"I swear if you don't put that phone down in the next three seconds, I will personally make sure that you won't be able to type again."

Kyouko's threat was barely heard over Sayaka's laughter. "Sorry," she managed between a cycle of giggles. "I just never expected you to be working at Chuck E. Cheese."

Kyouko swiped at the phone as Sayaka took another picture of the redhead wearing a fluffy headband with grey ears and a purple t-shirt three times larger than her appropriate size. "Mami said I'd have to start paying rent and be a proper member of society or something like that. Plus I get free cardboard pizza and unlimited tries at the dance machine," Kyouko growled as Sayaka wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "So what brings you to this daycare? Did you discover a new form of self-loathing?"

Sayaka would normally find a rebuttal, but seeing the redhead in such a distressed state triggered the her merciful inner saint. She cocked her head toward the door where a toddler came screaming in.

"Madoka's got a date with the devil and I promised to watch over her brother."

Kyouko stifled a laugh. "She's still with that new kid?"

"Not so new anymore, been a year now. I don't get how she can stand her."

"If you're feeling lonely at night you can always call me," the redhead made a smooch face, earning a grimace from Sayaka. She slapped the other's face away playfully.

"I'd rather not wake up to an empty kitchen and crumbs all over the carpet."

Kyouko held her face and feigned a pout. An object in the distance caught her attention. "Hey that kid looks familiar. Who was it, the guy who plays the banjo?"

Sayaka cocked her brow. "I don't know anyone who plays the banjo."

"Brown eyes and hair. Won some competitions or something."

"Pfft, must be some new foreign kid in class."

"Look, to the right of the girl in green."

Sayaka's eyes scanned the room. Hey eyes almost fell out of her sockets when she spotted the individual described so vaguely by Kyouko.

"what is KYOUSUKE doing here? QUICK I need to HIDE. He's Coming this way right NOW." Kyouko barely had time to respond when Sayaka climbed over the counter.

"Just what do you think you're doing? My boss is going to kill me if he finds out I let a customer over."

"Ugh. Look, I'll buy you snacks when this is over. Just play along for now."

Kyouko huffed, finding herself cornered by the bluenette yet again. After acknowledging her romantic feelings toward the other, she found herself agreeing to requests that would otherwise fail to benefit her. Financially speaking, she did gain free movie nights at Sayaka's place and dinners in restaurants where she was previously banned, but she paid her fair share in emotional trauma by listening to her crush cry her heart out over the musician.

And now came the final test of her patience. She would have to talk to this guys without him leaving with a bloody nose.

Kyousuke walked over to the table with a bundle of tickets in his hand. Bundle was an understatement. The mound was so large she wouldn't be surprised if his arm snapped due to the weight.

"That's quite a load you've got there," Kyouko commented. She felt Sayaka bury her face in her hands. The redhead glanced down to see her friend's cheeks glowing.

"Yeah, got pretty worked up. My girlfriend gets excited when a lot comes out."

Again, Kyouko felt the brunette shifting uncomfortably and grinned. This guy was too easy. "Girlfriend, eh? Guessing this long stream of stuff is meant for her."

Kyousuke beamed. "Actually, we came here because she wanted a prize. I don't see that it's in stock right now. She's looking for a big white thing?"

"You looking for the weird cat?" Kyouko shook her head. "Last one went out last night. There are a few other things you can get with that many tickets though."

Kyousuke hummed sadly. "To be honest, I've been a pretty bad boyfriend. We've been going out for a few months but I haven't been able to please her."

"Don't worry bro, size doesn't matter." Kyouko stepped back to avoid an attack by Sayaka. She grinned and plucked another toy off the shelf. "These are smaller versions of the same character. You could probably get three of these instead of the giant one."

Kyousuke's eyes lit up. "Good thinking. I don't she'll want three though," he laughed a bit uncertainly. "I might give the other to a close friend of mine."

Kyouko's heart fell to her stomach. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what "friend" was referring. It took every ounce of willpower not to glance at the bluenette hugging her knees. Clarification, hugging kyouko's knees and burying her head into the redhead's thighs. Kyouko was a reformed human being, someone who worked at chuck-e-cheese and only pushes kids who are taller than 5 feet when they're using the dance machine during her break. She couldn't help but wonder why fate had beef with her, but apparently it did.

The redhead sighed. "Sounds like someone special if you're giving her the same gift you're giving to your girlfriend."

The brunette chuckled, though the sound was in no way merry. "She is. Although it's unfortunate that we've grown apart."

Sounds great. I don't get paid enough to listen to you ramble, now take your prize and have a nice day.

Is something Kyouko would usually say. But some awful saint in her was telling her to comfort him.

Or maybe it was just Sayaka clawing her calves.

"Is it because of her?" Kyouko inquired begrudgingly. She gestured her head toward the green haired girl in the background. She was throwing hoops at the basketball machine, or at least she was trying. When the last buzzer sounded, she accepted her reward of one ticket while the six year old on the adjacent machine ran squealing to her parents with a strip of tickets in her hand.

"I don't know…." Kyousuke sighed. "At first, I didn't think that going out with Hitomi would have any effect on Sayaka at all, but ever since we started going out, she hasn't said more than two words to either one of us."

"Listen buddy," Kyouko growled, practically leaning over the table. The only thing holding her back was the presser on her calves, and it was only growing tighter by the minute. Kyouko sighed. "I know it's not my business to butt in, but if she really is an important friend, you should talk to her. Sayaka… this girl you're mentioning, she seems like the type to keep things bottled up until she explodes. If you really care about her, you've gotta be there before things go pop. She really cares about you too… I'm guessing. Because I don't know her. I think anyone would be sad if someone suddenly entered the picture and they were put second."

