[Log] Momo Hinamori, Vicki Vale
Title: A Little Lunch and Conversation
Characters: Momo Hinamori (davyn), Vicki Vale (some_scribbles)
Timeline: May 24nd, 1949
Rating: PG
Summary: Momo and Vicki get together for their annual lunch to chat about politics, life, and the men they work with.
Momo did not like her hat. Something kept trying to tickle her ear and she had absolutely no idea what it was. She had already checked her hair three times in the bathroom that morning to no avail. She was going to have to ditch the hat. She was just glad she didn’t have court today. She reached up and starting pulling the pins out of her hair.
Momo sat her hat on her purse in the seat next to her and patted her hair down, glancing at the door as she did so. Vicki would either be prompt or ten minutes late, she glanced at the clock on the wall.
She had two minutes to figure out what she wanted for lunch.
It was Thursday around one’ clock, and that meant Vicki was on her way to have lunch with Momo. It was alternately a relief and a disappointment to drag herself a way from the rush and clatter of the press room. Today the news had been full of James Forrestal’s ‘suicide,’ and Joe DiMaggio and it had been full of so much speculation she was getting a headache.
The streets of the city were beautiful in May, with the fresh green buds on the potted trees along the sidewalk. The streets were packed with the lunch rush, but Vicki didn’t have any trouble picking her way through crowd.
Necks turned when she entered the café. She smoothed down her immaculate suit and glanced over to the corner. Vicki had noticed last week that there was starting to be a similar group of men who’d started showing up with regularity every Thursday as well-and sure enough, there they were. Interesting.
She walked towards Momo, noticing that the other girl had already set her hat on the table and followed her example as she sat down. She fluffed and smoothed her blonde hair and smiled at her friend. “Whoo, what a day. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting long.”
Momo smiled. "No," she turned her attention the menu for another moment. "It just gave me a little longer to decide what I wanted." Which she needed since she still didn't know what she wanted, a sandwich? She glanced outside, it was warm enough that a sandwich would work out nicely. Then again, a salad would be the healthier choice wouldn't it?
She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about the pie, but it sounded really good.
"Busy day at work?" She glanced back up at her and was tempted to reach up and pat her hair down again. One day she was really going to have to ask Vicki how she managed to look like that all the time. She glanced at the pie list again.
Could she eat just pie for lunch?
“You could say that.” Vicki picked up a menu and started to skim through it, her eyes landing on the chicken salad sandwich she’d ordered last week. That would do. “It’s definitely not a slow news month, between the regular grind and the sports news. There’s a bit about the Forrestal’s ‘suicide’ that’s juicy, but I’m not sure how well it will print. Gotta be careful what rumors you throw around when it’s a name that big.”
She set her menu aside and smiled at Momo, “But you didn’t want to hear that jaw. It’s all the noise in the office that’s making it long. I swear, Mallone’s voice gets more shrill the more excited he gets. If he opens his trap about DiMaggio one more time, I’m gonna pop him one.”
Vicki sighed and reached for the glass of water, took a sip and glanced around for their waiter. She didn’t want to go over her lunch break, and she had to finish up an article due before the evening edition. “How about you? How was your day?”
Momo ducked her head a bit to stare at her menu to keep from giving away her amusement. She had no idea how her brain powered through things like that. Had to be a reporter thing.
“Work is good this week,” she glanced up at her friend and decided that the pie was going to get ordered one way or another. Perhaps she would take it back to the office and hide it away for a guilty sort of snack after the staff meeting that they were all due to attend that afternoon. She hated staff meetings; it would be a good compensation.
“Finished early in court this morning,” she shrugged and smiled. “Nowhere near as interesting as your potential suicides and popping people.” No secrets or hidden potential for Vicki to try to figure out this week, just messy court cases that started messy and were going to end messy. At least the clean up wasn’t going to land completely in her lap this time, the NYPD was going to have to take a look at some things as well. Toushirou was going to kill her for it later.
She wasn’t sure if she should poke at her theories on the Forrestal suicide or not, Vicki might think she knew something and even if she didn’t… well it was an interesting place to poke later if Vicki didn’t have something she wanted to poke at her about first. That decided she went back to her menu, salad or sandwich?
Vicki rested her elbows on the table and leaned forward in a most unladylike manner. She studied what she could see of her friend over the menu. It might have been hard to tell for a stranger, but no one who knew Momo could miss the signs. The first and most obvious being that she wasn’t talking, not really, not how Momo normally chatted about any and everything that she kept bottled up inside when surrounded by those men she worked with.
