1697/Providing for the Future

Providing for the Future
Date of Scene:	05 July 2016
Location:	Mitakihara - Downtown
Synopsis:	Kyouko and Momo find out what Hannah gave to Momo, and discuss working, and also fancy parties.
Cast of Characters:	Kyouko Sakura, Momo Sakura

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Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko has been stewing silently on their entire walk back to her apartment from the meeting with Hannah. She has her hands in her pockets and is generally just radiating 'unhappy Kyouko' vibes. This has something to do with the outcome of the meeting, which was less than what she had hoped for, but probably has more to do simply with dealing with Hannah, which always puts her in a bad mood.

    She unlocks the door to the apartment and goes inside, leaving Momo to shut it again, walking over to the couch and throwing herself down on it with a muttered curse. "Well.. time to explore other options." She finally says out loud, crossing one leg over the other and folding her arms over her chest, scowling. "I shoulda known better than to expect help from Miss White. She don't got any reason to help me, but I was hopin'.." She pauses, then shakes her head. "Bah, nevermind."

Momo Sakura has posed:
Momo's in a more content mood than Kyouko is, though she is aware of the GrumpyKyou vibes.

The box Hannah'd given her is clutched to her chest with one arm while she occasionally takes tiny sips of her first ever soda.

In the apartment, Dog takes his place by the couch, plopping on the floor with an indelicate 'whumf.' Momo shuts the door and joins her sister on the couch, crossing her legs and humming a little tuneless song.

Momo sighs as she settles the box in her lap. "I don't know. I think she wants to, but I also think she wants to keep her job, too." She wrinkles her nose. "Dunno what that is, though."

Then, cheerfully! "And she did give me a box! It's not heavy." She shakes it a little. "It doesn't sound like a dress. Maybe she's helping in her own way? Or maybe it's a bomb!"

Momo wiggles, very much excited! She rarely ever gets presents! Twice in one week! The anticipation is excuciating but in the best way! "Oh, I wonder what's in it!"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko glances sideways at Momo. The fact that her sister emulates her posture, either on purpose or subconsciously, is actually extremely cute, and Kyouko has to fight to retain her grumpiness. But she has a lot of practice, so she manages to do it, even as Momo gushes about getting presents. This helps, because Kyouko feels bad again for not getting Momo presents when everyone else seems eager to shower her with gifts.

    "It's probably a bomb." She agrees sourly, peering at the box, although she doesn't seem to actually think it's a bomb, because if she did she wouldn't let Momo sit there with it on her lap. Despite her perpetual dislike for Miss White, she knows the woman decently well by this point, or she thinks she does anyway, and that sort of thing just isn't her style.

    "Well? Open it." She says after a moment. She's curious too, despite herself.

Momo Sakura has posed:
Unaware of her sister's opinion on her position in life as a failed gift giver, Momo wiggles happily again.

She draws her other leg up, going criss-cross-applesauce on the cushion. "Is it the red wire or the blue we'd have to cut if it is?"

Kyouko's encouragement is enough to push Momo over the edge of anticipation! With another excited wiggle, she opens the box and...

She stares in the box for a moment and blinks.

A few seconds later she looks up at Kyouko. "Ummmm. Here." She hands over the box.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko rolls her eyes. "You watch too many movies, kid." She says, sounding vaugely amused despite hreself, watching as Momo opens the box.. a faint air of caution hovering around her. She's pretty sure it's not a bomb, but then again...

    Then Momo is handing her the box. She accepts it, and peers inside herself. The first thing she sees, of course, is the Grief Seed Hannah had tucked inside. Slowly, she pulls it out, staring at it.. confirming that it is indeed 'fresh'. A profusion of confused feelings well up in her as she considers what, exactly, Hannah could have meant by putting this in here.

    Then she looks through the rest.. paperwork, establishing Momo's identity. The kind of stuff she'll need if she's to go back to school and have any sort of shot at a normal-ish life.

    After a moment Kyouko puts the box down on her lap and stares at it. "That bitch." She mutters after a moment, and a tear slides down one cheek before she swiftly reaches up to wipe it away. "Makin' me look like the asshole again. Dammit." But her voice is more.. resigned than it is angry.

Momo Sakura has posed:
"I have lots of free time! And sometimes my brain needs a break from the imagining that comes from books." She nods!

By Kyouko's reactions, she's pretty sure she hadn't just imagined what's in the box. She does feel relieved by this, of course! And happy!

But...poor Kyouko's sad now!

