Disclaimer: I don't own shit.
Author's Note: If NO ONE knows who Binbou-chan is, look up the character 'Poorfag' on the Madoka Magica Wiki. In episode 4, a character is seen two seats behind Homura who is using pen and paper while everyone else is using a very high-tech (And consequently expensive) laptop. There are people (myself included) who believe that Binbou-chan is the answer to Mami's loneliness.
Poor In Pocket, Rich In Love
Part One: "My Name is Binbou"
The teacher's talking about love again... I can tell that much just by looking at her disposition. I can't really hear her over the growling in my stomach. I push the growling to the back of my mind, trying to pretend like I haven't eaten all day, I just continue to scribble on my notebook, trying to pretend like I was listening to the teacher. Usually, I stalk about the cafeteria at lunch and steal scraps from plates when people are away, or unaware. Today, I don't think I'll be so lucky. Hitmoi and Sayaka... two girls in my class, are talking and I don't think they've got plans for lunch... they are talking about meeting with someone.
My stomach growls again, and I use my free hand to massage my empty stomach stealthily, hoping no one would notice and ask. My eyes glance across the room, past the empty seat in front of me and to the back of the head of the girl at the front of the row. She's a creepy sort, but not on a scary scale. I find a few more of my classmates engrossed in the lesson at hand. I steal a look to my right, peering through the glass wall to the class beside us, everyone engrossed in their own lessons as well. As I make a final note in my notebook, I give a great sigh.
-After Class-
I step out of class and walk arbitrarily towards the cafeteria. It's a torturous decision, I know; but I couldn't bear the ridicule of being 'Poor-chan' anymore. I had to at least look like I could afford lunch. I sat in a booth in the corner, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention from anyone, setting my little notebook on the table and beginning my second passion, writing.
Dear Mother in Heaven... I had begun another letter to my deceased mother, no intention of sending them, nor any address to do it. School has been going good for me. So long as I do my work, the teacher doesn't mind me dozing off, or looking distant... My letters had tapered off in recent weeks, nothing really interesting to tell my Mother, if she even ever read these. Something overshadowed my page, a dark figure standing over me, something in it's hands.
"Are you Binbou Marisa?" The voice droned over me. I was suddenly filled with horror. Anytime anyone started off with that, it was usually ended in some horrible joke.
"Y-yes..." I stammered out, hiding my face from the girl. "Can I... help you?" The other figure, one of a woman I could tell by her voice, chuckled.
"No. You can't. But I thought you could use someone to talk to." She paused. "Do you mind if I sit?"
"N-no..." I muttered, still staring at the table. "No, go right a-ahead..." I was bracing for the enevitable joke about being so poor I couldn't afford to pay attention to the person.
"Why are you hiding from me?" The voice continued, the sound of a tray being set down following suit. "Come on, Binbou-chan. Look at me." I slowly looked up, expecting to see one of the mean, popular girls who tormented me. The face that greeted me was a smiling blond visage of a girl I hardly ever knew. I have seen her once or twice, through the glass wall into the higher classroom beside us. I didn't know her name at all, the fact she knew mine very surprising. "There. That's better. Can't go around hiding that pretty face forever, you know."
"S-stop it..." I muttered, feeling my face get warm as blood flooded my cheeks. "Don't say things that aren't t-true..." The girl laughed at split the pair of wooden chopsticks perfectly down the middle.
"I never say anything that isn't true." She paused for a moment. "You must have eaten fast. Lunch just started... I suppose if you get here early enough, you-" I muttered something that she couldn't hear, but the act of me speaking broke her sentence. "I'm sorry? I didn't catch that."
"I said I haven't eaten." I responded slowly, cursing to myself for spilling something so secret to someone I've never met.
"Well, you better hurry up if you're going to, the line is-"
"I can't afford it..." I continued, feeling tears welling in my eyes. The girl across from me realized my situation and gave a sorrowful frown.
"I'm sorry... that was insensitive of me..." The girl droned, looking at her own tray, ladened with delicacies from around the world. She gave a little smile and started dividing her tray up, sliding half of it to me. "Here, we'll split."
"O-oh, I couldn't! I couldn't ask you-" She cut me off with those piercing yellow eyes.
