Chapter 3

True to his word, Zack was there just before dawn the next day. Not that you could tell it was dawn beneath the plates, or even whether it was day or night at all. In the lower sectors everything was lit by the harsh glare of the mako-powered lights above at all hours. There were plenty of people down here who worked odd schedules because they didn't have to worry about what time of day it was.

He actually managed to arrive before Aerith, and his steps were a bit hesitant as he walked down the centre aisle towards the flowers. She'd said he was welcome here even if she wasn't present, but it still felt like he was intruding on something private.

The flowers didn't seem to be upset by his presence, at least. He'd half expected to find that they would be closed up tight, but they were still happily blooming away as if they didn't realize they were in a place that should never have been able to support one flower, let alone a small field of them.

Realizing he was now thinking about the things as if they were sentient, Zack snorted in amusement. Aerith's casual references to the flowers' attitudes and preferences were making his imagination work over time.

To his delight the unplanted patch of soil really was soil now and not just dirt. Kneeling at the edge he ran a hand through it, enjoying the texture of it against his skin. It felt rich and alive, fairly bursting with the possibility of life.

Deciding it couldn't hurt to rake the new soil and make sure it was viable all the way down to the bottom layer, Zack grabbed the rake he'd been using to push the dirt around yesterday and set to work. Aerith found him there about twenty minutes later, just as he was finishing up.

"Oh good!" she exclaimed, obviously pleased to see him. "That's exactly what I was going to ask you to do next, if you came. Good morning."

Putting that look of happiness in her eyes gave Zack a warm feeling in his chest, and he found himself grinning back stupidly. Boy, you've got it bad, he told himself, but he found he couldn't bring himself to be dismayed. It was silly to think he might be falling for a girl he'd only just met, but there was something about Aerith that drew him like... well, like a flower to the sun.

"Your humble slave greets you well, mistress," he teased her, and she giggled.

"You're quite taken with this idea of being my slave, aren't you?" she teased him right back. "I'm starting to wonder about you. But since we do need to get some work done on the garden today, I must reluctantly relinquish my authority over you. Otherwise I might get distracted thinking of more interesting orders I could be giving you." Once again she looked perfectly innocent, but this time Zack was sure he wasn't imagining the innuendo. She was a minx, all right.

"Well, in that case, good morning to you too," Zack replied. "I take it we're transplanting today?" he asked, looking at the covered trays she was carrying stacked in her arms. "Unless that's lunch, but I think that might be a bit too much food even for me."

"I brought lunch too, but these are seedlings," she agreed with a laugh. "Help me set them down, please?"

He took about two thirds of the stack from her, lightening her burden considerably, and they spread them out along the perimeter of the untouched soil. Each was labelled with the kind of flower they contained, as well as a sketch of the garden with the section they belonged in marked off. "Where do you even get the seeds for these?" he wondered aloud, seeing that almost none were duplicates of the riot of flowers already growing in the other half of the soil.

"Here and there," she answered vaguely, waving a hand. "I collect them whenever I come across them. Several of my regular customers who travel outside of Midgar will bring me back seed packets from other cities. They seem to find their way to me by one route or another." She touched the petals of the closest flower, a bright geranium, and Zack swore he could see it perk up.

"Shall we get started, then?" he suggested, looking over the trays until he found the one that was supposed to go beside the existing flowers at one end of the field. Picking it up, careful not to disturb the delicate seedlings within, he carried it over to its designated area and opened the cover. Nothing was in bloom yet, of course, and he wouldn't have known the little green shoots were pansies if the cover hadn't said so, but just seeing something green inside Midgar was enough to make him smile.

Zack scooped a hole in the dirt with his fingers, picked up the first of the seedlings and gently tilted it out of its pot, careful to cradle the roots. Placing it in the hole he'd made for it, he patted the soil back into place around it. "Do we have any water?" he asked, looking up.

He found her already standing right in front of him with a small pail of water in hand, smiling down at him. "You do know what you're doing," she said approvingly. "Good, I won't have to hover over you. Do you want a trowel?"

