1471/A Smile Or A Curse

A Smile Or A Curse
Date of Scene:	12 May 2016
Location:	Earth Court Frat House
Synopsis:	Kyouko has issues with Kunzite's new hairstyle. Fair enough; so does Kunzite. She's also having issues with identity, expectations, self-imposed restrictions. Fair enough; so is Kunzite. It's probably a good idea not to wonder if this counts as lighting any kind of fuse.
Cast of Characters:	Kunzite, Kyouko Sakura

---

Kunzite has posed:
Some evenings, Mamoru's apartment is packed solid, either with residents or visitors. And then some evenings, Mamoru is out, and that thins the crowd down markedly -- one or two of the four of them out with him, Nephrite maybe visiting Makoto or maybe asleep somewhere to take advantage of the time between school hours and whenever the astronomical event he'll spend twenty minutes explaining the importance of at you is due to happen.

Lack of coordinated timing does, however, make the crowd harder to cook for. Stew is the eternal solution, which just means the place is doomed to smell of chicken and spices all evening. There are worse things.

Presently the one who's keeping tabs on the place is Kunzite; he's also keeping to the couch, having snagged Mamoru's tablet in order to read something on it. Whatever he's reading is, unsurprisingly, prompting his frown to show more than usual.

This is particularly clear because there is no hair in the way. So the frown is damn near the primary thing that makes him recognizable.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko has a free pass to this apartment- in truth, most people who are even mildly friendly with Mamoru do, though she may be within the upper tier of non-resident guests. Even so, she's not here that often- the redheaded Puella is fiercely independant, and while her adopted 'family', which includes Mamoru as readily as any of the Shitennou are important to her, she prefers not to appear to be accepting too much charity. Being able to declare that she feeds, houses, and generally supports herself is one of the things which makes her proudest about the direction her life has taken over the past year.

    That said, she drops by at least a couple times a week, though such visits can range from several hours to just a few minutes, depending on who is present and what her own schedule demands of her. Or what kind of mood she is in. There's been an increasing restlessness within Kyouko these past weeks, fueled by Fiore's shenanigans, the seeming decline of Tokyo's Witch population, and a general feeling that despite these problems, things are simply too good. Anytime things in her life start to seem stable and good, she starts to worry. At some point this is likely to come to a head.

    This evening, the reason for her visit is non-specific. She's finished a shift at the conbenie and decided to swing by on her way home. Perhaps she wanted some company or perhaps she was just feeling the pressure of that restlessness and she wanted to make sure everything was 'ok', to the normal definitions of that word as the group understands them.

    She arrives via the elevator, in her street clothes- unless fighting, she's been spending less and less time in Henshin, especially compared to her pre-Tokyo life. Perhaps that is a result of wanting to conserve magic due to a suddenly uncertain supply of Grief Seeds, or perhaps it's simply a desire to try and establish an identity outside of 'Puella Magi Kyouko'. Whatever the reason, she is simply Kyouko as she opens the door and steps into the apartment. No knocking here. Finding the place unusually quiet, her eyes at first appear suspicious as they peer around, until they settle on Kunzite on the sofa.

    There's a brief flash of confusion across her fact at his hairless visage.. and then a faint smirk takes up residence as recognition dawns. Pulling off her boots, she crosses on bare feet towards the couch. "I dunno, nii-chan. I can understand wantin' ta change things up a bit, but isn't that takin' it a bit too far?" Even as she teases so, her eyes flick across his form as if checking for any other signs of change or distress, returning to his face only once she is sure there aren't any visible.

Kunzite has posed:
Kyouko is indeed in that upper tier. There are people who are welcome to stop by, there are people who are invited for meals, there are people who would probably be invited to take up residence for a while if their place got wrecked -- Kyouko is demonstrably in both of the latter two categories. But having that option and using that option are two entirely different things. And at least two of the full-time residents know Kyouko well enough to know the difference.

The door opening pulls Kunzite's attention off the book; he turns enough to see, and then pauses to look Kyouko over a little more carefully. Suspicious expression. That's a good sign. It's probably actually her and she's probably not under mind control. And that's entirely a normal thing to be concerned about, right?

