Wellspring Arms & Meditation Centre, Wednesday

[intraspective]

Ino was here. And sweeping and dusting and very definitely paying even more attention to her plants than usual.

… and possibly plotting the best method of ‘attack’ for if Cable-san came down today. He was getting a hug. Seriously. She wanted a hug. Then she’d demand to know why he hadn’t given her a weapon in the past. Seriously.

And then she was considering calling him ‘Mom’. Because ‘Dad’ would find it funny. Okay, okay, so she found it funny too. Shhh.

Wellspring Arms is Open.

Comments

Re: Talk to Ino

[intraspective]

"What? You're using me as an experiment now?" Ino looked amusedly outraged as she obediently opened the bag and tugged out a cookie. "Pretty," she said approvingly.

Re: Talk to Ino

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I tested them myself," he said with a snort. "I just want to know what you think."

Re: Talk to Ino

[intraspective]

"Pretty is an opinion," Ino pointed out, grinning, and biting into the cookie.

She chewed thoughtfully, swallowed, and considered him mock-solemnly. "I am a lucky little sister."

Re: Talk to Ino

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He laughed and took another bag of them from his sack, pulling one out.

He smiled as he bit in.

"I've always thought I was a very lucky older brother. So perhaps luck runs in the family."

Re: Talk to Ino

[intraspective]

"It runs in my family, for real," she offered, "or else Dad would've been dead a long time ago. Though I don't know why you'd think you're lucky. I get cookies out of this. And flying. What do you get?" Half-flippant, half-serious. Ino never really got why people liked her. She was just... herself.

Re: Talk to Ino

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He looked at her with mock coolness.

"Am I going to have to tickle the self-depreciation out of you?"

Re: Talk to Ino

[intraspective]

"I appreciate myself lots," Ino insisted, stubbornly, "I just don't get why other people do. No tickling is needed."

Re: Talk to Ino

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He laughed.

"Rest assured that I do. I never make much sense about anything, so I'm not about to start now."

Re: Talk to Ino

[intraspective]

She wrinkled her nose cheerfully at him. "I don't doubt that you do, I just don't get it."

Re: Talk to Ino

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I could say the same," he said. "But if I did, you'd come after me."

Re: Talk to Ino

[intraspective]

"Mmmm," she tilted her head, "people are strange, I think."

Re: Talk to Ino

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"And what brought about that startling revelation?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Re: Talk to Ino

[intraspective]

Ino shrugged, a bit moodily, and bit into another cookie. "Several things, really," she said after a moment, "bit of a fuss."

Re: Talk to Ino

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Bit of a fuss?" he questioned carefully.

Re: Talk to Ino

[intraspective]

"Yeah," she looked down, turning the cookie over in her hands, "just a bit. Fuss and bother, really, and not knowing what to say or do and then feeling mad about feeling like apologizing when nothing wrong as been done."

Re: Talk to Ino

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Aha."

He offered an arm for a hug.

"Very familiar with that, to be honest. It's practically my state of being."

Re: Talk to Ino

[intraspective]

She went willing to hug him. "I don't like it," she said crossly, "and I, well, the only solution that I've maybe got involves hurting people, not physically, but... I don't know. It's not much better just staying this way, either. What do you do about it?"

Re: Talk to Ino

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Generally," he said, honestly, "I go to Andrew, who melts it all away, or you, where I feel like I can be angry. I don't trust anyone else with it. Or I sit and fume. Or I cook. Or I make oranges."

Re: Talk to Ino

[intraspective]

Ino didn't laugh. She could understand. "I want to hurt things," she said, eyes dark, "but the only person that'd let me hurt them that way is part of this and I daren't. Anger is my refuge, and I'm not able to properly get it all out--and I've never been one, well, much, to just sit about and stew. That gets frustrating, and then I feel worse, and the urge to go and do something stupid rises."

Re: Talk to Ino

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He looked down at Ino, seemingly blank but a storm brewed behind his eyes.

"You can be angry with me," he said, "you can rip and tear at me all you like, if that's what you need."

He didn't blink.

"I'd rather that then you tear yourself up. Or do something stupid. Or sit and stew."

Re: Talk to Ino

[intraspective]

"Well," she said with firm finality, "I don't rather that. Hurting you is not an option."

Re: Talk to Ino

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He raised an eyebrow.

"So you're supposed to take my anger, but I can't take yours? And why is that?"

Re: Talk to Ino

[intraspective]

"Because I've been trained to kill," Ino said steadily, "and you've not been."

Re: Talk to Ino

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He was silent for a moment, utterly silent before he shook his head, almost smiling.

"You really think I'm a much better person than I am, don't you?"

It wasn't anything close to a happy smile, though. It was hollow, deeply unhealthy.

Re: Talk to Ino

[intraspective]

"Who knows," she said, unsettled by the smile, "I don't pretend to think you show me all your sides, and I hope you don't think you've seen all of mine. And, either way, the observation was not based on who you are, but rather the fact that I've been teaching you to fight."