"Yeah," you murmur to Mami. "Let's go home. And... Homura, Sayaka." You beam at your friends over Mami's shoulder, arms still wrapped snugly around her.
"Mmm?" Sayaka says. She grins briefly at you.
"Thanks for being here, both of you," you say. "It helped." Mami nods wordlessly, hair brushing over your shirt as she refuses to let go of you.
"Ahh, c'mon, how could I say no?" Sayaka asks, rolling her eyes. Homura nods, amethyst eyes distant.
"Just accept the gratitude," you say, matching Sayaka with your own rolled eyes. "Seriously. Being here helped. I don't think anyone else could've really called her out like that, and it
worked. So... thanks." You grin, and then blink as your thoughts jumping to something niggling at the back of your mind. "Also, weren't you going home? Earlier, I mean."
Sayaka shrugs easily. "Changed my mind," she says. "And... I know I can't
talk about this stuff with, uh, basically anyone, buuuut doing homework? That's better than being alone in my room."
She pauses, and makes a disgusted face as if she can't believe she'd just said that.
"Yeah," she says, shrugging. "So I stopped by home and then went to Madoka's instead."
Mami makes a soft noise. Her trembling's eased out a little, but you can still feel her soaking into your embrace, and no wonder - the encounter was draining for
you, just from the tension and
emotion. You rub her back gently, trying to work out the knots.
"Well... I guess we're done here," you say. "Oh, yeah, a quick cleanse for everyone, yeah? Right, there we go. Say hi to Madoka for me, and see you tomorrow?"
"Mmhm!" Sayaka says, waving. "Coming, Homura?"
"Yes," Homura says. She nods at you, solemn and measured in a way that's almost a bow without being more than a slight inclination of her head. And in that one gesture...
Acknowledgement, because you've done it. Happiness, just a hair, because she's happy for you. And gladness, because this is one more obstacle. One more battle won in her long war: the foundations of the stage settling just that little bit more for the grand showdown to come. Because Mami has always been a pivotal part of the scene in Mitakihara, because Mami was, and
is Homura's
friend.
Maybe you're reading too much into it, but you've gotten pretty good at understanding Homura.
So you smile at her, and as they leave, you gather Mami up in your arms with a quick 'hup!', delighting in the surprised little squeak you startle from her, and leap for the roofs. Mami cottons on quickly, looping her arms around your neck to steady herself as you bound across Mitakihara.
Your Grief nanofog spreads out ahead of you, a perpetual cloud bank flooding out ahead of you. It lets you feel your path, safe and sure and certain so that you don't have to risk dropping Mami - you could walk on air, if it came to an awkwardly placed building. Detection and utility and offense and defense all in one, and speaking of detection, you'd picked up a Kyuubey earlier.
Not dead or defunct, apparently, just totally limp as if playing dead. You can sense the faintest traces of magic in it still.
A second's worth of internal debate: to crush, to destroy, to incinerate the body, or not. Certainly you don't want to keep it around for much longer, but... ultimately, you choose to simply toss it none-too-gently at a rooftop. It lies still for a moment, and then stirs and scampers out of your range.
The city glows beneath you. Headlights and streetlights combine into luminous rivers, distant shopfronts and building-sized displays and signs casting enough light to drown out the stars. Traffic and people and
people throng the streets, the noise a low rumble rivalled only by the roll of thunder overhead, lightning streaking briefly through the clouding night sky.
Looks like you're due some rain tonight.
When you get home, she's still curled up against you, reluctant to let go, so you simply drop onto the sofa with Mami still in your arms. She makes another soft, indecipherable noise, shuffling around to get comfortable, which apparently means cuddled as close to you as physically possible.
Not that you have any objection to that, of course. You smile at her, brushing the hair back from her face and simply...
exist, content to let her regain her equilibrium and to let
yourself relax. In the back of your mind, you can still feel your nanofog, spread out around you. Nowhere near as effective as it could be, out of respect of other people's privacy - but enough, you hope, to detect Kyuubey should it attempt to intrude again.
You divert a sliver of attention and nanofog to flooding the kitchen. You find the kettle and a teapot and a few cups and, of course, the tea. Chamomile feels perfect for the mood, you suspect.
Hah.
Utility indeed.
"How are you feeling?" you ask, after a few minutes.
"Drained," Mami murmurs, shaking her head. "Exhausted."
You laugh quietly. "
I'm drained, and I was just...
standing there," you say. "Yeah, I
completely understand."
"Sabrina-" Mami shakes her head, one hand closing over yours in a tight, urgent grip as her eyes look up at you. "I couldn't have done it without you.
Knowing you were there gave me the strength to push on, and... it... it made me
angry, when she taunted you, or tried to deflect things."
"I..." You blink, and then laugh, a little. "Thank you, Mami. But that's not really what I meant - I just... I was there to
support you. I knew that, going in, it was
your fight, and even if I could have stepped in,
you had to reach out and
take this. What I meant was that even just standing there to
support you was exhausting, emotionally, but
you...
you were in the thick of it, and feeling drained is perfectly reasonable."
"Oh," Mami says. "I..." She lifts her head to smile at you. "Still.
Thank you, Sabrina. This is... this is
everything."
"Maybe," you say, smiling, and walk your fingers through Mami's hair. You talk over the whistle of the kettle from the kitchen even as you pull it off the stove to cool for a moment. "But Mami, tonight was all
you. I set it up. Homura was there, and Sayaka, and so was I, but... ultimately,
you did this. You know that, right?"
"I couldn't have done it without you," Mami murmurs. "It... it wouldn't have
happened without you, I... I had no idea how to
reach out for that first step, the meeting."