"Nah," he shook his head as he took the pail and dipped one hand in it, sprinkling water around the seedling in its new home. "My mom always swore the plants grew better when she did it with her own two hands. I don't know if I inherited her green thumb or not, but I can at least follow her advice."

The delight on her face was obviously unfeigned, and it made him smile back at her. "Your mother sounds like a very wise woman," Aerith said, moving to select a tray for herself. "I've found exactly the same thing."

"She'd love you," Zack told her with a laugh. "You'd better watch out if by some chance you ever meet her. She'll adopt you as the daughter she always wanted before you even realize what's happening. And then she'll start matchmaking, since you're exactly the kind of girl she's always saying I should settle down with. Actually, remind me to make sure you never do meet my mother. She's like a force of nature when she gets her mind set on something. We'd find ourselves married before either of us had a chance to comment, let alone protest."

Giggling, Aerith settled into place with her tray. To Zack's surprise and delight, she'd chosen to start right next to him instead of going to the far end and working her way to meet him in the middle. "Oh, I don't know about that," she said, her eyes sparkling and that impish look back on her face. "She might think I'm the kind of girl she always wanted for you, but only if she doesn't look farther than the surface." She winked at him, and he grinned back.

"Probably just as well that I'm not exactly ready to settle down and start having kids, then," Zack said wryly. And let her take that as an oblique warning; he liked her and he really wanted to date her, but if she was one of those girls who thought everything had to be an all or nothing commitment she was doomed to disappointment with him.

"I don't know, I think you'd make a wonderful father," she countered, and for a moment he felt disappointment thinking she really was one of the girls who couldn't think about anything but weddings and children. He was relieved when she added, "In ten or fifteen years, that is. Anyone wild enough to run away from home and join SOLDIER at thirteen isn't the type to settle down early, I would think!"

"You'd probably be right, though I can only answer for myself," Zack agreed. "And anyway, there's no way in hell I'd risk leaving a widow or - gods forbid! - orphans behind. I'm not even thinking about it until the war is over, one way or another!"

He hadn't realized how vehement he was getting until he felt her gentle hand on his shoulder, calming him. "Sorry, it's a touchy subject," he said, focusing on the flowers to help calm himself further. "I've already had to write too damn many consolation letters to the wives and kids of men under my command. And I'm going to have to write a whole lot more when I go back as a 2nd Class, because I'll be given bigger commands."

And it was all so damn unnecessary, that was the worst part. Wutai hadn't been hurting anyone by insisting on keeping its traditional and isolated ways, but Shinra couldn't abide the idea of anyone not bending to their power.

"You have nothing to apologize for," she insisted, squeezing his shoulder once before returning to her own seedlings. "It's not something that should ever stop being a touchy subject."

They dropped it, and instead of going off on another conversational tangent she allowed silence to fall between them. It wasn't the sort of awkward pause that demanded attempts to fill it, and Zack was content to let it remain for the moment. It wasn't even really quiet, since she was humming to the flowers again. Zack wasn't quite ready to start singing to his seedlings, but he figured they could hear her just as well as the ones she was working on directly.

Without really meaning to he found himself timing his work so that he reached the side of his plot nearest her at the same time she did, so their shoulders and sometimes hands brushed together as they worked. He was sure she realized what he was doing, and was encouraged by the fact that she neither said anything nor changed the rhythm of her work to avoid him. If anything, she seemed to be making an effort to make certain they met in the middle as well.

By the time they'd finished the first trays, Zack realized he was once again happier than he could remember being in a long time. It didn't even bother him any more that his battle-honed reflexes seemed to have vanished entirely, allowing him to truly relax for the first time in over a year. He'd known he was tense, but he didn't realize how tense until it was gone.

"Man, this is what leave should be like," he proclaimed as they started on the second set of seedlings. "If I could get just one whole platoon to have a day like this, they'd be so energized we'd win the war in a week."

