Work Text:
The parcel was delivered to the workshop late in the afternoon. Cid was alone; seeing as it was the time of the Starlight Celebrations — and Eorzea was not currently in urgent need of new magitek to escape one doom or another — he’d told Biggs and Wedge to go join the festivities. He had planned to follow soon after but somehow he’d ended up tinkering on his present for Nero, and after that it had seemed only natural to pick up his present for Historia and keep working. He wasn’t sure he’d go as far as to call himself a workaholic, but… alright, he would.
He had to stop his tinkering and hide the project when he saw that Historia herself was directing the men carrying the parcel. Men, in plural, because the parcel was a rather big crate and looked heavy. Curious… He had not ordered new materials recently, and certainly not in such quantities. He frowned at the Warrior of Light, who flashed a bright smile. Too bright; she was certainly up to something.
“I promised Nero I’d have this delivered,” she chirped.
“Nero?!” Cid exclaimed. “Where is he? Is he alright?” He hoped the idiot hadn’t decided to vanish off the face of Hydaelyn again. He had a tendency to do that, Cid well knew, but he’d hoped to have a chance to spend some time with the man over the festival.
“He was alright the last I saw him,” Historia replied breezily. She tiptoed up to him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Enjoy~!”
And with that she was gone, leaving Cid to frown at the curious package. He’d open it after finishing Historia’s present.
In retrospect, Nero thought, this was likely the most ridiculous thing he’d ever done. He was on his knees inside the crate, shirtless, arms bound behind his back with red-and-gold ribbons that Historia had procured from somewhere. Her face when he’d asked her help with this had alone been worth the discomfort of actually carrying out the plan, although he had high hopes that Cid would make it even more worth it.
If the bloody man ever decided to open the package.
Nero wished he’d thought to tell Historia to instruct Cid to open it as soon as he was alone. He could be patient — well, sometimes — but his knees and back were beginning to ache. He should have thought to ask for a pillow under his knees, at the very least…
He would never have thought it was possible to fall asleep as uncomfortable as he was, but he must have dozed off because the next thing he knew he was startled awake by the lid of the crate being wrenched open. There was a sound of something, a tool, clattering onto the stone floor. Then… dead silence. Nero raised his head, squinting against the workshop lighting to see Cid staring down at him with a poleaxed look.
“What the hells, Nero?” Cid finally managed, his voice a mixture of exasperation and utter bafflement.
Nero smirked up at the other man. “Merry Starlight!” Then he winced as he tried to straighten from his crouched position. The hours spent in the cramped space had made his body remember he was no longer twenty.
Cid shook his head with something that was half a sigh, half a chuckle. “Where in the hells did you get such an idea from?” he asked, not sounding as though he expected an answer and so Nero didn’t bother coming up with one. “Here, let me help…” Cid helped Nero to his feet, still shaking his head and muttering under his breath. There may have been another strangled half chuckle at the sight of the ribbons, and Nero felt his face flushing with embarrassment, but Cid made no comment, at least out loud.
After a few moments of awkwardly stretching his stiff limbs, Nero sat on the workbench. He had sense of humour enough to see the comical side of the situation, and he was old enough to laugh at himself… well. He was old enough to acknowledge that he would be able to laugh at this soon enough. For now, however… He glanced sideways at Cid, who stood watching him, arms crossed, a tiny frown creasing his brow.
“That didn’t go quite as you planned, I take it?” Cid said.
Nero had to laugh. “Your talent for understatement never fails to astound me, Garlond,” he replied. He ran a hand through his hair. “I was kind of hoping you’d be pleasantly surprised and we’d end up having mindblowing sex on your desk. Or the floor. Or against the wall. I’m not too picky.”
“I hope you realise there are simpler ways to achieve that,” Cid said, and if there still was a note of exasperation in his voice, he didn’t sound disapproving. Then he smiled. “I am pleasantly surprised to see you, though.” He stepped closer and took Nero’s head between his hands and kissed him, slowly and gently. “I’ve missed you,” he whispered against Nero’s lips.
