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Surely, She Ain't Serious	By : KSipesh Category: Final Fantasy VII > Het - Male/Female Views: 1917 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 17
- 18
- 19
Okay�look, I�ve had the flu for well over a week. I�m damn near close to not even bothering finishing this one. I�m sick of it, too and when I get dished crap�well, that really isn�t much of a motivator. There�s a lot to wrap up in these final three chapters, so�yeah. If you don�t like my writing then�oh, I don�t know, I guess don�t read it. What a novel concept!

Those of you who�ve actually bothered to encourage me, well, I appreciate you. If I do complete this, it�s for you guys alone.

Surely, She Ain�t Serious

Chapter 18

Cid and Tifa had retired to his room and in the morning, the pilot awoke and once more managed to dress and slip from the room, unnoticed. As he stepped out into the hall, he spotted Bradley also emerging from a room, specifically, Vincent�s.

The mechanic�s eyes met Cid�s for a moment, before being cast to the side. "Morning, Sir."

Perplexed, Cid crossed his arms over his chest and considered the other man for a moment. "Everythin� all right?"

Bradley smiled and nodded, looking up again. He was moderately surprised that his captain wasn�t going to berate or attack him for whatever may have gone on. "Actually, Sir, yes."

Apparently, O�Malley had come to some sort of epiphany the night before about who he was and what he really wanted, and Cid, in a rare moment, actually found himself envying the man. "Good."

"Well, I should get to the engines, Sir," Bradley said back, already turning away.

"Sure thing." Cid also departed, to go out onto the open deck for a morning smoke.

As he stood leaning against the rail and working on his first cigarette of the day, the phone in his coat pocket began to ring. Cid wondered briefly who in the hell would be calling him, especially at this hour, because he was rarely ever called at all. He pulled it out and flipped it open. "Yeah?"

"Oh, hey, I thought I was just going to get your voice mail," came a timid woman�s voice from the other end of the line.

Fuck, it�s too early for her shit, he thought to himself, pulling the cigarette from his lips. "What do you want, Shera?"

"Well, nothing, really." She paused for a moment. "I�I was just checking in to see what was going on. I guess I sort of expected you to come back home after everything was all said and done, you know."

"As if you�re honestly anxious for me to get back there," Cid said bemusedly. He was well aware of how awful his treatment of the woman in question had been over the years.

Again, there was a silence before she replied. "But�I am."

Cid knit his brow and took a drag before saying anything further. Sometimes, Shera just confused the hell out of him. "Whatever. I�m just dropping people off where they need to be and then I�ll come home. Should just be a few days."

"Okay." Shera sounded a little disappointed. "Well, I�ll see you when you get here, then."

"Yeah," Cid huffed back, before flipping the phone closed and stuffing it into his pocket. He just didn�t get her need to cling to him at all.

"Anyone important?"

"God damn it!" Cid spun around, losing his cigarette in the process, spotting Vincent behind him. "Do you have to fuckin� sneak around like that?"

"I wasn�t �sneaking� around, Highwind. In fact, I believe I was noisier than usual when I came out here." Vincent took a few steps closer, offering the faintest of smiles.

The pilot looked the gunman over, appreciating that he was without his cloak. "Well, you scared the hell out of me."

"My apologies." Vincent reached out and grabbed the railing with both hands.

"Actually, I saw O�Malley comin� out of your room this mornin�." Cid crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the railing. "I thought that Tif had told you that I didn�t want you messin� with him."

"And she did." Vincent shrugged slightly. "And I agreed, until last night. I approached him at the party simply to apologize to him and instead, he in turn apologized to me and expressed a desire for the two of us to discuss some things."

"Talk my ass, I know what you probably did." Cid allowed his smirk to crop up.

Vincent cast him a sidelong glance. "I can honestly say that talking is all that we did. True, he spent the night in my room, but nothing transpired. He was merely there to ask me questions about various things and to make an admittal to himself."

"He came out, huh?"

"To put it your way, yes." Vincent cocked an eyebrow. "It was�good for him."

"All right." The pilot figured he wasn�t in any position to bust anyone�s chops over anything at the moment. "Whatever floats his boat."

"And what of you?" Vincent turned sideways and faced the pilot.

"What about me?" Cid narrowed his eyes.

"You and Tifa?" Vincent dropped his gaze away.

"There ain�t no �me and Tifa�, Vince." He let his arms fall to his sides. "She was in this for a good time, nothin� more."

"And you are wife shopping."

Cid scowled. "She told you about that shit?"

"Indeed she did." Vincent met his stare again. "And I feel that I should say that I�m sorry for ever�encouraging the two of you to get together. I thought that you could use the distraction as much as she, not knowing that you were going to get so�caught up."

Huffing, Cid looked away. "Whatever."

"But, it was doomed to failure since Tifa was looking to prove to herself that she was over what happened to her at the hands of Shinra, whereas you are looking for something life long and meaningful." Vincent�s voice was more hushed than normal, showing that he wasn�t entirely comfortable having this discussion.

"And there ain�t no chance of that happenin� with Tifa, right?" Cid glanced over at the other man, searching for any sign of hope.

"Not at this point in her life, no. She�s not ready or mature enough for that kind of commitment." The gunman shrugged again. "I know her at least that well."

"Right." Cid got another cigarette to his lips and lit up.

"Besides, you need a different kind of female than her entirely." Vincent looked thoughtful.

Cid looked over at him again. "And what kinda woman is that?"

"One with a tough hide, who will shrug off all of your usual negativity. One who will tolerate all of your various bad and or annoying habits." Vincent reached over and plucked the cigarette from Cid�s mouth, then putting it between his own lips and taking a long drag for himself. "One who will stick by you through the years, never expecting anything in return."

