Wisdom to Know the Difference

By Rhino7

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This oneshot is mine. This is just a little well-meaning ficlet for Father's Day. A bizarre combination of Cid and warm-fuzzies…It's a miracle my keyboard didn't burst into flames at the idea. Even if it comes off a little OOC, I hope readers enjoy!

..:-X-:..

Insomnia was a cruel bitch.

Heartless were even worse.

Put the two together and you've got yourself a thick shitstorm.

"Ow, ow, ow, OW!" The man gritted his teeth and tried to sit as still as possible while Cid removed the splinters that were scatted deep across the man's forearm. "Easy, man."

"Don't be a pussy." Cid grumbled, "Ya coulda had painkillers."

"No…no drugs." The man—Clay or Clive or Kent or something—shook his head, closing his eyes. "I want to be in my right mind when it happens."

"Shit, kid. Take it from me. There's no 'right mind' so soon after this." Cid snorted, tugging more jagged bits of wood from the man's skin.

Barely an hour ago, the displaced survivors of the latest Heartless attack had arrived in Radiant Garden. The world that the Heartless had taken had been a heavily populated one, and the survivors had flooded Radiant Garden. Normally, victims of Heartless invasion wound up in Traverse Town, but the small, ramshackle world couldn't handle this capacity of people…so overflow had hit Radiant Garden.

And the Heartless had followed.

Now half of the Restoration Committee was out bashing purple skulls, and the other half was helping the medics at the hospital. Still gimpy with a busted knee from the last big fight, guess who had been pegged on clinic duty?

Yeah, him.

Boy, Yuffie was getting sneakier by the day on getting out of things like that.

It didn't help that he hadn't slept since this whole mess started. He couldn't sleep. It was an old habit, but as long as anybody on the Restoration Committee was out there with intent to engage the enemy, he would wait up…Don't get any mushy ideas…He just wanted to make sure they didn't stagger in with a limb hanging on by the tendons and wind up bleeding all over the damn floor.

It had happened more often than he cared to admit.

"It takes hours, man." Cid kept fishing for any splinters that were trying to hide under the blood. "You should get some sleep in the mean time."

"Sleep?" The man balked. "I can't even think about sleep at a time like this. My wife is two floors above me, right now, in labor with our first child—Our home world is gone—Those black creatures are still roaming around outside—And I've got some guy pulling splinters out of my arm…Excuse me if I'm a little on edge."

Cid glanced up at the man's face and smirked before dropping his gaze back to the mangled forearm. He'd plucked out all the pieces that he could get to. The moron had refused painkillers. He was either a recovering addict or he thought he was being noble to stay in pain while his wife was in pain…Hate to burst that bubble, Cleetus, but no splinters are gonna measure up to childbirth.

"You wanna empathize with your wife?" He grumbled, cleaning the wounds with antiseptic. "Do the splits on a box of dynamite. It'd be closer than this."

Clint or Clayton sighed and rubbed his eyes with his other hand. "You have a terrible bedside manner."

"Yeah, well," Cid started wrapping bandages and gauze around the man's forearm. "They keep me around for my personality and charming smile."

The man eyed him for a moment and bit his lip. "You have kids?"

Cid inwardly groaned. This guy was freaking out. He'd seen his share of new dads and father-to-be's…pacing circles and staring at the same page of a newspaper for half an hour…and eventually trying to chat up any other body with a Y chromosome, just trying to find some reassurance. Kent or Clive had it bad.

Given the events of the day, though, Cid had to cut him some slack.

"Three." He mumbled in answer, tying off the end of the bandaging and making sure it set right.

And just like that, he'd become Clay or Carl's best friend.

"So you've been through this three times?" He gawked, "The waiting and the worrying and the—"

"Nope." Cid stood, "And thank God for that."

"But you just said—"

"This is just one night, man." Cid held up his index finger. "You've got a lifetime ahead of you to freak out about this kid. Don't jump the gun and start freaking out now."

By that little twitch in the man's eye, that advice had come too late.

"I don't know if I can do it, dude." Clark or Carter shook his head. "I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't know how to be a father…What if I mess up and something bad happens?"

"Do ya love the kid?" Cid asked flatly.

"What?" The man blinked, "Of course…What kind of question is that?"

"Then you won't mess up." Cid walked with the man out of the cubicle of the ER and toward the elevator. "Shit happens."

"And if something bad happens?" Clay or Clive looked at him.

"You take care of it. You don't gotta be perfect. Just be there."

