fandomtownies | Furnado Animal Shelter, Tuesday

"Hey, guys, that's really great," Zack said, forcing a little bit of a smile at the troupe of singing gremlins who had parked their way just inside the shelter's door. They were singing their hardest, doing their best, and while the dogs and cats and fish didn't seem to care much for their singing either way, the birds were doing their best to... well, not sing along, per se. But definitely to try to sing over them.

And Zack, being Zack, felt it was important to encourage their creativity.

And, uh, to not get bitten.

So he was standing at the counter making busy work for himself, looking as attentive as he possibly could. He was making a sign:

Thinking of Giving a Pet for Christmas?
Please, Think Twice!
There will be no adoptions until the New Year, thank you!

If he could help it, he was never having a repeat of the Easter Bunnies again. If anybody saw an animal here they wanted that badly, they could definitely be patient enough to wait until January to bring it home.

[OOC: Open!]

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Near the end of the day, Rufus drifted in, alone. He nodded slightly towards Zack and wandered off down the aisles with the ease of someone who knew exactly what he was looking for. In short order, he came back, several rawhide bones, some treats, and a new pull toy in his arms.

He set them on the counter.

"Noisy day," Rufus observed.

"December in Fandom," Zack agreed, giving Rufus a polite, if wary, nod. "The birds like the singing, I think."

... Either that, or they were seriously distressed by the gremlin presence. One of those things.

"They are, perhaps, the only ones."

Rufus certainly didn't like the singing. Neither did Dark Nation.

"Though some of the… events… have been less unappealing."

"I think I've been here too long," Zack replied. "I've barely noticed most of them."

Okay, no, it was more that he was very distracted, these days.

"Did you find everything you need here today?"

"Yes."

He studied Zack for a moment.

"Though I did have a question, if I may?"

Zack tilted his head slightly, looking back at him.

"You can ask," he replied. "I guess we'll see if I have any answers..."

That was always sort of a tough call. He was always looking for answers. The trouble was that the questions kept multiplying.

Questions had a tendency to do that.

Despite the fact that he was well aware--well aware--of the fact that what he wanted to ask might wind up with a very angry SOLDIER, Rufus stood his ground coolly.

"Why did my father permit that Hojo and his scientists torture and abuse you in the name of their experiments?"

Zack was a SOLDIER 1st Class. That was beyond wasteful.

Zack froze, and something in his expression, something he'd been fighting to keep relaxed for ages, went hard and dark and far more haunted than he cared to allow.

"They believed that those experiments would teach them how to create something better." His jaw tensed. "They were wrong."

The animals in the room fell silent. There was a lot of ferocity coming from behind that counter, for all that Zack remained still.

Rufus also remained still—a calm, cold bulwark against that ferocity. Sweat beaded down the back of his neck.

"More fools them," he said, finally.

He'd missed nothing in Zack's expression.

Zack pulled in a breath.

He exhaled. The tightness in his shoulders eased only slightly. Enough that a few birds dared a chirp here and there.

Enough.

"I've been meaning," he said, changing the subject abruptly, "to thank you. For sending water here earlier in the month. That was you, wasn't it?"

Nothing in here could drink eggnog. At least with the hot chocolate, they'd been able to rig up temporary solutions, setting animals in sinks or running pet fountains where there were options to do so.

Rufus nodded, still on guard but, like the birds, less likely to… well.

Not flee, since that wasn't in his nature, but the threat of death was less imminent.

"Yes," he said, unsurprised at the subject change. He was surprised he'd gotten an answer at all. "That was me."

Zack nodded a little.

"It was appreciated. There are animals in recovery rooms in the back who can't go without water for a day like that. Your donation probably kept a few of them alive."

And there, that was why Rufus hadn't died. Well done, Shinra.

"I'm glad to have been of assistance," he said, since… well, he'd done it for the animals.

Shut up.

Rufus genuinely liked most animals.

Zack simply nodded, and then began to ring up Rufus' purchases, an echo of that grim cast of his expression still on his face.

He'd be the rest of the day, trying to fight that down.

"And that should do it," he said, glancing back up at him from the till. "Was there anything else?"

Or would he?

"That's all," Rufus said, gathering his bags. "Thank you for your assistance."

He hesitated a moment.

"I doubt that it means much, coming from me, but good luck," he added, as he left.

And, where he'd been, Rufus had left a sealed envelope. In it, was a ticket and a note. The note read:

You owe me.

Zack frowned after Rufus for a long moment as he left, and only once he was gone did he notice the envelope on the desk. Tentatively, warily, he opened it, pulling out and reading the note, first.

And then, the ticket.

It was funny how a piece of paper could steal away a man's breath so easily, where gods and monsters could not.

He didn't take off running right away, no. The ticket wouldn't do him any good until later, anyway. But the suspense was killing him, and Rufus wasn't wrong.

He did owe him.

For a ticket home? Zack owed him a whole hell of a lot.

Furnado Animal Shelter, Tuesday

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