Outside the Weapons Locker, Sunday Afternoon

[puppy_fair]

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.]

Comments

[intraspective]

"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.

[puppy_fair]

"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.

[intraspective]

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."

[puppy_fair]

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."

[intraspective]

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.

[puppy_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.

[intraspective]

"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?"

[puppy_fair]

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.

[intraspective]

"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.

[puppy_fair]

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

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

"Blankets next?"

[intraspective]

"Sure," she said, fussing with the pillows so she could carry them in one hand while reaching out to take one of his hands in hers. "Blankets and then we pick a grassy spot to set things up.

[puppy_fair]

Zack nodded, bending to pick up the pillow that had bounced off of his head before looking toward the... blanket bush? Tree? Thing? Foliage?

"I'm tired," he admitted. "I could almost just sleep without the blankets."

Almost. Pillows were more than he usually got to work with when he was on assignment, after all. But sleeping was probably going to take a bit more effort, still.

[intraspective]

Tree! ... Thing.

"You could," she said gently, "but then I'd fuss. So you'll get blankets and me sticking around and then maybe you'll sleep."

Eventually.

[puppy_fair]

In fits and starts, most likely.

"Yeah," he agreed, nodding slightly. "Under the stars and everything."

Under different circumstances, he might have even made a crack about it being romantic.

[intraspective]

Her fingers tightened around his hand.

"Is there anything you can think of needing back at the dorms?" she asked, tugging him over to where the blankets lived. "Right away, I mean?"

[puppy_fair]

"Gerbil food," Zack replied without missing a beat.

It was difficult to forget when you had a hungry rodent trying to eat holes in your pocket.

"And maybe his plastic ball. Mr. Winkles needs exercise."

... Sorry, Ino. Zack loved his gerbil, too.

[intraspective]

To her credit, she didn't sigh. She just nodded. "Anything for you?"

Clean socks? Underwear? A hair brush?

... Food was a given.

[puppy_fair]

...

"I... can't really think of anything," he admitted.

And so, all of the above. Actually taking care of himself required some level of coherent thought that currently, he was lacking.

[intraspective]

...

Yeaaah. Ino was just going to pack him a bag of things she thought he'd need and ignore what he said there. Yep.

"Okay," she said, peering up at him with concerned blue eyes. "Will you be alright if I go and get that sort of stuff now?"

[puppy_fair]

He nodded a little, patting down his pockets for his room key and then holding it out to her.

"I can pick blankets," he replied. Which wasn't a 'yes,' but at least it suggested that he wasn't about to go searching for a rock to go crawl under.

[intraspective]

It wasn't a yes. Ino was pretty sure she wasn't going to get a yes.

She took the key from him. Squeezed his hand.

"I'll be back," she promised him. "Call me if you think of anything or need to hear me talk, okay?"

Then she was gone. Darting off at speeds that matched his full out speed.

[puppy_fair]

Zack watched her go, and then his eyes fell down to his toes again. He stared at the dirt for a moment, and then, at length, he made his way over to the blanket tree. Pulled a few off. And then took a seat right there where he was, in a mess of blankets and pillows and sword.

Pretending to be okay had been more tiring than he wanted to admit. At least, right this moment, he didn't have anybody to smile for. He could hunker under blankets and hug a sword. And if Ino caught him in the act, he could say something about how he was just getting a head start on the fort.

Yeah.

[intraspective]

It really didn't take her that long to go pack a bag full of his things. All of his underwear. All of his socks. Anything that was dirty she put in a different pile and made a note to wash it with her things.

(She ignored the part of her that pointed out that this was very… married couple of her.)

Clothing… she stared at his changes of uniform in dismay. All 2nd Class purple. Ino took a few of them anyway. He'd need them until he got more of the 1st Class uniforms. Pillow cases. Gerbil food and toys. That stupid ball of his. His hairbrush. Deodorant. She kidnapped his pillowcases.

Then it was up to her floor for some of the same. She tossed his dirty clothing in with hers. She'd wash it later. She didn't need as much as he did—she'd be able to enter more freely. But a few changes of clothing. Her jammies. Her pillow cases. Extra socks because she did get cold. Notebooks. Pens. A field lamp so they'd have light once the sun went down. Batteries.

A stop by the common room netted her enough sandwiches made for both supper and breakfast. Granola bars and some apples and oranges. Water bottles, she took quite a few of those. Zack had been doing a lot of crying. He was probably dehydrated.

Quickly reviewing everything she had with her, Ino added a few more things, and then hefted the bags over her shoulders. For everything that they held, they weren't that large. Ino knew how to pack compactly. Years of training taught you that much.

Her run back to where she'd left Zack was a bit slower. But only a bit.

The way her heart twisted when she saw him just… sitting there. Looking for all the world like he'd pulled a few blankets down and just collapsed made her wish she hadn't had to leave him at all.

Ino, on silent feet, made her way over to him. "I'm back," she said, unnecessarily.

And she was just going to press a quick kiss to his forehead. A tiny bit of comfort before she set the bags down.

[puppy_fair]

Sandwiches, water... He hadn't eaten since early yesterday, either.

"Hey," he said, offering up a halfhearted little smile. Back to wearing the happy face again. "Looks like you've got all the bases covered, huh?"

[intraspective]

"It's what I do," she said, digging out a bottle of water and several sandwiches and offering them to him insistently. No, he didn't get to argue. Not when he was wearing that face and lying with it. "Eat. Drink. I'll set up the fort."

Which was going to be less a fort and more of a bed, but whatever.