Room 504, Saturday Afternoon

[intraspective]

Being back in Fandom was a peculiar… sort of disconnect.

Ino was curled up on hers and Zack’s pushed together beds and pretending to read. Which was rather futile because she knew it was pretence and so it would have been more productive to actually do something…

But she didn’t really feel like it. There were a lot of things she had to think on, but those thoughts felt almost like she was clinging to broken glass in her hands, and that hurt.

Like a toothache, however, she couldn’t quite stop poking at them. Even when doing so only hurt things more.

And, turn the page. Keeping up appearances, even just to herself, was important.

She was supposed to be reading. Would claim to be reading.

But her gaze wasn't on the book.

[Open door and post!]

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[intraspective]

She wriggled into the touch, even as Silly hopped up on her stomach and settled down.

"No?" Ino asked, teasing a little. "I have pictures."

[puppy_fair]

"She'd want to meet them," Zack pointed out, grinning a little. "As soon as possible, you know."

[intraspective]

"We're still in school," Ino said, flushing. "We can use that as an excuse. And then... busy with work... or something?"

[puppy_fair]

"Or something," Zack agreed. "I'm not in any hurry, really."

He'd liked the kids, sure. But the world that they could potentially bring them into, even after graduation...

And without a dad...

Would... be...

"She'd like to meet you anyhow, though. I mean, this mysterious girl who's gone and stolen my heart? I think that's actually how she put it when she wrote me back, you know."

[intraspective]

"I'm very mysterious, don't you think?" she asked, smiling a little more. Determined not to think about the downsides to having children. "Your mom might be on to something there."

[puppy_fair]

"Just about the most mysterious ever," laughed Zack, wiggling over the bed to get a little closer to her. "She'd be very impressed."

Zack's mother, it should be noted, would be impressed just so long as whoever Zack brought home happened to be breathing.

... It was possibly hereditary. But Zack had chosen well in spite of this crazy genetic trait.

[intraspective]

"As she should be," Ino said with a fair imitation of loftiness. "As I put up with you."

And adored him to a scary degree.

[puppy_fair]

"I know! How do you manage that, anyhow?"

This question, naturally, ended with a reach upwards, so that he could tickle the heck out of her sides.

He had to do something to warrant that lofty tone from her!

[intraspective]

She squirmed, laughing, as Silly fluttered off her stomach, cheeping sulkily about the whole state of affairs as Ino just laughed.

"Stop that!"

[puppy_fair]

"Whyyyyy?"

You were going to have to give him a pretty good reason, Ino! Zack's week had been just about as bad as yours!

[intraspective]

"B-Because!"

That was totally a good reason, right?

As she wriggled, trying to get away from him, and laughed.

[puppy_fair]

"Becauuuuse?"

There was no escape! Zack was firmly rooted in puppy-mode now, and nothing shy of a rolled-up newspaper was going to snap him out of it until he was good and ready to be!

Denial was a beautiful thing, sometimes.

Also beautiful? The sound that can be made when you tackle somebody, hike up their shirt a little bit, put your mouth to their tummy, and blow!

[intraspective]

That wasn't beautiful at all!

Even though it did make her laugh harder. It felt good to be a bit ridiculous as she tugged at his hair.

"Because I said so!"

Reasoning 101!

[puppy_fair]

Zack's head bobbed backwards at the tug, and now he was practically in stitches, reaching forward again with every intention to tickle her some more, but laughing way too hard to do things like aim.

And so? He totally missed by a mile.

He meant to do that!

"And why would you say something like that!"

[intraspective]

Because was totally not a good enough answer again, was it? Was it?

It was the one that kept coming to mind.

"Because I don't want you to tickle me," she decided, wriggling away. Still giggling.

[puppy_fair]

"Why noooooot?"

And now Zack was flopping over, rolling around and laying on his back and grinning up at her with bright, glowing-blue eyes. This was probably the most smiling he'd done in weeks, now, wasn't it?

"I liiiike tickling you!"

[intraspective]

Oh, well he was flopping down and grinning that way and that meant she had to roll over to press herself against him because that was just what she wanted to do.

"Well," she mused, "there's better things you could be doing..."

[puppy_fair]

"Do I have to guess?" It was entirely possible that his voice, which had been almost mellow for the better part of a year now, was lifting just a tiny bit, to that almost giddy lilt that he'd spoken with almost constantly before things had gone so badly with Angeal.

When Zack threw himself into denial with a vengeance, he didn't half-ass it.

"I could probably come up with some pretty crazy guesses, you know."

[intraspective]

"Ooooh?" Colour her amused. And--the denial was painful, in a way, and yet it was something they both needed right now, right this second. "Guess for me?"

And she'd even give him a wide-eyed adoring gaze in hopes that would spur him onward.

[puppy_fair]

"Weeeeell..." Since she'd asked so nicely, he was going to purse his lips, look up at the ceiling, and put some serious consideration into this. "Better than tickling?"

Serious, serious consideration.

"I could be doing squats," he mused, "or sorting my materia. And then there's probably studying to do, and working out, and feeding Mr. Winkles..."

Yep. He was putting a lot of thought into this.

"Or..."

This was, of course, where Zack managed to get from the flat of his back to his hands and knees, pinning her, grinning down at her playfully, and then stealing a kiss. Naturally!

[intraspective]

He could steal all her kisses, he truly could. Ino was certainly not protesting the sudden change of angle or how he was above her rather than under her.

Instead, she was going to use her time wisely to kiss him back.

"Kissing me," she murmured, placing another kiss to the side of his mouth. "Is on the same level as sorting your materia?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack laughed softly, leaning in to kiss her again, just because he could.

"No way," he replied. "Kissing you outranks it all. Easily."

[intraspective]

Her laugh was just as soft when she drew back from that kiss.

"I love you," she said, quietly. "I'm not going anywhere."

[puppy_fair]

"I love you too, Ino."

There came Zack's usual tone again, in shades of wry and mellow.

"Promise?"

Wry, and mellow, and maybe a little scared, but he was covering that all up with a smile and a sigh.

[intraspective]

She smiled up at him.

"Always," she promised, reaching out to brush a finger along his lips. "Forever and always, yours."