Struggling through the crowded station with baskets of wild flowers slung under-arm, the unlikely trio of a Genome, a Summoner and an Ancient boarded a train bound for the city above, gaining remarkable few glances despite their attire. Although Zidane could have sworn that he heard someone mutter "Larpers" under their breath from the seat opposite.

"So the plan is," Aerith began, a smile beaming from her face as she tried to focus away from her own excitement "We get up to the surface, do a bit of exploring, a bit of stargazing, sell the flowers to people so we can afford a souvenir and maybe a few more things before we head home."

"How much is reasonable for one flower?" Dagger asked, still trying to fit the flowers into something more easy to reach into than a heap.

"Hmm... I normally sell them for one gil each in the slums... so... one gil?" Aerith suggested, shrugging her shoulders.

"And how much did this train cost to travel on?" Dagger replied.

"Oh it was really cheap! Only 90 gil for the three of us," Aerith said cheerfully before she got a glance at the expressions Zidane and Dagger were showing her.

"We only have 30 flowers. We can't even cover the cost of the journey if we sell for so little." the queen explained, causing Aerith to break out a rare, annoyed frown.

"Well it seems a lot to ask for a flower we got for free."

"But it's not like we got here for free," Zidane argued, shifting up to his knees and twisting across the seat so he could face Aerith, "It cost 90 to get here and aren't there like dangers in the slums? You were saying something like monsters hanging around down there?"

"Well there's a couple and the bits under sector six are really bad so we couldn't go there even with you two watching me."

"Then there we go! It's not just something you found for free, it's something you had to brave the monster infested slums and pay to get back here! That's gotta be worth at least... ten gil? I mean it's still not much, but that should be enough to buy something nice when we head back."

"Hmmm..." Aerith pondered "But what if people don't have ten gil but still want one? We can't not give them something...aand then they can show other people what they have, and if they have the money, then we can ask them to pay twenty!" The flower girl suggested as the train car jolted to a halt, knocking the kneeling Zidane face first into his wife's lap.

"Some warning might have been nice..." the blonde groaned.

As soon as the three stepped out into the Sector 1 station, the difference between life on the surface and under the plate were stark. The station in the slums may have been built more solidly than nearly any other building it was still in a state of disrepair, debris swept into corners, the smell of mildew permeating through internal walls. But up on the surface, the station was encased in glass and steel, the concrete platforms were covered with a surface made to resemble marble. The metal lamp posts, far removed from the basic and bare versions below had been turned into decorations themselves instead of mere devises for illumination. Displays that wouldn't have looked out of place in the centre of Lindblum's Grand Castle were on full display in a public station. "Wow~" Aerith breathed, looking all around before Dagger kindly pulled her out of the path of a steel pillar she had nearly walked into. "I can't believe how different this is up here. I was expecting it to be the same only cleaner."

"Come on, I thought you wanted to see the stars?" Dagger beckoned, usherring the flower girl towards the nearest exit and onto the streets of Upper Midgar. The glittering excess of the station behind them, the three from three different planets were treated to a new kind of excess, the view was dominated by Shinra Tower, higher than even Lindblum's airship dock, shining like a lighthouse out on to the night sky.

No stars were visible within the green hue of the tower, only Shinra. An intimidating and depressing sight. "Oh..." Dagger let out in disappointment as she looked at the towering monolith that dominated the skyline.

"Well... that's an impressive tower at least?" Zidane gestured, shrugging his shoulders as traffic roared in the road. "Come on, it's a city isn't it? There's got to be at least something to do here to make it up."

Something turned out to be rows upon rows of brightly lit stores crammed underneath 9 floors of housing, displays behind glass and half-asleep clerks. The city never seemed to sleep and neither did it's people, stuffed moogles and chocobo toys were somewhat of a relieving sight for Zidane and Dagger to see as Aerith frantically searched her pockets to match the price tags. "Maybe you can save this for me when we come back with the money?" she asked sweetly, fluttering her eyelashes in an attempt to charm the shopkeep before scowling at their refusal.

"Okay, so they've got monsters apparently, Chocobos, moogles and Gil. So what else do they have?" Zidane asked, scratching his backside absent-mindedly.

"Well, I suppose that tower could qualify as a castle."

"Magic?"

"Well there was one store who did advertise..."

"Ehhh probably a tourists scam. Like that one guy in Lindblum who tried to sell Mu drool as a potion."

