Chapter 11.
Oh, GAWD, Where am I...urk...ugh...OW! Cloud...awoke...so he thought. He wasn't sure. His head hurt like hell. And strangely, so did his left jaw. Ow. Felt like he was...run over by a truck. Maybe he lost control of a chocobo and it kicked him...right in the face. Or wait...
He let out an audible, painful gasp...Ruby Weapon!
...ow...no, that's not it...that was a long while ago...
The party...yeah... His face froze in shock, humiliation, and terror. Oh, God! The party! What happened?
After piecing together his mental bearings through a sea of pain, it was time to get the physical bearings straightened out. Where was he? He looked up. A blur...no, a gold ceiling fan with wood and burgundy stripes. The Cloud Nine. Yeah, that's where he was. He was somehow on his back, on a bench, in a booth in the Cloud Nine.Ow.
He must have made it home somehow...well, he was sure he'd hear about it sometime. He laboredly picked himself up and heavily walked toward the door leading into the living room of his and Tifa's place. He had some things to straighten out paperworkwise...so maybe that'll clear his head...and help him remember what happened.
He made it up the steps, pitifully holding his head the whole time. His jaw REALLY felt swollen. Maybe Tifa has some ice in the kitchen upstairs. She was really picky about using things for the bar for personal use. "Helps separate business from pleasure expenses!" she always says.
He opened the door to the living room, and looked at his pile of papers on the low coffee table in the middle of the furniture. They were shuffled through, he just knew it. He tried to keep them relatively presentable at Tifa's request. But he definitely didn't fiddle through them and leave them all scattered on the table like this. Boy, his head hurt.
"Oh, hi...Cid."
...
CID!
Cloud looked up, trying desperately not to turn his head too quickly. Yup, there was the crusty old pilot, riffling through some papers in his hand, as if inspecting it so it would be acceptable to his standards. But his eyes said he wasn't thinking about what was on the papers.
Cloud sat himself down opposite the pilot and supported his elbows on his knees, pathetically holding his head again to keep it from exploding.
The two men sat in a stiff silence for a few seconds. Cid Highwind, surprisingly, was the first to speak.
"Remind me and the rest of the boys to NEVER let you get that drunk again. 'Kay kiddo?"
Cloud grooooooooaned. He managed to poke his eyes up and try to look at Cid through the spiky blonde hair on his head. Ow. Better not do that, he thought to himself when he felt his head swimming, and immediately lowered his eyes back to looking ashamedly at the floor through his fingers.
Cid plopped the papers down on the table and stood up, going to the window. When he got there, he opened up the blinds so the both of them could see the bright afternoon sunlight. Cloud cringed with head pain.
"I thought it was be a pretty amusing sight to see, since you could be a little square more than one in a while, kiddo."
Cloud silently closed his eyes and felt himself falling. Whoa, better not do that either, he internally repremanded himself.
"Wanna know...um...everything?"
"MmmmmmHm," Cloud managed to answer, fighting the light from the window.
"Sure?"
Cloud managed to worriedly look up at the older man. For Cid Highwind to ask whether someone was "sure", it would have to be a pretty definite "sure". This made Cloud pretty sure he didn't want to hear it. But it...it had to be done.
The look in Cloud's eyes said he wanted to know what happened. They, of course, lied. But, even if Cloud wasn't interested in hearing the details of what happened between entering the door to the building with Vincent and just waking up a few minutes ago, Cid thought he'd have to know anyway. Too bad!
Cid took a deep breath. "Ahright. Here goes."
"Cid...hold a sec." Cloud raised a hand. Cid thought he had second thought about hearing the action and adventure that transpired afterall.
"Y...yeah?"
"Could you...close that blind?" Cloud waved a hand in front, gesturing toward the window, while fruitlessly trying to shield his face with the other.
"Blind? Oh...okay." Cid took another deep breath and regarded his comrade and friend, who managed to pick his face up out of his hands in the muted light. "Well...ah...first of all, you had quite a time with Bunny."
"Bunny?"
"You know, Bunny? The dancer?"
"Uuuuuugh..."
"Well, you were doin' really good holdin' your own, even with that drinkin' contest you had with Vincent! But uh, the more you had, the more Bunny looked interestin' to ya...at least, that's what me and Barett noticed...I was sorta...outa whack myself, but you see, Barett was the designated levelhead for the night and..."
"AND?" Ow.
"Well...we found ya in the kitchen makin' out with Bunny, and when we confonted ya about it, ya relly lost it. And when we reminded ya of Tifa and the fact you're gonna get hitched soon after all this is over, you sorta...spilled the beans about what's been botherin' your noggin recently."
Cloud's eyes opened wide as he realized his "big secret" was out. "I...let everyone know about...?"
"Well, yeah. THEN we had to control ya becuase you were sorta standin' in the way of Bunny gettin' out of the room, and you started ta pick another fight with Barett, y'know, turning tables over and stuff..."
Oh, GAWD! Cloud listened, desperately wanting to crawl under a rock.
"So he kinda had ta...knock ya out."
"Ugggghhh. knock me out." Cloud repeated deliberately, trying to wish it all wasn't true.
"Yeah, kiddo. Then we sort of dragged you home, and I said I'd stay, and see when ya woke up, and I told Tifa what happened, so she's out now tryin' to put the place back together with Barett...and..."
"AND?"
"Well...that's the story."
As if to add insult to injury, he had let loose his most vulnerable secret, mostly at the fault of his friends. He felt bad about rashing the place. He felt REALLY awful about hitting on the girl when he's engaged to...
Tifa. That's what he felt the worst about. he let his personal problems out, and embarrassed Tifa at the same time.
"Hey. if you need anything...we're all here. maybe we can research or something for ya." Cid was spurred into an unusual display of consolation by letting Cloud know what happened. Suddenly, though, he brightened. "But, HEY! Look at the bright side. Barett would be the first ta get over the whole thing!"