How Zack and Aerith Met

Marluxia smiled at the young brunette that was tending to the flowers gently, a smile on her face as well. He was so glad to have found someone who shared his same love for the flowers, and who seemed to be really gentle. Aerith turned to him as she finished arranging the flowers and walked over, Marluxia noted that she was very ladylike and could only assume she came from a good family.

"I'm glad you came to work here," Marluxia spoke as she stepped closer.

Aerith laughed softly, "I'm just glad that you hired me, I love flower and have always wanted to work in a flower shop like this."

"Well glad to have you aboard, now I should probably warn you of a few things," Marluxia began as he looked the shop over again.

Aerith moved her head to the side in confusion, "Like what?"

"Well my brothers will probably come by often, they can all be a bit rowdy, especially my younger ones," Marluxia warned as he rubbed his temple.

"I'm sure I'll get along with them just fine," Aerith assured.

Marluxia nodded before looking at the time, "Do you mind if I go in back and take care of some paperwork?"

Aerith shook her head, "I have it handled out here, you go do what you need to."

Marluxia nodded and left the young brunette in the front as he went back to do paperwork. He felt completely comfortable leaving his shop in her capable hands.

~Aerith~

Aerith began arranging more of the flowers, enjoying all the smells that mixed together. She helped customers as they came in. Her time began to pass quickly, but she hardly noticed that it was beginning to grow late. She looked up as the door opened hurriedly and blinked at the young man who had run into the shop.

Her breathe seemed to catch for a second as she took in his black hair that spiked just above his shoulders. As she began to approach him he looked up in her direction and he seemed to freeze, her eyes met his and she seemed to lose herself in their depths. She had never seen eyes so blue, they seemed to rival the sky itself with their deep blue, and they seemed to almost glow.

"I uh..." He began as he stared into her own green eyes.

Aerith finally snapped out of it and blushed as she looked away before composing herself, "Did you need something?"

"I was...um..." The guy moved a hand through his hair as he laughed embarrassedly, "Sorry I just came by to drop something off."

Aerith looked at the bag he now held up, "Um...?"

The man looked at her before letting out a loud oh, "I'm Zack, Zack Amarante, I'm Marluxia's brother."

Aerith took a moment to digest what she had been told before nodding, "Oh of course! Let me go get him for you!"

She quickly went to the back of the store and found Marluxia in his office. He looked up at her in confusion and quirked an eyebrow at her blush. Aerith looked away again and didn't meet his eyes for a while.

"Um...one of your brother's is here to speak with you."

Marluxia stood quickly and headed for the front, a worried look on his face. Aerith followed him, having to nearly run to keep up with his large strides. When they reached the front Zack seemed to smile in relief as he handed the bag to Marluxia.

"You forgot this at home!"

Marluxia sighed in relief, "I was worried something had happened."

"Nope! Just delivering that," Zack explained, though his eyes strayed back to Aerith.

Marluxia looked back at her before smirking and ruffling Zack's hair. Zack let out a large complaint that Marluxia ignored as he left the room for his office in the back. Aerith wasn't sure what to do now as she and Zack just stood there.

"I never caught your name," Zack finally said, breaking the silence.

"I'm Aerith, I just moved here for university," She introduced.

Zack's smiled brightened, "Well if you ever need to be shown around, I would be happy to assist you."

Aerith laughed, "I would appreciate that greatly."

Zack went to go say more but was stopped as a customer arrived. The customer asked for help immediately, and Aerith reluctantly had to go help. When she turned back once she was done she saw Zack was gone and her smile faltered before she sighed.

The rest of the work day seemed to go by a bit slower, her thoughts drifting back to the man she met earlier. As she and Marluxia locked up the shop she bowed to him before making her way home. She glanced up at the sky and thought again about the guy before she smiled and continued home.

~Zack~

Zack sat in a corner of the greenhouse his head resting on the glass walls as he stared at the flowers lost in thought. He couldn't get that girl he met out of his mind, sure he chased after many girls, but none of them were like this one. He hit his head gently against the glass as he sighed in frustration. He knew Cloud was probably looking for him to train, but he just couldn't get his head out of the clouds.

He jolted as he heard the greenhouse door open. He peaked past a bush and sighed as he saw it was only Marluxia. The man walked through the greenhouse but stopped near Zack, he always seemed to know where his brothers were hiding. Zack looked up at him and knew from Marluxia's laugh that he was giving him a lost puppy look.

"What's wrong pup?" Marluxia asked as he sat in front of Zack.

Zack glared playfully, "Don't call me that!"

"Well if you give me that puppy look, I'll call you that all I want."

Zack rolled his eyes, "Nothing's wrong..."

Marluxia cocked his head to the side, "You're right...so did you like Aerith?"

Zack looked down, "Yeah..."

"Great."

Marluxia stood at that, which surprised Zack, he had expected something more from his brother. Marluxia just walked off to tend to the flowers, Zack sighed before quickly making his way out of the greenhouse. He knew if he remained sitting and not helping that Marluxia would treat him like one of his plants, and Zack didn't feel like getting banned outside by Saix for being drenched.

As he left the greenhouse he glanced at the yellow flowers near the exit and smiled. For some reason he felt more at peace around the flowers then he normally did. Zack quickly ran inside, feeling energized all of a sudden and immediately latched onto Cloud. Zack was determined to keep up his normal routine, but he hoped to add some new times to it, hopefully he'd see Aerith again soon.

~End~

I hope you all liked this chapter, I tried to keep it similar to the FF7 meeting. This was different then the other meetings because it actually had Aerith's POV instead of just Zack's. I'd say Zack is in his first year of college, same with Aerith, so Cloud is still in high school.

I finally got my list of the one shots rewritten so I know what to do...I had 83 total yesterday, including the ones I've posted, then I came up with 4 more this morning...So far I have 4/87 done! This will probably change sometime soon of how many I will do...it depends on if my brain explodes anymore.

As said before if you guys have any one-shot ideas for this let me know! I will add them to the list, unless we think alike and they're already on the list...but never hurts!

Reviewer's corner:

Animesaki: Thanks for the review! This family confuses me at times...ugh...and yes Riku will be an ass to anyone else if he wants to be, it is Riku after all.

Well till next time then!