Beautiful Flaws
by Pandamonium 808

"You know what this place needs?" asked Tifa at the newly constructed 7th Heaven.

"Flowers," said Marlene as she gave the bar a once over before nodding. "Flowers."

Tifa and Marlene both looked over to Cloud who didn't look back at them. "I think it just needs more light."

"For the flowers," said Marlene.

"What about pictures?" asked Cloud.

"No," said Marlene. "Flowers."

Cloud looked down at the little girl wearing the pink dress she usually wore.

"Please Cloud," said Marlene.

Cloud signed heavily as he detested doing anything that seemed feminine, especially doing something like picking flowers. He gulped hard.

"Let's go then," said Cloud to Marlene.

"No," said Marlene. "I have to stay here and look over Denzel."

Cloud's heart sank, he quickly looked over to Tifa who shook her head.

"I have to watch the bar," said Tifa who began to smile as Cloud's dilemma began to unfold.

"Come on Cloud," said Tifa. "After putting on a dress, picking flowers should be easy for such a strong man like yourself."

Cloud's cheeks began to flush red. "I thought we were never going to mention that again. Ever."

Marlene began to giggle as she made her way to Denzel's room which made Cloud turn even more red. He was now as scarlet at the fur on Red XIII's back and as hot as the end of his tail. Cloud tried hard to compose himself before he walked out the door. He took several breaths before finally walking out of the bar. Seeing all of those people walk by didn't help him as he only started to blush again just from the thought of any one of them over hearing their conversation.

"Cloud," called Tifa as she stood in the door way of the bar. "Don't be late okay."

Cloud nodded to her before starting up his bike. He revved the engine a few times speeding off down the streets of Edge. Tifa let out a sigh as she still stood in the door way watching Cloud turn into a small black dot before he turned down another street and out of view.

"Where's did Cloud go?" asked Denzel who probably been woken up from the sound of Cloud's bike.

"He went to go to the Church," said Tifa.

"Oh," said Denzel who began to frown.

"Denzel you need to get back in bed!" protested Marlene stamping her foot down. "Now!"

--

Cloud quickly looked around to make sure that no one was watching. He then quietly slipped into the church and closed the door behind him. Whenever he came back here his heart always skipped a beat. He didn't know why. He looked up at the large hole in the ceiling of the church and watched the light pure into the church and perfectly lit up the flowerbed in the center of the room.

Cloud's body ached and protested at every twitch of muscle he demanded his body to make. Something smelled so nice which made him take deep breaths. He slowly opened his eyes to find himself staring up into a two brown eyes that stared back at him, it was a woman. Cloud began to blush slightly as he saw the other features of her face as she pulled it slowly away. Her soft skin had a slight pink hue to it. Her long brown braided hair rested softly on her back and her long bangs accented her face perfectly, almost making it like seem like he were looking at a beautiful painted with a finely crafted wooden frame. Cloud quickly sat up and got to his feet despite his aching body from falling off the plate above.

"Are you okay?" asked woman. "I thought that you... died when you came crashing in from the roof."

"Yeah I think I'm alright?" said Cloud.

"Oh you're arm," said the woman pointing at his left arm. "You're bleeding."

"It's nothing," said Cloud. "It's just a scratch."

But Aerith ignored him and took the ribbon from her hair and began to tie it around his arm as a make shift bandage. She smiled as she gently but securely tied her ribbon down to his arm and finished it with a bow.

"Do you remember who I am?" asked woman who began to take out another ribbon from her jacket pocket.

"Don't worry you can keep that one," said the woman before Cloud could protest. "That one's old anyway. Come on, you remember who I am."

Cloud thought for a moment as he watched her begin to fix her hair again. He looked away as he began to blush like he was watching her do something that wasn't appropriate in front of him. Instead he looked down at the flowers that he had just smashed when he fell through the roof.

"You're the flower girl," said Cloud.

She smiled brightly at him. "Ya-ya you remembered," said the woman who had finished tying the pink bow into her hair. "Oh my flowers..."

"I'm sorry..." said Cloud who felt bad for crushing them.

"Don't worry they'll grow back," said the woman who knelt down and began to inspect the flowers carefully.

She began to tend to her flowers as she always did every day and she always did it with a smile. Maybe it was Cloud's imagination but her face seemed to turn rosier and softer then before which made Cloud stare even more. Noticing that he was watching her she looked up.

