!!!!!! petting!!!

He pets the pretty peachy baby. 

Katin finishes her milk and burps. Peka kisses her face.

"Can I hold her?"

"Sure."

He takes the baby reverently, holding her as though she were made of eggshells and diamond. 

Peka keeps her finger wrapped up in Katin's clutching little fingers rather than relinquish her altogether. "Do you have any?"

"No," he sighs sadly. 

"I think of yellows as having plenty of money but I guess that doesn't help when it comes to credits."

"Yeah, what matters with credits is how much money you have relative to your caste."

"What do you do, Peshak?"

"Oh, I do the accounts for a pharmacy."

"Gotta be honest with you, sounds pretty dull."

"It's not great, but it pays well enough, and when there's downtime my boss doesn't get on my case about playing silly everything games."

"Aww, that's good then! I'm lucky I can afford formula."

"Are things that tight?"

"Less than they used to be but I was in the army for a few weeks right after she was born making ends meet."

"--Oh wow. I'm sorry to hear that." He looks down at the baby. "I guess that's why you need formula, too, huh."

"Yup, that's why."

"Aww." He gently starts to rock Katin. "There's hormones for that, but I guess if formula's a strain on your budget you wouldn't really be able to afford them..."

"I'm not sure there even are any in there," she aims a thumb back over her shoulder, "and I wouldn't know how to get them, but even if I did they'd cost money, yeah."

He gives the district a brief, uneasy look. "I mean, you can leave."

"I can walk out, but I still grew up there. It's all confusing out here. And expensive."

"It's confusing? What's confusing about it?"

"It's just so different! I watch TV, but TV can't tell you everything."

He looks dubiously into the red district. "I guess..."