They stepped into the elevator and Cid hit the button for the maternity floor. He had to at least make sure this nimrod didn't have a panic attack in the hallway, after all.

..:-X-:..

"CID!"

Considering it was just two adjoining hotel rooms, the fact that Yuffie felt the need to scream meant one of two things: nightmare or some Heartless had broken in. Considering it had only been two months since their home world had been swallowed and the four of them had ended up in Traverse Town, both options seemed highly likely.

Either way, the scared scream had him scrambling out of bed like he'd been electrocuted. The girls had taken the adjoining room, and he and Leon were in the other. He'd taken the bed closest to the door in case someone or something tried to get in, so he was up and had a hand on the door to the other room before Leon shot to his feet as well, just a second behind him.

Cid pushed open the door and barged into the room to see Yuffie out of her bed and instead next to Aerith's bed, shaking the older girl, tears running down her face. He flicked on the light and made a quick scan of the room. No moving shadows or open windows…

"She started crying in her sleep and mumbling—" The little girl sniffed.

Aerith was curled up on her side, her entire body trembling and sweating and crying. The worst of the nightmares had tapered off after the first few weeks…but it looked like one had come back to catch her unaware. Cid moved Yuffie aside and grasped Aerith's shoulder.

"I can't—please—I don't want—No, no, no—" She buried her face deeper in the pillow.

Yuffie stayed close, trying to wipe away the tears and stop the sniffling when she saw Leon in the doorway. Terrified or not, the girl would rather die than let the older boy see her like that. But Leon wasn't even looking at her, instead watching Cid try to wake up Aerith.

The older girl woke with a start and her eyes were wide and wild when she looked up at Cid, breathing hard and having a full blown panic attack. Her gaze slowly cleared and she seemed to remember where she was. Fresh tears flooded her eyes. Cid put an arm around her.

"Yuffie, go sleep in the other room. I'll stay in here with her." He said.

"But—"

"Kid, scoot." He pointed to the door, where Leon still looked apprehensive.

Yuffie pouted, but she still looked worried as she walked past Leon to the other room. The boy lingered and Cid made a 'shoo' gesture at him: it's all right, I've got her, go to bed.

"I'm sorry…It was so real…" Aerith cried freely into his shoulder as Leon closed the door after himself, leaving Cid alone with Aerith.

"Ah, it's all right." He mumbled, knowing from previous incidents what the nightmare had been about. "It wasn't real. He's okay. We'll find him."

Aerith swallowed hard, trying to compose herself and failing. "What if w-we don't?"

Cid inwardly sighed. The truth was, he had no idea if that Cloud friend of hers was still alive, and what ungodly condition he might be in if they ever found him.

"Then he'll just have to find us." He replied. "If he's got any sense in his head."

That earned a rueful giggle from her and he relaxed slightly. Crisis averted for now.

..:-X-:..

Clay or Clive was a fidgeting mess by the time the elevator reached the right floor, and his endless questions had almost driven Cid to punch him in the nose. He darted like a monkey to the nurse's station in the maternity ward and Cid felt good riddance of him.

He still had half a pack of cigarettes in his pocket. He hadn't heard from Yuffie or Leon yet about the Heartless situation…and he figured Aerith was still bouncing around in the ER with the other healers. The flood of patients was starting to dwindle as those who needed immediate care were tended to and the minor scrapes and boo-boos were bandaged up…like Panic McPanickson over there.

"What?" The man snapped and Cid almost saw him leave the ground. "Emergency surgery? What does that mean?"

Cid groaned and glanced around the lobby area, barely hearing the nurse explain his wife's situation to him. Sounded like she'd needed a C-section…ah, it wasn't his problem anymore. Those things were pretty routine and he had other people he could be helping—

"What do I do?"

"Sir, you'll just have to wait out here." The nurse's voice carried the tone of 'I'm sorry I can't help you, but I've been behind this desk for nearly 30 hours, so please sit down.'

"Wait…wait, wait…That's all anybody wants me to do. Surely I can do something!"

Oh, for the love of…

"You want to do something? Sit down and shut your trap." Cid reluctantly turned back around, facing the wide-eyed man. "Giving yourself a heart attack ain't gonna help her."

The man looked like he might attack him for a wild second, but then seemed to deflate obediently into the nearest seat. There was nobody else around and the nurse was quickly back to whatever she had been doing. The poor bastard looked utterly alone and helpless.

"Dammit." Cid groaned under his breath, knowing he was going to regret this as he returned to the man's side.

