A/N: It's not a very long one shot, but I enjoyed writing it nonetheless. I'm not usually a Zack/Aerith writer, but after playing Crisis Core, their relationship was equally as memorable as Cloud and Tifa's. Anyway, on with the story, enjoy.
Lovers and Angels
His black spiked hair waved slightly with the small breeze blowing through the clouds. He's sitting on a park bench surrounded by a mass of ruins. The bench is slightly cracked down the middle, and the wood bends slightly as he sits on it, but he ignores it and still sits there anyway.
His eyes gaze upon the once beautiful city and he sighs longingly at the memories he built in this place.
If only I made it home, maybe life would be different
He wonders, maybe he would have had a family; maybe a big one, maybe a small one. It didn't really matter to him; no, it never did. All that mattered amongst all things and everything in the entire world and everything in it, was her.
That was all that ever mattered to him. Her happiness, her wishes, her dreams. For a long time, feelings like that didn't matter to him. He never even thought once about anything like that. But that day, when he fell through that roof and landed in a pile of flowers; he saw her, and he knew he would never feel the same again.
She was so pretty in his eyes the day he saw her for the first time. He wondered longingly in the silence of that night that he had never seen a woman as beautiful as her before. She was so captivating, so perfect and angelic in his eyes. There wasn't anything that could ever compare to her; he noted quite firmly the first day he spent with her.
She was always so happy, so positive even when things weren't really positive looking. And he couldn't blame her, someone had to be positive. But what touched his heart and made him fall even deeper, was when she held him.
The day he sat cross legged in her chapel, with his head bowed low and his eyes filled with tears. She held him with her arms circling his neck, and her back pressed up against his. She whispered little nothings in his ear that day and for that he would never forget.
He knew his heart would never be the way it was once before. And he knew that if anything, he would do his best to give her a good life. After all, she deserved at least that. But when the war broke out, he had to go. It wasn't a nice thing to do; leaving her behind. But he never knew; never even thought anything like this would happen.
Maybe if I didn't go, we would still be here
He thought he was invincible or something, but boy was he wrong. He sighed again, with a hint of sadness in his sigh. He wished he had fought harder, maybe swung his sword with more strength; maybe he would have made it back to her.
His eyes lowered a little when he saw a familiar Cetra coming to sit beside him in the ruins of the Slums. Her humming announced her presence, and he smiled lightly when she touched his knee.
He looked back to the slums, eyes still weary, mouth still dry and heart beat still beating. She was the last thing he thought of the moment he crossed over. It was in that small little moment that he repeated in his mind, of his sorrows and sadness.
He whispered one small sentence made of two words, one name, and one meaning.
"I'm sorry, Aerith."
He felt her shaking her head beside him as she touched his chin this time. He felt her finger nudging him to look to her eyes.
"It wasn't your fault," she said calmly in that mesmerizing tone of hers.
"I know, I just..." he shook his head. "I should have made it back to you."
"You did," she said with a giggle. "You're sitting here with me, aren't you?"
He smiles to her and then looks to the ground. "Yeah, but we could have had more, if I didn't-"
She frowns and touches his lips. "Don't say that word."
Then he chuckles lightly, dispite her evident frown plastered on her face. "I'm just lucky that I fell in love with a Cetra, or else I would be stuck floating around that green coloured pool."
"It's called the Lifestream, you know," she states in a tone that said 'I don't find your humor very amusing.'
He looks to her beautiful brown eyes and pauses for a moment in silence as he takes in her beauty. Her frown grows into a smile as he implores her in that moment. Her hair was braided and separated at each side and the dress she wore was simply perfect. He sighed again, happily this time, because even though they weren't alive, and even though they didn't really exist anymore, at least they were here.
So what if the Slums were ruins; they were in ruins to begin with anyway. What mattered was at least they shared a life together. And at least he had enough good sense to fall in love with a Cetra.
"Hey, I can hear your thoughts you know," she grumbles to him.
He laughs lightly and throws his arm around her shoulder. He pulls her close and whispers in her ear, "But it's the truth, right?"
She keeps silent for a moment then she says, "Nah, I'm just letting you sit here with me because you're good looking."
He flashes her a boyish grin and says, "What can I say, being hot has its advantages."
She giggles lightly and added, "You're terrible."
And together they sit, in the ruins amongst ruins with smiles on their faces. He didn't have to make it home to her that day; he was already home with her.
Not alive and not dead either, just right there, right between everything as lovers and angels.
end.