I opened my eyes abruptly and jolted back to reality. My whole body felt slightly numb. How long had I been out? I put the question at ease as I scanned my surrounding. I was in some kind of hotel room. How did I get here? What happened—

Being alone is suck, huh?

Who was it? My eyes darted frantically around the room. That voice sounded familiar…

Don't worry. We can be together, Sayaka.

"Kyouko…Kyouko!"

Suddenly everything hit me. That certain night when I ran and confronted her, the cold darkness that swallowed with my despair, the time I turned into a witch; I shivered as I remembered them.

Where is she? That was my last thought before I shot onto my feet and dashed out of the comfy room. I tried to search through my blurry memory. The rampaging orchestra, the turning wheels, the silver-haired maestro that resembled Kyousuke; I bit my lip. Kyousuke; that figure I adored so much since my early childhood. I should have known that I wasn't the one reflected in his eyes. Though how many times I tried to deny it, everything just hit me back with the same force.

If you add them up, it all equals to zero; everything is according to the law of this world.

And to let myself be in despair because of it; shame on me! How selfish could I be? If I compared it to what Kyouko had been through. Kyouko. It was always about her lately, huh? And we even started off as trying to kill each other. When did I start to grow attached to her? That time, she was the only one that tried to comfort me, to warn me about my growing despair. Not Hitomi, not Madoka; her. And yet I scolded her about little things like stealing apples. Hey I didn't say it wasn't wrong but, she tried to save me and I hated her for something completely irrelevant. If I looked back, did I even know how life was in the street? Was there any guarantee that I wouldn't do the same if I were at her position? I started to hate myself even more.

My legs kept swinging as I gritted my teeth, running aimlessly to where my heart told me. She always found me then wouldn't I find her as well? Yes. I tried to believe the crazy formula and kept on running. I stopped abruptly in front of an abandoned building, breath ragging from a non-stop marathon. This was the place. I vaguely remembered setting the barrier inside. Without any second thought I sprinted inside, hoping to find the idiotic redhead. As time ticked on, the memory of my witch started to overflow. At certain point, I choked. I put my hands over my mouth. Oh god, she didn't. She couldn't possibly crush her soul gem, right?

My knees suddenly felt weak. I was afraid; afraid of finding her death body slumped on the cold steel floor. I was sure that if it ever happened, there would be no saving me from my renewed despair. The place, the once center of my witch's barrier, was only a few steps away; I could make out the remnants of the huge explosion. Shakily I walked, tears threatened to escape my eyes. But as I arrived on the gruesome scene, I couldn't hold them anymore as they freely poured down my face.

"No…NO! Kyouko!"

I ran to her side, cradling her, shaking her as I screamed her name over and over. Her condition was horrible; blood soaked her entire body and gushed out from her open wounds. I felt sick just to think about it and tried to ignore the red liquid that started to stain my own shirt. I finally found her. I finally found the person that truly loved me for what I am. I couldn't bear the thought of losing her right after.

XXXXX

Ah, shit. So this was it? I never expected heaven but damn, the place was frickin dark. I couldn't feel anything too. What did I expect? I was dead anyway. But somehow it didn't feel right. Something was missing. Oh right, what did I die for? I couldn't remember.

Fuck that. What reason did I need? That didn't matter since I couldn't do anything about it. Right, I would just wait here for eternity. Better if there's any snack though. But hey, did dead people even feel hungry? Argh, screw my thought. Just shut up.

"—ko…kyouko…kyouko!"

The hell? Who's calling, grim reaper? Haven't you finished your business, yet? Oh and wow, was there any female grim reaper? Must be a lousy new guy or something. But was it just me or I've known this voice?

Sayaka. That word sounded familiar.

Uh-oh. I supposed to meet her didn't I? What was I doing here? So much for accompanying her, Kyouko. I quickly reached for the source of the voice that was her.

XXXXX

Everything was hurt; that was the first thing I registered as senses kicked back into me. I started to regret coming out from that soothing darkness. But as I saw her crying face right a few inches from me, I swallowed back my regret and stifled a chuckle.

"Hey, idiot. What's up?"

"K-kyouko?"

"No, it's your grandma. Of course it's me."

I could saw her staring at me in disbelief. So I survived? I didn't know I should be grateful or not. At least she was here with me. That was what important, right? Ah great, she was crying again. She was such a crybaby. I hold out my hand and touched her face, brushing a few tears away. Dang, even doing such thing drained a lot of energy from me.

"What's with that face? Aren't you happy to see me?"

"No…this is…ah, idiot! I-I'm not crying!"

"Haha, of course…I'm glad that you're safe…"

Fuck this pain! I started to feel my consciousness slipping away. But she was safe and sound; that was all that matter. So I could lie back and rested some more for now; back to the swirling abyss of darkness.

