Apartment Above the Boards, Sunday Morning

[intraspective]

There'd been a lot to think about from yesterday. Almost too much, really, which was why when Zack had suggested they all hit Luke's for breakfast (a family breakfast) Ino had plead work and promised she'd be along in a few.

And she would. Be along, that was.

But what she had to do didn't have anything to do with work.

She sat cross-legged on her bed, Silly perched on her knee, and Kueng's Silly perched on her other knee, and Girl dosing behind her. (Ino was pretty bemused by the duplicate of her chicobo.) They were eyeing each other. Ino gently rubbed both of their heads and then sent off the message she'd realized last night that she should have sent earlier.

Kueng's safe.

Because with his fathers' only the gods knew just how badly they were taking his disappearance.

[For those she's messaging, but also open for calls/visitors, yo.]

Comments

[intraspective]

"Thank you," she said, though it wasn't enough. Not for her and, she suspected, not for him either.

"Are you--can I ask--are you happy?"

Even without her? Had they managed that?

[turk_mailman]

It was... it was hard, coming up with an answer, in that moment. But Tseng paused, and gave that question the consideration it deserved.

"We've made a home," he said, finally. "We have a son, who has his mother's eyes and a smile he must have picked up from Zack, somehow, and we have one another. If anybody had asked me years ago if that would be enough, I don't know that I could have said yes. We've lost too much, there are too many scars."

He lifted his chin faintly.

"But scars do fade in time. Life continues. There are days that the answer is still no. But those days are gradually becoming replaced by the days we can say yes."

[intraspective]

It was hard, too, listening to such a blunt answer.

But Ino appreciated it all the same and took comfort from it. They might not be happy all the time, but there were times when they were. That mattered.

She loved him just a little, just for that.

"I'm glad," she said quietly, "that there are days where you're happy. Kueng seems like a good boy." She was grateful for the chance to get to know him and hoped he felt the same. "I wish you were happier, but that's always been an uphill battle with you." She was teasing, very gently now. "Right now, my you is considering the oddity of having a son with me and likely trying to figure out what it meant when I kissed him at the Gold Saucer last weekend."

[turk_mailman]

Tseng blinked at that.

And then, almost impossibly, he smiled.

"I distinctly remember wanting to strangle you that night."

[intraspective]

And, oh, she could get used to a smile like that.

Ino laughed. "That doesn't surprise me," she admitted. "But Reno and I really were doing important things, I swear! Not just getting drunk and fleecing civilians!"

[turk_mailman]

"And do I ever get to know what those important things were?"

[intraspective]

Her eyes sparkled.

"You mean you still don't know?" she asked artlessly.

[turk_mailman]

Tseng was still smiling.

"I still don't know," he agreed. "Though I suppose you need your secrets, don't you?"

[intraspective]

"I have lots of secrets," she admitted shameless. "But it ain't no problem to share this one, I guess, to you. Reno and I were busy savin' the world, yeah, but more importantly we were savin' the Turks."

[turk_mailman]

"Saving the Turks?"

Well. That was interesting. It hadn't taken, really, but she could hardly have predicted Sephiroth's return, could she?

[intraspective]

No, that... really hadn't come up. Like, at all.

"Yeah, see, in Reno's timeline, there was an AVALANCHE plot to gather the pieces of the material to summon Zirconaide." She pursed her lips. "And that summons killed all the Turks but you, Rude, and Reno."

Elena had been recruited after that.

"So Reno and I, we're gathering the pieces ourselves and destroying them as we do." She shrugged a bit. "The Turks are our family. We ain't letting them go out like that. Even if, even if in your time they..."

She shook her head.

[turk_mailman]

Tseng nodded faintly.

"I'll give you dates. Locations. Everything we have. It won't be for nothing." He glanced over his shoulder. "In the meantime..."

He grimaced.

"I think I've used about as much time as I can afford without having to sleep on the sofa for the next month."

[intraspective]

Don't laugh, Ino, don't laugh. It wasn't actually funny, it was just--she was emotionally over-wrought.

"I understand," she said, once the insane urge to giggle had passed. "Go on. Thank you for talking to me."

[turk_mailman]

Tseng nodded.

"Thank you for..." He wasn't sure. But it seemed important to thank her anyway. "For everything, Iris."

[intraspective]

She smiled and, after a moment, reached out and terminated the call.

Then she flopped back on the bed, right on Girl, and heaved a sigh, just staring at the ceiling for awhile, until the urge to either laugh or cry had passed.

She still had to meet her boys at Luke's. Ino closed her eyes, then sat up, reaching for her phone. Zack and Tseng (the older ones) were likely fighting by now. She didn't blame Zack for it--but she also understood Tseng's reasoning.

Ino didn't expect any response to her two texts, one to each. That almost made them easier to send.

Ain't no matter the time or the situation, Zack. I love you.

The one to Tseng was a little more difficult. She loved him here, of course, but she loved all the Turks, violently, fiercely, just like they loved her. The love that the other her had held for him, though, that had been different.

虹立ちて　忽ち君の　在る如し. 愛してる.*

She left it at that.

[OOC: A haiku by Takahama Kyoshi:

The rainbow stands
In a moment
As if you are here.

And the words 'I love you'.]