Midgar, Gaia -- Sunday Afternoon

[intraspective]

It was—not funny, not really, how things were back to normal and yet not back to normal and even though she had fun on the missions she still felt…

Weird.

Was that unfair of her? Maybe it was. It wasn't fair at all to expect him to break confidentiality to her.

And it wasn't fair, either, to think she'd be able to help without all the information, right?

That sounded right, to her. But who knew?

Ino kicked her feet, making the movement look harmlessly adorable even while she wished she could lash out, and sipped at her milkshake. Of course, Zack showing her around missions had only lasted so long. They'd wanted to—talk to him, or something: she didn't really know. He'd looked apologetic, she'd acted dumb, and off he'd went.

Hmm. She didn't really want this milkshake any more. This wasn't exactly going great, so far as weekends went.

[NFB, NFI except for the one she doesn't know about. (And the boy. Always the boy.)]

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[intraspective]

"What about duplicates?" she asked winsomely.

Okay, so Ino liked stuff. Shut it.

[puppy_fair]

.... Well, it wasn't bad logic, really.

"Maybe... one of each duplicate? I use all of my extra Materia, you know."

Had he ever told her about Materia Fusion?

[intraspective]

Maybe vaguely?

"All of them?" she chirped and even though he couldn't see her, he had to be able to hear her eyes widening.

Now, where was he? She made a show of looking around the square before wandering over triumphantly to him.

"I found you!" Which meant the phone was being hung up and she was going to lean over to bop his nose gently.

[puppy_fair]

Oop! Nosebopped!

Zack laughed and closed his phone, pocketing it and standing up to steal a quick kiss.

"You found me," he agreed, putting an arm around her shoulder and starting to walk. If she was going to play bubblehead, then at least it came with a handy excuse to get snuggly while they walked to their next destination. "And I do use all of them, you know. Even the small stuff, like Fire and Blizzard."

... He'd picked up Blizzaga and Thundaga just this weekend. But even more notably, he'd managed to pick the addresses for a couple of shops off of the Crescent. After some more monster hunting, he could be able to afford to buy the Hell versions of those three max-level elemental spells. Or, alternatively, he could just get one, level it however he saw fit, and pull a Materia fuse with one of those low-level ones to change the base element that it cast spells for.

He was starting to get pretty crafty with the stuff!

[intraspective]

She snuggled right on in, looking utterly pleased with herself.

Which wasn't actually a lie. Ino was almost always happy to snuggle.

"You do?" Mmm cute blonde obliviousness.

[puppy_fair]

"I do!"

He did!

"Remind me to show you sometime, okay? It's something that only SOLDIER 1sts can do, but it's a pretty neat trick. You know, if you manage to get your hands on a Blizzaga," like this spare that he was holding up right now, "and you decided, hey, you'd really like a Thundaga, instead."

[intraspective]

Oooooo!

"Mean!" she said, making a half-hearted, giggly reach for the Materia he was holdings. "Teasing me like that!"

[puppy_fair]

Zack laughed and easily held it up way our of her reach.

"It's not that mean. I'll even give it to you when I'm done!" He rummaged around in his pocket and produced a Fire. Nice, boring, low-levelled Fire. "And anyhow, I know you like Thunder spells better."

See, this meant that it was time for a brief detour to a place where he could set these things down, and then pull out some other stuff to help up the stats of this a bit without worrying about juggling. To the alleyway!

... Please stop staring, creepy Red Leather lady.

[intraspective]

Ino was hardly going to stop him from giving her a demonstration about something she actually did find interesting, no.

Even though her bright and empty gaze of total fascination was probably a bit creepy. (Sorry, Zack.)

"They're prettier," she said vaguely, because she wasn't supposed to actually be good at any of this, no.

[puppy_fair]

"Right, right," Zack laughed as he laid out the Blizzaga and the Fire and then went digging some more. If he was going to do this, the least he could do would be toss in some stat enhancers while he was at it... Twenty potions? Forty?

He'd make it sixty, and then restock in a bit. Please hold for a minute while he counts, Ino.

"Thunder's more sparkly, huh?"

[intraspective]

Ino watched the counting dubiously. Was this really the best spot?

"Uh huh," she said, with a bit of a bounce. "And it's fast and it looks neat and it's--contained?"

[puppy_fair]

"It is that," Zack replied, grinning as he finished counting out his potions. "And it keeps going to hit whatever's behind what you're targeting, too. So you have to be kinda careful with it when you have people around."

Lessons in electrical safety with Zack Fair, who didn't worry at all about doing things like this in public, because, really, who was going to mess with a guy who had a sword like that on his back, and a Blizzaga materia in hand?

Now, Ino, don't blink. Because if you do, when he pushes those two materia together, you'll miss the flash to follow.

[intraspective]

Ino eyed the potions. Eyed Zack dubiously. Was he really lecturing?

Well, she supposed that, with as stupid as she was being, she had probably best nod and bounce like he'd just sold her the world. "I'll remember," she promised, "I really wi--Oooooooh."

Guess when she'd gotten distracted by Zack and his shiny materia?

[puppy_fair]

And that was that. Sixty potions, all gone. And no more Blizzaga, and no more Fire.

But Zack was grinning proudly as he held up a shiny brand-new Thundaga materia, with a bit of an HP boost tacked on for good measure.

"Neat, huh?"

[intraspective]

"That's so cool," she said, wide-eyed.

And resisting the urge to make a grab for it. Shiny! Shiiiiny! "And you can do that with any Materia?"

[puppy_fair]

"I can," Zack laughed, and he was even going to be nice and hand it over. Present for you, Ino! "So long as I don't wear myself out. This takes energy to do too, you know?"

[intraspective]

Ino was... was hardly going to refuse a present like that.

But she did glance between him and it a few times. "For me?"

So confused!

And, oh Zack, unleashing an Ino with a Thundaga was a dangerous thing.

[puppy_fair]

"Well, yeah," Zack laughed. "You like the way it sparkles, right? We can slot it into something for you, you can wear it around. It'll be pretty."

Some pretty deadly jewelry just for you, made with your boyfriend's own two hands.

[intraspective]

Ino turned over the Materia in her hands for a moment, then see, she absolutely had to kiss him.

"Very pretty," she murmured, eyes amused. "So very pretty."