Author's notes: This is for the prompt "growl, cinnamon, guns" in the May '17 prompt challenge on the FanFiction subreddit. This story will be linked there May 31st.

I got a helluva a good nose on me, for a smoker.

The first time I seen 'er, she was on that chopper, tellin' Cloud everything was fine. Even though the wind was whippin' 'round all crazy, I still smelled cinnamon and earth in the air.

I didn't know her, but we was gonna save her.

She's a real genuine person, y'know? Her kindness ain't a front. I'm not real surprised about the love triangle that formed. She an' Cloud an' Tifa are all young, but they're real different people, too. Cloud ain't a talker. He likes to let that bigass sword o' his talk for 'im. Tifa, she's a real sweetheart. Tries t'be th' voice o' reason an' shit, but she ain't afraid ta bust yer balls when she's gotta. Aeris, tho… well, violence is the last thing on her mind.

Me? I gotta gun on my arm. Bullets and that angry growl that's always at the backa my throat sealed my destiny.

We busted her outta there that day. Red XIII too.

A little parta me hates her even more than I hate Cloud. He was only in it fer the money at first, but he came around. Took th' spikey bastard long enough. Aeris, th' only things she wants are the things I want. We wanna save the world. We wanna have more joy, more love in our lives. We was deprived o' that, livin' in Midgar.

She swept in, smellin' like cinnamon and disarmed my gun. Disarmed my grief, my growl, some o' my anger. You disable a man's gun, an' that man's fucked if the gun is his right hand.

I ain't shocked that Tifa fell in love with 'er neither. That cinnamon disarms more than guns; it can disarm the growled war cry of a martial artist. I was a lil' surprised when they ditched Cloud so easily for a "date" o' their own, but something changed that night 'tween 'em, an' it made us all better. Took a bit, 'specially for me, but it did.

Cloud and Red XIII often wondered aloud to me why th' rivalry changed, why th' girls suddenly tightened up as a team an' became a more formidable force than the rest o' us put together. I wish I could tell 'em, but it ain't my thang to tell.

I didn't mean to see somethin' that wasn't meant for me to see. I had juss wanted to tell Tifa g'night. But hearin' th' whispers as I approached her room for th' night got me curious, so I stopped juss behind the corner.

It broke my heart, really, to see Tifa kiss her like that. Watchin' those long fingers on both hands slide through Tifa's hair cut me deep. I glanced at my gat. I ain't even got a hand on one arm, let alone fingers to run through her hair. Hearin' the low, almost growled "I need you" rip itself from Tifa's throat was like a bullet to the chest, and I ain't no stranger t' gettin' shot. Smellin' that cinnamon made my gut clench an' my tears burn in my eyes.

I started backing away as Tifa fumbled with the knob to her door, but didn't stop kissin' Aeris long enough to actually lookit where she was moving.

As they fumbled into th' entryway, I heard Aeris' own confession, low and growled and primal as the rest. "I love you."

As the stairwell door shut behin' me, I heard Tifa's gentle response. "I love you too."

I stood perfectly still 'till I heard th' lock scrape in Tifa's door and the stairwell click a half second after.

I couldn't hold it in anymore. The smell o' the cinnamon licked at my nose as I lost my lunch. The needy growl in Tifa's voice rang through my head, overpowerin' the splatterin' sound at my feet. An' the gleam o' the gun on my arm made it happen again and again.

I can only offer a life of guns an' violence. We was never destined to be together. Aeris though, she can give 'er so much more. She can give her growls, touches an' the smell of cinnamon.