A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this one shot. I've decided to write more one shots about the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. You'll learn now why Cid has a toothpick in KH. Enjoy. ;)

Thanks: SecretAgent99, my beta reader.

~ "Just give me 3 minutes with those Heartless. No, make it 2. Well maybe 3... or 4. Well it really depends on how many there are. But I think if there were 5 I could probably take them in 2. Or 2 in 5, or 3 in 4..." ~

Cid had no idea that trouble awaited him at home, otherwise he would have stayed in his own shop and kept himself locked there for the rest of his life. He knew very well whose idea it had been. It wasn't that hard to guess. That damned girl again. Who else? If you gave her one finger, then she would take your whole hand with pleasure. And just when you realized what she was doing, you couldn't tell her to stop that at once, because she had you in her power with that horrible sweet smile.

Once he stepped inside the house, he felt that threat already. Aerith, who first had been in the kitchen, now walked toward Cid. She had a small jar in her hands, that caught Cid's attention immediately. That wasn't even the worst thing. That look in her eyes didn't please Cid at all. She was planning something unpleasant, unpleasant for him that is.

"Hello, how was your day?" she asked kindly.

Oh no, that was her sweet, in sugar coated, caring voice. He knew that it promised little good. Cid wanted to run away from her, but found out that his feet didn't want to listen to him. They felt much better inside, where it was warm and cozy, and where he could smell that a delicious meal was coming.

"It was okay," Cid grumbled.

He quickly looked away from her eyes and sat down on a chair. Squall - no, it was Leon now - went to his regular corner. From there he had a good view of the entire room. Not that he needed that, because mentally, he didn't seem to be present in this room. Cid knew that he was brooding over a past he couldn't change, again. Instead of brooding over his past, he should worry about the future, 'cause Aerith would make it very difficult for all of them. Yuffie too, what with her annoying high pitched voice. Cid was preparing for the worst.

"Guys, Yuffie and I have decided something rather important today. As we all four are quite different from each other, we must learn to live together, without always having the tendency to give each other a blow. Everyone must sacrifice something. We can all agree with that, right?"

She looked expectantly at everyone. Her gaze rested a little bit longer on Cid, which made him nervous. At long last, he nodded reluctantly.

"So... from now on Cid is not allowed to smoke or swear anymore. Every time he does so, he has to put one Munny in this can, okay? That'll teach him how to control himself in our presence. Okay, that's agreed then," Aerith said firmly.

"Hey, there ain't nothing agreed! Nobody has asked me for my opinion. That is certainly not democratic!" Cid shouted angrily.

"We don't have to be democratic here. From now on, women call the shots. Yuffie and I already have taken away and burned all your cigarettes, so that will make things a little bit easier for you, don't you think?" Aerith replied with a small smile.

Cid quickly searched in his pockets. There were really no more cigarettes left in them. When had they done that? When he was napping? This was fucking unbelievable!

"Fuck!" he exclaimed furiously.

Aerith opened the jar and looked expectantly at Cid.

"What?" Cid cried out offended.

Then he understood what she wanted. He fumbled in his pockets and put one Munny in the swear jar. Cid really wanted to beat the children right now, until he invented something. She hadn't said anything about alcohol and he was not foolish enough to start about it. That would only give her more nasty ideas. He began to grin. Aerith had been right, he shouldn't give up hope so quickly. There was always a way out.

"This also applies to liquor," Aerith said, when she saw how he started to smirk.

In stead of the smirk, a grimace appeared now on his face. It made him look much older.

"Cr-"

He saw how Aerith's eyes lit up. In his opinion, crap wasn't even a swear, but he managed to change the word right in time. With people like Aerith you could never know for sure.

"...unchies. Crunchies. Do we have any crunchies left? 'Cause I'm starving."

"Good, you're already learning how to control yourself. You're already progressing. And no, no crunchies for you, for we're about to eat," Aerith said, still smiling sweetly.

She really had a devilish smile. It said: "Ha ha, I can make you suffer under my power and you'll have to get used to it!" He wished that there was a way to make that scary smile disappear for a while.

He shook his head. She had already affected his mind. This wasn't healthy. Aerith got up and went to the kitchen. Apparently, dinner was ready.

"But what about with my reputation?" Cid asked stubbornly.

Yuffie started to giggle. Cid ignored her.

"Did you have that then?" Aerith asked from out of the kitchen.

"Of course I have! I am now known as the scolding and chain smoking pilot everywhere and I want to keep it that way. It is tough and rugged and it fits my personality. I don't want to be called a softy and that is exactly what you're making of me with your stupid demands," Cid grumbled.

Aerith practically roared with laughter at that point. That made Cid feel even more furious. Who the hell did that child think that she was?

She reappeared in the room and walked toward Cid. "Here."

She handed him something. It was a toothpick.

