Room 504, Thursday Early Evening

[intraspective]

Ino was currently sitting cross-legged on her bed, already in her pajamas, and brushing her hair out. Scattered on her bed were several other combs and various clips and hair ties.

It had been a pretty awesome week. All her classes were fun and now she was pretty much free until Monday to do whatever she wanted. At the moment though Ino was pretty content just to be brushing her hair, humming under her breath, while idly wondering if A.J. would show up like they'd arranged on Saturday.

The door was open.

[Open!]

Comments

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

Anathema knocked on the door, juggling a few bags.

[intraspective]

Ino blinked and bounced off her bed, hairbrush still in hand, to open the door. "Hello?"

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"I got moved to your room." Anathema said cheerfully. "I just got in, family wouldn't let me go." Including some members who were somewhat dead.

[intraspective]

She nodded, remembering the welcoming picnic and how her roommate hadn't been there. Stepping to one side so that Anathema could come in Ino fiddled with her hairbrush and asked, "Do you need a hand with anything?"

Best to start things off as well as possible, right?

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"I'm okay, actually." Anathema turned around and asked seriously. "How do you feel about potpourri?"

[intraspective]

"I've got no objections to it." Ino raised her eyebrows. "How do you feel about living plants?"

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"I much prefer them to the plastic kind." Anathema replied and started unpacking.

[intraspective]

She wandered back to her bed and curled up to watch, tapping the hairbrush against her knee. "Then I've got no immediate objections to living with you." she said, half-teasing, half-serious, "Flowers are important."

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"They are. My past roommate apparently hated all living things. Or at least the ones living in our room."

[intraspective]

Ino blinked. "Why do I see that so not going over well? Seriously. It's not like a potted plant is going to hurt anything."

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"Exactly! Plants give us oxygen and shade. And many have plenty of beneficial properties."

[intraspective]

"They're very useful. Sleep aids, and treating bug bites, and headache relievers... and they add a nice touch to a room," Ino beamed, "it never quite feels right if there's no plants around."

Granted, Ino probably took this a little far.

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

This was Anathema she was talking to. The girl nodded enthusiastically. "Exactly!"

[by137.livejournal.com]

It was funny, really, how some things worked. For the most part (he blamed classes, for the most part, even though he'd only had one so far, but that one had consumed a lot of his brain power), A.J. really had forgotten about his whole hair lesson today. He probably, considering where his time and effort had gone today in the meantime, would have continued to forget, too, if it weren't for the fact that the excessive continuation of the cuddling with Beauty had lead to A.J. running fingers through her hair, noticing her hair, liking her hair, thoughts of doing her hair...

And that was when it hit. "Oh, crap, hair!" had been the actual expression he'd handwavily used when the realization struck and he was vaulted into action and spurned to explain that if he didn't get to something soon, he'd probably be dead on Sunday. More than dead. Ultra-super dead. So the cuddling session was cut short (relatively speaking) and A.J. hurried up to Ino's room, knocking on the open door and leaning on the frame. He tried with utmost earnest to look like he wasn't completely flushed and breathless from having bound up three flights of stairs.

"Hey, Ino," he said, his casual tone strangled. "What's up?"

[intraspective]

Ino glanced up at him through very slightly narrowed eyes. "Glad to see you could make it," she said, "I was starting to wonder."

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Why, am I late?" A.J. asked, letting out a breath of air and running a hand through his hair as he strolled oh-so-casually (or so he thought) in. "I didn't think we decided on a specific time..."

[intraspective]

"You so fail at lying." Ino said, "I bet you barely remembered." This was said with a pout.

[by137.livejournal.com]

"I don't fail at lying!" A.J. said, indignantly, with a very obvious drop of his jaw. And there was pouting. His eyed widened in an effort to not be swayed by the pouting. "I remembered! I'm here, aren't I?"

That point, he knew, definitely couldn't be argued, but, my, his face was getting rather red...

[intraspective]

"You almost forgot," Ino said, pouting more, "nobody ever remembers to keep their promises to me." This was said as pathetically as possible.

[by137.livejournal.com]

That....was...so not fair!

"But I didn't," A.J. said, cracking quickly with a worried expression on his face; he was two second away from wringing his hands. Probably five seconds away from hugging. "That still counts. And...and I had a good reason, really I did."

[intraspective]

"Kabuto was busy with research," Ino said, all slightly hunched shoulders and radiating woe, "was it as good a reason as that?"

Call this just a taste of what he'd have been getting if he really hadn't shown up.

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Ohhhh," A.J. deflated, frowning deeply with worry; there started the slight hand wringing. "Ino! At least I still made it, right? That counts, doesn't it?"

[intraspective]

He got half a shrug and another pout in response. "It does a bit," Ino admitted reluctantly, "but I always seem to be an afterthought..."

[by137.livejournal.com]

And, sure enough, there was the move-in for the hug. "That's not it at all, Ino! I'm sorry; really, I am."

And he really was. He felt terrible, and tried to find something in his head that he could do. "I'll make it up for you, if you want. Really. Anything. Well, anything in my ability, which isn't a lot, I know, but I'll try..."

[intraspective]

Ino let him hug her, even leaning into him slightly. A small part of her felt bad for making him feel bad - if she'd tried this on Kabuto she would've been told to stop whining and to get over herself. "Well," Ino said slowly, "you did show up. Which makes you better than some I can name."