Work Text:
Fingers knitted together, and after a few failed attempts and judgemental giggles from Aerith, Zack finally finished his gift.
“See? I told you it wouldn’t look that bad!” Aerith chimes in, already having made three flower crowns herself in the time that it took for Zack to make one.
“That bad?’ Zack repeats to Aerith, an exaggerated pout on his face.
Aerith playfully pushes his shoulder.
“Oh, you know I didn’t mean that like that,” She teases, returning her eyes to her lap to finish her fourth. “I think it looks great for your first time.”
That eases Zack a little bit.
“Thanks,” He murmurs just loud enough for Aerith to hear. “But do you think he’s going to like it?”
“Zack.” Aerith glares, her little smile betraying her attempt at being intimidating. “Again, I don’t know him.”
“I know that! But, like, he’s not one for gifts, and I hardly ever know what to get him because he’s that weird kind of person who says that they don’t want anything for their birthday, and–”
“Zack!” Aerith interrupts him, still smiling.
“Yeah, okay, sorry,” He folds in on himself a little sheepishly. “Still?”
The girl cocks her head, looking away from his puppy-dogish face in thought.
“I can say that I’ve never met anybody who wouldn’t enjoy a flower crown as a gift.”
Zack looks down at his design. It’s simple, and the flowers will probably dry up and wilt in about a week, but Zack likes to give gifts. Hard to give gifts when the person in question hardly has any hobbies that don’t have to do with work.
Aerith even told him everything to do with flower language. He did have to keep asking her to tell him everything again each time he picked up a different flower, but he’s pretty sure he got his point across, even if Sephiroth has no clue what it means.
Unfortunately for him, this also meant that Aerith consequently figured out his feelings for Sephiroth.
Mostly made up of lily flowers and carnations of red and yellow colors, Zack kept flushing the multiple times he caught Aerith giving him a cheeky smile every time he picked up another flower that meant love or devotion.
After staring at it for a while, he finally comes to the conclusion that it looks nice enough to give and that he doesn’t need to make another one (or steal one of Aerith’s).
“Alright, fine, I’ll go give it to him,” He decides with a huff, standing up off the church floor and ignoring the sound of his knees cracking. How long did that take him?
Aerith beams at him, taking his hand to stand when he offers it and dusting her dress off.
“He’s going to love it, and if he doesn’t, you can come back and tell me it’s my fault for even saying that.”
“Don’t say that!” He laughs nervously. He knows she’s kidding, but the idea of Sephiroth pretending to like his gift makes his stomach do really bad flips. “But, really, thank you.”
Aerith pats his shoulder, moving past him and picking up her watering can.
“Of course! Trust me on this,” She turns again to face him. “He’s going to love it.”
Zack nods his head, trying not to psyche himself out about it.
“I’ll come back and tell you everything if he likes it,” He exclaims, his voice carried against the wood of the church. “And if he doesn’t, you’ll never hear from me again!”
He’s just close enough to hear her gentle laughter before the doors of the church creak closed.
–
Zack stands in front of Sephiroth’s apartment door for at least three minutes. He almost made himself believe that he wouldn’t be there at this hour, but where else would he be? He has no missions, no meetings, no point for him to be out, and going out in itself is unlike Sephiroth.
Gift hidden behind his back, Zack raps on Sephiroth’s door.
Even the sound of shuffling inside makes him feel nervous. Seeing his tall frame standing in his room after the doors have been opened makes it worse. This really isn’t something he should be so nervous about.
Still, he hopes he masks it well when he smiles up at his friend and the nervousness is eased when Sephiroth smiles softly back.
“Zack,” He says with so much fondness in his voice that isn’t heard anywhere else from him, it makes Zack dizzy. “You look delighted.”
Zack nods, pushing back his locks of black hair that are already pushed back, so the action itself is redundant.
“I am! Uh, can I come in?”
Sephiroth shifts to the side enough to make room for Zack to enter his room, extending his hand in a welcoming gesture.
