Cosmo Canyon Highway, Gaia, Wednesday Night Fandom Time

[puppy_fair]

Zack was tired. Bone tired. Bone tired and heartsick, following the road toward Gongaga with a sort of exhausted stubbornness that would have seemed at least slightly more reasonable if he wasn't hauling a comatose kid around with him all the way from Nibelheim. Cloud was slowing him down. There was no question about that. He'd been able to stop

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[flowering_mind]

Ino had… well, she’d slept like the dead for… she actually wasn’t sure how many hours, eaten, had another shower (that might have been an hour or longer, but she wasn’t telling anyone that) and now that she felt vaguely human, though not at all what she’d consider to be stable, she was… well. She hadn’t killed Tseng yet

[puppy_fair]

Zack waited for a reply. Waited, and waited, and waited, ducking down a few times so that he wasn't within sight of the road when the very occasional vehicle drove by.

And then he sighed and stood. Paced around a bit. Counted to one hundred, doing a squat for each number along the way. Did the same again, this time to a thousand.

He put his phone back into his pocket.

Pulled it out again.

Stared at it for another few minutes.

And then sent another message.

You there?

As if it wasn't obvious that she wasn't. Wishful thinking, maybe.

[flowering_mind]

Ino had used the… rather lengthy space of time, admittedly… to relocate to somewhere that Tseng wasn’t going to be able to creep up on her and read over her shoulder. Or… exist in the same room as her.

Tseng was probably going to look for her, if she didn’t surface eventually.

She’d had the foresight to turn her phone to silent, but, like, yeah. She was watching it like a hawk. She got his second text as soon as it came in.

Ino bit her lip. Okay. Okay, so she had to answer that. But all her panicking had given her the space to realize that it could be anyone texting her, with Zack’s phone.

Who wants to know?

She stared at that text for a while. It wasn’t what she wanted to say. It was the smart thing. She hit send, feeling nauseous.

[puppy_fair]

Zack read that reply. He read it what had to be a hundred times. And he found himself at a loss. Who wanted to know? Somebody who shouldn't be reaching out to anybody, especially someone who didn't necessarily know who he was. Maybe it was the wrong number. Maybe? Maybe in the time since he'd been gone, Ino had gotten a new phone.

He pulled in a deep breath.

He couldn't say Zack, then.

He couldn't afford to.

Regal.

But only Ino would understand that one.