1232/The Gold Brick and the Window

The Gold Brick and the Window
Date of Scene:	01 March 2024
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	Kyouka calls Mamoru for some healing after her dustup with Fuyuko.
Cast of Characters:	Kyouka Inai, Mamoru Chiba
Tinyplot:	The Game

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Kyouka Inai has posed:
    It's later evening, but not quite what one would consider 'late'. Sun is down, but still plenty of time left before good students should be abed. Mamoru's phone buzzes with an incoming text.

TXT from Kyouka: mamoru can i bug you for a favor.
TXT from Kyouka: need some light healing if youre avail

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru TXT: i didnt have my glasses on
Mamoru TXT: i thought you said hug and went aww
Mamoru TXT: you at home?

Kyouka Inai has posed:
TXT from Kyouka: yes
TXT from Kyouka: any hugging will have to wait until after the healing, i think my rib is cracked

    Arriving at her apartment, Mamoru will find Kyouka seated gingerly on the floor beside her kotatsu. She's in civilian clothing, and is clearly worse for wear- nothing which appears life-threatening or even 'omg hospital' level, but she's got a cut over one eye which has clearly bled, there's a few nascent bruises in evidence, and she's got an arm holding her middle reflexively likely due to the aforementioned damaged rib(s).

    She also appears visibly upset. Not bawling and gnashing teeth upset, but to anyone who knows her it's clear from her expression and demeanor that the generally easygoing, confident counselor is out of sorts. She's holding it together, but there's even tears in her eyes. Possibly just from the pain. Maybe not.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Hey," says Mamoru, and gods help them both he sounds like he's talking to a stray cat, gentle and nonthreatening. He doesn't even take his jacket off before he comes over to crouch on the floor, then put one knee down, reaching for the hand that's not protecting her midsection. "I'm told there's an emotional load, so, sorry in advance--"

He doesn't call out that she's been crying, or maybe still is; he doesn't call out her upset. When he takes her hand he's just calm like a mountain lake in the early morning, and then there's that golden glow and the feeling changes to the calm of a summer meadow in the late afternoon, warm and lazy, as he works.

He sounds distracted, and the pain is gone already, but over the feeling of safety and belonging that the Earth's power grants, he says "Don't move yet. Don't explain yet."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Something about Mamoru's presence seems to relax Kyouka at once, and while it doesn't miraculously fix everything on its own, it seems to be a step in the right direction. "Thanks for coming." She says, sounding just a bit breathless, an effect of not wanting to take deep breaths due to the whole rib thing. She allows him to take her hand and begin to do his work, and her eyes close after a moment.

    The relief of pain causes her to relax further, her free arm falling into her lap away from her middle. Her expression is strangely conflicted, and one of the tears that had been lingering in her eye runs down her cheek, though her expression remains calm, calmer than when he walked in certainly.

    Good news- the rib's not actually broken, just badly bruised. Indeed, all of her injuries seem superficial, more painful than actually damaging. The healing takes away the pain though, and will keep her from being a useless wreck of stiffness tomorrow which would surely otherwise have been the result, so still not a wasted trip.

    After a long moment, she lets out a somewhat wavery breath, and might have spoken except that he tells her not to. So she shuts her mouth again and just waits. It's far from an unpleasant delay.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Every bruise, every strain, even the cut on Kyouka's eyebrow. "Whoever did this is going to be pissed you're fine tomorrow," Mamoru murmurs. He makes doubly sure the rib isn't cracked, but the muscle around it he pays more attention to.

Finally, the prince settles back on his heels, letting go of Kyouka's hand. The feeling of summer and an enveloping soothing withdraws, too, but the pain is still gone and unless Kyouka works herself up again, the calm should linger.

So of course Mamoru ruins it by saying wryly, "I wished I could have done that for you when I broke your arm."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka is very good at working herself up, but in this instance at least she seems content to not be freaking out for a little while. She flexes her fingers as Mamoru releases her hand, as if testing them though why that should be is unclear, as that wasn't one of her injuries.

    "She's going to be pissed regardless." Kyouka finally says, with a soft, heaved sigh and leans back on her arms, enjoying the freedom from pain that allows such movements.

    She gives him a look at his quip about her arm. "Me too, but you know, at least the sling was a useful prop to show you had actually done something. So don't feel too bad."

    She looks down again, contemplative. "I got into a brawl with Fuyuko. She was threatening some kid because she thought she was a new Lux Tenebrous, even though she obviously wasn't."

    To be fair to Fuyuko, a lot of the 'obvious' only comes in hindsight, even for Kyouka.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru won't admit the additional angst of Nephrite later forgetting that Kyouka was even partly responsible for the Midnight Tokyo plans getting out, or at least getting distributed. Just layering aggravation on aggravation--

--more important things here. Mamoru scoots back a little, sitting crosslegged so he can lean forward a little, forearms resting on his legs. "I'll have to text her and see if she wants a hand," he says mildly. "I know she wouldn't care, but if I'm going to go around healing Riventon, too-- I do actually owe Yuuhi-san. So I have to make the offer."

