Konohagakure no Sato, Saturday Afternoon (Fandom Time) / Feb. 15th (Konoha Time)

[intraspective]

Really, it had been a month and a half now and Ino had to admit that she was—feeling better. Between her father teaching Zack (and water walking had proved to be quite a hilarious thing to watch) and her father teaching her, she was feeling useful and busy without it being anything too taxing.

She hadn’t seen either of her previous teammates, which stung, but Ino stomped down firmly on that as she disentangled her mind from her father’s and ignored his look. It wasn’t the first time she’d avoided… whatever it was he’d wanted to talk about.

And she doubted it would be the last.

“That’s enough for now,” he said, after a moment. “How about you go and get some air?”

It was phrased as a suggestion, but Ino was well used to her father’s orders. With a quick kiss to his cheek, she left the room, went down the long, dark hall and out into the sunshine. It was a lovely day—February, already, which made her head hurt if she thought too hard about the days and how they related to Fandom—but, Ino thought, as she leaned against the balcony and pulled out her phone, hitting speed dial, maybe all that time had been what she’d needed.

And, across universes, her phone call reached…

[For ze raspberried one. Mwahaha. NFB.]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

... Well, fuck. He should have seen that coming. But here was the real measure of his worth as Reno, wasn't it? The one who took the Rookies under his wing?

"Bring him along," he replied, barely missing a beat. "I'll figure somethin' out."

He'd have to warn Tseng. That was all there really was to do.

Well. Almost all.

"Might wanna get him into some civvies before you leave, though. Junon's ShinRa friendly, but a SOLDIER 1st is still gonna attract a lot of attention you ain't gonna want, yo."

Especially considering how many of ShinRa's people in Junon would see the armor, see the hair, see the sword, and realize that they were seeing a ghost.

[intraspective]

"Okay," she said, relief in her voice and maybe half a step away from crying. "Thank you. I know--I know that it's weird and and and--"

And maybe if she said 'and' enough she'd find more words?

[raspberryturk]

"So, it's weird," Reno agreed with a shrug in his shoulders that nearly managed to carry into his voice. "We're used to weird here, yo. If he's fine with it, we're fine with it, too."

Tseng was going to kill Reno for this.

[intraspective]

Slowly and painfully and it might have been something for her to consider, then, had she not been so very... shattered... in and of everything else.

"I'll check with him," Ino replied, blinking hard. "I--thank you. I can't..."

Ino shook her head.

"Thank you," she repeated. "I'll... I'll see you soon, then?"

[raspberryturk]

"I'll see you soon," Reno agreed. "You got my number? Call me before you head in, we can figure out a place to meet, yoto."

Added bonus? It would give him ample time to go running to try to distract the boss.

[intraspective]

"Okay."

She... needed to say more, didn't she?

"I'll call. And civvies. And thank you."

[raspberryturk]

"Don't mention it, Rookie. Just take care of yourself, okay? I'll see you there, yo."

...

Oh, fuck him. What had he just done?