XXXXX

I couldn't believe my eyes. The beautiful red orbs showed themselves to me; its owner smiled her trademark smile. But my hope was suddenly crushed as they fluttered shut right a few seconds after; the warm hand that was touching my cheek went limp. I started to panic when her breath grew unsteady and she started to cough some more blood. A long gash was on her entire torso, as if something had pierced through her mercilessly. I knew who was responsible for it, and I bit on my lip again until I drew some blood. I was the most horrible person, wasn't I? It wasn't the time for regretting thing though; I had to act fast or I would really lose her this time.

Bringing her to the hospital would be too late. I had to do something to stop the bleeding first. Of course! I searched for my soul-gem and exhaled in relief as I found the ring still attached to my finger. Turning it back to its egg-like shape, I traced the blue gem over her wound, trying to let its healing ability seeped into her. I closed my eyes in concentration.

As the process went by, I could hear gasps and strangled screams from her. I closed my other hand over her own in attempt to calm her thrashing body; the healing seemed to pain her greatly that I wanted to scream in agony myself. The blue light finally faded off and my soul-gem retreated back to its ring shape. Her scream died down and I collapsed beside her, breath ragging mimicking her. I opened one eye wearily to glance at her face, and found a small smile crept up my face. She was here now, safe within my reaching hands. And I wouldn't let myself lose her anymore.

XXXXX

I remembered entering this room until a few days ago; now I returned here again. I always brought a CD with me back then, but what I brought now was nothing but a box of pocky. I giggled to myself as I imagined the look on her face when I came to visit. She would be in great shock to see me. I opened the door to the hospital room without knocking at all.

"Buh—wha—S-sayaka? What are you doing here? Oww..."

Go figure; I stifled yet another giggle and sat on a chair beside her bed.

"Y'know, your injuries are quite bad. Don't even try to make another."

"Yeah, thanks to you."

"…sorry."

I squeezed on the fabric of my skirt as I switched my gaze downcast. She was being sarcastic, I knew. But that didn't change the fact that the whole thing was my fault. I bit down my coming tears as I heard her usually boastful voice called my name softly; I shouldn't make her worried over me again, especially in her current condition. So I brought up my face with a huge grin plastered on it, shrugging the previous matter off. She exhaled in relief with her own smile showing. Satisfied with the result, I dug on my school bag and retrieved a certain red box from it, waving the item in front of her face. Her eyes lightened in excitement.

"Look what I have~"

"Alright, Sayaka! I'm starting to miss that chocolate goodness."

"Nuh-uh. You can't have it, Kyouko. The doctor hasn't allowed you."

I couldn't contain my giggle anymore as I saw her face fell like a little kid losing a candy. She was innocently cute that way; it made me forgot how much a fearsome puella magi she was. One thing aside, I opened the seal and took one of the chocolate-coated stick, waving it in front of her before chomping on it. The way her eyes followed the snack until it disappeared into my mouth was insanely hilarious that I almost choked from laughing. She balled her fists, wailing as I laughed openly at her childish behavior. Finally, I couldn't take her puppy eyes anymore and offered her favorite treat.

"Want one?"

"Hey, that's my line! You're such a copycat, Sayaka."

I stuck out my tongue at her and she did the same, taking one of the pocky from me. She opened her mouth to devour the sweet but stopped mid movement, giving me a suspicious glance.

"I thought you said the doctor didn't allow me to eat this."

"Not particularly. He said you shouldn't eat anything hard to devour—"

"Argh, screw the doctor! I eat what I want."

With that, she ceremoniously bit on the pocky. Her blissful face sent me another giggle as I took another piece of the chocolate-coated treat, offering it to her awaiting mouth. The whole afternoon went on like that, with me offering meals and she happily accepting them. Once in a while we would talk about nonsensical things, and laughed at each other's stupidity. And for once, somehow, I couldn't picture a better future; the future I had not with the violin boy I once loved, but with this idiotic red-haired girl and her bottomless stomach. The one that loved me, and the one I surprisingly loved back.

My very first kyosaya one-shot. It turns out quite good I'm surprised myself. *re-read the story*

Anyway, this story follows the chapter 9 from manga storyline so you may want to read it first. It is not much different from the anime though.

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EDIT (review replies):

Taeniaea Yup, thanks a ton~!

Rhyno Holter Haha, thanks. Sure, I'll look up your story. :D

MythoxFakir Right-o! I'll try on that. Thanks~! I'm working on another KyoSaya right now, if you're interested. Check out my page!

Fukiri I am, I indeed am. XD And thanks for the favorite.

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All and all, enjoy the story everyone~~