Sector 5 Church, Midgar, Gaia, Friday Late Night

[intraspective]

This time of night all the good boys and girls were in bed.

At least, they usually were in the stories. Ino knew far, far too much about how Midgar (and life in general) worked to think that being up late was any real indicator of good or badness.

She didn't have to be out tonight, patrolling, and she wasn't officially on the clock anyway (not that that meant much) but she'd been away for the last few weeks, out in Wutai since it was easy for her to pass as a native there, and so she wanted to reacquaint herself with her home.

Midgar was an ugly city, all dark metal, rust, and green smoke skies. She still thought it was beautiful, when she saw the flicker and glitter of mako lit streetlights and the old empty-eyed fallen trains. Beautiful in a lonely sort of way, which suited her mood completely.

There'd been no time, out in Wutai to celebrate her birthday (she was twenty-two now), and while the Turks had offered to take her out tonight, none of them had been surprised when she'd begged off. They could go drinking without her.

As she usually did, when she was in this sort of mood, her footsteps ghosted her to Aerith's church. This time of night, Aerith wasn't there. Aerith was (mostly) a good girl.

Letting the door slip shut behind her, Ino approached the flowers, somehow lit by the moon despite the plate overhead (she knew, she'd gone looking once and it still didn't make sense), and knelt down to touch them.

"Hey," she said, smiling slightly as her hair spilled over her shoulders to touch the flowers too. "How've you been? Being good for your mom?"

[OOC: Expecting one, but open for calls/texts, sure.]

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[intraspective]

"Not me," she said, slouching a little. "Twenty-two. Finally legal for everything back where we met. Not that it matters here. Gaia don't sweat that sort of thing much."

[puppy_fair]

Twenty-two, Zack echoed. That meant he had missed... too many years. For the life of him, he had no idea why he could daydream up something like that. This was a quiet night.

It was a quiet night. And now he was torturing himself.

Clearly, he was bad at taking advantage of the reprieve.

It's been too long. I lose track, not even sometimes. Time doesn't mean much anymore, I guess.

Except that Ino's life was slipping by, and he wasn't even a part of it.

[intraspective]

Even dead, though, he couldn't leave her alone. And she couldn't let him go.

Who wasn't part of whose life again?

"Not really," she agreed. "All those big numbers and stuff that mattered, well, they don't seem to matter no more."

It was pretty sad, really, but Ino was better than she'd been, back when it had been new pain.

"Still here, though," she said. "Pretty surprised."

By her living or by his staying around? How about both? It would have been easier if she hadn't had both.

[puppy_fair]

I've always been constantly surprised by you, Zack offered, some warmth in his tone that didn't quite make up for how cold his body felt, tonight. I'm glad you're still here. Who would I talk to, if you weren't?

It would be lonely in here, making up conversations in his head with nobody in particular.

[intraspective]

"That's right," she said playfully, "that's why I need to stick around. For--"

For conversations with dead people. Ino couldn't say that.

"You probably don't know," she said, "but Tseng and I got married."

[puppy_fair]

Well, that struck Zack like a fist to the guts, right there. He actually twisted a little with the impact of it, loosed a mute whimper that was lost in bubbles and mako and the silence of the night.

... Was it a nice wedding?

He didn't know what else to say, to that.

[intraspective]

"Oh, it was terrible."

Then, because Ino couldn't be cruel to this voice in her heart, she added, truthfully, "Not real married. It was for a job."

[puppy_fair]

Oh thank Ifrit.

... Really, Zack?

I mean... I want you to be happy. I really, really do. And if you find somebody who...

Wow, this was hard.

... Who MAKES you happy...

Really, really hard.

But, you know. TSENG.

That part was easier.

[intraspective]

Ino burst out laughing, her first real laugh in... a while.

"He was a perfectly acceptable husband," she said loftily. "Though not for me."

