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Wellspring Arms & Meditation Centre, Wednesday

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.

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

He raised an eyebrow.

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

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

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.

"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."

"I know better."

He didn't trust anyone to show him all their sides. He'd thought he'd known Nanny. He'd thought he'd known the Witch.

He'd learned how very wrong he was on both.

"You want to hit things? Stab things? Break things? Is that the trouble? It's a physical need?"

She pulled away from him, eyes flashing. "Maybe I do," Ino said, "but that doesn't give me the right to take it out on people. I've got better control than that."

He looked at her blankly.

"I wasn't judging. I only wanted to know. And I know you have control; I've spent enough time with you."

"Forget it," Ino said crossly, "whatever I feel like doing doesn't matter anyway because I'm not going to let it matter."

He just looked at her for the moment.

Didn't say anything.

Didn't demand anything.

"I'll go," is what he said.

"Sorry," she said, looking down, "it's not you."

"No," he said, "but I'm not helping. And if I'm hurting, I'd rather go then get you more upset. That's the important thing."

He wished she would trust him a little more, but he wouldn't say so aloud. This wasn't about him. This was about her. It wasn't the right time or place.

"It's my mess," she said quietly, "and I don't think anyone can help. I've got to figure it out on my own." Stubborn stupid pride. "And I am glad you came by, even if now I've made us both upset."

Faint half-smile. "It's better, at least, than lying through my teeth like I've been doing. I don't like it when people know there's things wrong. Don't know why I told you even as much as I did." Shrug. "Felt like I should."

"Because I'm not allowed to 'lie' to you in such a way?" he said gently. It was a decent enough guess.

"You know, I'm a mess. And you've been helping me. Not always by doing anything, you know, just that I know you're there. That you give half a damn if I live or die which, to be perfectly honest, is a new experience for me on the whole. And that I don't have to be nice with you. That's especially good."

Sometimes, he thought he might be nice. Others, he was quite sure he was just afraid of what might happen if he wasn't. He couldn't decide which was the truth and which was the sanity inducing lies.

He didn't really want to know, though. It would hurt either way.

"Maybe," she said, "I don't know. Part of me thinks it might have something to do with you being family though I don't tell my other brothers things. Jeff... well, he's Jeff," which explained it perfectly if you'd met him, "and I don't see Chad often enough to feel comfortable with it. He doesn't like fighting, either, not even comfortable with my job..."

Her lips quirked into a ghost of a more genuine smile. "It's more than half a damn," Ino said, "and I never expect people to be always nice to me." Because they never were. "So it's not a problem. Say what you want."

"I won't say, but I will ask: what's got you in this state in the first place, expression aside?"

"Boys," she said simply, wondering if he'd think it was stupid, "and me caring for both and not being able to go forward with the only solution seven months away gave me in regards to making up my mind because it's not fair to either of them all this dithering. And I want everyone else to be happy, and it's just not going to work, and I don't like that."

"...boys tend to cause a lot of trouble," he said, thinking of Annette. "Though I've found it's rather simple, personally."

Annette was one of her best friends. This probably said a bit about the both of them.

"It's only a problem when it's plural."

"Why?"

He didn't really understand, in a way.

Why, oh why did she keep having to try and explain this to people who didn't get it? Annette got it, honestly.

"They loathe each other," Ino said, "and I like them both, but they both deserve someone's full attention and with the both of them I can't do that. It's unfair."

"If you had to choose one of them, right now, that you'd have to live with them the rest of your life... which one would it be?"

Ino knew the answer to that one. It was obvious in the way she looked away and clenched her hands.

"I'd make what people would say is the stupid choice," Ino said, not naming names, "rather than the safer choice."

"Then that's your answer. Whether you like it or not."

He shrugged.

"So now your choice is whether you like it or not."

"I don't like it," she said, voice clear and agitated, "because it's going to hurt someone that I care about."

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