Like A Flower
Sephiroth looked around the small church as he followed Zack up the aisle between the pews. He couldn't understand why a young girl would be hanging around in a place like this. It was old and run down and…
His thoughts abruptly stopped as his eyes fell on the most beautiful flowers he had ever seen.
"Flowers in Midgar…" he muttered. "Impossible…"
He looked to Zack for an explanation, but Zack just smiled and looked around. "Oi! Aerith!" he called.
"Zack?"
A girl emerged from a doorway behind the flowerbed with a watering can in her hands. Sephiroth's first thought was that she was beautiful, just like the flowers, innocent and untainted by her surroundings.
"Oh! You didn't tell me you were bringing anyone!" she said, seeming positively delighted.
She set the watering can down and came over to them, then looked up at Sephiroth with eyes that were far older than the young girl that possessed them. He could tell, as he stood there, her gaze locked with his own, that there was more to this girl than met the eye.
She smiled. "Hello, Sephiroth."
He wasn't at all surprised that she recognized him. He was in the newspapers so often, after all.
He nodded in response to her greeting.
"I'm Aerith," she said. "Zack told me you were the one that convinced him to come back. Thank you."
She pushed herself up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. He tried to keep from looking shocked. No one had ever done that before. Usually people were too afraid of him, but he got the feeling that she was treating him just as she would anyone else, as if he was nothing special. It was very nice.
She giggled at him and grabbed his hand, and before he knew what was happening he was being pulled toward the flowers.
She released him in front of the flower bed and he looked at Zack and found him watching, amusement in his eyes. He shot his friend a glare and Zack grinned.
"Do you like flowers, Sephiroth?" Aerith asked.
He found himself smiling a little at the melodic way she said his name. He had never heard anything quite like it.
"I cannot say," he replied, "because I hadn't seen any until today."
"Really?" Aerith said, looking a little sad at the thought.
Sephiroth nodded.
"Do you like these?"
Sephiroth looked down at the flowers and breathed in, smelling their sweet fragrance. "Yes."
Zack slid his arm around her waist and smiled at her. "C'mon now, you're makin' me jealous."
She smiled back. "Don't be silly!"
"That's like telling a chocobo not to be a giant bird," Zack said.
She laughed and pushed him away. Zack stuck out his lower lip and pouted, as she knelt down and started watering the flowers.
Sephiroth found it hard to keep from laughing at their antics. He covered it with a cough, but couldn't keep the smile off his face.
"Would ya look at that!" Zack said. "You must have special powers, Aer. It took me half a year to get him to smile."
Sephiroth tried to hide the smile, but it refused to go away.
"It's nice," Aerith said. She got up and came over to him, then she said softly in his ear, "They say you should smile more."
She went back to watering the flowers and Sephiroth watched her, puzzled. When she had said that, her voice had sounded completely different; the voice had matched her eyes, its tone unbefitting of her age.
He wondered who she could have been talking about. The way she said it made it sound like it was someone he knew, but how could she possibly have known anyone he did?
"Aer, we gotta go," Zack said. "Got lots of work to do."
Sephiroth realized with a shock, that he had completely forgotten about the work they had left behind in the office. This had to have been the first time in months that he hadn't been thinking about work, even in the back of his mind.
Aerith got up. "Ok," she said, "You're going to come back later right?"
Zack smiled. "Of course. I promised, didn't I?"
Aerith smiled and hugged him, then she turned to Sephiroth.
"It was nice to meet you," she said. She knelt down and picked a small amount of white flowers, then straightened and held them out to him. "Here. Take these with you."
Sephiroth took the flowers. "Thank you."
She smiled. "You're welcome. Please come back anytime you want."
As they were walking out, Zack said softly. "Isn't she amazing?"
Sephiroth smiled. "Very."
