The Last 100 Days

Chapter 10: The Ninth Day

Challenge Prompt: I'm in the mood for lovin'.

Chapter Summary: Sometimes, it's better to act on that burning desire, lest it be too late.

Thankfully Beta-ed by: GoldenShinyWireofHope

Aerith awoke from a sleep bereft of the usual nightmares of the future, an unexpected blessing. She opened her eyes and shifted her body on the hard floor. She lifted her head from her surprisingly stiff pillow laboriously, her limbs still heavy with the languor of drowsiness. Bleary eyes took in the sunlit church floors and the steadily heaving chest of none other than Zack Fair, SOLDIER First Class. So that's what my pillow was, she realised.

The sun was being particularly calm that day, another small advantage of waking up earlier. In the afternoons, it was unbearably warm, her dress had a bad habit of sticking to her back with the humidity. It was times like those that she hated having a hole in the Church roof. She thought of waking Zack up, but he seemed far too relaxed for her to think of breaking up his beauty sleep. As if on cue, he let out a contented sigh.

She moved as silently as she could to the bucket near the first pew, her new orange watering can floating on the clear water. The light rain the night before had half-filled her bucket with enough water to give her flowers a morning drink. She gripped the firm handle of the watering can, relishing in the way it fit into her hand. Zack did say the day before that if she wanted to thank him, she would use it all the time. As she doused her flowers with splashes of cool water, she smiled. She could get used to this.

She had to swerve her way around Zack's various pieces of gear, boots and shoulder plates seeming to compete with each other on who could trip her first. He wasn't the most organized person, or the most thoughtful. Sidestepping them, she was confronted with the soggy box remains of their dinner, a solitary piece of pepperoni pizza lying, cold and stiff, forlornly on the corrugated cardboard proclaiming "Presidential Pizza, serving only the best". She scowled and made a note to remind herself to throw it away.

After she was returned her watering can to its perch on the pew, she turned around and drew in a deep breath. Now, she would have to wake Zack up.

Looking back at her messy-haired lover, she furrowed her brow, trying to think of a way to wake the dead-to-the-world SOLDIER. She leaned over to examine his face. He was smiling faintly, his black spikes sticking to his face as sweat collected under his nose. He moved slightly, as if trying to get into a more comfortable position. With that slight movement, his smile disappeared and a frown tugged at his features.

It must be his ribs. She knew it was. His injury, caused by the enigmatic person he'd met yesterday in combat. The one that he talked about. The one just like him.

It was her turn to frown as she thought back to the morning past. He had asked her to pray for him, to pray that he would always fight on the right side. Wasn't he fighting for ShinRa? Wasn't that the right side? Then she stopped, her childhood memories flooding back to her, her parents' murders, her capture and imprisonment, her constant fear that someone was following her. That had been ShinRa. She closed her eyes to think, though her thoughts immediately swung to the fateful, horrible dream where Zack had been killed. That distinctive armour...

It was ShinRa. She saw again the guns, the cold faces, the falling-falling-falling figure of Zack, overwhelmed by sheer numbers. She bit back a scream. All the blood, all the deaths, all the wrong that she knew in the world, it was always ShinRa, it had always been ShinRa. Was she wrong then, telling him that it was alright to trust them? She should have known, she should have known, she should have known.

But he wasn't one of them, and he did say that the General, the fabled Sephiroth himself, was his friend. Surely that was enough protection for now. She managed to beat down all those confusing thoughts for a moment as she cautiously leaned closer still, her long front bangs brushing against his cheeks. He looked peaceful when he slept, he couldn't be a monster, he couldn't be fighting for more than liberty for others. He was Zack. Her Zack. He had done nothing wrong, and he would do nothing wrong. ShinRa was one thing, but she knew she could trust Zack to make his own decisions.

In a sudden rush of emotions, she swooped down and pecked him on his high cheekbone. And once she had done so, she immediately jumped back and coloured as one of his eyelids cracked open. She smacked herself inwardly for being so foolishly brave.

"Aerith?"

His voice too was laced with weariness.

"Yeah Zack," she replied, fearful that her small action upset him in some way.

"Five more minutes," he grumbled and closed his eye again.

Her mood instantly lifted and she laughed merrily. That was the Zack she knew, playful, cheeky and utterly endearing. She stood up with the air of a school teacher reprimanding a student, arms appropriately held akimbo.

"Not today Zackary Fair! It's time to rise and shine and save the world from mortal peril!"

He groaned again. "Gnn...do I have to?"

She tried a different tack, dropping to her knees again.

"Hey...Zack?" She sang in a high falsetto.

"Hmm...?"

She suppressed a laugh. His morning-grammar was about as bad as his bed hair (his spikes unruly and poking out at strange angles). One of his eyes opened again, its ethereal blue iris shining in the morning sun.

One...two...

"Aerith?"

Three!

