Aerith is a funny character; she's got that "innocent flower girl" persona, but the cross-dressing caper and a few other hints suggest she's both tougher and more wordly-wise and downright naughty than she appears. i imagine she and Tifa getting into a drinking contest and going out on the town. (I loved the dynamic between them; a standard western plot would've set them up as rivals, but they hit it off immediately, from what I can tell.)

I have no idea what put it into my head to have her bump into Auron in the Farplane, except that her flowers reminded me of it, and Kingdom Hearts was a very poor answer to the question, "So where did Auron go after he was sent?" An awful lot of my fanfic comes from momenta in canon I found dissatisfying. (Although KH was almost worth it for the "I am king of the dead!" "No wonder no one wants to die" exchange.)