Room 504, Tuesday Morning

[intraspective]

After first period Ino was back in her room, sprawled on her bed, and carefully making notes on how best to poison Logan-sensei for class on Thursday.

What? He’d pretty much told her to. Ino was only listening to his instructions.

And, well, playing with poisons was an excellent thing to focus her fury on.

...in her opinion anyway.

[Expecting one, but open. ETA: ...I know what day it is. Really. ^^;;]

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There was a knock on her door, a rather hesitant one.

[intraspective]

...perhaps a cocktail of poisons? Ino considered that, ignoring the knock for a moment before eyeing the door. It might be a good idea, if he could handle other things easily. Hmmmm.

"What?" Very much not with the friendly.

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He didn't open it; she should be able to hear him from behind.

"May I come in?"

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"If you want," she said flatly, not looking up from her notebook. "Whatever."

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He opened the door to peek in.

"I can leave if you'd rather. I was just hoping you could take care of some bruises for me. I don't want to get yelled at about it later."

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"Show me."

If anything though, her voice had gotten flatter. And she still hadn't looked up from her notebook.

Liir's hope of not getting yelled at was a dream really. A severely short-lived one.

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He nodded and stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. He put his ever-present bag down in front of it, more chance than modesty, before unbuttoning his shirt and pulling it off.

A sizeable portion of his side was quite an unfortunate plummy color, ringed in green. The marks sunk below his trousers and he pulled the edge down there to show the rest of it, which ran to his hip.

"One of the demons. Thankfully, I swerved before I hit a wall, but it was still rather inconvenient."

He walked over to her.

"I can see you fared rather well. Or you've taken care of your injuries. I'm assuming you stayed to fight the monsters? I didn't see you down there."

Radio had said it already. Best to get it done.

[intraspective]

Ino's face was expressionless, as much as it ever got, and her eyes blazed.

"Inconvenient." Like picking up a phone and calling her was? Niiice.

She sat up, setting her notebook aside, and concentrating her chakra to her hands.

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"Well, I don't have to feel it," he admitted, "but sometimes I forget and then it hurts. I also have to make sure I don't get too ridiculous. Pain is there for a reason, after all."

He looked to Ino, unsure of how he should act. He knew she was upset, but not what to do with it but to withstand the brunt of it.

"And I am sorry I didn't call. I was caring for a friend and working on my studies all yesterday and between the two, my head was a bit stuffed."

[intraspective]

...and she came last.

Right.

Fine.

"Fine." No, it really wasn't. "Come. Here."

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He moved closer so she could work on him.

"Unless I miss my mark, I think I might have figured my way around the problem I was having with making your broom," he told her. "That's what I was working out yesterday, a third possibility. I was stuck until Sunday."

He looked down.

"If I tell you about Sunday, will you want to beat me about the head more or less?"

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Sunday wasn't the main problem. Not by a long shot.

"Who cares about Sunday?" Ino scathed, hands going out to cover his side. Chakra infused with healing intent glowing softly.

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"Well, I'm assuming that you're upset that I got hurt and by extension, probably even more upset that I got myself into a situation where I'd get hurt.

"Or have I entirely missed something?"

A pause.

"I really am sorry about the phonecall, Ino. And just after I bothered you over it. I hope I didn't worry you too much."

[intraspective]

Yeah. Missed it by a mile.

"You," Ino said, "are a moron right now." Really now. If she had to explain it, then it wasn't worth it.

She wasn't worth it. Thanks. Nice to know where she stood.

Fine.

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"I'm a moron usually, Ino, but unless you tell me what's the matter, I'm not going to know," he pointed out.

[intraspective]

That just made her foul mood even fouler.

"If you can't figure it out, then obviously it's not important enough to you."

Slowly the bruises were healing.

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He pulled away from her hands, stepping back a few feet.

"If I can't figure it out, it's because I don't know how to figure these things out, Ino. All you've done is be angry with me and told me I'm wrong.

"Unless you'd like to go through an extended list of the ways in which I'm an idiot to see which one is aggravating you, telling me will work a lot better than glaring at me."

His own eyes looked like they were glaring, just a bit.

