Family Bliss - Social Services part II

Title: Family Bliss - Social Services part II


Miss Steelglove was ridicolously relived when the tall dark and - her sensible mind refused to acknonwlodge the word but her heart still provided it - *vampire* like man next to her stepped out into the sunlight without bursting into flames and turning into a pile of dust. He just squinted a little as he opened the door for her with still but impeccable old-fashioned curtesy and led her across the lawn.



There was a huge plane hangar on the backside of the house; Miss Steelglove had of course seen it as she drove up to the house. The enormous airship was hard to miss, and her papers had provided her with information of the cargo business that was the family's main source of income.



What it had not provided was information of the kind of language that came from the innards of the hangar. Two people - a man and a woman - was spewing the most insane verbal atrocities over one another at the top of their lungs, inbetween incomprehensible gibberish that might be mechanical information and might just be even more obscure insults. The cheer volume of the argument was enough to make Miss Steelglove stop dead in her tracks and the language used made her ears threaten to close down forever.



"Oh that is nice." Mr Valentine said next to her in a voice to dead and devoide of emotions that it was impossible to say if he was ironic or genuine. "I didn't know Shera had come over."



A woman with long brown hair and an oil-stained white lab coat on stormed out of the hangar, her cute face belaying the absolutley obscene things she was shouting back over her shoulder. When she saw Vincent and Miss Steelglove she reined herself in, brushed off some dust from her coat, adjusted her glasses and came over.



"Hello Vincent. I just came by to help Cid with that malfunctioning carborator and give him a few god tips on engine maintainance."



"Yes, I can hear he appreciated that." Vincent's voice was still so dead that Miss Steelglove had no idea what the man actually meant. "This is Miss Steelglove from Social Services. She's here to check on the boys. Miss Steelglove, this is Shera, my husband's best friend."



"Best friend?" Miss Steelglove said a bit weakly as they shook hands.



"Oh yes, don't let Cid scare you, he's really mushy inside. And," Shera glared at Vincent, "all of him is going to be a real mushy pile and nothing more if you allow him to take flight with the carborator pipes that filthy. They will catch fire, explode and take down the whole Highwind with everyone inside it!"



"I will let him know that. Thank you Shera." Vincent nodded, apparently unmoved by the potential lethal accident.



"And you can also tell him he's a a moldy piece of ShinRa turd with all the mechancial savvy of Palmer's lost underwear." She smiled.



"I fucking heard that!" Came a roar from inside the hangar. "Ya have no idea what the Hell yer talking about, ya silly old bint!"



"I knew enough to save your life before, you left- over old-timer!" Shera screamed back and then turned and waved at Vincent.  "Well, I will see you later, Vincent. Good bye Miss Steelglove." She walked away, head held high after getting the last word.





The hangar was nice and cool after the glarign sun outside and there was a man in cut off jeans inside, peering into a piece of steel pipe.



"Damn old woman was right." He muttered as Miss Steelglove and Vincent stepped inside. "This thing is a dirty disaster waiting ta happen." He took of his glases and picket up an old rag, whistling as he started to clean the pipe.



"Yeah, you should listen to chicks when it comes to cleaning out the pipes." Somehow Reno had made it to the hangar Before them and was not sitting on a crate, dangling his legs and smoking a filched cig. He leered at Miss Steelglove who was starting to really wish her panties had a firmer lining.



"Cid," For the first time, Vincent's voice held a shred of emotion. "This is Miss Steelglove from Social Services. Miss Steelglove, this is my husband, Cid Higwind."



Cid turned and Miss Steelglove blinked a little. The pilot - ex astronaut, ex dragoon - was short, tanned, fit and had a sprinkle of fine gold dusting over his chest that her fingers just itched to caress. If Reno had made her pants want to drop and Vincent had made her want to swoon in moonlight, then this man made her want to bake applepies and leave them to cool in the windowsill. And then rub the pie all over that hard muscular body and lick it of.



Miss Steelglove had to remind herself very firmly that not only was this a married couple but they were also gay.



"Nice ta meet ya," Cid said cautiously, shaking her hand. "So yer here ta check on the boys, eh? They're good boys, ya know. No trouble at all."



Behind him, Vincent and Reno exchanged a truly exasperated look.



"Well, the boys are inside. I guess ya wanna meet them so let's all go there an sit our asses down for a while and have a cup of tea." Cid put his various tools aside and was about to leave when Vincent cleared his throat slightly. He had been watching the pilot's strong back with a hunger that wasn't very vampire-like at all.



"Please put on a t shirt, cheif. We have a lady present."



"That woman Shera was here just a few minutes ago," Miss Steelglove protested weakly as  Cid found a blue t shirt and wriggled into it.



"Shera ain't a lady, she's my oldest friend. And a bint. But a damn fine mechanic, if she could say it herself, which she does, repetedly." Cid muttered to himself.



They came outside again, and miss Steelglove composed herself enough to start asking some questions.



"So, I see here - " she glanced through her papers " - that the boys have never recieved any form of formal or higher education?" She glanced at Cid disapprovingly over her glasses but it was Vincent who answered.


"They have been homeschooled. They are...severly traumatized by their childhood and we deemed it safer to school them at home."


"Safer?"


"Yeah, you know. For the school, the other pupils, the teachers....most of Gaia, really." Reno stubbed out the stump of the cig and shrugged. "Education ain't shit all. I wasn't much in school and I turned out fine."


There was a momentary laps in the Valenwind and Miss Steelglove's steps as they tried to fit that statement into reality and their Brains collectivley gave up. Miss Steeglove deemed it safer to move on from that particular subject.


"Still boys in that age need stimuli and the Company of others their age. Don't they have any friends?" She pressed on.


"Well, there is Zack, the neighbours boy. He is about their age." Cid scratched his head. "They fight and fuck with him a lot."


"They....fuck?!" Miss Steelglove's voice went momentarily shrill.


"My dear husband means 'fuck' as in play pranks with." Vincent quickly lied. "He did in no way mean unprotected underage sexual intercourse."


"I didn't?" Cid looked confused. "'Cause I mean fighting and fucking is kind of their main hobbies, and Zack's, so there's that in common...."


"Again, my *beloved* husband uses a rather coars language to describe the kind of rough horseplay youngsters sometimes engage in." Vincent tried to give Cid significant glances over Miss Steelglove's head, to no avail. "Zack is a nice boy and not someone to sleep around."


Cid gave  him a look as if he'd suddenly gone daft.


"Are we talkin' about the same Zack here? Huge kid, cheerful as a drunk cat, hair like a state of mental illness, seems ta somehow be unresistable ta anything that walks on two legs and I ain't to certain about Nanaki either after that long 'walk' those two did last time he came ta visit...."


"Please step inside," Vincent sighed at Miss Steelglove's stunned face as he opened the door for her. behind Cid, Reno couldn't help but facepalm.