Apartment Above the Boards, Wednesday Morning

[intraspective]

Ino wasn't avoiding Zack. She really wasn't. This wasn't like the situation they'd been in last year, with both of them ignoring the elephant in the room and coexisting without ever really living with one another.

This was different because Ino had drowned herself in research since Kueng had left and had barely looked up from it for long enough to eat and shower and sometimes (maybe) sleep.

So, in a way, she was perhaps to be forgiven for not realizing just how much time she'd spent buried in years and years of painstaking work—a great deal of it done after her death—by a man whose love for her showed in the sheer amount of information he'd provided.

There was a lot of think about. And not all of it was about her death either.

Ino frowned at the report she was rereading.

[For ze guy, yo.]

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[intraspective]

AND YET INDEED.

"I know, but that's what happened," Ino said, a bit plaintively.

[puppy_fair]

Zack squinted and set down his noodles.

"That's bad. That... sounds very bad."

Sure, he'd been soaked in Mako himself for years and years, but that mako had presumably been refined, and he'd at least had someone monitoring to make sure he didn't die.

He had been more useful to Hojo alive.

[intraspective]

"That... does seem to be the case," Ino admitted, still looking at the report.

[puppy_fair]

Zack peered down at the report, too.

"Well," he said, after a long silence, "I guess I'm gonna have to get training."

[intraspective]

"It's a goal to aim for," Ino said, one shoulder hitching up. "Ain't going to force you into it though, Zack. You're out of Gaia if you want to be, you know that, right?"

It'd fuck them all over but--he was. And that mattered.

[puppy_fair]

"I know," Zack replied, and then turned a tired smile toward her. "But what kind of hero would I be if I can't even save my most precious person?"

[intraspective]

She leaned over to press a kiss to his cheek.

"Normally, I'd smack you for that," she said, smiling. "But in this case--I really do need you to be my hero."

Against Sephiroth, there was nothing she could do.

[puppy_fair]

"You can smack me anyway," Zack replied, an attempt at a playful note in his voice falling just short of its mark. "We'll consider it part of my training."

[intraspective]

Her smile faded.

"I'm sorry."

[puppy_fair]

Zack's own smile faded, too. And then he leaned forward to wrap his arms around her.

"Don't be. We'll make this work. And... I mean... this started because I was supposed to die, right? So we've just traded off for now. It's not over yet."

[intraspective]

She hugged him back tightly.

"I know," she said, sighing. "I just--I knew it weren't over, but this is... it ain't nothing like what I were thinkin' we'd be dealing with."

[puppy_fair]

"But we have the benefit of knowing," Zack murmured. "Like we know there'll be a meteor. I guess now we just have to dig a little deeper. We can do that."

Even if time kept on ticking ahead with or without them.

[intraspective]

Time listened to no one at all.

"We can do that--we will do that," Ino said, resting her head against him. "The shape of the future ain't yet determined."

Which was good, since Ino didn't mind the idea of dying, but she'd rather not.