Momo leans against her big sister, snuggling against her arm. "You're not an asshole, Kyou-nee. You're just protective."

She picks up the ID card and peers at it. "Does this mean I can get a job?"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    "No, I just mean.." Kyouko struggles for a moment- the familiar problem of not being able to find the words to express what she's feeling. "Miss White hurt me. Hurt me bad. And I haven't been able to get over it, even though she claims she has. Then she does somethin' like this, and I look like a jerk for still bein' so confrontational, and.."

    She falls silent, shaking her head. "Agggh.. why do people gotta be so complicated, Momo-chan?" She sighs, and puts her arm around her sister as the girl cuddles up against her. She looks at the ID job. "Maybe. How old does it say you are? Gotta be at least sixteen for full-time work. Dunno if you could pull that off." Hell, Kyouko barely can, and she's a few years older.

Momo Sakura has posed:
"I don't think you should, if you're not ready." Momo hums. "And if you ever do forgive, I don't think forgetting is the right thing, either."

Momo groans and ugs! "I don't know why they are. People are so weird and strange and complicated and why can't their brains agree with their feelings? I wish I were a cat. That way I could just lick my butt if I didn't like someone."

Momo hums again and peers at the ID. "Fourteen." She looks up at Kyouko. "Could I pass for fourteen? I gots the hair of an old lady!"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko shakes her head slightly. "I dunno if I'll ever be ready.. one thing I think I inherited from our dad is holdin' grudges." She mutters softly. "But I come to realize, the past little while, that sometimes you gotta do stuff you ain't ready to do, cause it's the right thing to do. And cause not doing it causes more trouble than it's worth."

    She eyes her little sister. "That's gross, Momo. I am suddenly infinitely glad you ain't a cat." She squeezes the younger girl then, shaking her head. "And you don't gotta worry. I got a long memory.. 'specially when it comes to people who screwed me over."

    A brow is raised as she looks consideringly at Momo. "Yeah, probably. That's only a year or so, right? I think you could."

Momo Sakura has posed:
"Well, yeah, but your grudges actually make sense." A wrinkle of her nose.

And then she's giggling. "But I'd make a cute kitty! Purrrrr!" She proves her point by snuggling Kyouko even more! "And good. Because if you forget, stuff could happen again!"

She cheers a bit! "Yay! That means part time, right? Think the thrift store would hire me? I could help with bills! Or have my dollars be play money!"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko shrugs her shoulders, and heaves a sigh. "They do make sense, at least to me, but.. sometimes you just gotta move on. At least, that's what's been said ta me, and I think it's right sometimes. I got responsibilities now.. to you, to Saya-chan, to my job. I can't just go harin' off on some revenge kick and leave all that to flounder cause of it."

    She grins at Momo's faux-purr, then shrugs her shoulders. "Maybe? Worth a shot, I guess. If that's what you really wanna do. I mean.. just cause I did things one way, don't mean you gotta do 'em the same." She shifts a bit, perhaps slightly uncomfortable. "Hell, I dunno if I'm the best example you could be followin', truth be told."

Momo Sakura has posed:
"Hmmm, you'd better not. If you go get yourself maimed, I'll hafta, and it just becomes a vicious cycle of maims!"

She looks up at Kyouko, brows furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?" She does, of course, believe that Kyouko could set the moon and stars if she chose. But, that's the bias that comes from being a little sister.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    "Momo, if you get maimed, I'll kill you." Kyouko says, with the sort of sincerity that only the terminally sarcastic can manage when delivering a line like that. She then sighs a little bit as Momo presses her for explanations.

    "I just mean.. after you and mom.. left. I made a lot of bad decisions. I was hurtin' and instead of trying to fix that, I lashed out at other people. I been tryin' to course-correct the past year or so, after Saya-chan and Mamoru and some others showed me that what I was doin' wasn't helpin' anyone, least of all myself, but.. a lot of habits I formed during those years don't go away so easily."

    She gives a slightly lopsided smile. "I just don't want you operatin' under the faulty assumption that I have any clue what I'm doin' most of the time, that's all."

Momo Sakura has posed:
"Same to you!" It's chirped out almost happily, because mutually assured destruction if either of them becomes Stupid ensures there's more of a chance they'll both behave! Right?

Momo snugs an arm around Kyouko's tummy, completely the cuddle. "Well...yeah. But that means you know what not to do. And for me, I got you. Which gives me an unfair advantage, I think."

