Room 504, Friday Evening

[intraspective]

After talking to Hurley, Ino was glad to wander back to the room she shared with Zack—that was still weird to her, that she couldn’t say it was just her room anymore—and collapse on her bed.

Yay. A week gone by and she hadn’t—been weird and issuey at people other than... well, Bod had gotten a bit, but he hadn’t seemed to care and Ino just... wasn’t going to push that. All right, fine, and so on. She was fine.

Repression was probably bad, yes. Ino closed her eyes briefly, then sat up and stared at the open door. She should shut it. But that seemed like far too much work and instead she fumbled for one of her notebooks. A pen.

If she was thinking, she didn’t have to think.

It made sense to her.

[Open door, open post.]

Comments

[intraspective]

Phone! Ino brightened for one moment as she scrambled for it before pausing and making sure to check the number before she actually answered it.

... Not home then, okay! And even better, someone she hadn't heard from in a while!

"Yo!" she said, with a fair approximation of 'normal-Ino'. "Romeo!"

[withoutverona]

"Ino!" Romeo answered lightly. "Hello! What odd happenings have I missed by not being in Fandom?"

[intraspective]

She snickered and sprawled out on her bed, notebook falling to the side. "It's Fandom," she said, trying to think of things. "Though I think it's been fairly quiet lately, which probably isn't a good sign, you know? 'Cause it always seems to 'wake up' with a vengeance."

[withoutverona]

"It does," Romeo agreed. "I hear nothing, and then the next month 'tis evil mutant frogs who spit acid." A beat. "I just cursed you, didn't I?"

[intraspective]

"That's okay," she said generously. "I'll hide behind Zack as he goes and gets rid of them."

Which was a total lie, of course, as Ino would be right in there fighting.

"Spitting acid would make dodging an excellent skill to have!" Sorry Romeo, Ino was thinking about this now. "But would it go through things like walls? Trees? Shields? 'Cause that'd suck, don't you think?"

[withoutverona]

"I don't" -- romeo hadn't actually thought about this before he spouted off, no. "If you couldn't control what it went through," he finally decided, "it'd be useless, wouldn't it? You'd just burn your mouth to shreds before you could hurt anyone or anything else."

[intraspective]

"True..." she said slowly. "And this is only going to give the island more ideas! If it happens, I'm blaming you and wonderin' how the island tapped my call."

That was how you said that, right? Ino wasn't quite sure. She didn't really care either, but whatever.

"I've got to admit I've been pretty bad at listenin' to radio lately," she confessed. "So if there's been a spat of weird, I haven't really noticed."

[withoutverona]

"What have you been doing instead?" Romeo asked, though he was never the type to pore over radio unless he knew the broadcaster, himself. "I doubt you'd miss an overlarge spate of weird, anyhow."

[intraspective]

Uh.

"A whole lot of studying?" she tried. "And hiding and pretending things are perfect? Some of it's pretty--close to amazing, really. But, obviously, it's not all that way but that's all--depressing--and I feel bad about dropping that on you if you just want fun conversation."

Which was her rambling way of saying that, really, it was up to him. She could actually talk to him about some of it.

[withoutverona]

"I called to see how Reno is doing, and ask you'd feel about a visit," Romeo answered. "You can drop it on me, but -- you know I may not be any use save a listening ear."

Seriously. Two and a half years in, hopefully she'd figured his uselessness about some things out by now.

[intraspective]

Some part of her kinda loved that he'd called her to see how Reno was doing. It made sense, in a peculiar way. Reno lied. So did Ino, of course, but not about Reno.

And yes, she'd learnt.

"I know," she said, with a sigh. "I don't know. It's not something that's fixable and it's not something anyone can really help with and it's in the middle of everything at the moment and I don't really know what's going on with it and I'm tired of--of not being normal-me. It feels like a failure, somehow, on top of everything else."

She paused.

"I can tell you about the good instead?" she tried. "And you can listen to that and help me convince myself that the good needs to be paid more attention than the bad of--stuff."

[withoutverona]

Mostly, Romeo didn't want to call Reno and ask how he was and find out he'd been fired or forced to teach geometry or something like that. Hence Asking Ino First.

"Normal you includes the things you care about," he pointed out. "It's not a failure for those to change. But -- tell me about the good. I'll cheerlead for you. I'm sure I have a pompom somewhere."

[intraspective]

Right. The good. She could totally do the good.

...

"... Did I ever tell you I was dating Zack?"

She couldn't remember. Which was... kinda sad in and of itself.

[withoutverona]

"I knew you were close to him," Romeo answered. "I don't think I knew you'd made it official."

No, he couldn't remember either.

"How is it going?"

[intraspective]

She glanced around her room, noting the small things that indicated Zack's presence.

"A lot happened," she said, smiling slightly even though not all of it was good. Losing Angeal had... been definitely not good. "But I'm sharing my room now. My idea--not Fandom's paperwork messing up."

[withoutverona]

"Congratulations!" Romeo said, sincerely beaming. "Does he make for a good roommate? Do you think you'll marry him after graduation?"

In Romeo's world, it made sense. It didn't matter he hadn't exactly married Dojima yet. That was Different.

[intraspective]

There was a strangled sort of squeak-laugh from Ino at that.

"Marriage?" she protested, face flaming. "I--we--that hasn't come up!"

[withoutverona]

"Perhaps it will soon," Romeo offered. "You'll stay with him either way, won't you?"

... see above about why Romeo should not always be trusted with serious problems.

[intraspective]

She really didn't mind, honestly. This was--better. This was comforting nonsense and something that she probably had to start considering sooner or later anyway.

Though not marriage. That was... that was something Ino wasn't ready to consider. She barely believed that Zack was going to stick around for the next month let alone believed he was going to stick around long enough that getting married would be a good thing.

"I think so?" she said, smiling slightly. "We're--comfortable. He makes me happy just by walking into a room I'm in. I don't want that to go away ever."

[withoutverona]

"I hope it won't," Romeo said, and you could almost hear his grin. "I feel bad that I don't know him more. I think i only spoke with him once or twice."

[intraspective]

"Then you've got to visit!" she said brightly. "And get to know him more. He's super friendly, honest. Like a puppy, but don't call him that, he pouts."

And his pout was a force of nature.

[withoutverona]

"I was thinking of it," Romeo admitted. "It's three years since ... everything, next week. It does me good not to be at loose ends on those days. And I want to see Reno teach." A beat. "He is still teaching, isn't he?"

[intraspective]

"Then definitely come visit," she said, voice softening but making no other mention of 'everything'. "Reno's teachin' a class on how to pick up after the end of the world. I'm one of his TAs."

[withoutverona]

"What does he think you should do after the end of the world?" Romeo asked. he was already tapping at his computer for portal prices.

[intraspective]

"Survive. Rebuild. That's what I gather anyway--we just did introductions and talked about what we'd do if we found out the end of the world was coming first class."

It had been a pretty awesome class in her estimation.

"He's a pretty good teacher," she shared. "And don't tell him I said that. His ego would become unbearable. My rookie told him that she was taking his class because of him and I just sighed."

Even if she'd taken the class for the exact same reason.