Hi there! Here's the next chapter to my fic! I know it's a little shorter than the others, but this chapter's mainly focused on Zack and Aerith so I hope that makes up for its shortness. And speaking of them, it's Valentine's Day so I decided to write up a chapter just for the occasion! I hope it's not too mushy for you readers out there and once again, thank you so much for the kind reviews! Without further ado, here's chapter seven! Enjoy!:)

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII belongs to Square Enix!!!


A SOLDIER's Promise

"Ow!"

"Hold still will you? You're wounds will open up again if you keep moving around!"

Aerith was sitting on the wooden floor next to her flower patch, tending to Zack. Various healing supplies were lying around them: bandages, Cure Materias, and small bottles containing special ointment which Aerith had made from the plants she grew at home. Next to the healing supplies were Zack's upper half of his SOLDIER uniform: the shirt, gloves, and shoulder guards were neatly piled up with the sword sitting on top of them; the dragon pendant that she had given to him was still around his neck and Aerith was glad that he kept his promise of wearing it.

"What a day this has turned out to be!" Zack sighed, his eyes squinting slightly as Aerith applied some ointment on his arm.

"Tell me about it! Especially when you fell from the sky!" she said, stifling a small giggle.

"Wait, what? I fell through the sky?" he asked, scratching the back of his head. "I remember Angeal unleashing his materia and the grating under me falling..."

"And you ended up here!" she said, cutting him off. "You scared me for a moment when you fell on top of my flowers and just lay there. But after a few seconds, you started mumbling and rolling about on the floor..."

"How embarrassing." Zack muttered, looking away from her. "I must have looked like a complete idiot."

"Not quite." Aerith chuckled as she dabbed some ointment on his other arm...

"Good news, Aerith. Cissnei called and reported that Hojo had gone back to Shinra HQ." Tseng said as he and Reno entered the church. "You can go home now, if you'd like."

"It'd probably be best if you hitched a ride with us so you don't have to walk home, yo." Reno suggested, twirling his rod carelessly. "Don't want a pretty girl like you gettin' hurt now; especially after us Turks have worked so hard to keep you outa harm's way!"

"I appreciate the offer, Reno." Aerith said, walking towards the pair. "But, I think I'll stay here for a while. The flowers need me."

"You care more about the flowers than your safety!?" Reno exclaimed. "Talk about devoted!"

"Reno, don't be rude." Tseng said sternly. Reno scratched his head in puzzlement.

"Uh...are you asking me to be nice, or are you asking me to avoid acting like Rude?"

"I think he means that you should show more respect to others, Reno." a soft, deep voice said. Tseng looked up and smiled while Reno started to pout; Aerith turned around to see a tall, bald Turk wearing sunglasses.

"Oh, hello Rude. Thank you too for protecting me earlier."

The tall Turk simply adjusted his glasses. "..."

"With that said, Aerith, I'm afraid we must get going." Tseng said, flipping his phone open. "President Shinra is holding a meeting in half an hour and these two have another assignment to take care of while I'm at the meeting."

"Hey, what assignment?! You never said anything about any assignment!" Reno protested.

"He'll tell us when we get back, Reno." Rude retorted.

"Thank you, Rude." Tseng said before his eyes met Aerith's again. "Are you sure you don't want a ride to your house?"

She shook her head and smiled. "Thank you again, but no. I'd like to stay here with the flowers for a while." He nodded his head and turned away, motioning for his two companions to follow him.

"Then take care, Aerith." Rude followed Tseng; Reno winked at Aerith and made a gesture indicating that he'd call her. She stifled a giggle at his antics as he went to join the others who were already at the entrance.

The roaring sound of the helicopter engine began to fade and finally, the girl was at peace again. She turned and headed back to the center of the room to continue tending to her flowers...

Crash!!

The sound came from above as a body crashed through the ceiling, creating a massive hole. Aerith gasped in shock as the body fell and landed among the flowers with a sickening thud. Immediately, she ran through her tiny garden to see who had 'dropped' by. The person was wearing clothes that were similar to the Shinra SOLDIERs she'd seen during her incarceration, but what caught her attention was the raven-like hair...

