Florist AU prompt: I work as a florist and every day you walk in, buy one flower and give it to me.
This is my first Zaerith fic and my second time posting an English fic. I hope you enjoy it. I'm sorry for any grammatical mistake you find, English is my second language, so if you find any, please tell me, I'll be glad of checking them.
Disclaimer: I do not own neither the characters of Zack Fair, Kunsel or Aerith Gainsborough. They all belong to the great team that is Square Enix. This fic has been only created to entertain this great game's fans.
Aerith loved flowers. She has loved them since she was a child, and flowers loved her back. At least it seemed so, since she could grow flowers regardless of the year season and wherever she she was a child, she planted some flowers in the garden of her former house back in the Midgar Slums, and she also planted some in an abandoned church below Sector 5. It was strange, for no flowers grew in Midgar, let alone in the Slums. It was a place so polluted, plants could not grow. However, mysteriously she could do so.
She always wanted to see a Midgar full of flowers, , and thus, as a full grown-up, she began a little business on her own: she opened a flower shop. She had to confess it had been hard at the beginning, with no many clients to sell flowers to; but little by little, more and more clients started visiting her shop.
At this moment, what seemed to be two members of Shin-Ra's army were looking at several flowers while discussing between them.
"C'mon, Kunsel", said the one with black, spiky hair. "I'm getting bored."
"I'm trying to impress Cissnei, "replied his friend, who hadn't take out his helmet in spite of being in a close space. "I need to pick the right one."
"I don't think she's even interested in you."
"Thanks, man. You're helping me a lot, right there."
They approached Aerith, the man in the helmet, apparently called Kunsel, was still looking around him for the perfect flower.
"Hello", said Kunsel. "I was, ehm, looking for a flower". There was a pause. "Lady?"
Aerith was totally caught in the eyes of the black-haired guy. They were of a deep blue, the colour of the ocean. However, if you were close enough one could see a thin trace of pale green around the pupil. It was just a soft trail, but it seemed like it was alive. As if the Earth's life was flowing in his eyes. So breath-taking were his eyes. And they were fixed on her.
"Lady?"
"Ahm, excuse me", she answer politely. "What kind of flower would you want?"
"I… I'm not sure…"
"Can I ask…? Is it for a girl?"
"Yes. She's a beautiful woman. We... ehm… work in Shin-Ra but we haven't had the opportunity to meet properly yet. I'd like to get to know her. She's really great, and clever, and very strong too. And…" he seemed shy all of a sudden, "yeah."
Aerith smiled while hearing those words full of admiration.
"I believe I have the flower you're looking for. Wait a minute." She left the counter, to look among the shelves the perfect flower for that situation. When she finally found it, she went back to them. "The best way to send a full message is giving a bouquet of flowers, but you can also give her this one. It's an orchid. These kind of flowers represent many things such as love, beauty, charm… However, as it's purple, it represents admiration and respect."
"How much does it cost?"
"Only 15g."
"Perfect. Here you have", he said while handing her the money.
"Thank you. I really hope she likes it", she replied with honesty. "Good luck."
"Goodbye". He was leaving when he realized his friend wasn't following him. Instead, he was still staring at Aerith. "C'mon, Zack, weren't you the one that was getting bored?"
"I'm coming, I'm coming". And it was then that he started moving. "Bye!"
Aerith waved them goodbye with a polite smile. She was happy. She liked it when people bought her flowers as a present. Thus, her dream of a Midgar full of flowers may come true sooner or later. She was really waiting for that day to come.
Several days later, Aerith was closing her shop, for it was already too late, when a client entered through the door.
"I'm sorry." Her back was facing the door, as she was organizing some things on the shelves right behind the counter. "I'm closing. Can you come back tomo… rrow?" When she turned to the door she saw the man from the other day. The one with deep blue eyes with a trace of a vivacious green.
"Sorry, it'd be only a second," he said in an apologetic way, lifting his hand together. As Aerith didn't replied, he approached the counter, those eyes fixed on her." Which flower do you recommend me?"
"It depends on what message you want to transmit."
"Mmm… what is your favourite flower?"
"Mine?", she asked surprised. "I don't have a favourite one. I love them all," she said with a tender smile. "But if I had to choose, I'd pick yellow lilies."
"What do they mean?"
"Well, lilies are commonly known because they represent purity, specially the white ones. However, yellow lilies symbolize good health and healing," she explained. Although she had a feeling he didn't really care about their meaning.
"Great. How much is a bouquet?"
"Regular size?", when he nodded, she continued. "100g."
"Can I have one?"
"Yes, of course. Wait a minute." She went through a door behind her, to her little greenhouse, as she liked to call it. She took the best yellow lilies she found and made a bouquet with 25 of them. Then, she went back to the shop. "Here you are, it'd be 100g". The man placed the money on the counter and took the bouquet on his hand."Thank you very much. I hope…", she left the sentence unfinished, since the man was lifting the bouquet between them, as if he was offering it to her. She blinked twice.
"You've just said you love these flowers. So I'm giving them to you."
"Th-thanks… but this is not…", she started, her eyes on the bouquet.
"How about one date?", he lifted his finger as if to emphasizing the word "one".
"What?"
"You and me. One date. What do you think?"
She couldn't help but laughed at the bluntness of the man with the beautiful eyes. He grinned in return when she started laughing.
"All right. Whenever you want."
"This Sunday. Let's have a picnic. We'll meet here at 6."
"Great", she said, still laughing. It was as if he had everything planned out.
"Name's Zack", he said, still grinning. It looked like the more she laughed, the more he grinned. And that was more than perfect. She liked his smile as much as she liked his eyes.
"I'm Aerith. Nice to meet you."
"See ya on Sunday, then, Aerith."
He winked before leaving the shop, waving at her. She waved back, still with laughter in her eyes. When he was gone, she sighed. She was going to have a date with Zack. She didn't know him yet, but she had a feeling it was going to be a wonderful date. The flowers she was holding were enough proof of it.
I don't know anything about the meaning of the flowers. Although I've checked different sources about this topic, I used the meanings found on .com
If you're interested in the language of flowers, you should check that webpage, because I think it is quite interesting and has useful information.
Then again, I hope you've liked the fic.
