Room 504, Sunday Night

[intraspective]

She'd been alright getting back to the island. Holding it together and keeping a bounce in her step. She'd managed, even, to get through a shower--and was she ever glad to have a real shower again--but it was looking around her room, her things just as she'd left them--

Less than a week ago. More than seven months ago.

--that was making it hard for her to keep her composure. Ino settled herself--thinner than before but still herself--gingerly on her bed, her unfamiliar and yet almost too familiar bed, in a plain white shirt and grey leggings. Ino shrugged a bit, picking at the shirt.

She wasn't ready to sleep yet. Not now.

Not when things kept swirling around in her head. The quick patter of thoughts, persistent and aching, not letting her close her eyes and relax. Ino hadn't relaxed in months, not really, not daring to.

She was glad to be back. Seriously.

But it'd take time for her to be comfortable again.

[Door closed, post is oh so totally open!]

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[intraspective]

She laughed a little, softly, almost under her breath. "Must've been boring, I guess."

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

"Well, everybody was worried about you guys. Looking through history books and stuff once we knew you were in the past, trying to find out where you'd gone."

[intraspective]

"Yeah," she blinked up at him, "it just seems rather boring to me, I guess. Not much with researching. I'm glad though that they got us back. So glad."

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

"You and me both", he said sincerely. "I heard some people found stuff that said people'd died in the past. Not gonna happen now, anyway."

[intraspective]

Ino shuddered a bit. "That would've been awful if we'd been stuck there permanently. I can't imagine it."

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

"You don't have to", he reminds her. "But you'd have got by."

[intraspective]

"Maybe," she said, "but there's a different between living and living."

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes you have to take what you can get."

[intraspective]

"I'm bad at that," she retorted amicably.

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

Michael laughed.

"Then you'd have found a way to get yourself living, wouldn't you?"

[intraspective]

"It would suck," Ino said firmly, "because there's no way to replace people that you miss. But I'd, yeah, probably. Lived a little anyway."

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

"That's my girl."

He gave her a quick squeeze with the arm around her.

[intraspective]

...

...

Ino settled for blinking at him. Startled.

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

Michael snuck a look sideways at her on her silence.

"...well, I mean", he said tentatively. "If you want to be. I know there's Kabuto."

[intraspective]

Ino hadn't stopped leaning against him. That was, at least, a good sign. The complete and utter shock on her face probably said a fair bit about how little she'd been expecting something like that though.

"I...." She'd just come back from seven months away and had to deal with this? Ino shook her head, trying to clear it, and swallowed. Then said honestly, because he said he'd wanted to know when she just couldn't deal. "I, I can't deal with this right now." Her lip trembled. "Not tonight. I just can't."

Couldn't she just rest for a day or two before having to make up her mind?

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

"Okay", he said, nodding slowly. "Didn't mean to make it a right now thing."

He'd never really had anything like a relationship before.

[intraspective]

"Not your fault I can't deal," Ino said, shaking her head, "just... not after the last few mon--the last week?--I don't know. Not right now. Give me a little time, I'm sorry. Time's always what I'm asking for."

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

"And it's what you'll get", he said, stroking her back soothingly. "We'll see what happens."

[intraspective]

"Sorry," she said ducking her head, "it must be a pain to put up with me sometimes."

And, almost resentfully, far far under the surface of her thoughts, where she barely even registered the feeling, came the fact that she didn't much like having to apologize for things all the time. And it kept happening around him.

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

"But I'm still here", he pointed out. "It's not that much of a pain."

[intraspective]

"I won't pretend to know why, but I won't ask either," she said, smiling a little, "you're not the boy I fish for compliments from and that'd be too much like fishing for me."

No. That was Liir. And that was purely for the entertainment of them both.

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

That got another quiet laugh.

"I'm not good at compliments, anyway."

[intraspective]

Her smiled widened, just a bit. "Bug Liir sometime for ideas if you feel the need, but don't you dare try his compliments, word-for-word on me. Only he can get away with what he calls me."

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

"That would be too obvious", he protested. "You'd know. Maybe I will bug him for ideas, but for now I guess I'll just have to go with staying here as long as you want me."

[intraspective]

"Ask him 'bout what he calls me. You'll laugh, I know it." She rested her head against him lightly, then said firmly. "Only until you're sleepy. Just because I can't sleep doesn't mean you shouldn't have a full night's rest."