Cid wasn�t sure whether to get pissed or laugh, and so did nothing but stare.

Vincent continued to stand there with the cigarette in his mouth, smoking in silence as he contemplated things. After several minutes, he dropped the cigarette to the deck and crushed it with his boot. "I haven�t done that since before you were probably born."

"Didn�t think you were the type," Cid replied, still in a little bit of shock.

"I was a Turk. Bad habits, if not present when enlisted, are quickly learned. I used to do it all the time." Vincent turned and grabbed the rail again, as his world spun a bit.

Cid finally cracked and laughed. "You�re totally fucked up from one God damned cig, ain�t ya?"

Vincent swallowed his pride. "I�m dizzy, yes."

"Fuckin� pussy lightweight," Cid snickered to himself.

Not truly wishing to bear the barrage of taunts that the pilot was undoubtedly thinking up to throw at him, Vincent straightened up and started for the door back below deck.

Gonna run away. Baby, Cid thought amusedly. "So hey, if you find some woman like you were talkin� about, send her my way, would ya?"

Vincent stopped walking and looked back over his shoulder, openly smiling. "You already have one."

"But you just told me the Tifa thing ain�t gonna pan out." Cid was growing irritated with Vincent�s cryptic ways.

"It isn�t." Vincent then continued forward and disappeared below deck.

The pilot remained alone for several minutes trying to think about what Vincent had meant by his last remarks. "Impossible mother fucker."

The phone in his pocket rang again. He quickly pulled it out and flipped it open once more. "What?"

"Oh, hey, it�s me again."

"God damn it, Shera, stop runnin� up my phone bill for this shit! I�ll be home in a few days." Cid knit his brow and looked down at the deck before him.

"I know, but�I just�I forgot to tell you before you hung up before that�I�m really proud of what you and your friends did." Shera�s voice clearly signaled that she expected him to laugh at her or lay into her for such blatant mush.

Cid opened his mouth to call her out on this sort of stupidity, but then he quickly shut it before anything escaped. He thought for a moment before responding. "Shera? Can I ask you somethin�?"

"S..sure."

"Why have you stuck around?" he asked, point blank.

"Well, you asked me to move in because I couldn�t find a place to live." Shera could be heard fidgeting with something in the background.

"Yeah, but if you couldn�t find a place because no one would rent to you, you shoulda just left town. You ain�t from Rocket, you had no ties to the place, so why�d you stay?" Cid really hoped that no one was going to show up. This conversation was going to emasculate him.

"I ruined your life, Cid. I owed it to you to do whatever I could to help you get by. If that meant living in my car and just keeping an eye on you, that�s what I intended to do." Her tone was reflecting a bit more confidence now. "But the fact you asked me to move in with you�that showed me that you at least didn�t hate me too much."

Cid knit his brow. While he had been pissed at her for causing the termination of his mission, he�d never honestly hated her. Now that the truth of her having actually saved his life was out, that anger was fading. After all, if it hadn�t been for her, he would have died years ago on that launch pad. "I don�t hate you."

"You don�t have to lie and spare my feelings, Cid. It�s all right." Shera landed in a kitchen chair, more or less confused why he was even taking them down this conversational path.

"It�s true." Cid swallowed his pride. "You saved my life, and I�ve treated you like shit ever after. I�m real God damned sorry."

She wasn�t believing what she was hearing. "Cid, have you been drinking?"

The blond smiled to himself. "Naw, I ain�t been drinkin�, Shera."

"Okay." There was doubt in her voice.

"Look, when I get home�" Cid bit his bottom lip for a moment, suddenly getting an annoying �warm and fuzzy� feeling inside. "When I get home, I�m gonna make it up to you."

Shera was struck silent by this. Surely, this was a dream, or a wrong number and not Cid at all.

"Anyway, I�ve got to get goin�. Bye." Cid flipped the phone closed before she had a chance to respond and put it back in his pocket.

Vincent was right, and suddenly, the pilot found himself embarrassed for the last five years of his behavior.

"Vince needs to mind his own fuckin� business," Cid huffed to himself, deciding that it was time to get to the bridge and on the way to the City of the Ancients.

He stormed down to the bridge and took up the helm, scanning over his crewmembers that were present. "Everyone�s here, right?"

"Yes, Sir," replied one of his men.

"Good." With that, Cid set the ship off toward the City, wanting to things over and done with. He figured that Tifa would be scarce today, spending these last few hours with Vincent-- and honestly, that was fine with him. It was looking like O�Malley wasn�t the only one to have had an epiphany of sorts that morning.

The pilot was quickly realizing that things would be a lot simpler once he got home. There were things that he needed to do. Not going out of his way to be a bastard to Shera anymore topped that list.

She�d never deserved the way he�d pulled her through the mud, and he was feeling guilty for the first time in years. Generally, Cid wasn�t one for regrets, and it wasn�t a welcome feeling at all. The thought of what he�d been doing with Tifa didn�t help, either. While he was fucking around having the time of his life, she was back home, dutifully waiting for him to return.

God damn Shera�

He proceeded to grumble and curse under his breath, chain smoking all day, determined to break some sort of record in getting to the Ancient City. If nothing else, the ghost town wouldn�t prove someplace that his men would feel compelled to party all night and maybe, just maybe, he could get to Midgar by late the following morning if he flew straight through.

Staying up all night didn�t seem like a bad idea to him, anyway. It would spare him from folding to Tifa�s advances again. He couldn�t keep using her like he had been.

That�s all it amounted to. He was using her just as sure as she was using him and really, it wasn�t fair to either of them, especially when Tifa was in love with Cloud and Cid�well, he wasn�t quite ready to admit the truth to himself. The pilot was simply happy to think that he was being a bigger man for showing a little restraint from here on out.
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Surely, She Ain't Serious