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!]

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[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."