A/N: Ok, everyone, I have decided to keep my original plan. This fic shall remain a Romance fic. I don't know if that's good news or bad news… so expect a lot of A/C moments from now on. Actually, I was thinking of that too peach, that with the title "When The Soldier Meets The Flower Girl", it would be inappropriate to make the romance a subplot… but anyways, I don't really want to turn this into another FFVII alternate fic. Those have been done many times, and I don't want to contribute more to it… and besides, I'm not into writing fight scenes! ^_^; OK, enough rambling, onto the fic!

When The Soldier Meets The Flower Girl
Chapter VI: The Church in Sector 5

Aeris Gainsborough busied herself as she poured more water on the flowerbed. Laughters of children could be heard. Aeris looked up and frowned. The church's ceiling looked like it was going to collapse any time soon. The moon's light faintly made its way down on the bed of colorful flowers.

"Oh Miss Aeris! Will it be all right if I took a flower for my mom? She's real sick!" the little boy tugged at Aeris' clothes.

She giggled and nodded her head. "Of course, Cecil. You may…"

"Yay!" Cecil exclaimed in excitement.

"Here's your favorite—a rose," Aeris handed Cecil a red rose.

"Thank you Miss Aeris!" Cecil looked delighted as he took the flower from her. Cecil then ran back to his friends and continued their games.

She smiled. It always made her smile to see children like that. They were so happy and so full of life… just like the flowers here in the slums. Aeris then knelt down in the middle of the flowerbed, picking more flowers for her mother Elmyra. She started humming a lullaby as she did so.

Suddenly she heard a noise, an unfamiliar sound coming from above. Aeris looked up and her jaw dropped. She had no time to react as a man landed on top of her. Aeris grunted and shut her eyes as she felt the man's shirt and skin brushing against her. The flowers that she held in her hand fell from her grasps.

"Miss Aeris!" she heard Cecil's voice calling out to her.

The flower girl opened her eyes and found that she was now lying on the flowerbed and on top of her was a man! But no wait—Aeris blinked as she noticed his spiky blonde hair. It was him.

"Miss Aeris! Are you all right?!" Cecil cried as he ran up and knelt next to Aeris.

 "I-I think so…" Aeris managed to say weakly. She struggled to sit up, because the weight of this man was on her. With all her might, Aeris pushed the man off her and finally managed to sit on the bed of flowers.

"Did that man hurt you?!" Cecil asked. His three friends gathered around them, looking at the man who had landed on the flowerbed curiously.

"No, he didn't Cecil," Aeris answered. She looked at the man, the SOLDIER carefully. He was unconscious and trails of blood ran down on his face. "This man… this man needs our help."

"Really, well it was rude of him to crash on your flowers, Miss Aeris. Why would you want to help him?" Cecil reasoned stubbornly, folding his arms on his chest.

"He's hurt," Aeris replied. She then rose to her feet as if she remembered something. "Cecil, I want you to watch him. I'll be back."

"Miss Aeris!" Cecil cried. "You're gonna leave me with this man?! What if he's dangerous? Isn't that his sword over there?" Cecil pointed to a gigantic sword that was lying next to the SOLDIER.

Aeris sighed. Cecil's friends all nodded in agreement as they stared at the sword in horror. "All right," she finally gave in. "Just hide somewhere, but watch out for him, until I return."

"Please hurry," Cecil finally agreed.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"Still no sign of the Ancient, Kain?" Reno asked impatiently at one of the Shinra guards.

"No sir," Kain replied.

"Dammit, I hate the Boss for always assigning me the most boring mission!" Reno complained.

"Ah, sir, forget about it…"

Reno glared at Kain. "Shut up!" He reached inside his pocket and revealed a bottle of beer. He took a big sip and spat on the ground. "I hate Ancients…" he muttered in disgust.

"Sir, I think her name is Aeris," Kain reminded him.

