View source for 2091/Ice Cream Is Not Inherently Doomed

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/10/31
|Location=Mitakihara - Frozen Beach Ice Cream Shop
|Synopsis=Kunzite takes Apatite back to the same ice cream place from a year ago. Looking back at the changes in the last year is one thing. Looking ahead at the year to come ... that's new for the Puella.
|Cast of Characters=109,78
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:109|Kazuo Takeba| (109)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Halloween night once again. The place is thronged with costumed children, whether by age or by taking the night to forget being adult. It is not, again, like any of them are going to notice the pair entering.<br /><br />If a ''particular'' employee had been working tonight, there might have been a little more disturbance. But she isn't. And this time, there will be no corrupting the employees into the service of darkness. Well, not by Kunzite, anyway.<br /><br />"How much are you going to be horrifing the staff this time?" he asks aside to Kyouko as they enter; his eyes are just barely creased at the corners. It's not all ''that'' often that he gets to encourage her to misbehave.

:'''{{#var:78|Kyouko Sakura| (78)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kyouko walks beside Kunzite- as usual, close enough that the association is clear, that a random passerby would view them as a pair, but not touching, not clinging. Comfortable distance. With the people she is close to, she doesn't feel the need to demonstrate. She knows that they know, and she doesn't care if anyone else knows.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"''Me?'' She asks, her tone definitely amused, a lopsided, one-fanged grin on display as she glances around the shop. "I ain't ever been the horrifying one, nii-chan. That said.. I am trying to show a little more restraint these days. Plus, last time I was evil. I think a ''regular'' jumbo six-scoop sundae ought to do the trick this time."

:'''{{#var:109|Kazuo Takeba| (109)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"In fairness, Usagi was restraining herself," Kunzite returns. "She didn't have any more than you did." ... and she didn't have the 'evil' excuse. Teasing someone who isn't there: entirely fair, clearly.<br /><br />He bows Kyouko ahead at the counter, all the same. ''His'' order is again a single scoop. Saffron, this year. He doesn't need rosewater; they already work for the roses.

:'''{{#var:78|Kyouko Sakura| (78)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kyouko orders just what she said she would. Six-scoop jumbo sundae- two vanilla, two chocolate, one banana, and one.. apple. Because if they have Saffron ice cream, you bet they have apple.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Where the heck do they get those flavors you order, anyway?" She asks, quirking a brow, as she heads over to a booth by the window. Sliding into it, she glances out the window.. watching all the people in costumes passing by for a few moments before taking a scoop of ice cream.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Amazin', ain't it?" She says, after swallowing. "How much things change, an' yet how much everythin' stays the same."

:'''{{#var:109|Kazuo Takeba| (109)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Haven't asked," Kazuo replies, as he seats himself opposite her. Not the same booth as last time, thankfully. Not even the same side of the store. Not the one from which Melanite set off the energy-drain matrix that brought her inadvertently to his attention, either. There's such a thing as too much parallel now and then. Perhaps unexpectedly, he adds a moment later, "I know Baskin-Robbins makes them; I ran across it while looking for new flavors to keep on hand against the need to distract Usagi. So likely there are other manufacturers willing to bring it up here." 'Up here from where' is a question he doesn't answer. "And there are always places that make smaller batches of anything they can think of."<br /><br />He glances out the window after her, spending a moment watching in turn, just for the sake of watching the ''costumes'' instead of reflexively considering the energy available. "Sometimes," he says, "we can keep the parts of our lives that are worth keeping. Or, failing that, get them back. Often enough to make it worth trying."

:'''{{#var:78|Kyouko Sakura| (78)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kyouko looks vaugely amused that Kunzite has looked into it to the extent that he has- the origin of this ice cream. She's not surprised though. That's just the way he is. A few more moments pass in relative silence as ice cream is consumed in heaping spoonfulls.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"I feel like I've had uncommon good luck, this past year." She comments, after one such spoonful. "Almost seems a bit unfair." Only a girl who's had a life as miserable as Kyouko can look back upon the last year and call it 'good luck'. She seems blissfully unaware of this irony.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Ain't nobody can accuse us of lack of effort, huh?"

