"I've had a pretty good morning!" you tell Mami, smiling warmly at her. "A little stressful, but I think I've made good progress. Helped people, I think, so I'd say it was worth it. How about you, Mami?"
"That's good," Mami says, smiling back at you. "Classes weren't very interesting today, but I've been paying attention. Academics are still important even for us magical girls, right?"
"Right!" you affirm.
"Psht, yeah," Sayaka says, snorting. "Not like I can... well, technically I guess I
can sell magic. Healing magic would probably make me a fortune. Like whats-her-name, from Sendai. Only... hm. I bet I could
pretend to be a doctor and heal people."
"Mori Rin?" you say. "And y'know, that's not a bad idea, but the
real problem is getting all the licensing and all that to set up legally."
"My family doctor has commented at length about the licensing and certifications," Hitomi comments. "Apparently, keeping up to date is not an easy task."
"Baaah," Sayaka grumbles, stuffing her mouth with rice. "Licensing schmicencing."
"You could study to be a doctor, Sayaka! And throw in magic healing alongside actual medicine," Madoka says brightly. "I think you'd make it easily, don't you, Homura?"
Madoka nudges Homura, who shrugs quietly.
"Like I said, it's not a bad idea," you muse. "Difficult to set up, obviously, but potentially
very lucrative." You pause, a thought striking you. Something you'd forgotten to do. "Oh, and uh right, so you guys know about the, uh, magical girl storage space, right?"
"Mmh!" Mami agrees, snuggling closer to you.
Homura nods, of course, but Madoka and Hitomi look faintly confused, so you explain briefly, and then produce a hammer.
"So, hammer," you say, holding it up with a grin. You make sure everyone's looking, and then you rotate it
away from you. "Hammer
space."
Sayaka groans, slapping her palm against her face. "I
thought that's where you were going with it, and I
hoped you weren't going to go there, but you did."
"Too much explanation for the joke." Hitomi delivers her verdict with an air of finality, demurely popping her lunchbox open. "It would have worked better if you had set it up over a few days, first explaining the notion of hammerspace properly to us without having to frontload it."
You pout, trying to catch Homura or Madoka's eye. However, even
Madoka determinedly avoids your gaze.
Mami giggles, leaning into your side.
"... everyone's a critic," you say, sniffing haughtily.
"I think it was clever," Mami says loyally.
"Yes, but you're biased," you say, beaming at her.
"I know I am!" Mami says, peeking up at you and smiling.
"You two are
disgustingly cute," Sayaka says.
"It
is forbidden love, after all," Hitomi adds, straight-faced as she tucks into her lunch.
Homura's eyebrows climb the barest fraction of a centimeter as she eyes Hitomi, but evidently decides not to comment on
that. Madoka giggles happily as she also pops her lunchbox open, bumping her shoulder against Homura. And you can feel Mami's expectant gaze on you.
"I can't imagine what you're after," you tell Mami.
"Nothing at all!" she says. "But aren't you going to eat, Sabrina?"
"Aren't you?" you ask, motioning at her still-closed lunchbox.
"Oh, I am!" Mami says, opening it to reveal... the lunch you'd prepared. Rice, with teriyaki chicken, some salad tucked to the side, and a few sausages cut into little sausage octopi. She pops a bit of rice into her mouth, beaming. "See?"
You laugh, and open your own lunch up. You can feel
everyone's expectant curiosity, even
Homura's gaze boring a hole into the side of your head. And-
Instead of little sausage octopi, you have sausages cut up into thin slices, forming a pink border around a carefully heart-shaped patty of rice, the teriyaki chicken and salad tucked around the edges to form a green frame. Black sesame seeds add colour and contrast to the rice, forming wavy little patterns of dots.
Madokami above, you'd
expected something like this but you still can't help the dopey grin on your face as you wrap your arm around Mami's shoulder and pull her in to press a kiss to her cheek.
"Aww," Madoka says, clasping her hands in delight when she sees what Mami did for you. "That's beautiful!"
Homura nods, apparently unsurprised.
"I love it," you say. "Thank you, Mami."
"It's nothing," Mami says, gracing you with a warm, adoring smile. "Thank
you, Sabrina. For being you."
"
Dorks," Sayaka says. "
Doooorks."
Hitomi pokes Sayaka in the side. "I think it's sweet."
"I mean, it is!" Sayaka says. "But you're both still dweebs. This means you, Mami, Sabrina."
"Guilty as charged," you say with a laugh. "But
I'm the lucky girl who gets to have Mami at her side and a lunch like this. So there." You pause, thoughtfully, looking at the artfully crafted meal. "... I almost don't want to eat this. It would be a shame to ruin it."
