[AN: Sorry this took so long to come up with, but I've rewritten this chapter a hundred times and still couldn't seem to get it right. :X A strictly plotless chapter, just to set the stage for the next chapter and to sit here and act fluffy. Thanks to Lizabeth, 123, Sakura, Sword Master Supremia, Kioke678, Crimson Snow and Kitsune-love for reviews.]
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Second Miltia came into view in all of its glory on the horizon, and as they neared MOMO could clearly isolate the soft white clouds formed over their landing area through the window--It was snowing. While she made a show of smiling, her eyes drifted lamely from cloud to cloud, her mind wandering elsewhere as she stumbled ahead. Somehow, the metallic clang of her feet on the floor fit perfectly with the icy landscape, like a winter chime playing softly in the background.
Maybe it was "Jingle bells", with rusty old metal bells attached to a leather strap which one of the singers would shake in time with the beat of the tune. Or "Silent Night", which her mama had tried to sing to her one night but forgot some of the words - so she'd taken to humming the tune instead, her face softening at the mere thought of attending church services around this time of year with her own mother. MOMO thought it more suiting that the sound of soft footsteps should prove to be the snow's anthem, simple and perfectly suited to what pieces of the barren landscape she could see from their elevation.
"Do you know why I taught you all of those songs, honey?" Juli was tucking her into bed and pulling the sheets down so tightly that they formed a sort of coccoon - a nice, warm little haven - around MOMO's body. She was a woman who stuck to her rituals like an adhesive to paper, and occasionally pulled up a memory of her own childhood in order to make her daughter's early years all the more enjoyable. "Pretty soon no one will remember them. They're beautiful old songs, and I can't stand to see them die like this, so be sure to sing them to your own children when you're-" She stopped and her pretty face fell into a horrified, empty gape, with her mouth creating a perfect black oval against her pale skin. This was the first time she'd realized what having a realian daughter would mean in the future, and an unpleasant feeling settled in her gut when she realized that her daughter would never really grow up, never experience the same things her real daughter would have. There were no more songs or good-night kisses: only brief, strained interactions whenever they met within the house they shared, which created fine cracks in the walls of their being. Juli Mizrahi strained against herself so hard that she broke down and couldn't stand to look the realian in the eye.
In all of her life, MOMO had never felt quite so unsettled. She'd wandered aimlessly throughout the Durandal's bustling corridors in an attempt to wear herself out, wishing all the way that someone familiar would walk by and break the steady hum and buzz of strange voices that rang throughout the ship and her memory. Of course, it was only six in the morning, and she doubted any of her friends would be awake until seven at the least. She stomped down the hallway, hoping that her pounding footsteps would either make enough noise to reach Jr.'s chambers or Ziggy's small room, to give her some company. As she walked she stared out of the window into the soft light of dawn slowly creeping over the side of Second Miltia, bathing her face in soft shades of gold and pink, finding no more comfort in it than she did her synthetic surroundings.
She ran off a list of events on today's schedule and smiled in a lackluster way; an outing with Ziggy once they landed on Second Miltia, more time to spend alone with her friends and to relax... All of it was only a mere hour away. In other words, she would forget about the recent encephalon dive and relax on the beaches that Shion had described as 'endless', once they'd left the icy northern area they'd been forced to land in. She looked forward to taking Ziggy and Jr. to the beach to share her dream, share the overflowing ecstasy she dreamt of as the waves lapped at her bare legs. This time she'd let herself loose.
MOMO smiled to a stranger passing on her left.
Mentally, she checked off their locations as they passed through her central monitor: Shion, tossing and turning in her bed, recovering from a spat with Matthews and Allen over today's trip. Allen had almost refused to tag along and had finally let his feelings for the 'chief' slip, much to both Shion and Matthews' surprise. She slapped him before leaving the room as coolly as if she were KOS-MOS, and MOMO had watched in awe as Allen broke down and cried, hitting the control station so hard with balled fists that Matthews had to restrain him. Ziggy, still awake, staring into the wall adjacent to his maintenance station as if expecting something to pop forth from it, leaving MOMO to wonder what he was thinking about. A troubled chaos, wandering just as she was, stopping every now and then to think and study the sunrise with vague interest. KOS-MOS, her power supply lowered to a steady stream, lying motionless in her metal bed. Jr., sprawled on his bed and snoring, while Mary and Gaignun discussed business matters nearby. She enjoyed watching them, the feeling of control and relief it gave her. They were safe in bed and, for a couple of hours, she could take their burdens away without awkward confrontation.
As MOMO walked, she realized she'd entered a less than populated area of the district and had long since left any wanderers behind. A strange feeling of isolation fell over her like a veil, and she chose to rest on a bench rather than venture further, meaning she'd have to give in to the memories she was trying to escape. As sure as she was it would occur, MOMO jumped when the image of her mother appeared clear as day in front of her, her slight body leaning over the top of their informal kitchen table which papa seemed to adore, if only for the reason that it was so simple and effective.
"I can't do this any more, Joachim," She was chuckling coolly, though her facial expression was that of someone pained. Juli Mizrahi. No, Juli Niwashiro. MOMO wouldn't have expected her to give in the the social conformity of changing her last name if she'd known her the way she did now at that moment, but somehow it gave her a power she could otherwise never have achieved. She was the wife of the madman and mother to a beautiful little girl. She had an influence. She had the surname to give a bit of "oomph" to her claims. Juli Mizrahi would succeed where the supple, naive Niwashiro had failed to do so. MOMO hid in the next room, dressed in a simple yellow sundress with her hands folded neatly in her lap. The first feelings of rejection were even now beginning to develop, spreading through her veins like sickness.
Papa stood a few feet away, eyeing her languidly and smirking at the sarcasm dripping through her voice. "Now, you know you're just over-reacting," he stated simply. "What's wrong with Sakura? She seems so upset lately, have you been putting those ideas of yours in her head again?" From her spot on the couch, MOMO could see that woman's complexion paling and then bursting forth with fresh rage, her delicate little hands balled into fists so hard that her hand had started to bleed from the pressure put on one of her nails. The tethers of her life, so neatly tied back down after Sakura's death by the people who she assumed she'd never escape, had come loose and fluttered around her like so many of her dying hopes. Joachim noticed, raising his eyes to her shyly and questioningly. The fine wall of her emotions cracked and shattered like a piece of old glass.
"She's not 'Sakura'!" Were the first words that came out of mama's mouth. She jumped from her chair, knocking it over and into the wall with a sickening crack. The muscles of her jaw were clenched and she bared her teeth like a dog readying itself to fight. Joachim merely eyed her sadly, wishing he could have avoided another outburst. In the next room, MOMO's body was livid and she kicked her legs as a distraction from the tears pooling in her eyes. "That little girl in there is a REALIAN. You invented them, and you tried to fool me into believing that she was my daughter, our daughter, more than the object that she really is." As an afterthought, she cursed violently at him and tried to calm herself by tapping her fingers on the table's edge. The other residents of the Mizrahi household felt the immediate effects of her words, knocking the air from Joachim's lungs and putting MOMO in so much pain that she cried out in anguish and buried her face in her hands.
"I've never seen your mother more beautiful than when she's mad," Joachim used to tell her as she slept within her liquid bed. He would always smile fervently and try to focus his mind on his work, but it was all too obvious that any sort of focus wasn't helping. "She's a furious lady, I tell you. And when she applies herself, instead of looking so... lost... Well, you know the way she usually looks. When she looks as if she's about to explode, I learn to love her all over again." He walked away from the panel whistling and shoved a hand into the pocket of his pants, once again fading away, without a word about MOMO herself. She remembered this all too clearly, but at the time she didn't realize how brutal her mother's temper was. Things were never the same after that outburst. Everything had happened far too quickly for her to understand.
"But you know you're both my girls. You two... Well, technically three, but there's no use trying to hang onto a life long since lost, huh?.... Well, you mean more to me than anything, even more than this research here. I just wish your mother'd give me the time of day anymore, but she's brooding. Very well." Daddy spoke to her like Sakura. In fact, if Juli hadn't leaked the secret to her that morning in the kitchen, she very well could have continued her life as Sakura, never admitted the truth to herself. Her words lingered under her skin like poison, and every day she came closer to accepting the truth, lethal as it may be. From that day on she was 'MOMO', a name far less poetic than Sakura. It was a name that Juli could inject with all of the anger boiling inside of herself, pronounced so harshly as it rolled from her lips.
She was contemplating the possibility of her father still loving Juli when Gaignun emerged from the adjacent door, his hair perfectly gelled down and eyes squinted to see who was sitting on the bench, surveying MOMO like a hawk stalking its prey. He obviously had some sort of purpose, and something in his demeanor caused MOMO to sit up and lean forward, trying to study the carefully guarded expression on his face as he sauntered forward. He masked it with a smile that seemed sincere enough. MOMO scolded herself for feeling distrustful of Master Gaignun; after all, he'd been nothing but kind since she'd arrived on the Durandal. "Ah, there you are. I have something to give you," his jaw twitched in a mischievous way before he continued. "It's not from me, though. 'He' asked me to give it to you."
She tried her best to look flustered and childish, just to cover her frustrations long enough to endure this encounter, making her mouth into a perfect circle and widening her eyes just the way one might if they were genuinely surprised. Gaignun didn't seem to buy it, and though she didn't realize yet it was Jr.'s long conversations with the Godwin twins that gave her away. Often when he returned to the office he'd seem to be especially happy, or extremely upset - the perfect excuse for Mary or Shelley, quite often both, to ambush him and press for details until he gave in. He'd get lost in description of his day, mostly just to lead Mary and Shelley on until the most critical moment, when he'd stop and walk away to piss them off. He ended up with a good many bruises afterward, but all in all he claimed the looks on their faces to be worth all of the trouble of being humiliated. Lately, he'd started to include MOMO in many of his stories, in a way that suggested he wasn't even aware he was doing it, but speaking so fervently that the Godwin sisters had to tell him to stop after a while.
