Room 504, Saturday, OhGodWhyAmIUpThisEarly O'Clock

[puppy_fair]

It was sheer habit that had Zack up before the sunrise. Every day, without so much as an alarm set to rouse him, he'd wake, pull himself out of bed, pull on his SOLDIER fatigues, and head outside, stopping along the way only to grab his sword, to have his run about the island, to practise and to keep himself in shape for whatever might come.

Today, habit was taking a holiday.

Oh, Zack was awake, sure. And one might even argue that he was up. But it was the sort of up that had him sitting at the foot of the bed, leaning forward and staring down at the floor. He'd been running from a lot of things lately, bottling it all away and slapping on a smile that was so thorough that at times, he suspected even Ino didn't know the difference. She had her own troubles. She didn't need to worry about more of his than she already was.

He'd get up, eventually. He'd do his laps of the island in the snow and the cold, and not even notice the chill January air on his bare arms. He'd press the Buster Sword to his forehead and remember Angeal, try to get a grasp on his own honor, his own dreams and pride. And, the same way he'd been doing for weeks now, he'd lose all of that, and he'd just see the sword, standing silent vigil over the flowers growing in the floorboards...

Eventually. Eventually, Zack would start the day. For now, he was going to just sit there and contemplate his toes some more.

[Open for... anyone up this early in the morning! The awake-too-soon thing is totally method RP, I think. Guh, it is before seven.]

Comments

[bitchprince]

Arthur was always up 'that early' though with the time deferential, it was actually much later in the day for him. Still, there was one person he hadn't managed to contact in what must have been months, at the very least.

So Zack's phone was ringing now.

[puppy_fair]

Phone! Zack tripped off the end of the bed, standing up and pulling the PHS from his pocket, flipping it open and wearing his best happy voice. It didn't much match with the face he was wearing; he was too tired, physically and emotionally, to smile just yet. But for now, all that was needed was the proper cadence in his voice, to make his greeting sound far less desolate.

"Hello?"

[bitchprince]

"Zack!" Arthur called. He was genuinely pleased to hear from him, and entirely not in the possession of the complex emotional apparatus it took to determine Zack was feeling a little off, let alone whatever it was he was. "I've been trying to reach you. How have you been?"

[puppy_fair]

"Oh, hey, Arthur!" There, at least, was a moment's respite from the thoughts and visions that had been following him around for weeks... for months now. A friendly voice that he didn't often hear. His smile flicked over his lips, if only for a second, and he started to pace, back and forth. It wasn't his morning run, but he felt like he was somehow shirking an important daily ritual to just be sitting still, while talking to Arthur.

And then he got around to the next question.

"I've... been. Winter break was busy." Which was really all that he had to say about that, right? "How have you been doing?"

[bitchprince]

Busy. Well, it was winter break, Arthur presumed he'd had plenty to do back home, or maybe on some kind of trip with the school, whatever. "Busy as well," he said, leaning back against a tree. "Life in Camelot goes on as it always does. We're stocking up for the winter season at the moment. The harvests are in full swing, which means there's many disputes to settle about territory and all that rot."

[puppy_fair]

"Everybody wanting more than their share, to get them through something that's never really certain, huh?" Zack's smile twitched into something a little more wry than usual. That didn't need to make it into his voice, either. "We never had that problem, in Gongaga. I didn't even know what winter was supposed to look like until I moved to Midgar, though. And even there, it doesn't really get all that severe."

Possibly because the smog ate away most of the rain and snow before it could ever fall, there. Snowflakes quailed at the thought of passing through it, and migrated elsewhere. Kalm! Kalm seemed like a nice place to fall in mid-December!

[bitchprince]

"We're not all blessed to live in the sun all our lives," Arthur said, wryly. Well, sort of wryly. He wasn't that wry a person. "The past few winters haven't been too bad - nothing that froze solid - and the harvest seems to be going well at the moment. It seems like we might be able to feed everyone this year, unless the winter goes on for too long."

At which point he and his father would probably wind up having the rationing argument again. That was always... fun.

[puppy_fair]

Zack gave a thoughtful little tilt of his head, at that.

"If it does drag on too long, maybe there's something that I can do? To help, I mean. I can't make the winter go away, but..."

He wasn't certain where he was going with that. But there were a million little things that he couldn't help, and sending some food along to Camelot seemed way, way easier in comparison. He imagined that what they ate there wasn't so very different from what he'd eaten growing up in a little backwater town like Gongaga. Livestock, produce that was as fresh as you could get it. Or... frozen, probably, in the middle of winter. At least thoroughly cooled?

He was so bad at this.

[bitchprince]

"If it does," Arthur said, thoughtfully. "It wouldn't hurt if you kept some rationable items aside for us. I'd pay for them, of course." He sounded grateful.

At least it might help him stave off the rationing argument.

