nomoneystillproblems | call me maybe

FROM: parker.peter@cdc.org

in hell

FROM: parker.peter@cdc.org

or more specifically rover 001

FROM: yamanaka.ino@cdc.org

Hey, at least you get a rover.

[ She gets to his rover pretty creepily fast, since she uses ninja magic to cheat, and then knocks on his door. (Seriously, if there was any possible way to sneak into the rovers you don't live in, she'd never knock again.)

When he opens the door, the very first thing she does is pull him into a wordless hug, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. ]

[So fast he doesn't even really get a chance to send out his reply. He'd realized too little too late that she'd been sent to Grey, for reasons unknown to the world. Now he feels like double the dillhole.

But when she knocks he's at the door in a heartbeat, and even if she'd told him to stop there's a sorry on his lips with her name on it.

He doesn't get a chance to let that out, either.

At first, he doesn't move. More than a little alarmed, because even if she had been there at some point (he couldn't even remember so it would have been at the bloodiest part, which only makes him more ashamed) he doesn't expect her to be phased. Sorry as he might be she is a ninja. She's hardened to this. And they barely know each other.

Peter barely knows anyone when it comes down to it out here. But here's Ino, wrapping her arms around him without a word.

Jack Benjamin's bile still rings in his ears. I'd give five of you to get someone like Fiona back, and I doubt I'm the only one on the crew who thinks that. And Peter had left the conversation dazed, in tears. Still waiting on Gliese to let him know if he could trade his life for one of the six that stayed in the grave, because he was worthless here and everyone knew it.

Maybe he was wrong.

Peter chokes in silence. His arms thread around her back too, and he bows his head. Can't bury his face in her hair, even if he desperately wishes he could.

What he wants most, more than anything, is to have his family. To be able to confess anything, hear confessions back, hug and kiss and touch and trust. The CDC has none of that intimacy to offer him.

But maybe he's not as friendless as he'd thought he was.

Peter says nothing. They just stand in the entrance, holding each other tight.]

Edited 2015-04-07 06:16 (UTC)

[ In some ways, Ino is hardened to this kind of thing. It's inevitable at some point or another in her line of work, for a group of kids who were born in the shadow of war, raised to do violence. She was taught how to slit a throat so that it doesn't spray blood, all the ways to dispose of a body so that it's never found again, how to systematically turn someone's own mind and body against them. She learned it with the expectation that she would use it someday, because these are the things you do when you want to protect your home and the people you love.

But in other ways, she does everything too fiercely for her own good—she feels too strongly, cares too deeply, loves too openly. The bush clover, symbol of her clan, stands for candid, uncomplicated love—that's also how she was raised.

(If this is a contradiction, then it's not an impossible one: it wasn't his death that affected her—it was the loss of his life, and that is a very different thing.)

Ino doesn't know much about Peter, other than his terrible fashion sense, something about spiders, and the fact that this isn't his first death. She also knows that there's power in hugs, even among tentative friends, and his silence tells her as much.

In spite of herself, Ino finds herself relaxing a little into his hold, her arms tightening around his neck and head bowing so that her nose presses into his shoulder. With his death, Sakura's transfer, and her move to Grey—maybe she needs a hug too.

Finally, she steps back—and punches him in the arm, enough to make him feel it. ]

Are you going to stop being a baby now?

[He doesn't know the half of what Ino's been through. She's a bigger mystery than he is. But he has inklings. Sees things around, gets hints and glimpses into other people's lives. Sasuke had mentioned that he had literally no time or life for girlfriends as a ninja, and the casual coolness with which Ino had said she worked with the dead and dying belied a host of lost lives that helped her reach that point. Nerves weren't born dead unless you were that unlucky.

When they draw apart she nails him in the arm, and she's not ginger about it either.] Ow.

[The remnants of almost tears still line the bottom of his eyes but Peter laughs, head ducking and his shaggy hair falling into his face.]

How can I, you just hit me. I'm entitled to at least twenty more minutes of baby-fits.

[Peter sniffs and holds the back of his hand to his nose. He doesn't crack, though, thank god. Making jokes is a hell of a lot better than talking through this again. He still can't shake the sight of Akame's tears from his mind.]

Did you wanna...we've got tea. Come sit inside for a bit. Tents have gotta suck out here.

[ (Please don't listen to Sasuke. Sasuke is weird and dumb, even for a ninja.)