Despite all of her wondering as to who 'he' might be, MOMO got nowhere. For at that very moment Gaignun ceased to look thoughtful and pulled a small cage from behind his back, covered by a long piece of red silk. The metal bars clung to the fabric, making it seem as if vertical rows of bones were trying to escape from beneath a red barrier; and at the center was a small bump, the only part of the handle that showed through the thin silk cover. A small hole at the top allowed a carrying handle to poke through, and the ends of the silk curled outward with a pretty pattern of diamonds at the base, with a small white border sewn around the bottom. MOMO eyed it warily.
"It was originally a gift from Helmer, but I don't think I'm capable of caring for it," he mentioned casually. "Do with her what you want, but be sure to take care of her. She's the last living specimen, unless you count the realian replicas." With that he handed the cage to her and, certain that she had a firm grip on the handle, he took a step back and nodded for her to take a peek. She hesitated and tugged at the silk cover, which fluttered down and onto her lap while she gave a simultaneous gasp out of both pleasure and shock. MOMO raised her eyes to search out Gaignun's as if to ask if she were actually holding what she saw in the cage, but found that he'd walked away in her reverie. Her eyes met the cold metal wall to find no evidence that anyone had stood there just moments before, not that Master Gaignun emenated any particular human warmth to begin with.
She couldn't frown or even feel lonely that he'd simply left, for in the cage on her lap sat a small bluebird, carefully preening one of the azure-colored feathers of her wing. Its eyes were perfect black spheres that peered at the area beyond the cage carefully, for it was rare for the silk covering to be removed and allow it to see the world outside. They reminded MOMO of little bowls of ink, and she found herself half expecting the liquidy black to drip from the small spheres and down through the bird's pretty blue breast. Its tiny feet gripped a horizontal metal bar hung from the top of the cage. To watch it going about its business brought MOMO a sense of delight, and she gazed at it for another minute before putting the silk cover back over the cage and standing up.
She knew what she wanted to do with the bird: she'd like nothing more than to keep it by her all the time, just so she could ogle at its rare beauty. She wanted to experience the pride of owning something as exclusive as the bird she held in her hand. But in a way, the thought of keeping it in its cage, of watching every day as it gazed longingly past the thin bars of its prison, tore at her heart in a way she'd never felt before.
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Mary and Shelley woke Jr. up not long before the Durandal had stopped in orbit around Second Miltia and released the Elsa from the docking bay. The ship was much too large to land in such an isolated area, and not many people were disembarking, so Captain Matthews agreed to transfer the group to the ground if he were permitted to tag along. After forcefully removing him from his chambers and rushing him down the hall, Shelley and Mary stopped before a window and peered out as the ground seemed to rise to meet them. The landing was relatively smooth, and Captain Matthews announced that he was opening the exit ramp. Before Shelley and Mary had enough time to squeal and start toward the door, MOMO came running like a bat out of hell and disappeared through the exit, the sound of her boots fading as she stepped off the ramp and into the snow.
"What's gotten into her?" Mary sniffed indignantly and walked over to the exit, peering out at the girl who continued to run through the ankle-deep snow with a glorious smile on her face, and a small box-like object in her hands. She leaned against the doorframe and pursed her lips in a way that made her seem much older and serious. "Maybe she likes the snow, but I think it's a horrible thing to have to walk in. And damn cold, at that." She didn't have time to say anything beyond that, because she was once again pushed out of the way and landed on her rear on the entrance ramp, looking up in time to see Jr.'s trench coat waving behind him as he ran.
Shelley laughed and helped her sister to her feet, watching the little master and MOMO running toward the tree line while Mary dusted herself off. "It must be that thing Master Gaignun gave her," she told Mary, who seemed puzzled for a moment. She prided herself on keeping track of what Master Gaignun was doing for most of the day, but she didn't remember this instance in particular until Shelley explained it.
"The bird? The little bluebird that the Representative told him to give to her? I don't understand," and to prove this, she shrugged her shoulders and shook her head just hard enough to lift the base of her ringlets. MOMO had reached the forest and stopped, staring up at the tops of the coniferous trees covered in snow while Jr. tried to catch up. His boots caught on an icy spot under the snow, and as the soles had little tread on them, he slipped and slid through the snow, cursing when he stopped and trying to get to his feet. "Why didn't he just keep it, like he does with all of those other artifacts that Helmer gives him? He could open a museum, and I bet it wouldn't be entirely dull... Well, maybe not, but that's not important."
Shelley smiled to herself and watched as Jr. caught up with MOMO and gave the box in her hands a suspicious look. "An artifact? Come on, sis. It's a living thing, you know, and have you seen how unhappy it looks in that cage?" An unsure smile crept over Mary's face, the corners of her mouth barely lifting as she thought about what her sister was telling her. "Helmer told Master Gaignun that the little bird used to sing such a beautiful song, but that it didn't like the cage. Now watch!" She pulled the blonde girl down the ramp, causing Mary to panic and drag her feet noisily along the steps, stopping at the base, letting the soft snow stir at their feet and settle in their hair. Nothing seemed to be happening, and Mary pouted like a young girl who'd been denied her toy.
At the other side of the field, MOMO was toying with one of the flaps on the top of the box, wearing a smile so large that it seemed to reach her ears. Her cheeks were rosy with the cold and tears were brimming in her eyes, though she didn't seem the least bit unhappy. Jr. watched her as if she were losing her mind, and started when she spun around and looked at him endearingly. He could hear movement from inside the box, but it was faint and could have been anything. He just prayed that it wasn't deadly, or he might have to shoot it and upset MOMO.
"If you start crying, your tears'll freeze. What's up?" She didn't seem to pay any attention, either deliberately or because she was so absorbed in the box that she now cradled like a child. Jr.'s apprehension grew.
"Master Gaignun gave me a gift and told me that I could do anything I wanted with it. So I want you to watch this, okay?" He seemed even more unsettled after hearing this, but nodded and watched the box carefully as she tugged one of the flaps open. A small blue head poked out and he screamed, falling backward into a deep pile of snow and cursing his luck again while tugging awkwardly at one of the guns he carried at his waist. Upon examining the creature more closely, he realized that it was the sickly little bluebird that Gaignun kept in his private chambers, the only place that no one but Jr. could enter unanounced. What the hell was she going to do with such a strange looking... thing?
MOMO beamed and opened the other half of the box, giving the little bird a clear path into the open sky, and it stared up for a while as if unsure of what to do. "Fly away, little birdy!" MOMO chanted, her smile widening and her eyes squinting to look up at the sky. Taking its cue, the bird flapped its tiny wings and took off into the sky, landing on a branch of a nearby hardwood tree that had long since lost its leaves. One of its feathers fell loose of its wing from the force of exertion it had never had to use before, to fly through the clear sky into the tree. MOMO cheered and the bird took flight once again, gaining enough height to coast over most of the treetops and avoiding the others.
At the base of the ship, Mary stood with her mouth agape. Shelley laughed softly and stared at the spot where the bird had once been before turning to Mary and smiling. Soon everyone had left the ship, and couldn't seem to figure out why Mary, Shelley, Jr. and MOMO seemed to be so preoccupied, though it warmed Ziggy's heart to see that MOMO no longer seemed to be feeling so sad.
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From that point on Jr. regarded MOMO in a new light. He thought that it was very unusual for a realian to care so much about a little bird, but quickly corrected his error and chastised himself for referring to her as a mere realian. Now that he thought of it, it didn't seem so strange for MOMO to take such an interest in an animal, especially one who seemed so unhappy and would have likely died in that little cage had she not set it free. Still, the entire encounter was somehow unnerving, though it seemed to have cleared whatever had been causing MOMO's bad mood as of late. He was still mad about falling in the snow, and grumbled about having snow in the seat of his pants for the remainder of the trip to the inn, which MOMO seemed to find very funny.
The inn they approached wasn't extravagant: in fact, it was little more than a large house made with long timber poles and a red roof. He had to applaud whoever had made the iron bars appear so much like actual timber, and planned to ask how it was that they'd come up with it when they met with the owners. As they opened the doors, Shion gasped and immediately walked in to gaze longingly at the monstrous fireplace set at the center of the room, where tongues of flame leapt from several small pieces of wood at the heart of the fire pit. Ziggy and chaos went to deal with the manager on the matter of their reservations, while the rest of them mingled in the magnificent lounge. Jr. smiled nervously as he surveyed the insides of the room, realizing that the entire inn was crafted using real wood, a rare commodity these days and normally only owned by government officials with enough time on their hands to nurse the young saplings. The entire forest must be real, he mused, remembering how the trees had been covered by several layers of glistening snow that made them seem like jewels.
Settling himself close to the fire, Jr. stared into the orange flames intently and wondered at how much it had cost the inn's owner to import enough wood to create such an amazing building. MOMO sat down at his side and stared into the fire, as well, more to imitate him than to watch the flames herself. Being so close to the fire sent chills down her spine, though the heat physically warmed her. The dual sensation she felt was surprisingly comfortable, and brought many good memories to mind. She remembered mama rushing over to give her a hug on the day she'd "returned from the hospital", which was only a cover-up for the fact that the two had never really met before that moment. She remembered an evening when she and Hammer were forced into doing the dishes, and she'd playfully splashed him with the soapy water, soaking the front of his apron. Captain Matthews had never laughed so hard as when Hammer rushed out of the kitchen in a pink-checkered confection, the front of his clothes seeping with what turned out to be boiling hot water. Lastly, she remembered her first kiss with Jr., sitting in the water of Master Gaignun's private beach. From that day on she decided that she enjoyed sitting by the fireplace, and someday wanted one of her own.
As it turned out, the owners of the inn were close friends of Helmer, and had permitted them to stay the night before setting out again in the morning. One of the maids was a middle-aged woman who MOMO mistook for the Mrs. Claus in one of her story books, and squealed so loudly that the poor woman dropped the armful of sheets she'd been carrying upstairs to prepare for that night. After babbling on for several minutes about how much she loved the story and pretty Christmas lights, the woman - who looked as if she were being mauled by someone much larger than a little girl - cut her off and told her that she'd never heard of this story before, retrieving the sheets and running up the stairs as quickly as she could without tripping over the hem of her dress. MOMO returned to Jr.'s side and gave him a pouty look that clearly showed her disappointment. He didn't have time to speak before someone else piped up.