"You're not asking. I'm offering. Eat up." She placed the chopsticks at the edges of one of the bowls she slid to me, taking a small metal fork from her bag. I stared at the food before me, my stomach roaring in demand to be fed. Slowly, I took the chopsticks and gripped a piece of chicken between them, putting it in my mouth. The small snacks I could hardly afford on a semi-regular basis was nothing compared to this, a feast on all accounts. "There you go. Eat up, you'll like it."
Restraint. That's the only way I could describe the force that kept me from shoveling everything the nice, strange woman had put before me down my gullet into the void that was my stomach. I ate slowly, pacing myself along with the woman, and when it was over, I was left with two distinctly different emotions. The first was joy at having a full stomach for the first time in a while, and the second was a desire for more. When it was finished, she offered a smile and asked for nothing in return.
"Th-thank you..." I mused, giving a little nod in her direction. "That was... delicious."
"Think nothing of it."
"I... don't even know your name, and you're so kind to me... you have no reason to be nice to me... The others..."
"Aye, you're right. I have no reason to be nice to you. But I've less reason to be cruel to you." She gave a little smile to me and held out her hand. "Tomoe Mami... it's a pleasure to meet you, Binbou-san."
"S-san...?" I questioned, feeling a little strange to be seen as an equal by anyone. "No one... calls me that."
"What do people call you?" I paused for a moment before answering.
"P-Poor-chan..." The woman's reaction was instant and concise.
"That's horrible!" I shook my head, giving a little 'um uhm'.
"But it's t-true..."
"True or not, people don't need to be cruel. You may be less fortunate then the rest of us, but that doesn't make you less of a person then those brown-nosers." It was at this point the dreaded popular girls showed their faces.
"Hey, Poor-chan!" One bellowed, her little entourage of delinquents in tow. "How was your lunch of sorrow and despair?" Before I could answer, Mami stood from her seat and confronted them.
"Hey, Princess Bitchy. Why don't you leave Binbou-san alone, huh?" The girl scoffed at this, putting her hands on her hips.
"Oh? Who are you then, her, like, girlfriend?" Mami laughed a little, twirling her fingers around one of the cute spindles that dangled off the side of her head.
"Yea... yea, that's cute, real original." Like lightning she struck, wrapping her knuckles around the girl's collar pulling her closer. "I'll make this real simple for you, Chuckle-Nuts. Either you go away, and leave poor Binbou-san alone, or I'll take it upon my self to correct the mistake that God made when he created you, and turn your face into the worse Piccasso painting this side of the Louve." Shaking her once, she released her. "Got it, 'girlfriend'?" Stumbling back, the girl found comfort beside her friends.
"How dare you! Do you know who my daddy is?"
"If he's smart, he'll tell you the same thing I told you." Mami rebuttled instantly. "Now get out of here before you make me really loose my temper." Giving a scoff, the girls retreated to their little table to bicker and replay that out with the added hope of having more spine. I couldn't help but watch the entire display laid out so bare before me. Someone stuck up for me... someone actually stuck up for me. I was flabbergasted, and couldn't speak for the longest time. When words finally found me, I could only bow sheepishly.
"T-thank you, Tomoe-san..." I blathered, finding the words to thank her.
"No need. People like that don't have the right to live." I stood and bowed again, suddenly remembering I had class.
"I... I have to get to class. I'm sorry for cutting this short, but... I have to finish my homework. Thank you for lunch, again..."
"Any time." She looked down, her eyes falling upon my skirt. "You've got a tear in your skirt..."
"I..." I began, looking down to where I had caught my skirt on a nail a few days ago. "I tore it on a loose nail the other day. It's okay, I borrowed the teacher's stapler to fix it! See, good as new!" I showed her the patch job I did on my skirt, proud of my staplery (It is too a word!).
"Don't take this the wrong way, Binbou-san, but that looks horrible." I sighed, knowing it was true.
"I know... but what can I do?"
"Did you ask your mother if she could fix it for you?" I felt tears welling in my eyes. "Oh no, did I hit another nerve... I'm sorry!"
"No... it's okay... I-I never knew my mother... she died when I was real young." Mami piqued an eyebrow.
"Where do you live right now?" She asked. Shuffling my weight between my two feet a little, I debated about answering the question truthfully.
"Tenth and Allegory..." Mami ran this through her head for a moment before the realization hit her.
"Tenth and Allegory... is right in the middle of a slew of abandoned buildings..."
"..." I couldn't think of a retort to this, simply nodding.
