Room 504, Saturday Evening

[intraspective]

Ino had woken up at her normal ridiculous hour, freezing, and taken a long look outside before deciding that her clinic shift could go screw itself because Ino? Ino was not going outside in a blizzard. Even if, she'd realized as she'd hauled more blankets on to her bed and crawled back under the covers, the clinic probably had power and was warm. Clinics had things like back up generators and stuff, right? Eh, not worth the odds of getting lost and dying, no.

When she woke up a few hours later—warmer, but then enough blankets to drown in helped with that—Ino peeked out and swore when she realized what she really should have realized before. Her poor plants! It was funny how that got her out of her nest of blankets faster than anything else had as she went to work tacking up blankets over the window and wishing like anything that she had some way to keep her plants warm.

Poking her nose out the hall said that it was even worse out there and she shut her door tight and the shoved blankets at the bottom of it to keep any cold air from getting in. Then she went digging through her kit that she dragged around on missions and came up with a few glow sticks—snapping them got her some light, and if it was green light, well, it was better than nothing. Even if it was an absolute bitch to read by.

So, Ino spent her nibbling on chocolate and granola bars (she had ration bars but Ino was saving those for if this went on for longer than a day or two) alternately reading by glow stick and exercising because that got the blood moving and she could pretend she wasn't cold for a bit and fussing over her plants.

And hiding. But seriously, she was from the Fire Country. Snow and cold were not her friends. Ino curled up in about twelve blankets with another granola bar, another glow stick, and the play she'd picked up in Gaia.

Today sucked.

[Closed door but open post, yes.]

Comments

[puppy_fair]

"You were with me," Zack replied, grinning and nodding some more. The nodding, of course, served to better accommodate further snuggling, as it meant that he was leaning a bit more. Convenient! "And you're technically running ShinRa missions when we go out to hunt these things, so it makes sense that you should get a sample of this stuff now and again, too!"

[intraspective]

She could end up in his lap at this rate, hmmm.

Ino tugged at her hair, tucking a bit back behind one ear and laughed. "Since I'm helping with their work, they'll look the other way for things like that? I am totally all for taking advantage of that."

[puppy_fair]

"And you might as well! I mean, potions are easy enough to get, but not something that'll pull you back from the brink like that, you know? And ShinRa is usually so stingy about supplies in the first place, so take it while you've got it, totally."

Zack was planning on it. Every time he walked into that lobby, he stopped for a swig of potion, just to be on the safe side.

[intraspective]

That was good! One less thing for her to worry about his missions--at least he could die once and come back.

...Ino snickered at that thought and leaned in a bit more. "I admit," she laughed, "that I'm happier getting to see things normal civilians don't get to see. Like SOLDIER's floor and stuff--I do my best not to die and you watch out for me," that was going to get him a poke in the side, yes, "and I get to know things. I like knowing things."

[puppy_fair]

The poke in the side totally earned a snort and a squirm, yes!

"What kind of things would those be?" Asked the kid who was about as nosy as a puppy could possibly be, yes.

[intraspective]

"I gotta pick a specific?" Ino asked, grinning up at him. "Anything I can find out! If it's 'bout Gaia then I am all ears for anything. I don't know enough for it to be boring, you know?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack laughed and gave his head a shake. Which had the interesting effect of his chin resting against the side of her head by the time he was finished, yes.

It was warmer that way.

"Man, I so have to take you out looking for chocobo sometime, or something."

[intraspective]

Mmmm comfy. Ino sighed and snuggled and idly debated how to get into his lap without it being awkward. His lap would totally be warmer!

"I got to see a chocobo once!" she told him brightly. "Reno got turned into one and he gave out rides with a shopping cart."

[puppy_fair]

Oh, hey! Zack had seen that Reno guy before! He'd done a presentation at the reserves a few weeks ago!

... And now Zack was trying to picture the same guy with feathers. And he was laughing. His lap, meanwhile, was totally wide open for anyone who happened to want to be occupying it! Wasn't that convenient?

"I'm sorry I missed that! In a shopping cart? Really? Why didn't he just have people up on his back, instead?"

[intraspective]

"I don't know why," Ino admitted, oh so sneakily stealing his lap while he was laughing and neatly rearranging her blankets around them both. Much better! "But it was pretty awesome!"

And terrifying. Lucky Ino was all for awesome and scary being mixed.

[puppy_fair]

Oh, nice. Now that was cozy. And so, naturally, Zack was going to have to wrap his arms around Ino from here. Because it just fit better, that way. See? Warmer!

"It sounds awesome," he decided. "Is it bad that I want to find a chocobo so that I can try that, sometime?"

[intraspective]

It was very nice! Very cozy! And comfortable. She grinned up at him impishly and leaned back against him.

"It's only bad if you don't take me along," she decided. "I totally want to try it again."