"I don't think it would work with that many people in one place," Aerith laughed at him. "The crowd would destroy the sense of peace and you wouldn't be much better off than you started. Besides, they'd trample the flowers. How many troopers could I trust a job like this with and not end up with more dead flowers than live ones?"

"Probably not very many," he admitted with a wry grin. "Never thought I'd be so grateful for all those hours mom made me spend in the garden for punishments! Besides, I don't think it'd work half as well without the 'pretty girl singing at your side' part, and I doubt there are thirty of you anywhere in the world."

"Flatterer," she accused him, but she looked pleased. "You never give up, do you?"

"Wouldn't be in SOLDIER if I was the type to give up," Zack pointed out, his grin widening. "Is it working yet?"

Laughing, she threw a handful of dirt at him in protest, and he made no effort to dodge. Instead he caught most it right out of the air. "Thanks!" he said, patting it into place around the seedling he'd just transplanted. She laughed again and went back to work, and they fell into a companionable silence once more.

Gradually Zack found they were lingering over the seedlings that brought them closest together, spending more time on them so they could use the excuse to touch, and it seemed the most natural thing in the world for him to curl his fingers around hers when she announced, "We're halfway done, and if I'm hungry you must be starving. Let's take a break for lunch."

She let him help her to her feet, and they were still holding hands as they walked over to her basket where she presumably had brought lunch once more. Her hand was small and warm in his, and it felt good to have it there. Zack, like many of the guys he knew, had never really been much on handholding. It was just one of those things that girls expected, and you indulged them in and hoped it led to more, not something that was an end in its own right. With Aerith, he found himself just enjoying the contact for itself.

Which was not to say that he wasn't hoping it would lead to more. He'd have been flat out lying if he tried to claim that, and he had a feeling that lying to Aerith would be a very good way to cause her to immediately lose interest. He also had a feeling she would just know if he tried to lie to her. Thankfully she didn't seem likely to ask, so he wouldn't have to choose between lying or making her think he was only interested in getting under her skirt.

Somehow they managed to get the food laid out without letting go, and Zack didn't mind in the least having to eat a little awkwardly with his left hand. The food tasted even better this time, and he was afraid he might have made just a little bit of a pig of himself. She didn't seem to mind, smiling at him the whole time as she ate her much smaller portion.

"Doesn't your mom wonder why you need so much food?" he asked curiously.

"I told her I was meeting a friend for lunch," Aerith shrugged. "Which is true enough, just not all of the truth. I feel bad hiding it from her, but... well, she tries so hard to protect me, but she doesn't realize I don't need to be protected from everything."

"That's a mom's job, I think," Zack said. "Fussing over you. I'm sorry you have to lie to her just so you can bring me lunch. You didn't have to, you know. I can bring my own, or go buy something."

"Certainly not." She sounded a bit indignant, but she was still smiling at him. "Sit here and eat my wonderful fresh lunch while I make you go out for the poor imitation of food that's available here? I don't think so. Besides, it's nice sharing with someone who's so enthusiastic about it." She was teasing him, he knew, but he could only laugh.

"What can I say? I'm a growing teenage boy, and your mom's a damn fine cook," he told her with a grin of his own. "Not to mention you're working me hard, here. Can I help it if I end up hungry enough to eat a behemoth?"

"Then I guess it's my responsibility to make sure you get fed properly," Aerith said. "Which means I'm definitely not going to send you off to get other food, or make you rely on military rations. I wouldn't want you to waste away. Speaking of work, though, we'd better get back to it if we're going to get them all settled today! I'd hate to leave any in those cramped little pots when there's a great big space for them to grow in."

"They'd probably get all jealous of the ones we'd already planted, too," Zack agreed, going along with it. He squeezed her fingers and released her, clambering to his feet.

When he then turned and offered her a hand up, she looked at it for a moment before smiling up at him. "You're really very sweet," she declared, accepting his hand and letting him pull her up. "I think perhaps I'll have to keep you." Going up on tiptoe, she kissed him - not on the cheek this time, but a gentle touch of her mouth to his.

