"If I go to the supermarket I can get everything at once, but the milk's cheaper and tastes better at the dairy store…mmm, but the dairy store's farther off…"
Yin chewed on her glitter gel pen before making more annotations to her list; today was her turn to head to town and get groceries, and true to her meticulous nature she tended to spend more time deciding how to make the most of the money Master Yo gave her rather than actually buying anything. Yang always made her fun for it, but the truth was that the planning part was the most fun for her; it made her feel efficient and accomplished.
"Buuuuuut, if I get milk at the dairy store, I could go to the supermarket first, get the rest AND still have some money leftover for myself! I hope they still have strawberry cookies in stock."
...And maybe there were other benefits.
Satisfied with her plan, Yin focused on her route again. Fall had already arrived and there were already much less people on the streets at this time of day compared to summer. Not that she minded; it was quieter that way, and quiet gave her peace she very much needed in her already hectic life. As mundane as a run for groceries seemed, there was only so much saving the world nonstop she could take all at once.
She couldn't even remember the last time she had fun with her family or friends that didn't involve a villain either suddenly crashing the party or secretly plotting their demise.
(She should probably be worried about that).
She picked up the pace once she spotted Pong's Market right ahead. It seemed fairly vacant, which meant she could get everything she needed in about fifteen minutes if she hurried. From there, it would be another fifteen minutes to the dairy store, and it was usually busy on weekdays so that would mean-
A crash broke her train of thought.
Yin nearly tripped on her own feet. Right outside the supermarket, down the alleyway she was just passing through, loud noises were coming out of a dumpster. Angry skittering and hissing, right before a raccoon jumped out and nearly made her jump back as it ran away whimpering.
Okay, so. Vermin fighting for food in the garbage. Happened all the time behind the dojo, so it wasn't all surprising. What WAS surprising were the green rabbit ears that were poking out of the dumpster.
Yin barely had time to hide behind the wall as Yuck came out of the trash, a banana peel on his head and several scratches on his face, yet somehow grinning triumphantly. The sight of him was enough to put her on edge; what was he planning now!? Was he hiding, waiting to rob the supermarket? Or maybe assault unsuspecting shoppers? Or maybe-
She saw him kneel down to rummage through the garbage, and then come out….with a moldy sandwich sticking out of his mouth.
Yin kept staring in shock as Yuck shoved the whole thing down his gullet with his tongue, taking a few chews before swallowing and diving right back into the dumpster. More trash flew over his shoulder as he kept digging, occasionally stopping to put more rotten, half-eaten food in his mouth.
Suddenly, he turned around.
Yin pressed her back against the wall and out of Yuck's line of sight. Had he seen or heard her? Was he going to attack? After a while of silence, however, all she heard were more sounds of digging, garbage hitting the floor and chewing so that answered her question. Once she was sure she was in the clear, she hurried inside the supermarket like nothing had happened.
So one of her enemies - the one whose entire character revolved around being disgusting, might she add - ate out of the garbage. Absolutely repulsive, yes, but not unexpected from him, right? He didn't seem to have a problem with it. Not that she cared about his eating habits, anyways; what villains did in their own time when not plotting to sink the world in darkness was none of her business.
That's what Yin kept telling herself the whole time she was buying groceries while ignoring the urge to throw up.
The suns were already setting by the time she was done; she had everything she needed and had even managed to get her hands on her precious strawberry cookies. All that was left was getting milk from the dairy store and she could go home to enjoy her treat in peace.
She stopped right by the alley the dumpster was in. It was silent.
Cautiously, Yin stepped inside. She couldn't see Yuck anywhere, which had to mean he was long gone. She looked behind her, making sure no one was looking, and then she pulled out her grocery list and glitter gel pen; she popped the pen's cap and ripped a piece off the list, but hesitated right before the pen touched the paper.
She sighed. She didn't even know if this would work.
Frustrated, she scribbled on the piece of paper before fishing her cookies out of the groceries and hastily attaching the paper to it. She looked around the alley, and eventually settled for just leaving them by the foot of the dumpster; at least they couldn't be missed that way. Once she was done, she made her way out of the alley and back into the street.
Attached to the cookies and in plain view, the note simply read: For Yuck.
o - o - o - o - o - o
The cookies were overrun by ants by the time Yin passed the supermarket again (at least they weren't affiliated to Brother Herman, but still). Yuck was nowhere to be seen, but neither was the paper tag with his name on it.
