Midgar, Gaia -- Zack's Room, ShinRa Building, Sunday Afternoon

[intraspective]

Most of yesterday had been spent sleeping—Ino wasn't sure what Zack had done, upon waking up—she only knew that she hadn't woken until late that evening and had been up for only a few hours before falling back asleep, her body more worn out than she'd thought.

Fear and monster hunting took a lot out of a person, who knew?

Sunday, though, was so far going better. Even if she was still obviously on edge to anyone who knew her as she lay on Zack's bed and idly watched him do squats. In this room, she was okay.

And they'd been out and about a bit earlier, for food and monsters. That was enough for her.

[For that one in Midgar with her. NFB due to distance, please.]

Comments

[puppy_fair]

Zack nodded, and did a few more squats. Around eighty, he made his way over to his bed and then flopped down beside her.

"So, we start planning one. I mean, odds are they'll have some big to-do before the rocket launches, right? If we time it right, we might even be able to catch that."

Which would be awesome, okay.

[intraspective]

She wriggled over to just curl up against him. Shut up. Ino didn't even think as she moved it was just: Zack was on the bed, so she had to curl up against him.

"That would be so cool," she said dreamily. "I'd love that."

It would end badly, alas.

[puppy_fair]

Ssssh, they didn't have to know that, yet. This was happy conversation for relaxy goodness! It was important, darn it.

"Is there anything else we should look into doing? I mean, there's no reason we can't go and visit the Gold Saucer sometime, or something."

Except for how ridiculously expensive the admission was, and all.

"And ShinRa is always putting on big demonstrations and festivals and stuff, pretty much anywhere they've got a presence, you know? And there are places with tougher monsters than Midgar has. I think you're probably almost ready to fight some of those, now."

Yes. He was rambling. Why not?

[intraspective]

"Costa del Sol?" she said hopefully, pleased with the compliment that she was getting stronger--it was true, the monsters here were giving her far less trouble now. "And you said we could visit Gongaga at some point."

Which wasn't a place for festivals, she thought, but his parents were there. That was just as interesting.

"I thought," Ino noted, "that the Gold Saucer was really expensive--we shouldn't do that just randomly."

Look, it wasn't like she had that much Gil to blow on fun things.

[puppy_fair]

"The Saucer is really expensive," Zack agreed. "But the monsters outside of Midgar tend to drop more Gil, too. So... If we make our way there slowly, over a break or something, it isn't like we wouldn't be able to afford our way in, you know?"

Hey, it made sense in Zack's brain. Even if there were way more important things to spend money on.

... He couldn't really think of any, though.

"We can totally go to Costa del Sol, though! Sun, surf, and sand!"

And Gongaga. They could go to Gongaga, too. Because she wanted to.

[intraspective]

"Maybe," she said, pressing her lips to his cheek. "I like that--fight our way there and then have fun for a little bit before we've got to come back."

And to be honest, they were likely to be enthusiastic about the fighting for longer than the Saucer.

[puppy_fair]

Or, and this was the neat part, they could fight at the Saucer! For prizes! Only it was entirely possible that the folks there would balk at letting a SOLDIER 1st into the Battle Square, because... Well, he was a SOLDIER 1st. That kind of said something all on its own.

"There's a bunch of neat stuff to do around Gaia," Zack reported, feeling a little bit like some sort of travel agency brochure, actually. "And..." He twitched a small smile. "You want to go to Gongaga? There really isn't anything interesting there. It's nowhere near as big as Konoha."

There weren't even really neat monsters there.

Well, there were frogs.

[intraspective]

"I want to go to Gongaga," she said, with a firm little nod. "Your parents are there."

Which was likely why he was so twitchy about the idea, yes.

[puppy_fair]

"Yeah," Zack agreed, nodding. Well. Half a nod. A vaguely nod-like gesture. A twitch that might have been taken as an affirmative. If you squinted. "They are. And I miss them, and I think my mom would kind of adore you, actually."