[puppy_fair]

"Give me a list," Zack replied, smiling faintly, "of stuff that wouldn't look... really, really weird, finding its way to Camelot. Chickens and things like that, right? Grains? I don't think anyone there would know what to make of something like a stack of frozen pizzas or anything."

At least he knew that much.

[bitchprince]

It made Arthur laugh quite a bit, that one.

"No pizzas," he agreed, "But grains, most of all. Anything that'll keep for a few months, though live chickens wouldn't be a bad idea, either."

Though now you had him thinking about chocobo-hunting again. Sigh, Zack.

[puppy_fair]

The chocobo was a proud and mighty animal, Arthur! PROUD AND MIGHTY.

... And possibly delicious.

"I'll do some looking around," Zack decided, with a small nod to punctuate his words. "And I'll try to get as much set aside as I can. Chickens might take a little longer. There's not really anywhere on the island to keep them, but I could probably... order some in? I think."

He came from a world where you could order almost anything by hitting buttons on a telephone. Fortunately, he was now living in a world that was quite similar, in that regard.

"But you let me know whenever you need it, okay? And I'll do my best to get it to you."

He knew better than to tell Arthur not to worry about payment. Zack wasn't the only half of this conversation with his fair share of pride and honor, after all.

He'd just lie about the cost, instead!

[bitchprince]

Sneaky, Zack!

"Thank you," Arthur said, sincerely. "Though I hope it won't be necesary. As I said, we've been doing fairly well for ourselves this season; it's just that... sometimes, things go wrong."

Magic-things, for example. Arthur was never as much as looking at another unicorn with malice for the rest of his life, if it was all the same.

"You know, I don't think I caught you there for New Years," he said, changing the subject. "Mind, I hadn't really expected to be there for New Years myself..."

[intraspective]

Well, Ino knew why she was up so early.

It involved a whole lot of 'not sleeping' and 'nightmares'.

And because of the hour, she was still wearing nothing but an over-sized t-shirt and panties as she wandered back from the common room, yawning. She was tired but, well, sleeping wasn't really going to help anything.

"Hey," she said, slipping back into the room and blinking to find him awake but... not doing anything.

That was... weird. For Zack. She probably should have been out training too but it had just seemed like too much work at stupid o'clock in the morning when she'd woken up originally.

[puppy_fair]

"Hey, you." Zack's smile seemed real enough at a glance when he turned to face her, didn't it? "You're up early."

Of course she was. This was nothing new now, Zack.

[intraspective]

At a glance, it did. But she wasn't exactly at her best for telling either, right now.

She lifted her shoulders. "Slept enough, I guess."

That was a horrible lie and she told it anyway.

[puppy_fair]

It was a terrible lie, and something in Zack's insides twisted a little at it. But it didn't show on his face. Not even for a flicker of an instant.

"You guess so, huh?" He pursed his lips a little, tilting his head in thought. "Want to go for a walk or something?"

She was up. She guessed she'd maybe slept enough or something. What else was there to do now, right?

[intraspective]

It was a sorrowful thing that they were back to lying to each other just to manage.

"Like this?" she said, a faint smile touching her lips. "I think I'm under dressed."

[puppy_fair]

"You? Are never under-dressed," Zack replied, smiling a little too broadly her way. "But if you think you'll get cold or something, I guess you can put on some pants. You know. Because I'm nice like that."

And because it was January, and because she was wearing a t-shirt and panties.

[intraspective]

"How generous," she said, wandering over to steal a kiss. That, at least, was the same. "But I think pants would be a fabulous idea."

She did not want to d--suffer from the cold, okay?

[puppy_fair]

"Well, I think I can wait to go on the walk, at least until you've managed pants," Zack replied, bending over to make kiss-stealing a little simpler. "And a jacket, if you really need to."

There was a little smile in that somewhere. He was totally joking, and would probably give her sad eyes if she didn't manage a jacket.

[intraspective]

Mmmm kisses. She did appreciate those.

"I think I do," she said earnestly. "Unless you have another way to keep me warm?"

[puppy_fair]

"Well, I have a few ideas," Zack replied, "but I think a jacket might be for the best. For Silly's sake, too."

When in doubt, blame the chicobo.

[intraspective]

"For Silly's sake," she said, with a smile that was a little more natural. And drifted over to find a pair of pants. They didn't match her shirt, but she didn't really care right now. Socks and shoes and a jacket.

And a sleepy chicobo peeking around her neck at Zack.

Silly did not much like Mommy's sleeping difficulties and made a disgruntled sort of chirp.

[puppy_fair]

Zack offered Silly a silly little smile of his own, and then held up one finger and went to rummage Mr. Winkles from out of his cage.

The gerbil, it should be noted, was awake at the time, nocturnal little beast that he was.

Nighttime, after all, was the best time to come up with nefarious homicidal schemes.

"Is there anywhere in particular you want to walk to? I bet we can catch the sunrise, yet. And it's way prettier over the water, if you want to walk along the beach?"