"I think being normal is the greatest happiness."

Normal... huh.

Zack stared up unseeingly at the web of cracks that made up his ceiling. Normal. That word, of all words, something he could never become. Sure, he had his goal set on becoming a hero since childhood, but... normal.

Who ever wanted to be normal?

No one, he decided, turning onto his side. The army-issue cot groaned underneath his weight. It was every kid's dream, wasn't it? She'd said so herself- the hero who saves the world! Now that, that was something. You couldn't consider the Hero who Saved the World normal. He was special.

Special... but not weird.

"Ugh." He turned again, now on his stomach with his face down in the almost flattened pillow.

But the way she looked then- those bright green eyes downcast and her hands together in front of her- it touched him to the quick. He wanted to lie, wanted to deny with every fiber of his being that he was SOLDIER. Deny that he was working to be First Class in that very organization. He wanted to deny his very physical appearance; that bright blue obtained only from mako.

So that's how the civilians see us... he thought. Weird. Scary, even...

But- pretty she said, after getting a good look at him. He'd turned, leaned in playfully, and told her to get a good look. Asked her whether or not it looked like the sky- having gotten that comment from many others before. She'd said yes. And told him

If it's the sky I'm looking at, then I'm not afraid at all.

Zack tossed and turned, face-up again and staring at what he could've sworn was that same spot on the ceiling again. There was a mutual like between them; he knew it after that moment. The flower girl was interesting, purity in the slums like the proverbial diamond in the rough. He almost wanted to be normal, just for her.

But he attempt to soothe his troubled mind didn't work then, and it didn't work now. He didn't know what he would've said if his phone hadn't rang then. He'd said his goodbyes then, surprised when she asked if she would see him again. He left, with a promise that she would. Then he'd gone off on his abnormal life, even more abnormal recently with the whole Genesis issue cropping up at dozens of times a day.

Afraid of abnormality. That's what everyone was, really. He couldn't blame her, not really- she probably lived a sheltered life, away from all that fighting that she asserted the SOLDIERs loved so much. It's true- they were abnormal. He couldn't deny it, no matter how much he wanted to for her sake.

She'd see. Next time they met, he'd show her that inside, regardless of his big sword, muscle, and unnatural eyes- he could be close to what she defined normal as. But not quite. He'd be more.

Special.