A/N: FF7 and its characters are property of Square-Enix. This was written on a whim some time ago after I decided to hop on the let's-get-high-about-CC bandwagon with the rest of the universe, basically. I've never played Crisis Core and probably never will, so please excuse the inaccuracies. It's just a simple story, really. Reviews are much appreciated!

Of Rifts & Cats

They had never really quarrelled, bickered or disagreed over anything, were as happy and sappy and perfect a pair as one could ever be. They were the kind of couple who received envious stares from everyone around as they hooked arms and walked down the street, the kind who induced urges to kick the nearest thing in sight when they passed. Yes, Zack was the nicest and most entertaining of boyfriends, and Aeris was everything Zack could ask for and more, and the two were so outwardly and inwardly attached to each other that you couldn't have torn their fingers apart even if you sent a mile-high boulder tunnelling into the middle of their paths.

And nothing they ever did to each other, or anything of outside influence, had ever served to cause any sort of friction, even tension, between the two; no, nothing at all, only...

...a single incident. Just one. Only one.

It happened on one of those days when Aeris would turn up near his – well, workplace – with his packed lunch in her arms. She would be there, waiting for him around a corner, with a brilliant smile upon her face, and the air around them would be tinged with the mingled smells of lilies and warm, newly-prepared roast beef.

And that day should not have been any different, only...

...only, he'd taken too long. This was one of the rarer and messier missions, and as Zack sheathed his huge sword and looked up, panting heavily, he realized that curiosity had gotten the better of his girlfriend as she waited painstakingly for his presence, that she'd wandered too far, ventured upon the fray of what remained of the battlefield –

...and she wasn't looking at him. That irrepressibly green gaze of hers was transfixed on the blood that spilt the pavement, on the bodies that lay prostrate over the ground.

They stood there in a triangle of sorts; he stared at her, she stared at the corpses, and the corpses, with their eyes wide open, stared lifelessly up into the bright blue sky, which beat down solemnly upon them all.

It took a long moment for Zack to process this image; finally, something in him nudged him – he moved, and, ignoring the shouts of his fellow SOLDIERs, clapped a strong, reassuring hand around her elbow and steered Aeris and himself from the area.

Quietly, passively, Aeris' elbow broke free of his grasp. They walked side-by-side, but they weren't looking at each other, weren't speaking to each other. Zack had never known that such silence could ever exist between the two of them. The buildings passed in a blur and Zack could barely process why they were not going to their usual hideaway; Aeris was taking a long route, Aeris was going home.

At her doorstep, he finally found his voice.

"Aeris... I don't know if this makes you feel better, but I didn't like what I was doing either, you know? Commander's orders."

She met his gaze for the first time and gave a small nod. She turned her back, popped Zack's lunch into the microwave oven without a single word. Zack felt a sudden tinge of anger towards Aeris. He'd worked all day, slaved all day 'til his muscles were aching and his limbs shaking from participating in an activity that repulsed him just as it would repulse any other person. And at the end of all that, when what he needed most was her playful voice, her soft embrace, her towel, wiping the sweat from his brow...

...why couldn't she be a trifle more understanding?

His tone was accusing as he said, "You... you shouldn't have wandered that far. You should have remained where you were." He regretted his words instantly as he realized how selfish he was being. Zack continued, almost pleadingly, "You know that I'm from SOLDIER. You knew it even before we started going out, didn't you?"

"Yes, I knew," Aeris spoke in a placid tone. The microwave oven gave a little beep and Zack's lunch was retrieved from it. Aeris, with her back carefully turned carefully to Zack, undid the bundle and spread it out for him on the dining table. Zack went over wordlessly, and they sat down together at the table. During the course of the meal, Aeris never said a single word. The meat felt tasteless as it churned around in Zack's mouth.

He tried again.

"You shouldn't have seen what you saw. I'm really sorry about that. But..." The words tumbled out of his lips against his will. "You lived your whole life down here in the slums. This kind of scene... shouldn't it be second nature to you now?"

Aeris rose imperiously from her seat.

"You're right, Zack," Aeris replied, in a low, quiet voice that quite deafened their surroundings. "I've been a slum girl my whole life. I've seen just as many, if not more, things than you. I've lost count of the times I've heard the screams of women being raped and the crying of children when they get dragged off to the local brothel. I've lost more neighbours than you could ever know. I've stumbled across a fresh crime scene more than twice, and at least once a week I wake up in the middle of the night to someone kicking and wailing holy murder at someone's door. I've attended two funerals of kids who were beaten to death, and just the other day someone strew the remains of an abused cat at this very doorstep... I had been hearing it yowling for weeks now, two streets away..."

She paused for breath, her eyes boring into his.

"Not liking it, detesting it, hating it is just the tip of the iceberg. God forbid that this sort of thing should ever become 'second nature' to us. I've seen it all too often, Zack, but I'm not used to it – not at all. And if we ever get so used to it that all we do is look away and shrug at the sight, why..."

She sank back into her seat and laid her brow upon her hands.

"...that's the scariest thing of all..."

Zack stared at her; a yearning to apologize to her, over and over again, exploded within him... but he could see that she didn't need it, didn't want it. She didn't blame him at all. It wasn't he whom she blamed.

After an eternity of silence he got up and went over to the sink with his dishes. He scrubbed them without paying the least attention to what he was doing. He had been in her home so many times before; he could move around in her kitchen and find everything he needed with perfect ease. But that day was different. That day, he felt shame like nothing he'd ever experienced; he even felt himself unworthy of simple, habitual actions of replacing the utensils and plate in their respective drawers, back where they belonged. And when he walked into the bathroom and saw his hair, sticking out flamboyantly in various directions in the mirror, his sense of shame heightened. On impulse he flattened his hair and, when he washed his hands, he took longer than usual.

"I'll be off now," he said to Aeris as he passed her. Hesitation tugged at his heart; he had never had such a short stay in Aeris' home before. But she didn't protest as she walked him to the door. He had a glimpse of her eyebrow lifting as she caught sight of his ruined hairstyle, but she didn't comment on it. Instead, she tiptoed and laid a chaste little kiss on his cheek. It wasn't just brief. it was a mere obligation.

So that was all. And it was all.

For they put the entire incident behind them. The next day found Aeris waiting for Zack in her usual spot, with her bright smile and her playful voice and the wonderful basket of sandwiches she'd prepared for the both of them. In an instant, they were chatting away as animatedly as usual – and usual for them was conversing in a fashion akin to that of friends who had not seen each other in a thousand centuries. And, completely oblivious to the catcalls and whistles from dozens of nosy, envious, SOLDIER gazes, Aeris put her hand into Zack's, and away the pair walked, inseparable as always. Always...

But from then on, Aeris took care never to venture too far out.

(And, in truth, in a very short time she never had the chance to again.)