would cheer him. Not this time and not ever again. A sense of calm had crept over his skin and filled his veins, and he knew that it was going to be all right.
Because Vincent was, finally, free. Perhaps it had taken Cid Highwind fifty-two years to convince him and another month of solitude to make him fully understand, but he did. He had known such love. Such warmth. Such acceptance. Cid was not the only one to give him those things, but he was the most important.
He pulled Cerberus from of its holster and brushed his fingers affectionately over its familiar shape. Death had always been his companion and a trusted one at that. He never feared it and he would not fear it now. A single bullet filled the weapon’s uppermost chamber. Vincent was pleased that Cerberus would be the entity to bring him rest after all this time.
The sound of one lone gunshot broke the wintry silence, but all too soon the breeze carried it away, leaving behind only cold stillness. Vincent’s body lay across Cid Highwind’s grave, crushing the single red rose Vincent had earlier placed upon it.
On that starry night, a
lover left behind took his life, and found the serenity of which he had only
dreamed.