Looking down at his own hands, Mamoru frowns a little before he glances back up. "She's levelheaded at work. Something about the kid must have made her lose her cool even if you think it was obvious. Even just that rude little jerk Corona was enough to make her lose it. You set each other off, too, don't you."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I split her lip." Kyouka admits, somewhat shamefaced, then rushes to her own defense in a heated tone. "What was I supposed to do? I showed up and she was dangling the kid over the edge of a rooftop, looking like she was going to drop her!"

    She visibly reigns herself in, taking a deep breath, then shrugs her shoulders a bit listlessly. "You don't know her like I do. She keeps it under control most of the time, but she's got a.. madness. Like a crazed... thing inside that shows itself when something really pushes her buttons. I saw it last night for the first time in a long time."

    "You have to understand, I didn't want to fight her." She's suddenly protesting again as if Mamoru had levelled some accusation, but any such judgements are only in her own head. "She's my best friend, we've been getting along. You know, after a fashion." Pursed mouth at that perhaps overly-kind assessment, before she continues. "But I won't let her fuck up some poor kid just because she's angry that her own manufactured motive for murder is being retroactively made irrelevant!"

    She leans back again, the fire going out of her again as she mutters, "If Corona hadn't shown up to tell me the kid was in trouble, I dunno what she might have done."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru is silent for a moment, just listening while Kyouka defends herself against nothing, against herself, against her memories. He laces his fingers together loosely, his face young but his soul-- it's still Endymion's, like it's always been, and that's behind his eyes with a weight to it like something ancient and accepting, understanding.

He listens; he nods when she says obvious things, factual things, subjective things. And then--

--then that last. He frowns. "Why should Corona care, if the kid wasn't Lux Tenebrous? That mascot is more of a dick than Kyubey." A beat, and he actively scowls. "Is she fucking with you? She has to be. Yuuhi-san has too much to lose to kill some kid. Some kid is not Corona. Corona has a beef with Yuuhi-san. Don't you think it sounds too much like Corona thinks you're a cannon she can just fire at will?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    For a moment, Kyouka just looks at Mamoru as if she's trying to understand what he said. As if the rather obvious conclusion that Corona had only told her about the situation because she knew she would react exactly as she had and that is exactly what the mascot wanted was a startling revelation. To her, in this moment, it is- she likely would have arrived at the same conclusion given time. But to hear it stated so clearly when her head is still all muddled up from the adrenaline is straight-up stunning.

    "I.." She says slowly, "You're right." Her expression shifts from shocked to angry in mere moments. "That.. that little piece of shit. You're right, of course! Why the fuck would Corona care if some random kid she had nothing to do with got threatened? She used me. She used me!" She snarls and bangs her fist on the edge of the table, then winces. At least the pain seems to shock her back down to a normal level of angry, rather than about to march out the door and do Fuyuko's work for her.

    "She sent me over there knowing it would start a fight. She said she was trying to save a life, and I believed that, but... you're right, I don't see the motivation. And I want to think the best of Fuyuko, that she wouldn't just kill some kid but..." And the shameface returns as she looks away. "The truth is I don't know if I really believe that. But that's what made it work."

    She glances back again. "I don't really get why though. Like, I get that Corona thinks we suck and were a waste, and I get that she's mad that Fuyuko killed Aurora. But she had to know that I wasn't going to kill her, no matter the circumstance. Fight sure. Kill? Never, not unless I had absolutely no choice. I guess.. maybe she didn't know that?"

    She falls silent again, then sighs. "I don't know. I still don't get the motivation for it. But you're right, it has to be some kind of setup." She now looks embarrassed, and hides her face in her hands.

    "Oh god, I have to apologize to Fuyuko." She pronounces it like a death sentence.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"She'll be insufferable about it, but it'll do you good. You're pretty insufferable yourself sometimes," Mamoru says cheerfully. "And you know -- if you don't know if you believe she wouldn't kill some kid, and Corona already disdained you like 'oh you hang out with a murderer' and never actually worked with you... why wouldn't she think you'd just annihilate each other? Maybe she's really mad about Aurora."

He leans down a little and cants his head to one side, as if trying to look under her hair, under her hands, at her face. "What do you even really know about Corona and Aurora? Do you think someone else is sending them, maybe? Like, Luna I know didn't get sent by anybody, she was the advisor to Serenity's mother and is continuing to look out for Usagi. That's a continuity. But where did Aurora and Corona come from, and why come here?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka looking shamefaced is not something many people get to see, and even those who do don't get to see it for long. Even as Mamoru is speaking her hands are coming away and she's taking a steadying breath, shaking her head a little bit. "Maybe. Maybe she thought we'd just kill each other but.. I dunno, it still doesn't feel right. But I don't have a better explanation."

