Chapter Text
She finds him in their place, the place with all their memories. The flowers always blooming, the seasons never changing. This old, dilapidated church, forever frozen in time. A snapshot of the past stretching into the present.
He's sitting on one of the pews like he's been waiting for her, his eyes following her every move as she walks down the aisle.
“Aerith,” he says, his face lighting up and his voice full of a tenderness she can't handle. “I—”
She walks past him and tends to the flowers. It's cold, she knows, but it's familiar. The flowers are soft and delicate and need her care.
“I like him,” she says, breaking the silence when she can't bear it any longer. Her tone is gentle but her words are sharp, like carefully cutting a plant off from the Lifestream to sell for a few gil and watching it slowly wither and die in her palm.
She glances at him, and a flicker of pain ripples through his eyes before his features soften.
“I know.” His voice breaks a little, but his eyes are a mixture of anguish and compassion.
That… wasn't the response she was expecting. Maybe she thought he'd get jealous or shout or proudly declare his intent to win her over again. Do something loud and boisterous and over the top. Anything but this quiet, anguished compassion. She doesn't know what to do with it, and she doesn't know why she told him. A completely stupid and irrational way of punishing him for never coming home like he promised, she supposes. For making her wait for so long.
For breaking her heart.
Maybe his heart was broken too, a soft whisper murmurs in the back of her mind.
She ignores it.
“Marlene told me,” he explains. He shifts on the pew and chuckles lightly, and something about the sound makes something inside her come undone. It's so heartachingly familiar when she thought she might never hear his laughter again.
No, she can't think like that. She can't let all of the doubt and confusion and heartbreak come roaring back in. Not when she was finally moving past all of it.
“Man, that is one sharp kid,” he says, breaking into her thoughts, still here despite her attempts to push him away.
She pulls a few weeds out from the flowers. Anywhere else, they would be a welcome presence. A sign Midgar hasn't completely been cut off from the Lifestream yet. That the Planet is still fighting and hanging on even here, in the heart of Shinra's capital. But they don't belong here. This bed is supposed to be for flowers only.
“She is, isn't she?” she says in answer to his observation about Marlene. “But she had a little help. I showed her my memories of the future. Before I lost them, I mean.”
He rubs the back of his head. “Memories of the future, huh? I've known you all these years, and yet you still manage to amaze me. You're something special, Aerith.”
She bites her lip. She doesn't like how her heart skipped a beat just then. He compliments her so openly and shamelessly, and yet she knows it's completely sincere. He wouldn't say stuff just to flatter her. That's just not who he is.
No, she can't think about what she appreciates about him. Down that path lies only further heartbreak and pain.
She stands and brushes the dirt off her skirt. “Zack, I like him. I like Cloud.”
He gives her a knowing look. His eyes unnerve her, but not because of the mako injected into his veins tinting the blue slightly green.
“But do you love him?” he asks, his voice soft and yet filling the church with its sound.
She doesn't have an answer for that. She doesn't know the answer.
Zack stands, and she remembers how tall and strong and handsome he is, how striking his features are, how deeply she ached and longed for him for so many years—
“I could hardly blame you if you did, even if I am jealous,” he says. “I took way too long to come home to you.”
She says nothing. She pined after him for so long. It isn't like she gave up on him after only a month. It was after years. After finally meeting someone new. And yet Cloud isn't new at all. He is his own person, but he reminds her so much of him.
How much of her attraction to Cloud is because of Zack?
It isn't fair. This place stays the same no matter what. The flowers are always blooming, and the seasons never change.
Zack steps forward and gently grasps her hand. Her breath catches in her throat, and her heart pounds in her chest. She searches his face, and he searches hers.
“I'm sorry, Aerith. Even if it's too late, I had to make it back to you. I wanted to tell you something important, something I've been carrying around all this time…”
The three words he says have every piece of his heart poured into them, and it's too much. It's too much, and her heart can't handle it.
She drops her flower basket and flees the church.