"Romantic, isn't it?" Shion muttered half-heartedly from a few feet away, trying to focus her eyes on the flames but letting her gaze wander occasionally to where Allen was seated at a table, trying his hardest to ignore her. Unable to get him to turn towards her, she returned her gaze to the fireplace and made an angry face. While she wasn't paying any attention (and making several pouty faces and mouthing cusses into the fire), Allen chanced a glance in her direction and smiled wearily. He found it amusing to see the Chief lose restraint like this, but he wasn't going to give in until she apologized for being so rude to him on the Elsa before they'd arrived. Verbal abuse was already more than he could take, and the slap had seemingly brought the fact that she didn't see him that way home. By the time Shion turned around, he'd turned away and was motioning for Ziggy to come over and join him in a game of cards.
Jr. watched as Allen pulled a deck of cards from his pocket, which Tony and Hammer had earlier snuck into his room and replaced with a package of dirty playing cards only to get him in more trouble with Shion. Sure enough, as he pulled the box from his shirt pocket and turned them over to look at them, he took a sharp breath and threw them onto the table: for on the front sat a pouty woman in nothing but her bra, holding a translucent paper heart over her lower half. Poor Allen's face turned so red that Jr. thought he might explode, and Ziggy reached curiously over the table to see what the problem was. Also curious, MOMO stood and walked over, leaning over Ziggy's shoulder to get a good look at the package.
Shelley and Mary held their breath and watched as Jr.'s face showed his understanding, and then paled. He'd already seen what was on the front of the package when Tony and Hammer had relayed their plan to him the previous night and Ziggy was now raising the package to see the other side. Powerless to do anything but watch, he closed his eyes and was consumed by the long silence the followed, broken only by a weak cough that Hammer gave to clear his throat.
"Ziggy, she doesn't have any clothes on." The room was completely silent and everyone turned to look at MOMO, who stared curiously at the deck of cards and the naked woman on the front as if she weren't embarrassed in the least, and Ziggy, whose face had turned bright red as he slammed the cards down on the table and covered them with his metal hand. Hammer whimpered from where he stood in the corner, and just as Tony signaled to him to run both Jr. and Allen had taken off after them. Hammer dived out the front door with Tony close behind him, and though Allen stopped Jr. had taken out his gun and chased the two through the snow until they reached the woods and peered at him from behind the bushes, ready to beg for their lives. They'd already realized that putting MOMO in an embarrassing situation meant that hell would break loose, but Tony wanted to test their limits and Hammer... Well, Hammer was shaking so badly that Tony was afraid he'd fall apart.
By the time Jr. had returned to the inn he literally buzzed with anger, and returned to see that Shion had recovered the cards from Ziggy, who expected her to throw them into the fire and seemed grateful for the distraction. Instead, she beckoned MOMO to sit beside her and took them out of the package, causing Ziggy to make an odd sound in his throat and cast a puzzled glance in Jr.'s direction. He forced himself to sit down across from MOMO and Shion on the floor, while Shion flipped through the cards slowly and showed each and every one to MOMO, who still seemed to be missing the point entirely. With each card that flipped she made a scornful sound that sounded similar to a wheezy breath. "Can you believe this!?" She said to MOMO, who looked back at her with searching eyes. She didn't quite understand what the cards were, but she could tell by Shion's reaction that they couldn't be good. Besides, it wasn't proper to be seen without one's clothes on, as Shion had told her on one occasion when she'd been forced to wear a complicated dress and had remarked that she'd much rather wear nothing at all.
Finally, Shion threw the cards down into the fire with disgust, and rose to find the metal poker to prod at them until they'd all turned to ashes, making a great show of it and glancing back at Allen with each stab. He tried not to wince, but he could see that she was imagining him with every jab, and wouldn't have been surprised if she'd leapt up and used the tip of the boiling metal poker to make a permanent brand on his behind. The edges of her eyes were so harshly defined that he was starting to believe that another second of her smoldering glare might kill him.
"Shion?" MOMO asked, furrowing her brow as if trying very hard to think. She had to repeat the older woman's name several times before she stopped poking at the burning cards, but Shion gave a grunt of acknowledgement to tell that she was listening and set down the metal stick. MOMO hesitated for a moment or two before opening her mouth. "Why were those women naked?"
Shion gave a loud snort like nothing that Allen had ever heard before and shot him the angriest glare she could muster, a look that literally crackled more intensely than the flames in the nearby fireplace and made him fear that he might catch fire if it continued. The look in her eyes was enough to make him feel ashamed of himself, even though it had been Tony and Hammer's trick. MOMO had just started to repeat her name a fifth time, when Shion stood up and met her large golden eyes with an angry squint. "Because some men LIKE that kind of thing," she hissed through clenched teeth, and stormed away and up the staircase. Poor Allen was nearly at the point of tears; Ziggy looked as if he might be sick. Mary and Shelley watched as, to their amusement, MOMO gave Jr. the funniest look they'd ever seen. Her eyes wide as saucers, her mouth open in shock, her eyebrows arched and her face turning a brilliant shade of pink, she met Jr.'s embarrassed gaze with an accusing and equally embarrassed look. This continued for quite some time, when she suddenly seemed to calm down and looked almost contemplative.
"Shion's lying!" Allen yelled, desperate to break the heavy silence, but it seemed that he didn't quite believe it himself. "Tony, you dirty little-" He took off out the door to deal with Tony himself, and Ziggy couldn't help but give a nervous chuckle. That is, until MOMO grinned and piped up again, which caused any activity in the room to stop dead in its tracks and everyone's mouths to drop in shock.
"Were those women real? 'Cause I don't look like that when I'm-" Shelley had fallen off of her chair in a fit of laughter before the girl could even finish her sentence. Jr. launched himself across the floor and covered her mouth with his hand, so flustered that he could only manage to stutter a quick "No!" before he realized what he was doing and let his hand dangle back to his side. Soon after, he stood and walked up the stairs as Shion had done moments before, turning to go to his own room, leaving an embarrassed group of people in his wake. MOMO seemed puzzled at first, turning to Ziggy as if seeking an answer from him, but all she could see was the strange paleness of his face, which made him appear to be much older and, in a way, very weary.
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Ziggy wanted to explain what was happening to MOMO, but every time he tried an awkward feeling stopped him from doing so. Shelley and Mary volunteered, but Shelley burst into another fit of giggles so bad that she had to excuse herself and trekked off to her room. And of course, Mary wouldn't try to explain it on her own - certainly not to MOMO, who might not take things the right way - and none of the others would even come near. Frustrated, MOMO excused herself and dragged her feet up the long, wide set of stairs leading to the second floor, laid out with a soft red and white carpet down the middle. The stairs ended up in a long, open hallway that stretched three or four large rooms in each direction, with a red door leading into each room. She could hear the sound of glass breaking from the inside of what she presumed to be Shion's room, and decided that she wouldn't be sharing the room with her tonight. She'd go into the basement with KOS-MOS and settle herself beside the android's metallic bed, if need be. Disturbing Shion right now would just be asking to be hit with something hard and just small enough for Shion to pick up and throw.
She noticed that Allen was sitting outside of Shion's door, biting his lip and wincing every time he heard another crash within the room, obviously knowing that each of those blows was intended to hit him. He seemed to be working up his courage, and after a few minutes he stood and knocked on the door. Activity within the room stopped, and MOMO could hear pounding footsteps from within. Shion threw open the door and glowered at Allen, whose face remained completely blank as he stared at her, at a loss for words. Anyone could have seen why.
MOMO recalled the words of her father and repeated them to herself: "I've never seen your mother more beautiful than when she's mad." She noticed that, even though Shion had been crying and her face was contorted with both anger and frustration, her hair in a disarray around her shoulders and her eyes red and puffy, she looked very beautiful. Allen's face never moved: he seemed almost mystified by this side of Shion he had never seen before. Under his gaze she grew docile, the anger draining away from her pretty face. She started to cry again and hugged Allen so hard that he looked as if he couldn't breath. Slowly, as Shion's sobs echoed down the hallway, Allen started to smile again and patted her back.
"I'm sorry, Shion." It was as simple as that, and no more words were spoken. MOMO had never seen either of them act so strangely before, and when Allen grabbed Shion's hand and led her back downstairs to get her something to eat she felt even more puzzled. In a way, it seemed as if they'd just made up, though she didn't quite understand what all the commotion was about, and how everything had happened so quickly. She'd become so used to long, complicated confrontations that it had become a normal thing for her. A fight, even a petty one, involved angry words and even physical pain, but Allen had never acted up. MOMO gained a new respect for him that night after witnessing the events in the hallway.
Now that the activity in Shion's room had stopped, she could hear noises from the other's rooms. Shelley was still laughing in her room at the end of the eastern hall, and sounded as if her voice were growing hoarse. Mary was trying to stop her, moaning and telling Shelley that if she didn't soon stop she wouldn't be able to catch her breath and would probably drop dead on the carpet right in front of her sister. Captain Matthews was snoring loudly in his own room, and she heard Tony and Hammer talking in hushed tones from the same room, having narrowly escaped a bloodthirsty Allen moments before. Hammer's voice had a high-pitched whine to it that made it sound as if he were going to faint, and Tony seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed his little joke. From the furthest door on the western side, however, she heard Jr. pacing worriedly up and down the length of his room. She walked down the hallway and didn't hesitate to open the door, though having done it her body seemed to be overcome by a sudden heaviness.