Cid looked at it, a stunned expression appearing on his face. "What the heck am I supposed to do with that?"

"It's for your reputation. This is much healthier for your lungs. By the way, that's a swear too. Yuffie, can you get the swear jar for Cid please?" Aerith asked.

Cid growled something under his breath and snatched the toothpick away from her, sending her a glare. He started to chew on his toothpick to keep himself calm, while putting another Munny in the jar. Why was his life getting so hard and unfair?

During dinner, everyone, especially Yuffie, was chatting, like they knew each other for years, like they were one big happy family. Everyone, except Leon, who stared straight ahead and didn't speak one word.

"Leon, is there something wrong?" Cid asked, noticing how the boy had become silent again.

Leon hadn't eaten anything yet. He still hadn't said a word against the two girls since they had left Hollow Bastion. He was starting to get worried about the boy. He wasn't really a talker so he had no idea what the heck was he was thinking.

"Yes, you still haven't eaten your dessert. Don't you like my cooking?" Aerith asked, worried and a little hurt.

Apparently she couldn't take any criticism about her cooking.

"May I? I think chocolate pudding is delicious!" Yuffie exclaimed happily, who didn't seem to notice the problem at all.

Leon didn't say anything, but pushed the plate with chocolate pudding toward Yuffie, who sat across of him.

"Thank you, Squallie!" she cried.

"It's Leon," he said, sighing.

He was obviously annoyed with her. These were the first two words he had spoken in front of Aerith and Yuffie since they had fled from Hollow Bastion. Yuffie looked at him for three seconds with a puzzled look on her face and her mouth open, but then shrugged her shoulders and began to eat her pudding.

"I've been thinking," he finally said, when he noticed that two pair of eyes were still looking at him.

"And?" Yuffie wanted to know, as curious as she was.

"Yuffie, don't talk with your mouth full," Aerith immediately whispered, but she still looked at Leon, more interested yet worried now.

Yuffie stack her tongue at her, which she didn't see. She continued eating, mumbling something like, "'S ma life."

"I want to do something. I want to make myself useful. I want to borrow the same Gummi Ship which we used when we came here, to find survivors in other worlds and bring them here, where it's fairly safe... And I want to search for Rinoa. I would look down the entire galaxy if I had to, but I will find her, wherever she is, even if that's the last thing I'll have to do."

"Aaaw, that's so sweet! I didn't know you were such a romantic! You know what, I'll go with you! I mean, someone has to watch you in case you'll do something stupid again," Yuffie cried immediately, glancing at his impressive scar.

"No, you don't," Cid said sternly.

This was certainly something Squall - no, Leon - just had to do alone.

"What? I don't get it! Why can't we help out?" Yuffie asked indignantly.

The louder she talked, the more pitched her voice became.

"This is Man Talk," Cid replied brusquely.

Why couldn't she just shut the fuck up for at least ten seconds?

"Sexist! Sexiiiiist!"

Yuffie pointed accusingly at him with her index finger. Cid blinked, his eyes rather dazed. He was really surprised that she knew such a word at such a young age. She was only seven.

"Yuffie, calm down and mind your language. She is right, though. Aren't we supposed to stay together, especially after what's happened? We only have each other now," Aerith said.

"It's far too dangerous. I can't get all of you involved. I would never forgive myself if something would happen to one of you because of me," Leon spoke solemnly.

"Hey, that's Cloud's line! '...It's too dangerous, I can't get you involved...' Blah blah blah. Why are all men the same? We're very well capable of taking care of ourselves, you know?"

Despite of that, Aerith still smiled lightly.

"Oh come on! I know you want my help because I'm so good! After all, I'm the great ninja Yuffie! I am the Champion of the Earth and the sky. I am the conqueror of evil. The single white rose of-"

"You don't even have a weapon, so how do you want to fight? By talking their ears off their head?" Cid interrupted her impatiently.

That was the first mistake which Cid learned of that night. You should never just stop her, because then it would take extra time before she would finally shut her mouth.

"Who says I need one? Just give me 3 minutes with those Heartless. No, make it 2. Well maybe 3... or 4. Well it really depends on how many there are. But I think if there were 5 I could probably take them in 2. Or 2 in 5, or 3 in 4..."

"Are you finished? 'Cause we all have better things to do than to listen to your rattle," Cid said impatiently.

Yuffie put her hands on her hips, looking mad in a funny way. Cid tried not to laugh. That would make her only act worse.

"Well excuse me for trying to help!" she cried indignantly. She continued softly, "You big mean grumpy ugly old man!"

Fortunately for her, Cid didn't hear any of that, because he said nothing about it. Or he simply ignored her, which was more unlikely.

"You know, I really want to know more about the Heartless. Where do they come from, what do they want, what's their goal, and how do we beat 'em? 'Cause if we don't even know how to beat 'em, then what can we do against them?" Cid thought.

