Yamanaka Ino (Iris)

The nice thing about playing with a puppy for most of the day was that, once she’d gotten back to their room, Zack had conked out fast and hard in a pile of limbs and fuzzy ears on the edge of their bed. Which meant that, until he woke up, she had the freedom to think and do what she wanted to.

Which, tonight, was a matter of finishing her e-mails. It was the matter of seconds to actually send them after proofing them one more time, and then Ino just leaned back against the headboard and frowned thoughtfully, absently toying with her hair.

It was weird, now, to not have something to write as a goal. ‘Sending out the e-mails’ had been a good way to have something to focus on that made her feel like she wasn’t going to suffocate under her worries.

Nothing to stop that now.

[Ooopen door, open post, yes!]

Ino was practically vibrating with a mix of excitement and sudden, last minute, worry that Liir wouldn’t like what she’d plotted decided to do for his birthday.

She paced the width of the Causeway and hoped it’d go well. It had better go well or she’d, she’d…

She’d think of something. Shut up.

Either way, Ino waited impatiently in the early morning for the rest of them to, you know, show up so they could go.

[For those that know who they are! Anything said on the Causeway is FB, anything past that is NFB due to distance zomg. Wait for the OCD is up!]

Ino had a ball, and a bathing suit, and was in generally a really great mood.

And why not?

They were in a totally beautiful place and she'd skipped out of work.

"Lana!" Ino chirped, spinning lightly and laughingly tossing the ball. "Catch!"

[For the one that convinced her to cut work!]

It had been a long day. Emotionally exhausting and she was feeling worn and fragile on the inside. Not that she'd ever admit it.

"...you're good to me."

That was Lana. This one she could believe. Ino didn't know why, didn't get it, not at all--but she could believe that Lana did for some reason think it. Hers was not to question why. Just... accept. Even if it was hard to understand. Three weeks of no talking and then--that.

"I appreciate it."

Cable-san. She--she wanted to believe it. More than, more than quite a lot--never more than anything, because then next thing you knew anything would come up and prove you wrong--more than most things right now. She wanted to believe it.

And, and--she couldn't.

Ino stared up at her ceiling, flat out on her bed and had to fight--really fight--not to cry. A few tears slipped out anyway.

She didn't get it. None of it. What was wrong with people?

[Establishy.]