"Don't worry I'll only be a little longer," said the flower girl moving to another spot. "My name's Aerith by the way."

"Cloud," he replied. "... my name's Cloud."

Cloud looked down at the flowers and began to wonder how in the world they were able to grow down here in the Slums.

"This is the only place they'll grow," said Aerith. "In this abandoned church. I don't know why but they just do. I'm almost done.

"There," said Aerith standing up and nodding with approval.

They both looked to the door of the church when they heard it lurch open.

"So Cloud what do you do?" asked Aerith trying to get his attention again.

"I'm..." Cloud thought for a second. "I guess I do a little of very thing." Cloud shrugged.

Aerith laughed a little. "A Jack-of-all-trades then huh."

"What's so funny?" asked Cloud who felt kind of embarrassed.

She shook her head. "Nothing. Cloud could... could you be my bodyguard. I'll pay you."

"Oh... okay," said Cloud who now looked towards the door again to see a man with flaming red hair walk into the church.

"Cloud don't," said Aerith who grabbed his hand and tried to pull him towards the door opposite end of the room.

"Who are you?" asked Cloud the man. Resting on his shoulder was an electro-mag rod. That black suit. Those ShinRa MP's behind him. Turks. "Wait... I know you."

Reno raised an eyebrow. "We got a weird one here, yo," said Reno to the other behind his back who began to laugh.

"Cloud come on," pleaded Aerith. "There's an exit in the back."

Quickly realizing that Aerith would probably be in danger if he stayed to fight, he quickly followed her to the other door.

"Let's go, yo," said Reno following them to the other door. While he did he walked through the flower bed and headed to the door.

"Oh," said Reno turning back around and walked through the flowerbed again. "And don't step on any flowers, yo."

"You just did."

"They're ruined."

"You're crushing them."

Cloud walked up to the flowerbed where the flowers had grown quite well even though no one had really tended to them as much as Aerith had done. Cloud got down on his knees and began to carefully pick the biggest flowers he could find. Cloud quickly got to his feet and began to look around the church. He could feel someone watching him. He tried to reach for a sword but quickly realized he left them on his bike. Damn. He'd have to do with the materia he had on him. He reached for the pouch he kept them in and found it missing. What the hell...

"Not bad huh Cloud," said Yuiffe standing on a support beam overhead in her hand was a bulky black pouch.

"Yuiffe," said Cloud and instantly recognized the bag. "My materia."

"Catch," said Yuiffe tossing the pouch over to Cloud who caught it with his free hand. "Nice flowers, are you gonna dress up as a woman again and try to sell them?"

Cloud began to blush furiously. Tifa.

"It was Marlene who told me," said Yuiffe. "She also said you'd be here."

"How long have you been there?" asked Cloud.

"Not long," said Yuiffe. "Just long enough to see you start to cry."

"I wasn't crying," said Cloud defesively.

"Sure you weren't," said Yuiffe jokingly.

"It isn't safe up there," said Cloud who began to eye the support beams. "Come down here."

"Are you kidding," said Yuiffe. "It's as sturdy as a ro-."

The old support beam could hold the weight no longer and broke under the pressure. Yuiffe quickly tried to quickly jump off but she quickly lost her footing and fell backwards. Cloud instinctively dropped everything in his hands and dashed for the falling Yuiffe.

Yuiffe carefully opened one eye to find herself staring up into Cloud's face who was inches from her's. Cloud had shielded her with his own body to protect he from the falling pieces of roof.

"Are you okay?" asked Cloud who had her in his arms.

She could only nod as Cloud set her down on her feet.

"I'm fine," said Cloud. "Don't worry its just a scratch."

He looked up at Yuiffe's face to find it little rosy. She moved a little closer to Cloud. He could see her cheeks become rosier and softer in the dust filled light. He looked deeply into her dark brown eyes to find his own mako blue eyes staring back at him. They just stood inches from each other staring into each other's eyes.

Cloud began to tenderly rub his red cheek. "What was that for?"

"Don't you ever do that again!" said Yuiffe who was now on the other side of the room and had her arms crossed across her chest. "Next time you let me fall!"

Cloud had just finished moving the rest of the debris off of the flower bed for find that most of the flowers had been crushed in the commotion. The flowers. Cloud looked over the the flower's he'd dropped and say that they had been completely crushed and destroyed.

