Well, after a long time fighting with writers block, real life, and my Muse(s), I finished this oneshot! (I originally was planning to finish this by Valentine's Day... That worked out well.)
Characters © to Square Enix, etc.
Written by areadingheart
Quality, Not Quantity [ ν ] – εуλ 0002, around September 21 (before the Nibelheim incident.)
The scent of flowers lazily drifted through the air while dust motes danced in the sunlight dripping through the ruined roof of the church. A sound of metal hitting metal and wood rang out, closely followed by some muffled swearing. Light footsteps crossed wood flooring to the source of the noise and paused.
There was a rustle of paper as the woman bent and picked up the abandoned instruction sheet. "Zack…. I think that's…. upside down." Aerith looked from the pictures to the mass of wood on the makeshift work bench in front of the SOLDIER.
"What? No, it's not. Can't be," he said, still frowning at the pieces of wood he had just nailed together.
She sighed and crossed her arms staring hard at his back.
He felt the force of her Look and half turned to glance over his shoulder at her. "…. Is it?"
"Yes, it is," she gently said, stepping to his left side to get a clearer view of the disaster currently sitting on wood slats resting across the backs of two pews. "That's supposed to be for the base of the cart, not the upper side. See?" She flapped the papers in front of his face.
Eyes crossing a bit as he tried to focus on the instructions waving dangerously close to his nose, Zack backed up a step grabbing the pages. He began reading under his breath, "…Once piece(s) A and E are attached, use nail type V to attached part(s) C1 and C2 to edge(s) F3 and F4…. What the hell?"
Taking advantage of his retreat and distraction, Aerith slipped between him and the partially finished cart and poked at the just attached slat. "Mmmh, that needs to be taken off, where's the hammer?" A quick search found it hiding right next to one of the sides just out of her less tall line of sight. "Aha," she smiled and hopped onto the work area, sitting next to the object in question. Feet swinging a good foot above the floor, she tugged the cart a little closer and began inspecting the nails that had just been pounded into it.
"This makes absolutely no sense! That's what I did! Are the parts mislabeled?…." The SOLDIER scratched his head as he confusedly stared at the clear-as-mud instructions. A clatter broke his concentration, and he turned to see the flower girl poking at a nail with a flat headed screwdriver. "Aerith, what are you–?"
He tried to take away the tool and she promptly flicked away his hand with her left. "Shoo, I know what I'm doing… There." The flat piece of metal slid smoothly under the nailhead and she successfully levered the misplaced nail out a bit. She smiled innocently at his bemused expression as she picked up the hammer and slipped the claw end around the nail to finish levering it out. "I am quite handy with repair work you know."
"But I'm supposed to be making it for you! You shouldn't be working on your own present!" Even though he was protesting, he couldn't help but notice that she was indeed deftly handling the hammer. And that her attempts to remove the nail showed off nicely toned arms.
She giggled as she tugged the nail out and handed it to him, bangs slightly out of place. "It looked like you needed some help though."
"No, not with the nailing," he took the nail, closing his hand around hers to hold it. Soft green eyes blinked at him in a combination of amusement and 'oh really?'. "But, maybe with the instructions? Haven't actually built something for awhile."
"Alright. Here let me see them again," she reached for the papers in his other hand as he tossed the nail back into the hardware pile. "Mmm, all that happened is you're working on it upside down and rotated ninety degrees from the pictures."
Zack looked even more confused, tilting his head slightly. "What? How does that even–?"
In answer, the flower girl held out the instructions to him and flipped them around to match the cart's current vertical orientation.
"…Oh. I get it."
"Do you need anymore help?" she set the pages aside and looked at him, her eyes level with his for once.
He chuckled and brushed her bangs out of her face saying, "No, not anymore. I can manage the rest just fine. You were going to space out the flowers or something, right?"
"Well, yes."
"Then go on and do that, and leave this to me."
"Oh, alright," she smiled and scootched forward a bit to hop off the work table.
Taking advantage of how close they were, Zack suddenly wrapped his hands around her waist and easily lifted her off the slats, lightly swinging her in a half circle. Shocked, she squeaked with surprise and clutched his strong arms for balance. He grinned at her when he set her down, hands still around her small waist.
"Zack!" Aerith frowned a bit in mock annoyance and then couldn't help chuckling at her boyfriend. "Show off," she teased while deftly spinning out of his grasp, her white sundress fluttering.
Still grinning he said, "Hey, that's part of my charm."
"Charm?" Aerith called back over her shoulder as she danced away towards the flower bed at the other end of the church.
"Yeah, my charm. Good looks, highly skilled SOLDIER..."
She chuckled and turned her attention to her flowers.
Earlier in the day at Aerith's request, Zack had removed quite a number of floor boards from the edges of the current flower bed to clear space for the over-crowded plants. The flower girl quickly went to work hoeing and adding compost to the long compacted dirt, apparently completely focused on softening and preparing it for more of the lily-like flowers. Really, she was trying not to blush, still feeling the warmth from Zack's hands and arms, how the muscles in his arms flexed as he held her, the crisp scent of his cologne... She started whacking the ground more energetically with the garden hoe.
The SOLDIER was also focusing on his task at hand, although he kept glancing at his girlfriend in-between sawing and nailing together more of the cart. She was very good at managing the long handled garden hoe, almost disturbingly so. Her practice with the staff was clearly paying off strength-wise, if the way she was churning up the garden was any indicator. And she was still as graceful as always, her dress fluttering and clinging nicely to her... He turned his attention back to the cart and realized he had nearly installed the wheel frame upside down.
