Notes: For Sue (ALynnl), who is wonderful and deserves so much more. She wanted Cid and his goddamn tea, so she gets Cid and his goddamn tea. I make no apologies for the swearing, that's all on Cid. I'm from the south-eastern part of the US, iced tea is a big deal here -my family has their own secret recipe-, so I've passed a bit of this onto Cid.
0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x
Cid's journey begins, as all good things in life should, with a proper glass of tea. It is thicker than mud and sweeter than sin, almost exactly like his grandmother used to make. A ice-filled glass of this on a hot day is a little slice of heaven, one that he willingly shares with anyone that comes to visit -another thing passed down by his grandmother: proper hospitality-.
On that fateful day his guests were people from Shinra, only one of whom took a glass -Palmer, that fat idiot-, and some idiots who wandered in without having the decency to knock, blathering on about shit Cid didn't give a fuck about and, more importantly, not sitting down and drinking their goddamn tea like a good guest should. The latter served as a distraction from the former. Part of him knew that the new President had no intention of reviving the Space program, but a man could dream, couldn't he?
0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x
They drifted for hours in the open ocean, long enough for Cid to learn that these people never shut the fuck up. It was an endless stream of chatter that he couldn't muster the energy to listen to. By the end of the lecture about saving the planet -newsflash: Cid didn't fucking care- and something about being in Sephiroth's anti-fanclub, he was so desperate for silence he did something he had sworn he would never do.
"Y'all are making me need a fucking drink," he swore at them, maneuvering so he could get at the emergency supplies stashed away in the Tiny Bronco. He pulled out a bottle of purified water and then dug around for the sealed container Shera had insisted on putting there in case he ever crash landed. He opened it and poured a little of the powder into the bottle, frowned at it, then poured about twice as much as the initial amount. He put the cap back on the bottle and gave it a good shake before taking a drink.
He made a face at the taste. It was a pale, but passable, imitation of his normal tea, which made it acceptable to keep drinking, but he hated himself for it. Somewhere out there, his grandmother was preparing a wooden spoon for his behind because what proper person drank instant anything?
His newly acquired cohorts exchanged a look. "So, when you said you needed a drink, you meant tea?" The wannabe-ninja asked, looking like she had a firework shoved up her ass. Cid snorted at her.
"What the fuck else?" He took another sip of his fake-tea, scowling the entire time.
0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x
Wutai was hot and confusing, not even the food tasted right. The tea they served was nice and strong even if it was served in a funny-looking cup. The waitress gave him a funny look when he asked for a pot of sugar and then promptly dumped half of it in his cup as soon as she handed it to him. He didn't care, after that, it was perfect.
Perfect enough to ignore the fact that the Turks had just walked through the door. Tea like that deserved his full attention.
0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x
There was a special place in hell reserved for whoever was in charge of making the tea at Golden Saucer. Cid had nothing against fruit, as long as it was fucking fruit and not masquerading as his goddamn tea. This wasn't even counting the fact that it was saturated with so much sugar, it might as well have been served as fucking syrup for pancakes instead.
It made him mad enough to forget whether or not the rest of the party fucking knew that Reeve's stupid goddamn robot was traveling with them.
0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x
The temple of ancients was destroyed and Reeve was shipping another Cait Sith to them. During this small break, with Aerith's assistance Cid had found that the weeds growing around the temple made an acceptable tea-substitute and had brewed a pot, intending to drink it all himself. One look at Cloud's face changed that.
With a sigh, he pulled the second cup, well-worn and matching the battered tin teapot he had kept in the Tiny Bronco, filled it up and pushed it into the blonde's hand. "Don't let that fucker mess with your head any more than he already has." He warned, feeling simultaneously too damn old and too damn young to be dealing with this bullshit.
0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x
Bone Village didn't have proper tea either, instead it was wussy herbal shit that scalded Cid's tongue and made him want to punch the foreman in the face. So he did and the workers rewarded him with a mop -he didn't understand that fucking shit either-. They had to stay another night to find the Lunar Harp, but Cid thought it was worth it.
0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x
There were more of the weeds scattered all throughout the City of Ancients, but Cid didn't feel like harvesting them. The battle was over and they had scattered to rest, but Cid found he couldn't even think of tea at a time like this. No one was quite sure what to say -she was gone- and they all wandered about, trying to make sense of it all.
Cid was the second-to-last to return to the campfire and was pleasantly surprised to find the his teapot was already hung over the fire, an earsplitting whistle ringing out just as he nudged the cat-wolf over and took a seat. Tits Mcgee smiled at him, passing him his tin cup already filled with piping hot tea.
"I thought we could all do with a drink," she said softly to him, before making her way around the campfire, handing each party member a cup scavenged from the city. Cid huffed at her, blowing on his drink before taking a long sip.
"It's about time somebody had some goddamn sense." He muttered, finding it sweetened to his taste. He watched silently, enjoying his properly brewed drink as Cloud finally wandered back, looking like he was lost in his own little world. Tita -Wasn't that her name?- pushed a cup into his hand -tin, the mate of Cid's own, when had that become Cloud's cup?-, and urged him to take a seat.
As they drank together, Aerith's tea warming their bellies even as her absence chilled their hearts, Cid felt that maybe they were going to be alright.
0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x
TBC
0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x
I intended to finish this in one go, but after a bit of thought I decided to separate it into a chapter for each disc. I'm a bit ashamed that this is so late, but at least I got part of it done and posted.
Thank you very much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it~.
Please consider leaving a review on your way out.