Kyouko is at work- she usually is, when she isn't sleeping or out doing Puella-stuff.. the latter of which has taken up increasinly less of her time over the past few weeks due to the Grief Seed shortage. Conserving energy and all that- no henshin unless it's absolutely necessary. The conbenie she works at is down a side-street in Mitakihara, not as busy as the main street but still busy enough to see customers, the shop basically a small mini-mart on the corner of two smaller streets. She is currently behind the counter, wearing her orange apron with "PM Minimart" written on it in white and fiddling with some paperwork, probably receipts or something.
She looks somewhat distracted, her lips pursed slightly to one side, and seems to be doing the work by rote rather than concentrating (which likely means she'll get yelled at about math errors by the old lady later!) It's hard to blame her though. There's a lot going on right now- a Witch shortage which means she has to try and figure out how to keep not only herself, but also Saya-chan alive.. Saya-chan smooched her (that's a good one, at least).. and Mamoru told her that her dead little sister came back to life! That last one engenders many conflicting feelings. Kyouko has longed for a family ever since her real one died, but at the same time, she still blames herself for those deaths.. she really isn't sure how to react, which is the main reason she hasn't gone out looking for Momo yet.
Momo has almost walked into the minimart five thousand different times in the past half hour. She's not even sure if Kyouko's even in there.
If she isn't in there, what's she supposed to do? Wander around for a few moments before wandering back out, not buying anything? That'd be embarassing!
And what if she is in there?
What if Kyouko doesn't recognize her?
What if she just looks up, goes 'oh its you' and ignores her forever?
What if Kyouko decided ages ago that Momo had been the most annoying sister ever and doesn't want anything to do with her ever ever again?!
Gah!
Dog woofs.
"I know, I know. But!"
"Woof! Woof!"
"You wouldn't dare!"
"Woof?"
"Ug, fine, punk! But you stay here!
She's in the store before she can think twice.
There she is! She's here! Concentrating! Kyouko! Right there!
THIS IS TOO MUCH PRESSURE!
She tries to blend in, being unnoticeable! She hides in an aisle or two, not that there are that many, before she sneaks up to the counter.
Um, uh.
She reaches in her pocket and pulls out some coins. And lint.
And plops them on the counter.
"What can I get for this?" Goodness gracious me! Her voice is squeaky!
"Welcome to PM Minimart!~" Kyouko sing-songs when she hears the door chime, without even looking up, trained by months of repetition. Always greet the customer. After she finishes whatever calculation she is doing, she does look up.. only to not see anybody, because Momo is hiding down one of the aisles. A quick glance around, a shrug, and she's back to adding up numbers.
That is, until a hand reaches out and plops some coins down on the table. She glances at them before looking up at the person placing them down, her well-trained cashier's mind totalling them up quickly. "Anything marked 200 yen or less, because that's what you have," She says with just a hint of sarcasm behind her tone, glancing upwards.. and blinking a few times.
She doesn't recognize Momo immidiately, because she remembers a 9-year-old, not a 13-year-old. However, it only takes a second. There's no way you won't recognize your own sister, even if you haven't seen her for a few years. And Kyouko loved her sister- there's no way she'd forget, even if sometimes she tried really hard to, in order to carry on alone.
She's frozen for a good few moments one the realization hits her of who she's looking at, until she gasps in a strangled-sounding voice, "M-momo-chan.." She stares for a long few moments.. then her eyes drop to the counter in front of her, glistening brightly. "I.. couldn't believe it when Mamoru told me you were alive. Listen, before you say anything.. I know you must be mad.. about what I did. And I won't blame you if you hate me but.. I'm sorry." She doesn't look up again, her face a picture of shame. Her worst failure is here confronting her in the flesh, after all.
Momo blinks. Really? Two-hundred yen? That could buy two burritos!
Man, change sure added up!
And then, here it comes...wait for it...
Oh goodness.
She opens her mouth to speak, but--
Wait.
Momo actually has to think for a moment. Why would she hate Kyouko?
Realization dawns. "Oh, that!" She waves her hand. "I just figured you got dressed in a hurry. I was never mad that you took my socks, let alone hated you for it!"
Kyouko blinks after a moment, then glances up without fully raising her head. Her eyes are still glistening, wet with unshed tears as emotions assail her at the sight of her long-dead sister.. or rather, the sight of her little sister all grown up- well, partially grown up. More grown up than she was before.
That flippant, off-hand remark is delivered in response to her apology. She should have expected as much, for she'd probably do something similar, make light of the situation, were she in the other girl's place. Still, she can't help but smile a little bit, her mouth quirking up in that lopsided expression which comes so easily to her face. "I.. you know what I'm talking about. What happened with..." She pauses, not sure exactly what to say. Her perennial problem- finding words to match her thoughts, and she visibly struggles for a moment before settling on, "our father. It was my fault. It should have been me not.. you and mom."
