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!]

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"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..."

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

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"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...

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

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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."

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"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.

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"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?"

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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..."

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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..."

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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."

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"I'll let you have a free milkshake next time you're at the diner," A.J. offered, smiling a little to hear a little bit of acceptance breaking through, his voice practically oozing with hopefulness.

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"I don't want a milkshake," Ino said, "anyone could get a milkshake." She pondered her options. "You could draw me a picture?"

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A.J. nodded, smile creeping back a little more. "I could draw you a picture. Definitely."

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"Well, okay. One picture." Ino said, looking up at him, "And I'll forgive you as long as it doesn't happen again."

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Biting his lip against a grin, A.J. ducked his head to also try to hide a little bit of a blush that was building up again. "Man, I should have just not said anything."

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"Look on the bright side," Ino said, wrinkling her nose at him, "I'm letting you off lightly."

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"I could leave, you know," A.J. countered. "I did show up, so you can't be that mad."

If anything, A.J. was thinking he could make a case that he should be mad at Ino. He had left a really, really good thing to come up here and just be badgered.

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It wasn't her fault that he couldn't be bothered to schedule his really good things at times when he hadn't promised to be somewhere else.

"A.J.," Ino said patiently, "that was hardly mad. When I'm mad at you, believe me, you'll know."

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"Oh, I know," A.J. said, holding back a chuckle as he gave Ino a look. "That's the main reason I ended up showing up after all."

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That, that stung.

She pulled away from him and, grabbing on her hairbrushes turned her back to him. "So sorry about expecting people to keep their promises." Ino said, fighting to keep her composure, "Sorry for being irritated about not being important enough to remember ahead of time."

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"Oh, come on!" A.J.'s outlook on the situation just drastically dropped from hopeful to disaster and he held out his arms as if waiting for a chance to just drop right in them. "I was just joking!"

Well, he's said it as a joke, even if it was mostly true.

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"It wasn't funny." Ino said flatly, the hand holding her hairbrush shaking a bit, "If they only reason you bothered to show up is because you're scared of me being angry then you might as well go."

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"It's not the only reason," A.J. countered, brooding slightly at the shaking hairbrush. "I'm not going to lie and say that it wasn't a reason at all. I said I'd be here, so here I am. I just forgot a little bit. Kabuto stands you up for a whole date, and you pout in a coffee shop. I slip up a bit, and it's like, oh-mi-god, end of the world or something."

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"I also clocked him over the head and dug my nails into his skull," Ino said acidly, "and, you know what? Maybe I expected more of you because you hadn't let me down before."

And maybe she was more sensitive than normal thanks to being stood up Saturday.

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"And I still haven't," A.J. pointed out with a very important lift of his chin.