Midgar, Gaia -- Friday Morning through to Crazy O'Clock Saturday Morning

[intraspective]

It was highly likely that, had she been back in the dorms and able to curl up against Zack, Ino would not have gone through with her hastily tossed together plan for dealing with her fears about Jenova.

She wasn’t sure, yet, if it was fortunate or unfortunate that they were in the cabins. After mulling over her options—revisiting them thanks to Master Skywalker agreeing with her gut feeling of ‘that should be dealt with’—for a few hours, then a few hours of restless sleep, Ino was up bright and early.

And booking a portal to Midgar. For one.

As she confirmed the time Ino wondered, a bit guiltily, if she ought to tell Zack. She be pissed off if someone went to herworld without her to deal with an issue. Wrinkling her nose as she hung up on the Portalocity operator, Ino decided that it didn’t really matter. If he was mad, she’d deal with it.

But dealing with something else came first. Fear. Ino studied what clothing she’d brought from her room to the cabins, careful to stay quiet so that no one would wake up, and eventually decided on an outfit that was very very pink. The top was a bit frilly, even. She eyed the ribbon on the sleeves before shrugging. Fighting was possible in it—that was what mattered the most. And wearing the bright colour made her smile slightly. Tossing her hair back in a ponytail, she made certain she had her potions and ethers before wriggling on her armlet and taking off for the weapons locker.

Less than fifteen minutes later she was standing a ways outside Midgar and staring at it with wide eyes. Attempting to convince herself to move towards it. Yes, she could spend her weekend wandering around the wastelands if she was very very careful and ran the hell away from most of the monsters that she didn't recognize but… that would rather defeat the purpose.

So. That left Ino to convince herself that, yes, moving forward was a good idea. Reno had told her that nothing really bad was going to happen for a while longer—her guess was years, but she couldn't be certain of that—which meant, logically, that if she went into the city nothing would happen to her. Even if Jenova was there. (Or so she thought.)

Logic didn't give much of a damn for her feelings though and Ino's feelings were of the opinion that going anywhere ever near Jenova was the stupidest thing ever. She was going to do it anyway. One step forward. And then another. Her jaw set and eyes narrowed in irritation with herself. Coward, coward, coward—if she was this scared, then how would she manage to do anything to help?

Fear, she decided, sucked. It made her stomach twist, her limps shake, and her she had to work to keep her breathing steady. It was easier when she pretended, that this was a mission. Scared or not, on a mission you had to keep moving and get it done.

The slums were much the same as she'd remembered them--this time in the early morning rather than at night but it was very much... people waking up, getting about their lives. Monsters here and there that she gleefully took on. Fighting monsters means she didn't have to think. Meant she didn't have to care. Meant all she had to do was focus on fighting and not on the fact that she knew exactly where she really had to go and didn't want to.

For a few hours, it was more than enough that she was in the slums. Still breathing. Fighting. And doing some exploring without Zack. Nimble feet, nimble hands, ducking in and out of the worst places in town. She spent a while in Wall Market, but more time looking for Hell Houses. (Ino's priorities lay with distraction and monsters were a better one at the moment than shopping.)

Her skin felt tight, her shoulders stiff. She'd picked up a few small tears in her clothing during her fights, but she was still moving—potions to take care of any injury—and more importantly, still winning.

The day crawled on and by four in the afternoon, she'd made it above the plate. Tracking down food, first, Ino then went about more exploring. If she kept moving then nothing could get her—never mind that nothing seemed to be after her in the first place—and Ino was certain that if she sat still for long that she'd be sick. The fear wasn't going away. If anything it got stronger.

But she could move through it. That counted as an accomplishment and a little more confident, a little more reckless, Ino flung herself into the life of Midgar and tried to convince herself that nothing was going to hurt her and that Jenova wasn't lurking in wait for her.

Hours flew past. Day-to-evening-to-night and Ino was tired and still moving and still fighting and there were periods now where she was lonely because only her fear kept her company and this wasn't her home, any of them, and what Ino really wanted was a hug.

More monsters sufficed. For hours longer. A break here and there to wander into a place to get something to drink and nibble on, though she wasn't hungry, and then the rest of her time spent dealing with her fear by fighting anything she found. And winning. Sometimes barely, a few she'd had to run away from when they'd ganged up on her, but there were enough victories to make her happy.

And enough exhaustion to make her a bit giddy with reckless enthusiasm that was far more comfortable, in her opinion, than the fear that dragged at her mind, her concentration, her arms and legs, if she let herself think.

So Ino didn't bother to think, gave herself permission to just enjoy the exhilaration that came from defying, in her mind, her own fears.

That was why, when she wound up calling Zack, Ino was laughing. Because Ino was stupidly tired and it was either laugh or cry and hilarity was better than giving up and admitting that she was still scared.

It was half past two Saturday morning.

[NFB due to distance. World hopping done with permission. For that boy she's calling.]

Comments

[intraspective]

Ino didn't want to talk but that was--well, even sleep deprived as she was, she was pretty sure that avoiding it wasn't an option for forever.

"Okay." Her feet were more interesting and so was the ground when compared to looking at him. "We can try that whole talking thing."

[puppy_fair]

"I probably have advice that's just as good as Master Skywalker's, when it comes to Midgar," Zack pointed out, turning a wry smile of his own somewhere toward the pea-soup smog above them. "I know this city pretty much inside-out, you know."

It came with the job.

[intraspective]

"Midgar's just the place," she said, leaning into him as she vaguely led them that-a-way. "I wanted to ask him about the emotion."