"It wasn't supposed to happen like this." Carl or Clark said, pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes. "Not like this."

Cid sighed in defeat and sat down next to him, resigned to his fate of keeping this guy sane for a while. Hell, and he couldn't even smoke…This was gonna be a long wait.

"Yeah, Heartless tend to fuck things up." He remarked.

"I hate waiting…Feel so…out of control." The man commented.

Cid snorted. "Welcome to life: the land of no control and some pretty messed up shit."

The guy groaned, holding his face, and Cid frowned. Maybe he wasn't doing this whole comforting thing right. He'd fared well enough in keeping the girls from losing their minds to the fear and the panic and the darkness. Leon was more of a 'shoot something and feel better' kind of guy, so Cid had no practice at talking this guy off the ledge.

"How am I supposed to raise a child in a world like that?" The man stared at the floor. "Gloria—" The wife, Cid assumed, "—She's so warm and gentle…I don't know if she can handle all of this…Heartless and war and evil…And…What if the Heartless attack again?"

They always do. Cid managed to cut himself off before saying that out loud.

"What if something goes wrong in there?" The man gestured toward the OR doors. "What if Gloria doesn't make it? What if the baby gets sick?"

Cid spotted an orderly pushing a cart down the hall and snapped his fingers, making a short hand gesture at him. The orderly nodded and handed him a bag, walking on his way.

"What if the kid grows up and this war is still going on?" The man continued to ramble. "What if he or she wants to join the fight? I can't handle that. I can't—"

Cid fluffed the paper bag open and handed it to him. "Breathe into this."

Clive or Carl snatched the bag and started breathing into it as he started hyperventilating.

"What ifs will kill you. Stay away from 'em." Cid remarked.

He couldn't exactly put himself in this guy's shoes. He'd never been married and never had any children by blood, but he was familiar with that kind of panic. It was a one-way ticket to a heart attack if he didn't calm the fuck down.

"Think about somethin' happy." He advised, half sarcastically and half seriously.

"Wh-what?"

"You're about to become a fuckin' father and you're out here thinkin' about Heartless and war…Think about somethin' positive…Like names you two picked out…or—" Hell, where was he goin' with this? "—how you're gonna handle this if it's a girl."

"Boy or girl, I don't care. As long as it's healthy." He bobbed his head, still breathing into the bag.

Cid chuckled, "Oh you poor bastard."

"What?"

"Girls are another species, man." He clapped the guy on the shoulder.

"You sound like you're speaking from experience." Clay or Clark said.

Cid sat back in his seat. "Girls need hugs and reassurance and glitter. They get moody for absolutely no reason you can fathom and sometimes they cry just because the guy dies at the end of Titanic, even though this is the fifty-fourth time they've seen it."

"Well, I know I gave my parents a hard time, so boys can't be much easier."

"They're not…Experience speaking there too…Thank God I never had to give The Talk." Cid chuckled at the man's incredulous expression. "That would have been awkward. My condolences on that one."

"You never gave your kids The Talk?" The man looked perplexed.

Cid snorted as he looked at the guy. "Buddy, lemme tell you somethin' about these kids…"

..:-X-:..

"Dear God…" Cid stood in the middle of the aisle of the store, feeling like he'd stumbled into another realm.

"I take it you found the right section." Aerith said over the phone.

Cid's eye twitched as he held the phone to his ear, looking up and down the aisle. "How the Hell are there so many different kinds?"

"Stay with me here." Aerith was saying. "Now, it's her first time, so probably go with the pads. No tampons."

Well, that only took out half of the inventory that was glaring at him. Figures, the one time Aerith goes off-world by herself, and this happens. Yuffie hadn't even gotten out of the car, preferring to let Cid brave the store on his own. The twelve-year old had been red as a tomato and it had taken her nearly ten minutes to tell him what was going on.

"Okay." He glanced up and down the shelves. "Shit, there're too many—"

"Stick with the mission, Cid." Aerith remarked sternly. "Look for something marked slender and regular."

Cringing at the context, he searched the shelves and found a box of the products. "All right, here, I got 'em…Wait…With or without—wings?"

"Um…go with wings." Aerith answered. "And pick up some chocolate and ibuprofen."

He'd been around women long enough to know what that stuff was for. It had been roughly a year since they lost their home to the Heartless. The appearance of excess chocolate and romance movies showed up at the house: that was the warning sign for him and Leon to get as far and busy as possible.

