First Snow

"Just a minute!"

It was Christmas day, and Aerith was waiting patiently for Zack to come and get her. The couple had been spending any time together they could, and since Zack had been pretty busy with his work in SOLDIER lately every minute of spare time he had counted.

A few days ago he told her that all ShinRa employees got Christmas day off, and asked her if it would ok to take her above the plate for something. She was pretty nervous about seeing the sky for the first time, but he told her there wasn't anything to be afraid of. She knew that as long as he was with her it would be alright, so she agreed to go.

When she heard a knock at the door that afternoon she quickly pulled on her brown winter boots along with her light pink petticoat with matching lavender scarf and mittens, then opened the door to see her boyfriend outside smiling as he waited for her. He was still in his SOLDIER First Class uniform, but had taken off his suspenders and shoulder pads, and wore a violet winter coat over it with black winter gloves.

She actually hadn't seen him wearing anything but his SOLDIER uniform, and wondered if he actually did. She didn't mind of course, she actually thought it looked rather good on him. What actually surprised her was the fact that he left his Buster Sword elsewhere, but she knew he would still keep her safe without it.

"You ready to go?" he asked her.

"Almost"

She grabbed her purse which held Zack's present inside for later, as well as a few other minor things like her house keys, then called out to Elmyra that she was leaving before she joined Zack outside shutting the door behind her.

"There's nothing to be afraid of ok?" he said as the stepped off the train.

She nodded, but still clung tightly to his arm as they walked, keeping her eyes on the ground. They got more snow above the plate, and with the sun shining on it made it sparkle beautifully.

Then she noticed that small white snowflakes falling on the ground, and realized it was snowing lightly. Growing up below the plate she never got to see snow fall since most of the sky was blocked. The only snow she had seen were the bites that managed to squeeze through any cracks and spaces between the plate.

"It's pretty" she said softly.

"You can look up if you want" he told her as he gently squeezed her hand.

She gulped nervously, but reminded herself that Zack was with her, and that it would be alright. She still clung to him as she slowly lifted her eyes up off the ground, and gasped when she saw the bright blue sky for the first time.

"Oh Zack it's beautiful!"

She relaxed and let go of his arm, but still held his hand. Her fear of the sky had been washed away as soon as she saw the white sparkling snow falling from it and how beautiful it actually was.

"Merry Christmas Aerith" he said as he planted a quick kiss on her cheek.

Through out the day they went through various places above the plate. He took her to the candy shop and bought her various sweets she picked out, then they sat in the park and drank hot chocolate together as they watched the snow fall, and as the sun began to set they built a snowman together and made snow angels in the ground like they were children. Then lastly when the sun had fallen he took her to the square where they had a giant fifty foot Christmas tree all decorated and lit up. There she gave him her present: A long purple scarf she had knitted herself.

"Merry Christmas Zack" she said as she tied it around his neck for him.

And there, under the light of the tree they shared their first real kiss.

Author's Notes

I finally figured out how to do page breaks! Yay ^_^

Anyway, this is my entry for a contest on deviant art for how you think Zack would spend Christmas, and me being a big Zerith fan I wrote this. Hope you like it, and please review!