intraspective | Apartment Above The Boards, Tuesday Late Afternoon

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Apartment Above The Boards, Tuesday Late Afternoon

Spring was here and Ino was celebrating by having pried all the windows open and having spent the day indulging in a good bit of deep cleaning. It was amazing the amount of fur that got into things despite that they kept fairly on top of the cleaning usually.

Ino knew she could've asked Zack to help out but, well, she loved Zack and all but it was much easier to clean most things when he wasn't around.

But now, content in her work well done, and the lemony freshness that reminded her of all that work, Ino was lounging on their couch, the radio on, and just relaxing.

There was nothing better than relaxing in a clean place.

[Open, sure!]

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Zack was... kind of quiet as he came through the door, a printout from the shelter computer in hand. He'd been given some unexpected food for thought today, after all, and after an entire shift spent ruminating on it, well, he was kind of at a loss for what else to do. It wasn't that things were still weird between them or anything. Not by a long shot. But still..

Unexpected.

The sound of the radio and the smell of lemon-scented cleaners caught him first, and he smiled faintly, weirdly caught by the oddly domestic scene. By the time he rounded the corner to find her on the sofa, he'd folded up the papers again and had them tucked safely into his pocket.

"Someone's been cleaning, huh?"

Ino smiled at the sound of his voice.

"Someone had to do it," she said easily, glancing over at him and making no move to get off the couch. "And it kept me out of trouble."

"I could've helped," Zack replied, a little bit fidgety. "I'll help next time, okay?"

Ino raised her eyebrows at that, pushing herself into a sitting position, the better to look at him, of course.

"If you want to," she said, a touch of amusement colouring her voice. "What’s got you all twitchy?"

"Twitchy? I'm not-- I mean..." Zack fidgeted a little bit more. "I mean, I made an appointment to have Girl come into the shelter for the vets to give her her booster shots and stuff, today."

Which on its own was not really a twitchy thing. They were unlikely to discover that Girl had suddenly developed a rare case of Doggyitis while just giving her some shots, after all.

Okay, Ino was really not seeing anything to cause twitchy from that.

She squinted at him.

And waited.

Was Zack sweating now? He was pretty sure he was sweating.

"... Which involved pulling out her adoption forms," he continued, "because the records for her last visit to the vet were in with them..."

"Okaaay," Ino said slowly, really not sure what Zack's issue was. "Is everything okay with Girl?"

As she leaned over to fish her water bottle up off the floor and take a sip of it, she remembered just whose name the adoption forms had used.

Well. Hm.

She eyed him consideringly.

If that was it, he was taking it poorly.

Zack shook his head.

"No, no, she's fine," he said quickly. "I just."

He paused for a moment, scraping together words.

"Ino Fair."

… Ah. Yes.

"Well," Ino said, keeping her voice as casual as she could despite the pink that was climbing up her cheeks, "I tried getting’ ‘em to do it under Iris Fair but they weren’t havin’ none of that ‘cause you ain’t never talked ‘bout an Iris at work."

Yes, yes that was totally the issue at hand, right?

Zack was blushing a little, too.

"It's not the Ino part," he protested. "I just, you know... I mean."

He waved a hand around as if doing so would help him pluck the words from midair.

"Fair."

"I mean," she said carefully, "I were adopting Girl for you. It ain’t wrong?"

"But it isn't... I mean..." Zack was doing more of that waving his hand around. "It's not your name?"

There was a long pause. And then he added, "I mean. It's not, right?"

"Legally?" she asked. "I mean, legally the only name I got is ‘Iris’."

Ino was sure she could get pinker. But didn’t really want to try.

"But, like, if I’ve needed a last name in the last… six years or so… then, yeah. It’s been Fair."

So.

Zack swallowed and nodded a little. He was chewing the inside of his cheek. Wondering what to ask from here.

"As a... tribute, or...?"

He was supposed to be dead, after all.

She stared at him for a moment, mouth half-open in indignation.

"Because I love you."

Ino had never coped well with the whole ‘he was supposed to be dead’ thing.

Zack winced a little, mostly at the force of that exclamation.

"I love you too," he replied. "I just... I wasn't expecting it. It's okay that you're using it! I can share my name, I'm not being possessive about it! I mean, I..."

He just barely managed to resist sticking his hand in his pocket. He'd had a ring in there for years, now. He was still amazed that it had stayed in there through the whole Nibelheim incident, but then, he supposed Hojo wouldn't have interest in trinkets, either.

"I like it. I mean. I like the way your name sounds in front of mine."

Oh, look, yes, she could get pinker.

"That’s… that’s good then," she said, somehow deeply embarrassed by him saying that.

Zack fidgeted even more.

Okay. Good. That was good. That it was good. Good. And look, he was blushing, too.

"I wanted it," he added, after a long pause. "I really wanted that."

There was an awful lot of blushing going around this evening.

"You… wanted it…?" she asked.

Like. That kinda—but, no, she wasn’t going to--

Zack nodded. Was it possible for his cheeks to get redder? The world might never know!

"I wanted it." He paused. "I was... planning on asking... if you wanted it too."

Proposing. He'd been planning on proposing.

Was he…?

She was pretty sure he was. In a very roundabout sort of way.