She was tempted to just pull the menu down and ask Momo what was bothering her, but if she did that Momo would never decide what to order and they’d be stuck here all day. Vicki decided to test mildly safer waters. “So how is that police captain friend of yours doing? Seen him around much lately?”
Momo paused. Toushirou? She blinked at Vicki for a moment and managed a smile. “Toushirou if fine,” she cocked her head and stared at her menu. The salad, the salad would be a good balance to the pie. It would be healthy as well.
“Busy,” she cocked her head at the menu. Chicken or no chicken? “And most likely buried in paperwork,” she shrugged and glanced up at Vicki. “And no,” she shook her head. “I haven’t seen him in a while,” okay the salad it was, with the chicken. “Mostly due to paperwork I am sure.”
Ah, so that was probably it. If it wasn’t work-she’d have heard all about it if it was work-then it was that Momo’s friend had pulled one of his disappearing acts on her again. “Mmm,” Vicki said, tapping the corner of her lip thoughtfully.
She singled the waiter over and placed her order. And after the waiter had taken hers and Momo’s, she waited for him to leave before asking, “So is that what’s bothering you? Worried that he buried himself in reports and can’t manage to dig himself out? Imagine the headline that would make.”
Momo looked up and blinked before laughing. "No," she shook her head and folding her menu back up and setting it back in its little holder on the table. "He will emerge," she smiled over at her friend. "Grumpy and looking for tea, but eventually he will make it out of there."
She leaned back in her chair and tucked a piece of hair away from her face. "It has been a complicated couple of weeks," she admitted. "Sorry," another smile. "It the lack of food today, it makes me sleepy," she glanced at the board on the wall. "And I am thinking about that pie."
"How are things going for you?" She leaned forward, "have any big events coming up?"
Vicki didn’t believe her. Momo didn’t ask questions like that. Momo babbled. It was extremely entertaining babble and Vicki enjoyed it immensely. The only time she had to try to pry information out of her friend was when it had to do with work or Toushirou Hitsugaya.
“There’s that charity thing my parents are insisting I go to this weekend,” Vicki made a face. “I’ll get to hear more about how I’m wasting my life in such an undignified pursuit. And meet at least three more eligible idiots before the evening’s done. They’ll probably tromp all over my feet when we dance.”
She picked up one of the glasses of water that the waiter had brought them and took a sip, studying Momo over the rim. If Momo was a recalcitrant source, what would she say to get her to talk… “So. Are you going to tell me what’s really bothering you or not?”
Momo blinked. How did Vicki do that? She stared at her suspiciously for a moment before shaking her head. "No." She admitted finally, shrugging. "I can't talk about it right now." She paused and rolled her eyes. "And no amount of prying is going to get it out of me dear."
She leaned back and started preparing herself for any additional questions. Vicki was good, otherwise she wouldn't be a top reporter. She glanced at her feet for a moment and smiled, looking up again.
"You can however tell me what shoes your going to wear to your parents dinner," she leaned forward again. "Have you seen the new shoes at Sacks?"
They could definitely talk about shoes, that was a nice safe subject and one that she enjoyed. A lot.
Vicki didn’t know why Momo bothered to try to put her off. She ought to know better by now; once Vicki caught a scent it took a court order to pull her off. All the same, if she didn’t want to talk about it… well, Vicki would just see how long she held out.
Smiling, Vicki went along with Momo’s change of subject… for now. “I was thinking of wearing something red. Give the boys something to really gawk at, you know? But then, chances are I’d have someone trying to take over my weekend, and you know I’m never really off duty.”
It was true enough. Vicki was always looking for the next story, no matter where she was. And she had plans for the races on the next weekend that bringing along one of those society boys did not include. “You, though, you should definitely be going out more. When was the last time you had a night on the town?”
Momo nodded. Red was a good color, a little to bold for her, but Vicki could pull it off. "Red would be good for you," she agreed. She relaxed a little when she let her change the subject, not to much because this was Vicki and the girl never really let go of anything. It was why she was such a good reporter.
Momo paused. When was the last time she had gone out for a night on the town? It had been a while, she waved her hand dismissing the thought. "My case load is full," she shrugged. "I am lucky if I have time to sleep at night." She rather doubted the Vicki had given herself time out to go out for herself either. This was one of her parents charity events, but other than that she hadn't mentioned any dates or evenings just for herself.
"Besides your parents charity events, when have you gone out lately?"
Vicki waved a hand dismissively, “I go out all the time.” For work. To investigate leads or hunt up dirt on the bigwigs. And thank God for that, it kept the endless circle of society from suffocating her with its sameness.
