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

[puppy_fair]

"Well, yeah," Zack admitted, laughing and stretching his arms out. "But where would the fun be in that?"

Honestly, now. In order to pick out the sense that Zack's brain made, one would first have to get inside the head of a puppy. A puppy who had been pumped with otherworldly genetic steroids before being given large, large doses of sugar.

"Anyhow, after I've worn down is when it's most important for me to keep going. How else am I going to work up my stamina, right?"

His already insanely superhuman stamina, yes.

[intraspective]

"Sex," she said, with a straight face. Not even looking at him. Ino? Was mostly saying it to see what his reaction would be.

She hadn't and wasn't really in the mood to do a whole lot more than snuggle and cling without a fair bit of snuggling and clinging happening first. Lying to Zack about how she was was a lot harder than it was around most people.

[puppy_fair]

And now it was time for the very important blink-and-blush combo. That would be where Zack blinked. And then blushed.

It was an important distinction to make. It had a very different impact from those times where he blushed first and then blinked.

"Well, yes. There's that, too." He eyed her for a moment, and then shrugged a little. "How has your day been?"

Zack could talk about a good many things. Just outright speaking about sex, however, apparently turned his brain to Jell-o.

[intraspective]

"It wasn't bad," she said, the smile falling a bit flat. "I've been talkin' to people 'bout--everything, a bit."

Pieces here, pieces there. She didn't know if it was helping.

"And told three people 'bout us."

Which actually was shiny and happy and rainbow coloured.

[puppy_fair]

Shiny and happy and rainbow-colored with sparkles, even! But Zack was filing that information away for the time being, making his way over toward the bed while he idly unclasped armor bits and worked his way out of gear that was entirely not conducive to cuddling in the least.

"Has the talking been helping, at all?"

There went his armor, falling to the floor with a clatter. He'd worry about putting it away later, maybe. Or else he'd just put it back on again in the morning. He took a seat on the edge of the bed, careful to not disturb the notebooks that she had out.

[intraspective]

She carefully stacked her notebooks to the side as he sat. All the better to let him actually sit by her instead of half a bed away.

"I don't know," she admitted slowly. "It's hard talking about it. But at the same time... I lied all week and just felt worse. Today was kind of... a relief that way. Just saying it flat out."

She owed Reno a conversation. He deserved to hear her problems.

"But it doesn't--fix anything. Nothing can be fixed in this situation."

[puppy_fair]

Zack nodded, his lips pursed thoughtfully as she spoke, as he eased his way across the bed in order to lay down beside her.

"But sometimes you have to get it off your chest regardless," he pointed out, gently. "Or else it eats away, from the inside right on out." He chewed his lip for a moment, and then added, "And maybe it can't be fixed, but moving forward regardless is a different matter entirely."

[intraspective]

"I'm scared," she said, in a small voice that he got to hear and no one else. Maybe Reno, but even then. "I want to know where I'm going. I knew what my life would be. I... don't any more. And I don't even have them to focus me."

[puppy_fair]

That small voice made Zack's chest ache, but he didn't dare let any of that show on his face, couldn't possibly let himself do anything that might make her think that he was, even for a moment, pitying her. He wasn't. He was worried. He was hurting for her. But never pity. Never.

Instead, he moved a little closer, turned so that he was facing her, and then pulled her into his arms. If she could excuse that he'd been out and sweating all day, then hopefully it would be a comforting gesture, at least.

"Do you know where you want to go?"

One step at a time. If you don't know where you're going, pick a place. Go from there.

[intraspective]

She didn't care that he was smelly. Ino really didn't. She cared about the fact that he was warm and strong and safe and did she really have to ever move away?

Ino shook her head. "I don't know. I--I just want to have... something. I can't do this. Not like this. Not without knowing anything."

[puppy_fair]

"Without knowing anything," Zack echoed, and then he huffed a short, soft sigh. "You know plenty, Ino. You might not know where tomorrow will take you, but you have plenty of skills that can get you to tomorrow. That's a start."

[intraspective]

She shook her head again, burying her face against his chest briefly.