"Mmm," you hum quietly, twining a lock of Mami's hair around your finger, sunlight caught and spun into soft curls. "I... I facilitated. We supported you. But it was
your effort that brought it over the finishing line, you know?
You did it, and that's..."
You huff, letting her hair spring back.
"You were
amazing, Mami," you say. "I... you
were. You were brave and
strong and you... you
got it. You didn't... you didn't really have much information about Kyouko, right? And yet you figured it
out, and you managed to get her to agree to come over."
"If I was brave, then it was because I knew you were there for me," Mami murmurs. She interlaces her fingers with yours, squeezing. "Homura and Sayaka, too. If I was strong, then that strength came from you. And Kyouko..." She sighs. "She... she really hasn't changed all that much, but she... she
hates herself, now. I can only guess as to
why, but..."
"I could tell you," you say quietly. "If you want to hear the story. I'd
meant to tell you, before this, but I just completely
forgot to, and that's my fault. But beyond that, Mami, well... If I gave you strength, it's because
you inspire the best in me. And you
were inspiring today, facing Kyouko."
Mami giggles, humour warming her features from the cold of exhausted emotion. "We can't keep attributing our successes to each other, Sabrina."
"Yes we can," you say, and match her giggles with a pleased grin. "We help each other become
better. That's what a relationship
is. And right now, Mami,
I am praising
you because you did something amazing today."
"I... alright," Mami say, snuggling against you and laying her head against your collarbone with a quiet, pleased sigh. "I... I think I can believe that, but only if
you admit that you had a share of the credit in allowing this to happen."
"I can live with that," you say. "And... Mami?"
"Mmm?" she says.
You blink, and purse your lips. "Hold that thought," you say. "Something more important: tea?"
Mami blinks, and then laughs, sitting up properly. You steady her with an arm around her waist.
"Well, if you insist," she says. "I
thought that that was what you were doing."
"Chamomile," you say, floating the teapot and teacups from the kitchen. "Freshly steeped."
"That sounds perfect," Mami says. A thoughtful expression crosses her face as you pour out the tea, and as you pass her a cup, she continues with rather more hesitance. "Do... do you think we should prepare something for Kyouko?"
"I was thinking about that, but...
you tell me," you say. "Do you think she'd appreciate that?"
Mami starts to worry at her lower lip, then seems to notice what she's doing, and switches to sipping her tea. She closes her eyes briefly in contentment, before reopening them and nodding firmly.
"A cake, I think," she decides. "Large enough that we can keep some for tomorrow. It... would be better if we had some leftovers, but we
did finish all the stew."
"Leftovers?" you say.
"She always was an odd balance of, ah, shameless about food but still prideful," Mami says. "She wouldn't like it if we did something
specially for her, like we
pitied her, but if it's something general..."
"Makes sense," you say. "And see? You've got this, Mami. You do."
"I suppose," Mami says, taking another sip of tea. "Only with your help."
"You'll always have me," you say. You take a sip of tea, your free hand finding Mami's. "So we'll handle it together."
"Alright," Mami says.
You spend the next few minutes drinking the tea in a comfortable silence, Mami ducking herself under your arm and only leaving to pour the both of you refills. You savour the floral, vaguely honey-like fragrance of the tea, soothing and mellow, and the warmth that pools in your belly and radiates comfort much as having Mami by your side does.
Thunder rumbles outside. You can feel the pressure dropping, too - it's probably going to rain all night, and you
really hope Kyouko's coming. She'd probably find shelter in some hotel room if she doesn't, but... well, you hope Kyouko's coming, more for her own sake and Mami's sake than because of the rain.
"What was the other thing, Sabrina?" Mami asks, at length.
"Mmm," you temporize. You only continue after another minute, forcing your thoughts into some semblance of order.
"This... the talk with Kyouko wasn't special," you say. "And I'm not... I know, Mami. Kyouko was,
is important. She's an important friend, and bringing her back means a lot to you. I know that."
Mami nods, squeezing a little closer to you.
"But this... it wasn't a miracle," you say. "It was hard work, on your part. I know that I had a part in setting it up, and that was hard too - I'm not really...
good at this kind of thing." You grin, a touch sheepish, and a touch amused. "I know what you're going to say, but really I'm not. I just had a lot of advantages."
You take a breath.
"It's a
skill," you say. "Much like any other. To, to
understand people, relationships, and what brings them together and tears them apart, and... how we all think, and our motives, and all that."
"I... I still don't understand why Kyouko l-left," Mami murmurs. "I... she hates herself, I saw that much. I don't
care, and I hope she understood that, but... why?"
You sigh.
"It's an ugly story," you say. "But ultimately, she didn't want to drag you down. She thought you deserved to have better friends than her."
"B-but-" Mami's expression crumples. Alarmed, you pull her into a hug, abandoning your teacup to Grief and tugging hers away. "That
dummy. I don't... I wouldn't have cared. Never."
"I know, Mami," you say, rubbing her back gently, soothingly. "I know.
She knows that, and... she thought that you were too
good to associate with someone like her, you know?"
"She wasn't," Mami murmurs. "She never was."
"People are complicated," you say, huffing a faint laugh. "Understanding them is complicated and difficult."
"I..." You can feel Mami take a deep breath. "Alright."
She stands, and offers her hand to you, smiling. "Let's go bake that cake, and... Help me understand?"
Without hesitation, you take her hand, smiling.
[X] Explain Kyouko's story and motivations to Mami
- [] Any specific points? (Write-in)
=====
The next post will take you through to the next morning, hopefully.
