A/N: Yes, I am well aware that I should be on hiatus, given the note I put on my profile a few days ago. However, due to the fact that winter weather has placed me under house arrest for the next few days, I thought that I should use this time to go ahead and finish some stories that have been hanging over my head for a while. This particular one is a two-parter, and I already have the second part written; expect that in the next couple of days.
Oh, by the way, if any of you are Doctor Who fans, I make a few subtle references to the heartwrenching 2006 finale episode "Doomsday." Just a word of warning.
It was now a month to the day since Aerith had felt the Planet weep along with her as Zack made his way back to the Lifestream. She untied the ribbon in her braid, brought the simple scrap of fabric up and clutched it to her heart, allowing a few silent tears to trail down her cheeks.
After several moments of silent mourning, she shakily brought the ribbon to her lips and pressed a tear-filled kiss to it, wishing that it were not the ribbon that she was kissing in sorrow, but that she was joyously kissing the lips of her SOLDIER and he was responding with even more enthusiasm than she thought he even had. But her wishes were futile, she knew. Wishing would not bring him back to life, to her.
"I miss you so much, Zack," she sobbed, holding her ribbon to her heart once again, as though the memento that he had given her would begin to heal the gaping hole left in her heart.
Strong, yet transparent arms wrapped around her from behind in an embrace that might have been comforting if she could have actually felt it. "I miss you, too, Aerith," Zack murmured in her ear. "Probably more than you can guess."
The flower girl froze when she heard him, his name coming from her lips as a stuttering sob. She had dreamed of him so often in the last four years and even more over this past month - dreams in which he was holding her, caressing her, whispering promises in her ear that she wished he was here to keep in life - that she thought her sanity had finally snapped and was now beginning to project images of him into her waking world. A phantom kiss to her neck gave her emotions another sledgehammer blow. "You're wearing pink." Zack noticed. "I was right, it is a good color on you." By now, Aerith's knees had completely turned to water, and she would have fallen had not the body behind her become ever-so-slightly more corporeal; the arms around her waist became more firm, and she could just barely feel his muscular chest against her back, holding her up.
That did it for Aerith; she knew that no one could physically feel hallucinations. She turned around and placed her hand where his cheek would have been had he been a solid form. "I've worn pink every day, ever since you left for Nibelheim," she confessed. "I wanted to surprise you when you got back from your mission."
"That long, huh?" Zack asked, sounding as though he might have been laughing if the circumstances were more favorable. "Even though you thought it was silly when I first suggested it?"
Aerith sniffled and managed to force out a smile. "That's why I've worn pink," she said. "Because I thought that you wouldn't expect me to actually wear it after I told you that it was silly."
A moment of silence passed between the two before Aerith finally decided to ask, "How long have we got?"
"I don't know," Zack answered truthfully. "And I don't know if we're going to be able to see each other again until you join the Lifestream."
The poor flower girl nearly began sobbing again, and she clung to the ghost as best she could, since, truly, she had little more than air to grasp at. "I don't think I can do this," she whispered. "Please, take me with you! Bring me home to the Lifestream."
Zack seemed to freeze in shock at her request. "Aerith, I... Believe me, there's nothing want more than to be able to hold you again without having to concentrate just so you can feel even a whisper of my touch. But I can't bring you home to the Lifestream. Not yet." She looked up at him, hurt, rejection, and a hint of anger playing in her eyes. "If I took you with me now," he explained, "then I wouldn't be able to look at you without knowing that I was the reason that you were part of the Lifestream, and I couldn't bear that."
"Then I'll find some other way to come home!" Aerith nearly shrieked.
"Wait, wait, wait! Before you start trying to commit suicide, how about we make a deal?" Zack suggested. "You go on, live your life, and keep selling the flowers. Maybe one day, in a year or so, you'll meet someone else, a man who can take care of you better than I can right now."
"Could we make that part optional?" Aerith asked, and Zack chuckled a bit.
"Alright, meeting another man is optional," he whispered. "In return, on my end of our deal, I'll wait for you for however long it takes. And when the time comes for you to come home, I'll be there. I'll take you with me, and then I promise you that I'll be by your side for eternity. How 'bout it? You think eternity together might make up for however long we have to wait while you keep your end of the deal?"
The Cetra looked dubious for a moment before finally conceding, "It'll do."
A faint smile appeared on the ghost's face. "The deal is struck," he murmured in her ear, making himself corporeal enough for her to be able to feel a slight tingling sensation from his touch. "I'll be waiting for you."
Aerith sniffed, sensing that their time together for the rest of her time walking the Planet was almost over. "I love you."
Zack shifted so that he was looking her in the eyes and placed his hand under her chin. "Aerith Gainsborough," he began, but no sooner had he said her name than the Lifestream pulled him back. Despite the fact that she knew that Zack wouldn't want her to cry, she couldn't stop herself from falling to her knees, nor could she hold back a despairing wail when her love was ripped from her yet again.
She didn't go out and sell flowers that day.