"Not... like that," she said, trying to explain what she knew and wasn't great at putting into words. "It's not a skill thing. It's a... directional thing. I... I don't deal well without stability."

[puppy_fair]

"So... you need direction?"

That made sense, really. Zack himself had been wandering aimlessly without so much as a mission from home to set his feet moving along some sort of productive route, at least.

"What would you need, do you suppose, in order to find a direction for yourself? Not just work, right? A purpose, too?"

[intraspective]

"A... long term solution," she said, flushing slightly. "Or being on a mission or something like it with--supervision. Answering to a superior."

Ino was woefully not capable of directing herself at this stage. And she knew it.

The last time she'd destabilized hadn't been--good.

[puppy_fair]

And now? Now, Zack was chewing the inside of his cheek.

"That settles that, then," he said, suddenly. "Training missions, back on Gaia. There are monsters that are plenty tougher than the ones around Midgar."

Not that he was insinuating himself as a superior. That wasn't it in the least, no. But the words 'training missions' at least encompassed the 'or something like it' part. And that seemed like a start.

[intraspective]

She craned her neck back to look up at him.

"Seriously?" There was something like hope in her eyes. It wasn't exactly what she needed--for that, Ino thought she was going to have to have a long talk with Reno about, he'd understand it and he was better equipped to deal with it.

He was a superior in her head and they both knew it.

[puppy_fair]

"Well," Zack intoned wryly, "why not? Gaia's got monsters, people need to get rid of them and they can't, and we both need something to do, right?"

He wasn't even going to pretend that this wasn't at least partly for himself, too. They were both going to go stagnant here, at this rate. Puppies needed exercise just as much as ninjas did.

"It's something."

Which beat what they were both currently up to by a long shot.

[intraspective]

"Something useful," she said, nodding her head. "And and--moving."

[puppy_fair]

"Getting up and moving around and being productive," Zack agreed, wriggling one hand out of its glove so that he could run fingers through her hair. "And getting stronger while we're at it. That totally beats running laps around the island just to keep active, right?"

Yep. That was what the sweat was about. Laps. Around the island.

All day.

[intraspective]

She believed him without questioning it. And was rather meltingly distracted by his hand in her hair. So nice. So niiice.

"It does," she said, barely moving because moving meant his hand might go away. "And we'd be alone. Where we don't have to..."

Wear masks?

[puppy_fair]

"To worry," Zack finished. It wasn't quite the right word, but he knew what she was saying, and he wasn't certain that there were words for it. Or, at least, words that he was ready to just up and speak aloud. Not when doing so meant admitting that they both did wear those masks.

His fingers continued to twine through her hair, and he smiled a little in spite of himself. This was so, so comfortable. He was the one being big and solid and safe, right now, but that didn't mean he wasn't taking a fair bit of solace in the fact that it was Ino in his arms, himself.

"What does your schedule look like, this term?"

[intraspective]

Never ever going to move at this rate. He'd just have to carry her to the shower when he wanted to get clean.

"Classes Monday and Tuesday morning," she said, snuggling into him more. Which was almost humanly impossible, but Ino managed. "And work Monday through Wednesday."

[EEEE CUTE ICON. \o/ Awwwwwwwww.]

[puppy_fair]

Zack considered that for a moment, totally content with just sticking close.

"That means that we've both got our weekends free, still," he noted. "And I have a class on Thursday, but nothing after it or on Friday, either. That leaves plenty of time to get things done, don't you think?"

[Innit? It's one of the ones you linked me to, and I was all YAY AND AWWWWWW. Awwwwww.]

[intraspective]

She bobbed her head.

"I... I've got funding, too," Ino said, quietly. "To transport between worlds. We don't got to let ShinRa know, if we don't want to."

[puppy_fair]

"Funding?" Zack's eyebrow lifted a little, but he didn't push the matter. Nor did he wonder aloud why they wouldn't want ShinRa to know. This was one of the things he'd learned to take for granted about Ino. There were things that she grasped about the way things worked that maybe he never would.

Maybe by choice.

"That sounds useful, actually."