A/N : Hm, well, I didn't change much. Just a couple of things here or there and the ending is a little bit different.

Disclaimer: Never ever and a day.

Sweet
hayner x aerith

Hayner is not amused.

Sienna pools splashed with a mottled mixture of contempt and mild annoyance glimmer up towards beryl drop eyes. He folds his tanned arms across his chest in a child-like manner as he stands his ground defiantly. "I'm not gonna eat that," he says more harshly than originally intended, but with finality woven into his gruff tone nonetheless. Color arises in his bronzed cheeks when he notices the looks random passerbys are sending their way -- for Merlin's sake, this is beyond humiliating. "No freakin' way, capiche?"

"I beg your pardon . . . ?" The flower girl's voice is as clear as silver bells, with the same unique, ringing quality, and she looks at him with wide eyes. Simply gorgeous.

The dirty blond has to forcefully tear his eyes away from hers, lest he give into her heinous demands with a heavy sigh and straightened lips fall into a tight smile. When she said jump he said 'how high'? Well, she'd never actually told him to jump off of anything literally necessarily; she was too sweet like that, but still.

It was a curse, Hayner thought -- being infatuated with Aerith, and yet she had no real idea of her power over him. Whatever she wanted him to do he did with simply one glance, one brief look into those brilliantly expressive ivy eyes of hers that made the sun go blind, the stars doubt themselves. He endured her most girly of quirks from sitting in the midst of her flower garden in sun-warmed soil and helping her plant daises to drinking her sickeningly sweet tea with milk of all things added into the mix, but this? This was too much.

Hayner had to draw the line somewhere, right?

"Candy hearts?" Hayner retorts skeptically, voice quick and on the defensive. He raises an eyebrow at her, wondering why his girlfriend would even suggest such a thing.

"Oh, they're not all that bad," she sweetly puts out in the open. The giggling flower girl offers him a small, orange sugared heart, large green orbs shimmering with the faintest glint of hope within their radiance. "Try one?"

"No."

The reply is swift, erratic, and delivered like a bolt of lightning, penetrating the whimsical atmosphere ruthlessly.

Her resurrected smile soon dissipates, as well as the newfound light in her eyes. A frown finds its way onto her porcelain face, shattering her playful quality. "But why?" she asks softly. Aerith looks almost hurt by the snappy reply, biting down on her fuller bottom lip while looking like a small child in the process.

"They're heart-shaped for one," Hayner grunts, as if that explained everything. "'Nuff said."

Her face lights up a little -- a mischievous thought is running through her mind and he tenses up almost in preparation of what's inevitable to come.

"Are you really that insecure?" she lilts, voicing her query aloud suddenly. Now Aerith just looks downright amused, edging closer to him with a faint smile quirking at her lips.

His resolve; it's already crumbling. Shit.

"No!" Damn it all.

"Pretty please?" Aerith cajoles him, and Hayner feels the last bit of his resistance shattering as he peers helplessly into her bright eyes and realizes that she is just too sweet a girl to deny, and that, on second thought, it really is not all that bad. Complying to her every need, that is, because she's possibly the most selfless person he's ever met anyway.

Damn. I really am whipped.

"Oh fu -- fine, whatever," Hayner groans, hands shooting up to grip either side of his head and digging the tips of his fingers into his temples agitatedly. "You win. Happy?"

Aerith seems to slightly brighten, still remaining dubious. "Really?"

"Really," he replies back, rolling his eyes skyward without truly meaning it; Aerith's smile is as warm and natural as ever, and Hayner wonders about that as she holds out the small, pink box containing the sugary heart-shaped treats in question.

Reaching out, Hayner pulls a green colored heart from the box and examines it with a crinkled nose. "Always," he reads aloud, then lifts his gaze to look at Aerith. How fucking sappy sounding. The flower girl seemingly cannot help but erupt into a fit of tinkling giggles. His gaze remains fixed upon hers for a moment, before shifting his deep russet orbs to the ground below, the corners of his mouth a bit more down turned than usual. He pops the candy into his mouth. "What's yours say?"

"Kiss me," her voice sings sweetly, oh-so sweetly. In that moment, it is no wonder why Roxas was so taken in. Giggling in all her perpetual delight, the brunette holds out her own heart for Hayner to see before eating it. Wide set spheres of emerald eyes catch the light and seem to sparkle with a playful gleam contained within them. When they both finish their candy, Aerith leans in closer to Hayner and smiles, then presses the bright flare of her full, rosy mouth against his softly.

The kiss is sweet, slightly sticky, and she tastes just like the candied hearts she's given him. Her lips are soft and pleasant on their own he appreciatively notes though, that delicate brush of the tip of his tongue tracing along the crease between them told him that. The warmth of the kiss lingers when Aerith suddenly pulls away, and Hayner leans back to stare at her in a detached sort of awe. The flush that has risen in his complexion has nothing in it of embarrassment and everything of wonder.

Their first kiss.

"We should probably head back now," Aerith announces, merrily. "Before the others begin to worry."

He dips his head in a slight nod embarrassedly, heart skipping a beat or two. Eyes sidling to the right, he tries his best to mask his features to be that of an uncaring scowl in the face of her naked expression and wild innocence. Though he shows no outwardly sign of being bothered, his tone carries a sort of quality that suggests otherwise.

"Yeah, whatever," Hayner scoffs in agreement, a barely discernable pale pink blush covering his cheeks.

Her smile is dazzling, a luminous flash of light and demure tilt of a head. The angelic spiraled curls in hues of amber and milk chocolate sway near slightly flushed cheeks, rogue and blush lighting up her baby-faced features in an attractive shade of pink. Malachite eyes shining sweet and bright, peer up into his dark orbs, causing him to fall utterly and entirely helplessly.

Unable to look away, Hayner finds himself incredibly distracted as his attention zeroes into a more narrow focus -- or more specifically, on her mouth. His gaze falters for a moment, as he notes how plush and shiny her lips are, the barest quirking of a pout upon them.

Hayner stares.

"So, my manly man," Aerith lilts cheerfully, breaking him out of his reverie whilst slipping one of those pale, delicate, and smooth white hands of hers into his innocently. "What did you think of the candy hearts?"

The cadence in her appeasing tone is too airy, the curve of her delicate, kissable pink lips too tempting.

Hayner rolls his shoulders in a subtle shrug, blush still present on his cheeks. Since a sincere question warrants a sincere answer, he replies, honestly, "Sweet. Very sweet."

The words left unsaid drift in the air between them:

Sweet just like y o u.

"Full of sugar," the flower girl adds in playfully, laughing. He notices the slight blush bloom to life in her cheeks; all sunshine and smiles, she beams at him then, with the mollified sunlight falling through the once puffy clouds, cascading into colors from red to a memorable lavender highlighting silhouette -- irreversible twilight lights up the sky, and he squeezes her hand implusively.

Twilight Town has never been more beautiful.

--fin.