That smirk prompts him to raise his eyes heavenward for a moment; the tablet's set down on a cushion and he rises to his own feet, coming to meet her part way. Gray eyes and white fuzz and all. Faint marks on his throat, almost completely healed; a casual glance would miss them, her close inspection does not. That movement when he gets up is a little restrained, as if not everything in his chest were quite happy about it. One eyebrow's only its own suggestion. "There may have been a disagreement with a gas stove," he admits. Not the one in the apartment; the kitchen shows no signs of smoke stains. "I take it you don't think this look is me, either."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko pauses as Kunzite rises and comes to meet her, hands moving to her hips. It's a bit early in the season for her traditional shorts + tanktop combo, and she's been trying to branch out a bit anyway now that she can afford to actually, y'know, own more than one outfit, so today she's wearing regular jeans and a grey t-shirt, though she still has her trusty greenish-blue hoodie worn overtop. She eyes him a bit more, having to tilt her head up to do so (why must all these boys be so darn tall??), her smirk turning into a faint frown at both his words and the lingering marks of distress, faint though they be.

    A moment of silence, and then she steps in and hugs him, arms wrapping about his middle (carefully) and cheek pressed to his chest for just a moment. Long enough to impart her concern and her gratefulness to find him still in one piece, and then away again, never one to be comfortable with prolonged physical affection. She turns to survey the mostly-empty apartment, still standing close but apparently looking for any other signs of this 'disagreement'. "Maybe I just ain't used to being the one with the better hair." She jokes, mouth turning up again at one corner.

    She turns her face back towards the tall young man. "So what happened? I assume, other than hair, there weren't any serious casualties, cause if there were somebody woulda called me." This is as much a threat as an assertion, the look in her red eyes stating that if there were major problems and she wasn't called, loss of hair is about to be the least of Kunzite's problems.

Kunzite has posed:
Arms close around her for a moment in turn, a brief warm pressure -- but that's another place where having an option and using it are different; there is an instant to confirm that she is welcome, she is valued, and then in the next instant the best way to show her that is to let her go again. It lets her survey the apartment freely. No signs of destruction. Nothing worse than people leaving textbooks out, or a new spot where someone stabbed something more determinedly than usual into a table.

"I like your hair," he answers, amused. (That's the subtler way to tell she's welcome here; she's probably the only person who doesn't live here full-time who would recognize that amusement.) "I'd suggest I might borrow it, but your young lady has more swords than I do. How is she, by the way?"

Deflection is not something that's likely to work with Kyouko. Particularly when she gets that look in her eyes. Straightforward answer, then, when she follows up on the topic. "Fiore sent a youma to kill Usagi," he says. "Mamoru and I were both low on reserves already, so when it started hatching, I caught it early and used the burner to kill it; the fire's hot enough to do it damage." He starts to shrug, halts the gesture. "Fiore teleported in and decided turnabout was fair play, but the distraction lasted long enough for Mamoru to help Moon recover, and for her girls to get there a moment after. The apartment she was in was a total loss, but that was a temporary one anyhow, and the girls got the fight out of the building, so the neighbors are all right. Everything else heals but the hair."

There's a moment of pause, his head bent little to look down at her, gray eyes steady on red. "I owe you an apology. You came even closer to solving that problem than we thought. The thing that's in his head ... it's the flower he wears. If we'd thought to take it off of him then, half of this would be settled already. As it is -- at least we know what to aim for, now."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko rolls her eyes at Kunzite's declaration that he likes her hair- that's like saying he likes the grass or the trees, because her hair is just about as wild and only remotely tamed by the fortunate fact that it's naturally straight, so all she has to do is pull it back to keep it out of her face and it looks at least reasonably acceptable. A valid statement, perhaps, but hardly an acknowledgement of any special work on Kyouko's part.

    At the mention of her sword-bearing lady, the faintest hint of color touches Kyouko's cheeks, perhaps recalling her uncharacteristically cuddly evening with Sayaka a few nights before, though she answers readily enough, "She's good. A bit peeved that I went to Homura for help with that whole thing and not her but.." She trails off- Kunzite likely understands in a way Sayaka herself wouldn't. Even if you know they can handle it, it's hard to subject those you care about to danger if it's not necessary.

    She listens to the story about Fiore's attempted Moon-assassination, and her frown returns, falling into a scowl by the end. "You shoulda called me." She insists first, because to do otherwise would be a failure of loyalty. Then she relents slightly, adding, "Sounds like Moon and Friends got it under control pretty quickly though, so I guess s'alright. But he'll try again."

