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Wellspring Arms & Meditation Center, Wednesday

Ino kinda wished she had her crown today; it had let her be happy yesterday, but thanks to the fact that she started work here before Covent Gardens even opened... well. She sighed a bit, going about her sweeping, and taking care of her plants, and making sure the store was in order.

Then she flopped down in Cable-san’s chair and settled in to meditate. Or something.

Wellspring Arms is Open.

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Romeo was a little grumbly from his time with Yurika the night before, but not in "beware, bad mood" territory. It was just a thing that nibbled at the edges of his thoughts in a preoccupying sort of way.

He wasn't focusing on that now, though. Now he was visiting Ino, because it would at the least be distraction. She got an actual smile. "Good day," he said. "You always look comfortable in that chair."

She'd opened her eyes at the sound of the door and had to grin at that. "It's 'cause it's Cable-san-sized," Ino said lightly, "so for me, it's like, ten times too large. I've got a load of room to get comfy. Hi!"

"So you could nap in there," Romeo mused, grinning. "I'd ask if I could test it myself, but I'm not sure Cable wants non-employees to sit in his chair any more than he wants our hands on the guns."

Edited 2009-02-18 15:39 (UTC)

"I've slept here more than once," she admitted. "Cable-san even put a blanket over me, so I don't think he minds 'long as it's not that often." And, you know, she had a good reason.

"I don't actually know if he'd care," she mused, "or if he did, if he'd even say anything."

"He doesn't mind if you sleep at work?" Romeo echoed. "It almost makes me wish I'd asked for a job here, and not at Pixie Dust. Though Tink used to feed us alcohol."

"I've only done it twice in a year and a bit," she said, giggling. "He'd probably have more issues if I did it every week, you know? But I don't. And you have to admit that getting alcohol during the working hours is a nice perk too."

"Until you have to be the one to pay to replace it, but that's my own misery," Romeo said, shrugging it off. "How are you otherwise? I hope you had a good few days, after the dance."

"Not really," she said chirpily, which was completely at odds with what she was saying, "I mean, how could I? I told Liir exactly what I think of him, he told me to get the hell out, and apparently according to radio he's all Perfectly Fine so clearly I never mattered to him in the first place. I'm just fine really. I love knowing I don't matter, it's very exciting."

...poor Romeo.

The chirpy tone and the words made for an unsettling combination. Romeo was very glad he'd never been that far on Ino's bad side.

"You couldn't not matter," he said, first, and if he was patronizing her he was only trying to help. "And as for Liir, I wouldn't worry so much about what or if he thought of you. He's an odd one anyhow."

Which meant he had a unique gift for rubbing Romeo the wrong way without ever trying to.

The odds of him ever pissing her off that badly were slim-to-none, really.

"Yeah, well," she slumped back in Cable-san's chair, still chirpy, but less so. "Pretty awful revelation considering he called me his sister."

"How did he get from sister to 'it's fine if I never speak to you again'?" Romeo asked, giving her a doubtful look. "How bad was what you had to say to him?"

Er.

She took a deep breath. "Well, see, we were fighting 'cause he didn't tell me that Amber was his girlfriend, and I found out from radio, and I told him I didn't think that was a nice thing to do when every time I saw him I asked what was up, you know, new and exciting. But apparently he didn't think I was specific enough to warrant 'oh, by the way, I'm dating Amber'. And he said he wasn't going to talk to me 'til I got off my high horse. So we weren't talking. I complained, and bitched at Ichigo, and he said that I ought to at least try to tell Liir what bothered me."

"So I did," after putting it off for a few weeks, "I told him it was a matter of trust, and that if he couldn't trust me with that, it wasn't very... easy to trust him. And he said that he hadn't trusted me since I got back from the trip home where I cut my hair? Well, when I got back, I called him and said I was fine, and tired, and just thought he'd like to know I was back. Trying, you know, to sound cheerful so he'd leave me alone for at least that night so I could... get my balance 'cause I wasn't fine after cutting my hair, but I didn't want him clinging to me. But he came anyway and wouldn't shut up and so I freaked out and shouted and tried to get him to go and he wouldn't and didn't 'til I said I wasn't his sister."

