Summary: Aerith comes to the realization that Zack isn't coming back. Sad sort of drabble, slight bit of canon-twisting. Set during Crisis Core.
Usual disclaimer: Don't own FFVII, wish I did. This is written for fun and not profit.
The rain was what had drawn her to this place at first. Everything about it appealed to Aerith – the sound of it as it pattered against the ruined roof of the church; the pleasant, peaty scent that billowed up when the rain hit the fertile soil.
How it felt on her upturned face, sheets of rain just falling, falling, falling. Zack had caught her unawares once during a summer shower, and Aerith had felt foolish by what he'd seen. She'd been spinning around in the church barefooted, her skirt flying out in a mad circle, orbiting around her dancing, whirling form. She was smiling with her face turned up, eyes shut, the warm drops of summer rain falling into her face, her mouth. It felt so bloody wonderful.
She stopped suddenly, of course, when she realized Zack was standing there, just silently watching with an amused smile upon his face.
"You looked beautiful, dancing like that, Aerith," Zack had told her. "You looked so happy….so free." Then Zack suddenly frowned, calloused fingers softly stroking the smooth flesh of her forearms as he drew her into an embrace.
"I wish you would feel that free all the time, Aer," Zack whispered into her ear as he held her tight. "I don't want you to fear the sky, or anything – there's so much world out there that I want to show you."
"I want to go," Aerith assured him, wincing at how small and girlish her voice still sounded – and still felt. "I want to go with you….after you come back." She released him, resting her head against his chest for a moment before Zack's fingers cupped Aerith's face beneath her chin, tipping her face up so that she could kiss him.
"Mm," Zack murmured, reluctantly ending the kiss after a few moments. "Well….I don't exactly know when I'll be back from my mission." He pushed a loose lock of her hair behind her ear, and took one of the just-picked blossoms out of her flower basket, tucking it there.
Zack stood back and admired his handiwork. "Beautiful," Zack said with a sad softness in his voice. "Not that you need any embellishment," he added with his usual flirty smile.
Aerith blushed at the compliment, thanking him. "I'll miss you, Zack. But I'll write to you, I promise!"
"Good," Zack replied, hugging Aerith close once again. "Because I'm going to need all the positive thoughts I can get, when I'm out there in the trenches."
"I'll do my best!" Aerith promised. She breathed in Zack's scent, imprinting it on her memory; something told her to do that, to hold onto this moment, and to him, for a just a little bit longer.
"When you come back..." Aerith said quietly, after the two remained in their silent embrace for a few moments, "I only have one wish. And that's to spend more time with you."
"We'll do that," Zack assured her. "That's a promise."
He never came back.
Somehow, Aerith knew all along that he might not. All sorts of scenarios played themselves out in her head; maybe he'd met someone else. He was such a damned flirt after all; it wouldn't really surprise her all that much. Or maybe he'd been captured by the enemy, and was being held in some prison camp in Wutai, or who knew where else on the Planet.
She knew only one thing for certain; he was not dead. I would have felt it, Aerith would tell herself, holding onto that one hope like a string of pearls. I would have felt him passing into the Lifestream.
But for the longest time, Aerith felt nothing, nor did she sense anything unusual in the Lifestream. Some souls passed over, and some came back - those who were standing between both worlds, the realm of the living, and the realm of the dead. The Lifestream always knew when souls were ready to join; and those who were not ready, were sent back.
The years passed, the seasons changed, and Aerith continued to tend her flowers, while the cry of the Planet grew stronger as she reached adulthood.
It happened one summer day, when the air hung hot and heavy, smelling as though it might rain any second, even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Beneath the Plate, it was hot and rank during the summer months, and the old church was one of the cooler spots in which to seek refuge from the humidity.
There was a bit of dappled sunlight peeking through from the adjoining sector – Sector Six's upper plate had yet to be completed, and the sun that filtered downward enabled Aerith's flowers to grow and flourish, without overpowering and wilting the fragile blooms.
As she bent over her flowers and tended to them, Aerith saw the shadow of a cloud passing by overhead; she stood up quickly, shielding her eyes as she stared up through the rafters of the broken roof. She felt a whoosh about her legs as a warm wind blew her skirts around; and then the rains came. Falling softly and gently at first, Aerith tipped her face up, catching the droplets on her face.
Then all the sunlight quickly disappeared behind heavy, rolling clouds, and the rain poured from the sky like blood from an open wound. It rained in a torrential downpour for little more than a minute, and then just like that – it slowed to a gentle drizzle once again.
Aerith blinked away the water from her eyes, and reached her hand skyward; floating on a light breeze was a single, long white feather. She caught it in her hand, closing her fingers tightly around it.
She bowed her head in prayer, and then gazed up at the sky tearfully. The clouds had parted, the rain was letting up, and the sun had returned.
"I'll see you again, someday, Zack," Aerith whispered. "Someday…I'll see you again."