Momo is special! Special! Special! Momo is a special boy, he knew, the prince said, Staggy said -- everyone thought Momo was so special, and pretty, and cute, 'cause he is. A flourish of light sparkled between his emerald gaze, glittering in the aftertrail of the comet that was Vesper's returned affection. It made him want to explode. It burnt through his body, clenching tighter around Vesper until briefly - in just the span of one big, quavering squeeze - it seemed like he'd get an explosion out of the other boy instead. He didn't want to pop off the prince's head, he realized, and relaxed over the dwindling course of a second that kept his arms fully entangled but his grip less constricting. He was no snake, after all.
No, Momiji was no snake.
He purred like a cat, laughed like a hyena, and chittered like a bird with his head resting on Vesper's shoulder and nudging in occasionally at the side of his head with toying pecks. "O n i i - chan! See! Woah, woah, good job, Vesprrrrreh! You learn from Momo fast. Hai, hai -," and he returned to treating the boy's cheeks like play-dough, kneading him into shapes between the sounding consonants of his words; and, to Momiji's surprise, Vesper urged him on with that same shared joy. "You're weird!" He laughed, jolting his hands up to ruffle through Vesper's hair in every direction - musing his strands to an unkempt mess and petting a ruly, complacent dog in the same breadth. "Heeee ... hehehahaha! Onii-chan, onii-chan ~"
If for any other faults Momiji wasn't a difficult character to entertain, kept so by the smallest inclination from Vesper and further making his own fun at every turn. With no barrier to his excitement, and no attempt to put a stopper on his boundless energy, he'd see no end until he tuckered out; and for poor Vesper, that didn't seem to be the case any time soon. Still, he handled him well. "Momo is cute!" The boy retorted as his explanation for why Vesper would like the way he talked; 'cause he talked cute, of course. And why would he talk cute? Well, it must be because he was cute. For the constant odd inflections and dissident stares that spliced between his regularly bombastic attitude, Momiji didn't present complicated. It was hard to say he was at all.
"Onii-chan talks funny, too ~ You go, you go ... ueeeheehahaha ... you go - 'Awr awr awr, do not worry, Vespureh is here to save the day! I am big strong and can do anything! Vespureh ... loves Momo!!'" His imitation fell apart quickly and especially at the end, but his point was made between the side-churning laughter that had him slipping off Vesper's back until he hit the campsite the other boy had tended to for them in the process of his play. Momiji continued to giggle, blinking away tangling eyelashes, and cast his gaze wide to the sky above. When had it started getting later? Did time really pass like that? "Momo doesn't know that one. Blue ... Pegasus ...? Remember, remember ~ Momo will have to ask friends. To find you again! Otay? Hai, hai? Otay, Onii-chan?" He'd lift himself with his eyebrows to prop up and stare wide-eyed, wide-mouthed back at Vesper, impressing the gravity. "When you leave, you'll find Momo again, too?"
"... And cook again! Yay, yay~! More candy, too!" And of course, he devolved back into giggles, kicking his feet and rolling on the ground to right himself that much closer to where Vesper was hard at work. He hadn't contributed nominally to the climb, or the cooking, and if anything had served as something of a counter force ... but Vesper's perseverance proved his strongest quality in the face of this tempest. If he could brave Momiji at the height of his attentions, the young magi would be well suited for any coming challenges in his life.
"Momo will be a good boy, Onii-chan ~ If you stay with Momo, yeah, yeah?"
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