She pounced on him and hugged him hard. How nice it was to hold his solid form, exuding life, and listen to his heartbeat, hard and strong, to remind her that for now, for the next 91 days, he was alive and kicking. His arms wrapped around her too and she pressed in still further.

"Ouf!" He let out a huff and pushed her away slightly. "Watch it, hun. This SOLDIER's injured."

Her eyes widened.

"I'm so sorry!"

She immediately withdrew her hands from his waist and moved away, wary of any pain she caused him. She berated herself, she should have known better than to try and hug him when he was hurt! He noticed her distress and, grabbing her hand, folded her into a gentler embrace, being careful about his bruised ribs at the same time.

"S'okay, Aerith. Just...be gentle yeah?"

She cautiously leaned further into his hug, making sure each moment was taken and cataloged in a huge archive of instances and fleeting touches that defined the basis of her love for him. Or something she thought could only be love, anyway. The beautiful moment was broken as Zack moved a little under her weight and yelped as his ribs grated against her body.

Aerith immediately stiffened. She'd had her doubts when he said that his injury was "nothing", and every single time he grimaced or scowled, This was definitely not as small an injury as he had made it out to be. She pursed her lips in a veritable imitation of her foster mother and lifted his arms away from her body. She twisted around in a kneeling position and tugged his shirt out of his pants to have a closer look. Her free hand searched for the spare Potion she kept in her pocket for emergencies. She hoped she wouldn't need to use it.

Zack made a sound of protest, but it quickly reverted to a muted cry of pain as Aerith prodded the discoloured region near his stomach. The bruising was to a larger extent than she thought, spreading like some terrible virus all over his abdomen. Judging by the mewling noises Zack made as she felt the area with feather-like touches, it was far worse than he had let on.

"You should have told me about this sooner! I might have herbs for this, plants at home that can heal these things! You--"

"You're," here Zack gasped a little as she pressed a spot near his belly button, "cute when you're flustered."

Aerith glared at him but her cheeks reddened at his teasing. Only he could make her feel infinitely comfortable and acutely aware of her every move at the same time, only when he was near could she be both careful and carefree. She bent low over his stomach, brown locks brushing it with their tips, observing the blue-black masterpiece the injury had made. It would be better in time, she concluded, relieved. She pushed her Potion further into her pocket. Then a thought came to her, her face crinkling into a devilish smile hidden in her hair. In one motion, she dipped her head and kissed one of the blacker spots.

"There. Even better than a Potion."

He made a surprised noise at that but, when she looked up smiling, he gave her a feeble version of his usual grin, the one that had girls weak at the knees every time it was flashed (it was obvious by the amount of jealous stares she got every so often). She firmly commited it to her memory, as stock for...the days to come. Her eyes prickled slightly with that statement. She bit her lip and steeled her resolve. Yes, she told herself, yes, he was going to die. But she wouldn't, wouldn't (here she emphasized it with a firm nod of her head), despair about it so long and miss out on the precious moments he was with her.

"Aerith?" She looked up again. "Gil for your thoughts."

She felt her lips already creeping up into a smile as she leaned back on the balls of her feet.

"Just one gil?"

Zack laughed loudly, albeit a bit painfully.

"Cut me some slack; I'm a cheapskate and ShinRa doesn't pay very well."

She had to giggle as well, tugging at one of her fraying locks of hair that had come loose from her plait. When they had both stopped laughing, she suddenly realised that he still wanted an answer. She hesitated for a moment.

"I was – I was thinking about, well, you." (That wasn't a lie, just a...white lie.)

"Seriously?" It was Zack's turn to turn red. His cheeks flamed and he started to pull a shaky hand through his hair more times than necessary. "That's...nice..."

She tried to wet her suddenly dry lips with her even drier tongue. She hated it when she spilled unwanted sentences when she wasn't careful, but that was just the thing about Zack. He made her feel so comfortable with him near that she could say anything, do anything, and – and --

"Dilly dally, shilly shally."

The faint words came to her in an instant from the recesses of her mind. She remembered someone telling her that, a long time ago. Why was she fretting about what she said when she was sure Zack wouldn't mind even if she pretended to be a Chocobo and warked about the Church? Not that she would of course, but still.

"Y'know Aerith? You've been really...quiet recently."

His words interrupted her thoughts. She pressed her lips together and, eventually, had to nod. After the Planet's momentous decision to tell her of her lover's untimely death, it seemed like she was living in her constantly desolate thoughts more than in the real world. In fact, she did notice that she spent less and less time in the Slums with the children that flocked there for their daily games...

"Aerith!" She jerked out of her thoughts yet again. "Y'see what I mean? I --" He stopped the little bit of irritation that had wormed its way into his voice, taking a deep breath before continuing. "I don't want to sound selfish or anything but," his lips quirked up again. "I'd really like my girlfriend to myself!"