The sight made Yin furious, and not just because her favorite snack had completely gone to waste (although that WAS pretty high up on her list). She should've seen it coming; just because Pong's Market was where Yuck had first come to the world, that didn't necessarily mean he felt some kind of attachment to it. He could've ended up in the nearby dumpster by mere coincidence, and he probably never saw the cookies waiting for him.
Or maybe he did, and he chose to turn down her gift - which probably explained the missing tag, as his way of spitting all over her kindness. That option was as likely if not even MORE, considering this was Yuck she was thinking about; that alone should have convinced her to stop and forget about the whole matter.
The annoyingly constant feeling of throwing up wouldn't let her.
Instead, about once or twice a week, Yin kept leaving anything she could get her hands off for Yuck near the supermarket in hopes that he would find it; a sandwich, a bag of fruit gummies, leftover pasta from last night's dinner, a couple of donuts...all labeled with Yuck's name, to make it clear it was for him.
Sometimes, she'd return to find the food being eaten by racoons or rats. Most of the time, the food would be completely untouched and rotting. Every time, the label she left would be gone.
There was no way she couldn't even know for sure that Yuck noticed her 'gifts', that it was really him taking the labels but not the food. But she couldn't stop thinking that such was really the case, and Yuck's own stubbornness only fueled her own. She refused to give up; not on this.
It was time to change tactics.
o - o - o - o - o - o
Yin headed for Pong's Market earlier than usual, right during lunchtime as soon as she wolfed down her own lunch. Yang and Master Yo called out to her, but all she said was that she needed to meet with someone, and that she promised she would explain everything when she returned. Carefully tucked in her arms was a tupperware box.
People stared at her funny as she hurried to the supermarket, even taking a step back as she ran past them; she figured it was the expression on her face more than anything. Today was the day she'd give Yuck a piece of her mind; even if he didn't show up to the dumpster, she'd track him down all over town if she had to.
Which is why she wasn't all that surprised when she arrived at the dumpster and still found no trace of the rogue Woo Foo Knight. The idea of waiting by the garbage didn't appeal to her at all, but she could afford a couple of minutes to make sure she didn't miss them; from there, she could check around other grocery stores and restaurants while making sure the tupperware stayed warm for a while longer with Magic-
"I KNEW it was you!"
Yin jumped back with a yelp as a Foo Sphere exploded in a burst of orange sparks by her feet. Luckily it missed - she could've dropped her tupperware otherwise! - but she still glared daggers in Yuck's direction as he landed right in front of her.
"You think I'm dumb or something!?" He growled, one hand glowing with amber magic and the other...waving a handful of pieces of paper written in pink ink. "If you're gonna try and poison me or something, at least don't make it so obvious!"
"OK, listen, before you say anyth - poison you?" Whatever argument Yin had ready to defend herself vanished and was replaced with outrage. "Is that why you left the food behind!? Why would I try to poison you, you idiot!?"
"Uhhhh, because we're enemies!? Don't play innocent with me; why else would you leave food out for me out of the blue?"
"Oh gee, I don't know, maybe because I was actually trying to help you?"
Yuck hesitated for a second, and the look in his eyes made Yin realize that was an option he genuinely hadn't considered. But it was quickly replaced with anger as he bared his sharp teeth at her. "Oh, what, you're pitying me now? Am I some poor stray puppygriff to you?"
"You eat out of the TRASH, Yuck! I saw you!" Yin took a step forward, showing Yuck that she wasn't scared. He could throw all the tantrums he wanted, but she refused to give up; the nausea would make sure of that. "Do you really NOT see what's wrong with that? This shouldn't be a matter of pride or whatever, this is a matter of common sense!"
He rolled his eyes, which only made her fume. "I'm literally called Yuck-"
"Oh, don't give me that!" Yin took another step, and Yuck actually stepped back, anger now mixed with confusion as his fur puffed out defensively. But Yin didn't care. "Stop lying! You can't possibly be OK with this!"
"And what if I am!? Why do YOU care-!?"
"BECAUSE I'VE BEEN THERE, AND IT'S HORRIBLE!"
The alley went dead silent. Even the street outside had gotten quieter as a few bystanders stopped in shock. Yin did a double take as she realized how loud that had come out, and suddenly felt very exposed under the look Yuck was giving her.