[puppy_fair]

That laugh was so good to hear. It hurt. He yearned to hear it with his own ears, to see the smile on her face. He ached to hold her again. But to hear her laugh, even in his head, even in his imagination, was closer than he'd been in so, so long.

I hope not. He's so... so Tseng.

[intraspective]

"Ain't nothing wrong with being Tseng," Ino said, tilting her head back to look into the rafters of the church. If she pretended hard enough, maybe she'd see starlight.

"But ain't much my type. And I weren't his either. The wife he ordered me to be were more like someone else."

Ino was judging Tseng pretty hard for that, but it was funny here and now.

[puppy_fair]

Somebody else? Oh?

Zack could spot a crush at fifty paces, apparently unless it involved Tseng's feelings for Aerith.

[intraspective]

Which was... well, Zack always did have an odd blind spot there.

"Well," Ino said, "her hair's darker than mine, and she's got green eyes, and she likes flowers..."

[puppy_fair]

Aerith? Tseng likes AERITH? I had no idea!

... Seriously, Zack. Seriously. You found a freaking camera with his name on it outside the church, once.

...

Which was actually really creepy.

[intraspective]

Or it was part of the job. All of the Turks were pretty creepy, even Ino.

She laughed again, that bright, silvery laugh that only rarely came out. "But it's so obvious!"

[puppy_fair]

Well, nobody told me!

HONESTLY, ZACK.

Why doesn't he just ask her out, then? Just one date!

Because he clearly hadn't been to the Zack Fair School of Romance.

[intraspective]

To salvage Tseng's reputation with a ghost or not...

"I think he's shy," Ino said helpfully.

She was pretty sure it had to do more with Aerith not being interested and the fact that the Turks could not be, officially, Aerith's friends. She was a job.

Or, well, she was meant to be.

[puppy_fair]

Well, I wish I'd known, Zack groused. I would've introduced them. We could have gone on a double date!

There had to be at least a dozen different reasons why that never would have worked.

[intraspective]

"I..."

Wow, could she ever think of all the ways that wouldn't work.

"He probably wouldn't've wanted to if I'd been there," she said lightly. "Since he's my boss and all."

[puppy_fair]

Well, he's...

Zack's friend? Zack... didn't even know, anymore. He'd seen faces. He'd seen black suits. Ino's face hadn't been among them, but Tseng...

Tseng had been there. He could swear he still heard Tseng from time to time.

He's really got to work on his people skills, huh?

There. Winning save for team Fair.

[intraspective]

"Yeah," she said, smiling slightly. "Though he wouldn't say so. Maybe they hook up in some other world, huh? Where things go a little different."

[puppy_fair]

Zack gave that at least a little bit of serious consideration. It wasn't like he was in any hurry to get anywhere. He had the dubious luxury of being able to fall silent for a few extra moments to think.

There are plenty of different realities, he said, finally. Maybe somewhere, everybody gets the chance to be happy.

[intraspective]

There was no real good way to answer that, was there?

"What," she said, "you mean you're not?"

She was sometimes, when she was busy, these days. On nights like this, she never was.

[puppy_fair]

Zack... Zack had no answer for that.

When questions like that came up, he never did. He fell silent for what had to be a solid half-minute before, finally, he came up with a reply.

How's Silly?

There. Talk about the bird. The bird was not a loaded subject.

[intraspective]

Whenever he went silent like that, Ino could never decide how to feel about it. Terror because a formless ghost of a voice was still something and she couldn't let go, and what if what she'd asked had finally pushed him away for good. Then there was the relief because it was hard to still have him be a formless ghost of a voice. When they didn't talk for a while, it was easier. She didn't have to dwell on things that hurt.

Maybe if they'd never talked, after he'd died, she'd be over him by now. High school loves didn't usually last so long, did they?

But every time they talked, there was still a bit of gladness. She was selfish and lonely. A ghost was a poor substitute for the real thing and, since she wasn't like Aerith, maybe it was just all in her head in the first place. Maybe she was just crazy.

"Still the same," she said quietly. "Silly never changes."