She Dreams in Color

Mei doesn't have much to say to Hannah. A sad combination of being completely exhausted, furious, sad -- just completely spent, really. Too much to process, amid the disappointment and (substantial) pain of defeat. The fact that Hannah saw her dial up Tuxedo Kamen makes it even worse, because her ace in the hole is gone completely. The Grief Seed disappears underneath the girl's henshin, and with it, she has well and truly lost the battle.

"If it was that dangerous, Kamen-senpai wouldn't have let me keep it," she mutters bitterly when the girl returns, casting her eyes so that she doesn't have to look at her at all. She doesn't have the strength or the will to resist her efforts at first aid, and is honestly confused as to why she's doing this in the first place. Probably only because she knows Tuxedo Kamen is listening over the phone.

Even if Hannah didn't have that incentive, this gesture still would not have earned her Mei's forgiveness. Not after she stole the Grief Seed. Not after she caused so much damage.

(Still, she could have hurt her a lot worse, and she chose not to. That puts her the slightest, tiniest bit above her partner in terribleness. But only by that much.)

"I will defeat you, you know," the young girl says when the first aid is done, eyes trained on the damaged building around them. "The next time we fight. I'm gonna win."

Perhaps not the most intimidating thing in the world, coming from a bandaged little girl who's too exhausted to even sit up, but the seriousness in her voice is almost chilling.

And listen Tuxedo Kamen does-- the first instant he's out of sight of anyone, he transforms in midstride and takes a running leap to the nearest rooftop, using it to springboard off of. Then he's practically in flight, the extra senses he doesn't question guiding his direction in a beeline across Tokyo.

Although the sound of Miss White's voice on the line does, in fact, make him completely furious, it also disperses the fear for Mei's life. He is completely certain Miss White wouldn't kill her. It doesn't lessen his speed.

Once he's heard the last of the older girl, heard her leaving, his voice comes over the line, tight and short from the effort he's putting into hauling ass. "I'm almost there, Mei-chan, talk to me, please don't pass out--"

True to his word, it's only time enough for a middling-length sentence before he snaps the phone shut and disappears it as he alights silently next to Mei in a crouch. His cape drifts down around them as he takes off his gloves and reaches out for her hand. "Mei-chan, is anything broken?" he asks with a strange fierce evenness.

Mei is, thankfully, still well within the realm of consciousness. Too tired to move, aching all over, and quite upset to boot -- but conscious. In fact, when she hears Tuxedo Kamen's voice over the distant phone, she takes in a breath to say something, to let him know that she's ok.

But then he's next to her anyway, and she lets the breath out, closing her eyes in relief. Though he's too late to correct her failure, it's nice that he's come all the same.

"The building is," she says, acidically sarcastic. When her eyes open again, they flash with frustration and anger, matched by the scowl that's not yet left her face from when Hannah tended her wounds. "I don't think anything in *me* is broken. Head hurts, though." Her hand drifts upward to a small square bandage on her head, colored red by a small amount of blood. "She kicked me. In the head." And it throbs, the headache discouraging her movement as much as any of her other injuries. "But she bandaged me up, so I guess everything's just *fine*."

More sarcasm, a bit jarring to hear out of Mei's mouth, given that it's not at all in her personality. The anger that plays across her face is tempered with fatigue, though, and more than a little bit of sadness. A tear or two wells up at the corners of her eyes -- frustrating things that she wipes away with her hand, before more can appear. No. She's not going to cry about this.

Crying doesn't solve anything.

"I was stupid," she says after a moment, voice steeled and strained to keep out any wobble. "I didn't think anyone was around, and I pulled out the Grief Seed. For no reason. And now she has it." Her fist balls up around the hem of her skirt. "Miss White."

Abruptly -- at the sarcasm, no less -- Tuxedo Mask relaxes considerably. If she can be that angry right now, she really isn't hurt that badly. If her Chroma Crystal pendant is still where it fell when Hannah kicked it away from her, he pockets it for now -- but the two of them are right there out on the street in the middle of what looks like a bomb having hit.

Listening all the while, the tall teenager finishes his cursory examination of Mei's injuries and unceremoniously scoops the injured elementary-schooler up in both arms, straightening.

With a quick glance around to make sure nothing else of Mei's is scattered on the ground, he launches them up into the air and takes to the rooftops. He doesn't pause until they're a couple of blocks away, and then it's to ask directions to where she lives. Once they're actually on their way, he finally starts talking for real.

"She's a huge jerk and we're going to have words. I can't threaten her because we both know she can turn me into a fine red mist, but I'll be damned if I can't try and keep her away from you. Don't blame yourself, okay? I should have come by as soon as you texted me with the picture of it, I'd've gotten it to Homura-san right away."

His gloves are in the same place his hat is, the same place his phone is, the same place he's momentarily put Mei's gem -- 'magic, maybe subspace?? ??? profit' -- and a lot of his concentration's kept on keeping his emotions and Mei's walled off from each other right now, but over the course of the journey, her head will throb less and she won't feel so completely exhausted anymore. His face, though: Mamoru looks irritably grim.

When they're almost at Mei's place is when he finally bursts in outrage, "I can't believe she kicked you in the head! What the hell! And that garbage she was spouting about the only things grief seeds are good for-- she doesn't even know what they are for, she just thinks she's right about everything all the time, and all she's doing is making mistake after mistake--"

He lands on the roof, cape billowing and falling again, and hesitates. "We'll tell Homura-san about it, she'll figure out what to do, and it'll be okay. But, um. How do you want me to get you inside? Is anyone home?"