From up here the city lights bled together into one shimmering continuous pool of gold. Within it hope, despair, confusion, and everything in between (well, life in general) paddled about innocuously and furiously day in day out. Somewhere in that chaos was meaning, however, and she had to believe in it.
The cool night wind dragged its fingers languorously through Akemi Homura's hair as she silently watched over the clueless twinkling world beneath her. She closed her eyes with a small sigh and tilted back her head to receive it like a cat being stroked. Legs dangled hundreds of feet above the streets from her precarious perch atop the neck of some long forgotten crane. The silhouette eerily resembled a woman sitting astride her noble dinosaur steed- together gazing out over their domain like two world-weary vigilantes. It was here high above all the rest where she felt closest to someone that she used to know.
She rarely brought anyone up here with her nowadays, though there had been one or two. Homura did not consider it betrayal, at least not anymore. It had been nine years since they had been forced apart, anyways. She was, although Kyubey would have argued that she was no longer, only human after all. Magical or not everyone has needs that must be attended to sooner or later.
For the most part Homura was reluctant to share this space with others. It was a place for her to be alone-or more precisely to be alone with someone else someone intangible. Imaginary was not the right word as there was nothing imaginary about this someone. Intangible was more fitting descriptor.
There was no way anyone else (even those with the same duties and powers as hers) could understand or help ease the burden. Memories of former universes and the greatest sacrifice lay sleeping an uneasy sleep deep within her soul far out of the reach of groping hands. Not even those who somehow managed to penetrate deepest into the murky depths of Homura could even begin to feel the outlines.
The closest one perhaps had gotten a glimpse, though. And that had been a few weeks back.
"Amazing. Absolutely amazing. This could easily be the best view in the entire city. Forget penthouse clubs."
Homura responded in silence as the other young woman gaped in wonder at the breathtaking view afforded by their extreme elevation.
"You've obviously been holding out on me."
The other shot a loaded grin at Homura as she closed the gap between them. Homura felt an arm snake around her waist and a hand settle lowly on her hip. She exhaled deeply and ground her backside against the other invitingly. Lips lightly grazed the back of her neck. The early evening air whistled lowly around them as Homura unwound in the embrace of another. The setting sun threw rays of crimson and sienna across the glass city forest as Homura let someone other than her beloved in.
She had just begun to gasp when the hot silence was momentarily punctuated by a whisper in her ear.
"I knew you didn't bring me up all the way to Heaven tonight just for a view of the city…"
A soft growl ripped up through Homura as she twisted out of the embrace and rose to her feet to face her bewildered companion. It wasn't like Homura to snap like this, but even ice could break.
You have no idea what the view from Heaven is like.
The coldness of Homura's voice stunned the baffled girl as she lay frozen, still propped up on one elbow. Homura bit her lip in a fleeting second of remorse as she looked away to avoid seeing the hurt seep across the other's face. She buried these early pangs of regret in the mindless task of refastening her clothing. The very next moment any regret for her behavior had evaporated along with the mood she had been in moments before the other's unknowing gaffe. She stared out blankly across the rooftops wishing for a glimpse into another world. Someone else's world.
She took no notice when the other quietly excused herself and vanished in a flash of purple light. It was rare that she got into these moods, at least in the presence of others but it wasn't unprecedented. Ice queen after all, Homura thought glumly.
It had not been right for her to behave like that, but she couldn't have helped it. Her reaction had been a reflex-involuntary. It wasn't often that another was able to touch a nerve like that. Those parts of her were buried so deep that when tapped or conjured unknowingly the one most shocked was invariably Homura herself. It was just that she actually had once upon a universe been afforded the view from heaven- and it had broken her heart.