Room 504, Monday Evening

[intraspective]

Ino had made it through the day. Between getting back, going to class, and talking to Tyler-sensei, she’d figured that whatever Hinata-chan said that she’d totally done her quota of being around and putting her schedule back on normal sort of tracks.

Of course, that’s when she made it back to her room, showered and wriggled into her jammies that Ino realized, depressingly, that she wasn’t sleepy. Making a phone call killed all of thirty seconds, and then she pulled out several gardening magazines and tried to start planning for Tyler-sensei’s flowers. Maybe she would go the love note route, just to make him facepalm.

Her door was left open, as a matter of course.

[Door and post are open! ETA: Anything mission related, beyond it happening, is NFB please!]

Comments

[intraspective]

Most of the time Ino had only about enough tact to fit into a thumbnail. But when it came to people-who-she-wanted-to-fix Ino had mountains and mountains of it. So the hug was totally not a show, even if it was her real goal there.

"Nah, that'd probably just give them more ammo to wail about how we're awful-bad people, and even if we are that gets annoying." She settled in next to him, just close enough to touch, but not enough to make it look like she was being all weird hopefully, as she casually flipped open her notebook and tugged the pen in the coils of it out. And stared at the blank page for a moment. A beat.

"You any good at love notes?" Ino could so supply nonsense for him right now.

[raspberryturk]

Well, that was a question right out of left field, wasn't it?

Reno blinked over at her, looking more than just a little confused.

"Never wrote one in my life. Why, you got a crush on someone?"

[intraspective]

"I've got crushes on loads of people, and have a boyfriend," she said airily. "No, this is 'cause I was talking to Tyler-sensei 'bout flowers and now have to do an arrangement for him and he said 'do what I want' and that it might look like I'm kissing up to him though I totally am not, 'cause he likes me anyway," well, it was true, "but I thought it would be funny, only I've never actually done one."

Ino tended to be more direct.

[raspberryturk]

Reno had to stare for another moment, and then he was biting his lip so that he wouldn't break into some kind of hysteric fit of giggling or something.

"A love letter for Mr. Durden," he repeated. Just to be sure he was getting this straight. "Oh, shit, you gotta put somethin' about how you adore the way his... I dunno. The way his biceps bulge when he's throwin' a punch. Or say somethin' about his eyes. Love letters always talk about people's eyes, for some dumb-ass reason, yo."

[intraspective]

"Yeah huh, him. 'Cause it proves you're paying attention to their face, or something?" she said dubiously while scribbling eyes down on the paper. "Uh. How I totally adore the way he fights...?"

Ino was a bit dubious there. "Even though he's still, like, a civilian... okay, maybe not that one, though he's not bad. Uh... maybe about explosions."

A pause. "Of love!" Now she was laughing.

[raspberryturk]

Reno was just barely containing his chuckle, then.

"And soap. You need to mention soap. Your love for him is fragile like the small crystalline soap bubbles on your fingers when you wash your hands. Or some junk."

He was so, so full of shit.

... Which was probably a good thing when one was drafting a love-letter to one's teacher.

[intraspective]

Yes, yes it was. If Tyler-sensei took this seriously, then Ino was never ever coming out of her room again. Except, possibly, to die of laughter.

"And smells orangey-fresh?" she said, giggling. "Though I've got mint happening lately, so maybe minty clean. Mmmm, toothpaste."

She chewed on her pen. "Something 'bout covered in pie? Anemone and I exploded a pie at him once, that's totally logical." Logical probably wasn't the word for it. "And how his intellect is akin to..."

"...I'm really bad at this. Maybe I ought to look it up on the internet, or something. Templates. There's got to be templates, right?"

[raspberryturk]

"Love-letter templates?" Reno tilted his head, thinking for a moment. "I guess so. If the internet has templates for resignations letters and junk, they probably have somethin' for a love letter, too, yo."

The internet had everything.

"And if it don't, then now that we mentioned it, someone out there is gonna make it exist. That's how the internet works, yo."

[intraspective]

"I'll have to check!" Another thing for work tomorrow. Ino was going to have a ridiculous amount of fun.

She grinned up at him.

"I was thinking, when it's done and I got the arrangement done I could sneak into his office and leave it." Ino twirled a bit of hair around one finger. "You know, use the excuse to check out for something a lot more interesting than a love letter."

[And a quick Googling has the first link for love letters leading to a site where they want you to pay for these templates. Heeeee.]

[raspberryturk]

"Somethin' hideous and purple," Reno noted, trying not to sound too hopeful.