Another breath. Rather more than Romeo bargained for, she guessed. "So that was months ago, right? And I never even considered that the phone call would even be an issue. But apparently it was a lie enough for him to stop trusting me, which is weird 'cause I would've thought the fight would be worse than the call, but shows what I know. So we, I thought, got over it. But he wouldn't ever talk 'bout anything to do with Amber, even with Amber and I getting along okay, 'cause I know we don't always, but whatever. So I accused him of being dependent on someone else for his mental stability, and said that no one really matters to him 'cause first it was Andrew, then me, now Amber and told him that when Amber left he'd probably just find someone else to cling to."

"And that I thought that was pretty revolting 'cause people're supposed to not do that, we're not meant to hold up other people and always have it about them. No one thinks 'bout just One Person all the time, you know? Even if they love someone like mad. And I told him that everything he said was always designed to get as much pity or sympathy from other people, no matter what the subject was. And that that was pretty revolting too."

"So..." Um.

"So..." Romeo stood there, blinking at her as he put the story together.

If part of it stood out, it wasn't because he identified. He didn't think about Just One Person. Exactly. Building your whole life around someone was ... not what Ino was talking about at all.

Anyhow, this was about Liir, not Romeo.

"I don't think Liir knows he's doing it," he tried, at last. "Which isn't to say he's to be entirely forgiven, or that I don't understand why you're upset. Just ... some people have funny ways of seeking out love."

She frowned, wishing her hair was, like, two inches longer so she could nibble on it comfortably, or something.

"Doesn't change the fact that he does change people, drops them, the moment he finds someone more...malleable to his needs. That's revolting. It's like a... mockery of love. I argue with him, I get 'dumped' and he picks up Amber. No wonder Andrew ran like hell 'cause Liir was too much, I almost feel bad about Andrew-mouse now. And I bet he'll do the same with Amber too. It's a pattern, and if you love someone you're not supposed to be able to just... dump them, and get over them, and never seem to care about them ever. That's not love, in any way."

Now that, at least, Romeo knew he wasn't guilty of, and he relaxed subconsciously.

"No," he said. "It's not. Not if he really lets people go so easily. You should do anything to keep those you love, even when things change around you."

She nodded. "I mean, I can get moving on, and getting on with your life? But that shouldn't happen, like, instantly? I mean, seriously, if you love someone it takes time to 'get over' them and even then..." Ino shrugged a bit. "Even then they still pop up, in your thoughts, now and then. They don't just... disappear."

"No, they don't. I might say someone else was trying to put up a strong front, but he isn't the type to do that," Romeo said thoughtfully. "If anything, the opposite -- he's the type to make a show of how wounded he is."

Which was Romeo's problem with Liir, as much as he had one, really.

"So people'll feel sorry for him! Exactly," she said, tugging at her hair. "Anything that can possibly be put badly always is just so you know how awful his life was."

"Despite a year here -- dry, warm, fed and loved -- to gain some sense of himself," Romeo said mildly. "I always want to tell him to act like a man and not carry on so, when he starts on that."

Granted, it was a lecture he'd needed to hear often enough himself.

Well, yes, there was that.

She fiddled with her hair. "Well, I uh, pretty much told him. Though I doubt it'll change anything considering he seems find according to radio."

"You can't take the squirrels too seriously, though," Romeo said before he thought about it. "Though, were I you, I'd not be aching to go check in on him with my own eyes, either."

She wrinkled her nose. "I wasn't planning to," Ino said. "I said what I wanted to say, and that's it 'less it starts being an issue with other people."

"I could offer to hit him for you," Romeo suggested.

Less because he would -- he thought Liir would cry if he did, anyhow -- and more because he hoped the offer would make Ino smile.

"You know," she said, smiling at that. "You're the third guy to offer to hit him for me."

It was hard to feel unloved when she had proof like that.

"It's proof chivalry lives on," Romeo informed her sunnily.

"It is," she said agreeably, "now be all chivalrous and give me a hug."

"If I were being chivalrous I'd kiss your hand," Romeo said, but he was at the chair and reaching for her anyhow. "A hug will do."

"I like hugs better than kisses to my hands anyway," she said, throwing her arms around him to match her words to action.

Romeo squeezed her for a second before releasing. "Now I wonder if anyone really likes having her hand kissed, or if it's just expected," he mused. "It is a bit silly."

She grinned up at him.

"I'm sure there's some people," Ino said dubiously. "But I don't think it'd be all that popular, hand kissing."

Mod your meditation, or ask Ino for help.

Only with permission.

Nooothing happenin' here.

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Wellspring Arms & Meditation Center, Wednesday

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