"You're late." Elena complained as she stretched, having just finished her limbering up routine.

"Sorry about that." Zack said as he walked into the training room. Once the doors closed, he pulled out his Buster sword. "You ready?"

"Always." A wicked grin spread over her face.

Half an hour later, he finally had her cornered, his sword blade pressed firmly against her creamy throat. "Do you yield?" he asked

"What do you think?" Elena snapped.

Zack smiled as he put his sword back in its sheath, being careful not to accidentally cut Elena. Once the sword was put away, Elena's lips were on his, her hands tugging at his pants as he started taking hers off. As he thrust into her, Zack wondered not for the first time why Elena singled him out for these training sessions. He had seen her around, but the Turks seemed to consider themselves better than SOLDIER. Then one day she was outside the men's locker room when he was getting ready to leave, and she asked him if he would be interested in some sparring in the training room.

Zack didn't know that for Elena, intense sparring/training counted as foreplay. He had sex a few times since joining SOLDIER, but Elena was on an entirely different level. The fringe benefits of the sessions with her was that his combat skills improved, and he had achieved his dream of being promoted to First Class. Elena had rewarded him with an extra intense session that resulted in them falling asleep and spending the night in the training room. Elena crying out in ecstasy brought him back to the present.

"Is this what you do with your flower girl too?" Elena asked as they were getting dressed again.

"Aerith?" Zack asked in surprise, wondering how Elena knew about her. "She's just a cute kid."

"Does she know that? If not, you better tell her so she can make up her mind."

"What do you mean?"

"Tseng and Reno both would like to tap that ass, once she's legal. They're both trying to get her to choose one of them for that day."

***

Aerith sat at the kitchen table, eating breakfast with her adoptive mother, wondering how many flowers she could sell today. She needed better gardening tools, so she could grow more flowers and make more money, so she could afford better tools. Shaking her head, she said goodbye to her mother and headed to the church. She weeded and watered the flower patch, then cut some to sell. Filling up her flower cart that Zack had helped her build, she wondered where he was. Distracted by the customers who approached her as she walked through the slums, she was down to her last five flowers when Tseng and Reno showed up.

"Do you want me to buy your last five flowers?" Tseng asked her as he and Reno raced to get to the flower cart first.

"I'll take them all." Reno said as he pulled out his wallet, having been faster than Tseng and getting to Aerith's cart first.

"I asked first, Reno." Tseng said in a sharp tone.

"You can each buy two, and I'll keep the fifth one." Aerith said diplomatically, picking up the fifth flower.

"No, I'll buy them all." Reno insisted, holding out some money to her.

"Like hell you will!" Tseng snapped, shoving Reno's hand away from Aerith.

Moments later, Tseng and Reno were engaged in a full-on brawl. Aerith kept telling them to stop, but they ignored her, and they ended up knocking her cart into the path of a delivery truck, which not only busted it to nothing but bits of kindling, it drove through a large puddle and showered Reno and Tseng with slum slime. They froze as they realized they had just blown it. Aerith took a deep breath to control herself as Rude showed up.

"Are you ready to go to dinner?" he asked Aerith.

"Always. These two were just about to rebuild my flower cart." Aerith glared at Tseng and Reno, then turned to Rude and handed him the single flower she still had.

Rude took the flower and smelled it, before smirking at Reno and Tseng before departing with Aerith. After a pleasant dinner at a new a restaurant, Rude drove Aerith home and walked her to the door.

"Are you sure you want to go to Costa del Sol for your 18th birthday?" he asked her.

"I've heard it's a lovely resort town, just the perfect place to go wild." Aerith replied, giving him a look that made him blush. "Oh, and would you mind driving me to Vincent's tomorrow morning? He needs more flower bulbs for his garden."

"Uh, sure thing." Rude blushed harder as Aerith kissed his cheek before going inside her house. Smelling the flower she had given him again, he smiled as he walked back to his car.

***

Vincent loved working in the garden. It was the only place he was safe from Yuffie's advances. Ever since they had made the mistake of having drunken sex months earlier, she hadn't left him alone, except in the garden. Her pollen allergies were his saving grace. Putting the bulbs Aerith had just delivered in his wheelbarrow along with his tools, he headed to the bed he had prepared yesterday to put them in. He had just picked up the first bulb to put it in the ground when he heard a loud noise. With horrified eyes he saw a bulldozer headed his way, with Yuffie in the driver's seat.

"GARDENS BE GONE!" she yelled as she demolished his months of hard work in moments. "You can't escape me now, Vinnie!"

Suddenly the bulldozer stopped, and Yuffie looked up from the controls to see the Chaos Beast in her way. "That's cheating!" she exclaimed, and went to quickly get down and ended up falling down, knocking herself unconscious. The Chaos Beast was replaced by Vincent, who checked to make sure Yuffie hadn't really hurt herself, then he checked her pockets for any money she had. He didn't find much money, but he found a few Materia.

"I can sell these and get my garden redone in no time!" Vincent happy exclaimed. Then he realized he'd have to do something with Yuffie and the bulldozer.

A disgusting smell woke Yuffie up, and she was horrified to find herself handcuffed to the bulldozer in the city dump, with the keys missing from the ignition. And there was a note written in Vincent's handwriting. Either go get drunk with Tseng next time or get a hobby. Thanks for the Materia! Yuffie felt her pockets and was furious to realize Vincent had indeed stolen it from her. That was the final straw…Yuffie wasn't too picky about her men, but they were to keep their hands off her Materia.

***

Tseng sat at the bar, not happy that Rude had stolen Aerith from him right under his nose. He downed his second drink and suddenly felt a woman's hand on his arm.

"Mind if I join you?" Tifa smiled at him. "I know a sad drinker when I see one. What's wrong?"

Tseng felt that maybe his day was looking up as he looked down at her breasts. As soon as he let a reference to a 'flower girl' slip out, Tifa excused herself to go to the ladies' room to get away from him. She was tired of listening to Cloud go on about Aerith, she wasn't going to put up with it from some random guy at a bar as well. She was about to sneak out the door when she accidentally bumped into someone sitting at a table.

"Oh excuse me." Tifa said, embarrassed.

"No harm done." The red-headed man said. "Would you mind sitting with me while I finish my drink?"

Tifa was about to refuse, but there was something appealing about his unkempt appearance. And she liked his eyes. When he smiled at her, she sat down.

Tseng watched Reno ruin another of his chances with a woman. After downing two more glasses, he stormed out, ending up at Rufus' place to sleep it off, and was surprised to find Vincent there. They didn't mind though, Rufus made up the spare bed and Vincent helped Tseng to the guest bedroom, then tucked him in, while Rufus went back to bed waiting for Vincent to tuck him in as well.

***

Cloud was at a different bar, wondering why Tifa hadn't shown up yet. Suddenly he saw Yuffie walk into the bar and spot him. Annoyed that he couldn't disappear, he downed his drink in one gulp and gestured to a barmaid for a refill.

"How you been?" Yuffie asked him, asking the barmaid to bring her what Cloud was drinking. Maybe if Cloud was drunk, he'd finally admit he always had a crush on her.

***

A week later, Reno was showing Tifa how he couldn't cook, Yuffie was wondering why Cloud only quit complaining when he was having sex but she was willing to live with that, Rufus and Tseng were showering together at Rufus' place after helping Vincent finish redoing his garden, and Vincent was making them dinner. Tseng and Rufus didn't get to finish dinner though, they got interrupted by a security alert of intruders at headquarters and found Zack and Elena rolling around naked on the floor of the training room. Rude and Aerith had another nice dinner while looking over travel brochures for Costa del Sol.