She should hate him, for all he did. But she hadn't. He had felt that. Just as he had felt judged. Felt lacking. And yet, at the same time, she had apparently seen something in him. A potential for more. Somehow she had, without a word, admonished him. Angeal had held his honor until it was stripped from him, but he had tried. Zack had lived by it every second he had known the young man.

And Genesis had to refind his own and live by it.

"As well she would be, with all we do to her. Forgive me, I am not so used to being forthright about it. Beyond the conversations turned to me by Weiss and Nero when I was retaken by Shinra, I do not believe I have had many conversations since that moment of her touch. I was not prepared to be seen with such tenderness."