She leaned forward, flashing Momo a sudden grin. “But then, I don’t have anyone to take me out. You do.”
Ha. See what little Miss ADA made of that.
Momo blinked at her, reminded herself that gaping was rude, and settled for blinking. “What?” she leaned back so she could see her whole face clearly. “No I don’t,” she shook her head.
Who did she think she had to take her out? Izuru? She might be able to talk him into it, Toushirou? That was a joke, surely. He was so anti-social not even Granny had been able to get him out in a social setting. That left… Momo knew she wasn’t talking about Mr. Aizen.
Right?
The waiter came by and dropped off their orders and Vicki smiled, thanking him, before turning her attention back to her friend. Sometimes it was better to give a person enough rope to hang themselves-and Vicki was confident that whatever was bothering would come out eventually. She glanced at the clock while she lifted up her sandwich-and hopefully within the next half forty-five minutes. She could stretch out her lunch break if she had to, but the deadline for that story wasn’t going away.
“Sure you do,” Vicki said with a smile before taking a bite of her sandwich. There. Let her wonder, prod her some more, and see what comes out.
Momo stared at her suspiciously for several minutes, ignoring the placement of her food in order to keep the stare going. Sometimes it worked on defendants on the stand, stare at them between questions, make them think you were getting into their heads, sweat them out. Make them nervous.
Funny how she had the feeling that Vicki was using some using some strange reporter technique on her as well. It was the smile. She stabbed a piece of chicken on her salad and contemplated her ‘sure you do’.
She hadn’t met Aizen and she really didn’t talk about her connection with him with anyone really, so it couldn’t be Aizen. She took her time chewing and swallowing. Then again, knowing Vicki it could be anyone from Toushirou to Izuru and... really she had no idea who she was referring to.
“No,” she disagreed. “Perhaps you should be more specific if you have someone in mind?”
Playing cagey, huh? Well, unlike most of Momo’s colleagues, Vicki wasn’t surprised. A woman didn’t make it this far in a man’s world without being twice as good as one. She would know.
“Don’t be coy,” Vicki said with a wink. “You know who I’m talking about.” She took another bite of a sandwich before raising her brows. “Unless that’s what’s bothering you?”
Momo had said that work was fine, and if it was any one of the little annoyances that they had to deal with, she’d have spilled it already. A good gab session at lunch could make the idiots at work so much more bearable. That meant that whatever was bothering Momo was something personal-and Vicki didn’t have so many friends that she was willing to let Momo keep that inside.
“Is it something he did?”
Momo sighed. She was going to be stubborn about this wasn’t she? She took another bite of her salad and contemplated the pie. She would have a much better chance of convincing herself she could afford that pie if she held off Vickie’s questions, but the girl never quite gave up on anything. That was what made her a good reporter wasn’t it?
She pointed her fork at her friend, completely ignoring ho w inappropriate it was. “First of all Vicki dear,” she sighed and dropped her fork. “Toushirou’s really sick.” She admitted, picking up her fork and pushing around her chicken, a frown forming. “I think he has the flu or something… at the rate he is going he is going to get pneumonia.” She shrugged and glanced back up. “Anyway, he is working on a case and he won’t take the time off he needs to go see the doctor or to rest and he is getting worse.”
She shrugged. “I am worried about him,” she managed a smile. “Sorry, I didn’t realize it was bleeding over.”
Ah, so it was the captain. Vicki had a hunch it might be. Momo was a fairly perceptive person about some things… and absolutely blind when it came to the depth of her attachment to that man. Vicki was convinced that the pretty ADA was more than halfway dizzy over the homicide captain, and vice versa. She wasn’t sure what Momo thought that she thought; she probably hadn’t even noticed that by inference, she was admitting he was the person she had to take her out.
And she was also confident that the last thing she should do would be to show sympathy. Telling Momo that she had ever reason to be put out with Hitsugaya’s idiocy wouldn’t do much at all. Instead, Vicki decided to tell a version of the truth.
“It’s not worth worrying about,” she shrugged and took another bite of her sandwich. “He’s a big boy. If he gets too sick, he’ll fall down on the job and they’ll haul him off to the hospital. That’s the nice part about being surrounded by coppers.”
Momo nodded, albeit grudgingly. She was right, except for the fact that Vicki had never had to deal with sick and grumpy Toushirou. It was… well Granny had always handled it because he was just… well grumpy.
“You’re probably right,” better to keep that thought to herself, knowing Vicki if she argued, she would manage to corner her on something she wasn’t even aware of being cornered on until she thought about it later, that sort of thing was always annoying. She managed a half hearted smile. “He will be fine.”