Cid quickly swung by the other aisles to pick up the aforementioned items, drawing a few sympathetic and terrified looks from some passersby as he went to the register to pay.

"When are you getting back again?" He asked into the phone.

She chuckled, "Not for another two days. You and Leon can handle this until then, right?"

Cid snorted, "I don't even know where the kid IS. He gets wind of this, we'll never see him again."

"Oh…" She huffed. "I gotta go. Hey, good luck."

"Wait—"

"I'll call back as soon as I can to talk to her."

"Don't leave me alone with this—"

"Bye!" She chirped and the dial tone droned in his ear.

Frowning, he paid the register clerk and carried the evidence to the car. Yuffie hadn't moved from the front seat, busying herself with either fidgeting or messing with the radio. He sighed and put the phone away. This was gonna be a rough week.

..:-X-:..

Clay or Clive looked at him. "That's terrifying…How did you know what to do?"

Cid snorted. "I didn't."

The man looked like he was waiting for a big story follow-up to 'I saved the three kids from the Heartless, luckily they were old enough to know what sex was.' Well, he was to be sorely disappointed. Cid was in no mood to regale the guy with ten years of that madness just to keep his mind occupied.

"So…you got a free pass from the chicken pox and the first tooth and teaching them how to drive?" The man asked.

Hell, he just wasn't gonna leave this alone.

"Yep."

"What about school?"

"Home taught."

"Just the teenaged rebellion and angst, eh?" The man had latched onto Cid as the new conversation topic.

Cid frowned, "There wasn't enough time for rebellion. We had Heartless breathin' down our necks. 'Sides, I never pretended to be what I wasn't. They remembered their parents. They just needed someone to keep 'em sane."

"An authority figure."

He laughed at that. That first month with those three, Yuffie had thrown tantrums damn near every two days as a coping mechanism, Aerith excessively cleaned the hotel room where they were staying, and Leon barely spoke a word.

The attack had thrown them together by necessity, but those clashing personalities started to come out after they got settled in Traverse Town. Then it was Yuffie getting mad because Leon didn't want to play with her, Leon getting irritated because Aerith kept trying to cheer everybody up, Aerith was upset because Cid kept drinking away the problems. After that it was Cid getting fed up with Yuffie tinkering with his ship, Yuffie pouting at Aerith for trying to play Mom, Aerith getting annoyed because Leon kept searching out Heartless for the sake of it, and Leon just…pissed all the time.

"Mr. Larson?" A resident in surgical scrubs had stepped out of the OR.

The man shot to his feet like a fire had been lit under him, darting over to the doctor. "What is it? What's going on? Is everything all right?"

"Dr. Rollins wanted me to come give you an update." The woman said calmly, slowly. "Your wife is fine, the baby is fine, but it's going to take a little longer."

"Why?" The man bounced on his heels.

Cid took the opportunity to pull out his phone and check for messages while the doctor explained the update to the guy. No missed calls, no voice messages or texts. Well, no news was good news. He pocketed the phone again and shifted uncomfortably. He hated hospitals. He appreciated them, but, oh, he hated 'em.

..:-X-:..

"Pretty deep. Gonna need stitches." Cid remarked under his breath as he lifted the bloody towel from Leon's forearm.

"Go for it." The teen mumbled, eyes glued to the wound.

Cid cursed. He'd been afraid he was gonna say that. Flipping open the stitch kit in the first aid box, he made sure the claw marks that tracked from the base of Leon's wrist halfway up to his elbow had stopped bleeding completely. The wound was clean, tore straight through the skin instead of in jagged angles. That meant Leon hadn't been moving when he got it. Heartless must have pinned him down first.

"You gotta cut this shit out." Cid growled, threading the needle and removing the towel from his arm all together. "Gonna get yourself killed."

Leon sat still, arm stretched across the table, watching the older man prepare to stitch the sliced skin back together. He looked like a zombie, but Cid saw him tense up as he started stitching…so there was still some life left in him.

"Might go faster if you don't look at it." He suggested, seeing the boy's jaw clench so tight he was likely to chip a tooth.

"I'm fine." Leon hissed.

Two years since they ended up Traverse Town, and the idiot was still convinced he could kill all of the Heartless on his own. And without sleeping or eating properly either. Neither Yuffie's playful jabs nor Aerith's soft concern could convince the kid that he was only human.

"You're a dumbass." Cid remarked. "And you're gonna die if you keep this up."

Leon was rigid, whether from the pain of the stitches or with all that pent up rage that he'd been carrying around with him. "I'm doing something."

