So, sorry for the long pause! I've decided to review what I have planned out. This fanfiction will be longer than I first envisioned. Gibbous will be something nice and spooky for you all to read this October. Kinda started out really spooky anyway. I hope to finish it on the 31st. Er…we'll see how it works out.
Also! If you are very interested in this pairing in general, I am an artist, and I do post art of them on one of my side blogs: Sherahighwind|tumblr. I have sketches of AU!Cid you might want to browse through. Advertising over. On with the story.
I.
Shera had long fallen asleep at his side. His head was pounding. The gauzed wound on the back of his leg burned. His stomach ached. And all his older injuries were agitated again. Cid was fatigued, and in all manners of pain, but he didn't want to sleep. He instinctively stayed awake watching over Shera on the bed. Good thing, too.
Sleeping was a toxic idea.
II.
The long achy morning rolled on into evening. Shera was up again, leaving the visiting doctor to tend to Yuffie and Cid on the inside of the house. As expected, both of them protested to needing stitches. Coupled with the construction going on outside in the backyard, Cait Sith discovering where his megaphone had been hidden, and Nanaki's snoring, the house was filled to the brim with racket again.
In an attempt to smother the tiredness she felt with caffeination, Shera decided to brew a hot pot of coffee instead of tea. With a deep sigh (she'd been doing that a lot lately), she took the largest mug she could find from the kitchen cabinets, poured a generous amount of the bitter liquid, and shuffled outside. Sipping without scorching her tongue and paying enough attention to avoid ant mounds was tedious, but eventually she made it over to where Cloud, Tifa, and Barret were without spilling too much down her sweater.
"We've thought about going with a hole, but there's not enough time to dig one deep enough. Plus, I know Cid probably isn't going to be happy with a big gaping crater in his yard. Tifa and I think we came up with something practical enough." Cloud held one end of a thick, quadruple twined rope in his hands. Barret had other hefty pieces slung over his shoulder. Just looking at the equipment gave Shera rope burn. If she wasn't going crazy, she knew for a fact that the Captain wouldn't like any of their methods.
She scanned the grass to find that they had collected several jumbo sized, wooden stakes. "What are…you planning to do…with all of this?" Shera guzzled hot coffee between words. She thickly swallowed and played a brief session of mental Ping-Pong, trying to figure out whether or not it was the best time to voice her deep concerns.
The problem was: explaining it in a way that didn't appear ludicrous. To be frank, she only had fragments of information, and the information she had was difficult for just herself to understand. It dawned on her mid-sip that Cid probably consumed numerous pets, and Shera drank heavier until there wasn't any left to drink. Maybe she should have popped open a bottle of whiskey instead.
"We're going to rig up a rope snare while we still have daylight! Pretty sure this last monster is nocturnal." Tifa was leaning her weight on the handle end of a large rubber mallet. She puffed out her rosy cheeks and handed another working mallet to Cloud. "Do you know the area well, Shera?"
"I…I suppose I do, if you mean the woods." Shera pulled the edge of her bottom lip between her teeth and briefly looked out over the horizon. The thought of night approaching formed chunks of icy anxiety in her stomach. Say something. Say something. Say something. "Um…"
"Ya! We're gonna need to set this rope up on the strongest tree ya got. We'll hog tie this son of a bitch, and then everyone can finally go on 'bout their business."
"There's something I should probably—"
"Right? I didn't think it would be this much trouble. Lesson learned, I guess." Cloud rubbed an irritating bug bite on the back of his neck and motioned that he was ready to follow Shera whenever she was ready.
"This is a good idea and all, but I think we might be underestimating our target's intelligence." Shera fully had the floor, er grass, and spoke a little louder.
Barret, Cloud, and Tifa were collectively confused.
"I mean," she sucked in a deep breath and tried to sort out how she wanted to explain "maybe I shouldn't put it that way." Shera began to walk and the party curiously followed after her to the tree line.
"You think it will recognize when it's being lured into a trap?" Cloud was scratching the back of his neck again.
"Maybe. I don't think we should set up the trap in a way that would hurt him." She nibbled on her knuckle and anticipated carefully scuffling past a swag of thorns.
"…hurt him?" Tifa stopped walking all together and the party fell silent again. "Shera, what's wrong?"
"You're probably going to think I'm crazy, but I don't think this monster is really a monster. "
III.
She took a moment to wipe sweat from her forehead before dipping down near the back porch steps. Shera pulled up a loose wooden board and dragged out the remains of Cid's flight jacket. She had kept it there just in case. Not wanting to get any granules of old, dried blood on her clothes, she tossed it down to the grass and toed open the majority of the fabric with the tip of her boot.
"I found it down near the creek. I noticed some of his clothes had been going missing maybe a week or two ago." Shera tilted to the evidence with the lazy sway of her head and sank down on the step she had pulled it out from. She rubbed her sore palms. They'd been rope burned (of course they were) helping the others set up the trap near the back of the woods were the oldest trees were rooted.
