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Furnado Animal Shelter, Tuesday

If there was one important thing that Zack had learned all week, it was that puppies loved holidays. Any holidays. All holidays. And today? Today just so happened to be a holiday. Not a holiday where he was from, no, and even if it had been it would be... complicated... this year. But on Earth? Totally a holiday. So Zack was putting a sign out in the window.

It's Valentine's Day!
Come on in and play with a puppy!
Cuddle a kitten!
Frolic with a ferret!
Bounce with a bird!
Or do whatever it is people do with goldfish.
Animals love affection too!

Anybody coming into the shelter today would probably notice Zack wrestling on the floor with a husky who didn't take well to being cooped up all the time, and a small horde of kittens in a playpen all tearing after a handful of catnip mice that Zack had thrown to them earlier.

Yeah, taking over the animal shelter had been a good move.

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Puppies! Kitties! Birds!

Or, alternatively, kibble! Litter! Cuttlebone!

Whatever your pet needs happen to be!

If the husky will let him!

Ino wasn't really planning to stay long but the flowers she'd gotten that morning meant she couldn't not visit at the same time.

She leaned in the door and watched Zack wrestle with the husky, smiling slightly.

You know, most people would probably be concerned about the way the husky was grabbing Zack's pant leg in her teeth and shaking. Zack? Zack was not. Zack was just reaching over to tackle the husky again, and then ruffling the fur on the sides of her face.

These puppies played rough, okay?

It took him a few moments before he realized that they were not alone, at which point he looked up, smiled a little, and... was immediately bowled over by the husky.

She wasn't worried either.

If the husky tried that on her, she might've been but Zack could take it.

As he was bowled over, Ino laughed.

Yep, bowled over and laughing, too, as he let the dog jump all over him and lick his face. Clearly, she was the winner, here.

"Ino," he managed, somewhere around the point when he managed to get his head turned so that he was getting happy doggy tongue to the ear instead of the mouth. "Hey!"

"Hey, yourself," Ino said, amused. "You look like you're enjoying losing there."

Like, a lot.

"I don't have to win every fight I get into," Zack replied, grinning a bit as he squirmed. Apparently dog-tongue to the inside of the ear was a weird sensation. Who knew? "Sometimes it's okay to lose, too."

Could he bring her home, Ino?

And all the other dogs? And the cats? Could he?

No. No. No. And no.

... well, maybe one.

"I guess if you've got to lose, losing to someone cute and fluffy is a good way to go," she conceded.

"Either way, I'm the winner," Zack decided, and then took advantage of a rare moment of freedom from the dog tongue to curl-heave-jump up from his back to his feet again. "So... uh... Hi."

He was doing much better when he was just talking about dogs.

"Pretty sure you said that already," she said, rather gently.

This wasn't any easier for her.

"I just wanted to say thank you for the flowers."

"You're welcome," Zack replied, then bit his lip, reaching a hand down to absently pat the husky's head as she tried to jump up to get his attention again. "I... I mean, thank you for the ones you sent me, too."

Eleven red roses. Just like he'd sent her.

Great minds, bleeding hearts.

It was ridiculous how much it had hurt, getting those flowers, even as it had made her happy.

"That's... you're welcome," she said, shifting a bit awkwardly.

Hooboy. Zack found himself kind of wishing the puppies would find some way to cut the awkwardness, here. Unfortunately, they were busy being puppies.

"Yeah?"

Eesh.

"I mean... I do still care, you know?"

However many years later it was. Too many.

...

Ino was giving serious consideration to just... disappearing. Maybe she should have left while he'd played with the dog.

"Yeah," she said quietly, not looking at him, "me too."

Maybe it'd be easier if they didn't.

"Look," she said, "I'm just--I think I'm going to go."

Well, that was a punch right to the feelings. Zack pulled in a breath, and then exhaled a bit on the shaky side, and then nodded.

"I mean, you don't have to," he said, softly. "But I mean..."

Wow, his eloquence truly knew no bounds.

"I... hope the rest of your day goes well, Ino."

He wasn't going to tell her to stay if staying was making her uncomfortable.

He didn't know what else to do.

Yeah that... that wasn't making her want to stay. But she didn't want to leave it like that either.

"It's not just--" Ino waved her hands a bit helplessly. "I've got to help Jono set up for the party tonight."

It was hours too early for that.

"I love you too," she said quietly, shoulders slumping.

Zack's own shoulders were drooping all the more at that. Not at the 'love you too,' though that stabbed him right in the heart in new and exciting ways. Just... all of it.

"I wish things weren't all... whatever this is, right now," he said, finally. "I know I love you, as much as I ever did, and everything is upside-down and I can't even begin to imagine what it must mean to you and... I want to cling to you and I don't want to smother you and I don't even know if I can breathe."

Well. All of those words just kind of fell out, there.

That was a lot of words just falling out there, it really was.

