Lawn of the Dorms | Late Late Late Sunday Night | April 18

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

After last weekend, the students of Fandom were probably hoping for a nice, lazy weekend before their week filled with finals. Unfortunately, it could never be easy for people who lived on the island. Where there was once still and quiet, there was now a shrill fire alarm going off, blaring loud enough to even be heard by the deepest of sleeper.

Time to evacuate the dorms, students! And, once everyone started spilling out onto the lawn, they'd find that Fandom had another treat for them. It was warm, that was good, but at some point that night it'd started raining. And it wasn't just ordinary rain. It was raining chocolate syrup and occasionally hailing down marshmallows.

Just another typical late night out on the lawn of the dorms for a fire drill! Hope you brought your umbrella!

[open fire drill! after radio so NFB!]

Comments

[puppy_fair]

"Maybe not," Zack sighed, slouching forward ever so slightly. "But then, neither am I."

He wasn't. He was out here because of a sword, and he was fine with that. She was out here because of him, and she was getting frustrated, and this would hardly be the last time that the island would dump weirdness down on their heads if they stayed out here this way.

[intraspective]

"Then how am I getting hurt?"

Ino? Had lungs. So so sorry, Zack, but she was using them.

[puppy_fair]

Deep breaths, Zack. Just pull in a few deep breaths. Try not to look up as you do so, though. Chocolate in the eyes isn't as much fun as it might sound.

"Maybe you're not. You know what you feel better than I do, anyhow."

Well, that was a very defeatist attitude to take there, Zack.

[intraspective]

"Oh, now I know better," she scathed, arranging the pillows with livid precision. "That's funny considering you keep acting like it's your fault I'm out here. Like it's such an awful hard thing for me to want to be out here."

"'You don't have to'," she parroted back to him. "'I can handle just fine on my own'. Sighs and looks and drooping and then trying to hide it like I can't handle a mood that's anything less than cheerful! I can take care of myself! This isn't hurting me!"

"What kind of a friend do you take me for? That's insulting!"

[puppy_fair]

The look that Zack gave her now didn't have any of his usual blocks and guards crammed into it. The zen that he'd all but beaten into himself was tossed to the wayside, and he was just... him. Raw, unadulterated Zack, staring at Ino with an expression that said one thing, and one thing only.

I don't even know why we're arguing, here.

"I'm not worth that."

[intraspective]

It would be deeply, desperately immature of her to throw a pillow at him. Especially when she needed the pillows for their things.

She, at least, was still working here.

"You're worth it to me," she said waspishly. "Even when you're being an absolute idiot. And you don't get to argue that!"

This was possibly the weirdest argument she'd ever had, yes.

[puppy_fair]

This was... up there, on Zack's 'weird argument' scale. He'd had a few weirder over the course of the past couple of months, though.

Didn't mean that his guts were twisting any less, here.

"I don't get to argue about being an idiot?" Okay. He wouldn't argue that, then. "Fine. But then I get to ask, if I'm worth it to you, why is it that you're not allowed to be worth it to me?"

[intraspective]

Ino couldn't have looked more surprised than if he'd slapped her.

It bubbled in her mind, her answer to that, the one that first came to mind. A bizarre echo of what he'd said to her. I'm not worth that.

"Dealing with a bit of rain," she said, brushing by him and back up that tree. "Is not anywhere near what you went through."

There. She didn't need the same level of consideration.

[puppy_fair]

Zack watched her go up the tree, his voice falling out of his throat and washing away in the rain.

What he went through. He couldn't go inside. Inside meant putting it away. Meant putting Angeal away. And he couldn't. Not for himself. But for her, he could.

What he went through. Like he needed someone to coddle him. Someone to put herself out and make herself miserable, all for his sake.

"What's in those books that has you so upset?"

Maybe the rain wasn't as serious as the things he didn't want to put away. But something certainly seemed to be.

[intraspective]

She flinched, one visible from the ground, even as her hands caught her before she could go seriously off balance.

Ino hadn't been expecting that. She was... there was nothing she could say.

Pillows were going to land on the ground. Ino... was going to be very very silent, though, up in that tree. Her lips trembled and she kept her mouth shut. She couldn't tell him. Not him.

[puppy_fair]

Zack bit his lip, standing there in the relative silence, letting the sound of the weather and the alarm and the angry students not far off all wash over him. And then he gave a small nod, turned, and went to carefully gather the books up in his arms.