"Go away," Jr. muttered, without even looking up to see who had come in. MOMO cocked her head to one side and studied him curiously, mostly because he, just as Shion and Allen had just moments before, was acting in a way she'd never seen before. His trench coat and shirt had been thrown haphazardly onto the bed, wrinkled and stretched in his efforts to remove them quickly, and he now stood staring out the window with his back to her. She'd never seen him without his shirt on, and winced as she studied several puckered scars running along his shoulder blades and back, still visible despite having healed over a good deal from the original wounds. This removed much of the shock of seeing him standing in a way that might have hinted at vulnerability to anyone else, but to MOMO it merely accentuated the fact that she'd done something to make him so angry. Still, she carefully pressed the door closed and walked up behind him hesitantly, and when he caught a glimpse of her reflected in the dark window his face turned even more red than it had been downstairs. He tried to hide it by continuing to ignore her, but he couldn't see anything through the darkness anyways, aside from her solemn face reflected by the glass whenever he let his eyes wander.
"I did something wrong," she mumbled matter-of-factly, running her eyes along the length of one of the scars on his shoulder and starting to feel sick with worry, both because he'd never told her about these scars and because she was afraid that she wasn't going to like the answer. At length, she had to avert her gaze to the peeling wallpaper on the wall to keep the nauseous feeling from deepening. It seemed like forever before he turned to face her with a strange look in his eyes, a glimmer of laughter soon drowned out by unease. She was immediately reminded of the little bluebird, sitting in its cage with its black eyes like pools of despair, that begged her to release it into its true habitat, and wondered if he felt trapped. She felt such an overwhelming sense of loss that she stumbled backwards several steps, with a certainty borne of experience that told her she would be scolded for wasting his time. He had the same gleam in his eyes as if he wished for nothing more than to harm her. Instead, he did nothing, which turned out to be far more painful than the little realian girl could bear.
The silence that ensued was overwhelming. MOMO studied several more scars that marred his chest and stomach, unable to look away; he noticed, making no effort to cover himself up, for the scars were a part of him as much as the air he was breathing. Admittedly he would never let anyone else see the reminder that he'd been brutally injured, and letting even MOMO see the scars made his head spin unpleasantly, though she'd probably never realize it. She could only imagine how he'd gotten them, and those thoughts were very disturbing to her: Especially so once she'd remembered the type of combat she'd seen in the Encephalon's recreation of Miltia. Were these battle scars from the Miltian Conflict? Had he been sliced at and made to bleed by the rabid enemies he was fighting? Inadvertently, she saw a flash of anger and pure hatred in one of the enemies' eyes, standing amongst the fighting URTV as if invisible to the others, and let out a little squeak, which caught Jr.'s attention, even as she lowered her eyes and winced as he took several hurried steps toward her.
"What...? What's wrong?" He backed up, looking around at the room behind him and returned his eyes to hers to see that she now looked profoundly upset, raising her face almost timidly. She tried to avoid his gaze for a while, when she thought of how Shion and Allen had embraced in the hallway and tried very hard to create a sober, mild expression and keep it, all the while forcing him to stare directly into her eyes in hopes that it would have the same calming effect. Hopefully he'd stop raging and give her hug, and she'd hug him back, and then take him downstairs to get him something to eat, because he hadn't eaten all night. This seemed fine, until she realized that he wasn't raging in the way that Shion had been, and that she wasn't Allen. Besides, how could food resolve anything? Just as she let her face fall back into its rueful expression, he moved a bit and then returned to a standing position, appearing agitated. MOMO had a feeling that this situation would only become more complicated.
Jr. was beginning to think she was trying to do nothing more than annoy him, even though he didn't want to admit it. Something kept her from responding to him, and this both worried and annoyed him.
"Well? What's wrong!?" He repeated, with a hint of a growl in his tone that made her eyes water. Maybe she should just leave, she thought, and go back downstairs with Ziggy? Her resolve disappeared when he repeated the question in an even angrier tone: she whimpered like an injured puppy and shuddered, taking a small step back. Thoughts of her angry mother, one instance in the kitchen, raising her hand to slap her daughter for bringing up the topic of not being her actual daughter clouded her mind, and she could easily picture it happening again, brought on by nothing more than an angry tone of voice. The stinging, burning sensation she hated so much could be inflicted by anyone she displeased, and normally she was careful about not setting anyone off: however, even though she felt that she trusted Jr., when she heard his frantic footsteps against the carpet she raised her eyes boldly and took a few steps forward, and before she knew what she was doing she'd thrown herself against him and wrapped her arms around him so tightly that it was hard for either to breath.
"Don't be mad!" she gasped, burying her face into the space between his shoulder and neck so that her next words were obscured. "I think I said something wrong, I'm sorry. And then I came up here and didn't do a very good job of setting things straight." He was scarcely listening, for he was so embarrassed at their current situation. "I just wanted to know why you seemed so upset! I don't like seeing you upset!" Her voice had risen and shook horribly. For an awful moment she thought he might simply pull away from her and ask her to leave, but to her relief he returned the hug with a chuckle.
After a moment of silence, MOMO realized how they were standing and her body went rigid with shock. He returned her hug so tightly that her breath caught in her throat, partly from their proximity and also from the fact that she was trying desperately trying to grasp what was happening. One of his arms was wrapped around her neck, and the other at the small of her back, so that she scarcely had room to breath. Both of her arms wrapped around his back, and she pressed her entire body against him. When she dared to stir, his grip intensified, and he moved his head to one side so that she could feel his breath on her neck, which did anything but calm her down. A barrage of alien emotions played through her body, completely overwhelming her. Most of all, she felt a strange sense of security, alongside content. After standing there in just this way for quite some time, MOMO's eyelids fluttered and she leaned into Jr.'s chest, letting the unsettling feelings drift away one by one.
"I guess I was just being protective," he mumbled into the side of her neck before letting go and taking a step back. He studied her for a long time, the corners of his mouth twitching as if unsure of whether to smile or frown. Glad for any distractions, MOMO reached out her fingers and lightly brushed one of the scars on his chest with her fingertips: he tensed at the foolish, impulsive gesture and grinned sheepishly. It seemed like such a trivial thing, to be upset over someone else's battle scars, but with MOMO he didn't really have to question it. She found meaning in a lot of things, especially since she and Ziggy were the only ones aside from his fellow URTV's who had witnessed the combat.
"So the scars upset you?" He asked, covering her hand with his own to stop her and looking at her probingly. "I could put my shirt back on, y'know. And then you wouldn't have to look at them." To prove this, he walked toward the bed and reached for his shirt and trench coat, but she merely frowned and let her eyes wander around the room a bit, nervously. Another feeling had settled in her stomach, a deep, sentimental fondness that she couldn't seem to ignore. Whenever she looked at Jr., standing by the edge of the bed trying to make up his mind, she felt like smiling. The entire thing was absurd.
"It was that, too... It must have been painful. But..." She pursed her lips and studied him for a moment, standing near the bed with deep navy sheets (he'd gone through several of the rooms trying to find one that wasn't entirely pink and filled with lace and frills) with his shirt hanging loosely from one of his hands, and how surprised he looked. "I was just caught up in my thoughts. It was nothing, really."
She sniffed and Jr. sat down on the bed, patting the space beside him. When she'd sat down he stared at her for a while, contemplating what to say. Finally, he chuckled and turned away, studying the window. "Don't worry about those pictures. I'll tell you about them later, but right now they don't matter." She frowned at him, not daring to question, for he seemed extremely embarrassed to bring up the subject already. Her mind flipped back to a day several weeks before, when she had been helping Shion clean up the Elsa, and had been told to tidy Tony's room... Only to make the discovery of magazines very similar to the playing cards. She didn't want to think of them right now, desperate to change the subject to something more comfortable.
"MOMO?" They turned to stare at eachother. Jr. looked apprehensive and a bit unsure of himself, or maybe it was MOMO's imagination. "Explain to me why you let the bird go today."
She couldn't answer immediately. For a minute or two she stared at Jr. incredulously, as if he'd just asked the world's most pointless question and she was trying to answer it without sounding exasperated. Several times she opened her mouth as if to speak, but decided against it. Had it been nothing more than an impulsive decision, a spur of the moment fling? Her body language suggested it; her eyes did not. Something had driven her to go to the trouble of setting the bluebird free, and it might prove to be interesting to hear.
"...Did you ever see it?" She stammered, very slowly and in a voice so soft that she had to repeat it at his request. He nodded. "It looked so lonely. It was trapped in a little prison and had nothing more to do than sit and stare at the side of the silk sheet Gaignun used to cover the cage." She smiled and seemed to be remembering the exact moment when she'd opened the cage that morning, and how sickly the little bird was despite the fact that she'd first thought of it as beautiful. "I thought it might find a mate and others like itself if it could get out of its cage." So that was it, Jr. thought, chuckling to himself as he imagined MOMO fawning over the sickly little bird. He didn't dare tell her that it probably wouldn't last the winter, or that it was the last of its kind, or even that it would never be fortunate enough to find a mate, for she seemed so enthralled by the thing that it would be a shame to upset her. She'd never know if it didn't survive, nor did she need to know.
"You look like you figured something out," Jr. muttered uneasily, upon turning to face her and finding that she'd once again become thoughtful. He felt a shock when she turned to look at him, her eyes focused and yet holding the sheen of a scared child. She was going to say something, he could tell, but it took her a while to decide whether or not she really wanted to say it. Allen and Shion had returned, Shion laughing at something Allen had said downstairs, and seconds later the door to Shion's room had opened and closed. The laughter continued long after they'd gone into the room, and MOMO could tell that Allen had gone in with Shion. It made her feel uncomfortable at the prospect of having to go to bed with the both of them in the room together, which forced her into thought.
"I'm tired," she mumbled after a short yawn, giving Jr. a long, studious look. What she was going to say was that she'd be in KOS-MOS' room if he needed her: she'd have to sleep without her teddy bear and on the cold floor of the basement, but it would probably mean less of a hassle in the long run. Instead, Jr. tugged at MOMO's skirt until she looked at him, and then grabbed her arm and pulled until she moved toward the front of the bed. He ignored her startled expression and told her to go to sleep, before curling up at the bottom of the bed. It took her a while, but she sniffed and inched toward him a bit, clearly boggled by this action.
