Fandom Town Emergency Clinic

It was a thoughtful mood that held Ino captive as she studied today. Though she wasn't thinking about her studies in so many words, but rather about a conversation she'd had last week and what that would mean, could mean, if she let it. She wasn't sure if she wanted to let it mean--everything it could mean.

But if it did...

That, too, was tempting.

Ino sipped her hot chocolate, frowned as she double-checked the spelling of a word, and went back to studying. And thinking. It was a simple way to multitask, at least.

Ino had listened to radio enough to figure that something really shitty had gone down and that there was maybe a person or two she ought to see, but her own state of apathy left her feeling a bit 'why bother?' about it all.

She thought that maybe that made her a horrible person.

It was hard to feel too horrible about it when she went down the list of those who'd be on radio. She should... probably talk to Jono? And Karla, she supposed, though Ino figured that if she was crying on people that there were... better people to cry on than her.

Not when Ino knew she was pretty wrapped up in her--own reasons to cry, lately. But she didn't think there was anyone else on radio who she really needed to talk with and that made her a bit selfish, she supposed, to know that her friends for the most part hadn't been affected and be relieved.

She'd keep being selfish, Ino decided, because there was enough grief in her world at the moment. No more.

At least, she thought, sitting on the front step of the clinic and basking in the sun, it was a glorious day. And there was work coming up.

Ino fiddled with her phone, looking into portals for earlier in the week. She had orders for the weekend, but there was something she wanted to take care of before then... but when? It felt good, having something to do.

It was not due to the new term or the fact that she’d had to come into work that had Ino yawning quite regularly today. Really, it wasn’t that she’d deliberately stayed up late or had gotten lost in a game or a book or surfing the internet either that were to blame.

Which, she thought as she drank her hot chocolate and stared blearily around the lobby of the clinic, would have been nice. Sleep would have been nice, too, but that was apparently too complicated a request for her body to handle past the nightmares right now.

To feel like she was doing something, as well as letting someone else know something she’d decided days ago, Ino texted off a simple Yes on her phone and then settled in to… try and study.

Which mostly turned into a ‘try not to fall asleep’ session, but that was alright.

Okay.

So she was a bit late to clinic but that was between the fact that they'd had to catch their portal and then Zack had asked her, like, five times over, if she was sure she felt okay enough to go to clinic and when she said she was, he'd insisted on escorting her.

Ino couldn't bring herself to argue with that--she was touched by the gesture and, truly, felt better with him doing so.

Once he'd left--leaving her with orders to call him for anything--Ino found that the clinic, where she normally felt quite secure, thank you very much, didn't feel nearly the same today. Telling herself she was being stupid for being paranoid--no one was going to grab her here--Ino forced her attention to what the nurses were saying.

What? Something had happened over the week they'd been gone…?

[Ze puppy was modded with permission, oui.]

Ino chewed on her lip as she contemplated her options—hot chocolate first, or apple fritter?

Decisions, decisions.

(Shhh. These were very important decisions first thing in the morning.)

Picking the apple fritter, Ino settled in, flipping open one of her textbooks and got to work. Nibbling and studying all at the same time.

Hurrah for the ability to multi-task.

Blah.

Ino cast a flinty glance at, well, the air and forcibly returned herself to studying. It wasn't the books' fault, after all, that she was in a mood and feeling restless and studying wasn't something that she had an excuse to not do which meant that it was just a matter of concentrating enough...

Well. Blah.

But she'd give it her best shot.

There was nothing quite like the knowledge that she hadn't changed when some weird had affected quite a few other people yesterday to put Ino into a really good mood.

And Zack hadn't changed either! And they'd accomplished that letter he'd needed to send out!

So it was a very good day.

Except for the fact that she was trying to figure out how to word her apology to Professor Devereaux for missing last Friday but she couldn't exactly say no when her father called for her.

Maybe she'd just work on her persona some more...

Ino was... pretty sure that her weekend had been, like, the opposite of relaxing in some ways. Especially considering that she had more than a few things now that she and Zack were definitely going to have to talk about more.

And more than a few things she was definitely going to have to think about.

So it was with a sleepy yawn that she wandered in for work today and promptly curled up with a hot chocolate and her notebooks.

Ino could be found exactly where she was supposed to be, when she was supposed to be and looking for all the world as a very studious minion of the clinic.

If asked, she'd admit that about… half of that was a lie.

Not the studying, no. But the topics were not for the clinic. The nurses didn't care and she'd make up that particular study time later in the week.

… Really.

Another Monday, another shift.

Not that that was a bad thing though, admittedly, it was somewhat monotonous having the same thing every week.

But she was pretty sure she wouldn't like it that much if her shifts changed either and that left Ino wondering, idly, where her train of thought was coming from and how did she get off it?

Or something like that anyway.

Maybe she just needed more chocolate?

Ino was determinedly not thinking about the fact that it was leaving time this week for a few people and was making sure she focused on the far more entertaining question of: what was she going to do over break?

It was boring just sticking around, but...

She didn't really have any ideas but that was alright, thinking of them would keep the day a little more interesting.

The very last thing Ino had wanted to do today was go to work. Go to the clinic. All she really wanted to do was curl up in Zack's arms and stay there forever.

But wanting and getting what she wanted were two entirely different things. And if any one came in today… well, she was needed.

While she waited, she worked (if worked could be called the staring she did for a good part of it) on an e-mail. Another thing she had to do to keep a promise.

