Disclaimer: I don't own squat. Final Fantasy and Advent Children and all of this is owned by Squaresoft, who collectively have more money than ten of me would be worth.

The heat was what woke him up, but the spins reminded him of the night before. Groaning, he reached blindly across the bed, his hands fumbling for something. He let out a string of expletives when a glass of water spilled onto the floor; the glass made a delicious shattering sound. Finally wrapping his fingers around a pack of cigarettes, Cid rolled over, raising his other hand to grab his lighter out from underneath his pillow. An empty beer bottle lay on the opposite bedside table, along with an overturned beer can.

He knew it was still nighttime, although he couldn't tell because of the dark blanket he had thrown over the window months ago. He forced himself out of the constant hangover and glanced to the other half of the bed. The crickets became white noise in his ears.

It had been a very long time since Shera's head had made a dent in that pillow. He tried not to think about the last time they had spoken, but it crossed his mind every time he woke up in that bed. Cid had made a habit to take residence on the couch most nights, but if he got drunk enough he sometimes ended up in the bed that was much too large for just one person.

He had managed to accustom himself to having so much room, however. For a month or two, he stayed to his side, but after many drunken nights and the bitter realization that the problems with their relationship could never be solved, he found it much easier to sprawl. Most nights he didn't even bother to take his shoes off when he finally found it easy to sleep…or pass out.

Cid took a long drag from his cigarette, exhaling with a sigh. He couldn't believe he quit smoking for that dumb broad. Granted, it was only for two months, but he did it for her. She had promised to marry him…he had bought a ring and everything, promised himself to her…hell, he had turned a completely new leaf when he had come back to her after the Meteor crisis. And all of a sudden, it wasn't enough, and she had left. She had said that she couldn't live with someone who "had high expectations" or something. And he couldn't believe that it was it. Her sister came all the way from Mideel just to pick her up, and they left. She walked out on him, after all of it.

He supposed she had just gotten tired of waiting…but he had made an effort; he had devoted himself to her when he returned home. It was only a few months later in a bar that he had learned that Shera had been fucking around on him with the hotel owner's brother. Chuckling, he remembered that night, stalking up to the man's house, drunker than hell with a baseball bat in hand. He remembered his own drunken slurring when he yelled, "This is what happens when you fuck a stranger's girlfriend!" Cid outright laughed right there in bed, recalling the wonderful noises the bat made against the man's car's windshield and driver's side windows. When Shera's lover came out of the house, screaming and yelling, Cid promptly removed his front teeth from the man's mouth with the edge of the baseball bat. The blood, the screaming, it was amazing. He honestly knew that night he could have killed that man.

Fortunately enough for her lover, the police showed up and hauled Cid off to jail.

The ironic part, however, the part that always made Cid nearly die laughing, was the fact that it was the hotel owner that bailed him out of jail. It had just so turned out that Cid and Shera's relationship wasn't the only one ruined.

Cloud and Tifa had stopped to visit a few months after the break up. Tifa looked extremely concerned, but Cloud was much too fascinated with Cid's junk shop business. She lectured him about how to keep a clean house and that he needed to find someone new to help him…that he couldn't live alone the way he was. Cid just supposed she thought he might drink himself to death.

There were many nights that he thought about it. He knew that he had been a jerk, but he didn't realize he deserved being left alone, especially after transforming himself for her. It was enough to make him cry like a baby, but instead he drowned himself in alcohol and cigarettes.

Sounds of dishes being washed made him jump from the bed. Was she back? Sometimes he dreamed of things like this. He could hear the clinking of dishes coming together in that delicate way she always stacked them in the cupboards. The sun would shine in through the window and she would look at him in that way where she worried if she was doing something wrong. He hoped it was her. Every day and every night he hoped it was her.

Opening his bedroom door slowly, he crept down the hallway toward the lighted kitchen. Part of him wanted her to be there so he could grab her and squeeze her tightly, but a larger part of him wanted to strangle her. He had a brief fantasy about squeezing his hands around her tender neck, watching her face turn purple…

But it wasn't Shera in the kitchen.

"Tifa?"

She turned to look at him and sighed with a soft shudder. Her eyes were bloodshot; she had been crying. She looked worn, tired. It was almost as if Cid were looking back at himself.

"It's the middle of the night…what the hell are you doing here?"

He hadn't meant for it to sound so harsh, but she knew how he was.

Tifa sat down at the table in the middle of the kitchen. "I'm sorry Cid. I just didn't know what to do, and I just needed to get away, and I wanted to check on you…"

Cid stretched his tired joints enough to come to the table and sit down.

"From the looks of it, you need to be checked on from time to time. I take it that asshole isn't doing his job as a boyfriend."

She slammed an open hand on the oak table. "I've given him everything, damnit! Years of my life, trying to connect with him! And when it finally comes down to fight or flight, he says 'I can't do this'? What kind of fucking shit is that? I don't understand why I get shit on when all I do is cater to him!"

And that's the point where she started to cry hysterically, slamming her fists on the table.

"Oh, shit, come here." Cid stood and walked over to her, helping her stand by grabbing her shoulders and lifting them. He pulled her close to him as she had done to him many months ago. He had been in her situation; for fuck's sake, he still was. Unwanted, unloved, unappreciated…he felt his pain being reexperienced by her. Cid knew it was just a matter of time before Tifa finally broke down. Enough had finally gotten to be enough.

Then their lips met. It was a desperate, needy kiss, both of them grinding their teeth against one another, passion meeting with pain. It was hardly surprising. Neither one of them had felt the touch of another person in so long that the sensation of a deep kiss was electrifying. He barely noticed Tifa wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Cid stumbled across the kitchen, knocking over chairs, and slamming his back into the wall extremely hard. He moved and set her on the counter, using a free arm to clear the dishes onto the floor. The shattering sound was familiar in its amusing memories, but he wasn't thinking about that. She was desperately tugging on his belt; he was hurriedly unbuttoning her shirt. He lifted her from the counter, and they made their way into the bedroom. He was old, but not too old to throw Tifa onto the bed. She sat up, clutching the collar of his shirt, pulling him down on top of her. Their hands grasped each other's bodies frantically, heavy breaths making the room even warmer. The pounding sound of the rain beating down on the roof made it all much more extreme.

Tifa flipped him over onto his back, straddling him and staring down at him with a lustful insanity he had never seen in a woman. Lightning flashed in through the blanketed window, her hair crazy and disheveled. It was almost angry how their bodies met, unexposed hips crashing together. He grabbed her hair, yanking it back violently to kiss and bite at her neck while she dug her nails into his back. There was no moaning, only screaming in a way that was almost sadistic, but neither could get enough. If he moved in a way she didn't like, she let him know with a slap to the face. If she did something he didn't like, she yanked her hair back. She always laughed when he did that. He always laughed when she slapped him as hard as she could. He could taste blood in his mouth, as she could when their mouths met. The bed slammed against the wall and a thunderstorm raged outside. Inside, however, a more intense storm was weathered between the two of them. It wasn't revenge, nor was it planned. It was a collision.

The sun rose early in the morning; light peeked in through an uncovered corner, nearly blinding Cid when he decided to open his eyes. He felt sticky, the house felt muggy and heavy. Turning to his side, he chuckled when realizing that Tifa had slept next to him that night. His back hurt like hell, and his head spun with the realization that what had happened wasn't repulsive…it was wonderful.

And if it ever came time to pay dues, Cid would definitely take a bat to the face for Tifa.