She looks down again at the counter. "Even so.." And now a tear does escape and wind its way down her cheek. "It's really good to see you."
It's a bit disconcerting. Even younger, she's never really seen Kyouko cry. She'd always believed she had to be the strong one. (At least, that's what it feels like to Momo, looking back.)
And its not like she'd been completely flippant. Okay, she had been, but she'd really thought Kyouko had been talking about the socks.
But apparently....not.
She listens, surprised at how not surprised she is. Her eyebrows draw together as her sister talks, and sighs when she looks back down.
Instead of saying anything right away, she hops over the counter. She leans against it, and even though she really wants to, she doesn't hug Kyouko.
She really really wants to. But what if she does and she wakes up?
"You did what you did for us." She shrugs, toeing the ground a little. "I remember thinking 'wow, my sister! She always looks out for me!' and then he..."
She sighs and shrugs. "You are very much not the one I hate, Kyou-nee. I was just really sad because I knew you'd probably be the one to...you know."
Another hand wave. Find us remains unspoken.
"I put his bones on the roof. I think they were his."
She shrugs, and very much does not look at Kyouko. Her cheeks are pink. "I've always loved my Kyou-nee, Dummy."
Kyouko sniffs, turning her face away momentarily. It's no surprise that Momo doesn't remember Kyouko crying.. she doesn't do it very often, and even less often where people can see. A hand is raised to scrub at her cheek, wiping away the telltale signs of her 'weakness', or so she'd think of it.
Momo leaps over the counter (just like her big sister, never one to stop and think about whether the rules say you can do something or not). "I did.." She says, still looking away, as Momo reminds her that she did what she did for her family. "But I was stupid. I should have known better.. the world ain't a nice place, Momo-chan. If I'd known then what I know now.." Well. Hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it?
Momo loves her. Even after everything. Kyouko has to fight back another sniff as she glances over at the girl leaning back against the counter. She doesn't hug either- she's reserved with her affection, though perhaps Momo is the person she should be least-so with. "Mamoru told me that.. it was Moon's miracle that brought you back. That girl.." She shakes her head slowly, her eyes moving over to the window, unable to look at Momo for too long, as if afraid hard scrutiny will make her disappear again. "I'm not sure you made the right choice, Momo-chan. I'm not the girl you remember. I've had to-" No.. no excuses. "I've done a lot of crappy things in the name of survival these past years. If you came back lookin' for a hero.. I don't think you're going to find one. Not here." No excuses, and no shame. Kyouko is who she is, and she wouldn't be anyone else. But she's still afraid of disappointing her sister.
Momo sighs. "I know. People are mean and bad. It's the persons that are nice. And Dog. He's nice, too, even if he has fleas. And probably rabies."
Hey, Momo, you got a bit of crazy on your cheek.
"Well, it should be the intention, right? Ha hah..."
And then guilt gnaws at her some more.
After all, didn't she do the same thing?
And given how the people she's talked to...
"It's moments that make a hero." A firm nod.
And then the guilt is too much.
"She wasn't...I mean, she opened the door. Her wish was really loud and you were right there." She looks at Kyouko, trying to look very determined. But she's also afraid of disappointing her sister. "And you were lonely."
And you were lonely.
Those words strike at Kyouko, even though they were actually less true at D-point than they had been before. At D-point she had had Saya-chan, Usagi, Mamoru, Kunzite... even Homura and Miss White. She had been surrounded by friends and rivals, people she respected and who had filled her life over the past year. 'Orphans make their own families', Mamoru had told her, and she had done her best.
But even those hard-forged bonds, wrought in conflict and shared danger, are no match for blood.
She suddenly moves, with that surprising predator's grace, not to strike, but to wrap her arms around her younger sister and squeeze her tight, sniffling again despite herself as she presses her face against Momo's hair. "Thank you." She whispers. Because she knows- Momo had been at peace, or at least, no longer suffering. She doesn't know this for a fact, but she feels it must be so. And she gave that up to come back to this shitty, mean, pitiless world because Kyouko had been lonely.
It's almost too much to bear, especially because Kyouko feels, she knows deep in her heart, that she is not deserving of such loyalty.
She gasps at the hug and holds on tight, eyes stinging. It feels so good, so familiar, and she's been missing it, missing Kyouko, so much.
But then Kyouko thanks her, and suddenly all that guilt!
So, emotionally overwhelmed, she starts crying in earnest.
"You're gonna be so mad at me!" She sniffles and tries hard to be coherent. "They all looked so worried when I told them, but I know there's a catch, deals with the devil always come with them you know, and I didn't care!"