[puppy_fair]

"And he told you come here and exhaust yourself?" Zack unhooked his hand from hers so that he could sling it over her shoulder and pull her close while they walked. "Normally I trust his judgment, Ino, but this one time..."

[intraspective]

"He just said avoiding it was stupid," Ino clarified, glancing up at him then away to look at the area they were in. "Does that place look like it's open to you?"

There were lights on in the windows, at least. And a sign saying it was some sort of restaurant.

[puppy_fair]

Place with food and lights! That seemed to bode well enough for Zack, at least.

"It looks open enough," he decided, nodding and kind of attempting to steer off that way. "And at this point, all I really want is a coffee, I think. And some pancakes or something."

Zack. Drinking coffee. Fear.

[intraspective]

"You'll never get to sleep if you drink coffee," she said thoughtfully as he steered them towards the door.

Because that meant she'd get to drink coffee too, right?

[puppy_fair]

Nope. Zack was totally going to take her coffee! Yoink! Right out from her sleepy little nose.

"I already did get some sleep tonight," he pointed out. "So I'm doing better than you are, it looks like."

[intraspective]

"I don't need sleep," she insisted sulkily as she tugged the door open.

[puppy_fair]

"Ever?"

Zack gave her a significant little look, and then peered inside. The first thing he noticed was that, yes, this place totally smelled like food. The second thing he noticed was that it didn't seem like this place was apt to have much in the way of pancakes.

Did they even have pancakes in Wutaian restaurants?

[intraspective]

Not the pancakes he was thinking of, no?

"Not now," she muttered, walking in and wondering if they were supposed to seat themselves or whatever. It wasn't like Wutaian food would bother her for 'breakfast'.

[puppy_fair]

"Okay then," Zack replied, waiting for a moment before shrugging and making his way toward an open table. There wasn't a sign anywhere telling him to wait to be seated, at least that he could read, and so sitting down seemed like a good plan. Especially considering the time of day. "Obviously not while we're here. But maybe after we're done eating, we can head back to my place, right?"

Yes, he was fussing again. Yes, he was totally aware of that fact. No, right now he really didn't care.

[intraspective]

If he was lucky, having real food in her system would knock her out enough that she wouldn't argue with him the whole way back?

Ino gave that a bit of a shrug as she settled down across from him.

"You don't need to fuss 'bout me."

Er.

[puppy_fair]

"Would you be fussing about me if I did this?"

He idly reached for one of the bottles of soy sauce that was sitting on the table, and started passing it back and forth from hand to hand. Something to do to keep himself from totally zonking out.

"I trust that you can handle the monsters around here on your own, Ino. Most of them are easy for anyone who has picked up a materia and managed to cast a spell more than three times in a row. But not when you're this tired. Even I can't, when I'm too tired. I make stupid mistakes and I get hurt, and I worry, you know."

[intraspective]

She thought about arguing that she wasn't tired but now that he was here and she was sitting and it was... nice, here.

Smelled a little like home. Just a bit.

"I'm not hurt," she pointed out, with a sigh as a waiter approached with menus.

[puppy_fair]

"If you keep going at this rate, you could be," Zack countered. "Especially if you actually did do something like try to sleep in the wastes. And even here in Midgar isn't much better. There's..."

He shut his mouth abruptly, shooting an impossibly sunshiney smile at the waiter as he accepted his menu and then waiting for the man to move along before continuing.

"... There's more than just monsters around here that can hurt a person if they let their guard down, you know."

The irony of him saying that while sitting in a Wutaian restaurant was not lost upon him, no.

[intraspective]

She just shrugged at him some more.

"I can take care of myself."

Ino was very mature. This was why she was going to hide behind the idea of 'reading her menu' to avoid looking at him.

[puppy_fair]

And that was why Zack was going to leeean over the table, reach up with one finger, and bend the top of it down just a touch so that he could smile at her over the top of it.

"I don't doubt that for a second," he replied. Because he did believe her. And he still worried. "So, is there anything good in there?"

... He couldn't read Wutaian. And for all that Midgar seemed to be a bilingual city, this particular menu wasn't very bilingual at all.

[intraspective]

"Egg rolls," she said, flicking her eyes up to his. "They've vegetarian stirfry stuff if you want?"

Ino noticed these things just for him. Though anything heavy didn't sound that great to her right now, so maybe she'd stick with something light.

[puppy_fair]

"That sounds good," Zack agreed, settling back a little and smiling. "What we don't eat here, we can take back to my place for lunch, later."

It was like thinking ahead! In that lazy sort of 'I won't have to pretend I can cook tomorrow' way of his.

[intraspective]

She wrinkled her nose at him and when the waiter came back rattled off their orders.

Ino didn't really order that much for herself but, hey, egg rolls were more than she'd eaten for the rest of the day, so that was a good thing, right?

"You're just lazy," she informed him, blinking at her glass of water.

[puppy_fair]

"Only when it comes to food," Zack shot back, nearly fumbling the soy sauce, grimacing, and then setting the bottle back down where it belonged.

... Only to reach for the fish sauce, instead.

"I'm usually pretty good for other stuff, though. Right?"

[intraspective]

"I don't know," she said mildly. "Where are your socks lately?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack contemplated that for all of about five seconds. That was some serious thought he was giving those socks, right there.

"Not on my feet," he replied, shrugging. "I couldn't find them in the dark."

Which was not helping his case at all, no.

[intraspective]

"There you go," she said, eyeing him. "I'm right."