:'''{{#var:109|Kazuo Takeba| (109)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"I wouldn't call most of it luck. A little, yes. But that luck only opened opportunities, not replaced the effort to claim them. The good things that you've gotten -- either you've earned them yourself, directly, or you've earned other people wanting to work for them for you."<br /><br />That's a yes to the last question, too, all in all.<br /><br />It is, again, no surprise that Kunzite savors his more slowly. Maybe not one to her six, but stretching it out a little -- not ''too'' much. He's not cheating to keep it from melting. He'll do that for ''her'', sometimes, but not so much for himself.

:'''{{#var:78|Kyouko Sakura| (78)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;She doesn't seem to need the help. That ice cream is disappearing faster than it can begin to think about melting.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"You ain't done so bad for yourself either, nii-chan." She says, with a little bit of a mischevious smile. Taunting him, because he's always so quick to laud her and so seldom takes credit for himself. "I'll remind you that you weren't much better off than I was a year ago."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Maybe more so. Maybe he worked harder to get where he is instead of just 'lucking' into it. But that doesn't stop her from ribbing him- gently.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Wonder where we'll be another year from now."

:'''{{#var:109|Kazuo Takeba| (109)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>It is, after all, only six scoops.<br /><br />Kunzite half-inclines his head to her, and there are less than half a dozen people in the world who would catch the amusement in the gesture, but Kyouko's one of them. "Less earning and more gift, I think, for me. But that will balance out in time."<br /><br />Her last sentence holds more meaning than the words would suggest. That she's looking forward a year, that she's considering still being here next year as a reasonable possibility ... that says more about the changes in the last year and in the last half-year than anything else so far.<br /><br />He does not call that out. No more overtly than she did. "With luck," he says, "you'll be making fun of us for being buried in university textbooks. Possibly with Usagi draped on you wailing about algebra and can she just quit and get a job where you work instead." He considers the golden tones of his ice cream for a moment; the slight frown is only thought. "We might have more people working with you on training, by then. I'm not about to issue orders on it, and I have reasons for that, but the others may come around of themselves sooner or later."

:'''{{#var:78|Kyouko Sakura| (78)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kyouko considers his words as she chews through another scoop's worth of ice cream.. chewing it contemplatively for a few moments before she says, quietly, "That's a nice thought." No need to spell it out- that ''having'' a future is so important, when for so long she thought she had none worth speaking of.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Then she smirks slightly, quirking a brow at him across the table. "Less earning, my ass. Give and take, nii-chan. I won't let you lose your ego completely.. even if it means I gotta have enough for both of us."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;She laughs, then takes another bite, shrugging her shoulders. "I just hope that I can deserve at least some of it, y'know. I been given a lot. Don't want anybody to think I'm just coastin' on the hard work of other people."

:'''{{#var:109|Kazuo Takeba| (109)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>The comments about ego prompt a glint in Kunzite's eyes, that one that sometimes substitutes for a smile. "You started out on level ground, that's all." As opposed to having a preexisting debt to pay. Thankfully, the reincarnations skipped a very long time without compounding interest.<br /><br />His eyebrows twitch up at the end. "You haven't been given anything you didn't deserve," he answers. That the phrasing is not limited to what Mamoru's people gave her ... that was intentional.

:'''{{#var:78|Kyouko Sakura| (78)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A soft scoff at the comment about 'level ground'. "You only say that cuz you never met me before. You know the kinda stuff I got up to back in Kazamino? Hardly the sort of thing I'd call a positive baseline."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;She stirrs the remains of her ice cream around in her bowl, quirking her lips slightly to the side. "Still.. guess if a girl like me can pull herself up and make somethin' out of herself, there's hope for anybody, huh? Just gotta meet the right people."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The smile she gives him across the table is one full of gratitude.. not forced, and not sappy or requiring of acknowledgement. "Seems to me the world don't care if people deserve somethin' or not. It's people who care. And you thinking that is more important to me than me thinking it. So thanks."

:'''{{#var:109|Kazuo Takeba| (109)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Just gotta meet the right people? Kunzite lays his spoon down with a quiet little click; it somehow emphasizes both the moment of quiet between then and when he speaks, and the words themselves. "And fight for it," he says. "You made mistakes. But you recognized them as mistakes. You fought to move past them. You fought first to understand how to do better, and then actually to do it. That's where the difference lies."<br /><br />That she managed it ''before'' wrecking the world in the process -- that's a bonus.<br /><br />At her thanks, he reaches across the table, lays a hand against her not-spoon-hand. (There may only be remains of her ice cream. One still does not take foolish risks.) The contact lasts maybe half a second; but it's there.

