fandomtownies | The Beach, Saturday Night

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The Beach, Saturday Night

It was another anxious night, for Zack. The sort where he could sleep, if only he could get the shadows in his head to quiet down. He was tired, but they kept chasing him down, until finally he gave in and let himself admit that sleep wasn't going to find him tonight.

So he went for a walk.

Not to anywhere in particular, he figured. Just... out. Get some fresh air. Work off the taut-elastic feeling in his guts and maybe he could escape whatever it was that was chasing him around in his own mind. It wasn't until the waves were lapping at his boots that he really realized where he had gone. Outside of Nibelheim, he had followed the shore as long as he could, until the infantry had caught up to him there, too. And then the Turks--

His grip tightened on the hilt of his sword, and he backed away from the water, standing on the beach.

Before Nibelheim, at Costa del Sol, to keep him out of trouble, he'd gone for a vacation with the Turks--

He looked at his sword.

So, the shadows in his head were going to be the black suits, tonight. He laughed a little, humorlessly. And then he shook his head and took a seat in the sand. Until the shadows left his head, he'd just sit here and breathe. It was a nice night, and the water went on forever. For now, that would do.

[OOC: Weirdly introspective Puppy is feeling weirdly introspective. Open post, open beach!]

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If Peter had been human, he might almost have tripped over the guy just sitting there in the sand. As it was, he slowed down as he approached and deliberately made some noise; if the guy there was human, he didn't want to startle him by popping up out of nowhere.

And what if the guy in the sand wasn't entirely certain what he was? The noise was enough to catch Zack's attention, and while it was far too sloppy a sound to possibly be a Turk, he was already on his feet, sword in hand, before he was completely certain who it was.

It wasn't a threatening pose, so much as a wary, defensive one. He was already on edge tonight, it didn't take much, right now.

It took Peter a second to realize he was being defended against with a sword; it looked more like the guy was brandishing some sculpture at him. Then he held up his hands. "Just walking by. Everything okay?"

Not a Turk.

Not the infantry, either. Just... just some person, going for a walk. Zack held his stance for a few more seconds before slowly, reluctantly, lowering his weapon again. And then, in one surprisingly deft gesture, he was setting it onto his back again. He didn't need it.

"Everything's fine."

That, mind, was being said for his own benefit more than anybody else's.

That's okay; Peter was well familiar with that sort of reassurance.

He was just going to ignore that physics-defying sword for now.

He stuck out his hand. "Peter Octavian."

Hey, there was nothing physics-defying about the sword.

Zack was the one defying the physics, really.

He was also the one eyeing the offered hand for a moment or two more before mustering a friendly smile - it was remarkable just how natural it looked even when his mind was spinning - and stepping forward to accept the offered hand.

"Zack Fair," he replied. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting anybody else to be out here this late."

Peter shrugged. "I've been nocturnal for" centuries "years. It's a hard habit to break. Are you new here? I don't think I've seen you around before."

"I'm not especially new, no," Zack replied, "I've been here since February."

He'd been kind of hiding out a lot since arriving, granted. But he had been here!

"Let me guess then," Peter said. "You don't like people. Should I just keep going?"

Zack blinked, actually kind of taken aback by that one.

"I... what?"

Yeah, the idea that anybody would accuse him of not liking people actually threw him a little. There was a first for everything, he supposed.

"No, it's not that. I just don't-- I mean..." Nope, his brain still wasn't catching up, yet. "... You don't have to hurry by or anything. I shouldn't have drawn my sword on you. I'm sorry for that."

Peter grinned. "You should've seen what I did to a guy that surprised me. What is it - no harm, no foul? But you're sitting on the beach in the middle of the night and you don't get out much. I guess I just assumed."

"Okay, I have to give you that one," Zack admitted, though he was still sort of frowning. "It's not that I don't like people. I just couldn't sleep. I needed... air?"

He needed something. He wasn't sure what that something was. Air seemed like the closest thing. People went out for air all the time.

"Understandable." Air, a walk, whatever it was.

Then, because he couldn't leave well (or bad) enough alone, "Everything okay?"

"Just fine," Zack said immeditely, a reflex more than anything. And then he frowned a little. And then he sighed and smiled tiredly. "I mean, I guess everything's okay. It's a nice night?"

If there was one thing he was bad at, it was admitting that he wasn't doing well.

"Sleep is just harder sometimes than it should be. And there are reasons for that, but it's nothing anybody can really do anything about, or anything."

"Yeah, I get that." Not that Peter slept much anyway, but he understood all kinds of reasons for not.

"You want some company then, or you just looking to spend quiet time?"

Zack contemplated that for a moment, and then tried another little smile on for size. It came all too easily, as though maybe that sort of thing was his default whether he felt it or not.

"I usually had some sort of company while I was out on the beach before," he noted. "Having somebody here right now... I think I'd actually kind of appreciate it."

He didn't want to say, 'to watch my back,' but the thought was there. Even if he knew he didn't need it.

Peter smiled. "Old habits die hard?" he guessed. He moved to sit, not too close to Zack, but close enough to talk.

"When I first got here, it'd been forever since I'd seen a beach." Or even water. "It's still pretty soothing."

"Something like that," Zack agreed, settling back down, looking back out over the water. "It's been a while since I really just took the time to sit and appreciate it. It's not something I really had the luxury of doing for a while there."

He tilted his head a bit.

"I guess I'm still sorting out how I feel about it."

"About having the luxury, or about the fact you didn't?" Peter asked.

"Both, maybe." Zack watched the waves quietly for a minute or two more. "Not many of my memories around the ocean are all that great. I mean, unless you count the ones from when I lived on the island before."

But that was practically a lifetime ago.

"This isn't your first time here?" Peter asked, curious.

Zack shook his head a little.

"It isn't. I went to the school here for a while. I didn't stay long enough to graduate, but just long enough that it's weird just how unfamiliar a lot of this place is, now."

"Like what?" Peter asked. "I haven't been here that long myself, but it hasn't changed a lot overall since I got here."

"I don't want to say it's quieter," Zack noted, "... but it's quieter. And I don't recognize most of the people who are here these days. You'd think a few years wouldn't completely overhaul an island's population, but I guess Fandom is a little different."

He pursed his lips for a moment.

"I'm not living at the dorms, which... is kind of obvious and not really the island's fault, but there's a big difference in the atmosphere of the dorms compared to town. Things don't attack here as much as I remember, though I suppose just saying something like that is inviting trouble." He didn't seem to mind, mind. "We used to have reserve groups, actually, because invasions were frequent enough that people acknowledged the importance of being prepared for them."

"Yeah, we haven't had a lot of those since I've been here," Peter said. "We had this...thing...happen in the winter that was pretty insane, but it still wasn't an actual invasion. I think our last of those was...do giant bunnies count?"

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