    At the last comment, she shakes her head quickly. "No apologies, nii-chan. You didn't say I was wrong even at the time. I got no grudge over that.." She sighs faintly, scuffing a bare foot against the floor. "Wish we'd known that, though. Coulda saved a lotta trouble. Evil flowers, huh? Life never stops bein' interesting, at least."

Kunzite has posed:
Kunzite nods back to Kyouko, post-blush. Sometimes you go to the people you trust. Sometimes you go to the people you care about. Sometimes you go to the people you know well enough to know without thinking which way they'll jump. Kyouko and Sayaka will be at that point eventually -- but Sayaka is herself new enough to this to still be exploring her own tactics, still discovering new things to do.

And sometimes you go to the people you trust not to get themselves killed, but won't be crushed by if they let you down.

"Should have," Kunzite agrees. "Would have, if we'd had a few seconds' more margin." Would that have made the difference? Maybe. But there wasn't time, so there's no sense worrying about it. "You're right, though. He'll try again."

Evil flowers. Evil houses. Interesting's one word for it. Kunzite lets his breath out almost between his teeth, signalling both agreement and his opinion of the last week; then he paces into the kitchen. Asking whether Kyouko wants something to eat is generally redundant; the answer's assumed, and in a few moments there are a couple of dishes set out of saffron rice and the spiced chicken and apricot stew, sweet and hot and sour. Somewhere in the middle of it, he says, "Mamoru put a rose in Fiore's chest, this time."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko makes no argument to being provided with food- that assumption is indeed a safe one. Old habits die hard, and too many nights spend hungry, both before and after becoming homeless, means that the redhead is never 'not hungry' when free food is on offer. She trails after Kunzite towards the kitchen, moving with hardly any sound, the unconscious, graceful tread of a seasoned predator, if one whose fangs have been trained to more noble pursuits of late.

    "Smells good." She comments, without need for embellishment, as she accepts the dish of stew and rice, though one brow quirks and her lopsided, dry grin is in evidence at the report of Mamoru's success. "Fighting flowers with flowers, huh? Well... s'only a matter of time, I suspect. Dude's determined, I'll give him that, an' he's got power, but he don't seem like the brighest bloom in the garden, an' that's sayin' something' coming from me."

    She walks over to the table, folding into a chair with one leg pulled up beneath her to be sat on, she takes a bite, chewing silently for a few moments before saying, "I'm glad you're alright, nii-chan. And the others, too. I've lost enough family in my life already."

Kunzite has posed:
If Kunzite is worried about what might become of those nobler pursuits if anything happened between Kyouko and Sayaka, it doesn't show. She is who and what she is. And there are words that one doesn't use if that kind of change would make that kind of dfference; 'sister' is one of them. He worries about Sayaka anyhow, granted. But for different reasons.

Kyouko's self-deprecation gets a narrowing of eyes, just for a moment, but Kunzite doesn't call her out on it aloud; he sets his own food down instead and takes a place with her at the table. "Nobody's at their best when they're lying to themselves." He's talking about Fiore. Definitely about Fiore.

And then there's that awkward word. Family. It's not something that Kyouko talks about. Not something that Mamoru's good at, either. And the little pause, the glance over at something else, the instant of not being quite sure what to do with his hands -- all the signs that Kunzite's showing are familiar to her, too. "we'll try to --" He stops mid-sentence, reassurance abandoned; looks back at her and frowns for a moment. "You're conserving," he says. "What's wrong?"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko has begun eating at once upon sitting down, although the motions are automatic rather than enthusiastic. Food is in front of her, so she must consume it before it gets snatched away by a competitor. The fact that this is unlikely to happen here doesn't forstall her body's ingrained responses, and her mind is pre-occupied even as she chews at the delicious stew.

    His question catches her slightly off-guard, her chewing slowing for a moment and her brows drawing together as she regards him as if trying to parse his meaning. "Conserving?" She asks, perhaps wondering if he means emotionally, physically, or magically. The fact that she has to wonder is testament enough to the fact that she's probably doing all three, and is wondering more which he's noticed than which is the case.

    Finally, a small sigh is heaved and her spoon is returned to her plate, stirring the rice and meat together. "Nothing's wrong. I guess that's the problem. I mean.. yeah, this whole thing with Fiore isn't exactly fun and games, but.. I dunno. I don't doubt we'll take care of it. We seem to be on a winning streak, these past months. Which I should be happy about, s'just.." Words fail her, as is so often the case, her thoughts clear to her but difficult to articulate. "I can't shake the feelin' that the universe is just waiting for me to let my guard down." She finally settles on, then shoving another spoonful of stew into her mouth and chewing fiercely.