The nausea kept rising.
"We...Yang and I, we didn't always live with Master Yo." She mumbled, looking down at the tupperware in her hands. How it hadn't cracked under her grip yet, she had no idea. "Before him, we didn't have anyone. We always ran away from every orphanage they tried stuffing us in, but that meant fending for ourselves and - and food wasn't easy to get, and…"
She bit her lip. She was afraid that if she didn't keep her mouth shut, she really would throw up. It was hard to tell what Yuck was feeling; he had his ears pressed flat against his head as he stared at her. "I...didn't know that."
"It's not like we go around advertising it." Yin's words came out harsher than she intended. Deep breaths, in and out. That time of their lives was long over, and she had to remember that. "It was awful living like that. No one deserves going through what we did."
Because she had been staring at the tupperware, she didn't notice the way Yuck's eyes softened for a moment.
"...Is that for me, too?"
She looked up in surprise. Yuck had his arms outstretched, looking away from her. And maybe it was a trick of the light since it was getting late already, but his face seemed redder under the sunset sky. His fingers made grabbing motions; "I should...at least see what it is, right?"
Slowly, Yin nodded her head before handing over the tupperware. And although she knew it was better to keep her distance and not make Yuck any more suspicious or uncomfortable, she couldn't help but lean closer as she watched him take the lid off. And it was worth it, with the warm feeling she felt in her chest the moment she saw his eyes light up.
Yin didn't consider herself a master chef; Master Yo was in charge of their meals and more often than not, TV dinners were on the menu. But she remembered the first night she and Yang stayed at the dojo, which was also the first night their teacher genuinely cooked for them. A 'family recipe' he'd learned from Master Ti, he'd said: peanut chicken on a bed of white rice; a simple dish, but one of her favorites if only for the emotional meaning it held for her. And when Master Yo said he'd be making lunch, Yin was instantly at his side with that suggestion at the ready.
She'd brought chopsticks for Yuck to use, but he'd already beaten her to the punch by grabbing a piece of chicken between his fingers and sniffing it. Then he took the whole piece into his mouth and chewed.
He stopped chewing.
Yin's heart dropped."Crap, I overdid it with the peanuts, didn't I? I knew I shouldn't have gone with that extra cup!" She grabbed the tupperware, trying to pry it off Yuck's hands. "Listen, it was my first time cooking this, gimme a break-"
Yuck pulled the tupperware away from her, and her jaw fell open as the other rabbit started shoving food into his mouth by the handfuls. "Yuck, NO!" She grabbed for his hands instead, but he kept shrugging her off; "Don't do that, you'll get sick! You're getting food everywhere, you…"
She paused when she felt his arm shake. Yuck's entire body was trembling.
"Yuck?" Yin took her hands off him, eyes wide; "Are you-?"
"Mmmphmpph!" Yuck furiously shook his head, words incomprehensible with his mouth so full. He swallowed thickly while his free hand kept rubbing his eyes, smearing his damp fur with peanut sauce and rice grains all over. "I WASN'T crying, OK!? It - it was the garbage fumes or something, I just-!"
He was cut short by a hiccup, and then a frustrated growl as he kept rubbing his eyes, facing away from Yin. Any other moment, she could've used this scene to poke fun at him, even record blackmail material like she'd do with Yang if only she had her camera on hand.
This time, however, she didn't have the nerve to do it. She knew exactly how he felt.
"It's good." Yuck mumbled, once his breathing slowed down and his eyes were puffy and red but dr(ier). "It's….really good."
"...Thanks." Yin crossed her legs and levitated, and Yuck did the same by her side. "Now you know you can ask more if you need it."
Yuck made a noise, and for a moment Yin thought he was upset again until she saw him roll his eyes. "Right, cuz those other two are gonna be SO thrilled at me asking them for scraps."
That earned him a jab to the ribs. "Master Yo may be a grump but he's not heartless. And Yang doesn't like you but he knows how it feels, too; I know he would agree with me on this."
And maybe it was because of her brain currently stuck in an emotional rollercoaster that was yet to finish its ride, but she reached out to grab Yuck's hand. It was sticky and wet, but she chose to ignore that. "I said no one deserves to go through this, and I meant it. That goes to you, too, alright?"
Yuck's expression softened again, and this time Yin saw it. His eyes were so bright under the sunlight as he gently held her hand in his.
"Alright."