Momo's been quiet the entire way back from Mamoru's apartment to theirs.
Well, quietly sulky and droopy.
Sure, she gives response is Kyouko talks to her, small non-committal sounds, but just because it would be rude not to!
My own problems are keepin' me away from here more than I like
Is that really what she is?
Looking back, she guesses she can see it...
At the end of a probably long list, Kyouko wouldn't have gotten stabbed if it weren't for her messing everything up.
Dog greets them when they get back, jumping up to kiss Kyouko's cheek before doing the potty dance in front of the fire escape. Momo goes to open the window and out he goes, paws striking metal as he climbs down to do the doodoo.
She leaves it open so he can get back inside.
There's got to be a way to make this all better!
"Hey, Kyou-nee?" She's still looking out the window. She blames the breeze on her stinging eyes! "I don't mean to be a problem. I'll do better so you can visit Mamoru-kun more."
Kyouko has perhaps noticed Momo being quiet and droopy on the way back, but she's not really sure what to do about it. She's out of practice at big-sistering, and she's honestly not quite sure why Momo seems so upset- perhaps she can just chalk it up to their encounter with Riventon, and the end result, which was less than ideal.
They get home, and Dog leaps up. Kyouko sputters and pushes him away, but laughs, "Gerrofame, you big lug." Despite her worries about landlord trouble for keeping Dog in the apartment, she does seem to generally like the animal.
She moves to lock the door and take off her hoodie as Momo opens the window, only to pause as her sister makes that sudden statement. She half-turns, peering with bunched brows. "What're you talkin' about, kid?" She asks, at first mystified.
Then she recalls the comment made to Kunzite.. which was really not intended for Momo to hear anyway. She makes a tch sound with her tongue as she turns and walks over to put a hand on Momo's shoulder. "Momo-chan, I didn't mean you. I just meant.. all this shit in general. Grief Seeds and Kyubey and stuff. I'm glad you're back.. honest. You are a complication to my life, I won't deny that, but that ain't the same thing as a problem."
Momo turns just enough to look at Kyouko, sniffling against her wrist and almost snotting all over it. "Am I...a good complication?"
Because, really, she gets the difference.
As Homura stated once, Momo is around their ages. Physically. But sometimes, it shows that her mind is still trying to catch up with her body.
Kyouko mentally 'awwws' even if she doesn't do it out loud, and tugs Momo over to her for a hug as the girl asks for that all-so-important clarification. "You're my sister, Momo-chan. We should never have been separated in the first place. Of course I'm happy to have you back."
She strokes the younger girl's strangely-pale hair for a moment, before going on. "It's just.. before you were back, I was by myself. I didn't have a family. And Mamoru said to be 'orphans make their own families.' He's an orphan too, ya know? Parents died in a car crash or somethin' when he was little."
"An' those guys.. 'specially Mamoru and Kunzite, they were there for me when nobody else was, no questions asked. When I didn't have a family, they helped me feel like I was part of one anyway. So now, I wanna repay the favor, y'know?"
She leans back and looks down at Momo. "I may not be blood related to 'em, but they're my family, same as you are. Accourse.." And here she squeezes Momo a little bit too hard on purpose, smirking a mischevious little smirk. "Only a blood-relative can be as much of a pain in my neck as you are!" Then she lets go, and grins as she steps away. "But comin' from me.. that's a compliment."
Kyouko gives good hugs. Even with the recent touch of uncertainty or slightly obvious rusty, they're from her sister. So of course, Momo snuggles back!
And Kyouko's words resonate with what Kunzite had said before she left.
We make our own family, Mamoru likes to say.
She takes a breath to respond but "Squeak!" She is squished! "Kyou-nee, you squished my pancreas!"
She's not completely sure what a pancreas is, she just knows she has one!
Her retuning smirk is just as mischievous, accompanied by that annoying ingredient of Little Sister. "It's only because you're a pain in the neck, too~!"
She scuffs her feet a bit. "Kunzite-kun said about the same thing. So..." She looks up at Kyouko and tilts her head. "It's okay if you split time between us. Or something. Because they were there for Kyou-nee when I couldn't be."
And she's pretty sure that's something she'll never be able to repay.
Kyouko shakes her head slightly, smiling lopsidedly in that way of hers as she reaches out and ruffles Momo again, before turning to walk away towards the kitchen. "I don't need to split time, kid, I think you're as welcome there as I am. Which ain't to say you always gotta come with me, but there's no reason you should feel you can't, either."
"And look, my debts ain't your debts. You need to decide for yourself what's worth stickin' you neck out for." She opens the fridge and pulls out a pitcher of water, filling a glass. "I can't do that for ya, though I can steer you in the right direction, I think. I mean, half the time I dunno if I got it right either, but." SHe shrugs her shoulders as she sips.
Momo hums and taps her chin in thought. "But if I go with you a lot, your badass street cred will be destroyed when your imouto hugs your grumps away."
