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(no subject)

Who: Gale (

ino)
What: Impromptu date night?!
Where: Casa de Guts at first, then ... somewhere else!
When: Tonight!
Rating: Probably not above PG13

Now that the excitement from Tokyo had died down, and things had settled back into the usual daily routine ...

Ino was, well ... bored.

It would be easy to complain about it all over the journal and whine until someone decided to take pity on her and entertain her in some way, but she knew better. That was just the kind of talk that got everyone around here in trouble. Careful what you wish for, as they say.

Fortunately for all involved, she's quick to come up with another idea. It's getting fairly close to their year anniversary, and they haven't been on a real date in awhile, so -- why not go out and do something fun and interesting with the love of her life?

She rolled over on the bed, setting her journal to the side to look over at Gale.

"Hey, I've got an idea."

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"No, the same circumstances have never come up." she replied. She paused, squeezing his hand again -- after hearing him point out that she had never told him about how that event had affected her, she felt a little guilty.

"A lot of things have happened in the time that I've been here. It's hard to talk about them all."

"Then you don't have to," he assured her, looking briefly up to the sky. The breeze.ruffled his shirt against his back, and he was reminded of the scars there - the ones he'd asked her to leave, when she'd healed him all that time ago. He knew how it felt to not want to tell a story, how some things healed better when left alone.

"So are you going to even give me a hint about where we're going?"

She didn't say anything back to his assurance, but she appreciated it, nonetheless. Though there are some things she doesn't mind bringing up, there are others that are hard to explain and harder to relive. She wants him to know, eventually, but when the time is right.

She grinned up at him when he asked her for a hint. "Alright ... a hint. What we're looking for is something that looks naturally made ... but it's actually manmade."

"Must have been a lot of work, then, to make it look natural," he mused, eyes already scanning the forest. He'd gotten used to the way all the greens bled together and out into an odd sort of olive-tinged yellow, telling the leaves apart more by shape than by shade, or by the way they felt between his fingers, but it would be tough to tell false foliage from real with his loss, if it was made well enough.

"... Will I still be able to tell what it is when I see it?"

"It's pretty much indistinguishable from a natural formation," she replied, with a bit of a smirk. After all, it was still made with natural materials ... it was just unnaturally made. Earthbending was pretty awesome like that. But she kept her response vague, enjoying watching him try to work it out.

"But the real surprise is inside."

"Isn't it usually?" He quipped, then fell silent for a while, thinking. Was it a cave? A rock formation that hid some sort of entrance to an underground space? He kept his eyes peeled, looking for anything that could fit the bill.

She laughs at his joke. It's not far now, just around a couple of trees -- and voila! A ... big mound of grass, or so it seems. She stops and crouches, brushing aside the grass and weeds to reveal an opening low to the ground.

"See, I told you -- indistinguishable."

He crouches down next to her and peers inside. "Wow. Whoever made this did a really good job of hiding it. I've been past here a billion times, and I never noticed. What's down there?"

"Do you want to see?"

She looked over at him with a smile. She wouldn't force him down there, not if it meant making him uncomfortable. After all, she knew that he preferred the open air, and after his job at home ... who could blame him?

"It's actually very open in there. And beautiful, if you know where to look."

He was glad she was considerate of his claustrophobia, and it was that fact, coupled with a few slow breaths, that made him nod, smiling.

"Of course I do. You brought me here, didn't you?" It may have been unknown, and therefore a little worrying under any other circumstances, especially with how well-concealed it was ... but this was Ino, and he trusted her with everything he had.

Her smile grew a little brighter when he agreed, and she turned to crawl backwards into the opening.

"Alright ... just hold on one second."

After she was a few steps down into the cave and sure of her footing, she stuck her hand out to help him down with her. Although there had been stairs made at the entrance to get into the cave easily, it was still a bit dark and wet down there, and given that Gale hadn't been in there before, she figured it might help to guide him.

"Thanks." While most guys might feel a little insulted at the concept that their teeny girlfriend would think they needed help finding their way into a wet dark hole, Gale didn't mind at all. As he'd said, he trusted Ino, and that included realizing that she understood him. If she thought he might need help, then it was entirely possible he might. Sure enough, the slickness of the first step took him a little by surprise, and he gripped her hand tightly for a second before finding his footing.

"Whoa. ... I didn't realize there was water underground anywhere near here."

"Well, it wouldn't be a cave if there wasn't at least a little water, right?"

Wasn't that how caves worked? She hadn't exactly been in many of them, herself, other than this one. But once he seemed to have his footing, she let go to let him walk down the stairs himself.