Zack steps inside, making sure to turn in time so that Sephiroth doesn’t see what he’s holding behind his back.
“You also look suspicious,” Sephiroth decides next, narrowing his eyes as he rakes them across the First. “Did you take a hound puppy from the labs again?”
Zack sputters.
“C’mon, that was one time! They just looked so cute, how could I not?”
Sephiroth makes a dismissive gesture with a wave of his hand. A hand so delicate Zack really hopes his eyes didn’t linger on the look of it too long.
“But, seriously, I have… something for you.”
Sephiroth tilts his head like a cat, his silver bangs swishing over his face.
“Something for me?”
He says it back to Zack like the mere idea of being given a gift is alien to him.
“Yeah, man, a gift!” Zack clarifies. “And I even made it myself and everything instead of buying something cheap, so it’s, uh… special!”
Sephiroth straightens a little bit, his look of teasing amusement gone and replaced with genuine curiosity. It makes him look less tired.
“Special?”
Zack nods.
“‘Cause I know you’ve been down lately, and I wanted to cheer you up even though you’re not the biggest fan of gifts and–”
“Zack,” Sephiroth breathes, tilting his head down to peer at Zack, resting his body against the back of his couch.
Gods, he really needs to stop rambling like that.
“Yeah, okay. I’ve done that twice today,” He mutters just barely loud enough for Sephiroth to hear. “But… here.”
He takes his hands from behind his back, mentally congratulating himself on not accidentally gripping it too hard and crushing all of the petals.
Sephiroth stares at it for a few seconds before taking it into his hands so delicately, it’s almost as if it’s a piece of fine china.
“A… flower crown?”
Zack bites his bottom lip anxiously.
“It’s a little childish, I know,” He flits his eyes away. “But I just… thought it’d be nice.”
Zack is running out of excuses.
Sephiroth’s eyes glimmer as he examines the crown itself. Reds and pinks and yellows, all flowers with delicate enough petals that they won’t fall off being touched. Sephiroth hasn’t seen lots of flower crowns in his life, but to him, this looks professional.
There’s something else that Sephiroth can only assume Zack didn’t look into when he was creating it. The meaning of the flowers.
All flowers that Zack chose gives the crown a theme of love and adoration around it. Yes, it can be purely coincidence, and knowing Zack, it probably is. But that fact just makes the gesture mean something more to Sephiroth.
“Zack, this is… lovely.”
Zack’s earlier nervousness melts away and is replaced by a feeling of excitement.
“Really? You like it?”
Sephiroth rotates it in his hand.
“Of course I like it, Zack,” He smiles, eventually glancing up from the gift to lock eyes with his friend, his eyes soft.
It’s the softness in his eyes that gets Zack the most.
Sephiroth looks back down at it, and tips his head forward to affix it atop his head.
It fits a little awkwardly around his bangs, just a little too big so it sits lopsidedly around his skull.
Zack raises his hand in an attempt to push it straight to no avail.
“Guess I made it too big,” He chuckles, admiring the flowers complimenting Sephiroth’s mercury colored hair. “That’s okay, right?”
Sephiroth huffs out a laugh.
“Yes, that’s okay.”
The two briefly exchange awkward eye contact before Sephiroth speaks up first.
“May I ask if you… chose these flowers on purpose?”
Zack tenses up. Oh, no. He can’t know? Does he know? Shit, of course Sephiroth would know!
“Uh,” Zack masks his anxiety with a laugh. “I did. My friend is a florist and she… told me about all the flowers, and what they mean, and–”
Zack stops himself before he starts rambling for the third time in an hour.
Sephiroth nudges the crown in his hair, and keeps his eyes on Zack. That same soft smile graces his delicate features again.
“I love you too, Zack.”
Zack is momentarily stunned into silence.
“Yeah,” He corrects himself with a playful shove to Sephiroth’s arm and a pink flush to his cheeks. “Love ya, buddy.”