MHA #1, Sunday Afternoon

[intraspective]

Something in her relaxed and tightened all at once when the portal closed behind her, leaving her staring at the empty Causeway. Go back to your island.

Well, she had. Here she was.

It didn't really feel solid or real or firm. Like walking through a fog. Those were her feet and they were moving but Ino didn't remember making a conscious decision about where to go. She should go to the dorms. Was she going there?

It didn't really matter, did it? Not right now. There was something wrong with that train of thought but she couldn't be bothered to figure out what it was. There was walking, that was close enough to properly functioning for her, right now.

Maybe she was heading towards her garden? That would make sense, almost. Things felt muffled, strangled, thoughts only half-formed before they skittered back, dissipating under the weight of the ennui that had fallen over her.

The preserve was another option. She had a hideaway there. That seemed… almost… like a good idea. Ino didn't really feel like company. She didn't feel like a whole lot, honestly. Blanked out, washed out, numb.

When her feet stopped moving, she blinked at her surroundings. Oh.

Well that wasn't much of a surprise either, though it twisted weirdly in her chest.

Ino didn't so much sit as collapse like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Slumping down against the wall outside the door, sandaled feet out in front of her, as she just closed her eyes.

Knocking just seemed like too much effort right now.

[For he whose apartment she's sitting outside of.

Warning: There is discussion of character death happening in this post.]

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[intraspective]

She just shrugged.

It might've gotten done, by now.

[raspberryturk]

.... That wasn't a good shrug.

"There's somethin' else, then."

That wasn't a question. Just an observation, and she was welcome to ignore it or expand on it however she saw fit.

[intraspective]

She wasn't even going to look vaguely at him. Just going to... drink her hot chocolate. It was too hot but that was okay. It gave her something else to focus on as she refused to answer him.

Ino had given him the parts that hurt the least, right now.

"Sorry," she said, not even sure what she was apologizing for.

[raspberryturk]

"Don't be." Reno pulled his chair up a little closer, and then sat back down in it, backwards like before. Chairs weren't made to sit in the right way, damn it. "You do what you got to."

It wasn't 'you do the job,' but it had the same intonations. The same force of belief behind it. Even if 'what you got to' wasn't the job itself. You did it. Because that was what you were.

[intraspective]

"Sure," she said, sounding tired. "If you say so."

[raspberryturk]

"Yeah," Reno replied, firmly. "I do."

And that was that.

"Is there anything I can get you, Rookie?"

[intraspective]

"I don't know," she answered, shrugging. "I just... I don't know."

She'd gotten here. Where to go from that--Ino had no clue.

[raspberryturk]

More nodding. More pursing his lips and thinking the situation over. Some grimacing whenever he thought it over too much. Damn, this was complicated. Always would be, he supposed.

"You got my couch as long as you need it. Don't let Petey drink outta your mug, that's just nasty, yo. And if you need someone to walk you back to the dorms later, you got it."

[intraspective]

She knew, vaguely, that if she stayed here too long Zack would come pounding on the door. It was a feeling she had.

Her lips twitched as she looked down at Petey. "He won't get in my mug."

Thank you? For not pressing? For letting her stay there and just--breathe?

[raspberryturk]

"Good." There came a twitchy little smile, and Reno was draping his arms forward over the back of the chair again. "So, am I pullin' out steak or chicken tonight for supper, Rookie?"

Look, she was going to be a fixture on his couch for a bit, he was fairly certain. He was going to feed her. Supper wasn't for a while yet, but this carried the added bonus of not being the heavy stuff, too. And when you couldn't talk, you deflected. Turks knew how to do that with the best of them.

[intraspective]

She blinked at him.

Deflection was one thing, yes, but it was a little harder to follow when you were the one having trouble tracking a conversation in the first place.

"You cook?"

Which would've been a lot more incredulous under normal circumstances, but...

[raspberryturk]

Reno just kind of raised an eyebrow at that, yes.

"I throw meat in a pan and turn the heat on," he reported. "That counts."

He wasn't exactly a huge fan of food poisoning, and once upon a time, most of his meals didn't come in a liquid format. Even if his cooking didn't taste amazing, it wasn't likely to kill anyone unless he seriously wanted it to. Minimum effort, food goes in mouth. It was when he tried to get fancy that things went horribly wrong.

[intraspective]

"Oh."

She felt oddly like she'd misstepped there and yet couldn't quite bring herself to care anyway. And she still had to... answer the question.

"Chicken, I suppose," she said quietly.

[raspberryturk]

Reno chewed his lip at that. And then sighed.

"Or we can order out. I ain't picky, really. Food's food, you know? Supper ain't that big a deal."

This wasn't him relenting and changing his mind so much as he was trying to get across that it wasn't what they were eating that was important, it was the fact that she was going to have to eat, and he didn't know that she'd have the presence of mind to put food into herself otherwise.

[intraspective]

"You need to eat," she said, sipping her drink without really thinking about it. "I don't really care."

She wasn't hungry. That probably wasn't a surprise, was it?

[raspberryturk]

"You're gonna sit. And when supper time rolls around, you're gonna eat," Reno said, putting perhaps a slight note of authority into that statement. It was an order if you squinted, and a worried statement from a friend and mentor if you didn't, and maybe, maybe, it would hold some weight with the girl.

"You need to eat just as much as I do, Rookie," he said, a little more gently. "Don't get me all worried or whatever, here."

[intraspective]

She'd take it as an order, the words dribbling down into the part of her mind that was used to orders, needed them.

"Ain't worth worryin' 'bout," she said, giving Petey a hand to gnaw on. "I'll eat."

A little. And then she'd just stare at her plate, but.

[raspberryturk]

But a little was better than nothing. Reno would be satisfied with a little.

"Good."

And now he was standing up, crossing the room, picking up Mako, and depositing him on the couch, as well.

"Keep an eye on them while I grab the chicken outta the freezer, then."

... Yeah, he didn't have to actually thaw the chicken first. But Mako was just kind of good for people, and having two dumbass critters in her lap had to be better than just one.

[intraspective]

She was... hardly going to protest at the presence of two animals keeping her company.

They were soothing.

Ino was likely going to spill her hot chocolate at this rate, but fuzzy critters climbing on her meant that she wasn't just sitting blankly.

She didn't really acknowledge him or what he said. He was there, a presence that soothed without stifling and he seemed okay with her just... sitting.

Right now, she could do that. It meant she didn't have to think.