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Aerith's heart felt like it would pound completely out of her chest as she watched Zack walk in her church.
Mere hours ago, she felt like she was dying. Heart positively aching and throbbing as if holding desperately onto his light without wanting to let go. A cool rain doing little to mask the tears slipping down her face as she stared at the dull grey sky she could see through the hole Zack made in the roof of the church.
It was only a moment, a blip, a fraction of a second she felt him die… His hold on this mortal coil slip out of his fingers for a mere breath, the sky planning to swallow him whole while the planet churned with its own grief as if about to break some terrible news to her…
Yet a second later, it dissipated like it never happened…
…but the feeling didn't leave.
Aerith had knelt by her flowers since with tears steadily leaking down her stricken face.
That brief agony still lingering like a festering wound in her heart and all she could think about was Zack. The love of her life, the only man she could and ever would love.
It had been years since he left on his mission to Nibelheim - 5 years, 23 tiny unfulfilled wishes and 89 letters all sent without a word in return.
The angel who watched over her in her rafters had left with the final letter months ago. He never returned either and since then, she was left in a limbo of agonizing numbness… Zack's light and life still there getting nearer and nearer by the day until it flickered out and disappeared…
…and now there was nothing…
The Planet remained silent.
It may have been minutes or hours that she was staring blankly at the flowers at her feet; hands and shoulders trembling under her bolero jacket and wondering what the hell just happened…
Where was Zack?
Was he okay?
Was he…dead?
No.
No, he couldn't be…
…He promised…
Maybe it was denial, desperation for answers. Hands trembling from where she was gripping the fabric of her dress to keep from puncturing the skin of her palms with her nails… Tears like torrents down her cheeks as the rain felt like the cold prick of needles against her skin. Rain that stopped hours ago, the grey skies giving away to the late afternoon sun...but she still felt so unbearably cold.
…she just wanted to know what happened…
Then the door to her church suddenly opened with a loud squeak of its neglected hinges…
And like an answer to a desperate prayer - there he was.
"I'm back!" his voice tore her from her agonizing reverie. The lit of his warm tender tone so bright and cheerful regardless of his appearance.
Zack was bloody. Arms torn with deep cuts, bruises, gunpowder burns and bullet grazes all over his arms and face. Holes torn in his clothing from knives, swords and gunshots with alarming stains of blood against the faded black of his top.
But that didn't seem to phase him for even amongst all his wounds, there was an illuminating smile lighting up his beautiful face.
Aerith's heart lurched in pure relief and euphoria, the darkness that had fallen over her and kept this pressure on her chest suddenly crumbled, dissipating like nothing more than wisp of smoke against the light of his smile.
Aerith's body moved without her input.
Legs numb and cold completely ignored as she stumbled to her feet and ran.
Zack's eyes widened, his exhausted body pushed again into action as he rushed towards her until both met where the sun was illuminating through the church's window.
The warmth of the sun on their skin nothing compared to being so close to one another again.
Yet Aerith's heart skipped, so afraid she was to touch him. Worried this was some kind of illusion brought upon by grief and desperate hope… yet her hand lifted to him anyway.
Dainty fingertips reached out slowly. Lifting until her fingerprints were pressed against his warm cheek. Zack blinked at her feather-like caress. The tears that had been building in his glorious teal blue eyes and along his thick frame of lower lashes suddenly made streaks down the dirt on his face. The wetness and warmth of his tears tickling her fingers and she let out a broken sob around a tender smile.
Zack kept his promise…he returned to her.
"Oh, Zack…" his name was a stifled breath on her tongue, her smile like the sun when she pressed her other hand to his bicep and ever so gently squeezed as if to confirm his warm skin under her own. The tears she'd been shedding all afternoon continued to fall as he gazed at her like she hung the stars in the sky.
"Aerith," his voice so soft and tender as he whispered her name like a long-whispered prayer.
Not being able to take it anymore, Aerith threw herself into his sun-warmed turtleneck sweater. So gentle as to not hurt any sore wounds, she wrapped her arms around his waist and held him as tightly as she could. Zack's arms were as gentle as a breeze as they wrapped around her back, his gloved hands rubbing circles along her spine as he buried his face in her hair.
Neither knew nor cared how long they stood in the warmth of the sun, breathing in the life and light the other gave off. No matter of the years that separated them for they always found their way back to each other…
"Welcome home, Zack… " Aerith whispered against his tear-stained throat. "Welcome home…"