And she was going to eat her chicken, and then get pie, and go right on believing that.
Vicki’s brows arched. An interesting response-she’d expected Momo to protest and insist that something had to be done. The way that she was disengaging from something that concerned her was… interesting. And unlike her. Maybe she was more affected than she would let herself admit?
She stifled a silent sigh as she ate another bit of her sandwich. This was obviously going to bother the girl if she didn’t do something about it, so why would she accept such a flimsy excuse? In Vicki’s mind, things were simple: If you want something, you go after it.
“Yeah, probably,” she said, reaching for her glass of water. “Of course, if he’s working himself too hard and not taking proper care of himself, it’s going to take him that much longer to recover. You could do something about that, if you wanted.”
Momo paused, holding her fork just above her salad and blinked at Vicki. Wait… what? She glanced out the window and frowned. Oh… she was right there to and that wasn’t good. That wasn’t good at all. She looked back down at her salad.
Right, well this was Toushirou and even if he was… well an idiot more often than not, he had plenty of people around him surely. That meant he should be all right and she could… go check on him later. She nodded. She would do that, just stop buy with something he could heat up and not have to cook. There was a nice little bakery down the street; she could get something from there. Cooking was out of the question.
She managed a smile at Vicki, again. Her cheeks were going to hurt with all the smiling she was having to do today. “I am sure he will be all right,” she offered, digging her fork back into her salad. She would just check on him later and well she wasn't going to give Vicki anymore imaginary leverage either.
She had no idea what she could possibly be giving her, but Vicki was sneaky and could take a meaning out of nothing.
“I’m sure he will,” Vicki agreed, taking in Momo’s reaction with satisfaction. Now she had the girl thinking about practical ways she could help her ‘friend,’ it was just missing one final touch.
She waved the waiter over, “Could I have a canister of chicken soup to go, please?”
The waiter nodded, and Vicki turned to Momo, leaning forward a little on the table to make her point, “Don’t be mad, now, but I figure you could maybe take this over to him for me? I do it myself, but somehow I don’t think he’d eat it if he knew it came from me.” Which was certainly true-she was pretty sure the captain still had orders that she wasn’t allowed in his office. Maybe this could serve two purposes-get Momo to act a little on her feelings and soften that icicle up a bit towards the press. Honestly, you show up on ‘one too many’ murder scenes, indeed - she couldn’t help being lucky.
“And you know me,” she added with a cat’s grin, crossing her legs, “always trying to stay in good relations with the police department.”
Momo blinked. Soup? She wanted her to take soup to Toushirou? Why hadn’t she thought of that and why had Vicki? She narrowed her eyes just a little at her friend; she didn’t have a crush on him did she? She relaxed, no this was Vicki. First of all she was too tall and secondly she was right, she would just use it to pry information from him later most likely.
Would serve him right for getting himself so sick, “I can do that,” she agreed. He would scowl, grumpy, and pretend that he didn’t need It, but it would be good for him. “But he probably won’t even eat it.” He was so grumpy when he was sick.
It would at least give her a chance to check on him.
“I’m sure you can find some way to convince him,” Vicki hid her grin by bringing up the last of her sandwich. But she couldn’t stop herself from giving Momo a wink. There was a pause while she finished chewing and then said, “After all, what’s the point of knowing someone forever if you can’t get them to do what’s good for them?”
Like edge them towards admitting their True Feelings. Vicki didn’t have time for love, and she wasn’t looking for that to change any time soon. But she knew when she saw a well suited match, and couldn’t help but what to encourage it when she did. She might have been a newspaperman, but she was a woman too.
And if anyone deserved her happily ever after, it was Momo Hinamori.
Momo frowned at the hand covering mouth smile, but gave in with a shrug. She wasn’t up to figuring out what was going on in her friends head just then. She would ponder it later. After she got through the afternoon and was safely settled in her bed and going over the day.
“All right,” she pushed to her feet and motioned to the pie board. “I am going to get a piece of pie, you finish your sandwich.” She shook her head. “And stop whatever it is your thinking.” She moved away from the table, “I know that look.”
She was being wily. She wasn’t sure what she was being devious about, but she would figure it out later when she had the time to work the conversation through in her head.
I’m thinking that you should get over your Aizen hangups and just kiss the captain before his grumpiness takes over the lower east side,’ Vicki did not say, but she wanted to, so she took another bite of her sandwich.
“Some girls have all the luck,” she murmured. “Pie without gaining weight, inside connections with homicide captains…”
Vicki sighed and leaned back on her chair, “The rest of us have to make due with our best red dress.”
