Shiro & Clarice, Tuesday night

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After returning from her mom's house, Clarice gets some comfort and reassurance from Shiro.


Clarice sat on the back porch, wrapped in her Capt. Jack Sparrow blanket. It wasn't really helping keep the winter chill away, but that didn't matter since Shiro was holding her. "She hates me," she sniffed, rubbing her nose with one hand. "I mean, she really does. It's not just my imagination."

Shiro had pretty much remained silent the whole night, as this wasn't his family and he was just there to look intimidating and provide moral support for Clarice. That said, he'd had a hard time not wasting Clarice's new step-father. "Just because your mother is ignorant does not mean that she hates you," Shiro offered, his body glowing faintly like a firefly to provide them both with warmth.

"You're right," Clarice told him after thinking about it, "it's worse. She's ashamed of me. Can I be a ronin now too?"

"I would not put much stock in what a fool like her has to say about someone as wonderful as you," said Shiro, lightly kissing her forehead. "Being ronin is not an easy task, ne? It requires hard work and much perseverance. Are you up to it?"

Shrugging, she sighed, "Sure, why not? I mean, I can't stand my family and I'm dating one. That's half the battle right there," Clarice snaked her hand out from his, holding it up to her face, "You know what though? Being a walking A-bomb doesn't matter to her since you don't look like a mutant, but you could do a lot more damage than I ever could. I didn't think my mom was that superficial."

"Would you like me to blow up her house and leave it as a little nuclear wasteland?" Shiro offered with a twinge of excitement in his voice. "I will do it, if you would like. Then she will hate your boyfriend and forget all about her narcissism."

"Tempting, but no..." Clarice had too many memories, not to mention some stuff still, at that house. "I think at least, I finally get it. Why my parents split. They're both way too ego-centric to care about anyone but themselves."

"And yet they somehow managed to bear a selfless and dedicated daughter," Shiro said comfortingly (or at least what he hoped passed for comfortingly). "It is odd how that worked itself out."

"I thought I was silly, immature and had glitter-for-brains?" Clarice tried to laugh but couldn't quite. As great as it was having a totally devoted boyfriend, it did put a damper on her wallowing. "I think I was pretty stupid when I came here."

"Selfless and dedicated do not negate silly and the occasional bouts of ditziness," Shiro said lightly. "I have never thought of you as stupid. And even if that is how you view your past self, then you ought to realize that people change. The fact that I am dating you, for example, shows that I have."

Kissing him lightly, she understood why the other couples were so sickening. They liked it. She stuck her tongue out at him playfully, "Gee, thanks. But yeah. I guess we both have. So then where does that leave us though? I mean, we're here, now. But my mom? I never thought she'd be such a bitch."

"I did not intend to say that in a bad way," Shiro said defensively, although he was smiling. "We have a word to describe women like her. Busu."

"Busu?"

"Yes. It derives from the word for pig, but it incorporates just about every insult you could possibly think of for a woman. Express your rage in just two syllables."

"BUSU!" Clarice tried it out, yelling to the sky. It wasn't quite as fulfilling as Shiro seemed to think it would be. "No. That just doesn't have the right...gusto. It ends too quickly. It needs more oomph."

"I could give you a primer in Japanese curse words," Shiro suggested.

"Um...no thanks?" Clarice wasn't really sure she needed that, with her penchant for cussing in english. "I'm learning some Arabic ones though."

"At least Dayspring is teaching something useful," Shiro muttered. "Will you be alright?"

Nodding, she untangled herself to go back inside. As nice as a Shiro-warmer was, it was still really cold out, "Yeah. I think so. Thanks."

Shiro got to his feet not a second after Clarice did. He still worried, of course, but he wouldn't push unless it became obvious to him that she needed it. He knew that he'd probably end up saying something stupid anyway. "That is one of the things I am here for."