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The Park, Friday Morning

Zack had gotten back to the island late last night, too late to call anybody to see about collecting his dog, but he'd been far too antsy to sleep, and the idea of going back to the apartment to sit alone for hours hadn't appealed to him in the least. And so he'd walked. Done laps of the island's stairs at far-too-late until it had bled into far-too-early, and had eventually wound up at the park, doing squats to work off some excess energy.

There was a lot on his mind, that was what he was attributing all of this anxiousness to, and given the fact that he was SOLDIER, it was entirely possible that was all that was going on, there. Not that it really made much difference with Zack, granted. Even on a normal week, who could tell the difference between being friendly and being flirty, when it came to him?

Somewhere around the crack of dawn, he'd traded in squats for sword forms, and was absolutely murdering the heck out of an invisible enemy, wielding the sword he'd had Amaya make for him before he'd left. It was a pretty close stab at mimicking the standard SOLDIER sword, though it came without the unpleasant associations and, he had learned while on his walkabout looking for Iris, was much more sturdy than the mass-produced disasters he'd broken over and over again in his tie working for ShinRa. He hadn't regretted leaving the buster sword with Amaya at all.

[OOC: Open park! Puppypuppypuppy!]

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Kaidan was out for his usual early morning run. He saw a familiar form that'd been gone for far too damn long. Impossible to miss at that size, with that hair, and wielding a sword like that.

"Zack!" he called happily, jogging on over, "You're back! Where you been, man? I've missed you!"

"I went home for a bit," Zack replied, lowering his sword - it was still an impressive broadsword, though not nearly as large as the giant sheet of metal he used to carry around on his back - and nodding toward Kaidan with a small smile that, at least for the moment, didn't quite manage to make it all the way to those luminous blue eyes of his. "I had some loose ends to tie up. And, uh. A missing Iris to find."

That she'd found him had been an interesting dynamic shift.

So had... everything else.

He was still trying to figure out how he felt.

"How've you been, Kaidan?"

"I assume you found her or you wouldn't be back," Kaidan said, studying Zack's face. He looked stressed but not the same sort of stress that had been on his face before he'd left. "Me? I'm hanging in there. How about you? You.. kinda look like hell, buddy. You alright?"

He noticed the missing in the park. "Zack?" he asked carefully, "Where's Girl?"

Zack's mouth opened for a moment while he processed all those statements, one at a time.

"Found her," he agreed. "And good to hear you're hanging on." He wouldn't assume more than that, himself. "I..." Deep breath. "I'll be fine. I got in late last night, too late to go pick her up, so I'm killing time before I can head to the shelter and figure out where to collect her from there."

Gods knew he really needed his dog right then.

Zack was acting pretty off. Fragile. "Anything I can do to help right now?" Kaidan asked, "You want to talk? Spar? Run with me? Anything not listed above? It's, uh, it's that damn pollen week so I'm aggro and edgy and need to do all the things."

Zack blinked a little at that.

"Pollen?" A pause. "Oh. Oh. Um. Do you have a preference? I can run, or spar, but my sparring usually involves a sword."

Always. Always involved a sword. It was a SOLDIER thing.

"I'm not good enough with a sword yet to spar that way, buddy," Kaidan admitted, "Still learning. Want to run?"

"Running sounds great," Zack replied, smiling crookedly. "We can worry about sword form another time, that's fine."

Kaidan did a quick stretch to give Zack time to put his sword away and tossed his head toward the path, taking off at a light jog at first. "Island's been quiet," Kaidan noted, "Some weird shrinking hijinx, then some amnesia, but nothing like an invasion."

"That," Zack said, sword settled on his back and feet pounding cobblestones as he jogged alongside Kaidan, "means we have something to look forward to, I'm sure. Not that I'm in any hurry to get into trouble so fast, granted..."

It had been a heck of a day.

He jogged along and huffed a laugh, "Normally I'm not either. This week? God. Give me something to fight. I've been gone offworld since Monday, I forgot how bad this crap is. I hope it's gone tomorrow."

The last few days on Pinnacle had done wonders for him. He'd felt more like himself than he had in awhile. Months, in fact.

Jack had wanted to do more shopping. Kaidan... probably stupidly..had wanted to be back on the island for his usual Friday sword practice. Not dirty. He had a routine, damnit. He liked his routine. He was going to exercise himself into exhaustion today. Also, again, not dirty.

"I don't even know what day of the week it is," Zack admitted, giving a small huff of a laugh of his own. His heart still wasn't in it, but he was trying, here. "I've been underground a while."

He... he was pretty sure.

His head hated him a bit today.

A smidgen.

Kaidan blinked and he looked up at his friend. "It's Friday, Zack," he answered, "You came back in time for whatever weekend wacky the island chooses to pitch at us. Though after a week of this damn pollen, I kind of hope it's quiet."

"You know... I never say this," Zack noted as they ran, "but I kind of hope it's quiet this weekend, too."

He needed to just... not... for a while. Get his dog and be traumatized alone for a bit or... something.

Kaidan ran for a bit before offering quietly, "Sounds like you could use some major downtime, buddy. Anything I can do to help?"

"I..." Zack's gait slowed slightly, until it came to a stop. "... I don't... actually know."

And that, too, was a hell of a confession.

Kaidan stopped, a little shocked that Zack actually stopped moving. He almost never did, the entire time Kaidan had known him. That was freakier than the admission.

He watched Zack's face and then asked, "Are you able to be hugged or would you rather not be touched?"

That was kind of the damning thing there, wasn't it? If it wasn't laps, it was squats, or pacing, or something.

Now he was just kind of... standing. Looking and feeling exhausted and lost.

"I'm always able to be hugged," he murmured. "Hugs are pretty great..."

He was a touchy-feely puppy. That much would likely never change.

"Uh huh," Kaidan said, more to acknowledge that Zack had said something than in agreement. Zack looked like he needed a hug, a week of sleep, a juice box, and his dog. Not even necessarily in that order.

The one, he could do something about, so Kaidan walked over. Caught him by a shoulder and tugged him gently into a hug. "Come here, big guy."

Zack nodded the tiniest bit, letting himself get pulled into that hug, and just sort of standing there clinging right on back for a minute.

"Yeah," he murmured. "Yeah, thanks."

A juice box and his dog and a blanket to turn himself into a burrito in and...

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The Park, Friday Morning

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