Characters: Momo Hinamori (davyn), Vicki Vale (some_scribbles)
Timeline: May 24nd, 1949
Rating: PG
Summary: Momo and Vicki get together for their annual lunch to chat about politics, life, and the men they work with.
Momo did not like her hat. Something kept trying to tickle her ear and she had absolutely no idea what it was. She had already checked her hair three times in the bathroom that morning to no avail. She was going to have to ditch the hat. She was just glad she didn’t have court today. She reached up and starting pulling the pins out of her hair.
Momo sat her hat on her purse in the seat next to her and patted her hair down, glancing at the door as she did so. Vicki would either be prompt or ten minutes late, she glanced at the clock on the wall.
She had two minutes to figure out what she wanted for lunch.
It was Thursday around one’ clock, and that meant Vicki was on her way to have lunch with Momo. It was alternately a relief and a disappointment to drag herself a way from the rush and clatter of the press room. Today the news had been full of James Forrestal’s ‘suicide,’ and Joe DiMaggio and it had been full of so much speculation she was getting a headache.
The streets of the city were beautiful in May, with the fresh green buds on the potted trees along the sidewalk. The streets were packed with the lunch rush, but Vicki didn’t have any trouble picking her way through crowd.
Necks turned when she entered the café. She smoothed down her immaculate suit and glanced over to the corner. Vicki had noticed last week that there was starting to be a similar group of men who’d started showing up with regularity every Thursday as well-and sure enough, there they were. Interesting.
She walked towards Momo, noticing that the other girl had already set her hat on the table and followed her example as she sat down. She fluffed and smoothed her blonde hair and smiled at her friend. “Whoo, what a day. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting long.”
Momo smiled. "No," she turned her attention the menu for another moment. "It just gave me a little longer to decide what I wanted." Which she needed since she still didn't know what she wanted, a sandwich? She glanced outside, it was warm enough that a sandwich would work out nicely. Then again, a salad would be the healthier choice wouldn't it?
She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about the pie, but it sounded really good.
"Busy day at work?" She glanced back up at her and was tempted to reach up and pat her hair down again. One day she was really going to have to ask Vicki how she managed to look like that all the time. She glanced at the pie list again.
Could she eat just pie for lunch?
“You could say that.” Vicki picked up a menu and started to skim through it, her eyes landing on the chicken salad sandwich she’d ordered last week. That would do. “It’s definitely not a slow news month, between the regular grind and the sports news. There’s a bit about the Forrestal’s ‘suicide’ that’s juicy, but I’m not sure how well it will print. Gotta be careful what rumors you throw around when it’s a name that big.”
She set her menu aside and smiled at Momo, “But you didn’t want to hear that jaw. It’s all the noise in the office that’s making it long. I swear, Mallone’s voice gets more shrill the more excited he gets. If he opens his trap about DiMaggio one more time, I’m gonna pop him one.”
Vicki sighed and reached for the glass of water, took a sip and glanced around for their waiter. She didn’t want to go over her lunch break, and she had to finish up an article due before the evening edition. “How about you? How was your day?”
Momo ducked her head a bit to stare at her menu to keep from giving away her amusement. She had no idea how her brain powered through things like that. Had to be a reporter thing.
“Work is good this week,” she glanced up at her friend and decided that the pie was going to get ordered one way or another. Perhaps she would take it back to the office and hide it away for a guilty sort of snack after the staff meeting that they were all due to attend that afternoon. She hated staff meetings; it would be a good compensation.
“Finished early in court this morning,” she shrugged and smiled. “Nowhere near as interesting as your potential suicides and popping people.” No secrets or hidden potential for Vicki to try to figure out this week, just messy court cases that started messy and were going to end messy. At least the clean up wasn’t going to land completely in her lap this time, the NYPD was going to have to take a look at some things as well. Toushirou was going to kill her for it later.
She wasn’t sure if she should poke at her theories on the Forrestal suicide or not, Vicki might think she knew something and even if she didn’t… well it was an interesting place to poke later if Vicki didn’t have something she wanted to poke at her about first. That decided she went back to her menu, salad or sandwich?
Vicki rested her elbows on the table and leaned forward in a most unladylike manner. She studied what she could see of her friend over the menu. It might have been hard to tell for a stranger, but no one who knew Momo could miss the signs. The first and most obvious being that she wasn’t talking, not really, not how Momo normally chatted about any and everything that she kept bottled up inside when surrounded by those men she worked with.