"I... never saw anyone in Linblum who did such a thing."

"Oh." Zidane paused, quickly realizing that the street rumour may have referred to a Tantulus scheme, or more precisely, himself. "Well, it's probably fake all the same."

"Arggh!" Aerith let out, stomping her boots up the street in frustration to the married couple's surprise. "Right! Time to get to work!"She declared angrily, handing Zidane and Garnet a basket each. "We have Fifty minutes to get 250 gil or the shop closes," she announced with her hands on her hip.

"So about the price per flower..."

"It doesn't matter! Do what works!"

Zidane cautiously backed away from the incensed Aerith, the young woman was clearly in no mood for games and sight seeing and set the two off together. Sales pitches were barely audiable over the background din, passers by generally preferring to avoid the three altogether than deal with social contact while they were on their own way, but some flowers did get sold. Some for a gil, some for 10 and some for more. Dagger's formal tone seemed to be a natural charm for the people living in the busy city but Zidane was having no such luck. There was an itch on the back of his mind, pulling him away from the tower as he tried to concentrate on selling the wildflowers, a whisper beneath the noise.

Turning around, he found the cause: a man with wild red hair dressed a loose dark blue jacket, blue trousers and an untucked white shirt leaning against the wall of an alley, keeping a very close eye on the three, too close even. "One sec," he called out to Dagger and Aerith as he made his was towards the man calmly, trying to act as though nothing was wrong. The watcher didn't run off like the blond had expected, instead he stood his ground, pushing himself off the wall and slouching on his own as Zidane approached. On a closer look some of his hair had been tied back into a long ponytail, the rest was propped up by a pair of goggles underneath what would have been a fringe and strange red markings, framing his eyes when the goggles were off "Looking for something?" Zidane asked, raising a curious eyebrow.

"As a matter of fact, I am," the man in the suit said with a smirk. "Those flowers," he pointed "How much?"

"You could have come out and asked while we were yelling out." Zidane replied.

"Well you see... there's a reason I can't go around asking two lovely ladies for some flowers..." he began, rolling his head back to look at the sky, "In fact, it's the reason I need flowers in the first place."

"Let me guess, lady trouble of your own?" Zidane asked, with a smirk of his own.

"Got it in one! I'm on thin ice already, thought I'd make an effort..."

"...but if she sees you talking with other women there's no flower than can fix it." Zidane finished as the man's head snapped down to meet Zidane's eyes again, a brief break in the smirk telling Zidane all he needed to know, and a waggle of his own eyebrows told the man that.

"Exactly. So how much for the basketful?"

"Hmm, I dunno... say... One thousand gil?" Zidane offered, gaining the desired reaction. The man's eyes shot wide as he jumped up straight.

"Dude?! How much?!" He snapped at the now laughing genome.

"Okay, okay..." Zidane wheezed, trying to force down the laughter "Six hundred. Twenty each."

The red head regained his composure slowly "You've got some guts, kid."

"Why not? Think about it, where else do you see these flowers? Real flowers, that you braved the countless horrors underneath the plate to get. That's got to be worth something for your special someone, and I reckon you can afford it, easy." Zidane added, standing his ground with his hands on his hips. Now it was the red heads turn to laugh.

"Wow, do you even... no, you can't know who you're talking to, right?" He coughed through the laughter

"You never gave me your name, so how would I?" the thief kindly pointed out.

"Well then... the name's Reno, and I'll take the basket," he said in a menacing tone, reaching for his pocket as Zidane tensed up slightly, "For five hundred gil." he finished, pulling out a black leather wallet to Zidane's relief.

"Alright, but I keep the actual basket. Do you know how hard a decent one is to get in the slums?" the flowers were handed over, the money exchanged, and the two walked off in different directions as though nothing had happened.

He was barely around the corner when Reno dumped the flowers into the nearest bin and dug out his phone from within his dark jacket. "Bossman," he began. "Yeah... I saw, talked to the boyfriend too... well he's either brave, stupid or stupidly brave to talk to me like that but uh... no it ain't a problem, just gotta find a better spot... gotcha... hey, before you patch in shades, I'm claiming the 500 back... maybe something small... let him know what happens to people who mess with the Turks... can we move a squad?... great, make sure they get pictures of him with the smirk wiped off." The Turk finished before snapping the phone shut. Perhaps stakeout duty wasn't the absolute worst thing after all.