Head-Canon: Cid Highwind (Final Fantasy VII, Kingdom Hearts)

• Cid is het. In my head, he and Shera are engaged in one of the more roundabout and cross-grained courtships available to humankind.


• He knows he loves Shera - he's known subconsciously since he made the decision to save her life rather than launch the rocket and chase his dreams. He admits it consciously to himself after they've retrieved the Large Materia, and probably lets Shera know before they do the final penetration of the Northern Crater.


• He found her self-immolating behaviour after the launch to be extremely frustrating, and wound up lashing out at her verbally. He also wasn't really expecting her to be such a bad housewife (although he probably couldn't explain why).


• They both appreciated the break that Cid running off with Cloud and co. turned out to be. Gave them both a chance to get their heads sorted out.


• Cid really did need the experience of running about with the AVALANCHE crew, if only because it gave him an exposure to a wider definition of tragedy, and an impetus to get past his own self-pity. It's hard to feel sorry for yourself about lost chances when you're hearing about people who have lost what's effectively their whole lives (Cloud, Tifa, Barrett, Yuffie, Vincent, Nanaki). I suspect Aerith's sacrifice was a real turning point, though - she was a willing sacrifice, someone who was willing to give her life for everyone else. In Aerith's sacrifice, I think he finally saw a little of what had been driving Shera that day, and finally managed to get over that last, selfish little bitterness about not getting his dream.


• Cid realises he misses Shera in the middle of all the fun and games. He wants her around. I suspect he and Shera found time to communicate this to each other.


• Cid gets along with Barrett best, but it's a "drinking buddies" friendship more than anything else. Barrett's hatred of anything Shinra sometimes gets in the way of a genuine friendship. Next easiest to deal with is Tifa, then Reeve, and Yuffie. They're all pretty normal. He has problems coping with Cloud and Vincent because they're just too damaged by what Hojo did to them. Nanaki is just plain alien to him - he can manage to be polite, but he's never really going to be on good terms with what he can't help but seeing as a talking animal.