She was tempted to just pull the menu down and ask Momo what was bothering her, but if she did that Momo would never decide what to order and they’d be stuck here all day. Vicki decided to test mildly safer waters. “So how is that police captain friend of yours doing? Seen him around much lately?”
Momo paused. Toushirou? She blinked at Vicki for a moment and managed a smile. “Toushirou if fine,” she cocked her head and stared at her menu. The salad, the salad would be a good balance to the pie. It would be healthy as well.
“Busy,” she cocked her head at the menu. Chicken or no chicken? “And most likely buried in paperwork,” she shrugged and glanced up at Vicki. “And no,” she shook her head. “I haven’t seen him in a while,” okay the salad it was, with the chicken. “Mostly due to paperwork I am sure.”
Ah, so that was probably it. If it wasn’t work-she’d have heard all about it if it was work-then it was that Momo’s friend had pulled one of his disappearing acts on her again. “Mmm,” Vicki said, tapping the corner of her lip thoughtfully.
She singled the waiter over and placed her order. And after the waiter had taken hers and Momo’s, she waited for him to leave before asking, “So is that what’s bothering you? Worried that he buried himself in reports and can’t manage to dig himself out? Imagine the headline that would make.”
Momo looked up and blinked before laughing. "No," she shook her head and folding her menu back up and setting it back in its little holder on the table. "He will emerge," she smiled over at her friend. "Grumpy and looking for tea, but eventually he will make it out of there."
She leaned back in her chair and tucked a piece of hair away from her face. "It has been a complicated couple of weeks," she admitted. "Sorry," another smile. "It the lack of food today, it makes me sleepy," she glanced at the board on the wall. "And I am thinking about that pie."
"How are things going for you?" She leaned forward, "have any big events coming up?"
Vicki didn’t believe her. Momo didn’t ask questions like that. Momo babbled. It was extremely entertaining babble and Vicki enjoyed it immensely. The only time she had to try to pry information out of her friend was when it had to do with work or Toushirou Hitsugaya.
“There’s that charity thing my parents are insisting I go to this weekend,” Vicki made a face. “I’ll get to hear more about how I’m wasting my life in such an undignified pursuit. And meet at least three more eligible idiots before the evening’s done. They’ll probably tromp all over my feet when we dance.”
She picked up one of the glasses of water that the waiter had brought them and took a sip, studying Momo over the rim. If Momo was a recalcitrant source, what would she say to get her to talk… “So. Are you going to tell me what’s really bothering you or not?”
Momo blinked. How did Vicki do that? She stared at her suspiciously for a moment before shaking her head. "No." She admitted finally, shrugging. "I can't talk about it right now." She paused and rolled her eyes. "And no amount of prying is going to get it out of me dear."
She leaned back and started preparing herself for any additional questions. Vicki was good, otherwise she wouldn't be a top reporter. She glanced at her feet for a moment and smiled, looking up again.
"You can however tell me what shoes your going to wear to your parents dinner," she leaned forward again. "Have you seen the new shoes at Sacks?"
They could definitely talk about shoes, that was a nice safe subject and one that she enjoyed. A lot.
Vicki didn’t know why Momo bothered to try to put her off. She ought to know better by now; once Vicki caught a scent it took a court order to pull her off. All the same, if she didn’t want to talk about it… well, Vicki would just see how long she held out.
Smiling, Vicki went along with Momo’s change of subject… for now. “I was thinking of wearing something red. Give the boys something to really gawk at, you know? But then, chances are I’d have someone trying to take over my weekend, and you know I’m never really off duty.”
It was true enough. Vicki was always looking for the next story, no matter where she was. And she had plans for the races on the next weekend that bringing along one of those society boys did not include. “You, though, you should definitely be going out more. When was the last time you had a night on the town?”
Momo nodded. Red was a good color, a little to bold for her, but Vicki could pull it off. "Red would be good for you," she agreed. She relaxed a little when she let her change the subject, not to much because this was Vicki and the girl never really let go of anything. It was why she was such a good reporter.
Momo paused. When was the last time she had gone out for a night on the town? It had been a while, she waved her hand dismissing the thought. "My case load is full," she shrugged. "I am lucky if I have time to sleep at night." She rather doubted the Vicki had given herself time out to go out for herself either. This was one of her parents charity events, but other than that she hadn't mentioned any dates or evenings just for herself.
"Besides your parents charity events, when have you gone out lately?"
Vicki waved a hand dismissively, “I go out all the time.” For work. To investigate leads or hunt up dirt on the bigwigs. And thank God for that, it kept the endless circle of society from suffocating her with its sameness.
