Second Chance

Little Pink Ribbon

In Edge, the people were all busy preparing for the night of fright, The MeteroFall festival. Adults were climbing ladders and hanging scary decorations on buildings and streets while the children were running around with Dorky Face puppets and scary-looking Moogle dolls. Their laughter and chats attracted Zack's attention as he walked the busy streets with Aerith on his back. He curiously looked over in the children's direction and observed their carefree behaviors that caused a smile to appear on his face. Then, one of the children in the group spotted Zack and Aerith and got excited for some reason; he made his way to them and pulled on Zack's pants. "Hey mister! Where did you get the cool costume from?" the kid eagerly asked as Zack stared at him, puzzled "costume?"

"Yeah, The SOLIDER costume you're wearing," they exchanged, attracting the attention of the other children around them, all waiting for him to answer them.

He felt cornered like a Chocobo on a ranch on riding season, with everyone wanting that particular Chocobo to ride at once. Thinking fast, he came up with an easy solution to the mess he got himself into. "Sorry kids but the store I bought this costume from is sold out, and I don't know any other store that sells them" he acted as natural as possible. If he acted otherwise, the kids would quickly pick up on the lie, an experience he learned from dealing with a particular kid from Wutai long ago. Lucky for him, the kids believed his little white lie and dispersed to continue what they were doing before. "Oh good, they took the bait... maybe we should get a different set of clothes," he spoke to no one in particular and made his way to what he believed was a marketplace.

Before entering the store, he placed Aerith down on a bench right next to the store he was going to enter for her to rest. He gave her a quick peck on her forehead before whispering in her ear, "I'll be right back" he moved the strands of loose hair from her face, tucked it behind her ear, and then made his way to the store. After he had left, Aerith opened her eyes and looked around; she had pretended to be asleep since they entered the city to give herself time to think. Then, when she was sure that the coast was clear, she let her giggles loose. The event that happened a few minutes ago with Zack and the kids was just too priceless to miss. She was surprised at how she was able to hold in her laughter back then and not get exposed. This sudden change of event had wholly removed all her worries of Zack leaving her for her silly minor disability. Sure she was worried about how he would react, but she couldn't assume the worst without actually trying first. Besides, he was too kind-hearted to pull off a cruel act; she had to have more faith in him.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Marlene and Denzel happened to be in the marketplace at that exact time. They were helping Tifa gather the supplies for a private party at her bar during the festival. Both of them had bags filled with decorations and food. While the boy was busy looking over his list, Marlene's eyes wandered the district, observing the bustling stores and active people around them. She kept throwing her gaze about at nothing in particular till they rested on a beautiful-looking woman with long brown hair in an odd uniform sitting on a bench. The uniform reminded her of the one Cloud used to wear when she first met him but in a dark shade of purple rather than navy blue like his. She stopped dead in her tracks as she continued to look over at the odd woman, leaving the ever-so-busy Denzel with his long list to walk forward without her. The woman in question flexed her head upwards and gathered her long hair in one hand while looking over the bench for something. Marlene's eyes widened after realizing the striking resemblance the woman had with the flower girl that used to tag along with her father and his friends; they both had that unmistakable vivid green eyes that symbolized the lifestream in some way. She had to know who the woman was, so she slowly made her way to where the woman sat.

The woman was still searching for something on the bench, and that's when Marlene concluded that she may have lost her hair band. So she took off her fabric bracelet. "Here you go ma'am" she offered it to the familiar-looking woman in a polite manner.