Dojima-Montague Apartment, Tokyo, Wednesday Morning

[withoutverona]

Romeo's nineteenth birthday started with a package from his father containing a collection of Lord Byron's works, a dagger that was about twice as elaborate as anything Romeo had any business carrying, and a letter that suggested -- in a polite, backhanded, and elaborate way -- that Romeo was missed and should make it his business to visit Verona sooner rather than later.

There was also a large box of chocolates. They were good. Romeo ate the caramels as his breakfast. He should have been reading about the equilibrium point in supply and demand, but that kept turning into perusal of the poetry. Really, the poetry struck him as more relevant.

[OOC: For the girlfriend, or for birthday emails/calls/texts/homing pigeons.]

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[withoutverona]

"I should hope you'd have wit enough for that," Romeo teased. "It is Wednesday, and Veteran's Day."

[intraspective]

"Mean!" Ino protested though her giggling put lie to any real offense. "It's also your birthday, geez! Or did you forget, in which case Dojima-san might want to take you to the doctor."

[withoutverona]

Romeo laughed. "No, I know how old I am. Nineteen. It's practically elderly."

He added, "Thank you for calling."

[intraspective]

"Ancient," she agreed, from the perspective of a sixteen year old. "You're going to go grey soon." Or something.

"And of course I'd call," Ino continued blithely. "You think I wouldn't?"

[withoutverona]

"I'm going to look like my father when next I see you," Romeo agreed blithely. "And I didn't know! You might still be out fighting evil cucumbers, or however you're spending your time."

[intraspective]

"Someone got to you before I did," she accused lightly. "Oh well. But no, the veggies of death have disappeared and they were awesome while they lasted even when they got my hair all gross."

Because Romeo totally cared about your hair issues, Ino.

"They were fun, though. I was so glad it wasn't the flowers too, or I'd have been dead. Geez."

[withoutverona]

"Arthur told me," Romeo agreed. "It sounds ... messy, at best, but more a nuisance than anything. And I'm glad you didn't have to fight off evil flowers." He frowned at the phone. "That ought to sound more odd than it does."

[intraspective]

"Nah," she replied. "Nothing sounds weird when it's 'bout Fandom. Less it's strange even for Fandom in which case people ought to hide 'cause the end of the world is coming."

[withoutverona]

"And I don't think anything would be strange for Fandom, so the world is in no danger," Romeo said promptly. "The rest of us should thank you for taking care of all the weird from the rest of the world on such a small island."

[intraspective]

She huffed a laugh.

"I don't think we had much of an option for dealing with it," Ino retorted. "And how're you? How's another birthday treated you? Happy birthday, by the way, I don't think I said."

[withoutverona]

"Well enough," Romeo answered. "Dojima's been at work, but we ought to go out later, and I got a package from my father. Chocolates, a book, and guilt about how soon I'm visiting."

"The chocolates are good."

[intraspective]

"Say hi to her for me? Chocolate is always good," she said idly. "And familial guilt is totally a common thing."

A beat.

"Is it working?"

[withoutverona]

"Christmas isn't too long to wait, is it?"

Meaning yes, the guilt was working.

[intraspective]

Ino grinned, though he couldn't see it, at that.

"Probably is," she answered. Not that Ino was the best person to decide how long between visits was too long. "Think you'll have a free weekend before that to go visit? You could always take Dojima-san and make it a mini-vacation!"

[withoutverona]

"Oh, probably," Romeo admitted. "It's just always a little hard to get Verona out of my head, when I go there. Two days are harder than a week, somehow."

He tapped his fingers against the phone. "I wouldn't mind seeing my father, though. Only son and all."

[intraspective]

"Harder to get it out of your head?" she asked, humming as she stretched.

[withoutverona]

"Oh, you know, I talk one way here and one way there, and I carry my gun there, and I smell the ocean every day, and -- a weekend in Verona is like a tease." Romeo wasn't sure how much more he could explain it. "And what are you doing? I hear humming."

[intraspective]

"I'm stretching," she said, laughing. "And at work. It's terribly exciting, you can tell. And--I know what you mean, I think, from that."

[withoutverona]

"It sounds fascinating," Romeo laughed. "It's its own world. I get homesick."

He started fiddling with his new knife as he spoke. "I talked to your friend Tybalt, while I was last in Fandom."

[intraspective]

Her eyebrows raised.

"Oh?"

[withoutverona]

"Oh," Romeo mimicked. "He's ... very much himself."

Meaning an utterly impossible Capulet.

[intraspective]

"Does that mean there was a fight and I missed hearing about it, Romeo?"

Ino was dubious, here.

[withoutverona]

Romeo scowled at the phone. "He's not dead, is he?"

... look, he had a healthy ego.

[intraspective]

"I didn't ask if there was a death," Ino retorted. "I asked if you, oh how would you put it, had words with him."

[withoutverona]

"If I fight him again, one of us will die." Romeo didn't precisely say that easily, but his voice held a certain ... certainty. "And no, I did not. I suffered through minding my manners. Things don't tend to go well when I treat him as the wretch he is."