"Yeah, somethin' ignorant." Cid let one of the stitches go a little deeper than was necessary. Maybe if that thick skull couldn't remember being human, he might at least remember how painful this was…and never let it happen again.

Leon closed his eyes briefly, going pale from the pain and the blood loss. "Every one I kill is one less out there."

Cid saw him blanch just in time to grab up the trash can and shove it at him. Leon buckled forward, vomiting into the basket. Cid waited quietly for the dry heaves to pass, smacking him on the shoulder and handing him a bottle of water to rinse his mouth out.

"But there are five right behind him, ready to take his place." Cid finished the stitches and started wrapping gauze around his forearm. "I'm not saying don't fight. I'm saying don't let all this hatred eat you from the inside out."

"You drink. I fight. What's the difference?" Leon growled.

Cid looked tiredly at the boy. Not even 20 years in this life and Leon had the soul of an eighty year old man. But not the sense of one.

"The difference is I'm the dumbass adult and you're the dumbass kid. Which means you might actually be able to learn from your mistakes." He snorted, "Now go get some real sleep."

..:-X-:..

Clive or Clay was pacing now.

"Do you smoke?" Cid remarked, watching him walk back and forth.

"Been meaning to quit." The guy replied.

Cid stood and stretched. His back popped, reminding him of his age, and he scowled. "Quit tomorrow. Come on."

"Wh—" The guy followed haplessly.

Like a frickin' lost puppy.

They went outside behind the east wing of the hospital, and a half second later, Cid had a lit cigarette between his teeth. Ah, sweet nicotine. Carl or Kent took an offered cigarette and lit up as well, though the smoke didn't appear to help him as much as it was helping Cid.

"Gloria wants me to quit. Refused to be around me while I was smoking since she got pregnant." He explained.

"Quitting is for quitters." Cid took a long drag from the stick, exhaling a cloud of smoke. "But you probably should if you ever wanna be around that kid."

They could just see the Radiant Garden skyline from their position behind the hospital. He could hear gunfire a few blocks down, and that smell of Heartless blood and gunpowder brought back more memories than he liked.

"Thanks for staying around with me." The guy said suddenly. "I know you've probably got better things to do than hang around with a guy like me."

"Bet your ass I do." Cid grumbled.

"Well…thanks anyway. I appreciate it." The man smiled in gratitude.

Cid groaned, "God, you're not gonna hug me, are you?"

He shook his head, "No. I'm not THAT appreciative."

"Good. I'd hate to have to bandage you up and kick your ass in the same day. Sounds counterproductive." Cid looked toward the ER bay.

The man took a drag from his cigarette thoughtfully for a moment. "What if I can't discipline him or her? What if I turn into one of those parents who can't say no and spoils a kid rotten…Some books say discipline with words…some say with a spanking…but then other books say discipline with words is pointless and spanking is psychologically damaging…"

"Fuck." Cid finished off the first cigarette and lit up another. "Psychologically damaging, my ass. I got whooped plenty'a times when I was a kid, and I damn well deserved it and learned from it. Talkin' doesn't do shit, in my experience. That's why we got so many candy-ass, smart mouthed little punks around here…They never learned that they aren't in charge."

The man blinked at him.

Cid lit up another cigarette. "But that's just my opinion."

"Clearly."

..:-X-:..

Yuffie looked positively green and about to be sick.

"Still got two more." Cid remarked, arms folded as he watched the fifteen year old wheeze and throw down the butt of the cigarette in the Gummi hangar.

"Cid…I learned my lesson." She coughed, "I won't get into your cigarettes ever again."

"That ain't the lesson." Cid pointed to the near-empty pack. "Two more. Light up."

Yuffie's nose crinkled as she pulled out the next to last cigarette, striking a match and lighting the stick. She inhaled slightly and coughed, eyes watering.

"Then what? You hate me and want me to b-burn my lungs o-out?" She wheezed.

"Keep smoking, Miss Cool." He pointed. "Right now you're facing counts of stealing, underage smoking, and lying about it. You're lucky this pack was already half empty."

"You're evil." She coughed, "You never made Leon or Aerith do this."

"Aerith doesn't smoke…and when Leon got into my liquor last year, I made him drink the whole twelve pack. Got sicker'n a dog. I don't wanna hear it."

Yuffie snarled and held the cigarette out while she coughed. "This is disgusting, I hate this." She glared at him. "And I hate you."

"Don't care." Cid shook his head, "You got one and a half left. You think smoking in front of your friends is so cool. Why shouldn't smoking when they're not around be cool too?"