Another half-hours worth of work had Aerith kneeling carefully in the dirt, replanting some of the over-crowded plants. She was totally engrossed in her task, slowly digging down around the roots of each plant, lifting it out and carrying it as carefully as if it were a child, and then lightly setting it in a new hole, covering its roots with dirt.
Having finished the frame and body of the cart, Zack began sanding down the rough edges and surfaces. After all, it'd be terrible to give one's girlfriend a gift that inflicted splinters every time she tried to use it. He knelt on the floor next to the cart as he worked on it, carefully sanding it over and over until it was perfectly smooth. Being able to watch Aerith had absolutely nothing to do with him sitting there or taking so long to finish. Nope, not at all. He had to take pride in his work after all. Can't have any shoddy work from Zack Fair.
Finally, Aerith finished replanting the last flower and patting down the dirt, she sat back to admire her work. "There, I think that does it." She slowly stood, brushing fragments of dirt from her hands as she stretched to relieve the kinks in her back.
"All done?" Zack looked up from where he was putting the final touches on the cart, mainly polishing off any remaining sawdust.
"Mmhmm, all done planting!" she smiled as she finished stretching and twirled to face Zack. "Are you finished? Can I see it?"
As he stood up, using the polishing rag to dust off his hands, he smiled at her eager expression. "It's all finished, Aerith, and ready for some flowers. C'mere!" he waved for her to approach.
Walking quickly, not quite running, the flower girl crossed the church to inspect the cart Zack was standing by proudly. She walked around cart and man, inspecting both. The cart was sturdy and serviceable wood with decent quality wheels; it would last for quite awhile, provided no cars or monsters ran into it. But it was also very plain…. She couldn't help but notice the way the the warmth of the wood contrasted with his black clothes. The typical SOLDIER style uniform had smudges of sawdust liberally spread across the sleeveless sweater and trousers, while the back of his right hand had a small scrape across it. From a splinter maybe?
"Well?"
His question derailed her current train of thought and she looked up at him, blinking to try to physically refocus her thoughts.
The SOLDIER turned carpenter looked down at the flower girl standing right next to him, noting the smudges of dirt and pollen on her arms and white dress. He was a bit puzzled by how nonchalant she seemed, not commenting like she usually would. Does she not like it?
What? Oh, that's right, the cart. "It's nice," she said, sounding a bit more vague than she meant to. The smell of fresh cut wood was mixing quite nicely with his cologne, distracting her even more. Stupid, say something better! "It looks very sturdy." Nice going, Aerith. He spent hours on it and that's all you could come up with? Reeeeal smooth.
"Yeah, it's definitely sturdy! It'll take a lot to damage it." He rubbed the back of his neck, the delicate scent of Aerith's perfume starting to distract him.
"Hmm..." she glanced from Zack to the cart.
"... Something wrong?" he asked, a little worried now.
"Well, it wasn't quite what I had in mind," she honestly confessed. At his questioning expression, she clarified what she meant, "It's not exactly cute..."
"Oh." He scratched his head and stared at the cart. The very plain, ordinary wood cart. "But it's mostly about the flowers, right? The cart shouldn't matter much."
She smiled and lightly poked his side. "Presentation does matter though. The nicer things look, the higher chance people will actually stop and buy a flower or two."
He gently batted her poking hand aside and smiled a little ruefully. "You want a better cart."
The flower girl nodded and looked down, blushing a little. "Yes, please." In a quieter tone, half to herself, she said, "It's just a tiny, little wish."
Chuckling, Zack moved a bit closer to stand right in front of her. "Let me guess, a pretty cart?"
"A cute cart!" came the immediate reply, her eyes sparkling enthusiastically.
"Cute?" he echoed in mock despair. "But I don't really make cute stuff!"
"Well, then I guess I'll just have to help you," she smiled mischievously, nearly grinning.
Chuckling again, Zack gave into the adorableness of his girlfriend and hugged her. "Alright. I'll make you a cute flower cart. Got any other wishes?"
She hugged him back, pretending to think for a moment, "Hmmm. As a matter if fact, I do."
"... Let me guess, you have a lot more tiny wishes."
"Mmm, only twenty-three."
"Twenty-three?! You'll have to write those all down, or I'll probably forget something and wind up in the doghouse."
Aerith laughed and stood on tiptoe to kiss his left cheek, right next to his scar. "I'd better get some paper then." She twirled away from him and walked to the work bench to hunt for some paper and a pencil, trying to hide how flustered she was. As she wrote, Zack finished cleaning up the debris from his carpentry endeavor, getting shooed away every time he tried to read the list over Aerith's shoulder.
They finished at the same time and the flower girl held out a folded piece of paper to her SOLDIER. "Here they are. All twenty-three."
He took it from her, holding her hand a little bit longer than necessary as he took the note. "I'll do my best to fulfill them, ok?" Bright mako blue eyes that were serious for once met hopeful clear green eyes.
"Ok," she smiled gently.
Just then, with perfect timing as usual, his PHS rang. "Aw, c'mon," he muttered shoving the note into his pocket as he answered the call. "Zack Fair." A pause. "What?! ...I'll be right over." Sighing he flicked the phone shut.
"Work stuff?" A little worried at the sharpness of his tone, Aerith unconsciously clasped her hands together.
"Yeah, unfortunately. I gotta run," he said regretfully. Closing the distance between them, he kissed her cheek before racing to the church doors. "I'll come back as soon as I can! Still gotta sell some flowers with you!" he called back before dashing out of sight.
Standing alone in the now quiet church, Aerith wandered over to the cart he had worked so hard to make fore her. Running her fingers over the smoothed wood, she wistfully gazed in the direction Zack had vanished. "I gave you twenty-three wishes, but I really only have one wish..."