She leaned forward, flashing Momo a sudden grin. “But then, I don’t have anyone to take me out. You do.”
Ha. See what little Miss ADA made of that.
Momo blinked at her, reminded herself that gaping was rude, and settled for blinking. “What?” she leaned back so she could see her whole face clearly. “No I don’t,” she shook her head.
Who did she think she had to take her out? Izuru? She might be able to talk him into it, Toushirou? That was a joke, surely. He was so anti-social not even Granny had been able to get him out in a social setting. That left… Momo knew she wasn’t talking about Mr. Aizen.
Right?
The waiter came by and dropped off their orders and Vicki smiled, thanking him, before turning her attention back to her friend. Sometimes it was better to give a person enough rope to hang themselves-and Vicki was confident that whatever was bothering would come out eventually. She glanced at the clock while she lifted up her sandwich-and hopefully within the next half forty-five minutes. She could stretch out her lunch break if she had to, but the deadline for that story wasn’t going away.
“Sure you do,” Vicki said with a smile before taking a bite of her sandwich. There. Let her wonder, prod her some more, and see what comes out.
Momo stared at her suspiciously for several minutes, ignoring the placement of her food in order to keep the stare going. Sometimes it worked on defendants on the stand, stare at them between questions, make them think you were getting into their heads, sweat them out. Make them nervous.
Funny how she had the feeling that Vicki was using some using some strange reporter technique on her as well. It was the smile. She stabbed a piece of chicken on her salad and contemplated her ‘sure you do’.
She hadn’t met Aizen and she really didn’t talk about her connection with him with anyone really, so it couldn’t be Aizen. She took her time chewing and swallowing. Then again, knowing Vicki it could be anyone from Toushirou to Izuru and... really she had no idea who she was referring to.
“No,” she disagreed. “Perhaps you should be more specific if you have someone in mind?”
Playing cagey, huh? Well, unlike most of Momo’s colleagues, Vicki wasn’t surprised. A woman didn’t make it this far in a man’s world without being twice as good as one. She would know.
“Don’t be coy,” Vicki said with a wink. “You know who I’m talking about.” She took another bite of a sandwich before raising her brows. “Unless that’s what’s bothering you?”
Momo had said that work was fine, and if it was any one of the little annoyances that they had to deal with, she’d have spilled it already. A good gab session at lunch could make the idiots at work so much more bearable. That meant that whatever was bothering Momo was something personal-and Vicki didn’t have so many friends that she was willing to let Momo keep that inside.
“Is it something he did?”
Momo sighed. She was going to be stubborn about this wasn’t she? She took another bite of her salad and contemplated the pie. She would have a much better chance of convincing herself she could afford that pie if she held off Vickie’s questions, but the girl never quite gave up on anything. That was what made her a good reporter wasn’t it?
She pointed her fork at her friend, completely ignoring ho w inappropriate it was. “First of all Vicki dear,” she sighed and dropped her fork. “Toushirou’s really sick.” She admitted, picking up her fork and pushing around her chicken, a frown forming. “I think he has the flu or something… at the rate he is going he is going to get pneumonia.” She shrugged and glanced back up. “Anyway, he is working on a case and he won’t take the time off he needs to go see the doctor or to rest and he is getting worse.”
She shrugged. “I am worried about him,” she managed a smile. “Sorry, I didn’t realize it was bleeding over.”
Ah, so it was the captain. Vicki had a hunch it might be. Momo was a fairly perceptive person about some things… and absolutely blind when it came to the depth of her attachment to that man. Vicki was convinced that the pretty ADA was more than halfway dizzy over the homicide captain, and vice versa. She wasn’t sure what Momo thought that she thought; she probably hadn’t even noticed that by inference, she was admitting he was the person she had to take her out.
And she was also confident that the last thing she should do would be to show sympathy. Telling Momo that she had ever reason to be put out with Hitsugaya’s idiocy wouldn’t do much at all. Instead, Vicki decided to tell a version of the truth.
“It’s not worth worrying about,” she shrugged and took another bite of her sandwich. “He’s a big boy. If he gets too sick, he’ll fall down on the job and they’ll haul him off to the hospital. That’s the nice part about being surrounded by coppers.”
Momo nodded, albeit grudgingly. She was right, except for the fact that Vicki had never had to deal with sick and grumpy Toushirou. It was… well Granny had always handled it because he was just… well grumpy.
“You’re probably right,” better to keep that thought to herself, knowing Vicki if she argued, she would manage to corner her on something she wasn’t even aware of being cornered on until she thought about it later, that sort of thing was always annoying. She managed a half hearted smile. “He will be fine.”