The girl stood up, "I don't have to take this."

"You think this makes you look grown up? It just makes you look stupid."

"You're stupid!" Yuffie threw down the cigarette. "And you're a hypocrite!"

Cid looked at her flatly. "One more to go."

"No." Yuffie marched toward the exit. "I hate you!" She slammed the door after herself.

He heard her stomp a few steps away and he sighed. Well, by the color of her face and the sound of throwing up outside, it didn't sound like she would be getting into anybody's cigarettes again…or hanging around him for a while.

Taking up the final cigarette of the pack, he struck a match against the tire of the Gummi behind him and lit up, inhaling the smoke from the cigarette. The nicotine didn't soothe away the unsettled feeling in his chest and he exhaled, looking toward the landing strip of Traverse Town.

The door opened again and Leon walked in, glancing back toward the direction Cid figured Yuffie stomped off to. Cid frowned and pulled the cigarette from his mouth. Yuffie's parting words reverberated in his head and he huffed, walking around to the front of the Gummi to resume working on the engine. Leon didn't say anything as he crossed to the other ships.

"She all right?" Cid found himself blurting.

"Yeah." Leon replied, glancing at him for a moment. "She didn't mean it."

Cid glared flatly. "Get back to work." He turned around and opened the engine.

..:-X-:..

"So, basically you don't like kids. You don't like nervous fathers. You don't like people who think spanking is bad. And you don't like smokers but you yourself smoke." Clay or Clive said, one eyebrow lifted. "Doesn't make a lot of sense."

"Yeah, I'm a real onion." Cid put out his cigarette as dawn broke across Radiant Garden.

This was one of those days that he should have brought an extra pack with him.

The man beside him put out the cigarette with the toe of his shoe, exhaling in an attempt to ready himself to go back inside.

"Wish me luck." He gave a tired half-smile.

Cid looked him up and down and then back to the murky dawn skyline. "Good luck."

The man paused. "You don't strike me as somebody who believes in luck."

Cid looked at him flatly. "The world's about to become a much scarier place. You're gonna need to get used to the fact that you can't protect 'em from everythin'…You'll need all the luck you can get."

The man sighed and smirked. "I guess that's as close to happy as you ever sound, eh?"

Cid remained deadpan, "Go to your wife."

Kent or Carl smiled, shook his head, and walked toward the door to the hospital, giving a cursory wave back to Cid. Cid, for his part, just finished his last cigarette, tossed it into a puddle, and left the hospital.

The fact that he hadn't slept in nearly two days was catching up to him. Sometimes he felt a lot older than he wanted to be. Watching Leon regularly run on four hours of sleep and seeing Yuffie have the energy to pull pranks at three in the morning just reminded him of how old he actually was.

Fuck.

Cid popped into the ER only to hear that Aerith had left twenty minutes ago. So he started his way back to Merlin's house, the communal zone where they tended to end up when they were too tired to go home.

Radiant Garden hadn't been roughed up too bad, he noted. Some blood splatters from the Heartless here, some broken concrete there, nothing a weekend shift wouldn't fix. The Borough and the Marketplace were practically untouched, so Leon and Yuffie had managed to curtail the attack to the uninhabited parts of town like the Great Maw or the Dark Depths.

He spotted Tifa outside the Marketplace. "What's the latest?" He called.

She glanced back. "Don't you mean earliest?" She nodded toward the dawn horizon.

He snorted, "Too early for jokes."

"Heartless fell back." She informed. "Last I heard, Leon was on the perimeter and Yuffie went home. That's where I'd like to be."

"That's where I'm going." He smirked. "Feel free to drop in later."

..:-X-:..

One look was all it took to know something was wrong.

That and the fact that Aerith had decided to hang out at the Gummi Hangar in Radiant Garden all day instead of at Merlin's house, where they had recently grounded themselves as Restoration Committee Headquarters.

The hangar was relatively empty for a Thursday afternoon, and Cid had been hoping to wrap up work on the latest smashed up ship before locking up for the night. By the tormented fingernail biting, that wasn't going to happen.

He didn't ask right away, waiting for her to make her way over for the inevitable 'what's wrong' conversation. He busied himself with fixing that oil leak instead.

"Am I too soft on people?" She finally blurted, ten minutes later.

Cid wiped the excess oil off on an equally oily rag and tossed it aside. "Yeah."

She eyed him for a moment, her thoughts elsewhere. He could practically hear the wheels turning in her head. With a resigned sigh, he set his tools aside.

