Disclaimer: This is a fanfiction. FANfiction.

A/N: …Angeal likes plants…

I was not surprised at all to read in the e-mails his fangirls send Zack that Angeal likes plants and dogs. Actually, I found it kind of cute. So I wrote this. But it does involve Zack and Aerith (obviously, this is a Zack and Aerith fanfiction…)

F is for Flowers

Zack had seen a lot of weird things in his lifetime. He was guessing that had something to do with the people he spent most of his time with, namely the SOLDIER first class. But this… This beat all.

Angeal Hewley, the massive, dangerous, muscle-bound SOLDIER first and tiny, sweet, girly Aerith Gainsborough were both kneeling in the flowerbed, planting daisies and begonias in the rays of summer sun filtering through the hole in the ceiling. His mentor's gloves were discarded on the first row of pews, along with the enormous blade that Angeal always carried. He had donned a pair of gardening gloves instead, which were pink and covered in dirt. Somehow, they actually fit Angeal's huge hands. Zack knew one thing for certain: he was never going to let Angeal live this one down. He wished he had brought a camera.

Zack was lying on the pew alongside the Buster Sword, absent-mindedly listening to the conversation. Angeal and Aerith were talking about proper plant care or something, and he honestly did not care what it was. He was busy watching Aerith now. Well, and sometimes Angeal. Although the tank-sized man was comical in his nearly-too-small gloves, covered in dirt and surrounded by flowers, Aerith had unequivocally caught Zack's eye. She always left him wondering how she could be so beautiful even when she was kneeling in the soil pulling weeds, a smudge of dirt across her nose and grass stains on her knees.

Her hair was, as always, pulled up in a pink ribbon—the ribbon he bought her on the first day they met. Strands of silky brown hair were straying from her braid, dancing around her pale face and her sparkling, emerald-colored eyes. She was smiling daintily as she lovingly cared for her flowers, not minding the fact that her white sundress was dirtied in the soil. Zack sighed dreamily, tucking one hand under his chin as he watched his beautiful angel in her garden. "Aerith…" he breathed her name, not even realizing that he'd said it.

"What, Zack?" she replied, and he nearly blushed, feeling the color beginning to dust his cheeks.

"Nothin'," he replied, "I was just thinking."

"That could be dangerous," Angeal said with a chuckle, slipping one of his gloves off so he could ruffle Zack's hair. "What's on your mind, Puppy?"

"What's always on my mind, Angeal?" Zack chortled.

Angeal's eyes flickered up to Aerith, and he grinned. "That pretty girl sitting across from me, I'm certain."

Zack and Aerith both laughed, somewhat out of embarrassment. "How sweet," Aerith remarked, "If I wasn't covered in dirt, I'd hug you."

Zack sighed. "You can hug me later," he said impishly. For now, he was settling on watching the two of them in the garden; his mentor and his love.

The angel and Angeal.