She didn’t know if she’d send it today, but it was something to... try and put her thoughts in order with, Ino supposed.

If asked, Ino would have to admit that she was glad Ribbon hadn't come to life again over the weekend. She settled at the desk and pulled out a few books to study from.

Ribbon had been such a hassle last time, even if Ino wouldn't have minded seeing Sun's Glory again, but really…

Well, it hadn't happened and now she was left trying to figure out what it meant that it hadn't. Probably nothing, knowing Fandom.

But what if it did mean something?

Ino came into work Monday morning feeling as if she hadn’t had much of a weekend at all for some odd reason. She’d woken up and just... felt like last week and this week had crashed into each other without any pause to breathe between them.

It was vaguely irritating and Ino was soothing that irritation with chocolate as she studied.

What?

Chocolate made everything better.

It was a day meant for curling up with a hot drink (yes, she preferred her drinks hot even in the summer), tucking her legs under her, and studying like there was nothing else in the world.

There was something soothing about focusing entirely on one thing--her medical studies--instead of having her mind flit around and over a hundred different ideas all at once.

Simpler, this way. And it felt like she was making some progress.

She made it to work only a little bit late thanks to portals and having to hop worlds to get back. Ino ignored the dirty looks the nurses were giving her and pretended that showing up late was totally her plan all along.

Curling up in the chair at the front desk Ino forced herself to study—all the while dreamily thinking of, well, sleep.

What? Sleep was a fun thing to dream of!

Today? Today Ino was busy.

... Not so much with her studying though. Rather, she was busily scribbling out lists of supplies and calling places in town to make sure they had them. It was Very Important Work thank you very much.

So was her humming happily to herself. It was just seriously, totally a lovely sort of day.

Really!

Ino was almost glad for the fact that it was a work day and she could hide at work. Well, mostly. There'd been that side-trip before work but she wasn't thinking too hard about that.

The nurses, rather than give her peace, decided to question her about what radio had said. Though it was a bit annoying to deal with, it was a fairly welcome annoyance. Ino didn't have to think if she was busy snipping at the nurses for their lack of respecting privacy.

And when she wasn't talking to them, Ino was studying with narrow-eyed intensity. Ugh. This week.

Today most of her attention was on carefully inspecting the notebooks that had been outside last night (the ones that Zack had put first in the stables and then they'd taken them with them to the hotel) for any signs of chocolate damage.

Luckily, there was very little. That let her relax an infinitesimal amount while she queried the nurses as to how they'd found the rain last night. (Most of them had slept right through it which was totally unfair.)

She flipped through her medical notes after that and made herself focus. Learning nothing would just make the day a total waste.

So maybe Ino was running a bit behind, yes.

What of it?

She'd slept outside and then had to make sure that Zack was... not going to just sit there and stare all day and then she'd needed a shower and then it had been time for Tyler-sensei's class and so it wasn't until after his class was out that she even made it to work that day.

... and promptly realized she'd left her study materials back where she and Zack had camped out.

So there was Ino, brooding over a medical magazine and reading very little of it. This day?

She was not a fan of this day. It could end now. Right now.

Okay, so when she came in for her evening shift (what? She'd spent the weekend in a different universe and then had classes and had totally needed a nap in there as well or else she'd have been utterly useless for anything.) Ino also had Loveless with her.

It still wasn't really facing anything that she really needed to face and it wasn't studying at all but it was... something. A non-avoidance something.

And she'd get to it as soon as she was done talking to the nurses about her weekend. Really.

Honest!

She'd left Zack in the lobby, him saying something about looking for sunshine, and had headed straight for the clinic. It had wrenched something in her heart to leave him but the only way she could have stayed was to take a potion and... that wasn't happening. She didn't want anything from Gaia right now. Ino could have gone upstairs, first, to change and wash up but that was five flights of stairs and she'd been sure that that would've been a bad idea.

As it was, when she got to the clinic—it was her day to work, after all, and she needed someone to look at her head anyway—the nurses promptly sized her up, scolded her for getting a head injury on Friday and waiting until Monday to come in and fussed over it.

Nothing major, they assured her (she'd known that but it was nice to have confirmation) and scuttled her off to one of the exam rooms to rest under their watchful eye for a few hours.

Her mild protest that she'd miss her second period class went ignored. Ino had to be honest: she didn't really want to go to class yet. Maybe by the afternoon, once she'd time to think a bit away from everything and everyone but clucking nurses.

Even if thinking about the weekend made her nauseous and that wasn't from her aching head.

Work held all the appeal of a plague, really, whenever Ino mulled over the fact that while other girls had extra time to get ready, she had—from whenever she wrangled herself out of work to the start of the dance.

Unfair.

This would be why Ino was trying hard not to think about that as she curled up with another scroll on theory and focused on it with intensity.

What would happen, would happen, right? And she'd still look awesome, so there was no point in sulking about it.

The phone call Ino had left the bemused nurses was pretty much 'Hi, I'm here, I'll be in this evening, please call me if you need me but otherwise I'll be, uh, at the festival? I'll bring you all some cotton candy! Okay, bye!'

Which she did wander in on time for the evening shift, Ino was laden down with cotton candy as she'd promised. They still gave her dirty looks but Ino was in an awesome mood and they totally couldn't dent that.

Besides, she'd kept her word. Geez.