"Jr..." She tapped him lightly on the shoulder and hoped that he'd turn around, if only to explain. He swatted at her hand, and she soon began to feel that it was some sort of game, giggling every time he tried to stop her from poking him. At length he told her to go to sleep again, ignoring her until she decided she should just go to sleep anyways, and curled up beside him.
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Second Miltia came into view in all of its glory on the horizon, and as they neared MOMO could clearly isolate the soft white clouds formed over their landing area through the window--It was snowing. While she made a show of smiling, her eyes drifted lamely from cloud to cloud, her mind wandering elsewhere as she stumbled ahead. Somehow, the metallic clang of her feet on the floor fit perfectly with the icy landscape, like a winter chime playing softly in the background.
Maybe it was "Jingle bells", with rusty old metal bells attached to a leather strap which one of the singers would shake in time with the beat of the tune. Or "Silent Night", which her mama had tried to sing to her one night but forgot some of the words - so she'd taken to humming the tune instead, her face softening at the mere thought of attending church services around this time of year with her own mother. MOMO thought it more suiting that the sound of soft footsteps should prove to be the snow's anthem, simple and perfectly suited to what pieces of the barren landscape she could see from their elevation.
"Do you know why I taught you all of those songs, honey?" Juli was tucking her into bed and pulling the sheets down so tightly that they formed a sort of coccoon - a nice, warm little haven - around MOMO's body. She was a woman who stuck to her rituals like an adhesive to paper, and occasionally pulled up a memory of her own childhood in order to make her daughter's early years all the more enjoyable. "Pretty soon no one will remember them. They're beautiful old songs, and I can't stand to see them die like this, so be sure to sing them to your own children when you're-" She stopped and her pretty face fell into a horrified, empty gape, with her mouth creating a perfect black oval against her pale skin. This was the first time she'd realized what having a realian daughter would mean in the future, and an unpleasant feeling settled in her gut when she realized that her daughter would never really grow up, never experience the same things her real daughter would have. There were no more songs or good-night kisses: only brief, strained interactions whenever they met within the house they shared, which created fine cracks in the walls of their being. Juli Mizrahi strained against herself so hard that she broke down and couldn't stand to look the realian in the eye.
In all of her life, MOMO had never felt quite so unsettled. She'd wandered aimlessly throughout the Durandal's bustling corridors in an attempt to wear herself out, wishing all the way that someone familiar would walk by and break the steady hum and buzz of strange voices that rang throughout the ship and her memory. Of course, it was only six in the morning, and she doubted any of her friends would be awake until seven at the least. She stomped down the hallway, hoping that her pounding footsteps would either make enough noise to reach Jr.'s chambers or Ziggy's small room, to give her some company. As she walked she stared out of the window into the soft light of dawn slowly creeping over the side of Second Miltia, bathing her face in soft shades of gold and pink, finding no more comfort in it than she did her synthetic surroundings.
She ran off a list of events on today's schedule and smiled in a lackluster way; an outing with Ziggy once they landed on Second Miltia, more time to spend alone with her friends and to relax... All of it was only a mere hour away. In other words, she would forget about the recent encephalon dive and relax on the beaches that Shion had described as 'endless', once they'd left the icy northern area they'd been forced to land in. She looked forward to taking Ziggy and Jr. to the beach to share her dream, share the overflowing ecstasy she dreamt of as the waves lapped at her bare legs. This time she'd let herself loose.
MOMO smiled to a stranger passing on her left.
Mentally, she checked off their locations as they passed through her central monitor: Shion, tossing and turning in her bed, recovering from a spat with Matthews and Allen over today's trip. Allen had almost refused to tag along and had finally let his feelings for the 'chief' slip, much to both Shion and Matthews' surprise. She slapped him before leaving the room as coolly as if she were KOS-MOS, and MOMO had watched in awe as Allen broke down and cried, hitting the control station so hard with balled fists that Matthews had to restrain him. Ziggy, still awake, staring into the wall adjacent to his maintenance station as if expecting something to pop forth from it, leaving MOMO to wonder what he was thinking about. A troubled chaos, wandering just as she was, stopping every now and then to think and study the sunrise with vague interest. KOS-MOS, her power supply lowered to a steady stream, lying motionless in her metal bed. Jr., sprawled on his bed and snoring, while Mary and Gaignun discussed business matters nearby. She enjoyed watching them, the feeling of control and relief it gave her. They were safe in bed and, for a couple of hours, she could take their burdens away without awkward confrontation.
As MOMO walked, she realized she'd entered a less than populated area of the district and had long since left any wanderers behind. A strange feeling of isolation fell over her like a veil, and she chose to rest on a bench rather than venture further, meaning she'd have to give in to the memories she was trying to escape. As sure as she was it would occur, MOMO jumped when the image of her mother appeared clear as day in front of her, her slight body leaning over the top of their informal kitchen table which papa seemed to adore, if only for the reason that it was so simple and effective.
"I can't do this any more, Joachim," She was chuckling coolly, though her facial expression was that of someone pained. Juli Mizrahi. No, Juli Niwashiro. MOMO wouldn't have expected her to give in the the social conformity of changing her last name if she'd known her the way she did now at that moment, but somehow it gave her a power she could otherwise never have achieved. She was the wife of the madman and mother to a beautiful little girl. She had an influence. She had the surname to give a bit of "oomph" to her claims. Juli Mizrahi would succeed where the supple, naive Niwashiro had failed to do so. MOMO hid in the next room, dressed in a simple yellow sundress with her hands folded neatly in her lap. The first feelings of rejection were even now beginning to develop, spreading through her veins like sickness.
Papa stood a few feet away, eyeing her languidly and smirking at the sarcasm dripping through her voice. "Now, you know you're just over-reacting," he stated simply. "What's wrong with Sakura? She seems so upset lately, have you been putting those ideas of yours in her head again?" From her spot on the couch, MOMO could see that woman's complexion paling and then bursting forth with fresh rage, her delicate little hands balled into fists so hard that her hand had started to bleed from the pressure put on one of her nails. The tethers of her life, so neatly tied back down after Sakura's death by the people who she assumed she'd never escape, had come loose and fluttered around her like so many of her dying hopes. Joachim noticed, raising his eyes to her shyly and questioningly. The fine wall of her emotions cracked and shattered like a piece of old glass.
"She's not 'Sakura'!" Were the first words that came out of mama's mouth. She jumped from her chair, knocking it over and into the wall with a sickening crack. The muscles of her jaw were clenched and she bared her teeth like a dog readying itself to fight. Joachim merely eyed her sadly, wishing he could have avoided another outburst. In the next room, MOMO's body was livid and she kicked her legs as a distraction from the tears pooling in her eyes. "That little girl in there is a REALIAN. You invented them, and you tried to fool me into believing that she was my daughter, our daughter, more than the object that she really is." As an afterthought, she cursed violently at him and tried to calm herself by tapping her fingers on the table's edge. The other residents of the Mizrahi household felt the immediate effects of her words, knocking the air from Joachim's lungs and putting MOMO in so much pain that she cried out in anguish and buried her face in her hands.
"I've never seen your mother more beautiful than when she's mad," Joachim used to tell her as she slept within her liquid bed. He would always smile fervently and try to focus his mind on his work, but it was all too obvious that any sort of focus wasn't helping. "She's a furious lady, I tell you. And when she applies herself, instead of looking so... lost... Well, you know the way she usually looks. When she looks as if she's about to explode, I learn to love her all over again." He walked away from the panel whistling and shoved a hand into the pocket of his pants, once again fading away, without a word about MOMO herself. She remembered this all too clearly, but at the time she didn't realize how brutal her mother's temper was. Things were never the same after that outburst. Everything had happened far too quickly for her to understand.
"But you know you're both my girls. You two... Well, technically three, but there's no use trying to hang onto a life long since lost, huh?.... Well, you mean more to me than anything, even more than this research here. I just wish your mother'd give me the time of day anymore, but she's brooding. Very well." Daddy spoke to her like Sakura. In fact, if Juli hadn't leaked the secret to her that morning in the kitchen, she very well could have continued her life as Sakura, never admitted the truth to herself. Her words lingered under her skin like poison, and every day she came closer to accepting the truth, lethal as it may be. From that day on she was 'MOMO', a name far less poetic than Sakura. It was a name that Juli could inject with all of the anger boiling inside of herself, pronounced so harshly as it rolled from her lips.
She was contemplating the possibility of her father still loving Juli when Gaignun emerged from the adjacent door, his hair perfectly gelled down and eyes squinted to see who was sitting on the bench, surveying MOMO like a hawk stalking its prey. He obviously had some sort of purpose, and something in his demeanor caused MOMO to sit up and lean forward, trying to study the carefully guarded expression on his face as he sauntered forward. He masked it with a smile that seemed sincere enough. MOMO scolded herself for feeling distrustful of Master Gaignun; after all, he'd been nothing but kind since she'd arrived on the Durandal. "Ah, there you are. I have something to give you," his jaw twitched in a mischievous way before he continued. "It's not from me, though. 'He' asked me to give it to you."
She tried her best to look flustered and childish, just to cover her frustrations long enough to endure this encounter, making her mouth into a perfect circle and widening her eyes just the way one might if they were genuinely surprised. Gaignun didn't seem to buy it, and though she didn't realize yet it was Jr.'s long conversations with the Godwin twins that gave her away. Often when he returned to the office he'd seem to be especially happy, or extremely upset - the perfect excuse for Mary or Shelley, quite often both, to ambush him and press for details until he gave in. He'd get lost in description of his day, mostly just to lead Mary and Shelley on until the most critical moment, when he'd stop and walk away to piss them off. He ended up with a good many bruises afterward, but all in all he claimed the looks on their faces to be worth all of the trouble of being humiliated. Lately, he'd started to include MOMO in many of his stories, in a way that suggested he wasn't even aware he was doing it, but speaking so fervently that the Godwin sisters had to tell him to stop after a while.