Peter is a good guy. He's kinder than she would've expected, especially from their first meeting—but maybe neither of them came out of that looking that great. Even though his concern is misplaced (mostly), she can't help but feel touched anyway. (She's figured you out, Peter... you're a sensitive soul... but she's enough of a sensitive soul too to find it endearing.)

Sometimes, it is kinder to pretend you don't see tears—Ino doesn't know if that's true right now, but that’s what she does. If Peter is making jokes, then things are already looking up. ]

Please, I didn't hit you that hard. [ Sure, Ino... but her smile is kind when she adds: ] Yeah, sure.

And tell me about it. Though apparently we're getting treehouses now.

[(He is glad to know that Sasuke is the exception and not the norm.)

They really had given pretty crappy introductions, hadn't they? Mind you if that dumb bahari hadn't been sneaking into their room to steal stuff they could have had a chance to meet properly. Not half asleep and peeved to the max.

He lets her in first, thankful that the rover isn't too big of a mess. There's not a lot going on, though. Peter's is the only bunk that looks recently inhabited. Caroline is apparently in stasis, Cortana is just plain gone, and that other prison-looking guy just disappeared one day. Peter's the only one there, really, and his is the only space with any amount of life to it. Rumpled sheets, a half open duffel at the foot with extra shirts and a nanite gun. There's three photographs tacked to the wall beside his bed: a middle aged woman reclining on a couch with a wine glass in hand and a business blazer, a blonde girl in punk chic hanging off the wrong end of a pier with a devious smile, and a bright eyed redhead pulling a pin-up style smile as Peter kisses her cheek.

Aside from that, the place as a whole feels downright hollow.

He makes for the kitchenette immediately, sets some water to boil and digs for cups.]

Treehouses? You don't think that's kind of tempting fate, here? [He shoots her a grin.] Isn't there some giant bug thing that crawls over the trees at night?

[ (Sasuke is a lot of exceptions.)

Ino is nosy as hell, which means that she's taking note of all this. She paces slowly around the rover, not even trying to be surreptitious about the fact that she's looking at everything—there's a lot you can tell about people from the way they keep their space.

Eventually, she ends up in front of his bunk, bending down a little so she can get a closer look at the pictures hung up on the wall. They have to be people he knows—pictures he either brought with him from home or picked up during the whole snafu with the portals spitting out junk. The last one, of Peter kissing the cheek of a really pretty redhead, makes her smile for some reason. ]

It's better that all the bug things that crawl all over the ground at night, trust me. [ She barely even pauses, pointing towards the pictures. ] Who are they?

Yeah but it's giant. Giant bugs. Yick factor amplified by three thousand.

[The pot's set, it'll only be a few minutes to go. In the meantime he follows her attention (and is not at all surprised, it's about the only place in the deserted rover for attention to go), wandering over with a fond smile pressing into his cheeks.]

That's, um. My family. And my girlfriend. Aunt May, she's been raising me since I was ten. [No need for elaboration. The fact that she was an Aunt and not a mother should be indicative enough of what happened there, he hopes. Peter takes a seat next to the cushions as he points them out.] And Gwen over here, she moved in with us about a year or so ago? Her dad was on the police force. He died — this absolute craphole, god, he was dressing up as me and going around robbing places, and killed Gwen's dad while he was on duty. She didn't know I was Spider-Man at the time, so she um. She spent a lot of time convinced I was to blame, until she found out the truth. But her mom is the biggest piece of work, so we took her in.

Aaand this is my girlfriend. Mary Jane. [This one, he removes from the wall to beam down at. The corners on all of the photos are a little worn, bent. The reason becomes obvious when Peter's thumb swipes up and over one. Well worn, and doubtful to last too much longer if he doesn't grab a frame, but he can't help it. He's a tactile person.]

Isn't she gorgeous?

[ She can't help but take notice of the obvious emotion in his voice—pride, fondness, love. Seriously, it's so cute she's going to puke, and she can't help but feel charmed, a smile pulling at her lips. It resonates in her—she misses her family, Shikamaru and Chouji included, more than anything in the world right now.

She also can't help but agree—his girlfriend is gorgeous. ]

Yeah, tell me about it. She's way too hot for you. [ she says, but it doesn't have any edge. She's teasing him, really.

(Because let's face it, if she had a guy who loved her as much as Peter obviously loves Mary Jane, Ino wouldn't really care if she was out of his league either.) ]

call me maybe

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