intraspective | Apartment Above the Boards, Tuesday Morning

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Apartment Above the Boards, Tuesday Morning

Like Zack, Ino hadn't slept much after they'd sent Kueng home. There was a lot to think about and--in her case--a lot to read, look at, and watch. Tseng, Kueng's Tseng, had come through for her with every little bit of information he could scrape up that might change the future.

She'd wanted to go through it herself, first, before sending off copies to both the Tseng in her timeline (even in her head, she wasn't sure about calling him 'her' Tseng) and to Reno, with an email explaining what this information was and how she'd gotten it.

Then she settled in to review the information again.

Maybe it was morbid to watch herself die, but the fact she went out laughing, made her smile.

[Late post is late, but open, sure~]

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Tseng was going to have to change his clothing just as soon as he got Iris into something clean, apparently. He sighed.

"Small. Very small."

That was generally the price of having small children around, yes.

"Smaller than me?" she checked, tugging on his pant leg. "Where do we go to get clean?"

The hallway didn't offer many clues.

Tseng had nobody else to blame for this situation. Except Reno.

He was choosing to blame Reno.

"Down the hall, there's a locker room with a shower and a sink. This way."

He continued walking, leading her to the room in question.

It was Reno's fault Ino was even on Gaia at this time...

"Do I gotta shower too?" she asked, dismayed.

If you asked Reno, Ino certainly didn't have to come here!

"You're filthy," Tseng pointed out reasonably. "But for now, making certain your arms and face are clean will suffice."

There would definitely be a shower in your future, kid.

"Baths are more fun," Ino grumbled as she followed at his heels. "Can't I do that instead?"

Children liked fun, Tseng.

Tseng was never going to get this child cleaned and fed.

"... I'll see what we can do."

This was going to come down to sucking up to Reno again to get this done, wasn't it?

Most probably, yes.

"I'll be really good if I can have a bath," Ino wheedled.

Tseng reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I'll see what I can do," he repeated. Because maybe repetition would get him somewhere, sure.

Ino sighed. Loudly.

"What does that mean?" she complained, dragging her feet. Leaving dirt and... other things on the ground behind her. Her cape was dragging too, making it worse. She was leaving a trail. "If there's a shower, there's a bath."

ShinRa's janitorial service was probably used to paths by now, honestly.

"Around here? Not necessarily."

Sometimes if there was a shower, there was a tiny lip on the floor to keep shower water from spilling out into the locker room before it could go down the drain.

That wasn't anything like a bath at all!

"Why not?" Ino wanted to know. "That doesn't sound right at all!"

Tseng gave the child a fairly dry look.

"It's faster."

Turks didn't often have time to indulge. And if they did, they probably wouldn't be doing so in a locker room.

Ino considered that seriously.

"Does that mean you all have bedtimes too?"

Look, she was trying!

And try as Tseng might, he really couldn't see the connection between one thing and the next.

"... No."

Given his job, it was any wonder he ever got a chance to sleep at all.

She... she didn't know what to make of that.

"Then why no baths?" Ino asked reasonably. "They're warm and fun."

"Our lives are our work. There's no time for that."

They were going to be standing in the hallway outside the locker room until the end of time, weren't they?

All she wanted was a bath! Not a shower!

Why was that so hard to understand?

"There's always time for a bath, 'less there's no time before bedtime," Ino said sulkily. "And to sleep. And to cuddle. And to talk. There's lots and lots of time!"

"There's also no bathtub."

It made bathing tricky.

Reno would figure out a solution to that.

"Well, that's stupid."

Ino sat down on the floor.

And Tseng just stood there, staring down at her.

When Reno came by in a new suit some twenty minutes later, he kind of paused in the hallway and stared.

Tseng had given up and sat down beside her. She was still filthy. And Reno was going to just stand there and snicker.

Her head snapped up, and she beamed in the direction of the snickers.

"Reno! Reno! Reno, why can't I have a bath? I don't want a shower! And I'm still hungry!"

She flailed her way to her feet, and trotted over towards him.

Reno grinned and crouched down to greet her as Ino made her way over to him.

"Can't help but notice she's still filthy, Boss," he noted, holding out a hand for her to take.

"She wants a bath," Tseng replied dryly.

Reno rolled his eyes.

"So give the kid a bath."

Tseng raised an eyebrow.

"Don't mind Tseng," Reno said to Ino, leaning in to whisper as if she'd understand what was coming out of his mouth. "Decent at the job. Ain't got a fuckin' imagination."

Yeah, she had no idea what he was saying, but she giggled anyway, like she did, as she took his hand again.

"Where were you? You were gone forever! And he doesn't laugh like you do!"

Though he hadn't been mean or anything. Just kind of... well.

Boring.

Yeah, that was Tseng for you, wasn't it? Reno shrugged his shoulders and stood again, giving her hand a little squeeze.

"Here," he said, starting to walk down the hallway with her, leaving Tseng to scramble back to his feet, "first, let's get you that bath, yo."

"How do you propose to do--"

"And then we'll get some food in you, because I'm bettin' you ain't eaten yet, yo."

"Reno, how--"

"What do kids your age eat, anyway? I got, like... ramen or somethin'?"

Tseng was going to murder him.

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