"Oh, you," Mami says, blushing and ducking her head to hide her blush.
You chuckle quietly, and tuck in, smiling around at everyone. At your friends, all sitting together and happy and laughing.
Sayaka ribs Madoka over the PE lessons they're apparently going to have in the afternoon, and Madoka takes it in stride, poking right back with backup from Hitomi. Homura seems completely unruffled, but you can tell she's hanging on to every word even as she eats quietly. Madoka takes care to draw Homura into the conversation, too, making sure that she's not left out.
And Mami...
Mami is practically
glowing with joy, even though she's doing little more than snuggle against your side and eat, chatting quietly. Then again, do
you have any room to even comment, when you've got the silliest, dopiest grin on your face?
No, not at all.
You savour your lunch slowly, the time spent with Mami, the time spent in happy chatter with your friends. But it doesn't last anywhere
near long enough, and pretty soon, Sayaka's setting aside her lunchbox and bouncing lightly to her feet.
"Mnnnnargh," Sayaka grumbles, pushing her hands into the small of her back and stretching.
"That's not good for you, Sayaka," Madoka scolds.
"Sure it is," Sayaka says, grinning and bouncing. She snatches Hitomi's now-empty lunchbox, grinning triumphantly at her friend and grabbing her own.
"Really, Sayaka, it's just a lunchbox," Hitomi says. She rolls her eyes as she stands, brushing her skirt down.
"Yeah, yeah," Sayaka says. "Anyway, we gotta go now, Sabrina."
Mami doesn't move from your side, though, lingering for just a bit longer.
"Yup!" Madoka says brightly, beaming at you. "See you later!"
"See you all! Uh- real quick before you head off, Sayaka, Homura?" you say. "Sayaka - I'm planning to go see about possibly getting in touch with other magical girl groups in the afternoon, d'you wanna tag along? As a clone, I mean."
Sayaka brightens with a grin. "I'd like that! I'll pop off a clone, just a sec..."
She transforms to split off a clone, and as she does so, you turn to Homura, who gives you a questioning look.
"Uhhh," you say intelligently, trying to phrase things to
not alarm anyone. It's nothing to be alarmed over, anyway! "I've got something to run by you after school. It's nothing bad or urgent! Just questions and stuff."
"OK," Homura says, nodding. Her eyes flicker from you to Mami, and she inclines her head to you before moving off to join Madoka and Hitomi.
... you
do need to tell her about Oriko developing clairvoyance in place of precognizance. You'd promised to keep her in the loop, and the simple trust she's showing here, acknowledging that you're capable of handling things? You're not going to betray that trust.
"Aight," Sayaka -well, Sayaka's clone- says, clapping you on the shoulder. "I'll go... somewhere over there, kay?"
"Sure," you say, grinning at her. Sayaka Prime heads down the stairs with a cheerful wave, while the clone Sayaka bounds off the roof in a grandiose swirl of white cape.
And that leaves you alone with Mami.
You draw her into a hug, smiling softly, and cup her cheek.
"I'll see you after school," you murmur quietly.
Mami takes a deep breath and straightens, returning the smile with a warm, glowing one. "You will," she says, tone unwavering. "Thank you, Sabrina."
"No. Thank
you, Mami, for... for being you," you say. "I wouldn't be as happy as I am right now if you weren't. And thank you for the lunch. It was delicious."
Mami giggles. "You cooked most of it, Sabrina."
"Mneeeh. Half, at most," you say.
"Alright," she says, disengaging from the hug and taking a step backwards. She taps you on the lips with one finger, smiling. "You still owe me installments!"
"And I'll pay them back after school," you say, smiling. "For now - see you later, Mami."
"See you, Sabrina," Mami murmurs. She takes a deep breath, smiles at you, and turns to head down the stairs.
You wait quietly, tracking her presence down the stairs, and you wait until the schoolbell rings before forming wings and taking to the sky once more.
"
Yo, Sayaka, where're you?" you call.
"
Over here!" Sayaka responds, and you spot her waving frantically to get your attention. She's standing on one of the nearby buildings, and zips up to join you on a streak of blue light. "So, where're we going?"
[] Contact Yuki
- [] Ask about Airi
- [] Ask about dropping off Rionna
[] Check in with...
- [] Check in with the Animators (Masami and Hiroko (and Ono))
- [] Check in with the Shiogama girls (Noriko and Akemi)
- [] Touhoku University Group
-- [] Ask for an introduction to the Osaki group
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
=====
So, uh, I wrote this before noticing that a vote with stuff appended had popped up. Whoops. I added Sayaka going along for diplomacy, so you'll get to vote for the post-lunch events now!