Kyouko had never liked cotton candy. In fact, to say she hated the stuff wouldn't be a stretch in the least.

And yet, all around her, Kyouko could see cotton candy as far the eye could see. She had been dragged out to a festival, for some reason or another that made no sense to her, and after she had loudly declared she was hungry, the girl who had insisted Kyouko come had dashed off to get refreshments...

Now Kyouko was surrounded by people walking around with globs of that evil pink fluff.

She hoped the other girl wouldn't bring back cotton candy. She really hoped.

The taste was fine, don't get her wrong. Kyouko was never one to knock something for being too sweet. She loved sweet stuff, truth be told. The thing was, though, that you just don't go for a food just for flavor when it has so damn much wrong with it. You gotta be smarter than that.

What was wrong with cotton candy, you ask? Hah! What wasn't?

To Kyouko, there were three major things wrong with the favorite treat of so many children (and even done crazy grown ups), and to her, these things far outweighed that deliciously sweet flavor.

First off, it was sticky. As soon as you tried to get at the stuff, it was going to stick to you and get all over you and just be messy. Who wanted to have pink fluff clinging to you like that? On your hands, on your clothes, and may the Lord help you if you had long hair.

Now sure, Kyouko wasn't exactly one for table manners or anything, but food just shouldn't make itself harder to eat. It just shouldn't.

The second thing? It was pink. Seems trivial, but Kyouko had her reasons. Candy, for instance, can be pink. Okay, so technically it was sweet like candy, but it was so big! Big things that you put into your mouth shouldn't be pink, it's weird and distracting. Ice cream and yogurt can be pink, they're not big and they're not solid. That's fine with Kyouko. But no big and solid food should be pink.

And that brings Kyouko to the third and most important reason to hate that dastardly pink fluff. It wasn't even solid! It was big and took up space, but once you stuck it into your mouth to get a taste, it just melted. Poof! It was gone! The first time she had tried the stuff, she had been a little kid who had used two weeks' worth of money she had saved to buy some of the junk for her and her sister, and what did they get? Empty stomachs and empty mouths!

Kyouko wanted to enjoy her food! She wanted to savor it! What kind of lunatic invents food that disappears in your mouth?! They should be executed!

"Kyouko-chan, I got our snacks!"

As Kyouko was dragged out of her thoughts by the arrival of the girl who had brought her to this cotton candy infested place, she noticed three things.

The first thing was that she was being clung to. An excited, cheerful girl had locked arms with her and was pressing quite close. Kyouko's cheeks burned at the contact and eagerness of the other girl, but she couldn't pay it much mind for long. Their hair ornaments, worn for the festival, at the other girl's insistence, got stuck together to top this sticky situation off.

The next thing Kyouko noticed was the girl's hair. It was something she couldn't avoid, currently being stuck to it and all. The softness of it in her hands and, of course, the color. It was pink. Bright pink. It was incredibly distracting, Kyouko found, so she was glad the other girl managed to get them untangled before letting loose some giggles at the predicament they had just escaped.

The last thing Kyouko noticed was that she found she couldn't speak. As the pink haired girl smiled warmly at her, anything she tried to say just... melted away in her mouth. In fact, she felt like she was melting from head to toe looking at this sweet girl.

"Kyouko-chan...?"

The girl titled her head curiously as she realized Kyouko wasn't speaking, shifting the snacks she held from one arm to the other, which, at long last, brought Kyouko's attention to the treats there.

Corn on the cob. Hot dogs. Candy apples. Some of Kyouko's favorites.

Finally finding her words, Kyouko grinned at the girl. She wrapped her arm around the girl's shoulders and pulled her close, a toothy smile playing on her lips.

"Y'know what, Madoka? I think I just might like cotton candy after all."