:'''{{#var:78|Kyouko Sakura| (78)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kyouko's eyes flick down to the contact as his hand touches hers for naught but a moment- it's enough, for her.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Never woulda made it alone." Is all she says, turning her hand to squeeze his briefly before withdrawing her own again.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A mild grin. "Sometimes seems like all we talk about it either how lucky we are or how we don't really deserve it. Guess it's bein' here again. Can't help but be a bit.. contemplative." Kind of surprisingly she even knows that word.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Another few moments of silence, and then she says, "I want to make sure that I don't waste it, that's all. I wanna make sure to make good use of it.. give other people the same sorta chance I got." Other people. Momo, Mamoru, Sayaka. Not that they need it- but someday they might.

:'''{{#var:109|Kazuo Takeba| (109)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Neither would I." No elaboration, no lingering. It doesn't need it.<br /><br />There's that glint again, after, matching her grin. "We could talk about patrol routes," he says, "but I wouldn't want to risk your feeling as if I were trying to limit you. What we ''should'' do is start keeping track of where you go when, and what you see. We might be able to learn something from the patterns."<br /><br />Quiet for a moment, after the last she says. A little more sober. And when that moment is done, he says, "That's what they do, you know. Usagi. Mamoru. They give people chances. Sometimes people take them; and when they do, the two of them will support those people as far as they're willing to go. Sometimes people don't have the ability to see them; and for those people, they'll keep trying, until they can make their own choices. Sometimes people refuse to see them of their own will, or refuse to take them; for those people, they'll take steps."<br /><br />He shrugs, very slight. "Sometimes people lie to them." And that, really, is where he and Kyouko most come in.

:'''{{#var:78|Kyouko Sakura| (78)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"That's dumb, ya know." Kyouko says, with a little uplift to the corner of her mouth. "To give people that many chances. To not give up, when they turn 'em down. It's dumb, and it's just asking to be taken advantage of."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"But I guess that's what makes them.. them, and us us, huh? Gotta have us cynical bastards around for when it all goes south, which it inevitably will when you try to see the good in everybody. Even if you're right most of the time, eventually you're gonna be wrong."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;She smiles again, though, leaning back and glancing out the window at the trick 'o treaters. "Doesn't mean I'd change 'em, though. I ''wish'' I could be that.. optimistic. I really do. For now, I'll settle for just being Kyouko Godamned Sakura."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;She grins again, lopsided. "Or Apatite. Whatever the moment demands."

:'''{{#var:109|Kazuo Takeba| (109)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"It is," Kunzite says, straightforward. It's dumb. It's asking to be taken advantage of. "But somehow, they get results from it."<br /><br />They got ''them'' from it, after all.<br /><br />There's a little twitch of his mouth, this time, at the cynical-bastards part. Also a truth. And not changing them... a truth there, too.<br /><br />"That's who they want you to be," he agrees, instead. "Whether that person grows naturally into someone more optimistic, or not. But." He lifts a hand for a moment. "If being Kyouko Godamned Sakura," yes, he says it all, and yes, there are people they know who would drop into convulsive shrieks of laughter at hearing that phrase in that tone, "and being Apatite ever feel as if they're pulling you in different directions -- say something. Tell Mamoru. Tell me. Right away. Don't wait, don't pretend it's nothing, don't see if it goes away. Tell us."

:'''{{#var:78|Kyouko Sakura| (78)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Volume or luck." Kyouko says, with a dismissive wave of her hand. "But I ain't about to tell them to stop. They got every right to be who they are.. hell, I love who they are. Even if I don't understand it sometimes."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Her brows lift at Kazuo's.. warning? Entreaty? Some combination of the two, perhaps. "Apatite isn't anybody who Kyouko Sakura isn't, too." She says, after a moment of thought. She's not the best with words- very often she struggles getting the thoughts she has strung together into coherent sentances. But she's been getting better about that, lately.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Kyouko Sakura had the advantage of not carryin' a whole lot of baggage with her. And most of the things she cared the most about are the things Apatite is meant to protect. Maybe if somehow being Apatite got in the way of being a big sister to Momo but.. I don't see that happening."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A lift of her shoulders. "But if it ever becomes an issue.. I'll tell you. Or Mamoru."

