Room 504, Thursday Evening

[intraspective]

Ino had whined at her dad until he'd sent her weapons catalogues, and getting a lengthy lecture on how she wasn't to take up anything that would have her neglect her other studies (ha, as if) and was sprawled out in her favourite jammies flipping idly through the magazines and pausing on a page that detailed some of the types of unbreakable wires they had.

Interesting, she admitted, making a note to go back and maybe get some more wire later, but really, she needed a weapon that was better for close range.

Humming idly along to Ikimono-gakari, she flipped the next page, and kicked her feet idly. It was totally a nice relaxing way to spend an evening. Dorky music and weapons—how better?

[Ooopen door and post, yes.]

Comments

[intraspective]

... Well, it really depended on why you were grinding; getting out richer might be the whole point.

Of course, getting out alive was probably supposed to be a higher priority. But.

Ino was still a bit sulky, despite the snuggling. "You’d better find one," she answered, fiddling with her hair. "As I don’t think three Phoenix Downs will get you far ‘gainst enemies like that—if they get you anywhere to start with against a spell that causes death."

It wasn’t like she knew, after all.

[puppy_fair]

"Oh, the phoenix downs would work," Zack assured her, and if she was going to fiddle with her hair... Well. He'd help. It was nice hair. And all... Right there and stuff.

And he'd always kinda wondered what having long hair would be like, but this was probably the closest he'd ever get to keeping it longer than he already did, he was fairly certain.

"Once. I'll definitely hunt down a Safety Bit before going out on missions like that, no worries."

He just had no idea where to start.

[intraspective]

Oh. Oh, that was nice. He could keep playing with her hair forever, really.

"Can you buy them?" she asked, relaxing against him. "We could go fight a whole lot to save up for them if that's the case."

Keeping Zack alive equalled a very good excuse to go and kill stuff.

[puppy_fair]

"I think you can," Zack mused, looking at the ceiling thoughtfully while his fingers twined through her hair some more. "In Rocket Town, or something like that. And that's probably not the only way to find one. I mean, there are chests out there, and stuff. You never know what you'll find!"

... Though, granted, if you were to guess "a potion," you'd be right at least half of the time.

[intraspective]

Ino really couldn't keep up a sulk for long when he was there, and playing with her hair, and nowhere near instant death spells that made her frown and scowl and worry.

She knew he could fight. But an instant death spell was... not something he could fight against. That wasn't fair. She didn't like it. (The fact that the world was not fair was being absolutely ignored.)

... Ino wondered idly if she could get Reno to find her a Safety Bit. If he would.

"Rocket Town," she voted. "To see the space ships and stuff that're in progress! That's where they are, right?"

[puppy_fair]

There was a very good chance that Reno would. If he didn't know that it was supposed to be for Zack. He was nice, that way.

"That's where they are," Zack agreed, grinning. "They look kind of neat, you know? Put a man into space, see what's out there... I mean, we know there's stuff out there. It's hard not to when you go to school here. But ShinRa doesn't know that."

[intraspective]

Ino could lie.

... She just needed to think up an excuse to need one for herself. Hmm.

"We know there's stuff out there here," she agreed, smiling up at him. "But it's different--seeing it going 'bout the process of happening for the first time. That's exciting."

Also, Ino could rattle off the information they'd had about the space program in the exhibit room off by heart. Ino had loooved that thing.

[puppy_fair]

It was all rocketshippy! That had been kinda neat!

... Zack's priorities were a smidgen different from Ino's on that matter, possibly.

"And there's always the whole different universes thing, right? So maybe what's out there past Gaia is completely different from anything that we've seen here in Fandom." He paused for a moment, and then he laughed. "If some ShinRa astronaut lands on Fandom Island sometime soon, claiming he's discovered another planet with intelligent life, I'm going to just laugh, I think."

A lot. Because he'd totally found it before they did.

[intraspective]

Quite possibly! But as long as they were both excited over it, it didn't really matter.

Ino laughed at that. "So you've claimed it in the name of ShinRa?"

[puppy_fair]

"Unless Yuffie has claimed it in the name of Wutai already," Zack reasoned. "Do you think she beat me to it?"

It was entirely possible, with Yuffie!

[intraspective]

"She's not here right now, right?" Ino said logically. "So if she made a claim then she totally forfeits it."

[puppy_fair]

"Clearly, this means that I need to make a little flag and stick it into the dirt at the beach somewhere before she comes back."

Hey, Zack logic was just as functional as Ino logic!

[intraspective]

They had perfectly logical logic, yes. To them.

"Oooh!" Ino grinned at that. "We could design one? Or, I suppose, it ought to have the ShinRa logo on it?"

[puppy_fair]

"Though I'm pretty sure that the SOLDIER logo is easier to draw," Zack mused. He would have tapped the logo on his... girdle thing... but there was important snuggling to be done.

And important hair-playing-with to be done, too. Zack was now attempting to braid a few strands of Ino's hair. Because they were there, and kind of fascinating.

[intraspective]

"So it'd be claimed in the name of SOLDIER instead? We can totally do it that way."

It didn't take her long to figure out that he was playing more purposefully with her hair than just petting and running his fingers through it and she laughed softly.

"Having fun?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack stopped for a moment, blinking. Blushing. They went hand-in-hand quite well that way, yes.

And then, after a moment, he sort of shrugged off the blush and resumed what he was doing, smiling a little to himself.

"Yeah, actually." See? He was terrible at braiding, but it was cute. In a sort of loose and haphazard sort of way. He'd probably do better if he lost the gloves. "Should I stop?"

[intraspective]

"Don't stop," she said, shaking her head very slightly and smiling softly. "I like it. Nobody's played with my hair in quite a while."

And it was Zack. With whom she was friends with.

Yes.

[puppy_fair]

"It's pretty," Zack decided, in his own friends-with-Ino sort of way.

Give him a moment, and he'd have his hand out of his glove. Because see, it was one thing to play with pretty hair. It was totally another thing to be able to feel it directly under your fingers while you were doing so.

"And soft," he added. Because that seemed important just then.

FRIENDS.

[intraspective]

Totally just friends!

Mmm. "You can do that for forever," she decided, closing her eyes. "Seriously."

[puppy_fair]

"I'll give it my best attempt," Zack decided, and now he was losing his other glove, too. All the better for playing with Ino's hair, after all. "But I can't make any promises that I won't fall asleep somewhere around maybe day four."

He was kind of like the Energizer Bunny, yes. Why?

[intraspective]

"You can sleep when I'm sleeping," she told him, a melty relaxy Ino curled up against him. Haaappy. "That way there's breaks and stuff."

She was generous!

"...Unless I'm dreaming poorly," Ino continued, not really thinking about what she was saying. "Then you might want to keep it up."

[puppy_fair]

"I guess that means I'm supposed to watch you while you're sleeping, or something, huh?" Zack was paying enough attention to the situation as a whole, around playing with the hair in his hands, to be able to pause and raise an eyebrow a little. "Creepy."

[intraspective]

Her laugh shook her shoulders at that. "Wouldn't you be anyway, if you were doing it for days on end?"

[puppy_fair]

Huh. She did have a point, there.

"Maybe I'll have to learn how to braid hair in my sleep..."

Or, you know, how to braid hair in general.

[intraspective]

Ino wasn't going to stop with the shaking shoulders anytime soon, no.

"I give you permission to practise on me," she said generously. "But maybe try it while you're awake first."

While she was awake too, for that matter, just so she could get the full benefit of it.

...Totally just friends. Absolutely.