Woeful sigh!
RIP Kyouko's badassery.
Momo pulls out another glass and holds it up with large eyes and a smile! 'Pwease water?' her face says!
After she gets water, either from her sister pouring it or by doing it herself, she taps the rim of the cup as she looks at it. "I dunno what's worth my neck, except you."
She looks up at her sister with earnest eyes. "But I gotta figure it out for myself. And that don't mean I don't listen to you! But..." She shuffles a bit. "I got four years of mistakes to catch up on, even if it's easier for Kyou-nee to make all my decisions for me. I don't...wanna be eight forever. 'Cuz part of me still is."
Kyouko sighs a little bit, after indeed pouring some water for Momo. Her badass street cred is already suffering, because she's can't resist that face! "Kid, them guys already know my badass street cred is a sham, I ain't worried about it. And if you hug me in the middle of a fight, we'll have words after." She grins a fangy little grin, then sips her water as she proceeds to the couch and sits down.
"You do need to figure it out for yourself. I ain't gonna dispute that, cuz I think it's different for each person, though I'd hope that your reasons would at least be similar to mine. I think they will be.. you're a good kid, prolly better than me, all things told."
She leans back, stretching an arm out over the back of the couch, and sips her water again. "Just promise me that you'll take it into account when I tell ya something is serious, alright? Cuz this is a pretty crazy world we live in. I don't pretend to have even half of it figured out, but there's some stuff I learned the hard way, and there's no reason you need to learn it that way when I can just tell you."
Momo scoffs. "Hug you in the middle of a fight? Nah." Devious fangy grin! "Right after though!"
Again with large, innocent, curious eyes. "What are your reasons, Kyou-nee?" She feels like she knows, or has at least a basic understanding, but she's not sure if she knows.
Then she leans against her sister. "And of course I'll take what you say in accounting. Just...if I do do something that...I mean...if its something you don't like and have said, just...I needa find out for myself, okay? It's not because I don't believe you. I just...sometimes I gotta know that a stove is hot, not just be told it."
Kyouko settles her arm around Momo's shoulder as her sister leans against her, sipping from her water. "My reasons? Well.. I kinda already told ya, didn't I? If I'm still here, I feel like I owe it to you, and mom.. and everyone else who isn't to keep going. I may not deserve to be the one who survives, but I want to try to be.. to do the best I can with the chance I've been given, 'specially since so many others didn't get that chance."
"I also.. wanna make somethin' of myself. I dunno, I guess that's a little more selfish but.. we Puella, we don't usually last that long, y'know? Chances are I'll be dead before I turn 20. Honestly that don't bother me much.. feels like I've already had a lot longer than I should. And you're on your second go-around already- we'll make it as good-a one as we can accourse, but you gotta be grateful for whatever you get, right? But.. I want people to remember me after I'm gone. That's important to me. I wanna leave a mark.. one way or the other."
She grins a little bit at her sister's words. "That's fair. But it ain't gonna stop me tryin' to stop you if I think I need to."
She hums in thought. "Well, that sounds 'bout right. But let's make it a good mark, okay?" Then, devious thought! "And speaking of making the most of it." Slow turn up of the head, devious grin in place. "I never been to an amusement park, Kyou-nee."
And then, oh yes, the eyelash flutter.
Momo sighs and rolls her eyes. "You wouldn't be Kyou-nee if you didn't. And it ain't gonna stop me from making faces if its somethin' really important to me."
Kyouko shrugs her shoulders, looking contemplative for a moment as she sips from her glass of water again, looking out across the room without seeming to look at anything in particular. "Thing I've noticed, Momo-chan, is that 'good' is really subjective. People you think are on your side.. sometimes what they think is 'good' ain't what you think is 'good'. It's hard to tell who's right. What I've settled on is you just gotta do what you believe.. an' if they don't agree, well that's a shame. But bein' true to yourself, that's what matters."
She tilts her head, quirking a brow as she looks down at the shorter girl. "Y'know, I never really been to one either.. the park down by the harbor, sure but not like.. a real one. Maybe we should go sometime."
Kyouko sticks her tongue out. "It's hard to tell when you're makin' faces, cuz your face always looks so funny!"
Momo nods. Idly, she thinks of their father. He thought what he was doing was right. But in reality, he was just so wrong about everything.
And now he's probably roasting in hell, neener.
She looks up at Kyouko with large and starry eyes! "Really?! I could start saving coins! We could probably have enough to go next year!" Eeee! Amusement park!
And then! Pufferfish face! And she pokes Kyouko in the ribs! "So mean! It's the same face as yours, Funny Face!"
Kyouko squirms away from Momo as she's poked, laughing. "Oh god, I hope not, kid. We're sisters but we ain't twins. Good thing too.. not sure the world could handle two of either of us."