She couldn't help her huge smile at his admission to her being his girlfriend. Sure, she already knew she held the equivalent of it in his hierarchy of friends, family and pursuers, but hearing him say it, in his regular carefree way, she couldn't help but feel her heart balloon with intense love for Lt. Zackary Fair. She shot him a smile she'd hoped would convey all the little emotions in her.

"Now..." He had a distinctly mischievous glint in his eyes. "I'm in the mood for some lovin'."

She shrieked when he grabbed her waist and pulled her to him, tickling her until her sides hurt and tears spilled from the corners of her eyes. He leaned back, releasing his grip on her, allowing her to get her breath back as she struggled up from the ground.

"Zackary – pant – Fair! Don't – pant – ever do that – pant – again," she warned him, index finger waggling dangerously close to his face. Her free hand managed to push her, finally, into a sitting position. She pouted, eyes rolling up and hands crossed in front of her.

"You said 'lovin'', not tickling!"

She only saw his smile and dancing blue eyes for a moment before something warm hit her mouth and stayed there and stayed there and made her eyes slide close and everything became uncertain and she didn't know where to put her hands or what she should be doing with her mouth but that didn't detract from that one fact.

Zack Fair was kissing her.

He was kissing her. Lip-on-lip kissing. Real man-woman kissing.

He was kissing her. Aerith Gainsborough, a lowly girl from the slums, a misfit with strange, mystical and hushed-up abilities, a dreamer looking for a protector. And here he was, hands at her hips, forehead against her forehead, lips against her lips. He pressed into the kiss, applying pressure on her inexperienced mouth, and she tried to move, tried to move in as well, then she felt something wet invade her mouth. She swallowed the little scream down as she tried to get used to the fact that his tongue was in her mouth and it gently tried to coax her tongue up as well. Unsure at first, she stuck out her tongue a bit far, directly hitting his and invading into his mouth, but he patiently repositioned his mouth over hers and made her move slower, helped her get to used to it.

It seemed all too soon when she finally ran out of air. Scared that she couldn't hold it longer, she hastily broke the kiss and looked away, shamefaced and cheeks stained scarlet. Zack also looked away, unsure of what to do. Seeing him as uncertain as she was, she was instantly comforted. She felt a tentative smile coming over her face and it was mirrored in his. He touched his lips with the back of his hand.

"So...wanna do it again?"

She smacked his arm with her palm, but her eagerness wouldn't leave her voice.

"Of course!" Then, she quickly amended, "Only if you want to..."

He responded with another, softer kiss. His arm snaked up her back, sending little vibes of electricity all over her, and rested inside her hair, twisting it around his fingers. She buried her hand inside his black spikes, only slightly stiffened with gel. He peppered her lips with tiny kisses, and then moved to her jaw; she squirmed and squealed the whole way.

Each touch of his mouth to her skin felt like a little burn, but it was more comforting than painful. It was like he was slowly but surely setting her skin alight, making her flush in the heat of the sun and that of the moment. She was suddenly only aware of him above her, kissing her like she was the only thing that was keeping him anchored to the ground. And yet...

It was as if the rest of the world had fallen away and all she could feel was Zack's arms around her, Zack's lips touching hers, her jawline, all she could smell was Zack's faint cologne. Her heart was beating so fast that she thought it would give out. Her eyes slid shut, basking in the moment.

It seemed all too short. She sighed, a faint smile on her face. Her eyes slowly opened, like she was waking from a dream, a really great dream. Zack's face loomed above her, the only thing she could see in the whole church. Even her flowers stood unnoticed. He wasn't bashful like he had been before, instead he looked as contented as she felt, satisfied to just sit quietly with his girlfriend (She was his girlfriend. It sounded really nice to say it to herself.) and memorise this moment for eternity. Or rather --

91 more days.

The thought came out of nowhere, arresting her blissful thoughts and weighing them down as she remembered, her heart sinking like lead, what would happen. How he would leave her alone, in a lonely church, in her lonely life of before. Her frown was immediately noticed by Zack's alert eyes.

"Hey, hey. I hope my kissing wasn't that bad!"

She put on a brave smile.

"No, silly, it was great. No," she paused, thinking of the exact word to show how much that kiss meant to her. Amidst her worrying for his future, her future, how those few minutes, which passed so quickly, had changed her, strengthened her. She put her hand on his cheek and traced his smile up. It didn't matter that he would leave her soon, in the next minute for work, or the next 91 days for eternity. What mattered was...now.

"Zack, it was perfect."

A/N: Hey readers! MR here, speaking on behalf of both Hope and myself. We just wanted to update you on how the story will progress from here on. We're going to go in multiples of ten, meaning the next chapter will still be the Tenth Day, but the following one will be the Twentieth and so on. We thank you all for your concern for our mental and physical health should we have continued our reckless pursuit of a hundred days and your responses to our question in the last chapter.

On a different tack, we also want to encourage all of you to head down to the Genesis Awards and nominate your favourite works! Make sure they get recognized!

Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Love and Cookies,

MR and Hope