Room 504, Saturday Evening

[intraspective]

Getting back from visiting her dad was—nice. Mostly because Ino was dead tired and being back on Fandom meant that her dad couldn't train her at the moment.

Not that the training had been a bad thing, she thought, unlocking their door (Zack wasn't back yet? That was weird; he'd said he'd only be gone a day or two) and making it far enough inside to flop facedown on the bed.

Okay. So she probably had to, like, sit up and go find food and change into her jammies and everything and would totally do so.

Just… give her, like, fifteen minutes. Of laying here. Maybe more.

Training had even been kinda awesome with what he'd been covering. But at the moment? Mmmmmmm rest.

[Oooopen, sure!]

Comments

[puppy_fair]

Okay, so the week had been a teeensy bit busier than Zack had anticipated. He'd headed off to Midgar to help a 3rd Class who was having self-esteem issues out in a pinch, and had wound up doing several missions for the guy, and bailing him the heck out of really, really hot water in the end.

And now Zack had learned his lesson about doing the work of other SOLDIERs for them. Jeez, it would have been easier if he'd just let the guy quit. But then, where was the good in quitting, right?

He was in his room and halfway to the bed, where he fully intended to flop over, before he realized there was somebody on the bed, and she probably wouldn't appreciate being squashed under the puppy, armor and all.

"Hey, Ino."

There was pep behind that, but it was muted. He was sleeepy.

[intraspective]

"Zack." Her smile was tired but definitely lit up at the sight of him. "I was wonderin' where you'd got to."

Not that she'd been around to know but she had been wondering that for the... how long had she been lying here now?

That long. Anyway.

[puppy_fair]

"Yeah," Zack replied, shrugging almost apologetically as he started to work his way out of his gear. "Turns out, I really am a pushover."

He totally was. A big squishy one.

"But it was all really easy work," he added.

[intraspective]

"Well," she said, pushing herself up and over onto one elbow. "I suppose I can forgive you."

A beat.

"If you kiss me once you're out of your armour."

... Shut up. She just liked kisses.

[puppy_fair]

Oh, but she drove such a hard bargain!

"I think I can handle that," Zack laughed, in spite of the so very steep price she'd just set on forgiveness. "This time. Because that's how much I value your forgiveness."

[intraspective]

"It comes first in my heart," she informed him loftily. "And I'm glad you're okay."

Which, actually, was something that did come pretty close to something first in her heart.

[puppy_fair]

"I would have called or something," Zack noted, "but on top of that 3rd's missions, I managed to get some more for myself, too. Helping the company test new mechs, things like that. Mostly just busy work."

Busy work that involved facing off against large stompy machines with smart missiles and giant saw blades. You know. Casual stuff like that.

"How was your break week?"

[intraspective]

"Busy," she said, wriggling so he'd be able to flop down by her on the bed. "I got called home by Dad for trainin'. Just got back before you did."

But she was going to pout a bit at the idea of missing missions with him. Unfair! Unfair!

(Okay, not really, but her persona would certainly think so.)

[puppy_fair]

"Ooh, training!" Zack grinned as he shrugged out of the last of his armor, and then knelt down and started to work his boots off, next.

There was a process to this 'undressing' thing, when you were an S-E character in SOLDIER.

"How did that go?"

[intraspective]

"Not bad," she said, smiling at him. "Picked up a few new tricks, got the basics to study a few more--you know how that goes, yeah?"

And totally left out how she hadn't seen--what used to be her team at all.

[puppy_fair]

"I've been trained once or twice," he laughed, giving his newly freed toes a wiggle, and then squirming out of his shirt before deciding that he was undressed enough, finally, to make his way over to the bed. "I think I managed to catch on to a trick here and there, yeah."

[intraspective]

She wriggled one hand at him for him to take as he approached the bed. To pull him down?

... Maybe.

"I would hope so," she mused, eyes sparkling. "I'd be pretty sad if you knew no tricks at all."

Mmmm yeah.

[puppy_fair]

Oh, way to give a boy ideas, Ino.

He was smiling like a huge dork as he crawled onto the bed beside her, giving his head a little shake.

"I wouldn't want to make you sad," he noted. "Good thing I have one in mind right now, huh?"

He owed her a kiss! For forgivenes! Time to deliver!

[intraspective]

Ideas were sort of the point, really.

And she was just going to return that kiss, with interest, because she'd missed him and he was here now and kissing was far better than a number of things right that moment.

(Okay, kissing was better than a great number of things anytime, shush.)

[puppy_fair]

Kissing was the stuff of life! Of life!

... Or, at least, it was fun to do. Which was also good. And from this particular vantage point, it was seriously easy to wriggle in so that he could put his arms around her.

"Missed you," he offered. Because he had!

[intraspective]

See, and now there could be clinging and kissing. She was totally okay with that.

"Missed you too," she said, smiling just for him. "Weren't a--bad--trip, exactly, but wasn't great fun neither without you."

[puppy_fair]

"Next time, we'll have to train together," Zack decided, putting on that puppy grin of his. "Think your dad would be pretty tough on me?"

It said a lot, really, when Zack was hoping that the answer to that question would be yes, right?

[intraspective]

"If he wasn't," she said, amused. "Then there'd be somethin' seriously wrong. You've seen his reaction to you."

So yes, her dad would be so very hard on him.

[puppy_fair]

"And we weren't even dating yet, then," Zack laughed. "Man, that would be an awesome training session!"

Zack had issues. Could you tell, Ino?

[intraspective]

Yes, yes she could.

"I'd rather, personally speaking, that you two didn't try to kill each other."

[puppy_fair]

"Aww, I wouldn't be trying," he replied. There might have been a pout in there, somewhere. "I like your dad, you know. He's not a bad guy."

And it kind of helped that he was Ino's dad, and all.

[intraspective]

"He's not," she agreed, always happy with a compliment to her dad. Because her dad was awesome. "He's just--protective."

[puppy_fair]

"Which is totally his right. You are his little girl, after all."

See! Zack understood what family was all about!

... He just kind of sucked at it, himself. That was all.

[intraspective]

"Not so little anymore," she noted, with a bit of a laugh. "Speakin' of little girls and boys, you've got a letter on the desk."

One that, to her eyes, didn't look official or nothing at all! And as their were only a few people who'd write him a letter, Ino was pretty sure she could make the assumption there.

[puppy_fair]

"Oh, yeah?" Zack's eyebrows furrowed a little, at that. He didn't really know many people who would write him an actual letter, instead of just firing off some digital mail to his PHS. Which meant...

He was having a wee tiny little haeart attack, now. Yes.

"They wrote back?"