Kunzite has posed:
Granted, it's unlikely to happen here mostly because Nephrite's not in the room. But his casual piracy isn't the same kind of thing she's conditioned to worry about. All the same, there's never been a mention of Kyouko's habit of devouring. It's another thing that Kunzite understands just well enough. Something that later experiences can overlay, sometimes, but not eradicate.

Witness paid to this by the fact that, during her pause, he's doing the same damn thing; with the barest break in the middle to answer her question largely by regarding her narrowly again. No clarification is made; he lets her guess which of the three, or all of them, he means. Or perhaps lets her choose which she wants to answer to.

And the answer is that she's recognizing a pattern, or the violation of a pattern, that she can't see clearly enough to name.

There are several seconds of silence, other than the sounds of eating, before Kunzite says, "If anything happens, we'll keep an eye on her." He doesn't think he needs to voice Sayaka's name. "For however long is necessary." They can't keep her from throwing herself into something ill-chosen; it's damn near impossible to sit on a Puella that way. But they can watch.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko doesn't even hesitate to answer, "I know." because there was never any doubt in her mind that this would be the case. Her stew is already half gone, and she shows no sign of slowing down her pace of eating even while the wheels in her mind are turning. "I ain't really worried about Saya-chan. I mean, I am, but just in a general sense. Girl can take care of herself, even if I think she's dangerously naive sometimes. That'll only be cured with time, and sometimes I'm not sure I even want it to be. S'part of her charm."

    She shakes her head slightly, shifting on the chair, freeing the leg she had been sitting on only to replace it with the other. "It's just that I almost wish something would happen. I'm at my best with an enemy in front of me and a battle to fight. Not.. playing house." There's a hint of frustration as she gestures to the apartment, although clearly she means the larger state of her life and not literally the Shitennou's living situation.

    "Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful. So, so grateful, for Sayaka and for you guys and Mamoru and everybody. I'm grateful for bein' able to pay for my food and for havin' a roof over my head that don't leak. It's just.." Again a pause, as she struggles to find the words, that struggle written on her face as expressions move across it in quick succession. "The better thins keep going, the more.. diminished I feel. As if it's the struggle that makes me who I am, an' if I don't got to fight, I'm not really me anymore." She sighs, stabbing at the stew with the blunt edge of her spoon. "An' I think that scares me more than any Witch."

Kunzite has posed:
There are things that Kunzite is frequently not. One of them is reassuring. Case in point: "Maybe that's right."

He studies her for a second, two, three, otherwise still. "It's not just fighting itself. If it were, there's a thousand opportunities out there for you to pick from. Some on the scale you're used to, some with the weapons you're used to, some that take years or lifetimes or generations and fought with prayer or technology or things we don't have names for yet. So. Other way around, I think. There's part of you that you only let out in a fight. And somehow you've built the rest of your life in a way that doesn't have room for it."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko doesn't try to contradict this.. it seems perhaps that she had reached the same conclusion, or at least the same general ballpark, on her own. The question isn't really 'what's wrong' so much as 'what should I do about it?' and there's no easy answer to that one, at least not that she's been able to find. "I think I've grown, this past year." She says after a moment, her voice quiet. "As a person, absolutely. But also as a fighter. As a warrior. I can do things now, easily, that I never dreamed I could do when I started this whole Puella thing. I've been cut up, taken apart, put back together.. given things no other Puella has, and had them taken away again."

    "I used to be able to fill that need, the need to fight, to conquor and overcome, by hunting Witches. But it just don't work anymore." She glances up, and there's the suggestion in her tone and her expression that Kunzite is the only possible person she could be having this conversation with. Sayaka would never understand. Neither would Mamoru, or Usagi- they wouldn't condemn, or shame her, but neither would they understand. "Aside from the occasionaly outlier, Walpurgisnacht, things like that, I haven't run across a youma or a Witch that has challenged me in months. They're... trivial."

    The final bite of stew is pushed into her mouth, and she chews for a moment before going on. "Apatite was the worst part of me, nii-chan, but she didn't come from nowhere. She was a part of me. She still is. And the longer I go on tryin' to deny her, the more I think that maybe that's the bigger mistake to make. Maybe I'm just a kid, still, maybe I'm too young to be sayin' this sorta thing but... I'm not like Sayaka, or Usagi. I don't fight because I have to. I fight because I enjoy it. I need the struggle, and the blood, and the victory. Without it I think I'll whither away."