Despite all of her wondering as to who 'he' might be, MOMO got nowhere. For at that very moment Gaignun ceased to look thoughtful and pulled a small cage from behind his back, covered by a long piece of red silk. The metal bars clung to the fabric, making it seem as if vertical rows of bones were trying to escape from beneath a red barrier; and at the center was a small bump, the only part of the handle that showed through the thin silk cover. A small hole at the top allowed a carrying handle to poke through, and the ends of the silk curled outward with a pretty pattern of diamonds at the base, with a small white border sewn around the bottom. MOMO eyed it warily.
"It was originally a gift from Helmer, but I don't think I'm capable of caring for it," he mentioned casually. "Do with her what you want, but be sure to take care of her. She's the last living specimen, unless you count the realian replicas." With that he handed the cage to her and, certain that she had a firm grip on the handle, he took a step back and nodded for her to take a peek. She hesitated and tugged at the silk cover, which fluttered down and onto her lap while she gave a simultaneous gasp out of both pleasure and shock. MOMO raised her eyes to search out Gaignun's as if to ask if she were actually holding what she saw in the cage, but found that he'd walked away in her reverie. Her eyes met the cold metal wall to find no evidence that anyone had stood there just moments before, not that Master Gaignun emenated any particular human warmth to begin with.
She couldn't frown or even feel lonely that he'd simply left, for in the cage on her lap sat a small bluebird, carefully preening one of the azure-colored feathers of her wing. Its eyes were perfect black spheres that peered at the area beyond the cage carefully, for it was rare for the silk covering to be removed and allow it to see the world outside. They reminded MOMO of little bowls of ink, and she found herself half expecting the liquidy black to drip from the small spheres and down through the bird's pretty blue breast. Its tiny feet gripped a horizontal metal bar hung from the top of the cage. To watch it going about its business brought MOMO a sense of delight, and she gazed at it for another minute before putting the silk cover back over the cage and standing up.
She knew what she wanted to do with the bird: she'd like nothing more than to keep it by her all the time, just so she could ogle at its rare beauty. She wanted to experience the pride of owning something as exclusive as the bird she held in her hand. But in a way, the thought of keeping it in its cage, of watching every day as it gazed longingly past the thin bars of its prison, tore at her heart in a way she'd never felt before.
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Mary and Shelley woke Jr. up not long before the Durandal had stopped in orbit around Second Miltia and released the Elsa from the docking bay. The ship was much too large to land in such an isolated area, and not many people were disembarking, so Captain Matthews agreed to transfer the group to the ground if he were permitted to tag along. After forcefully removing him from his chambers and rushing him down the hall, Shelley and Mary stopped before a window and peered out as the ground seemed to rise to meet them. The landing was relatively smooth, and Captain Matthews announced that he was opening the exit ramp. Before Shelley and Mary had enough time to squeal and start toward the door, MOMO came running like a bat out of hell and disappeared through the exit, the sound of her boots fading as she stepped off the ramp and into the snow.
"What's gotten into her?" Mary sniffed indignantly and walked over to the exit, peering out at the girl who continued to run through the ankle-deep snow with a glorious smile on her face, and a small box-like object in her hands. She leaned against the doorframe and pursed her lips in a way that made her seem much older and serious. "Maybe she likes the snow, but I think it's a horrible thing to have to walk in. And damn cold, at that." She didn't have time to say anything beyond that, because she was once again pushed out of the way and landed on her rear on the entrance ramp, looking up in time to see Jr.'s trench coat waving behind him as he ran.
Shelley laughed and helped her sister to her feet, watching the little master and MOMO running toward the tree line while Mary dusted herself off. "It must be that thing Master Gaignun gave her," she told Mary, who seemed puzzled for a moment. She prided herself on keeping track of what Master Gaignun was doing for most of the day, but she didn't remember this instance in particular until Shelley explained it.
"The bird? The little bluebird that the Representative told him to give to her? I don't understand," and to prove this, she shrugged her shoulders and shook her head just hard enough to lift the base of her ringlets. MOMO had reached the forest and stopped, staring up at the tops of the coniferous trees covered in snow while Jr. tried to catch up. His boots caught on an icy spot under the snow, and as the soles had little tread on them, he slipped and slid through the snow, cursing when he stopped and trying to get to his feet. "Why didn't he just keep it, like he does with all of those other artifacts that Helmer gives him? He could open a museum, and I bet it wouldn't be entirely dull... Well, maybe not, but that's not important."
Shelley smiled to herself and watched as Jr. caught up with MOMO and gave the box in her hands a suspicious look. "An artifact? Come on, sis. It's a living thing, you know, and have you seen how unhappy it looks in that cage?" An unsure smile crept over Mary's face, the corners of her mouth barely lifting as she thought about what her sister was telling her. "Helmer told Master Gaignun that the little bird used to sing such a beautiful song, but that it didn't like the cage. Now watch!" She pulled the blonde girl down the ramp, causing Mary to panic and drag her feet noisily along the steps, stopping at the base, letting the soft snow stir at their feet and settle in their hair. Nothing seemed to be happening, and Mary pouted like a young girl who'd been denied her toy.
At the other side of the field, MOMO was toying with one of the flaps on the top of the box, wearing a smile so large that it seemed to reach her ears. Her cheeks were rosy with the cold and tears were brimming in her eyes, though she didn't seem the least bit unhappy. Jr. watched her as if she were losing her mind, and started when she spun around and looked at him endearingly. He could hear movement from inside the box, but it was faint and could have been anything. He just prayed that it wasn't deadly, or he might have to shoot it and upset MOMO.
"If you start crying, your tears'll freeze. What's up?" She didn't seem to pay any attention, either deliberately or because she was so absorbed in the box that she now cradled like a child. Jr.'s apprehension grew.
"Master Gaignun gave me a gift and told me that I could do anything I wanted with it. So I want you to watch this, okay?" He seemed even more unsettled after hearing this, but nodded and watched the box carefully as she tugged one of the flaps open. A small blue head poked out and he screamed, falling backward into a deep pile of snow and cursing his luck again while tugging awkwardly at one of the guns he carried at his waist. Upon examining the creature more closely, he realized that it was the sickly little bluebird that Gaignun kept in his private chambers, the only place that no one but Jr. could enter unanounced. What the hell was she going to do with such a strange looking... thing?
MOMO beamed and opened the other half of the box, giving the little bird a clear path into the open sky, and it stared up for a while as if unsure of what to do. "Fly away, little birdy!" MOMO chanted, her smile widening and her eyes squinting to look up at the sky. Taking its cue, the bird flapped its tiny wings and took off into the sky, landing on a branch of a nearby hardwood tree that had long since lost its leaves. One of its feathers fell loose of its wing from the force of exertion it had never had to use before, to fly through the clear sky into the tree. MOMO cheered and the bird took flight once again, gaining enough height to coast over most of the treetops and avoiding the others.
At the base of the ship, Mary stood with her mouth agape. Shelley laughed softly and stared at the spot where the bird had once been before turning to Mary and smiling. Soon everyone had left the ship, and couldn't seem to figure out why Mary, Shelley, Jr. and MOMO seemed to be so preoccupied, though it warmed Ziggy's heart to see that MOMO no longer seemed to be feeling so sad.
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From that point on Jr. regarded MOMO in a new light. He thought that it was very unusual for a realian to care so much about a little bird, but quickly corrected his error and chastised himself for referring to her as a mere realian. Now that he thought of it, it didn't seem so strange for MOMO to take such an interest in an animal, especially one who seemed so unhappy and would have likely died in that little cage had she not set it free. Still, the entire encounter was somehow unnerving, though it seemed to have cleared whatever had been causing MOMO's bad mood as of late. He was still mad about falling in the snow, and grumbled about having snow in the seat of his pants for the remainder of the trip to the inn, which MOMO seemed to find very funny.
The inn they approached wasn't extravagant: in fact, it was little more than a large house made with long timber poles and a red roof. He had to applaud whoever had made the iron bars appear so much like actual timber, and planned to ask how it was that they'd come up with it when they met with the owners. As they opened the doors, Shion gasped and immediately walked in to gaze longingly at the monstrous fireplace set at the center of the room, where tongues of flame leapt from several small pieces of wood at the heart of the fire pit. Ziggy and chaos went to deal with the manager on the matter of their reservations, while the rest of them mingled in the magnificent lounge. Jr. smiled nervously as he surveyed the insides of the room, realizing that the entire inn was crafted using real wood, a rare commodity these days and normally only owned by government officials with enough time on their hands to nurse the young saplings. The entire forest must be real, he mused, remembering how the trees had been covered by several layers of glistening snow that made them seem like jewels.
Settling himself close to the fire, Jr. stared into the orange flames intently and wondered at how much it had cost the inn's owner to import enough wood to create such an amazing building. MOMO sat down at his side and stared into the fire, as well, more to imitate him than to watch the flames herself. Being so close to the fire sent chills down her spine, though the heat physically warmed her. The dual sensation she felt was surprisingly comfortable, and brought many good memories to mind. She remembered mama rushing over to give her a hug on the day she'd "returned from the hospital", which was only a cover-up for the fact that the two had never really met before that moment. She remembered an evening when she and Hammer were forced into doing the dishes, and she'd playfully splashed him with the soapy water, soaking the front of his apron. Captain Matthews had never laughed so hard as when Hammer rushed out of the kitchen in a pink-checkered confection, the front of his clothes seeping with what turned out to be boiling hot water. Lastly, she remembered her first kiss with Jr., sitting in the water of Master Gaignun's private beach. From that day on she decided that she enjoyed sitting by the fireplace, and someday wanted one of her own.
As it turned out, the owners of the inn were close friends of Helmer, and had permitted them to stay the night before setting out again in the morning. One of the maids was a middle-aged woman who MOMO mistook for the Mrs. Claus in one of her story books, and squealed so loudly that the poor woman dropped the armful of sheets she'd been carrying upstairs to prepare for that night. After babbling on for several minutes about how much she loved the story and pretty Christmas lights, the woman - who looked as if she were being mauled by someone much larger than a little girl - cut her off and told her that she'd never heard of this story before, retrieving the sheets and running up the stairs as quickly as she could without tripping over the hem of her dress. MOMO returned to Jr.'s side and gave him a pouty look that clearly showed her disappointment. He didn't have time to speak before someone else piped up.
