"
Hey, mind if I join you for lunch?" you ask.
"
Of course, Sabrina," Mami says, followed quickly by a "
Sure!" from Madoka. "
We have about forty-five minutes left for our lunch break," Mami adds.
... it occurs to you that you don't actually
have any lunch. You can fix
that, though. A more tricky problem is how to
land, you think as you bank in a circle, holding the wings out straight and letting yourself glide in a rapidly descending spiral.
Well.
There's a nice, flat rooftop over there that's getting rather close.
Nothing for it then. You aim at the roof, trying to judge your speed, before folding your wings and simply let yourself
drop. You hit the roof at speed, and drop into a shoulder roll to bleed of spee-
The wings have other ideas, though, since they're steadfastedly depending from your shoulders. Your breath slams out of your lungs as what
would be a graceful roll turns into an ungainly tumble, and you bounce
off the edge of the roof, plummeting into the alleyway below.
... Not
actually a problem, as you flare your wings powerfully to slow your descent,
just missing an errant antenna sticking out of a window.
You land gently, wings slowing your descent enough to not shatter pavement.
... whoo.
You take a moment to catch your breath, hands on your knees - that was
exciting, if nothing else! Finally, you straighten, and look at the dense dome of Grief spheres and the wings visible out of the corner of your eyes. You can't exactly walk around with those floating around, can you.
The only place for you to put the Grief to is back in Hildegard's Seed -you suppose you could make a giant Grief monolith and leave it here, but that's probably a bad idea- so you dig the Seed out of your pocket and hold it up, moving a few spheres out of the way so that the light catches the Seed.
Yep. Still a mostly clear, spherical shape with a pinprick dot of darkness in the centre. You shrug, and begin pouring the Grief back in - it goes in
much more readily than it came out, the Seed vacuuming it in almost as fast as you can disincorporate your spheres.
Finally, the Grief is gone, and the Grief Seed back to looking like, well, a Grief Seed. You pocket it, and dismiss your puella magi costume in a blaze of light, fastidiously smoothing down your skirt before wandering out to the main road.
The midday sun is annoyingly hot, though the air temperature is still relatively cool, and you duck into a nearby shop to pick up some takeaway lunch - just a simple bento, and then wander around the back of the building to bounce up to the roof, taking care not to jostle your food too much as you roofhop to the building next to the school.
You squint at the school rooftop, with its
absurdly ornate fencing, just barely making out the three people sitting there, bright little bobs of pink, blonde, and black hair.
This will be a tricky jump - that fence was supposed to prevent people from falling
off the roof, in all likelihood, but it's also a decent barrier for people jumping
onto the roof.
You transform again, and back up a few steps, and then sprint forward, pushing yourself off the edge of the roof in an explosive jump, soaring over the distance.
The rushing of air past your ears, the sensation of your hair and coat billowing out behind you are old friends by now. The plastic bento tray carefully held in your hand is new, though.
You clear the fence with very little distance to spare, hooking your free hand against one of the supporting struts and spinning to a sliding halt on the ground.
You grin at the three on the roof. "Hey everyone!"
Madoka's sitting between Mami and Homura on the large bench in the middle of the roof, all three with open lunchboxes on their lap. Beside Madoka is a pair of binoculars - probably those glints of light earlier, and the pinkette is currently recovering from a flinch that sent bits of rice everywhere.
"Uh... oops. Sorry, Madoka," you say sheepishly.
"Hi, Sabrina," Madoka says, picking the sticky bits of rice off herself.
"Hello, Sabrina," Mami says with an indulgent smile as she turns to help Madoka with the rice.
Homura just nods at you in acknowledgement.
You untransform and move over, sitting down beside Mami, who beams at you. "So what have you been doing?"
"Ah, nothing much," you say airily while opening your packed lunch. "Experimenting with my powers."
"Did you discover anything special?" Mami asks, taking a bite of her lunch.
"Well, the wings," you say, starting in on your own lunch. "Unfortunately, I don't really know how to fly. I uh... may have crashed. A bit."
Madoka giggles, eating her own lunch. "They look really cool, though!"
Mami nods in agreement, "Maybe you just need more practice?"
"Probably!" you agree. "So how's things today?"
An unhappy look crosses Madoka's face. "I'm worried about Sayaka."
You smile at her, trying to reassure her. "She's alright, Madoka. They all are."
"I know, I know," Madoka mutters glumly. "But their
house burned down!"
"She's still alive and healthy," Homura says quietly.
"I suppose that's true," Madoka says, turning to look at the time traveller.
"It's what counts," Mami says, equally quietly, before taking another bite of her lunch. In a transparent attempt to change the subject, she turns to you, and informs you, "The lunch you cooked is great!"
"You cooked this, Sabrina?" Madoka asks, peering over at Mami's lunchbox. "It looks good..."
[] Get Homura to offer Madoka some
[] Don't
[] Write-in
=====
You have a hundred and four Grief marbles in your sling bag, and two Grief Seeds in your pocket.
This
was going to be cute and fluffy, but Madoka didn't want to cooperate.