She backed down into the main room of the cave, which, as promised, was rather spacious compared to the opening that led to it. Oddly, there were a few pieces of furniture littered around the area, from what one could see in the dimmer lighting ... but all of the furniture, too, was made of the same earth and stone as the cave.

"Yeah." He didn't mention how dry Panem's mines usually were - it would just bring up things he didn't want to think about, and this wasn't a day to dwell on them.

Even if he had, though, any thoughts of home would have vanished the moment he caught sight of the cave interior. "This is incredible ... I've never seen anything like it." He moved up to one of the pieces of furniture, reaching out to touch it carefully. "Who did this?"

She proceeded to sit down on one of the stone chairs, watching him as he looked around.

"A girl named Toph. She had a skill called 'Earthbending' -- it means she can move earth and rock and form it however she likes."

Which explains the oddly man-made parts to the cave, at least ...

"A long time ago, before we knew the Dead Zone existed, there was a resident who went on a rampage of sorts, thanks to a loss. We needed somewhere to evacuate people, so this place was made. It's been pretty much abandoned since then, though ..."

"Before the Dead Zone? Wow..." He made a slow, careful circuit of the cave, taking it all in. He was still uneasy being underground, but if it had lasted for that long, and stayed in this pristine a condition, it would stand to reason that the room would hold while they were in it for however long Ino wanted to stay.

"It's probably abandoned because no one really knows it's here, right?"

"Pretty much." A tiny shrug followed. After all, given the going rate of people around here, it was no surprise that something that had happened almost five years ago now was practically a secret.

Ino moved to get up from the chair once he'd taken a look around, heading towards a dark doorway across the room.

"Anyways, this isn't even the best part. There's something even more awesome down this way."

Honestly, it was more the circumstances that led to the creation of the room that held Gale's interests than the room itself. So when Ino said there was something 'more awesome' farther in, he was all for it. A room was a room, after all, and dirt furniture didn't seem like it would be all that comfortable.

"Lead the way."

Ino reached out to take his hand -- it was darker in here, almost pitch black once you stepped around the corner ... though, curiously, she seemed to be able to navigate just fine without any light -- and began the short trek into the depths of the cave.

It was strangely quiet, aside from the occasional drip of water, and the sounds of their footsteps echoing through the pathway. Perhaps that silence was what prompted her to speak up again ...

"I actually only found this part of the cave accidentally. The girl who did all of this was blind, so I think she probably didn't need any light to wander around down here."

He's glad when she does speak up, because the darkness and the dripping water don't make him feel exactly at ease. The only reason he stays is because he trusts her not to lead him into danger. "....She did all of that without being able to see? That's incredible. How?"

She shrugged a little, before remembering he probably couldn't see the shrug well.

"I don't really know how it worked exactly, but from what I heard, it seemed like she could see by feeling the vibrations in the ground with her feet."

But enough about that -- she pulled him into the middle of the "room" they had wandered into, which was dark enough that you couldn't see right in front of you.

"Alright, ready for the surprise?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," he replied, forcing a smile into his voice. As long as there was light involved, he'd feel a lot better about whatever it was. As it stood at the moment, the pitch black was making him more nervous than he wanted to admit.

Luckily for Gale, the surprise does indeed involve light. She squeezed his hand reassuringly, noticing the forced tone, before she used her chakra to light up her hand with a green glow.

The glow from her hand reflected off the crystals in the rock around them, creating what looked like a green, starry sky above them. Once she was sure that the light had the desired effect, she glanced back to Gale for his reaction.

Edited (TENSES ARE HARD) 2013-09-14 23:45 (UTC)

The light was reassuring, but more than that, once he realized what he was actually seeing - that she really was, literally, lighting up his life and chasing the dark away - Gale's throat tightened. He squeezed her hand tighter, then let go to wrap his arm around her properly and pull her close.

"Ino..."

There were so many things he could say, but really, he could sum them up so easily that it shouldn't have been allowed.

"You've done so much for me. I still don't know how I deserved any of it, but ..."

Well, she ... wasn't exactly expecting that reaction. She was thinking more along the lines of a 'Wow, that's pretty' or 'How does it do that?', not a hug. Not that she's complaining, of course, and she definitely hugs him back, but she can't help but sound a little confused when she speaks.

"Gale?"

Had it really been that difficult for him to come down into a place like this?

"Not that I mind the flattery, but ... " She trails off, though the silent question is still there. What brought this on, exactly?