"Romantic, isn't it?" Shion muttered half-heartedly from a few feet away, trying to focus her eyes on the flames but letting her gaze wander occasionally to where Allen was seated at a table, trying his hardest to ignore her. Unable to get him to turn towards her, she returned her gaze to the fireplace and made an angry face. While she wasn't paying any attention (and making several pouty faces and mouthing cusses into the fire), Allen chanced a glance in her direction and smiled wearily. He found it amusing to see the Chief lose restraint like this, but he wasn't going to give in until she apologized for being so rude to him on the Elsa before they'd arrived. Verbal abuse was already more than he could take, and the slap had seemingly brought the fact that she didn't see him that way home. By the time Shion turned around, he'd turned away and was motioning for Ziggy to come over and join him in a game of cards.
Jr. watched as Allen pulled a deck of cards from his pocket, which Tony and Hammer had earlier snuck into his room and replaced with a package of dirty playing cards only to get him in more trouble with Shion. Sure enough, as he pulled the box from his shirt pocket and turned them over to look at them, he took a sharp breath and threw them onto the table: for on the front sat a pouty woman in nothing but her bra, holding a translucent paper heart over her lower half. Poor Allen's face turned so red that Jr. thought he might explode, and Ziggy reached curiously over the table to see what the problem was. Also curious, MOMO stood and walked over, leaning over Ziggy's shoulder to get a good look at the package.
Shelley and Mary held their breath and watched as Jr.'s face showed his understanding, and then paled. He'd already seen what was on the front of the package when Tony and Hammer had relayed their plan to him the previous night and Ziggy was now raising the package to see the other side. Powerless to do anything but watch, he closed his eyes and was consumed by the long silence the followed, broken only by a weak cough that Hammer gave to clear his throat.
"Ziggy, she doesn't have any clothes on." The room was completely silent and everyone turned to look at MOMO, who stared curiously at the deck of cards and the naked woman on the front as if she weren't embarrassed in the least, and Ziggy, whose face had turned bright red as he slammed the cards down on the table and covered them with his metal hand. Hammer whimpered from where he stood in the corner, and just as Tony signaled to him to run both Jr. and Allen had taken off after them. Hammer dived out the front door with Tony close behind him, and though Allen stopped Jr. had taken out his gun and chased the two through the snow until they reached the woods and peered at him from behind the bushes, ready to beg for their lives. They'd already realized that putting MOMO in an embarrassing situation meant that hell would break loose, but Tony wanted to test their limits and Hammer... Well, Hammer was shaking so badly that Tony was afraid he'd fall apart.
By the time Jr. had returned to the inn he literally buzzed with anger, and returned to see that Shion had recovered the cards from Ziggy, who expected her to throw them into the fire and seemed grateful for the distraction. Instead, she beckoned MOMO to sit beside her and took them out of the package, causing Ziggy to make an odd sound in his throat and cast a puzzled glance in Jr.'s direction. He forced himself to sit down across from MOMO and Shion on the floor, while Shion flipped through the cards slowly and showed each and every one to MOMO, who still seemed to be missing the point entirely. With each card that flipped she made a scornful sound that sounded similar to a wheezy breath. "Can you believe this!?" She said to MOMO, who looked back at her with searching eyes. She didn't quite understand what the cards were, but she could tell by Shion's reaction that they couldn't be good. Besides, it wasn't proper to be seen without one's clothes on, as Shion had told her on one occasion when she'd been forced to wear a complicated dress and had remarked that she'd much rather wear nothing at all.
Finally, Shion threw the cards down into the fire with disgust, and rose to find the metal poker to prod at them until they'd all turned to ashes, making a great show of it and glancing back at Allen with each stab. He tried not to wince, but he could see that she was imagining him with every jab, and wouldn't have been surprised if she'd leapt up and used the tip of the boiling metal poker to make a permanent brand on his behind. The edges of her eyes were so harshly defined that he was starting to believe that another second of her smoldering glare might kill him.
"Shion?" MOMO asked, furrowing her brow as if trying very hard to think. She had to repeat the older woman's name several times before she stopped poking at the burning cards, but Shion gave a grunt of acknowledgement to tell that she was listening and set down the metal stick. MOMO hesitated for a moment or two before opening her mouth. "Why were those women naked?"
Shion gave a loud snort like nothing that Allen had ever heard before and shot him the angriest glare she could muster, a look that literally crackled more intensely than the flames in the nearby fireplace and made him fear that he might catch fire if it continued. The look in her eyes was enough to make him feel ashamed of himself, even though it had been Tony and Hammer's trick. MOMO had just started to repeat her name a fifth time, when Shion stood up and met her large golden eyes with an angry squint. "Because some men LIKE that kind of thing," she hissed through clenched teeth, and stormed away and up the staircase. Poor Allen was nearly at the point of tears; Ziggy looked as if he might be sick. Mary and Shelley watched as, to their amusement, MOMO gave Jr. the funniest look they'd ever seen. Her eyes wide as saucers, her mouth open in shock, her eyebrows arched and her face turning a brilliant shade of pink, she met Jr.'s embarrassed gaze with an accusing and equally embarrassed look. This continued for quite some time, when she suddenly seemed to calm down and looked almost contemplative.
"Shion's lying!" Allen yelled, desperate to break the heavy silence, but it seemed that he didn't quite believe it himself. "Tony, you dirty little-" He took off out the door to deal with Tony himself, and Ziggy couldn't help but give a nervous chuckle. That is, until MOMO grinned and piped up again, which caused any activity in the room to stop dead in its tracks and everyone's mouths to drop in shock.
"Were those women real? 'Cause I don't look like that when I'm-" Shelley had fallen off of her chair in a fit of laughter before the girl could even finish her sentence. Jr. launched himself across the floor and covered her mouth with his hand, so flustered that he could only manage to stutter a quick "No!" before he realized what he was doing and let his hand dangle back to his side. Soon after, he stood and walked up the stairs as Shion had done moments before, turning to go to his own room, leaving an embarrassed group of people in his wake. MOMO seemed puzzled at first, turning to Ziggy as if seeking an answer from him, but all she could see was the strange paleness of his face, which made him appear to be much older and, in a way, very weary.
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Ziggy wanted to explain what was happening to MOMO, but every time he tried an awkward feeling stopped him from doing so. Shelley and Mary volunteered, but Shelley burst into another fit of giggles so bad that she had to excuse herself and trekked off to her room. And of course, Mary wouldn't try to explain it on her own - certainly not to MOMO, who might not take things the right way - and none of the others would even come near. Frustrated, MOMO excused herself and dragged her feet up the long, wide set of stairs leading to the second floor, laid out with a soft red and white carpet down the middle. The stairs ended up in a long, open hallway that stretched three or four large rooms in each direction, with a red door leading into each room. She could hear the sound of glass breaking from the inside of what she presumed to be Shion's room, and decided that she wouldn't be sharing the room with her tonight. She'd go into the basement with KOS-MOS and settle herself beside the android's metallic bed, if need be. Disturbing Shion right now would just be asking to be hit with something hard and just small enough for Shion to pick up and throw.
She noticed that Allen was sitting outside of Shion's door, biting his lip and wincing every time he heard another crash within the room, obviously knowing that each of those blows was intended to hit him. He seemed to be working up his courage, and after a few minutes he stood and knocked on the door. Activity within the room stopped, and MOMO could hear pounding footsteps from within. Shion threw open the door and glowered at Allen, whose face remained completely blank as he stared at her, at a loss for words. Anyone could have seen why.
MOMO recalled the words of her father and repeated them to herself: "I've never seen your mother more beautiful than when she's mad." She noticed that, even though Shion had been crying and her face was contorted with both anger and frustration, her hair in a disarray around her shoulders and her eyes red and puffy, she looked very beautiful. Allen's face never moved: he seemed almost mystified by this side of Shion he had never seen before. Under his gaze she grew docile, the anger draining away from her pretty face. She started to cry again and hugged Allen so hard that he looked as if he couldn't breath. Slowly, as Shion's sobs echoed down the hallway, Allen started to smile again and patted her back.
"I'm sorry, Shion." It was as simple as that, and no more words were spoken. MOMO had never seen either of them act so strangely before, and when Allen grabbed Shion's hand and led her back downstairs to get her something to eat she felt even more puzzled. In a way, it seemed as if they'd just made up, though she didn't quite understand what all the commotion was about, and how everything had happened so quickly. She'd become so used to long, complicated confrontations that it had become a normal thing for her. A fight, even a petty one, involved angry words and even physical pain, but Allen had never acted up. MOMO gained a new respect for him that night after witnessing the events in the hallway.
Now that the activity in Shion's room had stopped, she could hear noises from the other's rooms. Shelley was still laughing in her room at the end of the eastern hall, and sounded as if her voice were growing hoarse. Mary was trying to stop her, moaning and telling Shelley that if she didn't soon stop she wouldn't be able to catch her breath and would probably drop dead on the carpet right in front of her sister. Captain Matthews was snoring loudly in his own room, and she heard Tony and Hammer talking in hushed tones from the same room, having narrowly escaped a bloodthirsty Allen moments before. Hammer's voice had a high-pitched whine to it that made it sound as if he were going to faint, and Tony seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed his little joke. From the furthest door on the western side, however, she heard Jr. pacing worriedly up and down the length of his room. She walked down the hallway and didn't hesitate to open the door, though having done it her body seemed to be overcome by a sudden heaviness.
"Go away," Jr. muttered, without even looking up to see who had come in. MOMO cocked her head to one side and studied him curiously, mostly because he, just as Shion and Allen had just moments before, was acting in a way she'd never seen before. His trench coat and shirt had been thrown haphazardly onto the bed, wrinkled and stretched in his efforts to remove them quickly, and he now stood staring out the window with his back to her. She'd never seen him without his shirt on, and winced as she studied several puckered scars running along his shoulder blades and back, still visible despite having healed over a good deal from the original wounds. This removed much of the shock of seeing him standing in a way that might have hinted at vulnerability to anyone else, but to MOMO it merely accentuated the fact that she'd done something to make him so angry. Still, she carefully pressed the door closed and walked up behind him hesitantly, and when he caught a glimpse of her reflected in the dark window his face turned even more red than it had been downstairs. He tried to hide it by continuing to ignore her, but he couldn't see anything through the darkness anyways, aside from her solemn face reflected by the glass whenever he let his eyes wander.
