a/n: Written for theme number tweny-five, 'fence', at the Thirty Kisses community at Livejournal. Blame any typos and the butchering of any grammar on myself; NotePad is to blame for all the rest.

...I seem to be on a role of fifteen minute ficlets?

Also-- I posted this on the community already. My user name on there is cyniquesoleil. Just to make sure none of you think I'm stealing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII, and no copyright infringement was intended. I'm not making any profit off of this, if you need clarification. I mean, I wish I were... but. Nope.


The kiss they shared was soft, almost sweet— and it could be their last. He entangled his hands in her hair; she pressed herself up against the fence that separated them, willing herself not to cry. Usually, before a mission, he'd say that it would be easy, that she didn't have to worry over him. This time, he'd only told her the latter.

"Please," she said, voice breaking on the second syllable. Her voice was muffled against the cloth of his uniform, his hand a soothing weight against her neck. "If it's too dangerous, don't go. Stay here. With me."

Elmyra had warned her that it was stupid to fall in love with a SOLDIER. She'd liked Zack well enough when she first met him, but had said that one dayhe would leave, and her heart would have no other option but to break. Her surrogate Mother was out shopping at the moment, to her immense thanks. She wouldn't have been able to say goodbye if Elmyra hadn't left, yet a fence still separated them.

Maybe she agreed. But even if he did leave, even if he didn't return to her, she'd always be grateful. She was pretty, she knew, but being pretty wasn't enough to balance everything else out. After all, who would accept a girl who could hear voices? The voices of the dead, of the Planet, underneath every other single sound in the entire world, always? Elmyra was the only one who knew the complete truth of it, and Zack had the basic gist of it down.

"Don't worry about me, Aerith." He pulled back from her, his hands sliding to rest on her shoulders. His smile was half-grimace, but he was trying so hard for her. "I'll be back. I promise."

She swallowed before she spoke. "You— promise?"

"I promise." A shadow crossed his face. "Even if it's in ten years, I'll come back. Just don't fall in love with anyone else while I'm gone, okay?"

If he could try to be happy for her, the least she could do was try for him. "Yeah, okay. But I don't know, Zack... What if they buy me a pony?"

"I'll buy you a bigger one!"

His serious, earnest expression was enough to send her off into giggles. She stopped herself before they became hysterical, because then they wouldn't stop and she'd end up crying. "Silly," she said, fighting back tears, "ponies are /supposed/ to be small."

"...I'll buy you a smaller one?"

"All right. I'll hold you to that."

He kissed her again, this time rougher and a little bit more desperate. She wondered why he tasted like blood, like acrid mako, burning down her throat and settling in her stomach.

Like goodbye.

She wanted to fist her hands in his shirt and beg him not to go. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and never let him go. She wanted him to stay. But all she did was savor the moment, wishing he would change his mind, though she knew he wouldn't.

When he was gone, she leaned against the fence, feeling the wind whisper secrets in her ears. She watched him until he was a tiny, dark speck against the distant horizon, until she had to squint to make out the hand he raised in goodbye... And then, only then, did she cry.


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