"What bleak outlook on life did Leon doll out today?" He opened.

Aerith paused, swallowed, and started again. "He said that I forgive people too easily…like it's a bad thing to give someone a second chance."

"Is the someone blond?" Cid quirked an eyebrow.

She exhaled and sat heavily on one of his toolboxes. "Cloud has…things that he has to deal with. Problems that he wants to resolve on his own…I…understand that."

"No you don't." Cid shook his head, "But you're willing to try to, and that's why Leon called you soft…But you're not a pushover."

"When was the last time I said 'no' to anybody?" She pointed out.

Cid pulled a beer from his cooler and popped the tab. "When was the last time someone said 'no' to you?" He tilted his head and took a drink. "Between you and me, Leon has a stick up his ass."

"He's been that way for years…Why would he bring this up now?" She frowned.

"Because now Cloud is around…sometimes…and you cut Cloud slack."

"I cut Leon plenty of slack too…You're saying he's jealous?"

"NO! I'm saying he doesn't like Cloud." Cid huffed. "All day he hears about Blondie's faults from Tifa."

"Tifa and Cloud had a falling out. He can't base his entire opinion of a person based on just her say so." Aerith put her hands on her hips.

"Well, his 'give a person a second chance' meter must be broken this month." Cid remarked with a grin. "This ship is busted to Hell." He offered her a hammer, "Wanna take a few swings at it…You might feel better."

Aerith looked at him flatly and sighed…but then took the proffered hammer.

..:-X-:..

Merlin's house was dark when he opened the door.

Cid flipped on one of the lights and the couch twitched. Well, rather, Yuffie's sleeping form on the couch twitched. She had burrowed herself into the pillows, and it looked like Aerith had draped a blanket over her when she got home.

He could hear the water running and light humming from the other side of the door, meaning Aerith still had enough energy to suffer a shower before collapsing in a heap like the younger woman.

Light was pooling around Merlin's closed study door. While the old sorcerer hadn't been active in the chaos today, he was probably just getting ready to take over for the morning and rest of the day…since Cid figured the rest of the Restoration Committee would all be asleep for most of the day.

He crossed to the fridge and pulled out a cold beer. He had waged war for years with Merlin, who was one of those crazy non-alcoholic types. Per his word, Cid had gotten rid of all the whiskey, tequila, rum, and vodka in the house…well, it was out of sight at least. As a compromise, Merlin said he would turn a blind eye to plain old beer.

The off brand beer wasn't the strong stuff he was wanting at the moment, but it would do.

He slumped into one of the patched-up wingback chairs in the living room and popped open the can. Taking a short swig of it, he scratched at an old bug bite on his wrist and enjoyed the silence of the house.

Yuffie had curled up so she was facing the inside of the couch, showing her back to the rest of the room. Her shoulder was rising and falling evenly, and she seemed to be deeply enough asleep that dreams weren't making her twitch.

The shower stopped running in the other room, but the musical humming persisted.

His thoughts drifted briefly back to Carl or Clay at the hospital, and if that uppity fool was finally getting to see the bundle of joy. He grunted at the mental image and propped his ankles up on the coffee table.

God be with the man, he thought dryly.

The clock on the wall chimed a cheery seven in the morning. Shit, he'd been grinding the gears for nearly 28 hours now. It made his eyes itch with fatigue just thinking about it. He should have asked Tifa what exactly Leon was doing at the perimeter. If he knew the man—and he did—he wouldn't drag himself in for another hour or two.

Aerith slipped out of the back washroom, hair up in a turbin and robe wrapped around herself. The circles under her eyes were tired and emotionally drained, but she smiled and gave a little wave to Cid as she crossed from the washroom to the stairs.

"Hi." She said quietly. "Everything okay?" She glanced at Yuffie on the couch.

"Fine, just fuckin' tired." He grumbled, taking another drink from the beer. "Hung out with a father-to-be today…Twitchiest sonovabitch I ever seen."

"Maybe it was just your charm." She snickered and went upstairs to go to bed.

..:-X-:..

Radiant Garden was quiet.

Ten years of war and fighting and violence and Heartless…and it was quiet.

Not even a creepy kind of quiet…Just a serene, warm, somebody-gave-Yuffie-Ritalin kind of quiet.

Any minute now, the security system would activate on some skirmish in the Bailey, Yuffie would come running through the Postern claiming that she 'didn't do it!', or that crazy dog that had taken to following Leon around would catch up to him.