He needed Smoochy-killing-therapy, something awful.

[Hee! I saw!]

[intraspective]

"Very," she said, beaming. "Which totally needs to be taught a lesson, you know. Before it completely forgets what we did to it the first time 'round. I was trying to think if there was a way to, like, hang it. You know, in the air, or something. Make a dramatic statement when we were done with it."

[raspberryturk]

"You know how to tie a noose?"

It was a very casual question, really. If Ino didn't know how, Reno certainly did.

[intraspective]

"Not that well," she admitted ruefully. "Learnt how years ago, never used it, so if you're offering a refresher course or something I'd love you forever."

She hummed. "And I get to buy knives for it," she said, almost dreamily. "Because that way I don't have to worry about my kunai giving the game away if we want to leave a few knives stuck in."

[raspberryturk]

"Tell you what, you teach me how to not kill a flower, and I'll teach you how to tie a noose and I'll spring for the knives, yo."

Buying weapons was fun.

And useful, all things considered. And probably wouldn't raise too many eyebrows after last week, for that matter.

[intraspective]

Weapons were in the top three of most awesome things to buy ever, really.

"I think that's a deal," she said, offering her hand so they could shake on it. "And I'll make sure you got seeds to get better at not killing, yeah." Ino hummed. "Totally going to be watching you anyway."

Ino knew he had more experience at torture and stuff than she did. So she'd watch and learn and revel in the learning from someone who didn't mind.

[raspberryturk]

"I think I'll consider myself lucky if I can get somethin' easy to grow," Reno decided, hesitating for a moment before shrugging and shaking her hand. He wasn't going to drag it to his mouth and start gnawing on it, he was fine. "What's easy? Beans? They make kids grow beans or somethin' around here, don't they?"

[intraspective]

She noted the hesitation, but didn't comment on it.

"Beans are easy," she said agreeably. "And you can get pole beans that're a better use of space, if that's limited, or the bush ones if space isn't such an issue. Their big thing is that they need warmth. They don't like it when it gets cooler. But they grow quick, and have a long harvesting period."

[raspberryturk]

Harvesting.

They were talking about food. Growing food, so that people could eat.

"How much soil they need to be able to grow all the way?"

This was suddenly very important, okay?

[intraspective]

"You plant the seeds about an inch, inch and a half deep or thereabouts, most exact depends on the type of bean but they're all around that," she rattled off with the ease of someone who has known this for ages. "Pole beans you plant 'bout six to eight inches apart, bush beans four to six inches apart and if it's super humid you've got to make them further apart so they can breathe better. A meter or so apart if you've got them on four-set wigwam--it's a kinda pole tower thing, to hold them up."

[raspberryturk]

"An' how much water do they need? And sun?"

Look, he wasn't adverse to digging up some dead chick's flower bed so that starving people in Edge could eat. Beans! Gardening! Having some kind of useful function. Reno could handle that. And the notion made him want to freak out less than he currently was.

[intraspective]

"They need 'bout an inch of water a week, a bit more when they haven't come out of the ground yet, if you're not sure, go for less--less is better than more for them. Sun, if it doesn't get too too hot, plant them where they get the full benefit of it, if it's a super hot area, plant them in partial shade."

Ino glanced at him. "Do you want me to write down a bunch of this, so you've got it all in writing later?"

[raspberryturk]

That was a somewhat enthusiastic nod.

"Yes. Please, yo. You kinda lost me back at 'inch of water.'" Reno? Green thumb? Not at all. "What other veggies are easy to grow, you know?"

[intraspective]

She made a bit of an amused face at that.

"I'll have a bunch written up for you then," Ino promised. "In easy-to-understand words. Radishes are really easy, so carrots are pretty good the first year, but the second year if you're not careful they'll get a lot of issues. Peas. Potatoes. Onions if you start them early enough. Lettuce and summer squash. There's quite a bit of fairly easy ones. Vegetables are way easier than fruit to grow for the most part, though tomatoes aren't bad either, if it's hot enough."

[raspberryturk]

Mental notes were failing him. He was too tired and too hungry to be able to keep it all straight.

"Make me a list? And before I graduate, I'll get seeds."

[intraspective]

"I'll make a list, more than one even," she promised him. She'd have to include pH types, how to test the soil, how much water for each, what was needed to start...

"And you'll have plenty to keep busy with, that's good for a load of people. You can set things up that while first year are a lot of work for little reward, start giving out a lot better second year too."