fandomtownies | Covent Garden Flowers, Tuesday

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Covent Garden Flowers, Tuesday

Really, the last thing she felt like doing was decorating.

But that was what Ino was making herself do today while at work because she'd told Christian she would (in a conversation that felt like a million years ago but had only been two weeks past) and she supposed it was better than brooding.

The radio was on, but Ino wasn't singing along to it. She just… didn't feel like it.

Ino wondered if that meant she was supposed to try singing anyway.

Covent Garden Flowers

Vida Boheme, prop.
Fresh flowers from nosegays to bouquets!
Delivery available upon request.

Covent Garden Flowers is Open.

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If you'd like!

Max wasn't precisely a regular at Covent Garden, but he did happen to know he could find Ino there most Tuesdays. And since he was looking for her, that made it a great place to be.

And, what do you know, there she was.

Yeaaah, so, even when Ino was up to your elbows in sticking garlands up, she was on high alert and it was pretty hard to miss the mountain of a man that Max was. Which meant she was going to glance over her shoulder there.

...why was he staring?

"...Yes?"

He was staring because he didn't feel any need to conceal his attention. Watching the way she moved and held herself, looking for anything that might have changed since last they'd spoken.

"Hey, Ino. How's it going?" And there was casual Max again.

She held herself more carefully, more alertly, like she was in a danger zone right that second. Ino had her elbows tucked in closer, hands always where she could see them, and her eyes were watchful.

"It goes," she said, with a shrug. A lie would be--a lie. And she wasn't quite in the mood for that. "What 'bout you?"

"Same old, same old." Max shrugged casually.

"You doing okay?"

Which was slightly different question from the one he'd opened with.

Something in her eyes changed as she studied him for a moment longer.

"What do you know?"

"I spoke with Zack." Max almost left it at that, letting the inference that he knew everything hang in the air, but... Ino deserved more than that from him.

"He told me a bit about what happened on his last trip home, but no names were named, and no real details given."

So he only had a vague outline of events, and his own knowledge of the people involved to fill in the blanks.

Ino settled herself up on the ladder she was on and toyed with a bit of her hair. The ladder was a precarious place to perch, but it let her see everything even while it cut down marginally on her escape routes.

(Not, she reminded herself, that she'd need them.)

She hitched one shoulder. "I'm alive."

Which well... yeah.

"Of course." Max could see that. And the truth was that he expected it. Ino was extremely well trained, after all.

Ino made a face at him. "There weren't no 'of course' 'bout it."

Which told him a great deal of just how badly she'd been injured.

"That close, huh?" Max frowned.

"Have you talked to anyone about it?" Max had been in Fandom long enough to learn the term Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Useful term for an idea he'd long been familiar with.

"Argued with Karla," Ino admitted, "talked to Reno some."

And that was... it. She was awesome with that talking thing.

"You should talk to someone. In depth."

Max knew that one from personal experience.

"About how it made me feel?" she asked skeptically. "I'll get better."

Reno said so.

... And Ino came from a world that didn't do much of anything for post-traumatic stress. Fun times!

"You'll get functional," Max corrected. "But you'll most likely stay on edge all the time, and eventually you'll get dull."

Because Ino so looked like she wanted his input.

Well, no, she very much didn't.

But--

"Dull?"

Hey, incredulous was better than outraged by a teeny amount, right?

"If never take time off, never relax, you lose your edge." Max raised an eyebrow at Ino. He was sure she knew that already. "And until you process things, you'll be too tense..."

He was practically daring her to disagree.

"I relax," she snapped, right on cue.

No, Ino, that was called passing out.

Max eyed her doubtfully for a moment, then rushed forward. Just two windcraft-enhanced steps to surprise her before he stopped, leaving her plenty of room.

As much to see for himself just how on edge she was.

Someone who hadn't been trained might have yelped and tumbled off the ladder.

Ino was trained.

And he moved and she? She was on the ceiling and in a totally different corner, senbon gripped between her fingers and eyes wide.

Max stood arms out to his sides and visible as his eyes bored into her. He hoped he hadn't miscalculated.

"You relax?" he asked.

Ino ignored the question, as she had to convince herself to not fling the senbon at him. Even if he did happen to be immune to the poison, she doubted he'd be best pleased about her trying to kill him.

Because... because... because he'd moved to fast.

She shook her head, fingers trembling slightly as she stayed right where she was, up on the ceiling.

... I think one of them is here. Ahhhh.

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