From August 22nd to the 29th, join us as we celebrate the love between Zack Fair and Aerith Gainsborough from the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, and the upcoming FFVII Ever Crisis and FFVII Rebirth!
The event is now featuring main and alternative prompt! Our alt prompts were inspired by songs by Maaya Sakamoto (voice of our princess!). Each set of lyrics was handpicked to showcase Zack and Aerith's love story 👑💙✨
The rules is easy:
Create your own fanwork based on the prompt list, feel free to interpret it.
Graphics, writing, video editing, 2D art, 3D art; any kind of fanmade is applicable!
Mention the prompt and @zerith-week in your post,
Use the tag #zerithweek, #aerith gainsborough, #zack fair, and #zerith within the five first tag.
Mention @ff7zinenews @ff7central @ffviifandomcalendar for the boost
Summary: Zack and Aerith fell in love with each other and they don't quite know it yet
Note: written for @zerith-week. Day 1 prompt: Love at First Sight
Read on AO3.
~*~*~*~*~
It was love at first sight.
Or so Zack thought. Hot and intense like the burning sun in the Gongagan desert that made his stomach knot and his heart pound so hard he thought it might burst. There was a skip in his step when he returned to Floor 63 that he had failed to notice until Kunsel rounded the corner and pointed it out.
“Are you lovestruck?” his friend asked as a way of greeting.
“Wha—huh!?”
Kunsel blinked, folded his arms, and cocked his head to the side. “Funny reaction you’ve got for a hand-off joke.”
There was no stopping the blush that quickly rose to his face, covering every inch from his neck all the way to his hairline. Even if Zack had managed to hide his face, his ears would have given it away. It was a funny feeling. Zack had never thought his blood would boil so much outside of the exhilaration of training and battlefields. But then it was excitement, not… mortification, that shook his core.
“Huh,” Kunsel muttered under his breath.
“You’ve got it wro—”
“You’ve got a funny grin and you were humming,” Kunsel went on. “And now you’re red.”
Zack shut down his grin.
“I was certain—well, almost certain anyway that you'd broken a bone or two that needed mending after the fall you took,” Kunsel added. “Gone for a day and a half and not a word to even your superiors. But I guess my worry was unwarranted.”
Zack opened his mouth, but whatever rebuttals that came to mind now sounded weak because he hadn’t told his superiors about surviving the fall—hadn’t even had a sliver of thought about it because after he woke up at the church on a bed of flowers with a girl with eyes like the brightest emeralds calling down from above, there had been no other thought to be had than how heavenly she had looked with the dappled morning sun shining from behind her.
An angel, he had thought and said so afterwards. He had been quite sure he’d been well on his way to the afterlife, but the angel had smiled and let out a soft, ticklish laugh.
“I’m Aerith,” she had said, and Zack had found himself stumbling over the edge and falling—falling into those bottomless pools of verdant green that brimmed with life.
And then he heard a snap, and he was back in the bright, stainless corridor of Shinra HQ. Kunsel had his fingers in front of Zack, his mouth curving halfway between a smirk and a frown. He decided to smirk as he leaned back on his heels.
“I see,” he said.
“What?” Zack asked, defensive.
“Well, I hope you enjoyed your time.”
“It's not—”
“I hope it lasts longer than your casual flings.”
“Hey—”
“Was she pretty?”
The prettiest girl to ever grace the Planet. But Zack wasn’t going to admit that. Not when Kunsel was enjoying this at his expense.
But Kunsel’s fun seemed to be nearing its end when he checked his watch, waved a carefree hand, and stepped around him. A resounding ding echoed in the silence and the elevator door opened. “Glad you survived the fall,” he said. “Introduce me to her some time.” And then he disappeared amongst the masses and into the waiting tube. The door closed after new passengers entered; the elevator flew down.
Uncanny, Zack thought, as though Kunsel had timed his assault and retreat so precisely. It left Zack speechless. How the guy had not made it to First Class was beyond him.