Then she looks up at Kyouko again and gives her the cheesiest, brattiest grin she can. "Besides, I've always known you were clueless. That's not news to me."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko rolls her eyes down at her sister. "Don't forget whose apartment yer livin' in, brat." She says, but she smirks in an affetionate way while she says it, and lets her arm settle over Momo's back as the girl clings to her.

    She sits in silence for a few moments, not having anything to add, perhaps, mulling over her own thoughts of Hannah, grudges, and what she should do now.. until those thoughts bring her back around to something she had been meaning to ask.

    "Oh yeah. Didn't I hear Madoka-chan here earlier? What did she want?" She asks, now recalling the incident and that she had never found out.

Momo Sakura has posed:
Momo smugs at her sister. Her whole demeanur is pretty much content in the knowledge that her sister wouldn't even consider seriously throwing her out.

With another happy little hum, she settles against Kyouko as the silence grows. It's comfortable, to her, at least, and she's pretty sure she could easily nap like this.

Her eyes jerk open at Kyouko's sudden question. "Oh!"

Suddenly a bit shy, she sits up and twiddles her fingers together. "She invited me to the charity ball that's coming up. Two tickets and everything." And now she looks really shy. "She even brought me a dress to wear. Do...you wanna see it?"

Yep. Shy and hopeful!

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    "Charity ball, huh?" Kyouko heaves a bit of a sigh. "Feels like there's one of them every month around here. Guess we need 'em though.. went to one or two, but I ain't ever really comfortable at fancy shindigs like that.."

    She cuts off as Momo mentions that Madoka brought her a dress. She blinks, then tilts her head, curious. "She did? Yeah, I do." For various reasons. She has to make sure it's appropriate, after all, she won't be letting her little sister go to some fancy ball wearing something too skimpy!

Momo Sakura has posed:
Momo beams for a split second before trying to contain herself! After all, just because Kyouko wants to see it doesn't mean she'll like it!

"Okay, wait here!" She scampers off the couch and goes to the corner she's yet to turn into a cubby of sorts for herself. She snags the box and darts toward the bathroom.

A quick scrub of important bits...

And then she remembers!

She pokes her head out of the bathroom. "Can you zip me, though? My shoulders don't dislocate so I can't..."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko sighs as Momo dashes off, grabbing the box and going into the bathroom. She sits on the couch and dwells on some stuff as she waits. She knows Madoka-chan means well- the girl doesn't have a non-well-meaning bone in her body. But it does grate on Kyouko just a little that other people can shower her little sister with fancier gifts than she herself can.

    She's disrupted from her thoughts by Momo poking her head back out and asking about zipping. "Um.. sure, I can handle that." Kyouko says, while hoping its true. Her experienec with fancy dresses is limited to like, one time ever that ended up with her covered in cake. Oh, and once as Apatite, but she's not sure that actually counts.

Momo Sakura has posed:
The zipper manages to zip as it should, and when Momo turns back to Kyouko, she's tugging and fiddling with the hem and looking at her sister with large, shy eyes. "How...how do I look?"

Because of course someone else gave her the dress. And of course she said Momo looked pretty in it. And it's an important opinion, of course.

But a sister's opinion holds more weight. Especially when it comes from a sister who doesn't overly sugarcoat things.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko helps zip up the dress as indicated, and then steps back to peer at Momo from a few paces away. Honestly, she's probably not the best judge- she's biased, for one, and two, she wouldn't know how to judge pretty clothes if her life depended on it.

    Still.. she knows what a pretty girl looks like, and there's no doubt that Momo looks pretty in the dress. After a moment, Kyouko smiles, and there's just a bit of fang in it, but it's proud fang, and she definitely looks like she approves.

    "You look like a million bucks, kid." Is her pronouncement, as she steps forward again to idly fix Momo's hair a bit, then steps back to look again, nodding. "I think you can pull off the 'fancy' thing a lot better'n I ever could."

    She blinks, then scowls. "Maybe I shouldn't let you go to this thing after all. You might get.. hit on."

Momo Sakura has posed:
Momo beams at her sister! That's a beaming happy fang! "Really? I do?"

"I think Kyou-nee can be very fancy! In Kyou-nee's own way!" She almost purrs as her sister fusses with her hair. She really does wish she were a cat so she could get scritches all day.

"I'll hit them back!" It's a knee herk response, of course. And then the actual meaning sinks in and her cheeks turn pink! "Madoka-chan said something similar. If people do, I could always go up and hide behind her and Homu-chan! And and...besides."