"They'll be safer from the rain if we put them in the stables," he said, not looking up. Putting his all into the task at hand. There was something in those books that needed to be saved.

Like a mission. He had to be useful somehow.

[intraspective]

The trembling in her lips got worse and Ino wasn't sure when blinking hard turned into a few tears tracking their way down her face as she watched him silently.

She wasn't even sure why she was crying. It was just rain. She knew off by heart most of what was in the books.

Ino slipped out of the tree and just... clung to a pillow. Trying not to make a single sound that would let him know she'd gone from angry to tears.

[puppy_fair]

Books. Stable. Books into the stable. Zack wouldn't look back, Zack couldn't look back until he was done, because he had a distinct feeling that whatever he'd see if he did was just going to break his heart.

Fortunately, the stable was close by. It was a short walk. And the walk back was short, too.

And now that he'd accomplished that, he was going to just... sit down. In chocolate. Why not.

[intraspective]

She watched him... just sitting there and had to bite her lip to not cry more. Ino wasn't sure, didn't know, what to do to fix this.

Was this something that could be fixed?

One hesitant step, then another. Her pillow was chocolate-coated. So was her hair and the thin t-shirt she slept in. Ino nudged his back with her legs, careful of his sword, and just... stood there.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, shaking in the rain. More from her own upset than anything the chocolate had done to her.

[puppy_fair]

Zack shrugged. He was okay, see? He was Zack. He was always okay. Anything less than okay meant that he wasn't good enough. And so, that was that. A shrug before he looked up at her.

She was shaking. He wasn't certain, but he thought for a moment that maybe he was, too.

And so he stood up. And he wrapped his arms around her.

"Me too."

[intraspective]

He had his arms around her and she was just going to cling to him like a lifeline.

"You're not an idiot," she whispered, the words muffled in his uniform. Ino didn't even care that clinging to him just meant there was more chocolate on her. "I shouldn't have said that."

[puppy_fair]

"You were upset," he murmured, shaking his head a little. "I understand."

People got upset. It happened. And now things were okay again, and when the rain and the alarm were finally over, maybe he'd hose off the chocolate from the Buster Sword, put it away for the night, collect her books from the stables, and insist that they just go inside, already.

[intraspective]

She was just going to breathe. And get chocolate on her nose, across her cheek, and rest her head against him. He felt strong. Solid.

"I just... I don't like it when it feels like you're hurting yourself for me," she told his chest. It was easier than looking up. "Or when you look like I maybe shouldn't be doing this 'cause you think you're not worth it to me."

Wouldn't it have been easier to just tell him that from the start, Ino?

[puppy_fair]

Probably a lot easier. But when did these two ever do things the easy way?

"That's... Not at all why I worry about you being out here with me," he sighed. "I don't like when it feels like what I'm doing is upsetting you, Ino. You mean too much to me."

In the grand scheme of things, of the people he cared about the most in the whole world, she'd very recently inherited the top rung on the ladder. Her predecessor in that position was gone, and wasn't coming back.

[intraspective]

Very rarely, it was true.

"You're not upsetting me," she said quietly, still more to his chest than anything else. And ignoring, for the moment, the daft idea of her being that important to someone. She wasn't. She wasn't. People said things like that and then they left. "I'm sorry if it seems that way."

His world was upsetting her on several different levels but he, personally... was a different story.

[puppy_fair]

"You being upset tonight... that wasn't entirely me, was it?"

He had to know. Even if she didn't clarify that it was the books that had her riled in the first place, he had to know if somehow, he'd pushed her to get that angry. And the look that he gave her when he asked suggested that he would find out, if she lied to him.

[intraspective]

"...No," she said, shuffling against him. "Not just you."

[puppy_fair]

"Okay."

Okay. Okay, see? It was okay.

"Once the rain dies down some, maybe we can pack up your books and get a hotel room for the rest of the night."

It was... kind of like a happy medium. It got them inside. There was a shower and a bed and a roof over their heads. And he could bring the sword, too.

[intraspective]

"I..."

She shut her mouth on the protest she felt bubbling up in her throat.

"I guess we can't stay out here tonight," Ino said, subdued.

[puppy_fair]

"Chocolate would be really, really uncomfortable to sleep in," Zack noted, with a wry, tired smile on his lips. "So... Hotel for tonight. And... we'll see, from there."

Yeah. He was still seriously considering sucking it up and heading back inside. He had to, sooner or later. And if his only reason for not doing so was that he was waiting until he could bear to part with the sword, then he would never go back in.