Nero returned the kiss, perhaps a bit more aggressively than necessary, to avoid having to speak. He’d missed Cid, too, but saying it out loud, even now, was beyond him. Cid didn’t seem to mind the change of pace, though, and by the time they parted again they were both breathing hard and flustered.
Cid grinned, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “So…” he began, sounding slightly breathless in the best possible way. “Is that mindblowing sex still on the agenda or are you just teasing me now?”
Nero stared. He’d thought he had ruined his chances of that for tonight, but Cid was looking at him like he definitely meant business. “Oh.” Eloquent, Nero, so eloquent… “I mean yes. Absolutely. If you want. I mean, I certainly do.”
Cid picked up the red-and-gold ribbons again and raised his eyebrows. “Shall we skip back to the bit where you’re tied up and I’ve just been handed the best Starlight present of my entire life?” he asked. But he quickly added, “Only if you want to, mind. We can leave the ribbons out of this.”
“After Hist went to such trouble to find them for this very purpose?” Nero replied with a smirk. “No way. Let’s see if you know your knots as well as you do magitek, master Garlond.”
It turned out he did.
A considerable amount of time later they reluctantly picked themselves up — mainly because the workshop floor was cold and hard and less than optimal for prolonged cuddling — and started gathering hastily discarded items of clothing from around the workshop. Nero rubbed his wrists where the ribbons had chafed his skin raw. He didn’t mind, though; quite the opposite. That and the collection of bruises would serve as a fond reminder for a while.
“You alright?” Cid asked. He’d buttoned his shirt halfway up and his hair was a glorious mess and the warmth in his eyes when he looked at Nero should have melted at least half the snows of Coerthas.
“Never better,” Nero replied. “Could use a shirt, though.”
Cid chuckled. “I don’t keep spare shirts at the workshop, but take my coat.” He fetched said coat and placed it on Nero’s shoulders like a cape. “Better?”
“Perfect.” After a moment’s hesitation, Nero pulled the other man close, and when Cid returned the embrace, everything seemed right in the universe. “I’ve missed you too, you know,” he said finally and now, somehow, it wasn’t difficult at all.
He heard the smile in Cid’s voice when he replied, “I’ll have to thank Historia when I next see her… Oh, that reminds me!” He detached himself from Nero and went to pick up something from a shelf across the room. Disappointment warring with curiosity, Nero followed. Cid squinted at the item for a moment before turning and handing it over. “Merry Starlight, Nero!”
“…Oh.” Nero accepted the object, turning it over in his hands. “Thank you.” It seemed like a small telescope, which seemed strange because surely Cid wouldn’t have put effort into something as basic as a telescope. His confusion probably showed, because Cid spoke again.
“It’s a telescope alright, but I’d bet you anything it’s a better one than any you’ve seen before,” he said, and then chuckled. “If I do say so myself.” He crossed his arms and looked up at Nero with an indecipherable expression. “I admit, I was at a loss for what to give you. I could have come up with something more practical, but I didn’t want to make it a weapon, not for Starlight, and as much as I know that you’d have appreciated a new set of tools, I wanted to do something… more special.”
Nero nodded, appreciative of the explanation but unsure where it was going.
Cid smiled, a touch wryly. “See… I may no longer want to bring down the heavens, but I would still give you the stars.” He shook his head with an exasperated sound. “That sounded more corny than I intended.”
“Not at all,” Nero began, but Cid cut him off.
“Yes it did.”
“All right,” Nero agreed. “Maybe it did, a little bit.” Then he grinned. “In which case, not to be outdone in that regard, I have to tell you that it’s the sweetest thing anyone’s said to me in… oh, decades, like as not.”
Cid chuckled. “Fine, you win,” he said. He hugged Nero again, and for a while they stood there in silence, locked in an embrace, until Cid spoke up again. “Shall we go see if the skies are agreeable towards stargazing?”
“Sounds like a plan.”