She reaches into the box and pulls out both tickets. "I gots two tickets..."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko grins a little bit at Momo's instinctive response. "Honestly I think your first response was probably the right one, Momo-chan." She says, with a wink.

    Then she quiets a bit as she glances as the tickets, shaking her head slightly and looking away. "That's sweet o' her, but y'know.. that whole fancy dance scene really ain't for me, kid. I tried it a couple times and.. never seems to be much fun for me."

    She looks back, and smiles. "But you should still go. You look great, and it's worth trying at least once. There'll be plenty of people there to hang out with even if I ain't there."

Momo Sakura has posed:
Now her grin is cheesy. "Heeheeeee. To the moon if they try."

And she tries not to sulk, because she doesn't want Kyouko to be uncomfortable! "Well, that's okay. And that don't mean we can't do stuff after?" A thought! A gasp! "Was I wrong to promise I wouldn't eat all the buffet? What if I do?"

And then she's shifting a bit more. "Not all of them are gonna be magic. Some are just rich people. What if they get all judgey? I can't punch them because then it might ruin the party..."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko turns and walks back to the couch, sitting down and crossing one leg over the other as she regards her sister with a little lopsided smile. "Kid, we live together and we're sisters.. we have all the time in the world to do stuff together." She pauses after she says it, since she realizes it isn't technically true.. not with them both being Puella, and a famine going on besides but.. well, in this case the sentiment holds so she doesn't correct herself.

    "And you'll be fine. If you eat the entire buffet I'll be impressed." She grins. "An' that's sayin' something."

    As to rich people.. "They can't tell if you're rich or not just by lookin' at you. You look like a proper oujo in that outfit, Momo-chan. Trust me, it won't be an issue."

Momo Sakura has posed:
Momo hugs herself, happy. "All the time! And we'll also get to get on each other's 'last damn nerve' and argue and bicker but also cuddle and eat ice cream sometimes, and if people pick on me you can threaten to beat 'em up because only you get to pick on me."

Happy, happy thought! She likes this plan!

And her chest is puffing out a little! "Challenge accepted!"

Her cheeks are, of course, blooming a bright pink and she tucks her hair behind her ear. "Yeah? And I hear some wealthy people are eccentric anyway, right?"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    "Eccentricity don't know no economic bracket, kid." Kyouko says, with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Crazies come from all walks of life. Trust me, you don't got nothin' to worry about."

    She shakes her head slightly, sighing. "Anyway.. you should go and have a good time. I need to work anyway." Now she has to pay for Momo and Dog to live here, too! Not that she minds, of course- it's worth it. But it does mean more hours at the conbenie. At least there's no Witch Hunting to be taking away her time..

    "If Madoka-chan is helping organize it, there'll be enough people there that it'll be safe." She says this as much to reassure herself as Momo, truth be told.

Momo Sakura has posed:
"Yay! Maybe I'll make friends with a rich lady who has a billion cats all named Earl!" This, for some reason, makes her happy!

At the mention of working, Momo pauses a bit. "Would it be weird if I tried to sneak you some food?" How did people view that? "I wanna start looking for a job, too! I can now!" Another beam!

Momo sits next to Kyouko, apparently not really taking into consideration that sitting like that in this dress just Isn't Done. "And don't worry! If I get scared or overwhelmed or bored, I could text you! Let you know I'm okay!"

This, too, is as much for herself as it is for Kyouko.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko snorts slightly at Momo's words, and as her sister sits next to her, she leans over to whisper to her. "Momo-chan, let me tell you somethin' very important. It's never a bad idea to try to sneak food out. Get as much as you can. Contribute to our livin' for the month." She grins.

    Then she sways Momo's leg at the way the girl is sitting. "Hey. You're goin' to a fancy party. Think about how you sit. I won't have you gettin' kicked out before you're ready for showin' off yer underpants to the rich folks."

    She smiles then, and puts her arm around Momo again, squeezing her. "Of course. You can always text me, an' I'll answer. I promise."

    Then she starts to get up. "Whatcha want for dinner, anyway?"

Momo Sakura has posed:
Momo considers this! "Very true! Hey, you got a purse that's kinda big?"

She eeps! at the leg sway and giggles, shifting so she's sitting more like a proper lady! This is thwarted as she takes a peek under her dress. "But they're cute! They gots little duckies on them!"

She hums happily into the squeeze and gets up behind her sister.

She has a wedgie.

She is high class society, very, as she fixes the problem.

"Do we have any eggs? A bit of meat? And you still got that vegetable stuff from work, yeah? We can make stir fry! Or refried rice!"