Mission 17: Flowers
Reno and Rude were surprised to find that, though this mission was requested by Cloud Strife, it didn't involve delivering packages or helping him pick a gift for Tifa. Instead it was all about gardening.
"You want us to take care of the flowers?" That was not something Reno was good at.
"Yes, I'll give you the easiest part, water the flowers," Cloud handed Reno a watering can. "Rude and I will take care of collecting seeds and planting them."
"The easiest part? Are you saying I'm bad at this?" Reno complained.
Cloud nodded, "yes."
There was a short moment of tension in which Rude considered stepping in, "yeah you're probably right," but the tension dissipated as if it was never even there when Reno accepted the truth. Reno went off to do his assigned task, grumbling that he was a Turk and not a gardener.
Cloud and Rude went to work as well, but they weren't all that great at gardening either. "Don't step on the flowers!" Cloud suddenly yelled.
Reno threw the watering can in surprise and it hit Cloud on the head. The redhead looked at the flowers crushed under his feet. "Oops..."
Cloud rubbed the sore spot on his head. "Stop stepping on them!"
Reno scrambled away from the flowers, stepping on more as he did. "How am I supposed to water the flowers in the middle without stepping on any of them?"
"Step between them, not on them," Cloud pointed out.
"Easier said than done," Reno snatched the watering can and tried again, this time stepping between the flowers like Cloud said.
Cloud nodded in approval and went back to his previous task of collecting seeds so they could be planted. "Rude don't pull out the seeds like that, you're supposed to be gentle with flowers, Aerith said so."
Rude offered no reply beyond "..." and continued working.
Reno continued to balance himself stepping between the flowers, until he lost his footing trying to avoid squishing a flower, and ended up falling on a lot of flowers.
"Reno!" Cloud yelled so loud that his voice echoed. "The flowers!" He was supposed to be doing something in Aerith's honor by helping take care of her flowers, but now Cloud thought that maybe it was best to let the flowers take care of themselves. Cloud's eyes glowed mako green and he passed out.
Cloud found himself in an endless whiteness. There was someone standing behind him. The voice was familiar, it was Aerith's voice. "You've been working very hard."
"But I let them die, the flowers, crushed like Sector Seven," Cloud replied.
"It's alright, you only wanted to help. Accidents happen, don't worry so much about it, the flowers will grow back." Aerith spoke gently.
Cloud tried to turn around, but as it always happened, Aerith disappeared, and Cloud woke up. "Ow..."
"I think you crushed more flowers than I did," Reno sounded amused, he hated this job and he was so bored he became easily amused.
"What?" Cloud quickly got up, realizing that when he fainted, he landed on the flowers. He sighed; maybe it was best to leave the flowers alone from now on.
End of Mission 17
Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Mission 17 was requested by Death Korps.