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backdated end of May

It was afternoon before Cybele made her way out of her room and downstairs.

(Yes, she was aware that she was not technically Cybele right now. That was reserved for when she was wearing the silver antlers and the ruffled skirts. Right now she was in borrowed pajamas. Her hair was down, and unkempt. She looked nothing like a senshi. Still, being Cybele was all she knew, all she remembered. She clung to the name.)

The purification had hit her hard. Anything that had happened after that was a blur. The blurry memories suggested that she’d been dropped off here, managed a quick shower that had not quite been enough to get off a week’s worth of grime, and then collapsed into the most comfortable bed she could have ever imagined.

She’d slept for hours.

She felt like she probably could have slept for longer, if she’d tried. It was something of a struggle to pull herself away from that lovely mattress, but she realized that she was beginning to get hungry. She managed to sit, and then stand, and then find a bathroom, and then make her way down the stairs.

It took a bit longer to find the kitchen. Cybele got distracted just looking at the staircase and the other rooms. She didn’t think she remembered being in a house before. It was bright and personal in a way that Negaspace just wasn’t, despite the best efforts of a few of the officers. The decorations especially held her attention.

Eventually she caught sight of a stove and refrigerator, though. The kitchen was difficult to process, as well. It was clean. There were no rat youma, no passive aggressive sticky notes lining the fridge. It was perfect.

It was so nice and perfect that touching anything felt strange, regardless of permission she might have gotten the night before. Cybele stood staring at the fridge for a long moment, until her stomach growled and she turned back towards the door.

“Hello?” she called out, only slightly unsteady. Ganymede- Paris- had said that her relatives would probably be around.

Cybele blinked.

As much as the large house would have felt terribly empty without anyone in it, it was still a bit, well, strange, to come face to face with a stranger. At least the stranger seemed kind, which was really all Cybele could ask for at this point.

"Good morning," Cybele repeated, and smiled.

The woman was speaking so quickly. She was speaking a bit too quickly for Cybele's exhausted brain to really process it all. Cybele stared somewhat blankly at her through half-closed eyes, but she did get the basic idea. Food. Her mouth watered just at the brief mention of pasta, and she gave a deep nod.

"I was going to ask if it was all right for me to take some cereal, or," she glanced towards the fridge, towards the large, nice, fridge, and she hoped, "Eggs, if you have them?"

She couldn't actually remember a time when she'd eaten eggs, but she could almost taste the golden, runny yolks.

"I'm-" introductions should have been easy, but Cybele squinted and hesitated. "I think I picked the name Diana before, but-"

It was beyond sweet, really, that Claire went to grab books of names the moment that she heard that Cybele did not know what to call herself. Cybele stood in the door as she went to the other room and accepted the books when she returned with a true smile.

She flipped open the one on top to be polite, although in reality she'd likely need that breakfast as well as a few more hours of sleep before she was really ready to start going through the lists of options.

The woman offering to cook for her was even sweeter. Cybele barely knew how to process that.

"Sunny side up, if that's all right," she said, half thinking about how delicious the gooey yolks would be and half wondering if she was supposed to be offering money, or something, for all this.

She glanced back at the books. "Chris is Paris's husband, right? Who's Allison?"

It seemed like she'd gone very quickly from going home with one person to having a lot of names to keep track of.

Chris. Paris. Michael. Peter. Cybele nodded, trying to keep up. There were babies in there somewhere, as well, and an adopted daughter. It all sounded like the families that Cybele had been thinking about longingly for months, when she watched heartwarming Christmas commercials and when she'd talked to some of the others in the Negaverse about their outside lives.

She felt that longing a bit now, as well, although it was easier to squelch considering the unprecedented kindness she was being shown. The sound of the eggs sizzling in the pan, and especially the smell of them, was enough to chase away any and all jealousy.

This was by far the best moment of her life.

"Oh, are we not supposed to talk about senshi and such?" she asked, since Claire seemed nervous to be mentioning that.

She went quiet for a moment as she tried to comb through what was left of her memories, then said, a bit sadly, "I don't know if I remember enough about anything else to make good conversation."

"I'm a senshi," said Cybele, because one of the few things she knew about herself. "Cybele. Ganymede might have told you, but if it's more proper to hear it from me, then now you know."

Her lips pressed thin for a moment before she added, "I was corrupted for a while and now I think I'm running from the Negaverse. You should hear that from me, as well."

It seemed like she knew, if she was comparing her to this other senshi, her daughter, who had corrupted and then repurified. She must have known about how shattered Cybele's memories were, as well, if she'd gathered things to help Cybele know what she liked.

It took Cybele a while to fully process that.

Long seconds passed before she even managed to say, "You did all that for me?"

The warmth flared in her chest again, hopeful. "This is all beyond kind of you," she added. "I don't know how I'm ever going to repay you for it."

Not repaying her at all?

Claire said it like it was nothing, but it was such a foreign concept that it had Cybele silently trying to wrap her head around it while she got the eggs ready, as well as some fruit and toast that Cybele hadn't even asked for.

"Thank you," she managed to say when the food was placed in front of her, and although the words came out quietly, there was something about them that was from the heart.

The first bite of egg she savored, and it was everything that she'd thought it would be. After that, though, she started to practically inhale the food. It had been a long, hungry week.

She did perk up when Claire mentioned being a Page, though, and she didn't seem surprised by the thought of her being a magical girl, despite any age gaps.

"Cosmos are the ones in white, aren't they?" she asked between bites, "With the stars? I think I met one recently."

"I don't think Paris should get to tell you what to do," said Cybele. "I know that she's a Princess, and that she's wise, and wonderful," she continued without any sarcasm, just a glowing sort of admiration that reached all the way to her tired eyes, "But you're the mother figure here, aren't you?"

With her memories the way they were, that was to say, minimal and extremely fractured, she had no idea how America's Navy compared to this magical war, or how much experience Claire would have gained by being a secretary, or an admiral's wife, but she seemed to be an adult and therefore just as capable of making her own choices about things as anyone else who found themselves awakened as a Page.

"It's not a bad idea to go out with other people, though," she said. "It might be a bit before I go back out." Her chest was still achy from the purification, and her head hurt a bit, as well. "I'm still going to need a lot more sleep, but afterwards I'll go out with you, and see who we can meet."

"I-"

Cybele's voice cracked at Claire's final offer. The eggs that she'd been so excited about suddenly no longer held her interest. She just stared at Claire, fork loosely held in one hand, as she fought not burst into tears.

It only partially worked. She could feel her eyes growing wet at the corners.

"I want a family," she said. "I'm starting to realize that. I've been wanting one, badly, ever since the Negaverse took mine from me, so I'm not sure if you want to offer what you're offering."

Be careful, she'd been telling herself since she'd left the bed. Don't ask for too much. Don't hope for more than you'll get.

"If you let me come to you for advice on top of living here, and calling you Momma, I might accidentally start thinking of you as something like real family, and it sounds like you already have plenty of relatives."