"I think that I might have an answer to those questions," Aerith said softly.

Everyone looked at her in amazement. Even Leon, although he tried to hide it. Cid doubted whether such a sweet and innocent girl (with a devilish smile!) knew what to do the best against those monsters. Aerith seemed to know what she was talking about though.

She got up and walked to the cupboard, and she began to rummage in the drawers. She let out a soft cry and then pulled a few sheets from the drawer. She carried it back to the table and opened the first page. She even had Yuffie's attention now, because she immediately stopped eating and pushed her chair closer to Aerith's.

"Aeri, what's that?" Yuffie asked softly, pointing to the pile.

"This is a small part of the answers to our questions. I've found this in the library of Hollow Bastion when I was looking there for a book, a few days ago. The notes seem to be from Ansem the Wise."

"Ansem?"

The name made Cid pay attention now too. He was all ears.

"Yes, Ansem the Wise. There are a lot of interesting things written in here. I'm so sorry that I haven't got them all, as there were several reports. This is only the first one... Oh well, there's nothing to do about it now. Let's see. It says, "Much of my life has been dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. That knowledge has guarded this world well. Not a soul doubts that. I am blessed with people's smiles and respect. But though I am called a sage, there are things I do not understand. I believe darkness sleeps in every heart, no matter how pure. Given the chance, the smallest drop can spread and swallow the heart. I have witnessed it many times. Darkness... Darkness of the heart. How is it born? How does it come to affect us so? As ruler of this world, I must find the answers. I must find them before the world is lost to those taken by the darkness."

There was a short silence.

"Wow, some pessimist that was," Cid muttered.

"Um... I didn't understand more than the half of it," Yuffie reported confused.

"I think that Ansem was worried. He believed darkness sleeps in every heart... so maybe this means that the Heartless are born from the hearts of the people, as the Heartless are born in the darkness, the darkness of hearts. That means that the only way to defeat the Heartless, is to make all darkness from the hearts of the people disappear. And maybe the legend that I've told Yuffie before also has something to do with it. According to that legend, the people of the universe once lived in harmony on one world, with their hearts full of light. Unfortunately, they began to selfishly fight over the light, and darkness grew within their hearts, covering everything and destroying the world. The light survived in the hearts of children, who were able to rebuild the broken fragments of the one world into many, smaller worlds. However, the true light was still hidden in the darkness, so the worlds remained separate. If we find that true light, we can save all worlds and all the people... I don't think that we'll be able to do that by ourselves, though. We don't have enough information," Aerith said thoughtfully.

"Hmm... That's very farfetched... but it kinda makes sense... in some way... I guess," Cid thought.

"This is also a reason to travel through the worlds, we must find those reports, or Ansem, otherwise we will get nowhere, for Ansem's the only one who knows the answers," Leon considered.

This finally convinced everyone that it was the best if Leon travelled with his Gummi Ship between Worlds, while helping survivors and searching for Ansem's reports. But he would only do that once he was sure that the First District was safe enough against Maleficent and the growing tide of Heartless, for the most refugees lived there. In the mean time Cid would build a new and even better Gummi Ship for him.

In the 33 years that Cid had lived, he had never known anyone like these three children. The oldest reminded him of a very worried mother, even though she was only seventeen years. She always supported everyone, knew how to reassure you, gave you hope, could heal you and also knew how to prepare a delicious meal in which nothing was missing, in such a short amount of time.

The boy was the easiest, but still unbelievable stubborn. He was quiet, a thinker that couldn't let go of the past, a bit cold, he certainly knew how to kick ass, he fortunately only minded with his own business and thought he had to be the hero if it was necessary.

The youngest of the three, an annoying busybody, was someone who followed you everywhere and always asked you many questions. She wasn't even the worst of the three, despite her non-stop hyperactivity. Where she got all that energy from, Cid did not know. The brat could nag about nothing for hours on end, until she finally got her way. Only Aerith seemed to know how to handle her. She seemed to be immune to those pleading puppy eyes and her voice, which sometimes sounded like a crow who needed water. Leon ignored her as much as possible. All he found annoying was that she disturbed his peaceful silence and always called him Squall, no matter how many times he said that his name was Leon now. That was obviously not something she could learn off.

Cid got up. "Well, I'm gonna go to bed early, 'cause it's been a long day. I'm exhausted. I'll start working on a new Gummi Ship tomorrow, okay?"

"That's fine," Leon said, while nodding.

Life was pretty hard here. He had to work hard and very long to be able to survive this mess. At least nobody knew about Cid's secret Liquor cabinet, so everything would be alright. For now.

He hid his smirk. If Aerith would see that, than she would be suspicious again. He didn't want that to happen, of course.

A/N: What? He has a secret liquor cabinet? I'm wondering for how long it will be a secret, especially now that Aerith and the great ninja Yuffie are around.

Thanks for reading, by the way! =) Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^