Shooting Range, Monday Morning

[withoutverona]

Romeo wasn't usually the early rising type; if he saw 9 a.m. on a day when he wasn't cruelly roused by his alarm clock, it was normally because he'd not slept the night before. And despite his best attempts, he'd not slept much Sunday night. Or Saturday. Or Friday, really.

He needed something active to do, as he was strangely sick of his thoughts and the beach. And it never hurt a Montague to work on his aim.

Which was why Romeo was in the shooting range, finding strange therapy in blowing targets to bits.

{OOC: Open! And the specifics of the conversation are NFB, please.]

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[intraspective]

Ino had been up since four, which she still thought was rather depressing but was glad that it was becoming easier to crawl out of bed that early again. It meant, however, that she'd managed to practice for hours already what Temari-san had wanted her to do and still had a few more hours before class.

Which meant, really, gun practice. She slipped into range and grinned a bit at who she saw. "Morning, Romeo!"

...Ino had not been listening to radio.

[withoutverona]

A last shot through the target's heart and: "Good morrow, Ino," was managed dutifully. "I didn't think anyone else would be down here."

[intraspective]

That got a glance, and a slight frown. "Is that a not-so-thinly-veiled hint that I should go away, or something? Because, really, I wouldn't think I'd be that much of a bother here."

A beat.

"How're you?"

[withoutverona]

"Not a hint," Romeo denied. "Merely an expression of surprise. You're more than welcome to stay as you please." He lowered his gun to his side as he spoke, rotating to face Ino. "It was a horrible weekend."

[intraspective]

"Want a hug?" she offered, stepping over to him. "And to talk 'bout it? Unless you don't feel like doing that."

[withoutverona]

Romeo wasn't sure a hug would help, but Ino hugs were always good, so he accepted it. "I can talk about it," he said, then, as a warning, "Though I did end up yelling at Rikku when I tried to talk to her."

"I think I may be breaking up with Dojima." And that was terrifying to say.

[intraspective]

"I yell back--" she'd started to say when he'd continued on and...

...what?

She blinked up at him. "You're what?"

[withoutverona]

"Breaking up with Dojima," he repeated, stepping back. "She's been lying to me, since we first met. I don't know what else to do."

It ... didn't sound as if he entirely wanted to break up with her, though.

[intraspective]

"Lying?" Ino asked, frowning and crossing her arms. "About what? Or should I go talk at her 'til she tells me and then talk to you again?"

[withoutverona]

"I can save you the time," Romeo shook his head. "She mislead me about her job, about why she's here ... for all I know, every word she says is a lie, including her name."

Romeo was a tiny bit dramatic, yes.

[intraspective]

Ino was getting that, yeah.

"Why?" Ino asked, deciding that was her best bet at the moment.

[withoutverona]

"She claims that if she talked about it, the best outcome would be that they'd ask her to leave the school," Romeo explained. "And, she says, that would be if they were being unusually generous about the leak." He shrugged. "And again I am not sure if I should believe her. Either way, she didn't trust me."

[intraspective]

...

"Did she happen to say what the worst outcome would be?"

[withoutverona]

Romeo glowered at his shoes. "They kill me."

That wasn't a big deal or anything at all. Really.

[intraspective]

"...and you wonder why she kept quiet?"

[withoutverona]

He pouted at her, since yeah, it did sound kind of dumb when put that way. "They'd have to find out she told me first."

[intraspective]

"And that becomes a huge security risk that puts both her, and you in danger," Ino pointed out. "Her for breaking cover, you for knowing about things you shouldn't know. I'm not saying that I even know really all the ins and outs of this 'cause I don't, but--"

She watched him steadily. "I'm not saying you'd have messed up if you'd known it, or even that she'd have messed up about keeping the fact that you knew away from them. But all it would take, really, is the suspicion that she'd told someone and then, no doubt, she'd be dragged out of school. And it wouldn't be for anything nice and simple like a quick death."

[withoutverona]

"I already saw one person I loved die," Romeo answered, trying to ignore his nagging sense Ino might be right. "I wouldn't let it happen again. I'd stop them."

Yes, Romeo. One armed teenage boy with a temper and a suicidal streak could completely take on STN-J.

[intraspective]

"How?" she asked simply. "You wouldn't know where to look for their headquarters, I shouldn't think. Or where they'd take her. What could you do then, but get yourself killed?"

[withoutverona]

"I have an idea," he corrected, almost absently. "I went with Dojima when she had to go see a similar group, or so I thought. I know the part of the city, if not the building."

"The larger problem" -- and he would admit to this much -- "is there is one of me, and dozens of them, and I don't have magical powers."

[intraspective]

"That," and that got a faint smile, "is a rather large problem, but I'd say the bigger one is that you don't know if that particular building is only one of several or even their main headquarters--you know it's connected, but that's hardly enough information. You'd likely be killed long before getting more information even."

[withoutverona]

Her faint smile earned a matching one. She was right, after all. "So I suppose you think I should apologize to her."

[intraspective]

"I think you've got a right to be angry," she said. "But not the right to take it out on her. It was her orders, after all. You can't disobey orders like that. I think that what she did, she did the best she could in a bad situation."

[withoutverona]

"Which she got herself into," he bitched, but his face was gentler. "I need to talk to her, at the least. Things get more complicated every time I talk to someone else."

"I am grateful she told me everything when the orders changed."

[intraspective]

"And what does it tell you that she did come tell you the moment she could?" Ino asked, clasping her arms behind her back. "I'm not saying it's fun to be on the other side of it, or anything, but sometimes secrets have to be kept to the detriment of a lot of other things."

[withoutverona]

"Then I wish the world were different," Romeo said. "I don't like secrets."

[intraspective]

That got a smile. "I do," Ino admitted. "But that's probably a cultural thing."

[withoutverona]

He considered her for a moment. "Your world is more like Japan than anything else, isn't it?"

[intraspective]

"That's the closest comparison," she conceded. "Though I'm not sure how it matches up once you add in the differences in government and such. I'm fairly sure most of Japan doesn't get taught how to lie in school."

Okay, the civilians didn't, but Ino hadn't ever been to a civilian school in her world.

[withoutverona]

"No, it's just Yurika's Japanese, and in my world, Japanese girls aren't blonde without dye," he shared. "It makes me wonder how far off your dimensions are."

[intraspective]

She thought about that. "I've got... no idea. How much would have to be different to change something like that?" Huh.

[withoutverona]

"I wouldn't know." He went quiet. "My mind sometimes decides to take odd detours."

[intraspective]

She went to try and hug him again. "That's alright," Ino assured him. "At least most of the time detours don't bug people. It's an interesting question anyway, degrees of separation..."

[withoutverona]

"Worlds next to worlds next to other worlds," Romeo said. "Maybe you could make a whole list, of whose worlds were most alike...."

It was, at least, something to think about that was not his relationmship woes.

[intraspective]

"We'd get things named like Ino-land, and Romeo-world, I think," she said. "Since most people, really, call their home Earth. But that'd be one fascinating chart if we could pull it off..."