Kyouko hugs her sister tight, and squeezes her all the more when Momo starts crying harder, at first perhaps misinterpreting that as a less-reserved echo of the emotions she herself is dealing with.
But then Momo is babbling, something about people looking worried, and a 'deal with the devil', and Kyouko feels a chill move through her.
Slowly she pulls back from Momo, not entirely, still keeping her arms around the smaller girl but so that she can peer into her sister's face with an expression somewhere between apprehension and grim acceptance. After all, the world is a crappy, pitiless place. There's no such thing as a miracle without strings- she knows this better than anyone.
"Momo.. what did you do?"
She's rubbing her eyes when Kyouko pulls back and she falls into sniffling hiccups.
And then that question!
She's crying harder now as she rifles through her pockets, because one of the worst things in the world is having Kyouko be mad at her. When she pulls out her hand and opens it up, there's a grief seed sitting in her palm.
"I don't regret it, and you can't make me!"
There's an immidiate change in Kyouko when Momo pulls out that Grief Seed and shows it to her.. one which goes along with the coldness she suddenly feels inside. Her expression goes flat, and her red eyes hard.
There are no gifts in this world. Every boon comes coupled with a curse.
She turns away, pulling away from Momo and facing the other way. When she speaks again her voice is hard, a tone that Momo may never have heard before but that Homura could have recognized in an instant. "Are you really my sister? Or is this just another one of Kyubey's games? He knows I won't go down easy, so he's trying to break me in new an' creative ways, is that it?"
Crack.
Wow, a breaking heart is loud!
For a moment, she wonders if maybe she is just a trick. A copy? A golem made with just enough memories to trick even herself?
No, wait, she remembers everything.
Man, dying takes forever.
She sniffs and sets the seed on the counter. "I think if he made me a trick, I'd know it. Or at least be more sane."
She gets very grumpy.
Kyouko doesn't talk to her like this!
Picking up a handful of those snacks kept at counters to entice customers to pay more, she starts to chuck them at Kyouko. "If I were, wouldn't I say I do hate you? How do I know you're not a trick, huh?! Or a dream! Or a hallucination!" She throws some more! "Ain't it convenient, huh?! Three people in two days who know you!"
She doesn't, of course, think Kyouko's a trick.
For a moment, Kyouko's resolve wavers , and she's about to turn around again.. but when she looks back over her shoulder, she gets pelted in the face by a snack. "Ow! Hey, you little creep, stop it, those are for customers!" She snaps, turning around and batting at the confections being chucked at her.
After a moment, she snarls and advances on Momo, a dangerous red light shining in her eyes. She grabs Momo's wrist in mid-throw, tugging the girl upright by it with surprising strength, and there's an angry, intense look on her face as she peers down at the angry imouto in front of her.
"Losing my sister.. and my mother.. because of my own naive stupidity was the worst thing that ever happened to me, out of a life full of terrible things." She says in a quiet voice, holding Momo's gaze with her own. "Kyubey must have known that. Maybe you really are my little sis, brought back from the dead. But that doesn't make you any less of a weapon aimed straight at my heart."
She stares down at Momo for another moment.. then suddenly lets her go, turning around again. She wants to storm out, because her emotions are running wild- her anger rising as a defense mechanism, one which has served her well over the past few years, but may be doing just the opposite right now. She can't storm out though, because she's working, and she needs her job, dammit.
So instead she says, "Go on, get out of here. I need time to think." She doesn't look back.
But, during the brief altercation, she snuck the Grief Seed back into Momo's pocket.
Momo isn't cowed by that anger. Because really, this is her sister. And a part of her knows that her sister will never hurt her.
Well, physically. On purpose. When she isn't hurting emotionally. She has a tight grip.
For a moment, she glowers at her older sister.
"That may have been what he wanted, but the joke's on him. I am nobody's weapon."
Angrily, she storms around the counter.
On her way out, she tugs open the freezer and grabs three burritos.
"I'm taking these! Even though they cost three-hundred yen!"
And she storms out and slams the door as hard as she can--
Only to be thwarted by the slower close.
She tries a few more times before finally shrieking. "GYAAAAAH! Gosh darn hydraulics! Pretend I just slammed this door, Buttface! I'll be at the church! I still love you! I'm just really angry at you right now! BUTTMUNCH!"
She storms away, Dog on her heels, whining a bit.
It's a block later that she stops to look at the burritos and she starts to cry again.
Man, she should have used the microwave...
Kyouko stays turned around during Momo's entire little tantrum and thefting of burritos. She doesn't move at all, keeping herself rigid with her arms crossed over her chest.
Only after she's sure the younger girl is gone does she sag, and turn back around to the counter.
She has to stop and wipe her eyes at least twice while she's taking money out of her own wallet to pay for the three burritos.