fandomhighdorms | Outside the Weapons Locker, Sunday Afternoon

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Outside the Weapons Locker, Sunday Afternoon

Zack was putting one foot in front of the other on his way across the causeway. There was no thought involved in this, only motion, only the one-two rhythm of his legs working, of the soles of his boots hitting the ground ahead of him again and again in quick, steady succession. He walked. Across the causeway, across the island. Back toward the dorms. He walked.

There was a weight on his back. Habit informed Zack's feet that when there was weight like that, then they were going to have to steer the rest of Zack this way before he could go that way, and so Zack's feet did just that. And, once they reached one doorway in particular, Zack's feet ever-so-helpfully notified Zack's hand that now it was time to reach backward, to close around the hilt of the sword that was resting there, because it was time to put it away.

That was about the point that Zack's brain informed Zack's eyes that it was time to look around. First at the door that they, the whole amalgamation of parts that was Zack, were standing in front of. It took Zack's eyes a minute to successfully relay to his brain that they were standing at the weapons locker.

With a blank expression on his face as he worked on turning the sum of his parts back into one cohesive unit all over again, Zack then turned his gaze to his sword. It wasn't the sword that he usually carried with him. It was larger, heavier. In some haze a million miles away, the side of his face ached and his chest hitched and he was choking down another hiccup of a sob as the situation caught up with him.

He was about to turn the Buster Sword over to the weapons locker.

He was about to turn Angeal's sword over to the weapons locker.

And that was when Zack and all of his codependently functioning parts all sagged to the ground at once. And right there was probably where he would stay for a while, with a sword that was nearly the same size as he was resting in his lap, eyes fixed on the weapon and his mind lost in a haze, screaming silent defiance in his head somewhere a million miles away.

He couldn't do this.

[Open, if anyone wants. Fair warning, threads with Zack aren't liable to be particularly sunshiney for a little while.]

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Wait. Wait, she was... letting him pick pillows. So that he could sleep outside, comfortably? So that he wouldn't have to...

He was going to reach for a pillow in just one moment and totally show her up with how tall he was. But for now? Just for now? He was kind of diving in there for a bit of an attack hug.

Edited 2010-04-04 20:08 (UTC)

She'd almost half-expected the hug and when he dove in she wrapped her arms around him.

"You're welcome," she whispered, so low only he could hear it.

And, see? He had enough sense in his head that he wasn't crushing her half to death right now. It worked out nicely, that way.

"I owe you one, Ino," he said, mumbling again, but mostly because his face was buried in her hair.

Edited 2010-04-04 20:16 (UTC)

"You don't owe me anything," she informed him. "This is what friends are for. And you're... you."

Not just a normal friend to her.

"I can... get you things from the dorms," she added, "when you need them. And... if you needed to shower, I could watch the sword? If--If you were okay with that?"

If not, she wouldn't push.

Common sense kind of dictated that about 95% of the population of the island wouldn't be able to lift the sword in order to make off with it. But common sense and heartbreak didn't exist in the same hemisphere, and so it was nice that there was somebody that he could trust, offering to keep an eye on it for twenty minutes every now and again.

"That would be..." That wasn't a sniffle. If Ino heard one, she was totally just imagining it. "I mean... I appreciate that."

There weren't words for just how much he appreciated it.

For that matter Ino wouldn't be able to pick up the sword. But she could watch it. Make sure no one else tried to touch it.

"Anytime," she replied. "I mean that. Anytime you need me to. Just ask."

Ino rested her head against him, feeling the strength in his arms but not being so crushed as earlier. "I can stay out here," she blurted, "with you. I mean... so you're not alone."

She bit her lip. She preferred her bed and her room and everything else for hanging out but preferences had perishingly little to do with this. Better for Zack to not be left alone than for her to be in her bed, right?

Definitely right.

"You don't have to," he sighed. It wasn't really a protest. The company would be so, so appreciated. But it was also the truth. He'd be okay out here, one way or another. It would probably suck the first time it rained, maybe, but what was stopping him from getting a tent, or finding one of those abandoned buildings in the woods, or bunking down in a warehouse, or even just going for broke and getting a hotel room? "But thank you."

That said, he wasn't letting go of her just yet. He could hang on for a moment more. He could close his eyes and pretend that things were okay, just for this heartbeat. See? He wasn't alone.

"So... How do you tell if a pillow is ripe yet?"

Or he could sleep in the nearby stables. If it only rained a night here and there that wouldn't be so bad.