It was over before he had a chance to really enjoy it, and he cleared his throat as she stepped back. As much as he wanted to go after her and indulge in a more thorough kiss, something held him back. That was the best sign he'd had so far that she welcomed his attention, but somehow he thought he'd lose the progress he'd made if he tried to push things further right now. "Well, I think my CO would have a few choice things to say if I didn't turn up for duty on time, but you're welcome to keep me as often as I have leave."

Damn it, he'd meant to say 'as long as I have leave', not 'often'. He didn't want to imply any kind of long-term commitment. It wouldn't be fair to lead her on, for one thing, not when he might not get leave again for another whole year. But Aerith was smiling at him, looking pleased in a way that made him feel a little overheated, and he forgot to correct himself.

"I guess I've got an extra reason to hope the war ends soon, then," she said. "Presumably you get leave more often during peacetime?"

Gamely, he decided to just go with it. He'd look stupid trying to retract his words now. And it wasn't as if he'd mind seeing her again. He just didn't want her to end up resenting him for getting her tied up with someone who would never have much time for her. "I'd imagine so," he replied, scratching his head. "I can't say from experience, since the war started long before I signed up. I hear SOLDIERs don't stay in one place much, but we do tend to have Midgar as our home base."

"Then I'll just have to save up all the back-breaking labour for when you're around," Aerith declared cheerfully. "For now, we've got seedlings to plant. Shall we?" Laughing at the threat, Zack grabbed the next tray and got to work.

The second half went slower than the first, because now they weren't even trying to pretend they weren't stealing an excuse to brush their fingers together every time they met at the end of the rows. Zack found himself intoxicated by the little touches they exchanged, leaving him feeling giddy and excited. He felt like a school boy with a crush, and he hoped he'd get it out of his system before he got back to HQ tonight or he was never going to hear the end of it from the others. Especially if they found out he hadn't even kissed her properly, let alone slept with her. Damned if it wouldn't be worth the teasing, though.

Finally the last of the seedlings was safely in its new home, and he stood with a groan. Stretching his arms up over his head, he winced as his back cracked loudly. He might be able to take more damage than an ordinary person, but that didn't stop his back from feeling sore after a whole day on his hands and knees.

Aerith didn't seem any the worse for wear, but presumably she was used to it. "So I guess you need to go sell flowers again now, huh?" he asked as she started picking through the fully-grown blooms. "Are you ever going to let me take you to dinner?"

"How about tomorrow night?" she asked, grinning at him when he blinked at her in astonishment. "There won't really be anything to do here tomorrow, so I'll go out during the day. Once the sun goes down, I'm all yours. Sound good?"

"That sounds fantastic," Zack exclaimed, delighted. "Just dinner, or do I get you for the whole night?" Plans flitted through his head for things they could do; dancing or a movie, maybe. Then the perfect answer struck him, and he grinned. "Do you have a curfew or anything?"

"You let me worry about my mother," Aerith said firmly. "As long as you have me back in time to get at least a few hours of rest before dawn, I'll be fine."

"Good." Zack's eyes gleamed. "Dress nice for dinner, but bring a warm change of clothes with you. Preferably pants."

"Oh? What are you up to?" She gave him a curious look, but he just shook his head and smiled. Mock-pouting, she tossed her head and planted her hands on her hips, the basket full of fresh flowers dangling from one wrist. "Hmph! Be that way, then. All right, I'll meet you here tomorrow at five."

"It's a date," Zack said, and she smiled again. "Don't be late!"

"I won't," she promised. "Now shoo, so I can concentrate on my work!" she scolded him, flapping one hand at him in a 'go away' gesture.

"Yes ma'am," Zack saluted her, making her laugh again, before turning to go. Forget about getting it out of his system before he got back, it was never going to happen. Let the guys on base tease him tonight for the stupid grin he was probably wearing. Tomorrow he was going to take an incredibly pretty girl out for a night to remember, and if he was very lucky and played his cards just right, he might even get laid. The assurance that she didn't need to be back until late was certainly promising. What more could a SOLDIER on leave ask for?

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