She gets up then and goes over to put her glass in the kitchen, empty. "Look, don't feel bad about what happend today, alright? You're still fresh at the whole combat thing. I got years of gettin' in scraps every day. It takes practice."
She walks back over, standing in front of Momo and putting her hands on her hips, eyeing her sister in a considering way. "Your weapon ain't much like mine, which is pretty standard for Puella.. we all kinda have our own tricks. But maybe we should train.. the better prepared you are, the more I'll feel comfortable lettin' you get into trouble cause I know you'll be able to get back out again."
"You're right. If the world had two people as pretty as meeeeeee it would explode from all the cuteness!"
Smug sister face is smug!
She droops a bit. "I know...I'm just used to fightin' in labrynths. And alone. It's...different against people. And in groups. I'm sorry you got stabbed..."
So much guilt still omg!
She tilts her head at Kyouko. "Train...with our weapons? But won't that kinda drain us?"
Kyouko smirks at her sister's confidence, but she doesn't dispute it- either because she recognizes it as a family trait, or because she agrees.
She shakes her head as Momo apologizes again. "Look, I've had worse, and I'd do it again in a second, so don't worry about it, alright?" She tugs up her shirt, showing the smooth skin with only a faint pink line where the wound was. "All better, yeah? We Puella can take a beating without havin' to worry too much. I wouldn't have even bothered goin to get it healed 'cept I wanted to preserve magic."
On that note, she seems to droop a little bit herself as Momo mentions the obvious problem with her desire to practice. "Yeah.. I guess you're right. Well, we can still practice with fake weapons. When I lost my powers for a bit a while back, I did a lot of training with a quarterstaff.. not quite the same thing, but it does help with the fundamentals.."
Curiously, Momo gently pokes at the faint pink line. "Does it itch?"
She understands doing it again. Because she's pretty sure she'd do the same, roles reversed.
"How'd you lose your powers? Did you want 'em back? And does this mean I getta use a watergun for practice? Heeheehee."
Kyouko swats at Momo's hand. "No it doesn't itch, stoppit, that tickles." She pushes her shirt back down, then moves to flop back down on the couch.
"I made a stupid decision motivated by revenge. I used somethin' I knew was dangerous for a selfish reason and it cracked my Soul Gem. I was still a Puella, but I couldn't henshin. It only got better after.." A pause. How does she explain Apatite and all that to Momo, especially considering Beryl isn't even around anymore? "After a whole buncha bullshit." That'll have to do, for now.
"At first I thought I'd be okay without 'em.. it was kinda refreshing, y'know, not to have to worry about all the baggage that comes with being a magical. But after a while.. it started to chafe on me that I couldn't protect the people who mattered to me. See, once you're part of this world, you stay a part of it.. powers or not. Just cuz I didn't have powers didn't mean everybody magical would just leave me alone."
"So yeah, I'm glad I got 'em back." She eyes Momo. "I think your hand-to-hand skills are more in need of work. You seem to have the shooting part down."
"Ooops. Sorry." No she's not.
She listens to Kyouko and her eyes get wide.
At the end, she looks down at her own Soul Gem. "You cracked it?"
She holds it up to the light and squints through it. "What happens if you break it? Do you die? What happens if you don't fix it with grief seeds? All I know is I just feel icky if I don't fix it."
She blinks up at Kyouko before beaming! "Shooting things is fun! But you're right, I wanna learn more stuff."
"You die." Kyouko nods her head. "If it breaks. So take care of it. Thats your soul in there.. it's safer than you might think, but you still gotta take care of it."
As for the rest.. there's no reason to lie. "If you don't fix it, you turn into a Witch. That's the fate of us Puella, if we ain't careful." It doesn't seem to upset her too much.. not the way it does Mami, or even Madoka. "Kinda poetic.. we become what we hunt, and then feed our sisters. Still, don't want that to happen to me.. or to you, Momo-chan. That's why we gotta get Grief Seeds."
Kyouko then just grins, and nods. "Don't worry.. I'll make sure you know what you need to know."
Her eyes get bigger when the broken gem is explained. Bigger still at what happened if its not purified.
"They don't cover that in Puella Basic!"
Actually, Puella Basic Training would probably be a good idea.
Then she gasps and looks up at her sister!
"It's the circle of life, and it moves us all, through despair and hoooooooopeeeeee~~~~!!!!!"
Kyouko snorts and shakes her head. "Yeah, maybe. I dunno, poetic don't mean good. It's still an effed up system and Kyubey is a little shit for setting it up this way, but y'know.. there ain't nothing we can do about it right now, so we gotta live with it."
"And that means finding a way to get Grief Seeds before we run out. And I have a feelin' that Riventon guy knows somethin' we don't. An' that makes me want to have another.. talk with 'im." Her face gets grim for a moment as she considers.. but then she shrugs.
"Worry about that tomorrow. What do you want for dinner, Momo-chan?"