"I want to," she said firmly. Making no move to put any sort of space between them. He could hang on as long as he wanted. "And they're ripe when they look like the fluffiest, cuddliest pillows you can imagine."

It was clearly a scientific method of figuring it out.

When it came to pillows, did it really have to get any more scientific than that?

"Then you're going to need some, too." There was a slight shift of weight, just enough for him to look upward at the tree thoughtfully. "And blankets. I don't really need them, so much, but..."

Well. If she really wanted to stay out here with him, blankets would be a good idea.

At least it wasn't December.

If it had been December then Ino would have been bullying him into getting a hotel room even if she'd had to pay for it herself.

April, though, was nice enough to sleep outside.

"Blankets are a few trees over," she said, one hand letting him go long enough to point that-a-way. "Anything else I can grab from the dorms for us."

Edited 2010-04-04 20:59 (UTC)

"That'd be..." Words. They were fleeing again while he looked in the direction she'd pointed. "...good."

So. Blankets.

His hand was reaching for hers again as he started to kind of weave his way through the trees, setting his head onto the task at hand. Blankets. Blankets from the tree, for Ino, because he was fairly certain that hellfire itself wouldn't keep her from staying outside of the dorms at least tonight with him. Blankets, and big, fluffy pillows. The fluffiest, because those were the ripe ones.

... Ripe pillows.

It was pretty much an effortless gesture from him, to just reach up and snatch one from a branch as they went by. It looked just about fluffy enough. And then he could... could... do something silly with it. Because that was what Zacks were supposed to do. Silly things. Not always with pillows, though. Just kinda silly in general. Like maybe dropping the pillow on Ino's head. Yeah. Yeah, that was probably adequately Zacky.

Her laugh at that was far less indignant than she might've been at another time. He was trying. It hurt to see.

"Show off," she accused, grabbing the pillow with her free hand and hugging it close. Ignoring the fact that pillow-to-the-head meant her hair was mussed now.

"Maybe a little," he admitted. Because showing off was also up there on the list of things that Zacks did. "Is that enough for you?"

He could totally reach another one. Or two. Or six. They could build a pillow nest.

"We could get a whole bunch?" she said, looking a bit... hopeful. Quietly so. This was better than him brooding on his grief though she wasn't silly enough to think he wasn't grieving. "Make a super comfy fort or something?"

There was another twitchy smile, right there. She was good at this, did Ino know that?

"You're going to have me up that tree for this, aren't you?"

He wouldn't protest. It would be something else to do.

"Uh huh," she replied, giving him wide eyes. "I'll admire you while you do all the work."

Ino was, after all, perfectly capable of going up that tree and getting her own pillows.

That was not the point.

"Oooooh," Zack drawled, almost casually reaching upward and tugging down another pillow. "So it's not about the fort, it's about the view."

Because clearly, she hadn't had a proper opportunity to check out his butt in this new uniform yet.

... Not that you could see it, behind that sword.

That was a downside. Not a major one, but one.

"Can't it be about both?" she asked, making a half-hearted jump for a pillow. Her fingers snagged one but her tug wasn't enough to get it out of the tree. "I can multi-task, after all."

She wouldn't hold it against him if he put his hands around her waist and lifted her upward so that she could reach the pillow, would she?

Because... Yeah. Boost!

"Truly, you are a ninja of many talents."

She wouldn't.

"I'm very talented," she assured him, grabbing the pillow and another since she was up high enough now.

He wouldn't blame her for dropping one of them on his head, right? Fair was fair.

"Oof."

Fair was fair, especially when dealing with a Fair. That was just the way things worked.

"That one can be mine."

Since it was now sitting in the dirt, and all.

"You can have more than one," she pointed out, taking one more pillow and deciding that, no, she'd probably drop them all if she tried for more. "It's not like there's a shortage of them."

She wriggled in his grasp.

"Put me down, please?"

And down she went! Zack set her back onto her feet, carefully.

"Well, you never know if somebody else is going to need them, too," he reasoned.

Because people frequently chose to sleep outside the night after the death of a loved one at their own hand, because of a no weapon policy in the dorms in which they lived. Absolutely.

"There's the other side of the tree too," she said, smiling. "Plenty to go around."

Ino... wasn't going to touch the whole fact that, really, most people didn't use her trees.

"We can start with four, though." They already had four. Easy enough.

"Four's good," Zack agreed. "Two each."

His brilliant mathematical deductions, he'll show you them.

"Blankets next?"

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