Kunzite has posed:
Sayaka wouldn't. She fights, but just as Kyouko says, it serves a different purpose for her, a channel for her beliefs about how the world should work. Usagi wouldn't. She fights, but it's purely a means to an end; if she didn't have to defend her people (though 'her people' extends rather farther than most would expect to), she could give it up and gladly. Mamoru would come closer, these days; but his knowledge is secondhand, and one he still fights against. He's a healer at heart, and his weapons come down to scalpels and cautery, last resorts.

Zoisite, on the other hand, might know exactly what she means. But Zoisite and Apatite never met.

That's probably a good thing.

"'Kid' stops, I think, when you understand who you are. What you need. How to get it." Two out of three, and she's working on three. It's her hands that his gaze falls to, not her face. As if they'd tell him more; as if they'd understand more of what he says. "So. Find what parts of your life are binding you. Then break them. I'd tell you you need a plan first, but you hate those enough that you do better without them." The glitter of his eyes is amusement, among other things; he hates having to improvise blind, but she thrives on it.

Amusement's only one part. Another part is what heard that youma screaming as it burned, and smiled.

"You love your art. There's no shame in that. There's shame in letting it take you too far, and blind you to other things; but if you bear your lady in mind, you likely won't go too far wrong."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    "I'm not the most delicate of girls." Kyouko's tone is both dour and wryly amused, as if she means what she says but recognizes the inherent obvious redundancy of the statement. "I'm afraid that I might break something I need by mistake.. or find out too late that I was wrong, when I can't put it back together again." A soft sigh, and she scrapes her spoon over her now-empty plate, trying to gether up the last little bits of sauce to be licked clean.

    "It's not that I hate plans." She adds. "It's just that I never end up following them anyway. I don't know what I need to do until I do it, and at that point might as well just get on with it." She's silent another moment, staring at the empty plate. "Art, huh? Maybe. There's beauty in destruction.. I always thought so. Ever since I saw my father's church burning down, and wondered how such a terrible thing could be so pretty.. the flames against the night sky. We work so hard to build things. Houses, relationships, lies, fantasies. But the only real truth is that everything we build can be destroyed, so quickly and utterly that all that remains is dust and memories."

    She speaks as though in a trance, as if vocalizing an internal philosophy that has been long stewing, but never shown light before- more eloquantly than her usual mode of speech, though she may not even realize it. "It's like Truth- when everything burns away, only Truth remains. I can be that fire. I am that fire- I want to be the beautiful destruction that shatters the lies. But I'm not sure yet.. if I'm willing to give up the comforting likes I've built for myself. Because maybe I still think if I pretend long enough, they'll eventually become truth. But it just doesn't work that way, does it?"

    She blinks rapidly, looking back up at Kunzite across the table. In an instant, the spell is broken and she turns her head slightly, a bit of her usual irreverance restored. "Eh.. what'm I even talkin' about. I'll get by, nii-chan. I always do."

Kunzite has posed:
"So take the time to be sure of your target. And warn people to be careful where they stand. But if you wait too long -- well. You are something you need." And withering is a kind of despair. Kyouko is proof against that, ordinarily. But something that caused her only to dim, a little at a time, until it were almost unnoticed when the light winked out --

No. He'll trust that she'll regard that as she does every other threat. Only with more time that she can take for it.

On the other hand -- she has never mentioned her father to him, before.

He does not interrupt her. Finishes his own rice while she is talking; folds his hands on the table and listens. Says nothing till she looks back at him and there's that shift in her expression.

"When I was first made one of Endymion's guardians," he says, "or rather his only guard, back then -- it was a joke. I had no influence, no connections, no bloodline but a traitor's. No training. No skill. I was a child; half of the Prism Keepers are older. A little power, but I was as outstripped by the adults around me in that as I was in strength. There was no possible way I could do the job; it was the plainest lie I'd ever seen.

"He made it into truth as soon as I met him. He was three, back then.

"There were lies, there. But they were 'it doesn't matter,' 'I'm not strong enough,' 'you can't rebuild.'"