"Three days and not one Heartless uprising." Cid said aloud, hands on his hips as he looked out over the Postern. "It's—"

Leon made a hissing noise, not moving from where he was lying on the sun-warmed concrete, spread eagle, staring up at the cloud-streaked sky.

Cid snorted at the other man, "Enjoying—"

"Sh!" He was hushed again, this time Leon just lifted a hand to point in silence at him.

Cid lifted his hands, "All right."

Silence in Radiant Garden was rare. Someone who appreciated that silence was even more rare. So Cid took it where he could get it and leaned against the wall of the Postern. He'd like to splay out on the ground like junior there, but his knees would never forgive him for it.

This was as close to a day off as the Restoration Committee ever got.

Organization XIII was defeated, Kingdom Hearts was safe, Sora and his friends were back home, and there had been less and less Heartless attacks by the day.

"Oh my, you finally killed him." Tifa announced her presence as she ascended the steps from Ansem's old office, eying Leon's supine form and Cid standing somewhat victoriously against the wall.

She was rewarded by another 'sh' from Leon and a dry smirk from Cid.

Without another word, Tifa crossed the Postern and took a seat on the Postern a few feet away from Leon, reclining on her back and looking up at the sky as well.

Cid lit the last cigarette of his pack and puffed on it, watching the smoke curl into the air.

A long, gloriously quiet moment passed.

In the distance, maybe just over the lip of the Postern, was the familiar clink of the security system. All three of them heard it and cringed.

Yuffie suddenly tore up the path. "I didn't do it!"

The red-golden retriever was hot on her heels.

Cid took a long drag from his cigarette as Leon begrudgingly got to his feet. Tifa waited another second before doing the same.

"Break's over." Cid announced with a smirk, "Back to the old grind."

..:-X-:..

Aerith had been upstairs for ten minutes when Merlin came out of his study. Bright eyed and bushy-tailed, Cid was envious to see.

"Well, I'm off. You're still up?" The wizard quipped.

"Apparently." Cid finished off his beer and crunched the can.

Merlin gave a long-suffering sigh at the gesture and the muddy boots on the coffee table. Cid gave him a shit-eating grin and made no motion to remedy the boots situation.

"Well, have fun with that." Merlin crossed to the door. "I'll be back later."

As he opened the door to leave, Leon closed the door after himself as he limped in.

"That looks like it hurts." Cid remarked through a yawn as Leon set the Gunblade against the wall, favoring his left leg.

"It does." Leon muttered candidly, moving into the den area.

Cid snorted and shook his head. He didn't see any blood, so he left the younger man alone. Leon had learned by now that ignoring an injury didn't make it go away, so if he was hiding a bruise or something, Cid figured it wasn't that serious.

Leon tugged a throw pillow out from under Yuffie's knees and eased himself onto the floor. Didn't trust his leg to make it upstairs, and his back was probably still giving him Hell from the mission-gone-wrong last week.

The exhaustion that had long settled into Cid's shoulders flared up and he rotated his neck. Standing up and stretching, he tossed the mushed up can into the wastebasket and looked at the two bodies in the living room—looking like they'd been tossed there.

"I'm going to bed if you want the recliner. Probably more comfortable than the floor." He remarked as he walked toward the only bedroom on the ground floor.

Leon didn't open his eyes. "Need to feel solid ground."

Cid nodded at that and flipped off the lights. "Suit yourself."

The other man just grunted from his position on the floor, and Cid went back into his bedroom. Kicked off his boots. Pulled off the grubby clothes. Took a hot shower long overdue. Fell into bed like a dead man.

The house was quiet.

Everybody was home, in one piece.

More madness would surely be waiting tomorrow.

The pre-set alarm on his clock went off, droning the usual 7:30 greeting.

Cid swatted at the thing until it shut up and ended up on the floor. He didn't want to see or hear a clock again until he'd gotten at least eight good hours of sleep. Sleep took him quickly and soon he was snoring.

All things considered, it was a successful day.

Take that, insomnia.

..:-X-:..

A/N: Hope it wasn't too off the wall. This thing could have ended up so much longer, but I figured I had strained credulity plenty enough, so I just wrapped it up there. The bit about staying awake until everybody is home is a habit of my dad's. I wanted to throw it in there for giggles.

Cid is such a surrogate father. I adore him to pieces. Him and all his surliness. I feel like he got a little sage-y with the advice there near the middle, but I hope he wasn't too OOC.

Happy Father's Day, everybody!