Midgar, Gaia -- Sunday

[intraspective]

Little changed in the hospital room overnight. The girl slept, the boy slept, and machines continued their monitoring—more to be safe than out of true need for them—and if the nurses came by to check on them (but always careful not to wake them) a little more often than necessary…

Well, there was nothing wrong with that, was there?

And in this manner, time passed until morning.

[For ze puppy. NFB due to distance.]

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[intraspective]

A worrywart who was supremely and effortlessly ignored as she ran several more tests, noted down the results, all without telling him anything--Tseng had told her, after all, to obtain as much medical information on Miss Yamanaka as possible--before glancing at him over her clipboard as two orderlies cleared away the machines.

"She'll wake soon."

[puppy_fair]

Zack's little smile went a little more genuine, and he nodded his thanks.

"I appreciate you letting me back in," he offered. "Thanks."

He reached for one of Ino's hands, but then stopped short, looking worried again.

"... How are her hands?"

[intraspective]

"Be gentle with them for the next few weeks," she said, having drawn in the breath to snap at him just before he'd asked the question. "And make sure she does the same. There's twenty-seven bones in a human hand and great number of hers were broken, even healed, they need the time to recover."

[puppy_fair]

Zack nodded a little. Nothing shy of an elixir was going to do away with the damage completely, he supposed. He'd ask Ino if she was up to taking one of his when she woke up again.

"I'll be gentle," he promised, and then got back to biting his lip, resting his hand on the bed beside Ino, instead.

Her gentle giant.

[intraspective]

Doctor Sialeeds nodded, finished what she was doing, and quietly left the room. A nurse would keep a discreet eye on them, but for the moment, they would have relative privacy.

And silence reigned for a small while, before the girl began to shift a little, like a prelude to waking.

[puppy_fair]

Her stirring earned a small twitch of his mouth from the worried puppy, and he reached out with one hand to smooth the hair back from her face.

"Hey," he whispered, his expression creeping into something just slightly more mellow than his usual smile.

[intraspective]

The touch only helped her to wake up faster, though it was soothing--and his voice, well, could Ino be blamed for the faint smile that touched her lips as her eyes opened?

"Hey," she said, because words failed her at seeing him awake for the first time after--everything.

[puppy_fair]

"How are you holding up?"

An actual conversation, over here? It seemed like they'd been alternating between waking and passing out at once another since yesterday.

[intraspective]

Ino took a moment to take mental stock of herself, how she felt, and shook her head a bit. "Better than I was," she said honestly.

Though, truly, that wasn't hard to be.

[puppy_fair]

Zack managed to bite that observation down. He'd been afraid since he'd found her that she wasn't going to wake up again, so this was an improvement.

"Hungry or anything? I can have one of the nurses bring up something for you to eat."

Or to drink with a straw, as the case might be.

[intraspective]

"Maybe something to drink," she allowed, lifting one of her hands to study it.

Ino hesitated, studying him. "You?"

[puppy_fair]

"They had roast beef in the cafeteria," Zack admitted, wrinkling his nose a bit. That probably explained pretty much everything that needed explanation, right there.

Midgar did not tend to do anything that involved courtesy, in the long run. And that included vegetarian menus in the ShinRa hospital, apparently. Fresh vegetation was a bit of a luxury around here. Overall, meat made more sense.

He could have gone somewhere else to get something to eat, but... well.

[intraspective]

She nodded slowly.

It was... funny... feeling the way she did, that he was here and he'd stayed right there and that felt good even as part of wished that he'd gone to eat something.

"You should get yourself a drink at least," she said, eyes soft.

[puppy_fair]

"Juice," he suggested, pursing his lips a little. "It's probably the kinda funny tasting hospital stuff, but it's better than nothing, right?"

And they could each have some!

[intraspective]

"I'd like that."

She was smiling a little more now.

"And then you should hug me."

She could use a hug. Possibly a million. Could he provide all of that?

[puppy_fair]

"If I start, I might not stop," Zack warned, grinning a little more.

Wouldn't that be such a difficult way to spend the day, Ino?

[intraspective]

She tilted her head slightly. "Did you have plans then?"

[puppy_fair]

"None at all," Zack decided, scootching up a little closer and (carefully) flopping forward to rest his elbows on the bed. "Maybe booking our portal back to Fandom sometime today, but besides that...? Nah. I'm all yours."

The portal thing was kind of a big deal. The sooner they got out of there, the sooner he could stop being kind of paranoid that something else would happen.

Visits home had a tendency to really, really suck.

[intraspective]

His caution was observed and Ino carefully reached to brush his arm with one of her hands.

"Back to the island, huh?"

Funny how she didn't sound disappointed at all, right?

[puppy_fair]

"If the doctors clear you to travel, I mean," Zack agreed, softly. "It's kind of more... comfortable than here, you know?"

Safer, Zack. The word you were looking for was 'safer.'

[intraspective]

"It'll be okay," she murmured, not able to argue with him but wanting to--try and reassure him.

It probably would have worked better if she hadn't been in a hospital bed.

"Help me sit up?"

[puppy_fair]

Yeah, the surroundings weren't exactly helping all that much.

Zack nodded, gently slipping an arm under her back to help her sit up. Carefully. Slowly.

"How's that?"

[intraspective]

"Better," she replied, smiling up at him. "Thank you."

For, oh, about a million things. Did he know that?

[puppy_fair]

He had his suspicions, really.

"It was nothing," he replied. Because... Because heck, none if it was really a big deal, to him. He was just happy to have her back. And he had that wonderful ability to not have to think too hard about the trail of bodies that they'd stepped around when they were carrying her out of that cave. That helped, too.

[intraspective]

"Not to me," she murmured, eyes catching sight of a hi-potion with a straw on the table and laughing, a bit weakly.