A/N: Sorry, Aerith was supposed to be in this chapter... In fact, this chapter was supposed to be significantly longer... Again, sorry about that; I'll try to make the next one a decent length.
Cristina Christopher sat at the dinner table in the kitchen, finishing up writing down the groceries list. Blowing out a puffy-cheeked sigh she wished, not for the first time, that there was a man in the house to help her. She was all for female independence, but heavy is still heavy. Yes, she wanted one around as a pack mule. She would probably have more respect for the opposite gender if she had met one or two who actually treated her with respect. There were other issues, but that was the biggie.
Getting up from her seat at the dinning table she went into the front hall (which was attached to the kitchen) and grabbed the house keys. She already had her boots on so she just grabbed the umbrella and went straight out the door. Closing it behind her she locked it up, opened the umbrella, moved it over her blond head and headed out along the street outside of her house. The rain made a hollow staccato of pounding above her where it hit the material of the umbrella.
Christina lived by herself in a small town a couple of hours away from Michigan Lake. She'd been married (he had been everything to her) in another town, but her husband had left her for his mistress and the two had gone on to live in the city where he had then made it big. After he had left her Christina had found a house in another town and bought it with the savings that she had set aside as a trust fund for when they had children. She had vowed never to get involved in a romantic relationship again and so those savings had become pointless. Hence, she used them to buy herself a new house.
All throughout her life she's had... Issues... With men and the divorce had simply been 'the straw that broke the camel's back' as it were. She couldn't trust them anymore, at least not with her heart (but in her secret heart of hearts she wanted to find someone), which was why she ignored Jeremy's attempts to woo her time and again.
It was when she was about a block away from the store that she spotted a very attractive young man with soaking wet, black hair (swept back from his face) sitting under a tree. He appeared to be unconscious. Concerned, she went over to him and crouched down next to his tall form. Reaching out she shook his shoulder.
"Hey. Are you alright?" She asked.
He didn't seem to hear her so she shook his shoulder a bit harder. Now he opened his (impossibly blue) eyes too stare at her hand and then follow the line of her arm (she was not blushing) up to her face. He stared for a long second, eyes intent and surprised, then it passed and he said, "Well, aren't you a lovely sight."
She blushed. Great a flirt. Wait a minute... There was a guy Aerith said that she was expecting (it had been hard to tell if the woman was happy or angry about this) and thinking about the description of his appearance and personality that Aerith had given her Christina realized that this was probably the guy.
"Zack Fair, I take it?" The young woman asked.
"Guilty as charged." He replied cheerfully.
She sighed (any interest that she might have had for this man died a horrible, bloody, monstrous death) and said blandly, "Aerith Gainsborough has been expecting you."
A smile spread across his face that would have turned many a female head and made any normal woman down right giddy if it was meant for her. Christina was utterly immune (now that she knows who he is) and couldn't help but think that he's probably never been short on his choice of women.
"Lead the way." He told the blond.
She nodded and stood, gesturing for him to follow. He hopped up onto his feet, tried to brush some of the mud off of his pants and failed. She pulled a clean hanky out of a pocket in her skirts. Staring at his hands silently for a second Zack shrugged and looked back up at Christina – to find her holding out the hanky for him to wipe his hands on.
"You sure?" He asked.
She rolled her eyes and said, "Yes."
With a simple "Thanks." he took it and started wiping his hands off. When he was done he stared at the now very dirty hanky for a moment then did something that surprised her more than a little; he shook it out and green tendrils of light seemed to come out of his fingers and engulfed it. When they vanished the hanky was clean again. He handed it back to her and she stared at it astonished, then up at him.
Of course she asked, "Why didn't you just do that for your pants and hands?"
"Uhh... Because then I would have been bottomless and handless... At least for while I was doing it."
Christina raised an eyebrow at him, then cast her eyes back down to the hanky in her hand and noticed, on the topmost corner where he had held it, embroidery that hadn't been there before. The light in her head went on and she looked up at him once more.
"Did you... Restructure the matter?" She asked.
"Well, that's how one person described it..."
"Is that actually what you do?"
"Yeah. We were running some tests."
"I see..."
Giving the hanky one last thoughtful look she put it away and gestured for him to follow as she stuffed it in a pocket.
A/N: No romance going on between Christina and Zack here folks! Anyway, please tell me if I've got him in character and if you hate or like my original character so far. In-put like that is always useful to know for making a descent OC (Original Character in case you don't know the abbreviation). Just please don't be cruel about it.