"Wow…" Kyousuke smiled. "You sure you don't know her? You sound like an expert to me." Beads of sweat trickled down the redhead's brow and Sayaka prepared to smash her head against the wall.

"Just kidding," Kyousuke said finally. If it wasn't for Sayaka, Kyouko would've broken his arm by now. "I'm sure it comes with experience. I'm guessing you're someone with lots of love experience then huh?"

Kyouko howled at his remark. "If you're talking about heart-ache, then absolutely."

Uh-oh.

"Really? What's your story then?" Kyousuke's words slipped through Kyouko's ears. Without even looking down, she knew Sayaka was staring up at her. Maybe with that pressing smirk, the one she makes when she's has a good comeback or a surprise burnt dish on the dinner table. Kyouko didn't dare look down.

"Look kid, it's…." Kyouko sighed. This is how she gets cornered. If not now, Sayaka would bother her about it later, so it was now or tied to a chair and bribed with chips. Kyouko promised to allocate a portion of her night to finding out how to send a knuckle sandwich to the fates, but she had to deal with this now. "It's just another friendzone story. One of those where you're into them but they only see you as a friend. And they'll tell you everything. And everything includes how they're feeling heartbroken over someone else."

Kyousuke winced. "That's… that's rough buddy." He rubbed his neck awkwardly, regretting his decision to pry. "I've taken a chunk of your time already so I should be heading out… but I'm glad I got to talk to you." He started to walk away but turned on his heels. "Actually, take this. Payment for me taking time out to talk to me." He put one of the three white cat-like dolls on the glass table.

Kyouko cocked a brow. "You know I have access to hundreds more in the back, right?"

Kyousuke smiled. "Well then deliver this to whoever your special someone is and make sure they know what's on your mind."

"I'm filing a ban. You're officially not allowed within a 30 mile radius of me presence."

His smile faded. "Was it something I said?"

"Yes… oh god, no. No, I was joking. Please, don't cry. Ok ok, I'll do it just, just get going. I'll see you around, jeez."

Kyousuke and Hitomi left moments later, and Sayaka emerged from hiding.

"Yeesh, tell that guy to grow a backbone. I honestly don't know what you see in him…. Why are you looking at me like that?"

Sayaka was leaning into Kyouko, though her expression was not one that Kyouko recognized. She expected a mischievous smirk accompanied by greedy hands, ready to extract information from Kyouko by any means possible. Instead, Sayaka seemed… gentle, with a hint of melancholy?

"Is it someone from our class?" she asked, leaning into the redhead. This prompted the other girl to lean back, her hands held in front of her as a shield from the eager bluenette.

"Wh-why are you so interested. It doesn't have anything to do with you." Kyouko mentioned as Sayaka leaned in further. Her eyes bored into Kyouko's with an unprecedented intensity. This was certainly a side that Kyouko had never seen before. She turned her head toward the other side of the wall, doing everything in her power to avoid the dreaded concept of eye-contact.

Sayaka remained quiet for a moment. She took a step back. "You're right. I didn't mean to pry." Kyouko cocked her brow at the newfound generosity as Sayaka hopped over the awards table. She dusted herself off, focusing on removing whatever microscopic particles remained on her uniform. "Well, good luck. I hope they know what they're signed up for when you to get together. I'm sure things will work out." Sayaka took one last pat at her uniform.

Kyouko released a frustrated sigh. "Wh- just why in the world are you upset? I should be the one sulking right now!"

Sayaka paused. "You?" She took a moment to breathe. "What do you have to be upset about? You just got encouraged to go after the one you love and I had to witness my love life crumble right in front of me, and I couldn't do a thing the entire time."

Kyouko scoffed. "Just because the love of your life agrees to give a stuffed doll to his girlfriend doesn't mean that it's over!"

She inhaled deeply through her nose. "Kyouko, please just drop it."

Kyouko scoffed. "Kinda hard when the guy you like has proclaimed newfound friendship with you and you're sulking while I'm- … the one who has more of a reason to sulk! It's like you're mocking me!"

Sayaka turned toward the redhead. "I"m mocking you?" She took a step toward the glass awards table. "How would you feel if you had to watch some you love announce that they liked someone else and you couldn't do anything about it?" She slammed on the awards table, giving her the leverage to lean over the table and stare into Kyouko's eyes.

"For heaven's sake Sayaka!" Kyouko exclaimed with the same degree of exasperation. "You've said this so many times already, I know you have a crush on the violin boy but-"

"I'm not talking about Kyousuke!"

A few heads turned from the arcade games, and Kyouko thought maybe the boy playing the zombie game turned around for the first time three days. But Kyouko didn't care.

"I... got over him a while ago. Now will you please stop asking."

Time seemed to slow as Sayaka walked away from the counter and the world pieced itself together. Kyouko thought she was quite the excellent analyst in areas of romance, but she realized just how dense she was. The nights of crying turning into sappy rom-com movie nights wasn't just a coincidence.

Things couldn't end like this. She had to do something.

"B-batter up!" Kyouko exclaimed, effectively garnering the bluenette attention. Sayaka turned around just in time to catch the projectile thrown from behind the counter. Her eyes widened at the item in her hands.

"I, uh, promised some kid that I'd deliver that… so I hope you like cats."

Sayaka grinned, and then she laughed, a laugh so contagious that Kyouko couldn't help but join in.

"Wow. Batter up? Really?"

Kyouko held her hands up defensively. "It was in the spur of the moment, and that thing is basically a baseball."

Sayaka rolled her eyes. "Movie night at my place then?"

"I'll bring the popcorn."

A/N: I can't believe I haven't published anything with these two yet. I had so many unfinished docs piling with their name on it.
Well, there's always a first for everything.