***
It was love at first sight.
Or so Aerith thought. Like the spot of sunlight that came in through the broken roof of the church. Or the kiss of gentle breeze as she tended to the flowers in her garden. They swayed and danced, their yellow petals perking up at the touch of her hand or the slightest lilt in her voice as she hummed a verse she’d thought long forgotten. Warm and blissful, enveloping her in such a way that she felt safe.
She heard the steps, then looked up to see Elmyra approaching.
“Did something good happen today?” her foster mother asked.
Aerith fought to keep her smile from spreading wider. “Maybe,” she said.
Her mother tilted her head, tried to pry more from her, but Aerith wasn’t in the mood to share. At least, not today, not when this was only a budding feeling taking root in her heart. She’d wait; she’d have to see: how far he would go and how far he would come for her. He was SOLDIER. He came from a place she’d sworn to avoid. And yet, he’d felt different. He was like a ray of sunshine, so full of life and spirit, brighter even than the sun that graced her flowerbed. When she’d found him sprawled in her church, she had for sure thought he had died. But his chest had moved; his deep, steady breaths making his jet-black bangs slowly sway. The flowers said they had softened his fall, but even if that were so, any normal person wouldn’t have survived the high fall he’d taken (surely it had been more than a hundred meters; there was nothing above the church except the plates). Which only meant he wasn’t normal, and how right she was when he’d revealed to her that he worked for Shinra.
A twig snapped between Aerith’s fingers as she was pulling weeds from her flowerbeds.
For a person like that to pull her in, to ask her for a date and promise her another, to make her feel seen and safe even when they barely knew anything about one another.
Elmyra still stood on the steps leading to the garden. A soft smile had fallen over her features. She took the last few steps then crouched beside Aerith, helping her with her weeding.
“That's a nice ribbon you got,” Elmyra said. “Found it in the market?”
She did, though she probably wouldn’t have gotten it for herself. The pink ribbon Zack bought for her sat snugly on the back of her hair, decorating her otherwise plain braid.
“It looks nice on you.”
Aerith smiled.
“Seems like a nice person,” Elmyra tried again.
“He is.”
“He?”
Aerith met her mother’s gaze and found it crinkling. In joy? Interest? Either way, it made her mother a busy-body, and Aerith tried to brush it off with a scoff despite the heat rising to her cheeks.
“I would like to know about this boy who’s gotten my daughter into a bubbling mess.”
“It's not like that, mom, and I’m not bubbly,” Aerith said defensively, though she couldn’t quite keep the laugh out of her voice.
“You sure are. Other people might not notice, but you haven’t stopped smiling since you got home. And you were singing. I haven’t heard you sing since you started living here.”
“I was humming, not singing; there’s a difference," Aerith said. "And I still do, hum, mom."
“All right, all right.” Elmyra chuckled.
They finished weeding by the time the sun was about to set. The flowers washed over her with their scents: lilies, daffodils, cattails. She had to remember to pick some up for the orphanage tomorrow. Maybe Zack would come and give her a hand. But he was probably too busy. SOLDIER duties and all. He’d returned rather quickly that day because of a call he’d received. Still, Aerith couldn’t help imagining it: her introducing him to everyone—introducing him to Elmyra. She’d like him; Aerith was sort of sure.
“Well.” She abruptly stood up, swiping dirt and debris from the hem of her skirt. “I’m hungry.”
She gathered the weeds and twigs, her mother doing the same.
“I made some steak,” Elmyra said. “The butcher had some leftovers and sold me half the price. Said something about someone giving him too much meat to work with.”
That… might’ve been Zack. Someone had asked him to clear the path outside Sector 5, and he’d gotten carried away with it. He’d given the beasts to the butcher when the butcher showed the slimmest interest in acquiring them. Zack hadn’t accepted the money.
It’s a funny feeling, to have Zack served their table before she had officially introduced him to her mother. Her smile came unbidden. “Let’s go, then,” she said, and she returned to their house with a little skip in her step.
