It wasn't sudden.
But Cissnei was rather surprised when she realized that Zack hadn't asked her out lately.
She wasn't sad about it, but the semi-common questions from the handsome SOLDIER were indeed flattering.
Not that it mattered of course, she was a Turk, after all, but it was nice to know.
Thinking back on it, they all seemed to end within a few days of when he pursued Hollander in the Sector 5 Reactor. According to files and rumors alike, he somehow was blasted through the floor and landed somewhere safely in the Slums below. What he could've landed on that wouldn't have seriously injured him was a huge questions on its own, though if anyone were to survive a fall like that, it would be a SOLDIER, and Zack did seem to possess a certain amount of luck.
He'd also started going to the Sector 5 Slums on a recent basis.
…Didn't Tseng go there too?
Odd.
He seemed to be happier lately too… as well as more determined, he had been going through his recent missions with more speed and more success, as if he wanted nothing more to return to the slums, which is where he spent most of his off time now.
It seemed the raven-haired SOLDIER had also picked up an interest in flowering plants, of all things, by the way he was sometimes seen carrying them or researching them, and he always had a fresh, pretty one by his bed.
Odd.
Was he perhaps growing a garden in the slums? She had doubts about that hypothesis, it really didn't seem like his cup of tea, and he certainly wouldn't rush through monsters, missions, and meals, to tend to flowers, which could scarcely grow in the slums, if at all. And that didn't explain his sudden lack of interest in boyishly hitting on girls.
More research would need to be done on this, that much was definite.
I wrote half of this about two years ago, right after I beat Crisis Core, and then finished today! /derp. I haven't been as into FFVII lately, so excuse any mistakes in the later half.
I kind of hate when Zack is portrayed as a bootysnake. He flirts, but I think that's his boyish charm. No… bootysnake-ness intended.
So blahblahblah, Zack meets Aerith, changes, Cissnei, doing her job like a boss, decides she must do a bit more research.
The title is from Painting Flowers by All Time Low, sort of a reference to Zack and Aerith's relationship, ne?