"Zack!" she exclaimed. His uniform was torn in several places and cuts marked his arms and face. Without further hesitation, Aerith placed a hand on his chest to feel a pulse; fortunately, there was a strong one, but she wondered how he had survived that fall...

"Mom?" Zack asked, his eyes still closed. Aerith smiled and shook her head.

"Why does everybody call me that?" she asked herself. Almost all the children in Sector 5 looked up to her as a kind mother. Aerith had even asked her mother, Elmyra, and she had also said the same thing. She wondered if this was all a sign...

Suddenly without warning, Zack started to flail about, startling the girl and snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Angeal! Why did you do that! What the hell's your problem?!...What do you mean you can't be on that side any longer? Don't listen to that traitor, Genesis! He's just a deserter who took a bunch of SOLDIER 2nds and 3rds with him during the Wutai War!" Aerith silently sat there and listened as he continued to unconsciously yell about two people by the name 'Angeal' and 'Genesis'. Who were they? Were they his close friends in SOLDIER? She mentally noted to ask him about that later when he wakes up...

"Mom..." Zack said softly, his face starting to relax. "I...I want to help out a friend. That's all." To Aerith's dismay, several of her flowers had been crushed when he fell; however, she was grateful that the soil had provided as a cushion which had softened his landing a bit. Now she needed to find a way to wake Zack up, but how? To her, it would seem rude to try and shake or slap him awake, knowing that he had already received injuries earlier from fighting and taking a huge fall from the roof...or wherever he had fallen from.

"Oh, I know!" she exclaimed after a moment of thought. "Maybe this will do the trick." Aerith approached the still-unconscious/sleeping Zack and cupped her hands on her mouth...

"Hellooo!"

"Mom?" Zack asked, his eyes starting to open slightly. Aerith's eyes sparkled with joy as her waking technique started to take effect on him. She knelt down and leaned closer to his ear...

"Hellooo!" Finally, his eyes adjusted to the light and fully opened up. She stood and beamed with joy at seeing him alive and conscious.

"Hooray!"

Zack remained lying on the soil, staring at the rays of light that were seeping through the tiny cracks on the roof. "Heaven?" His view of the ceiling was blocked as Aerith leaned over slightly.

"Not quite. Church in the slums."

"Aerith!" Zack exclaimed, sitting up abruptly. "How did you...ow..." His question was cut mid-sentence as he felt a surge of pain. Aerith gasped in horror as she saw the injury; a deep gash ran across his torso which had also torn his shirt. Immediately, she rushed into another room at the back of the church and came back seconds later with a bundle of healing supplies in her arms which she carefully placed on the wooden floor.

"Um...Zack..." she began, a tinge of pink visible on her face. "You'll...have to remove your shirt and armor so I can heal that wound on your torso."

"Uh...is that...necessary, Aerith?"

"Yes!! Don't make this harder than it has to be!! Now remove your shirt and armor and sit still while I try to heal you!"

"I don't remember asking that question." Zack pondered after hearing Aerith's story. "I think you're just making stuff up."

"Don't tell me the fall knocked your head around, Zack." Aerith chuckled. "You should've seen your face earlier when I asked you to remove your shirt."

"Hah! My face was just fine." Zack said indignantly, looking away. "You should have seen your own face when you asked me to remove my shirt!" He waited for an answer from her, but none came. Turning his head, he saw her face; she looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"Nice going, Zack!" he thought to himself. "Aerith, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you in any way." When no response came from her, he gently placed a hand on her. Aerith stopped what she was doing, but averted his gaze.

"But thank you for healing me..." Zack continued, smiling. Mentally, he hoped his words would make her feel better and make up for his rude comment earlier. A sniffle escaped from her, and Zack felt even worse that he had brought up the subject of taking off his shirt. He took both of her hands, making her drop the bandages and gave them a small squeeze.