:'''{{#var:109|Kazuo Takeba| (109)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"I don't see that happening, either. It might have in the old days. But we have the advantage, now, of being a family first." He hasn't used that phrase quite in those terms, before; he's a little surprised at how easily it comes. It brings other things with it, but they don't matter for now, and he brushes them aside to keep his focus on the topic at hand. "Having family doesn't get in the way of having other family; one only extends the other.<br /><br />"That's why I ask, though. If it ever becomes an issue -- it's a sign that something else is wrong, somewhere. Something is interfering. And the faster we can solve that, the better. Thank you."<br /><br />People are always most sensitive about guarding the places they've been wounded in before.

:'''{{#var:78|Kyouko Sakura| (78)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kyouko nods thoughtfully, toying with the spoon in her empty ice cream dish. "I'm really glad, you know.. that I had already found you, and Mamoru and the others, before Momo came back. If I had been on my own.. I'm not sure I could have handled it. I mean.. if things hadn't played out the way they did, she might not have come back anyway, but.."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"You'll look out for her if anything ever happens to me, right?" She asks suddenly, looking up. Her expression isn't dour, or fatalistic- it's simply inquisitive, though she's pretty sure she knows the answer she'll get even before she asks the question. "I know she can be a little... intense, and she doesn't have the bonds to you guys that I do, but. I can't bear to think of her being left alone again."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Not that I have any plans on dyin', y'know." A little smirk. "But it still lets me sleep easier at night, knowing that she has a safety net bigger than just me."

:'''{{#var:109|Kazuo Takeba| (109)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Yes." The answer she knew she'd get; not dour, not fatalistic, just matter-of-fact. "We can't be you. But we can be people you cared about. She's enough like you that that will be enough. And we don't know her the way you do, but we know enough to find a balance she can rely on. A place she can come back to, when she needs it."<br /><br />Not ''home,'' necessarily, not for a long time if ever. Home for Momo is Kyouko. But a safety net, something to catch her fall before it hits bottom, something to hang on to safely until she can build a home again ... yes.

:'''{{#var:78|Kyouko Sakura| (78)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kyouko just nods. "Thanks." That's all she says, because it's all she needs to say. She doesn't need to expound any further upon how grateful she is that that net exists. She knows that Kunzite already knows.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Frankly, nii-chan," She says, an amused quirk to her lips again, "You tryin' to be me is just about the most horrifying thing I can think of, and I've seen several near-literal versions of hell." She grins, shaking her head slightly. "So I'll be me, and you be you, and I think everybody'll be the happier for it."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"We make a pretty good team, anyhow." Whether she means herself and Kunzite, specifically, or the whole lot of them, is unclear. It's entirely possible she means both.

:'''{{#var:109|Kazuo Takeba| (109)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Agreed. Mamoru would be appalled if I intentionally tried either your old or your new hairstyle." New one: appalled. Old one: not so much appalled as laughing himself sick. Close enough. "Besides, I can't match you with a spear." Though they do need to spar sometime. He just needs to make sure there's a healer or two on hand, first.<br /><br />A pretty good team. He doesn't even nod, to that. Only makes a low noise in his throat, and glances down slightly. The kind of yes that runs deep enough not to bear open acknowledgment. A moment later, he changes topics. "I suppose we should see whether Momo's managed to acquire enough sugar yet to run up a building without benefit of magic."

:'''{{#var:78|Kyouko Sakura| (78)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Well, I ain't never met nobody who could match me with a spear." Kyouko says, with a cocky little grin. "'Course, it's not like a spear is the only weapon that matters. We all have our weapons. What shape they take is less important than how we choose to use 'em."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A change of topic, and a reminder that the ice cream is gone and they've been taking up this booth for a while. She nods, sliding out of her chair and standing, stretching one arm over her head, then collecting her empty bowl to return to the counter.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"I told her that henshin does ''not'' count as a costume, but I wouldn't put it past her to conviniently 'forget' that so she can visit more neighborhoods in the same amount of time.."
}}