"Aeris?!" Reno echoed. He shook his head and took another gulp from the bottle. "Aeris… Aerith… whatever… I don't care about names!" Another sip. "And can you believe that Tseng actually took off 15% from my salary?! He just doesn't fuckin' understand how hard it is chasing after that Ancient!" He took another sip, enjoying the burning flavor that shoved down his throat. He then reached once again from his pocket to reveal his latest pay slip. "Can you fuckin' believe it?! Dammit! All the hard work I've done for that Tseng! He's only paying me 450,000 gil! I mean, what the—" He shook his head. "This is ridiculous."

"Uh, Sir, I believe that we should get back to work now," Kain suggested.

Reno eyed him and placed the tiny bottle back in his pocket. "Gimme that comic book! I'm gonna go read!"

"But Sir—"

"Shut up! I deserve a break once in a while!" Reno cut him off.

Kain reluctantly handed him the comic back. But Reno practically snatched it away from his grasps. "Sir, you were just off duty yesterday…"

"Didn't I tell you to be quiet?"

"I know, Sir," Kain answered. "But we shouldn't be sitting around here in the slums. We should be trying to find Aeris."

"I told you, Kain, Aeris… Aerith… whatever da hell her name is, I fuckin' don't care!" Reno yelled at the top of his lungs. "That flower girl gets on my nerves."

"I think that if you had captured her last night, then we wouldn't be here right now…"

"Shut da hell up, I say!" Reno barked angrily. He took the bottle of beer once again and started gulping it down.

But Kain didn't want to shut up just yet. "Oh by the way, the rumor about Elena is true. She's a Turk now."

Reno nearly choked in his drink as he spat the whole liquid down on the ground. "The hell?! Wha!"

"Her first mission was a success," Kain continued, amused that he was pissing Reno off. "Tseng is really pleased."

"E-Elena?" Reno still couldn't believe it.

"That's why we should go find Aeris already…"

Reno was just about to utter a word when they were interrupted by someone.

"Excuse me, I couldn't help but overhear," a man stepped forward, smiling mostly at Reno.

"Yeah? What do you want?" Reno asked, looking slightly annoyed.

"I realize that you guys are talking about a girl named Aeris. If you are looking for her, she is at the old abandoned church in Sector 5."

"What?" Reno replied. Then he shook his head, trying to snap himself out of it. "A-Aeris is where?!"

"At the old church," the man replied. "Perhaps I should take you there."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The voice occupied his head again. It wouldn't go away. That voice… that annoying voice. It was almost a part of his soul now. It talked to him, telling him the strangest thing. Cloud wished that it would get a life already and leave him alone. But no. It was a stubborn one… Darkness… Everything was black. He couldn't feel anyone's presence. It was him and the voice now… whoever the hell it was.

Cloud slowly opened his eyes. He gazed at the high ceiling with a big hole. He looked around and realized that he was in a church. Cloud sat up, but felt something in his hand. He lowered his gaze and realized that he was surrounded with beautiful flowers. In his left hand he found a pink rose. He took it, studied it for a while, and sniffed on it. He enjoyed the fragrance of the rose. Cloud looked at the flower. It was indeed kind of nice to appreciate little things like a flower. He never realized that the Planet could bring such a beautiful little thing. No. A flower was not a 'thing'. It was a creature. A beautiful creature. It had a life too. It had spirit energy…

He looked up at the ceiling again, the rose in his hand. He could not believe that earlier he was just telling Barret and Tifa that he did not care about the Planet… but seeing these beautiful flowers… W-wait… flowers…? The only person that he had seen with flowers was her… that… that flower girl at Wall Market.

"Excuse me."

Cloud found the source of the voice. A lady stood there, holding a towel in her hand. She wasn't wearing her pink dress, but instead she wore a purple dress. She ran up to Cloud, knelt beside him, giving him a concerned look.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. Where am I?"

"This is the church in Sector 5," she replied. "You suddenly fell on top of me. The flowers must've broken your fall. You're lucky."

Cloud looked at the flowerbed again. "I'm sorry about the flowers…"

"It's fine…" she replied. With a smile, she added, "Well, I knew that we're gonna meet again… you do remember me still, don't you?" she asked.

He nodded his head. "Yes, you're the flower girl in Wall Market…"

"Thank you for saving me…" She placed the towel down on the ground. "I guess you won't be needing any curing. You're a strong one. You're… in SOLDIER, right?"

