Room 504, Sunday Afternoon

[intraspective]

Zack had the crazy idea to let the baby chicobo go and Ino and sulked and pouted and kissed the wee bird and informed him that he couldn't sleepover anymore ever if he managed to get rid of it.

She was pretty sure he hadn't even heard her since he'd already been out the door and rambling at Mister Chocho. So Ino was going to spend the afternoon talking to the plants in the room and making sure they were all watered just exactly as her Daddy had taught her.

Being Ino, she wasn't doing that bad of a job considering her age. She did know her plants.

And they were getting a very grave recitation about why boys were stupid and boys who wanted to get rid of something as adorable as the chicobo were even stupider.

(… Sorry, Zack.)

[puppy_fair's leaving modded with permission. Open door and post!]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

Well, Reno's phone call to Elena yesterday had been... interesting.

Once he managed to get his head around that, he couldn't help but think that calling up one of his other rookies in order to give them a hard time could be fun, right?

And that was why Ino's phone was ringing. Because either she was her normal age and he could laugh at her for being mobbed by children, or else she was tiny, and he could laugh anyhow.

[intraspective]

There was... something ringing! Ino stopped her recitation of Zack's faults to the daffodils and went to see what it was.

Ringing, ringing, ringing!

She poked at the phone-thing (it was tiny! the ones at home were way bigger and Ino knew they were expensive because very few people had them) and wondered if she was supposed to answer it. Well, if it wasn't for her they could call back sometime else?

And this seemed to be her room, somehow, because she had notebooks written! ... That she could barely read, when it came to the English ones. Bilingual reading and writing was a work-in-progress when you were only seven.

She managed to answer the phone mostly by luck. "Hello?"

Her voice definitely sounded a lot younger than she normally did.

[raspberryturk]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Reno cracked a grin at the voice on the other end of the phone.

"Ino, that you?"

Awwwwww.

[intraspective]

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.

Ino was trying to decide if she was supposed to answer that honestly or not. Daddy hadn't really covered what to say on phones and the Academy hadn't said anything about them either.

"Maybe," she hedged. "Who're you?"

[raspberryturk]

Awwwwww, paranoid little Ino was too damn cute for words already.

If all Reno managed to get out of this conversation was three sentences and some more paranoia before he was hung up on, this would still be worth the long distance charges, damn it.

"Reno, of the Turks, yo." A pause, and then it was time to come up with some sort of randomness, because messing with little kids was fun. "Callin' to see if your refrigerator's runnin'."

Classic. And really stupid. But classic.

[intraspective]

Ino's frown deepened.

"Don't got a 'frigerator here," she said dubiously. "Why would you be calling for that?"

[raspberryturk]

"Dunno," Reno admitted with a shrug. "S'my job."

No, it really, really wasn't. "You keepin' outta trouble, Ino?"

[intraspective]

"I'm watering my plants," she informed him. Because that was safe enough, right? There were plants everywhere.

A beat.

"And tellin' them how stupid boys are." Braaat. She was talking to a boy and she still said that.

[raspberryturk]

"All boys, ever, are stupid," Reno snorted, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling. "Damn right. Did some stupid boy do somethin' to you, yo?"

And now he was being nosy. As Renos were wont to be, yes.

[intraspective]

"Can you keep a secret?" she asked, wriggling up on the bed to flop. "And Daddy would want me to ask if you're an enemy. Are you?"

... Her Dad probably hadn't meant for her to ask that way. But at least she was thinking about it?

[raspberryturk]

Reno's inner thought processes were now grinding to a halt so that he wouldn't think on that statement so hard that he could crack the hell up right there on the phone. Or go 'awwwww' aloud. Either would be a bad idea right now.

Still, awwwwww. Hee.

"Totally on your side, kiddo," he assured her. "And I cross my heart I can even keep a secret, yoto."

[intraspective]

She chewed on her lower lip.

Then--

"Zack is stupid," she said mulishly. "The stupidest."

[raspberryturk]

YES!

Wait. First find out the reason why Zack is the stupidest before rejoicing that the rookie is calling him names, Reno. She's got to be, like, four. Kids that age can think boys are dumb for plenty of reasons.

"What did he do, yo? Do I gotta take away his cookies an' send him to bed without a story or somethin'?"

[intraspective]

"He wants to send Mister Chocho back," she complained. Whined. Sulked. "And Mister Chocho should stay here forever."

[raspberryturk]

...

...

...

"Who's Mister Chocho, again?"

Welcome to a conversation with a child, Reno.

[intraspective]

"He's our chocobo! Only he's a baby so Zack says he's a chicobo," she said, happy to talk about that much. "Zack did a funny dance an' had a feather and then Mister Chocho showed up but he was stuck in the bushes and we saved him and fed him flowers and he's adorable and I wanna keep him forever but Zack is dumb and said he should go 'way and left with him."

Yes, that was all in one breath. Sorry, Reno!

[raspberryturk]

They... summoned a chicobo?

Reno blinked. Hey, if he'd known that he could summon things while on the island, he totally would have tried that, too.

"You got a place to keep Mister Chocho when he grows up?"

Go on, Reno. Try to be the voice of reason.