Ino felt really small, as she listened to them.

“It ain’t—it ain’t you that’s the problem, Zack,” she said, after a moment. “There’s nothing ‘bout you being here and around that I don’t love. I just… I don’t know what to do.”

"What to do?" Zack was struggling so hard to keep a pleading tone from his voice. He was hurting and dazed, traumatized and for the first time in forever, free, and... overwhelmed. Very overwhelmed. "Ino... I don't... I don't understand. You know you don't have to do anything. I mean. If there's something that's keeping you from doing something you want, or if you don't want to do anything at all and you feel like you have to, or... any of it. You can just say so.."

“Maybe if all I had to do was this,” she said quietly, looking around the shop. Cuteness everywhere. “But it ain’t that simple, Zack.”

"Then talk to me," Zack replied, and now there was a pleading sort of desperation in his words. "Tell me why it isn't so simple. At least why it isn't so simple for you. And... I can tell you why it isn't so simple for me, and we can do something about it. Or try to figure out if we can."

But whatever this was, this awkward silence, this inability to meet one another's eyes or talk for more than a few minutes at a time or any of it? It was killing him by inches.

It wasn’t doing her any favours either, truth be told.

It was the pleading note in his voice that got her to look up at him. To really look at him, instead of sneaking glances at him when he wasn't looking.

“I don’t want to fight today, and over some of it, I think we might,” she said honestly. Like the bits where she was still a Turk. “And… and some of it is just that you were…”

Gone. And she’d moved on. Badly, but she had.

But she couldn't take her eyes off of him. "Hey," she said, "since you got out, has anyone hugged you?"

Zack gave his head a little shake.

"Who would?"

The dogs here... they didn't count. And focusing on the bit about hugs seemed safer than... the rest of it. He had no idea what to do with the rest of it.

“I should’ve,” she said, “before this, but I weren’t sure—I didn’t know—“

Ino didn’t actually wring her hands, but she came close. Ino hated this.

“Do you… do you want one?”

"Only if you feel comfortable giving one," Zack replied softly. But he still held his arms open in silent offer. If that was what she wanted too... he did. He very much did. More than just about anything, right then. "If you do, then... yes. Please."

Ino didn’t really have to think about that, not with him standing there, invitation wide open.

Yes, she’d wanted a hug. Had for what felt like ages but wasn’t really that long.

It was funny, wasn’t it, how it felt like coming home to walk over and lean into that hug?

Funny to the both of them, at that. Zack folded his arms around her, silently marveling at just how natural this still felt. Her in his arms, right where she always went. There were small differences; he wasn't as strong as he used to be given years worth of injuries, her hair was longer, they were both older. But overall, overwhelmingly, this was right.

It hurt to think about just how long it had been since the last time they had done this.

He held on a little more tightly still.

And she made no move to break away, just wrapped her arms around him and closed her eyes.

It felt good, in a way that she’d almost forgotten.

Ino let her breath out slowly, not quite a sigh, and relaxed.

She relaxed, and then he relaxed, and then he lowered his head to bury his face in her hair, eyes closed, breathing in this moment. He'd dreamed about embraces like this for years. None of them had hurt, quite so much. His heart was bleeding out a little, knowing just how much time they'd lost. How much they'd both mourned between their last hug and this.

"You're still my precious person," he murmured, softly, into her hair. "No matter what."

Ino drew in breath to reply that—and likely her voice would be wobbly, since it definitely felt that way—but then the other free, active occupant of the room made herself known.

Guys, guys, she was tired of being ignored.

Which would be why, abruptly, a dog was trying to wriggle in between them too. Ino yelped.

And Zack stumbled backwards, blinking, until he realized what had just happened. And then, so help him, he laughed.

"Oh, come on," he said, giving the dog an exasperated smile. "If you wanted to join in on the hugging, you could have just asked."

With all of that doggy eloquence she had.

Ino couldn't help but giggle.

"Maybe--maybe she's jealous!"

And the husky was looking up at them both, tongue lolling out and tail-a-wagging, happy to be noticed.

"I think she was feeling left out," Zack laughed, shaking his head and crouching down to smoosh the dog's cheeks again. "Is that it, girl? Did you just want a group hug, huh?"

Ino eyed him.

And eyed the husky.

And pointedly did not say anything about how cute she was (she really was super cute though). Mostly because she didn't want Zack to get the idea about bringing her home.

"Tell to ask next time," she said instead. "She can bark, can't she?"

"She can bark really well," Zack replied. "You should hear her when a new dog comes in and she can't get out of her kennel to say hello."

She really, really hated the kennel.

Day two of snowpocalypse. Still snowed in. Alarm clock on my phone just scared the pee outta me.

Covered in cats.

But you're always covered in cats, bb.

Not while I'm at work, I'm not!

Send rescue!

NEVER!

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Furnado Animal Shelter, Tuesday

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