Cloud looked away from the girl's green piercing gaze. "I used to be. How did you guess?"

She shook her head. "Oh, it doesn't matter…"

Cloud was just about to reply when a boy appeared behind the girl.

"Miss Aeris! You're still in one piece!"

"Cecil!" Aeris exclaimed.

"Did he hurt you, Miss Aeris?!" Cecil asked.

Aeris shook her head quickly. "He didn't. It's OK!"

Cecil gave Cloud a look. "You stay away from Miss Aeris, Mr. SOLDIER! I'm gonna marry her when I grow up!"

"Cecil!" Aeris exclaimed. She turned to look at the SOLDIER. "Please excuse Cecil, uh…"

"The name's Cloud. Cloud Strife…" he told her.

Aeris smiled at Cloud. "My name is Aeris Gainsborough, the flower girl." She turned to Cecil. "And this is Cecil. He helps me out with my flowers."

Cecil proudly smiled. "That's right, Mr. Soldier! I get to help Miss Aeris!"

Cloud just ignored the kid and looked at Aeris. "So… you sell these flowers?"

"Yes," she replied. "I know that many people think that you can't grow flowers in Midgar… but… somehow the flowers here bloom with no trouble at all."

"It is a beautiful flowerbed, Aeris," Cloud commented as he glanced once again at the colorful bed of flowers.

She didn't reply. The two just stood there in silence. Cecil became a bit impatient as he lightly tapped his foot on the ground, waiting for the soldier and the flower girl to speak up.

"Oh man! This is so boring!" Cecil broke the silence. He placed both his hands on his waist. "I'm gonna go home now, Miss Aeris! But…" he scowled at Cloud. "…but I'll be watching you, Mr. Soldier! I know you like Miss Aeris! Only I get to look at her that way!"

Cloud just scratched his head in reply. Aeris gave Cecil another flower. "Be careful, Cecil! You guys stick together OK!" Aeris called out to them.

Cecil and his friends ran out of the church, leaving Aeris together with Cloud. "Say, Cloud…" Aeris bent down, tending her flowers. "I feel like talking. Do you feel up to it?"

"Sure," he answered. He bent down next to Aeris, watching her as she watered the flowers. "Aeris."

"Yeah?"

"About that guy from Wall Market," Cloud began. "What did he want from you?"

Aeris stopped what she was doing and turned to Cloud. "His name is Edgar, my landlord." She sighed and looked up at the broken ceiling. "It's been really hard paying my rent lately… and Edgar… he was drunk at the time. He's not usually like that."

"So he just wants you to pay?" he asked her.

"Yes," she answered. "But it's really tough… my Mom just got laid off from her job, and it's only me now… I don't really earn enough money as a flower girl."

Cloud looked at her. He wanted to say something, but he was not good with this. He wasn't sure how to respond. Aeris, as if sensing his mood, broke the silence.

"So Cloud, since you said you quit SOLDIER, what do you do anyway?" she asked.

"I'm a mercenary," Cloud answered with a proud smile. "I do a little bit of everything."

"You do?" Aeris' eyes widened, her expression lighting up like a child.

"Yeah, I do anything that's necessary," he answered. He held up his hand, picked up his sword on the ground and placed it on his back.

Aeris couldn't help but giggle. Realizing her laughter, Cloud looked at Aeris. "Hey, what's so funny, Aeris?"

"Cloud, how about you become my bodyguard?" she suggested. "And… since I don't have much on me, how about I go out with you once?"

Cloud wasn't sure what to say. He ran his hand through his spiky blonde hair and nodded. When he finally thought of something to say, he realized that he and Aeris were not alone. Standing by the entrance was a man, wearing a blue suit. His blue eyes were on him. He wore a pair of goggles on his head. The redhead man took a step forward, and two Shinra guards followed behind him.

But not only that—Edgar was with them.

= end of chapter 6 =

A/N: Thanks for reading my fanfic! Also, thank you to NC Prez Mike for posting my fanfics on The Northern Cave. It means a lot and I'm really honored that you posted my works! Everyone check out his site, it has a lot of good A/C fanfics. =) And plus, it has a whole bunch of other FF fics.

~ Kristine