There's a word he wants to use. Pyriscence. But she wouldn't know it, and she'd probably roll her eyes at him if she did. So instead he shrugs, that same contained gesture as it pulls at recently-healed wounds, and says, "We get by. Sometimes we get better." And rises to collect their dishes.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Sometimes we get better. Kyouko sits and considers these words for a few moments as she watches Kunzite collect the dishes. She doesn't offer to help, but it's not out of laziness or rudeness- there's a sense that she doesn't want to intrude on well-trodden ground. She's still working through what he said, and a lopsided smile touches her face at the thought of awkward little Kunzite and three-year-old Endymion, though undoubtedly her imaginings bear little resemblance to that long-ago reality.

    "I'm not sure getting 'better' is what I need, nii-chan." She says after a few minutes of silence, rising back to her feet in the wake of the meal completed. "I been tryin' to be a 'better' person this past year, but part of me is startin' to wonder who decides what makes someone 'better'. I ain't sayin' I'm lookin' to go back to bein' a bully, or to causin' trouble for those that don't deserve it. S'just.. I've been wondering if I've been tryin' to be what the people around me want me to be, instead of what I want me to be. I'm not sure yet. You became what Endymion needed you to be, and it turned out that's who you needed you to be, too. But I don't think it works that way for me."

    "My art, you said. Violence. Beautiful destruction. I just gotta figure out where to point my spear. Could be it turns out people won't like it. All I know for sure is, I want to burn so brightly before I go out that all you long-lived bastards will remember my name in a thousand years.. though whether you'll say it with a smile or a curse, I don't think I know yet."

    She pauses, then grins her lopsided grin, showing that one pointy fang in the corner of her mouth. "After all, I'm Kyouko Godamned Sakura. An' nobody tells me what to do."

Kunzite has posed:
"That's a good distinction to make." Kunzite says that over the sound of the water running in the sink. "You'll notice that I said it was true. I never said it was right. If I'd understood then what you're beginning to understand now, Beryl wouldn't have taken me."

How much does that tell her? That it wasn't what either he or Endymion needed from him? That he's at most a few weeks ahead of her in thinking about these things, and perhaps not that much? She likes to say she isn't smart. But she knows more in her gut reactions, in the things she takes for granted, in which way she turns when she hears a stray sound, than most people ever learn.

It's only that she knows things in fire and in motion and in light, not in books, not in words. And if she can embrace that --

Sometimes they get better. In this sense: sometimes they make their scars into scaffolding; sometimes they heal; sometimes that healing makes something greater. Maybe great enough that -- the hell with only remembering her name.

A smile or a curse. He glances over his shoulder at her, and when his "Why not both?" overlaps with Kyouko Goddamned Sakura -- he doesn't laugh out loud. But the creases at the corners of his eyes are almost good enough.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko's delighted laugh rings through the apartment at Kunzite's well-timed interjection, and her smile is more genuine than it's been all evening, as she practically dances across the space to throw her arms around him where he stands at the sink in a much less-restrained hug than the one she had given him earlier. Had there been anyone to see, she might have held back even then, but there isn't, and he's made her day. Her red eyes gleam as she looks up at him, grinning. "I think you hit the nail on the head, nii-chan." She squeezes him tightly, then releases and steps a few feet away, steps still light and smile still in place.

    "Thanks. I mean it.. I been stewin' under this for a little while, and I needed to talk it out but I didn't know who would understand. I shoulda known, and I'm sorry I didn't sooner." She laughs, a hint of wryness in the sound again as she shakes her head. "And to think, I thought I was gonna be comforting you when I first saw you tonight. I guess that's why you're the nii-chan, huh?"

Kunzite has posed:
It's the only time he's seen her move like that without a weapon in her hand, and for all that it means part of him is evaluating the possibility of being stabbed yet again, in the end that still delights him even more than her smile. Returning the embrace without soaking her back is impossible; he settles for an elbow pressed against her side, something maybe halfway between affection and a light shove. "Accident of birth," he tells her. "If 'accident' can be stretched to cover 'time was terrified of you and made sure I'd get born first.'"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko grins still as she moves back towards the door to push her feet back into boots. "I dunno. I think in the end, we're right where we need to be." She says, with a shrug of her shoulders, before she straightens back up. "I gotta run. Got some stuff to do tonight, and work again early tomorrow. Thanks, nii-chan. I mean it." She lifts a hand and waves. "Tell Mamoru I stopped by and said hi, and thanks for the food. And.. hurry up and grow the hair back, okay? That look really isn't you." And then she's gone, through the door and shutting it behind her in a flurry of motion that doesn't leave time for reply.