"I mean," she said, and wow, the only comforting thing here was that he was as red as she was, "I wouldn’t’ve said no."

Just… throwing that out there.

"That was sort of what I'd been hoping for," Zack replied, and now the ceiling was really interesting. Yep. Yessir. "I mean, when I wanted to ask you. If that was something you wanted?"

Hooboy.

… what?

Ino tried to parse that.

“Is it… is it not something that you want… now?”

"No, I mean, I do want it now." Zack was pretty sure he was going to just die during this conversation. Just take a breath to say a word and then drop dead of embarrassment. "I never stopped wanting it. I just don't know if. I mean. Should I ask? I don't know if it's something you want."

It would be a hilarious mystery for the ages. Two perfectly healthy people. Dead in their apartment.

Girl would probably eat them.

“I want it,” she said, eyes huge. “I mean—if you do.”

Zack nodded. A lot.

"I do. I still do. I mean, I never stopped. I just didn't want to want it again until after I knew we could make it work again, and we are? I mean, we seem to be? I think we are. Aren't we?"

He wasn't breathing. He was only rambling.

Ino started giggling.

She couldn’t help it. Honestly, it was amazing she hadn’t started giggling before now.

Zack just kind of clammed up and stared for a moment, processing that.

"... Um..."

Oh no. Had he messed up? Should he go into hiding forever? Could he just.. maybe... sink into the floor and die there?

"It’s not you!" Ino protested, catching the way his thoughts went, and waving her hands at him… while, yes, still giggling. "I just—we, I mean, we both sound like idiots."

Both of them.

A lot.

Oh. Well. That's good. That was good? It was good! Zack went from wanting to sink into the floor to kind of brightening up and grinning. And then chuckling. And then laughing, too.

Mostly in relief, granted. But also kind of in delight. That wasn't a no, after all. It was not a 'no, Zack, you shouldn't ask me the question.'

His laughter just made her laugh harder, rolling back on the couch and just giggling until her sides ached.

"And it ain’t a no this time either," she said, when she could speak again. "In… in case you were wonderin’."

Once Zack caught his breath again, because heck, that had been a good laugh, he looked at Ino thoughtfully, still smiling.

"So... what would you say if I were to ask? I mean. Hypothetically."

Sure. Totally a hypothetical.

She reached out one hand for him, smiling, though her gaze was serious.

“Hypothetically, I’d say that there’s a lot to talk ‘bout, ‘bout livin’ and dyin’ and worlds and jobs and timelines,” she said earnestly. “But that I’d still say yes.”

He reached to take her hand, walking over and standing in front of where she was sitting on the couch. Huh. His mouth was dry. That was... weird. And new. And not... not bad? Probably?

"And... what order would you rather we did all that in? Hypothetically?"

Hypothetically, her ass.

“If we were the prudent sort,” she said, staring up at him, “we’d take our time and talk things out all first.”

Ino took a breath that was a little more shuddery than she’d care to admit. “But I’ve always preferred bein’ a little reckless.”

Reckless. Okay.

Okay.

Zack could be reckless. He could be. He'd been carrying that ring around in his pocket beyond death itself waiting for the right moment, and now there was a chance they could lose her instead, and he barely even realized that he was shifting his weight to get down on one knee until he was down on one knee, and the little box with the ring in it wasn't in his pocket, it was in his hand.

Oh gods. Oh gods. Okay.

Okay.

"Well... then, would you, not hypothetically, marry me?"

After this conversation ended, he was certain he was going to faint.

That… that was a whole lot of reckless that she hadn't expected. She'd known where the conversation was going and she figured that, sure, this was good, they'd get it clear now and sometime down the line he'd pop the question, or if she got impatient with him, she'd do it.

But she genuinely hadn't expected any of this. Not right now. Not right here.

Not him going down on one knee. Not the ring.

She tore her eyes off of it, to stare at him, eyes wide and wondering and—he needed an answer, didn't he?

He probably needed an answer.

It took her another moment to find the words.

"You're my most precious person," she said softly. "Yes."

Zack wasn't sure he could find words. He was trying! He was trying. But for some reason, words were escaping him, here. So he reached for her hand to put the ring on her finger, and wow, his own hands were shaking, though he was pretty sure it was with excitement? He'd stopped breathing, that was not helping the situation any. Breathing was important. But if he exhaled, he'd start babbling, and he wanted to at least have this moment be as perfect as it could be without him Zacking it up.

He was not going to fumble the ring, he was not going to fumble the ring.

"I love you so much," he murmured, because by some miracle he hadn't fumbled the ring, and so now he was allowed to do things like breathe again. "And I intend to show you that for the rest of our lives."

Her hands were shaking too, it must have been something in the air, because this… this was something she'd never quite hoped for, honestly, given their jobs.

But it was something she'd wanted. So badly.

"I'm going to hold you to that," she said, choosing bravado over tears. "Now, are you going to kiss me or not?"

It was a good thing Zack didn't have more words, really. He just laughed, an open, warm, genuine laugh, pulling himself up from the floor in order to kind of tackle her into the sofa for that kiss.

It was a kiss that had been put on hold for far too many years. They'd been cheated of it before. He wasn't going to wait another second for it now.

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Apartment Above The Boards, Tuesday Late Afternoon

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