His real mom. Not that thing that he'd called Mother that weekend. His real mom. And his dad. Both of whom hadn't heard from him since he'd run away from home four years ago, because Gongaga was a boring town in the middle of a jungle, and he was never going to make it anywhere in life by sticking around there.

He'd been twelve.

[intraspective]

She studied him seriously.

"You don't want to go?"

It wasn't like him, Ino thought, to be so--twitchy.

[puppy_fair]

"It's not really that," Zack replied. "I miss it. And I miss my parents, too, and I really should check on them. I haven't spoken to them in forever, you know?"

And therein rested the problem.

[intraspective]

"Okay," she said, clearly not getting it. "So you should... go talk to them for sure?"

Wait...

"Are you scared of their reactions?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack's little smile twisted into something that was decidedly more wry.

"The last time they saw me, I didn't have blue eyes," he replied, figuring that would at least give her some idea as to what he was getting twitchy about. "There's... Probably going to be a lot of catching up to do."

A lot of it would probably be along the lines of, 'Zack, you're still alive!'

[intraspective]

"All the more reason to go," she said, one hand bopping him lightly on the nose. "It's not like you to avoid somethin' like that. I bet, even if the eyes shock them, that they'll be happy to see you."

[puppy_fair]

It was more than the eyes, but he supposed Ino probably understood that much. The eyes, the armor, the sword, the scar on his face. His boundless enthusiasm had dribbled out of him one nightmare experience at a time and sometimes it felt like his reserves were running on empty. A lot about him had changed over the past few years.

Over the past few months, for that matter.

"It's silly of me to keep putting this off, isn't it? I don't even have the 'too busy with missions' excuse, anymore. And I'd love to know what's up with that, still."

[intraspective]

Her eyes were very gentle as he tried to change the subject.

"I'll come with you," Ino promised him. "You won't have to be alone with them when you're not feeling up to it."

Even with her he tried the masks at times, still. The only difference was she could see through it.

[puppy_fair]

And the thing was, he knew better than to think that he could get away with it. But some old habits died hard, and it took a lot of work just to get him to share this much. Being 'Not Okay' about something wasn't his style, even when it was something that was eating him from the inside out.

"I'd like that," he said, after closing his eyes for a moment and just soaking those words of hers in. "I don't even know for certain what it is that I'm so afraid of."

Maybe it was just the fear that he didn't belong there, anymore.

[intraspective]

She contented herself with watching him, resting her hand against his arm, as she thought.

"Whatever it is," Ino said softly, "I'll be there. I promise."

[puppy_fair]

He exhaled, and with it came another small smile as he lifted his hand to clasp lightly around hers.

"I'll try not to let Gongaga bore you too much when we go," was about the best he could manage in reply.

It translated roughly to 'thank you.'

[intraspective]

"You'll be there," she reminded him, curling her fingers around his. "I'm never bored with you around."

She heard and understood.

Ino's fingers tightened slightly. "I do love you, you know."

So she wasn't going anywhere, even if the words had been hard to get out. They made things sound--final, even though this was the first time she'd said them to him.

[puppy_fair]

It was crazy, wasn't it? How a few simple, monosyllabic words all strung together like that could make everything okay, all of a sudden?

Zack was smiling, now. Not for the sake of wearing a smile, but because he had reason to wear a smile.

"And you're one of my precious people."

His precious person. His collection of precious people was dwindling, lately.

[intraspective]

Really, it was unfair. He could stop her in her tracks just by saying that because--did he even understand how important it was, to her, that he thought of her that way.

That he called her that way? He wasn't even from her home and yet that phrasing, with that meaning, rolled off his tongue so easily.

She was just going to swallow... hope he didn't notice that her eyes were a bit brighter than usual, and then she was going to kiss him. He didn't mind that, did he?

[puppy_fair]

Mind it?

Never. They could kiss until their portal arrived and it was time to head back to Fandom, so far as Zack was concerned.

They could kiss longer than that.

Did they ever have to stop?