"I did something wrong," she mumbled matter-of-factly, running her eyes along the length of one of the scars on his shoulder and starting to feel sick with worry, both because he'd never told her about these scars and because she was afraid that she wasn't going to like the answer. At length, she had to avert her gaze to the peeling wallpaper on the wall to keep the nauseous feeling from deepening. It seemed like forever before he turned to face her with a strange look in his eyes, a glimmer of laughter soon drowned out by unease. She was immediately reminded of the little bluebird, sitting in its cage with its black eyes like pools of despair, that begged her to release it into its true habitat, and wondered if he felt trapped. She felt such an overwhelming sense of loss that she stumbled backwards several steps, with a certainty borne of experience that told her she would be scolded for wasting his time. He had the same gleam in his eyes as if he wished for nothing more than to harm her. Instead, he did nothing, which turned out to be far more painful than the little realian girl could bear.
The silence that ensued was overwhelming. MOMO studied several more scars that marred his chest and stomach, unable to look away; he noticed, making no effort to cover himself up, for the scars were a part of him as much as the air he was breathing. Admittedly he would never let anyone else see the reminder that he'd been brutally injured, and letting even MOMO see the scars made his head spin unpleasantly, though she'd probably never realize it. She could only imagine how he'd gotten them, and those thoughts were very disturbing to her: Especially so once she'd remembered the type of combat she'd seen in the Encephalon's recreation of Miltia. Were these battle scars from the Miltian Conflict? Had he been sliced at and made to bleed by the rabid enemies he was fighting? Inadvertently, she saw a flash of anger and pure hatred in one of the enemies' eyes, standing amongst the fighting URTV as if invisible to the others, and let out a little squeak, which caught Jr.'s attention, even as she lowered her eyes and winced as he took several hurried steps toward her.
"What...? What's wrong?" He backed up, looking around at the room behind him and returned his eyes to hers to see that she now looked profoundly upset, raising her face almost timidly. She tried to avoid his gaze for a while, when she thought of how Shion and Allen had embraced in the hallway and tried very hard to create a sober, mild expression and keep it, all the while forcing him to stare directly into her eyes in hopes that it would have the same calming effect. Hopefully he'd stop raging and give her hug, and she'd hug him back, and then take him downstairs to get him something to eat, because he hadn't eaten all night. This seemed fine, until she realized that he wasn't raging in the way that Shion had been, and that she wasn't Allen. Besides, how could food resolve anything? Just as she let her face fall back into its rueful expression, he moved a bit and then returned to a standing position, appearing agitated. MOMO had a feeling that this situation would only become more complicated.
Jr. was beginning to think she was trying to do nothing more than annoy him, even though he didn't want to admit it. Something kept her from responding to him, and this both worried and annoyed him.
"Well? What's wrong!?" He repeated, with a hint of a growl in his tone that made her eyes water. Maybe she should just leave, she thought, and go back downstairs with Ziggy? Her resolve disappeared when he repeated the question in an even angrier tone: she whimpered like an injured puppy and shuddered, taking a small step back. Thoughts of her angry mother, one instance in the kitchen, raising her hand to slap her daughter for bringing up the topic of not being her actual daughter clouded her mind, and she could easily picture it happening again, brought on by nothing more than an angry tone of voice. The stinging, burning sensation she hated so much could be inflicted by anyone she displeased, and normally she was careful about not setting anyone off: however, even though she felt that she trusted Jr., when she heard his frantic footsteps against the carpet she raised her eyes boldly and took a few steps forward, and before she knew what she was doing she'd thrown herself against him and wrapped her arms around him so tightly that it was hard for either to breath.
"Don't be mad!" she gasped, burying her face into the space between his shoulder and neck so that her next words were obscured. "I think I said something wrong, I'm sorry. And then I came up here and didn't do a very good job of setting things straight." He was scarcely listening, for he was so embarrassed at their current situation. "I just wanted to know why you seemed so upset! I don't like seeing you upset!" Her voice had risen and shook horribly. For an awful moment she thought he might simply pull away from her and ask her to leave, but to her relief he returned the hug with a chuckle.
After a moment of silence, MOMO realized how they were standing and her body went rigid with shock. He returned her hug so tightly that her breath caught in her throat, partly from their proximity and also from the fact that she was trying desperately trying to grasp what was happening. One of his arms was wrapped around her neck, and the other at the small of her back, so that she scarcely had room to breath. Both of her arms wrapped around his back, and she pressed her entire body against him. When she dared to stir, his grip intensified, and he moved his head to one side so that she could feel his breath on her neck, which did anything but calm her down. A barrage of alien emotions played through her body, completely overwhelming her. Most of all, she felt a strange sense of security, alongside content. After standing there in just this way for quite some time, MOMO's eyelids fluttered and she leaned into Jr.'s chest, letting the unsettling feelings drift away one by one.
"I guess I was just being protective," he mumbled into the side of her neck before letting go and taking a step back. He studied her for a long time, the corners of his mouth twitching as if unsure of whether to smile or frown. Glad for any distractions, MOMO reached out her fingers and lightly brushed one of the scars on his chest with her fingertips: he tensed at the foolish, impulsive gesture and grinned sheepishly. It seemed like such a trivial thing, to be upset over someone else's battle scars, but with MOMO he didn't really have to question it. She found meaning in a lot of things, especially since she and Ziggy were the only ones aside from his fellow URTV's who had witnessed the combat.
"So the scars upset you?" He asked, covering her hand with his own to stop her and looking at her probingly. "I could put my shirt back on, y'know. And then you wouldn't have to look at them." To prove this, he walked toward the bed and reached for his shirt and trench coat, but she merely frowned and let her eyes wander around the room a bit, nervously. Another feeling had settled in her stomach, a deep, sentimental fondness that she couldn't seem to ignore. Whenever she looked at Jr., standing by the edge of the bed trying to make up his mind, she felt like smiling. The entire thing was absurd.
"It was that, too... It must have been painful. But..." She pursed her lips and studied him for a moment, standing near the bed with deep navy sheets (he'd gone through several of the rooms trying to find one that wasn't entirely pink and filled with lace and frills) with his shirt hanging loosely from one of his hands, and how surprised he looked. "I was just caught up in my thoughts. It was nothing, really."
She sniffed and Jr. sat down on the bed, patting the space beside him. When she'd sat down he stared at her for a while, contemplating what to say. Finally, he chuckled and turned away, studying the window. "Don't worry about those pictures. I'll tell you about them later, but right now they don't matter." She frowned at him, not daring to question, for he seemed extremely embarrassed to bring up the subject already. Her mind flipped back to a day several weeks before, when she had been helping Shion clean up the Elsa, and had been told to tidy Tony's room... Only to make the discovery of magazines very similar to the playing cards. She didn't want to think of them right now, desperate to change the subject to something more comfortable.
"MOMO?" They turned to stare at eachother. Jr. looked apprehensive and a bit unsure of himself, or maybe it was MOMO's imagination. "Explain to me why you let the bird go today."
She couldn't answer immediately. For a minute or two she stared at Jr. incredulously, as if he'd just asked the world's most pointless question and she was trying to answer it without sounding exasperated. Several times she opened her mouth as if to speak, but decided against it. Had it been nothing more than an impulsive decision, a spur of the moment fling? Her body language suggested it; her eyes did not. Something had driven her to go to the trouble of setting the bluebird free, and it might prove to be interesting to hear.
"...Did you ever see it?" She stammered, very slowly and in a voice so soft that she had to repeat it at his request. He nodded. "It looked so lonely. It was trapped in a little prison and had nothing more to do than sit and stare at the side of the silk sheet Gaignun used to cover the cage." She smiled and seemed to be remembering the exact moment when she'd opened the cage that morning, and how sickly the little bird was despite the fact that she'd first thought of it as beautiful. "I thought it might find a mate and others like itself if it could get out of its cage." So that was it, Jr. thought, chuckling to himself as he imagined MOMO fawning over the sickly little bird. He didn't dare tell her that it probably wouldn't last the winter, or that it was the last of its kind, or even that it would never be fortunate enough to find a mate, for she seemed so enthralled by the thing that it would be a shame to upset her. She'd never know if it didn't survive, nor did she need to know.
"You look like you figured something out," Jr. muttered uneasily, upon turning to face her and finding that she'd once again become thoughtful. He felt a shock when she turned to look at him, her eyes focused and yet holding the sheen of a scared child. She was going to say something, he could tell, but it took her a while to decide whether or not she really wanted to say it. Allen and Shion had returned, Shion laughing at something Allen had said downstairs, and seconds later the door to Shion's room had opened and closed. The laughter continued long after they'd gone into the room, and MOMO could tell that Allen had gone in with Shion. It made her feel uncomfortable at the prospect of having to go to bed with the both of them in the room together, which forced her into thought.
"I'm tired," she mumbled after a short yawn, giving Jr. a long, studious look. What she was going to say was that she'd be in KOS-MOS' room if he needed her: she'd have to sleep without her teddy bear and on the cold floor of the basement, but it would probably mean less of a hassle in the long run. Instead, Jr. tugged at MOMO's skirt until she looked at him, and then grabbed her arm and pulled until she moved toward the front of the bed. He ignored her startled expression and told her to go to sleep, before curling up at the bottom of the bed. It took her a while, but she sniffed and inched toward him a bit, clearly boggled by this action.
"Jr..." She tapped him lightly on the shoulder and hoped that he'd turn around, if only to explain. He swatted at her hand, and she soon began to feel that it was some sort of game, giggling every time he tried to stop her from poking him. At length he told her to go to sleep again, ignoring her until she decided she should just go to sleep anyways, and curled up beside him.
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