And then what she just did hits her and she looks down, blushing.

"Um, sorry if that was too forward."

"...The hug was quite nice."

"And, um, I mean, it really wasn't all that much?  I - you'll probably need most of these at some point, you know?"

"I mean, yeah," she replies, smiling and still blushing lightly, "but not necessarily all of it immediately, you could've spaced it out, or waited until it was more pressing. Just... You're really good."

"I...  Well, I do try to be.  And if I don't have to wait to do something good, something useful - which I didn't - then why should I?"

Sable frowns, looking down. "Because I don't feel like I deserve it," she whispers.

...It is now Momo's turn to initiate a hug.

"But you do.  You do, a thousand times over."

Sable lets herself be folded into the hug, and wraps her arms softly around Momo. "Why though? I'm sitting on a pile of unearned, relationship-imbalancing power. Trying not to abuse it should be the bare minimum. I should have better ideas, better ways to fight back, some way to pry the binding off so everything can be your own choice. Any of your classmates would've trained harder before even ending up here. Kiyuko would have a million better ideas. I'm just some fool of a girl who couldn't cope with a tamer world than yours and shattered into two when I was twelve over it not being loving enough."

"To correctly understand that the world we live in is not kind, and try to make it so, especially when it looks hopeless, is already moral conviction that so many lack.

"But," and she draws on all the elocution lessons she has ever had in order to convey just how seriously she means what she says now, "and much more importantly, you don't need to save the world to justify your own existence in it."

"...And one more thing: Kiyuko would tell you herself, nobody can save the world alone - and I think you were trying.  That you're all still here in the face of a burden that no-one can carry, that you're still trying even when the stakes have escalated so far beyond everything either of us have ever faced, means that you have so much more strength than you think you have."

Someone she's looked up to, a girl whose power required study and skill to use, a hardworking, generous hero who'd put the work in and knew what she was talking about, turning the standards she applies to the care of others back around on her? It's enough to knock down the wall and cut through to her old hurts.

That just about does Sable in. She lets her face sink into Momo's shoulder, tears rolling down her cheeks, squeezing tightly to her as she sobs.

Because yeah, she had been trying. With nothing but love and stubbornness, one soul at a time.

"There you go, it's okay, just let it all out..."

To be honest, she's trying to hold back tears herself.

She diverts her focus from needing to be on not-having her own breakdown by getting Sable a nice soft blanket to be wrapped up in, as a supplement to the hug (and also perhaps the gentle petting of her hair).  "You don't have to do this alone anymore."

The blanket and hair-petting help a lot.

Eventually the sobbing slows to gentle tears and sniffles, and Sable squeezes Momo tightly.

"Thank you," she murmurs. "I think I'd been holding that in for a good few years too long."

"...Any number of years of pain remotely like that pain, is too many years.  I'm...  Glad I could help relieve it, in some small part."

She smiles sheepishly. "It's probably not going to stop hurting, on some level, until we accumulate enough power to start making worlds actually kind. But having people close to care about keeps me going. Fills back up what the cruelty drains down. So your care and support helps a lot."

She presses her forehead against Momo's gently, looking the black-haired girl in the eye. "Thank you."

She just smiles softly, even fondly.  "I repeat myself, but...  I'm glad I can help."

"Well, it's mutual," she replies, taking Momo's hands in her own and squeezing them, "so if there's anything I can do to make this mad life we've got better, or any messy emotions I can hear out, I'm here for you, no matter what."

"Well, um, thank you...!"

Send help she's so gay.

"There might actually be a project I could use your help with, come to think of it.  I'm still worried about erosion, so I want to put something down the sides of the island to keep the dirt from falling off, but obviously I can't really get down to the rocky bits with a drill and some bolts without more infrastructure than we can really afford to have me make, right now.  And you can.  So - once you're confident in your sticking to things, I was hoping you could help."

"Oooh. That we can do. Wanted to practice swinging, climbing, and rappelling, anyway. We've got instincts, but that's no substitute for practice, y'know?"

She nods.  "Practice is very important.  You're not allowed to go flinging yourself into the void until you have good enough aim to hit a small target at range, though!"

"Spoken like a girl who's got lots of experience with both heroics training and reckless dorks," Sable replies with a wry grin. Then she kisses Momo's forehead and whirls out of the embrace to whip a hand at the tree, fingers easily flexing into the classic gesture used by Spider-Men and -Women everywhere.

Thwip

A strand of webbing shoots across the grass and just barely misses the trunk of the tree.

And then Sable freezes, mouth hanging open, staring down at her outstretched left hand.

"So, are you stunned because you actually just did that, or stunned because you missed?"