Author's Notes: So I actually wrote this story many months ago in a notebook, and as I was perusing said notebook I came across this short story and decided to type it up and give it a makeover. I wrote this this as a Cloud/Zack with undertones of Aerith/Zack and Cloud/Aerith, but please feel free to take those pairing with a grain of salt. I know it's not very long but it would be great if you'd still be willing to drop me a review. I hope you enjoy!
"You know what," Aerith said, her eyes crinkling up into a soft smile as she spoke, "I think fate brought us together."
Cloud raised his eyebrows to show he was listening, rocking casually on his hands—palm flat on top of the strangely shaped slide. He hadn't exactly known Aerith very long, but he'd already gotten the impression she tended to say strange stuff like that out of nowhere. She was definitely an anomaly, which was probably why he'd bothered listening to her.
"I think he'd want us to be together," Aerith continued unperturbed by Cloud's silence. "So we could both have someone by our side."
"He?" Aerith was interesting, wholly strange and cryptic.
Aerith ignored him, carrying on as if she hadn't heard. "Because he loved us he'd want us to love each other," Aerith stopped to laugh softly to herself, eyes hazy as if she were looking very far away. "Yup, that sounds like him alright."
Cloud jiggled his leg in annoyance, it wasn't like he even wanted people's attention most of the time, but being ignored was damn irritating. "What are you talking about Aerith?"
The flower girl only hummed softly to herself, still looking very far away, but at least she'd answered him that time. "If you remembered you might be sad." Aerith had always sort of spooked him with her stare, like she was looking straight through the planet and seeing all the things you couldn't.
"Then again," Aerith turned to him this time, finally making eye contact in order to give him a small sly smile. "You might be happy, since then you'd know you were loved, and by a great guy like him to boot." She giggled, before blushing slightly, putting her hand on top of his—small and gentle, although he'd hardly been able to feel her through his glove. "It's too bad you don't remember, because it seems like you could use a little love, huh?" Aerith had drawn her legs up under her chin, her free arm warping around them, until her nose just barely peeked out from above her knees.
Cloud coughed, he wasn't really experienced in intimacy and his own hand kept twitching nervously with the reflex to pull away. "What do you know about my love life?" He meant it as a challenge, but Aerith wasn't the sort of person to get riled up.
Aerith's eyes crinkled again, so Cloud assumed she was smiling. "Well if you don't have a girlfriend maybe I could go out with you, I still owe you that date after all." Aerith tilted her head pensively, a piece of hair falling out of it's place—tucked behind her ear. "Although, I'm not sure I can compete with a guy like that for your heart."
As Cloud stood on the rock face overlooking Edge, the Buster Sword embedded in the earth in front of him, he let a rare smile escape at the memory.
"She was right you know, I'm glad I remember." Cloud's fingers flexed, his right hand coming up to grab hold of the swords hilt. "So—thanks for loving me." The wind picked up then and ruffled his hair, and Cloud let himself imagine it was Zack, if only for that brief quite moment.