#flowersonlyagil

“No king?”  For a moment, the raven sat dumbfounded.  The young prince had never thought about a kingdom without a king.  Though he was youngest and would most likely lose the competition for the throne to the much elder and more diplomatic Sephiroth, he realized that she was making a comment about his own livelihood.

Did the woman not realize that without a king to rule, the kingdom would fall to ruin?  There would be no peace, arguments about the land, political downfall, economic collapse—war.

Did she not realize what the king did for her?  Did she not realize that it was the king’s existence that made it so she could live comfortably?

“You realize what saying that means, don’t you?”

He rose from his chair, standing so he could approach the woman who wanted to make her voice so well-heard that she scheduled an audience.  Or maybe she was forced into an audience. She could be executed for such words—it was lucky that it was only Zack who had to listen to her.  Anyone else would have had her executed on the spot.

He had no money.  He was poor.   He might have had an okay job but it really didn’t pay much after bills.  He had his city apartment and everything else to try and keep up with.  When he was coaxed into an audition, he made it perfectly clear that he wasn’t going to sell sex.  The man who hired him had agreed—Zack was only going to be a strip for people, maybe play host on slow days.  That was getting more rare as time passed.  He’d make good money if he could draw a crowd.  And he did.   Because he was not only a decent body, but he had the entertainment factor of having energy to go for days and gymnastic talent.

He was a star player.  And he made more money than he needed.

“Aerith?”  He eased out of his routine. The tight jeans he’d been squeezed into stopped his ability to make it to the floor in a fluid motion. Instead of bending at the waist like a normal person, he depended very much in the rips placed in the knees for movement.  He jumped off the stage.

What was she doing here?  His angel of a girlfriend wasn’t supposed to come into places like this.  He felt it was a surefire place to not get caught.

“What are you doing here?”

"Y-you’re pregnant," he repeats quietly.  "When did you figure it out?"  He had always wanted to be a father.  Zack was fantastic with kids—or at least, that’s what he thought.  He just didn’t know if he could handle being a father at age nineteen.   Or if Aerith could handle being a mother at her age.

When he had heard it, he knew he should have figured.  Zack sunk into the spring water, the cold liquid covering him all the way up to his eyes.  He couldn’t quite make out what she was saying, but it gave him comfort to hear her voice again.  It had been such a long time. 

He was going to get back to her.

"Is that book good?"

Send me a ❦ for a reaction to your muse playing with mine’s hair.

"Aer—" A flicker of a smile faltered as the cold water dripped over his chest.  SOLDIERs were bred with higher body tempertures.  Gongagans were bred to withstand heat.  There was no part of Zack Fair that could do excellently with ice.