"Why did you pick those crushed flowers?" asked Yuiffe as she looked down at the flowers. "Why didn't you pick some of the... oh..."

Cloud and Yuiffe spend the next few hours trying to replant most of the flowers that looked like they still might be alive. Cloud had finished replanting the last un-crushed flower and found that only a few had survived. Even after Yuiffe protested, Cloud refused to throw away the crushed flowers, finally Yuiffe gave up and left. Cloud gathered up the crushed flowers and wrapped them up into coat and carried them to his bike and set them in his lap.

--

"Cloud we were worried sick about you," said Tifa who quickly rushed over to Cloud as he walked into the bar. "What happened."

Tifa's face turned pale as she looked at the bundle of cloth that Cloud held in his arms. That's not what I think it is. Is it? Tifa gulped hard and prayed that it wasn't what she thought it was. Cloud made his way over to the table and set the bundle onto the tabel.

"Cloud what's that?" asked Marlene as she sat at the table.

"Is that a..." asked Denzel who wore a confused look on his face.

Cloud ignored the other and unwrapped the coat to reveal the crushed flowers inside. Everyone let out a sigh of relief as they had been holding their breath. Now it was Cloud who was confused.

"Cloud why did you pick broken flowers?" asked Tifa who quickly changed the subject.

"Because I didn't want to waste them," said Cloud.

"I think they are beautiful," said Marlene picking up one flower to find that it was missing half of its peddles.

"Yeah I think so too," said Denzel.

--

"Nice place you got here," said Reeve as he hobbled into 7th Heaven.

"Thanks," said Tifa with a smile.

"Hmm?" said Reeve as he began to inspect the many vases of flowers around the bar. "You know these are smashed right."

"Yeah that's right," said Tifa. "Even beauty can be found in the flawed."

Reeve shrugged but didn't want to speak any more on the subject, after all art was art.

"Where's Cloud?" asked Reeve as he changed the subject.

"He's on an errand," said Tifa.

--

Cloud had carefully collected the remaining ruined flowers and gathered them into a bouquet that he lay on the edge of a cliff over looking Midgar. Cloud stared at the bouquet of flowers he left at the base of the large Buster Sword sticking out of the earth, much like a tombstone of a grave. The wind blew hard and played with the peddles of the flowers and carried some away over the edge of the cliff, but most of the flowers remained at the grave sight.

--

"Clouuuddd," cried Marlene. "Come on."

Cloud remained planted in his spot which was outside of the camera's lens. Tifa was busy setting up the camera's timer and Denzel was standing next to Marlene, because she would scold him if he moved, but like Cloud, disliked the thought of having a picture taken.

"Let me take the picture," said Cloud to Tifa.

"No," said Marlene. "You have to be in the picture."

"Tifa go," said Cloud ignoring Marlene and moved closer to camera. "I'll take the picture."

Before he could take another step he felt his arm being held back. He looked down to find Marlene pulling on his arm with all of her strength.

"Please," pleaded Marlene which made Cloud turn around to face her. Cloud could see in her eyes that she really wanted this picture taken with everyone in it. She wanted the picture to be taken of her family.

"Go on," said Tifa into his ear as he felt her hands on his back pushing him into the picture. Unable to resist any longer Cloud reluctantly stood in the back row. Tifa then positioned herself in the back of Marlene and Denzel and pulled them closer together.

There on his desk sat the picture of the four of them in a picture from on a crowded desk full of papers, pictures, and notebooks. There sat a picture of a pair of childhood friends with a promise to always be there for each other.

--

Cloud sat on the out skirts of town where the grass was slowly growing in cracks and crevices. He sat there staring out into the desert like surrounds of Midgar and Edge. He just sat there taking slow and steady breaths. He listened to the mating calls of the cicada. He just sat there and twirled a flower that was missing most of its pedals, except for one which was only hanging on by its fibers. Cloud gently felt the softness of the pedal between his fingers. Little by little he pulled on the pedal...

A/N: At first I was gonna make this into a funny story about Cloud and picking flowers but it turned out to this. So how... I'm not sure if I managed to make the ending as dramatic as I had hoped it would but I see pictures in my head not words. Oh and I didn't want to copy the AerithxCloud church scene in the game so I made up my own lines and still based it on the events of that encounter with a similar outcome. Well tell me what you guys think. Jaa mata.