word count: 406

Disclaimer: I don't own KH.

Summary: Don't patronize Aerith. Ever.

a/n: When I first played Final Fantasy VII I was surprised because I hadn't expected Aerith to be so determined, especially with how she's portrayed in Kingdom Hearts. So, I decided to kind of analyze her in this piece. Does anyone hate that moment when you've written a great sentence, but it just doesn't flow with the rest of the story so you have to delete it? That happened to me a lot while writing this. Haha.

This is dedicated to anyone who hates being looked down upon. Enjoy!
-flurried

A flower girl was youthful and naive. Aerith was neither of those things. Firstly, she was not a girl; she was a woman. Secondly, yes, she had retained some of her youthful qualities but she didn't bounce with energy like, say, Yuffie. Lastly, Aerith was not naive. Perhaps people viewed her that way because she was soft-spoken and kind, but there is a difference between being nice and being downright ignorant. If she wanted, she could be vicious, but that was unnecessary and took too much time away from her day. All in all, she would rather heal than scar.

Yet, she found herself with a slight problem—a problem she couldn't quite ignore.

"Excuse me?" A polite smile graced Aerith's lips, unwavering. Maybe she had misheard Squall.

"I said," he drawled, "that you should be more careful. There are monsters lurking out here. You should probably go home and bake cookies or something."

Or something.

Aerith felt herself swell with indignation at his implication. Her resolve rarely broke and she usually would have brushed this type of comment off, but she was done with playing nice. Whatever happened to that determined woman back on Gaea? Had she been left behind when the heartless invaded? No, that woman was therejust hiding.

"Oh." She didn't even try to hide how offended she felt.

"Look, Aerith—"

"No, Squall." He winced slightly at the use of his birth name. "How stupid do you think I am? Of course Hollow Bastion isn't safe. I'm pretty sure I would know that by now." Observing him with quiet fury, she added, "I don't ever want to hear you disregard me again simply because I don't fight alongside you and Yuffie. If you haven't noticed, I'm a completely competent magewho can summon, mind you. It's only a matter of choice; I choose not to fight. If I had to, I would."

Tensing slightly when he saw the way Aerith was holding her sickle, Leon decided the best course of action was to apologize. "O-Okay," he stuttered, trying to form a coherent sentence. "Sorry. I won't do it again."

"Good." It was the last thing she said to him before turning to tend to her flowers once more.

Later on, Leon would contemplate on how he hadn't ever seen Aerith's determination shine through her reserved exterior.