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

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[flowering_mind]

Just because the island was practically dead didn't mean she wasn't busy. (She was always busy.) Which meant that, when Ino bounced down the stairs and then down the hall to where the weapons locker was, she had training on the mind and rapid-fire contemplation of how to deal with the problems and weaknesses she knew she had...

And then those thoughts came to a skittering halt as she noticed Zack.

Sitting down and not looking very... Zack-like at all. Where was his bounce? Why was he sitting outside of the weapons locker? ... Why was his sword even larger than normal?

Ino silently padded over to him knelt down beside him, head-tilted to watch his expressions--his face was injured, his sword wasn't his own; she knew his normal sword--and studied him for a long moment before she spoke.

"Hi, Zack," she said gently. Quietly. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was upset. That something had gone dreadfully wrong on his mission. Ino's heart twisted just looking at him.

Zack was... Zack. Whatever happened to him mattered to

[flowering_mind]

She did, fingers tightening around his hand, and with a gentle tug to let him know she was moving and he'd have to follow her now

[puppy_fair]

She could talk, and he could listen. He caught bits, here and there. Most of what she'd been talking about at first had spun past him in a blur. But, the more she spoke, the more he realized that she was giving him something to focus on. Something to cling to so that maybe he could get his head working properly again.

After a while, he was hanging on every word. Nodding where it was appropriate and every now and again even piping up with a few short, almost coherent replies of his own. He was hoping to meet more people around here, too, and wasn't another term coming up? And he was thinking about starting to style his hair differently. And she didn't strike him as difficult, just strong-willed, and that wasn't the same thing at all.

And thank you.

[flowering_mind]

She just kept talking, babbling almost, though it was more coherent than the word babble suggested. When he started answering her, a tiny smile had appeared on her face. He was paying attention. That was all she needed to keep on talking. She hadn't even needed that much but he was talking. He was very welcome

[puppy_fair]

"I was thinking of wearing it back more," Zack said, lifting his free hand to tug idly at his bangs after he'd admitted in short, kind of choppy sentences that he came back here occasionally when he was out for his morning jogs. That he really hadn't met Centurion, and he agreed that lying about everything in a place like this was just asking for trouble, wasn't it? "Just... comb it differently, maybe gel it back."

No reason. Really.

He gave her hand a little squeeze. Breathing. He was breathing again. That was nice. Everything was still twisted up funny inside of him, but at least right now he didn't feel like the sky was falling in on him.

[flowering_mind]

"Yeah?" she asked, looking searchingly up at him. "Wouldn't be a bad look on you, that. Just don't use too much gel or you'll look like you've got a helmet of hair."

Which was ew.

They were approaching her garden now. "It's not impressive really, yet," she confessed. "Give it another month and most everything will be up further."

Already though, seedlings were sprouting in various stages of development and, still holding his hand, she was just going to kneel down to say hi to the closest ones while he got the first real look of her garden.

[puppy_fair]

Zack had never been a big fan of helmets. Maybe he'd just use enough gel to have his hair more or less stay swept backward, and then leave it to do whatever it wanted from there. It would be a kind of haphazard approach at Angeal hair, but then, Zack's hair had always been haphazard, hadn't it?

"There's still plenty here," he noted, glancing around at the various sprouts and blooms that were pushing up through the ground. "It's... nice."

He meant it, about as much as he could mean anything he was saying right about now. This was the second garden he'd seen in as many days. It was comforting, in a way.

[flowering_mind]

Ino gave her plants another smile, fingers carefully brushing over them, before getting up again. All of this without letting go of Zack's hand.

"I want you to see the trees," she said, tugging him gently. Around the flowerbeds. This way and her trees, if he was watching, looked distinctly... odd.

That was what happened when you had trees with pillows on them and blankets and clothing. Milk pods and chocolate cherries.

[puppy_fair]

At a glance, Zack would have just assumed that people had taken to throwing random stuff into the trees. Which was more or less what he was doing right now, stealing the occasional glance from the ground underfoot to look at what it was that Ino was talking about.

Pillows? In trees? Yeah, had to be some kind of practical joke or something.

"The trees?"

[flowering_mind]

"A student who used to go here planted them," she said, smiling slightly. "They're real enough."

Anyone who tried wrecking her garden, after all, would be found out and quickly informed to never try it again.

[puppy_fair]

... Yeah. That was just weird enough to have Zack pulling a double-take, there.

"You have pillow trees," he so very helpfully informed her. Just in case she hadn't noticed.

[flowering_mind]

"I do," she said, smiling and tugging him over to see. "They're comfy pillows too."

[puppy_fair]

And if she was tugging him along, he was going to follow, blinking at the rather unique produce as he went.

"Yeah?" Actually, comfy pillows didn't seem like such a bad idea, right now. He was fairly certain that he hadn't actually gotten any real sleep since Wednesday night. Being unconscious on the floor of the church hadn't exactly counted. "How comfy?"

[flowering_mind]

"Really comfy," she insisted, reaching up to try and tug one pillow down and frowning when that meant she had to go up on her tip-toes. Sigh. Short.

"I thought..." Ino said, a bit hesitantly. "That if you can't go inside then... at least you can be comfy? Another tree has blankets."

[puppy_fair]

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.

[flowering_mind]

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.