The group had ruffled back to the house to solidify a plan, and rest now that the air was cool. The sun had gone down hours ago leaving the porch bulb and the waning, full moon above to provide the party light.
"That would explain what was up with him this morning." Cloud's expression was tense. This certainly complicated things. He was grateful they didn't succeed in killing their target last night.
"And why we couldn't find Cid last night." Tifa adjusted her gloves and plopped down next to Shera on the porch. She removed the band keeping the ends of her hair together and shook bush burrs out of the strands.
"It was a difficult conclusion to come to. In the beginning, both of us were kind of suspecting Nanaki was our culprit."
"Suspecting me of what?" Red slunk from behind the cracked back door. Argument on the inside of the house disrupted the cricket lull of outside and ceased when the door fell closed behind him. The canyon beast took a moment to stretch out his back, tail end high behind him and stomach low, before padding down the steps to examine what Shera had tossed down for the group to see.
"Of being the Rocket Town's mystery monster." Shera nudged her glasses back up the bridge of her nose and gave Red an apologetic, lopsided frown. "You showed up right after something happened the night before, and you were acting so odd. I don't think you ever told us why you were really here in the first place."
"I didn't want to suffer embarrassment." Nanaki spoke honestly. His nose hovered and twitched above the fabric. He recognized that whatever it was, it belonged to Cid, and immediately felt he had missed something important in the conversation. "I had a chronic stomach ache and was looking for grass as a side objective. As you can imagine, it's the last thing you'll find where I live. Barret was originally going to come to request the Captain, but when he asked if I wanted to, I jumped up at the opportunity."
"Try not to scare the hell out of us next time. If ya sick, just say so, Red!" Barret leaned on his unburned side and seated himself on the top of an old wooden barrel.
"I'll try to monitor my pride." Nanaki bitterly remarked. "I can see how you would assume that the last creature was me. There are some very questionable similarities."
"That isn't your fur on Cid's jacket, is it?" Shera asked him. She was picking out whatever burrs had attached themselves to the fabric of her sweater while they had been working.
"Absolutely not. I don't shed." He shook his head and narrowed a keen eye. "Am I missing something?"
"Sure are. We've set up a trap that should snag our target by the legs." Cloud didn't want to have to be the one to completely explain.
"I thought the main goal was to kill it? Wouldn't a different trap be more efficient?" If anyone knew an effective trap from experience, it was Nanaki.
"We don't want to kill it…him now." Tifa stood up and poked her head inside the door. Cid and Yuffie's bickering on the inside of the house grew louder, and it was only a matter of time before Cait Sith would feel the need to interrupt and amplify all the blare they were making.
"And why not?" Red tilted his head and his expression strained with misunderstanding.
"I can't tell you how it might have happened," though Shera was already formulating a notion "but Cid is our target. He's never around when the monster is, it's been months and his injuries still haven't healed, his clothes have been going missing, I'm finding hair—that isn't yours—all over the house, and I think he's been sleep walking." Shera stood up after Tifa did. The joints of her knees popped and she leaned back to work out the stiffness that had grown in her back. "He has a wound in the same place I threw the spear, too. "
Nanaki gradually relaxed into concerned thought. "I…see. I'm starting to rethink the complications we had on the ship as well. He doesn't know?"
"I don't think so. None of us have really known until now." Shera retrieved the tattered jacket from the grass and stuck it back under the loose porch step. "I…I don't really know what to do."
"Cid's undergoing some sort of transformation, at some sort of time, correct?" Red asked.
"And ya mentioned somethin' about sleepwalking, right? Maybe it's got something to do with that, too?" Barret interjected.
Shera nodded her head in agreement. "All of that sounds reasonable."
"Then it means to some extent, Cid's been tampered with. The monster…he's" Cloud corrected himself "infused with Mako at night. I can tell by his eyes. The other monsters we had to deal with were like that."
"You think Hojo got to Cid?!" Barret ducked his head when Cait Sith's mega phone was chucked out the door and sent sailing over the porch.
"I was starting to think that myself. " Shera rasped. Cid's voice was growing nearer to the door.
"We're still going to go through with the trap for the sake of any more victims. We'll all try not to harm him. I'll pull Yuffie aside tonight and tell her. Who's going to try and break it to Cid?" Tifa whispered back and darted away from the door before it could swing opened completely and smack her in the face.
"If any more of my rocks go missing, I'll wring your thieving little neck! I ain't got any materia! Stop snooping my goddamn house!" The Captain limped out onto the porch; still yelling at Yuffie up and taunting him on the inside. He held Cait Sith by his cape in a clenched fist. "What are y'all doin' out here?! You see his dumb megaphone?"
All eyes had been on Shera before Cid lumbered outside. "We were—we were just going over the plan for tonight. That's all. We have a few hours before it gets late to eat and prepare ourselves." She awkwardly smiled; trying to hide the dread she felt. Of course she'd have to be the one to make the Captain aware of himself.
IV.
