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It felt like the dumbest idea in the world to follow instructions from someone he barely knew, and still Leslie was gliding through Sector 5, pausing every few minutes to double check the hastily scrawled directions on a crumpled slip of paper. He was used to slinking about in Midgar’s underbelly, but even hiding from Corneo he didn’t often leave Sector 6. He’d never spent much time in Sector 5, but that was where the letter that had somehow found its way to the seedy motel room he was renting said to go. He still wasn’t sure how they’d found him, though he suspected AVALANCHE had resources beyond the expected.
He’d heard of the church that was Sector 5’s biggest landmark, but he’d never actually seen the building. Once he turned the corner and faced the massive structure he couldn’t do anything but stop to stare. It had clearly fallen into a state of disrepair, but aside from the crumbling roof it looked like it belonged in some grand city of art and stone, not the industrial waste hellscape of the Midgar slums. Even the busted out panes in some of the stained glass windows and gaping holes in the roof couldn’t completely diminish its beauty.
The door creaked on rusting hinges when he pulled it open just far enough to slip inside. Far down the center aisle formed between rows of disheveled pews a kneeling woman glanced up at the noise of his entrance. Her face immediately broke out in a radiant smile.
“You came!” Aerith exclaimed, the melodic tones of her voice echoing through the room. She pushed herself up to her feet and hastily brushed a smattering of dirt from the front of her dress. “I was starting to worry that you wouldn’t.”
“I’m not sure I should have,” Leslie admitted as he strode up the aisle toward her. “I hear there was some big to-do up top with all of you at the center. Something about terrorism and mass destruction?”
Aerith wrinkled her nose in distaste. “That’s a rather strong description.”
He opened his mouth to utter a smartass retort, but floundered when his eyes finally found their way to what she’d been doing on the floor. It wasn’t a solid floor at all. All the boards had been removed in a large circle in the middle of the floor, and every inch of the exposed dirt beneath was covered in beautiful, blooming, familiar flowers.
“These are why I wanted you to meet me here,” Aerith explained gently when he didn’t say anything. “I’ll need someone to look after them while I’m gone, and I was hoping you would agree to do it.”
Leslie forced himself to turn away from the flowers that were an exact match for the pendant burning a hole in his pocket and look up at her. The fake daytime lights shining down through the holes in the roof from the underside of the plate above very nearly gave her a halo. He felt a tug in his chest unlike anything he’d known in a long time.
“Yes,” he stammered after a moment. “Of course I will.”
~*~*~*~*~*~
The train ticket and entry pass for the Gold Saucer arrived just as unexpectedly as the first letter, though it appeared in a very different way. He didn’t catch the little urchin that stuck their hand in his pocket to deposit the envelope, but he saw enough of them to know they were one of the regular gang of children from Sector 5. He’d caught sight of them looking in on him at the church a few times when he went to water the flowers, and he was pretty sure they were responsible for the very minor improvements he’d noticed happening around the place.
The note that was stuffed into the envelope with everything else was only two sentences long, but he’d read her first letter so many times he recognized the handwriting in an instant.
Leave first thing tomorrow. The kids will take care of the flowers.
Leslie had been raised in Sector 6. The bright lights of the Wall Market were a neon testament to human debauchery, but they had nothing on the lights and sounds of just the entryway to the Gold Saucer. By the time it occurred to him that sights which could stop him in his tracks were becoming a regular occurrence whenever Aerith was involved she was standing right in front of him. Her lips were curved up in a bright smile.
“I’m glad you made it!” Before he could react, she took him by the end and pulled him through the lobby toward the attractions. “Come on! There’s so much here to see!”
He let himself be dragged onto the midway, too stunned at her enthusiasm to protest. All around them were games and attractions, and as they passed she kept up a running commentary of observations about which things she wanted to try and which she thought they could skip. He’d thought they must have sent for him because they needed him for some kind of sneaky endeavor, but with the way she was leading him around it felt far more personal.
“Why did you ask me to come here?” he asked while they stood in line for cotton candy. “I thought maybe you all had a lead on Corneo or something.”
“No, nothing like that,” she admitted after a moment. Her cheeks were almost as pink as the ribbon in her hair. “It’s just… well, everyone else has big plans while we’re here. I just wanted someone that I like to see the sights with.”
There it was again. That tugging feeling in his chest. He turned to watch a passing mascot dance through the crowd to hide the color rising in his own cheeks. “Fair enough.” He shifted their hands just enough to twine their fingers more tightly together. “Tell me what you guys have been up to since you left. You never write,” he teased.
Aerith launched into an enthusiastic overview of their adventures since she’d left him standing in the middle of the church, pausing only to order her sugary treat when they made it to the front of the line. She was so busy concentrating on both the candy and her tale that she let him steer her back the way they had come without hesitation. If she noticed the handful of gil he slipped to the attendant at the gondola so they could jump to the front of the line she didn’t say, still entertaining him with tales of enormous swamp snakes (“It was huge! They called it the Midgar Zolom and we had to ride chocobos to get past it.”) and Barrett’s terrible campfire cooking (“Did you know that vegetables can both taste like charcoal and still be raw? I didn’t either!”).
She grew quiet as the gondola started to sway upward, and Leslie filled the silence by telling her about her flowers, the street urchins that were slowly improving the church when he wasn’t looking, and the scandalous gossip flowing through Sector 6 at the moment. He didn’t mention that he’d traded his previous seedy motel room for a small but secure apartment in a piece of repurposed industrial sized pipe closer to the church. He still spent most of his time in the Wall Market, but he’d found himself more and more drawn to the peacefulness he felt while tending her flowers. Plus, Corneo would never expect him to live near a church, so it really was the safer option.
He didn’t have nearly as many stories, and by the time the gondola ground to a halt at its point their car was filled with a comfortable silence. At some point in the ride they’d drawn closer together, so close that Leslie thought he might be able to count her eyelashes while she gazed out at the shining lights of the Saucer below them.
“It’s so beautiful!” Aerith breathed.
Leslie was decidedly not looking at the manufactured sights outside the car when he replied. “It really is.”
Aerith turned toward him, ready to add another observation, but she froze when she realized just how little space there was between them. Her eyes darted down to his mouth, and Leslie watched as she unconsciously wet her lips with the tip of her tongue. His heart was pounding in his chest as he let his gaze follow the movement.
“Screw it,” she muttered, and then her lips were on his.
The kiss was soft and so very, very sweet. It barely lasted a handful of seconds, but Leslie felt the electricity of it in every inch of his body. She’d barely pulled away half an inch before he slipped a hand around the back of her neck and brought their lips together for a second, far more fervent kiss. The gondola car had already lurched back into motion before they both pulled away panting.
“Aerith?” Leslie asked quietly, the tip of his nose still brushing against hers.
“Yes?” Her eyes were still closed, lashes forming half moons of dusky brown against her cheeks.
“Where exactly am I meant to be sleeping tonight?”
The look in her eyes when she finally opened combined with the smirk that crossed her reddened lips resulted in a positively sinful expression. “Oh, I’m sure we can come up with something.”