    When he asks what they actually know about the mascots, she glances up at him, grey eyes sharp. "All we really know is what we were told, which I assume is the same for most mahou. Aurora told us that he was an agent of his people, who sent ones like him out to help preserve life and harmony in the galaxy by gifting the Lux Tenebrous gems to people who can use them to channel magic. He came here because humans can do that. As for who's sending them, I guess it's whatever government or ruler they have. We.. never really got that far into it."

    Kyouka and Fuyuko were never the most introspective or institutionally curious teenagers.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's not like he was looking to see the shame, at least -- it was just Mamoru, looking for eye contact, looking for a connection. "You'll figure out what does feel right," he finally says, confident and strangely wry.

"If you were being lied to by Aurora, there's no way you'll find out from Corona. Gods, all this sun stuff lately is making me crazy," he says, starting to pick himself up off the floor. "Maybe we should sic Sunbreaker on Corona."

Once he's up, he offers Kyouka a hand up. "Can I have Fuyuko's number? She'll probably want to avoid a fat lip going in to work, being HR and everything. If she laughs at me for offering, I have enough face that my pride can tank it."

And maybe he can ask her about Aurora. Maybe he'll even get an answer.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure Aurora and Corona and all those things refer to light in general and not specifically the sun. Not that it makes much difference in the end." Kyouka gives a shrug.

    She looks at him for a moment when he asks for Fuyuko's number. There might be a bit of a betrayed look on her face- a sort of 'you'd help her too?' that's a reflexive response to years of animosity, years of feeling like she's the only one who can 'handle' Fuyuko.

    Finally, though, she begrudgingly pulls a scrap of paper over and writes it down, then passes it over. It's not like she actually dislikes Fuyuko. All this would be so much easier if she did. "Fine." She says, unable to keep just a hint of sulk out of her voice. "Just be careful, okay? She's just as out of sorts as I am, if last night is anything to judge by."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"She might say mean things or something, but she won't hurt me," Mamoru says with the same confidence as he said Kyouka would figure out what felt right. "You know her better, but she had to put up with me crying on her once, and it was so awkward that neither of us will ever forget it even if we never, ever speak of it."

He puts the number in his jacket pocket, and looks apologetically at Kyouka. "And I think it's important to establish that I'm as close to a neutral party on this stuff that you're going to get, right now. Unless you've got someone else in mind. And besides, I like you both, and fixing her face is a lot less morally questionable than making sure Riventon can walk again after whatever beating he's gotten."

A beat. "Don't worry, I like you loads better."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka looks mildly mollified when Mamoru says that he likes her better. And it's not like she can question the fact that he likes her best friend. "Yeah yeah."

    She pauses, then adds, perhaps with just a bit of that shame in evidence, "I did hit her first, so I guess I owe her one anyway." She rushes to add, "She was dangling the kid over the rooftop, like I said!" Not when she actually did the hitting, but we'll skim over that part.

    She sighs, shaking her head. "Anyway... thanks. For all of it. I know the injuries weren't that bad, but I still appreciate you comin' over to help me out on short notice. I was not looking forward to trying to sleep tonight otherwise."

    "And I appreciate that you're willing to be a neutral party in all this. We've... never had one of those. I don't know if it will help but maybe it will?" Another shrug, and a frank expression of doubt. "All I've really learned is don't trust Corona. Which I feel like I probably should have guessed beforehand anyway, now that I say it."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I should put all the training I got in diplomacy and arbitration to good use somehow," laughs Endymion, tilting his head a little to look at Kyouka affectionately. "Of course you're welcome." He pauses. "You can call me any time. I might curse you out if it's really bad timing, but you probably would to me, too."

Then he's moving, and his hand's on the doorknob, and he says, "You're about as subtle as a gold brick through a plate glass window, but try not to let on to Corona exactly how much you distrust her yet? See if she tries to get you to do anything else."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Oh, you think you're good enough to arbitrate for Arbiters?" Kyouka asks, smirking a little bit. She shakes her head, standing slowly, knowing she's been healed but still irrationally waiting for it to hurt. When it doesn't, she stretches her arm over her head, then nods, as if her test has been a success and she's willing to give Mamoru an A in healing. "Being permanently on call kinda sucks but it is part of the job."

    She scowls at him as he says she lacks subtlety, but knows better than to deny it. She's a lightning bolt out of a clear blue sky, and proud of it, and there's just no hiding some things. "I'll see if I can learn anything, but I have a feeling she already knows that I don't trust her. I'm not an idiot, after all." Again with the mild defensiveness.

    It doesn't last though, and she nods her head to him again as he prepares to leave. "Again, thanks. And thanks for any healing Fuyuko lets you do, too. She's a big dumbass but she's also the closest thing to a sister I have, so I really would prefer not to be openly at war with her again if it can be avoided."

    She pauses, then adds, "Just don't call her auntie."