New Year's Eve was billeted as a religious holiday for SOLDIER.

Zack strutted out of HQ decked in Armani Exchange, a black V-neck and resin-coated jeans screaming that he was wearing money. He caught his reflection in the train window, his Skull Candy headphones belted his theme song for the night.

I'M SEXY AND I KNOW IT…

He got up to Aerith's door like he was picking up his prom date. She hurried out to meet him in…a pink dress?!

"My mother made it for me," she said. She would. It looked like a pink nightmare!

"You don't like it…" she guessed from his expression. "Oh shoot, I knew it, let me hurry and see if I can find something else—"

"Aerith, you look beautiful, but it so happens I got paid tonight..."

A deep breath at the train platform, Zack and Aerith held hands and boarded the Express Shuttle for the Plate. She fidgeted around in her seat as he played with the end of her braid.

"Oh no, your hair tie came out."

"Here give it to me, I can put it back in."

"Oh no, it broke!"

"It's okay, I can tie it back together."

"Oh no, it broke again…and again…and again!"

He threw the tiny pieces over his shoulder. She threw him a flat stare.

"You know, if you want me to let my hair down, you can just say so."

"I would never do that to you."

She shot him a peering smile and fanned her hair out in this really cool wave, her flower beret accentuating the angle over her porcelain face. Zack stared starstruck for a long time.

"There's the Aerith I love."

The train came through a tunnel, and Zack pointed for her to look out the window. Aerith gasped as she beheld the breathtaking majesty of the sparkling Midgar City skyline. With two hands pressed against the window like a kid, she gazed with an open mouth at the glittering pyramidal cityscape spanning like a chromium castle out of some fantastic dream. The sky was a whirling canvas of stars blending into the flickering lights of glass high-rises, reflecting in the awe of her eyes. The first time she saw the sky was the last time she'd ever be afraid.

Zack took her to the posh fashion districts of Sector 3, an art and cultural hub known to locals as SoHo. She went into Uniqlo wearing a handmade cotton what, she came out in a cropped-cardigan with the sleeves pushed up over a skin-tight blouse and cashmere scarf, black leggings with a belt that screamed watch out and those sheepskin boots with the faux-fur lining. Zack made her turn around a couple times, but on the third time she shot him a suspicious look, and he grinned.

Zack gave the manager a $5 gil handshake and quiet instructions to burn that dress.

Hitting the theater for their showing of Loveless, Zack was taken aback to find an entourage of Paparazzi!

"Whoa, check it out!" He led Aerith onto the red carpet before the sponsor-checkered backdrop. Cameras snapped flash photos as he struck a pose. "Daang, I'm a celebrity!"

Aerith hid under Zack's arm while someone with a press pass from some e-zine called Gawker waved to get her attention.

"Aerith! Look over here sweetheart, what's your favorite movie?"

Zack laughed as News outlets caught up to him with a microphone.

"So Zack, what are your expectations for the play?"

"Uh I just hope the ending doesn't suck."

Aerith couldn't help but wince. That was on live TV.

A little kid in a blue coat and pointy hat ran smack into Zack's leg.

"'scuse me, sorry, bye!"

*Zoom*

"Hey kid, you dropped your ticket!" Zack picked up the stub, he ran back for it.

"Thank you, sorry, bye!"

*Zoom*

Zack cocked an eyebrow and shrugged.

Box-seats, Zack didn't mess around. The curtains rose and a lone female flower nymph stood out on the stage. Zack knew the first lines, everyone knew the first lines. He cringed, preparing to sit through them yet again until…

She started singing…

Ohh! The first lines were meant to be a song!

The flower maiden serenaded the Goddess, mourning her lost lover. She knew no rest without him. Oh no, Zack had no idea what he was in for…

A tableau of romantic tragedy unfolded in an operatic narrative. Loveless weaved a tale of the Warriors of Light, questing to save the Crystal from encroaching Chaos. A coronation of chrysanthemums crowned a princess, a king was overthrown, a deity was cast down into oblivion, all projected in an eloquent mournful song that made Zack fall in love. He realized something very sobering and validating, Genesis had never actually seen the play! He was a poser, a liar, an eloquent flourish and nothing more. A weight flew from Zack's chest at loving lines.

If you go off to die, then take us too,
to face all things with you; but if your past
still lets you put your hope in arms, which now
you have put on, then first protect this house.

Zack sat on the edge of his seat as emotions were roused in him to go fight a war. It didn't matter which war, a war worth fighting. Some of the things Angeal taught him played out before his eyes in verse, and Zack realized that no, he didn't get it from a pacifist movement, that wasn't all it was. Angeal had taught Zack things that warriors have passed down to each other since time immemorial. He felt himself welling up inside.