"We can't have that..." Taking a piece of paper from her backpack, she scribbled on it hastily with a pen. "This is my address. Come by after school, and I'll not only fix your skirt for you, but I'll give you a warm bed to sleep on tonight."
"Oh, Tomoe-san... I couldn't ask..."
"Again. You're not asking. I'm telling you. I expect you to show up, because if you don't, I'll hunt you down and tie you to the spare bed." I felt a pang of guilt at this as she stood, and put the address in my hand. "See you tonight." I nodded and bowed as she gathered her stuff and left.
-That Night; After School-
I had found Tomoe's apartment with no hassle, the sun dying slowly in the sky above me. I gave two little, timid knocks on the door, which would be answered a few seconds later by Tomoe herself, smiling and inviting me in. "Thank you for inviting me over, Tomoe-san..."
"Please, call me Mami." I tried to find my voice, but just couldn't. "Here, lemme see that skirt of yours, and I'll fix it up.
"Oh... uh..." I grappled at the fringes of my skirt. "I... don't have anything to change into..."
"It's okay, you'll have it back in a few." My cheeks flared red again as I re-iterated my point.
"I don't have anything to change into..." Mami's eyes trailed across me, and she nodded.
"Ah. I see..." I hope my meaning got through to her. This is, literally, the only set of clothes I own. I didn't even own any underwear. Mami stood and walked to a side room, probably her room. There came the sound of drawers opening and closing. "Here." She spoke, coming back with some neatly folded clothes, handing them to me.
"Oh... I-" Before I could finish, I remembered how she had responded last time, and simply took the clothes.
"You can use the bathroom to chance, and take a shower if you wish. Also, hand me your blouse as well. Just in case there is other damage." I nodded and followed her instructions to the bathroom, handing her my uniform between the doorcrack, proceeding to take a nice, warm shower.
I hadn't had a shower in god knows when. The last time I had felt water against my skin was during the rainstorm last week, but that could barely be considered a 'shower' in any terms, as the storm only lasted forty minutes, and I was only in it for the last ten. Refreshed from my shower, I dried myself and dressed in the clothes Mami had given me, the shirt and pants a little big, but I couldn't complain too loudly. Stepping out, I found Mami setting a small table with dishes and a tea cup.
"Oh, how do you feel?" She asked as she acknowledged my presence.
"Good...thank you. I... I haven't had a shower in a while... It's okay... since I don't have any friends anyway. I suppose my smell is just another thing people use to stay away from me..."
"I don't have any friends either, you know." Mami muttered.
"What? That's not right... you're beautiful, talanted and smart! Why don't you have any friends?" Mami smiled and poured something into one of the cups, offering me a seat.
"I just don't have time to make connections. I suppose, in that regard, it's my own fault." She paused for a moment as I took a seat. "Come to think of it... I'm real lonely myself..." She took a sip from her cup and wiped her eyes with a napkin. If I didn't know better, I thought she had done it to banish tears.
"We're a lot alike in that area... Everyone in my class talks before and after... they all have plans after school... and I just go home to my little 'house' and settle down one the cold concrete..." I paused, not wanting to bother her with this. "I'm sorry, that was out of line."
"You know, Binbou-san... you and I are a lot alike." I laughed a little, looking around her apartment.
"No offense, Mami-san but you and I are hardly similar. You've got looks... a nice apartment... a guaranteed meal every day..."
"But we're both very lonely girls." Mami responded, sipping from her tea. "I didn't invite you over just to fix your skirt... I was hoping we could talk; get to know each other. Who knows? Maybe become friends or..." She shook her head. "I don't know, really." She took a small knife from before her and sliced a sliver of cake, handing it to me on a plate. "I guess what I want to say is... you may be poor in your pockets, Binbou-san... and I may be rich... but we both have something the other needs. Companionship." I smiled to Mami and took the plate, the cake looking mouthwatering on it's alabaster plate.
"You know what, Mami-san...?" I smiled, standing and walking around the table to her. "I would like that very much." Crouching beside her, I gave her a hug, a soft hand touching my shoulder as she smiled. Placing a glass bowl over the cake, she stood me up, following suit.
"Well, no sense in us just sitting here, is there?" She smiled as I pulled out of the hug.
As I sat there, hugging a woman who I only met at lunch today, I felt something I've not felt my whole life. The feelings of hatred to myself disintegrated, leaving only Mami's kind words. The concerns of everyone around me vanished, replaced by only the need to be next to Mami. And for the first time in my life... I felt human.