And she was going to eat her chicken, and then get pie, and go right on believing that.
Vicki’s brows arched. An interesting response-she’d expected Momo to protest and insist that something had to be done. The way that she was disengaging from something that concerned her was… interesting. And unlike her. Maybe she was more affected than she would let herself admit?
She stifled a silent sigh as she ate another bit of her sandwich. This was obviously going to bother the girl if she didn’t do something about it, so why would she accept such a flimsy excuse? In Vicki’s mind, things were simple: If you want something, you go after it.
“Yeah, probably,” she said, reaching for her glass of water. “Of course, if he’s working himself too hard and not taking proper care of himself, it’s going to take him that much longer to recover. You could do something about that, if you wanted.”
Momo paused, holding her fork just above her salad and blinked at Vicki. Wait… what? She glanced out the window and frowned. Oh… she was right there to and that wasn’t good. That wasn’t good at all. She looked back down at her salad.
Right, well this was Toushirou and even if he was… well an idiot more often than not, he had plenty of people around him surely. That meant he should be all right and she could… go check on him later. She nodded. She would do that, just stop buy with something he could heat up and not have to cook. There was a nice little bakery down the street; she could get something from there. Cooking was out of the question.
She managed a smile at Vicki, again. Her cheeks were going to hurt with all the smiling she was having to do today. “I am sure he will be all right,” she offered, digging her fork back into her salad. She would just check on him later and well she wasn't going to give Vicki anymore imaginary leverage either.
She had no idea what she could possibly be giving her, but Vicki was sneaky and could take a meaning out of nothing.
“I’m sure he will,” Vicki agreed, taking in Momo’s reaction with satisfaction. Now she had the girl thinking about practical ways she could help her ‘friend,’ it was just missing one final touch.
She waved the waiter over, “Could I have a canister of chicken soup to go, please?”
The waiter nodded, and Vicki turned to Momo, leaning forward a little on the table to make her point, “Don’t be mad, now, but I figure you could maybe take this over to him for me? I do it myself, but somehow I don’t think he’d eat it if he knew it came from me.” Which was certainly true-she was pretty sure the captain still had orders that she wasn’t allowed in his office. Maybe this could serve two purposes-get Momo to act a little on her feelings and soften that icicle up a bit towards the press. Honestly, you show up on ‘one too many’ murder scenes, indeed - she couldn’t help being lucky.
“And you know me,” she added with a cat’s grin, crossing her legs, “always trying to stay in good relations with the police department.”
Momo blinked. Soup? She wanted her to take soup to Toushirou? Why hadn’t she thought of that and why had Vicki? She narrowed her eyes just a little at her friend; she didn’t have a crush on him did she? She relaxed, no this was Vicki. First of all she was too tall and secondly she was right, she would just use it to pry information from him later most likely.
Would serve him right for getting himself so sick, “I can do that,” she agreed. He would scowl, grumpy, and pretend that he didn’t need It, but it would be good for him. “But he probably won’t even eat it.” He was so grumpy when he was sick.
It would at least give her a chance to check on him.
“I’m sure you can find some way to convince him,” Vicki hid her grin by bringing up the last of her sandwich. But she couldn’t stop herself from giving Momo a wink. There was a pause while she finished chewing and then said, “After all, what’s the point of knowing someone forever if you can’t get them to do what’s good for them?”
Like edge them towards admitting their True Feelings. Vicki didn’t have time for love, and she wasn’t looking for that to change any time soon. But she knew when she saw a well suited match, and couldn’t help but what to encourage it when she did. She might have been a newspaperman, but she was a woman too.
And if anyone deserved her happily ever after, it was Momo Hinamori.
Momo frowned at the hand covering mouth smile, but gave in with a shrug. She wasn’t up to figuring out what was going on in her friends head just then. She would ponder it later. After she got through the afternoon and was safely settled in her bed and going over the day.
“All right,” she pushed to her feet and motioned to the pie board. “I am going to get a piece of pie, you finish your sandwich.” She shook her head. “And stop whatever it is your thinking.” She moved away from the table, “I know that look.”
She was being wily. She wasn’t sure what she was being devious about, but she would figure it out later when she had the time to work the conversation through in her head.
I’m thinking that you should get over your Aizen hangups and just kiss the captain before his grumpiness takes over the lower east side,’ Vicki did not say, but she wanted to, so she took another bite of her sandwich.
“Some girls have all the luck,” she murmured. “Pie without gaining weight, inside connections with homicide captains…”
Vicki sighed and leaned back on her chair, “The rest of us have to make due with our best red dress.”