But oh shoot! No! He couldn't cry! He'd bet Kunsel $100 gil that he wouldn't cry! Hold it in, man, hold it in…He lost it.

"WAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Holding hands and fawning all over each other as they left the theatre, Zack told her he was taking her to see another show.

He took her to the bridge where many other people had already gathered in eager anticipation. A prismatic lightshow danced preemptive from aqueous gel-light beam spots, flaying in neo-optic phantasms of colors and shapes like acrylics in the air. People held up cellphones, a sea of hands lay lit up with globes of light. Then…

Explosions, shooting to the sky, Aerith screamed.

She fell against Zack's chest as bombs ravaged the atmosphere. Exploding amaranth careened in flashing meteorites hailing the dawn of the apocalypse, the black void opening up to suck her in.

As the stratosphere tore itself asunder in blood-splatters of crimson and neon, Zack laughed into her ear.

"You don't like it?"

"No! I want to run away!"

He pulled her shaking out to arm's length, a soft smile and that fiery gleam of evil in his eyes.

"…Then let's run."

He took her hand and ran with her away from the bridge, away from the exploding calamity in the sky. Hand-in-hand they dashed like a couple of kids running from the cops, chasing the edge of forever, flying toward a massive gilded-gold statue of seated Valkyries around an enormous clock tower. Zack had her hop on his back, and with her arms around his neck he started free-climbing it. Show off.

She began feeding off his evil energy, a mad streak of girl-power zipping through her limbs. She climbed over his back, stepping on his shoulder like he was some sort of foothold—what are boyfriends for after all?

But her foot slipped midway up, and he caught her with a hand right above her thigh. She shot him a wry glare, and he shrugged with a huge grin. Boyfriends, when they weren't running around being immature and cute they were being annoying. A smart smile, eyes that did terrible things to him, and she kept climbing.

They neared the top of the Valkyrie's head where Zack hopped over to help her up. They stood overlooking the vast entirety of the city, watching the next wave of rockets explode against the night.

She saw all of her favorite flowers flown in fire, poppies and snapdragons and carnations splayed in liquid gold ink against a midnight-blue veldt. Flaring crossettes and dahlias, the azure tint of blue bells. She never knew flowers could grow in the sky.

Zack watched her stare transfixed aloft in a magnetic state of hypnosis. A gleam of mischief in his eyes, and in a flash like a glittering mortar, he picked her up—all 105lbs of her—holding her on his big shoulder. A gasp like vertigo, and she could touch the sky.

The lullatone of streaming fountains flittering like fallen leaves dazzled just for her, spiraling in a metric brocade of chlorate and planetary rings. She reached her hand up to touch the voyage of tourbillion stars. She was among them now, Zack saw it in her eyes, once you came here and saw it you could never go back.

The explosions ceased as massive numbers projected onto the Shinra Building in a stellar light-show countdown back from 20.

19…18…17…

He let her slide off his shoulder with the slightness of a falling flower, and they stood there locked in a soul-bearing stare. Her botanical irises gazed into tides of lapis lazuli, recalling the day they'd first met in the drab little park in the Slums. He'd changed so much, she'd changed so much. They'd been through a bloody war together, now here, on top of the world…they were still standing.

He shot her his little half-smile, she shot the same smile right back. They were made for each other.

10…9…8…

Memories of standing shoulder to shoulder on the riverbed played as they felt the pull, drawing closer as he'd stood before her on the stoop of her mother's house, mouth parted slightly to received her.

7…6…5…

The waft of wildflowers, the smell of camphor lip balm enflaming his nostrils.

3…2…1…

Their lips met, and it was fireworks.

The world danced for them in fiery cataclysm, exploding the night in flaming celestial strobes. Cheers below eclipsed the night for the lone two lovers standing above and beyond, rapturing them to virgin worlds undiscovered, an aerial auric ascension of the soul.

He picked her up, kissing her, crushing her, clutching her to him as she hugged him for dear life. Everything he'd been through—everything every SOLDIER, infantryman, and warrior had been through since the dawn of time was for this—the uplifting feeling of his girl in his arms.

He put her down though, letting go of her with one arm, and she saw that hand reach for his pocket…slow, nervous. He clasped his fist around something, trembling, she felt him shaking. She held her breath. And then…

His phone rang.

AARRGG!

"WHAT KUNSEL!?"

"Zack-Attack! Where you at! You know the party don't start til you walk in!"

"I'm on my way, jeez."

"Well hurry up man, Swifty brought his turntables!"

"WHAT? No Kunsel! No turntables! No Swifty, KUNSELLL!"

*Click*

Zack threw the phone in his pocket and grabbed Aerith by the arm.

"C'mon we've gotta get over there fast, this is going to get ugly."

.

[Received Goddess Heart Key]