intraspective | Room 504, Sunday Morning

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Room 504, Sunday Morning

Ino had flowers! Ino was being an absolute dork over them as she went about trying to arrange them just so and giggling at the note that Zack had left her with the flowers from him. She had the radio broadcast playing as she paid an absent sort of attention to it.

She was all pleased that he'd actually looked up the meanings of the flowers before sending them out. And they were friends, so he'd been right about the weir--

Ino blinked at the radio.

Date? Her and Zack? What?

"We're just friends!" she protested, covering her eyes briefly and giggling madly.

... She'd probably be giggling as she fussed with her flowers for quite awhile, yes. They were just friends! Really!

It was a very giggly morning, all things considered.

[Open door, open post, sure!]

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He totally remembered the burgundy roses.

He was making that strategic tapdance around them in order to discuss harmony, instead! He was nice that way.

"It is! Give us a little bit of time, and we won't even have to say anything before we flank an enemy and take it down!"

He was very nice! He could keep being nice? Ino approved of the nice.

"And we're getting stronger too," she said, bouncing a bit at that. "So we'll be able to take on more kinds of enemies and stuff!"

"I'll be taking you out and around The Planet in no time," Zack agreed, with a cheerful bounce of his own. "Was there anywhere in particular that you wanted to visit? It doesn't all have to be on the same continent as Midgar, I mean. Not since we can just buy portals right to where we wanna go!"

"Does everywhere count?" Ino asked curiously. "I want to see Gongaga! And Costa del Sol! And Cosmo Canyon and Mideel and everywhere!"

Her frequent portaller points were going to get wracked up astonishingly fast if she had her way, yes.

"It's been years since I've been to Gongaga," Zack noted, sobering up slightly with the mention of his hometown, but only for a heartbeat. "I should probably get back there sometime. Show my parents that I'm doing alright for myself, and all of that."

Yes, Zack. Or, you know, even writing them a letter to say, 'Guess what, Mom and Dad! I'm not dead!' would be nice.

She tilted her head at that.

"I'm sure they'd like a visit?" Ino suggested, a bit tentatively--she didn't know. Why would someone like Zack not be visiting his parents? "I mean, if you wanted to go."

It really was the principle of the matter. You don't just drop everything, announce that you're going to get out of this boring town in order to join SOLDIER and become a great hero like Sephiroth, and then leave, just to swing on by with the job half done.

He'd had a point to prove.

"They might," he admitted. "You'd probably like my Mom, too. Although she'll probably invite you to join the family or something."

That was just the way his mom was. It was kind of embarrassing, actually.

Ino blinked at him.

"Invite me to join your family? Like, what? A sister?"

She didn't want to be Zack's sister.

...

"Yes, Ino. Just like that."

LOOK, IT WAS SAFER THIS WAY.

She didn't often get that tone from Zack, no.

Ino stared at him more.

"Seriously?"

She wasn't asking about the sister bit with that question.

Aaaand that would be a facepalm.

"Seriously," he mumbled into his hand. The hand which was totally there just to conceal just how pink he was going right now.

Your ears are still showing, Zack.

See, now Ino was going to get off her bed to see if she could tug his hand away from his face.

"Guess that started pretty early, huh?"

"I left home when I was, like, twelve," Zack stressed, still a delightfully rosy shade as his hand was pried away from his face. "That's just how Mom is."

Again, don't get him wrong, he loves his parents and all... But.

"I bet she just wants you to be happy," Ino said, not letting go of his hand. She could keep it for awhile, right? "And maybe thinks you're rather hopeless with girls."

Teasing, teasing.

"Twelve," Zack said again, laughing a bit. "Twelve, Ino! I'm allowed to be helpless with girls at twelve!"

The trouble was that not much had really changed in the way Zack went about trying to pick girls up, since.

Ino rather doubted much had changed but figured that saying that would be rather untactful.

Especially since she didn't actually have a problem with his girl difficulties. Shut up.

"True," she said, tugging him over to her bed. "Maybe it was the fact you were trying at that age that concerned her?"

Or maybe his mom was just a bit weird, but.

"I think she just wants grandchildren," Zack informed Ino oh-so-dutifully as he made his way over to her bed as she tugged. "Besides that, though? She's a good mom. They're both good parents."

And then, because he felt that it was worth repeating?

"You'd like them."

"I'd like to meet them," she said, flopping down beside him and smiling at the flowers she'd gotten. "Forewarned and forearmed and so even if she asks I won't be caught off guard, you know?"

"That makes sense to me," Zack agreed, looking over the flowers and smiling thoughtfully at them.

He should have gotten her a burgundy one, too. And some white, to go with the yellow. Harmony. He liked that.

"Think they'd be disappointed that I'm not a great hero yet or anything?"

"No," she said honestly. "I don't think so, not if they're good parents. You're doing well--getting considered for 1st! And... I just think, if you visited, they'd just be glad to see you, you know?"

Family was important.

Zack gave a bit of a thoughtful nod, and then he kind of oozed sideways to bump his shoulder against hers.

"Thanks," he said. "Maybe I'll write them a letter, to let them know I'm thinking of visiting."

She giggled and bumped him back.

"Let me know what they say?" she asked, grinning up at him. "And now you have to tell me what you were thinking while you picked my flowers."

Because she could subject change as well as he could, really.

And Ino was kinda curious. She could guess what he'd meant but there were several interesting subliminal messages in them.

Oh, that was mean, Ino.

"Well, the yellow meant friendship, and the orange was, like, energy and stuff like that, wasn't it?"

There was more there than just that, Zack, and you know it.

"That's one meaning of both of them," she conceded, shifting so staring up at him wasn't quite so hard on her neck. Angles were fun that way. "But that's not what I asked."

So mean, yes.

"Well, that's what I was thinking about," Zack replied, shrugging. Awwwwkward. "I mean, about our friendship, and how easy it is to just hang out with you. That kinda thing."

And how nice it was when they just sat around, holding hands and stuff. And how He maybe wanted to just sit around, holding hands and stuff more often.

"My memory's a little fuzzy," he added, after a moment spent trying not to blush too much. "What does the burgundy mean, again?"

He knew full well what the burgundy had meant.

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