"I swear, Aerith!" he pleaded, now on the verge of tears as well. "I'm truly s-huh?" The girl had burst out in laughter, throwing her head back as she did. Zack saw tears on her eyes, but this time, they were from all the giggling.

"Oh, Zack!" Aerith exclaimed, her face turning red from laughter. "You...you should have...seen your face!"

For a moment, Zack glared daggers at her, making the girl stop laughing. She couldn't avert her gaze from his serious, Mako eyes.

"I'm...I'm sorry, Zack." she said, feeling slightly guilty for her actions. "I hope I didn't offend you..."

He continued to glare until that familiar grin returned to his face. She returned the gesture and shoved him playfully.

"Oh you! You always do that to me! I thought for a second that you were actually mad at me!" Zack lay down on the floor, laughing.

"I love how you always react to those!"

Aerith stuck her tongue out at him and joined in his laughter. As their laughter died down, Zack lifted his legs towards the ceiling and swung them forward, allowing the momentum to help himself stand up. She watched in awe as he did this; mentally, she told herself to ask him to perform that stunt for her later...

"So, I take it that you're done healing me?" Zack asked, breaking her from her thoughts. He looked at his bandaged torso and arms and did a few squats to loosen a bit of his stiff leg muscles. Aerith nodded and fetched his SOLDIER uniform shirt, armor, and sword which she handed over to him just as he finished his last squat.

"Thank you so much, Aerith." he said, taking the articles of clothing and putting them back on. He then took the small sword from her and twirled it around, but his injured arm wouldn't allow him to do the trick; the sword left his hand and fell on the floor with a clang, startling the flower girl.

"Zack, are you okay?" she asked, hurrying over to examine his bandaged right arm. "Don't strain your arms. They're still injured."

"I'll be okay, Aerith." he said, picking up the sword and this time, securing it on his back without the fancy sword tricks. She nodded and smiled, picking up her healing supplies and placing them on a pew nearby. Underneath the pew she had placed the items on was a box which she pulled out. Zack watched in puzzlement as she looked through its contents until she stood up straight, producing an envelope which she handed over to him with a smile.

"Here. This is for you. If you'll excuse me a moment; I'm going to put my healing supplies away." With that said, she picked up the healing items and walked away into another room. Zack scratched his head and opened the envelope. Inside the small package was a note with a small vial which he took out and examined; a tiny, white flower was encased in the vial. After looking at the beautiful plant, he then unfolded the note and read it...

Zack,

How's everything with you? I hope you're not working yourself too hard. By the way, I'm glad that you kept your promise of wearing the pendant I gave you a few days ago. You don't know how much it means to me when you wear that. When I saw you wearing it back when you saved me from those Genesis clones, I felt really happy because you had kept your promise! Well, here's another little gift for you and it comes directly from the small garden of flowers I grow in the church. Back before I was captured by the Shinra, I always tended to my little flower garden here in this church. One day, while I was pulling the weeds from the flowers, I found this small, white flower sticking out among the huge ones in my flower garden so I picked it. I thought that delicate little flower was a special plant so I placed it in the vial you now have. I know you're probably asking why it's special, right? Well, just take good care of it and you'll see. It may look like some ordinary flower to you, but I'm pretty sure there's something very special with it and I'd like a special person like you to see what it blossoms into.

-Aerith

A soft smile was visible on Zack's face as he folded the letter and placed it back in the envelope which he put in his back pocket. He then noticed Aerith standing there, smiling serenely at him and he went over to give her a hug.

"I promise I will take care of this special flower; and one day, I will show you what it blossoms into. I'm sure it will blossom into something as beautiful and rare as you, Aerith." he said softly as she returned his embrace, wrapping her slender arms around his waist. She looked up at him, her eyes meeting with his friendly mako eyes.

"Zack, I love you." Zack's soft smile became wider as he held onto the vial with one hand while stroking her chestnut locks with the other hand.

"I love you too, Aerith." Aerith simply tightened her embrace and buried her face into his chest.

The two stood there, locked within each others' embrace, trying to make the moment last as long as they could...


Thanks for reading!:) To be continued...