Room 504, Sunday Early Early Morning

[intraspective]

Ino knew she probably should've, you know, gone to grad. To congratulate people, to tease them (and radio definitely made it sound like there was something to tease them about), to ask what their plans were and…

To say goodbye to some of them just in case she didn't see them before they left…

Yeah. That would be why she hadn't made it to grad. She didn't want to say goodbye to anyone and, rather foolishly was clinging to the idea that if she didn't say it, then it wouldn't have to happen.

(It would. Fandom wasn't that kind.)

Funnily enough, having gone through it before didn't make this easier at all. It made it harder. So when Ino woke up at crazy early in the morning o'clock with that knowledge hanging over her and the fact that there was a brunch today (another chance to say goodbye, ugh), she promptly curled up closer against Zack, hid further under the blankets, and buried her face in the pillow.

No. Not happening. She was not going to deal with this today. No one could make her!

[For that boy she's using as a shield only, please!]

Comments

[puppy_fair]

Zack was thinking on this one, now. Long and hard. If she didn't want to talk about it, he couldn't make her. And then she would still be upset about something, and he would never know what it was, and so there was no way he could possibly ever fix it.

"Then I won't go back," he settled on. Because that was what had started this whole thing in the first place. "They won't miss me."

[intraspective]

Her head snapped up, Ino using her elbows to lever herself up enough to stare him in the eyes at that.

"What?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack shrugged.

"They aren't sending me any work, and something about me wanting to go back to do the work I do have is bugging you," he reasoned. "You don't want to talk about what it is, and I'm not going to force you, so I'll just stay here. Someone else can take my old missions. Probably Sephiroth, since there's hardly anyone else left."

Welcome to 'The Way Zack's Brain Works 101.' Every last syllable was brutally honest, and carefully picked out so that it fell in step perfectly before the next.

[intraspective]

Ino gaped at him.

He couldn't just not work. Just because of her.

"I..." She wasn't worth that. If he wasn't doing missions then he'd just get antsy and unhappy and it would be all her fault. Because he'd be saying no for her sake. "You can't do that Zack. Your work is important."

[puppy_fair]

He shrugged again, lightly, waving a hand in the air for a moment as though it was going to do all of his talking for him.

"So are you."

As important, yes, if not even more important than a job that had ultimately led him to kill his best friend.

[intraspective]

Her lips trembled and Ino forcibly stopped herself from saying she wasn't that important. She'd promised to try and let him treat her like his number one.

This was trying.

"Your work is important," she repeated, softly, staring down so she didn't have to look him in the eye. Tracing the curve of his cheek and down his neck with her eyes. "You shouldn't not go just because of me. I will go. I... I'm..."

Ino squeezed her eyes shut and made herself keep going even as her voice dropped to something of an uneven whisper. "I'm just s-scared. Of J-Jenova."

Stupid stupid stupid.

[puppy_fair]

And now, Zack was chewing on his lip.

"So am I." So it wasn't stupid. Not unless they were both being idiots right now. "I've never.... I've never seen her before, you know. Before here."

There was a long pause, then.

"Is it the whole world?"

[intraspective]

And he didn't know exactly what the world looked like when everything to do with her and The Planet had settled.

Ino swallowed. "I--I don't know."

There, she could try honesty.

"Midgar'll be hard."

As far as Ino knew that was where Jenova was.

[puppy_fair]

"Then we don't have to go to Midgar," Zack replied. "We can catch a portal to-" his mind raced for a moment, desperate to pick out a place that didn't have some sort of unpleasant or awkward connection to it. "-Rocket Town, and then take whatever missions I have handy that we can get to from there. I can report successful missions over the phone, too."

[intraspective]

That pried a bit of a genuine smile out of her. "I do want to see Rocket Town," Ino admitted. "But won't they find that strange of you? And I... don't want to avoid anything for--forever. Not if I'm going to the world already."

[puppy_fair]

Zack nodded a bit, smiling back.

"But does it really make any sense to stop in Midgar if we're going to need transit all the way over to another continent? I can reply to the assignment, tell them that I'll take these ones over here instead, and then save the company the gil it takes to fuel a helicopter from here to there."

And maybe he just didn't trust himself not to cause another helicopter crash.

But mostly the rest of it.

[intraspective]

She thought about that, studying him for a long moment.

"And then... maybe next time, try Midgar?"

[puppy_fair]

"Whenever you're ready," he replied. "I still have missions in the Icicle Area and Mideel and Wutai that I can take, I think. Until the company actually sends me something new, we don't have to go near Midgar. Not as long as we're still students here."

At least, he was pretty sure. Genesis was gone now, after all. He might swing by on his own, to visit people. Tseng, Cissnei, Aerith, Cloud, Kunsel. But beyond that? No real reason. Nothing official.

[intraspective]

"We've got a year," she said, and Ino was just going to lean forward and press a quick kiss to his lips. Good morning and all of that. "It won't take me that long to get over being scared."

Well. To get over being so scared that she avoided the place. Ino didn't think she'd ever stop being scared of Jenova.

[puppy_fair]

"We've got a year," Zack agreed, leaning up a little because a quick kiss was nice, but it was quick, which was pretty much the entire problem with quick anything, wasn't it? And he would very much like another. "And then we can go from there."

[intraspective]

Well, if he was going to be that way then she could give him another, longer kiss. "I don't want to think about next year," Ino said, "because that means more things will change."

And next year, it would be their turn.

[puppy_fair]

And the prospect of them getting a turn was huge and exciting and maybe a little scary, somehow.

"Then let's focus on this year, first," he said, smiling up at her. "It's closer, anyhow."

[intraspective]

And safer, somehow.

In Fandom, things had rounded corners where they'd bite and scar and hurt in other worlds. "This year," she echoed, "and staying 'round."