A random assortment of left overs were thrown together as a last minute meal. Cid and Yuffie's argument would have continued over the dining table, but the other side of the boxing ring claimed they had developed a horrible headache and were excused from having to go another problematic round. "Probably got sticky fingers in her sleep. She ain't supposed to be moving with her leg wounds anyway." The Captain wisecracked with a full mouth.
"You aren't supposed to be moving, or eating, either." Having already gotten all the sleeping he needed, Nanaki ate Yuffie's food for her with one of his tablets hidden somewhere at the bottom. A majority of the conversation they had about the trap was continued, so that Cid would have a general idea of what they were going to do. Everyone collectively dodged filling him in on exact information. No one knew how Cid knowing would affect the outcome of their plan.
"My house, I'll do what I want." Cid hobbled up, with empty plate in hand, and teetered to where Shera was in front of the sink. He stood behind her, one hand on her shoulder, and another sliding his plate into hot dish water. "You alright?" He mumbled near her ear. Cid could tell she was jittery.
"I've had two cups of coffee, in the largest mug in the house." That was partially the truth. She paused her washing when the Captain didn't walk off right away. He lingered there; chin lowered and hooked over her other shoulder. From the way he smelled, and his change of clothes, Cid had taken a decent shower after the doctor came to visit.
"I was wonderin' who turned on the maker. You not gonna burn out are ya? I can't wait for this to be over so we can all sit our asses down somewhere." His hand moved from her shoulder to her hip. Cid leaned around her side a bit to find her expression was taut.
Shera turned her head a bit to meet Cid's eyes. She pressed her lips into a tight line because the blue windows were asking her what was really wrong. Nothing, just going over in her head how she was going to break it to her housemate that he had probably consumed a cat, two sheep, a goat, and two chocobos as a result of someone's sick experiment.
"I'm very tired, Captain. It's been a bizarre few weeks."
"You gonna hang in there?" His voice tickled her inner ear.
"Hanging in as best I can." Shera ignored the tingle that oozed down her spine and cleared her throat. "There's something I need to show you before we regroup tonight. Is that okay?" She resumed washing. Her cheek brushed the scratchy line of Cid's jaw in rhythm with scrubbing. Shera was a little surprised he was being so openly affectionate in front of his friends. She was all bent up over him (rightfully), and he was bent up over her (obliviously).
"Yeah? " What was there to show?
V.
Cid opened his mouth by just a fraction, but no words came. The back porch light off to the side of where he and Shera stood distorted his already hard to decipher facial expression. Maybe it was disbelief? Maybe it was anger? Maybe it was confusion? Shera had been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for Cid to say something, and she knew him to almost never be a man lost for words.
"You think it's me?" He glared down the ripped remains of his flight jacket like it was the vilest thing he'd ever seen. "Me?"
Shera timidly nodded her head and tip toed about the subject. "I know you didn't mean any of what's happened. I think someone might have done something to you, and you haven't been aware of it."
"What the hell are you talking about, it ain't me." Sure, he'd kick another man right in his shin, or bare his teeth in a brawl, but Cid knew for a fact that he didn't have the blood of a killer. This had to be some huge misunderstanding. As far as he knew, he hadn't done anything wrong and nothing about him was out of the ordinary.
"Captain, please, just hear me out." She tried to reason with him. "You haven't been healing, you've ben running a fever, you sleepwalk, there's hair all over—"
"I told you it was Red's!"
"It's not Red's. He can tell you himself."
"Shera it ain't me." Cid refused to believe it. Yuffie got on his nerves but he'd never try to hurt her.
"Please, Cid, just listen to me. I'm not saying this to waste anyone's time. I'm telling you what I've seen. It is you, and if you'd just listen maybe we can do something about it." Shera's jaw was rigid. She chewed on the inside of her cheek and tried to keep her thoughts clear. She was so tired, and so nervous, and she was just trying to help.
"IT AIN'T ME, SHERA!" Ah, and they were doing so well.
"Cidney Highwind."
Taken by surprise, Cid withdrew. He didn't know she could bark. It was low, and dangerous, and it told him her two thousand mile patience was now only a little over two feet. "I have listened to you for seven years. I am begging you to listen to me." She took a hold of both of his wrists. The heat of his skin burned through the pads of her fingers.
It was silent for several moments; the dispute was continued between tensely locked eyes. Nothing came from the inside of the house either. Night ambiance filled the sluggish untangling of air between them.
Shera slowly exhaled through her nose. Her thumbs swept over the protrusion of bone that connected Cid's palms to his forearm. "Tell me what it looks like?"
"Tell you what it looks like?" He didn't know what she meant by the question.
"Can you tell me—the monster—what does it look like?" Shera's brows were bowed.
The Captain's eyes darted off to the side. Cid thought he could answer for an instant, but then he remembered. His shoulders grew heavy and his heart beat was shallow in his chest. A cold, guilty sweat beaded on his forehead.
"You can't tell me, can you…?"
No, he couldn't.