"And the idea that I don't care is the single stupidest thing that's ever come out of your mouth. Of course I care about what's bothering you! You're you, for Ozma's sake."

[intraspective]

“It’s obvious,” she said, letting the glow of chakra fade, and knowing that her concentration was shot for it. “It’s obvious.”

He was lying. Had to be. Hadn’t he proved that with his actions even if his words kept saying the opposite?

She was last again. Always winding up last.

She turned away, going back to her notebook, still furious but half sad too. “Get out.” She didn't need this, didn't need him lying to her.

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"No!"

And Liir actually raised his voice. He raised his voice and he moved to grab her notebook.

No.

"No," and he was beyond snapping. This-- this--

Not another one. No. No, I'm not losing her. I can't. I can't. She's the only one. She's the only one.

The only one I believe in.

NO.

"It's not fucking obvious, Ino," he told her. "And I'm not getting out. If you want me out, you'll have to kill me because I'm not leaving any other way."

He looked ridiculous, still half-bruised, shirtless, eyes wild. But there was no way in any hell, visited or not, that he was going to let anything just sit. Not with Ino. He'd tried to just let an argument settle out and he'd lost Andrew for his mistake.

He couldn't lose Ino.

[intraspective]

"Leave me alone!"

She let him have the notebook, it wasn't the important one, not the one she'd fight for because having that much of her weaknesses read by anyone meant that she wouldn't be able to hide... no. It was just a notebook, with notes on her garden, and on her poisons for class.

It was expendable, if it had to be.

"Go talk to Michael! Go talk to Amber! Just leave me alone! You don't get it!"

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He put it down when she let it go and closed his mouth. Go talk to Michael? Talk to Amber?

What the hell did that mean?

He glared at her.

And sat on the floor.

"I'll be here when you feel like explaining. Till then, I'm not going anywhere."

[intraspective]

It meant everything, anything, all of it. He'd stayed there, made her breakfast, couldn't be bothered to call the little sister, couldn't be assed to talk to her when she'd glared at him in class yesterday...

Everything.

"You'll be waiting a while," she said, going for her desk and grabbing up her purple notebook, the important one, and hugging it close to her. "Because I shouldn't have to explain this."

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"Why? When I'm upset, when I'm freaking out, when I'm angry, when I'm sad, when I'm crying, when I'm screaming, I have to explain to you. I have to explain because you need to know so you can help me fix it.

"So afford me the same chance.

"There are things about me you don't understand. How I see things. How I feel things. Why is it so hard to consider that I don't know how you see things, how you understand things? I'm trying, Ino. I'm thinking and I'm worried and I'm willing to do anything, anything just to make up whatever stupid thing I've done but you won't give me the first idea.

"And that's bullshit."

He stood up.

"I'm not leaving this, Ino. I don't care if I have to go without sleep, without water, miss class, miss work; I don't care.

"You're the only person I have, you're the only person I believe in in this or any world. The only one. And if you want nothing more to do with me, that's fine. I've had everything I ever cared about destroyed before."

He moved towards her.

"But I'm not going to let you go without knowing what I did wrong. Maybe Karal is right, but I won't."

[intraspective]

"You're lying," she said, shaking her head, clinging to her notebook, the words small compared to the ringing in her ears though by the end of it she was nearly shouting. "You're lying, lying, lying!"

The window was open. He could guard either the door, or the window. Not both at once. She wasn't trapped.

But it felt like she was. Lying, lying, lying.

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He listened and he stood and he didn't react.

"I'm not."

He swallowed around a bulge in his throat.

"I'm not, Ino. I swear. I don't have anything to swear on, but I swear. I swear on the broom, Ino. On the cloak. On the green under my skin and the diamonds I'll never wear. On the Grimmerie, on Kumbricia's nose, on Lurline's toes, Ino...

"If you hate me, go. If you can't stand me, go. But if you're upset because you think you don't matter to me--"

He breathed out and closed his eyes.

"I don't know how to prove it to you, Ino. Ask me to prove the sky is blue, that grass is green, that the sun is warm, that water is wet. It's the same."

"You're the only person I really, truly, completely believe in.

"It's the same."