Spacebound
A curious wind swept over the horizon, leaving him utterly dazed at the sight before him.
He would finally touch the stars again. But this time, not out of the need to save the Planet. This time because the leaders of what seemed like the world were gone, and he was free to reach above the land of men and kiss the moon on her pale, gentle lips that blemished her face in a way that brought forth an unearthly attraction.
The winds were just right for this. This time, nobody would be able to stop him.
Nobody except her.
That woman who called off from a distance, the tone growing more and more panicked as it came closer.
She had stopped him before. Once. When he had been so foolish as to—
No. When he had seen she was important to him.
No. That wasn't right either.
So what did he mean? She certainly wasn't special, but she had had something that made him cancel the launch.
Something she still had.
Something that made him cringe and glare every time she entered a room. Something that sent a chill down his back.
Something that made him think that he, as Yuffie had so lovingly put it, a bow-legged old man like him could possibly feel something other than hatred.
There she was. He saw her running towards him in the reflection of the rocket. His rocket.
A hand was placed on his shoulder. "Captain, there you are."
Rather than shoving it away, he nodded. "Yes. Here I am."
"Are you anxious?"
A pause. Then an explosion, like he was a nuclear blast and that pause was when it clicked, rendering the world still.
"Of course fucking not! I'm Cid fucking Highwind, you lousy piece of shit!" And so the flames began, transforming into a wildfire as easily as the Black Materia had changed the Temple of the Ancients into a handheld-sized structure.
She merely nodded, absorbing the abuse as always. She knew this was an act; Cid always sent his ego into the last escape pod when forced into a conversation. He was careful to upkeep this persona. The persona of an angry old man. It was just one of those things he couldn't break. He had the willpower—he managed to fight against Sephiroth and win with ease. There was no reason why he couldn't stop this.
"I understand, Captain. I'm sorry for thinking you'd be anxious."
He turned and stared at her in disbelief. She…she thought that? No, she just always said that, like she were some weird robot invented by Shin-Ra.
Shaking his head, he snarled. "Goddammit, Shera! Think for yourself sometimes!"
"Yes—"
"Shera!" He yelled, blue eyes narrowing as he raised a hand and smacked her with as much force as he could summon up. "What did I just—"
He stopped. There was something about how she had taken the blow without a fight; without flinching. Something about how her brown eyes flashed at him, as though words that could pack more pain and spirit than Meteor itself could harness raged within them, forbidden from being unleashed.
"Shera, I—"
"No!" She fumed, rubbing where she had been struck and getting close to him, glaring up. "You… I've tried to be decent ever since you've worked for Shin-Ra, Captain. No, not 'Captain'. Cid. And every day, I tried to keep you safe. If you were about to treat me like this…if I knew, I would have told you to fire up the engines and vaporize me. Because living with you is hell. You think going through a few times with Cloud and the others was so bad. You volunteered to that, Cid! People helped you! You weren't stuck playing the part of a battered slave wife to a man who you weren't wed to because he didn't care. You weren't called 'Goddammit Cid'! Nobody pushed you around and held your life over your head." Furiously, she thrust her clipboard at him and tore the package of cigarettes from the straps of his goggles, crushing the cardboard-like substance in her hands. "Find a new doll. I'm done."
She took off, refusing to stare back or even submit to tears. That would probably give him the victory. Let him live his fantasy. She wouldn't play the part anymore.