[intraspective]

"In my room," she informed him, with all the carefully planning of... a child. "We made him a nest of blankets!"

It was a devastatingly well-thought out plan, could he tell?

[raspberryturk]

Oh, it totally was.

Reno facepalmed, thankful that Ino couldn't see the gesture.

"And you're feedin' him flowers?"

Really?

[intraspective]

"Uh huh," she said, bouncing up to make sure Mister Chocho's bed was still here. It was. "He likes the prettiest ones the best."

[raspberryturk]

Just give your head a shake, Reno. Shake it.

"You know what chocobos like even more than they like flowers?"

[intraspective]

...

...

"Hugs and kisses?" she tried.

[raspberryturk]

"... Probably," Reno conceded. They were pretty affectionate birds, once you got to know them. "And fruits and vegetables. They're better for 'em than flowers are, yo."

If she was hell-bent on keeping the chocobo, he was going to do his best to make sure she didn't accidentally kill it before Monday.

[intraspective]

"Like how they're better than candy for me?" she said, then added, "Mommy says so anyway. But candy doesn't hurt me so flowers won't hurt him, right?"

You should never tell a child something is good for them, Reno. Invariably that backfires.

[raspberryturk]

Yeah, Reno really should have seen that one coming.

"Until he eats too many any gets a baby bird tummy ache," Reno replied. And then rolled his eyes toward the ceiling upon the realization that he'd just uttered the phrase, 'baby bird tummy ache.'

He blamed Fandom.

[intraspective]

That, however, was something that would work on her.

She didn't want Mister Chocho to get sick, after all. "... Would he like apples?"

[raspberryturk]

"If they're cut up small enough that he can get his beak around 'em," Reno agreed. And then, as an afterthought, he added, "Get a grownup to help you cut the apples, though."

[intraspective]

...

"I'm a big girl!" she cried, outraged. "I have weapons!"

[raspberryturk]

... Oh. Well. Crap. Think fast, Reno.

"Yeah, but can you reach the countertop?"

[intraspective]

... No.

"That's what stools and climbing are for," she said, with reasonable indignation in her voice. That was a no, no she couldn't reach the countertop yet.

[raspberryturk]

"With a hungry chocobo underfoot?"

See, now he was just grasping at straws, here.

[intraspective]

...

"Mister Chocho would be good," she said sulkily.

That was almost her conceding he maybe had a point.

[raspberryturk]

"Maybe once you train him better," Reno replied, shrugging. And not pointing out that this all depended on Zack not doing something idiotic like stranding it alone in the preserve.

[intraspective]

Zack was banned from sleepovers if he did that.

"Do you know how to train him?" she asked. She could get tips!

[raspberryturk]

"Positive reinforcement," Reno suggested. "Tell it to do somethin', and when it listens, give it a scratch behind the ears, yo."

The... earholes? Whatever. It was a bird.

[intraspective]

"I can do that," she replied, beaming. "It makes the cutest noises when you do that!"

She was a little girl, shut up.

"But now you see why Zack is stupid? Stupidest. He's not allowed to get rid of Mister Chocho."

[raspberryturk]

"He's a pretty dumb kid," Reno agreed, and at least that much came easily to him. "Ain't much out there better'n a chocobo to keep you company. especially if you raise 'em from chicobo, yo."

Like the ones that he'd gotten for himself and Rikku. Only theirs were cooler.

They were blue.

[intraspective]

"I'm goin' to steal his slippers," she confided. "Even if he comes back and still has Mister Chocho with him. That'll show him."

Also, that probably let Reno know that they were sharing a room and saw little problem with that. Oops.

[raspberryturk]

... Yep. There was the forehead slap yet again. And a sigh. Neither of which, Reno was trying to hide anymore.

"Been havin' sleepovers, have you?"

Gods help him.

[intraspective]

"It's more fun than being 'lone," she said, nodding. "And when he's not being stupid he's pretty okay."

[raspberryturk]

Yep. There went the planet.

"You don't think he's doing what he's doing because he thinks that Mister Chocho'll be happier that way, yo?"

[intraspective]

"Mister Chocho was happy this morning," she said, with conviction. Surely the warbling and lack of pecking meant that, right?

[raspberryturk]

Reno strongly suspected that it meant that the poor thing had been mauled by children so much that it had simply given up.

"Well," he said, noncommittally, "maybe you'll luck out and he'll follow the puppy home again, yo."

[intraspective]

They were very affectionate children!

... mauled was possibly accurate.

"You don't believe that'll happen," she accused.

[raspberryturk]

"You never know," Reno replied, smirking. "Maybe Zack's got the thing tied to a leash or something, and he don't wanna let it go any more'n you do."

Which, knowing Zack, wouldn't surprise Reno all that much.

[intraspective]

"You're laughing at me," she said, pouting. Could he hear that pout? "You're no fun at all."

[raspberryturk]

It was the cutest freaking pout ever. Even over the phone. Who let kids pout like that, anyhow?

"I have my moments, Rookie. Just take good care of that bird, okay?"

[intraspective]

"Am no Rookie," she informed him solemnly. "I'm going to be the best kunoichi ever and they're not rookies ever."

Yes, they were.

"I can take care of Mister Chocho, though."