"Nnh..." The mixing spoon made one very slow lap around a bowl. "Nnh..." Another one. "Nnh..."

"Kaname-san." Mami looked up from her spot further down the table, where she was chopping the tops off of strawberries—a bandage on Madoka's index finger proved that she'd already tried her hand at it and decided she'd rather stir ingredients. "Would you like me to help you with that?"

"I can do it, but..." Madoka looked down at the bowl of cake batter in front of her with a sigh. "It's just making me really tired. And it's getting everywhere." She averted her eyes sheepishly at this admission, but it wasn't exactly a well-kept secret. There were splatters of cake batter on the table and floor in a one-meter radius around her, and several on her school uniform as well.

"Here." Mami set the knife down and walked over, then stepped up behind the shorter girl. Reaching around her, she grabbed the mixing bowl in one hand, and the spoon in the other, then began to stir its contents again. "See? If you hold the bowl in place like this, you can tilt it around to keep anything from getting out. And then when one hand gets tired of mixing, you can switch hands." She released the two and held the spoon up. "You try."

Madoka reached out to take the spoon, then carefully mirrored Mami's posture, with one hand on the bowl and the other stirring it. Holding it less firmly, though, the bowl rocked side to side, slopping some batter onto the front of Madoka's skirt, and the girl sighed. "Sorry. I'm not very good at it, I guess."

"... well, how about this?" Mami reached around Madoka, both arms wrapping her up, and held the bowl in both hands. The younger girl nodded, and started stirring two-handed. "... that works! Thanks! Sorry to pull you away from your own work..."

Mami shook her head. "It's fine. After all, we're partners now, right?"

"R-right!" Madoka stopped stirring for a moment to look back to Mami. "Do you, um, think they'll like the cake?"

"Well, it's a cake to celebrate you becoming a magical girl, so I think they'd like it even if we poured half a bag of salt in."

Madoka nodded again and focused on her work, although after a few minutes, her stirring slowed down again. Mami leaned forward to look down at her. "Are you getting tired?"

"Oh! No, um." Madoka had been staring into the bowl of batter when Mami asked her question, but now the girl looked up from it. "It's just that... my dad does all of the cooking now, but when I was little, we'd have cream stew as a treat once a month, and my mom would cook it. I always wanted to help out, and she'd stand behind me like that to make sure I didn't hurt myself while cutting things. It just... reminded me." She smiled, and her fingers absently rubbed over the bandage on her hand. "... I'm still kind of bad at the cutting part, I guess."

Mami patted the girl's hand. "Come on. I think it's all mixed. Let's finish it up and put it into the oven."


"Now then, icing." The cake itself was now cooking, and on the table was a mixing bowl, containing a mixture of butter, powdered sugar, heavy cream, and just a dash of vanilla extract and salt. Mami held up a handheld mixer as she popped the beaters into it. "Have you ever used one of these before, Kaname-san?"

Madoka peered at the thing curiously, then shook her head. "I've seen dad use them before, but..." She blushed and glanced aside. "When I was little, the noise always scared me too much to hold it. I think I'm okay now, though!"

"Good." Mami lowered it into the bowl, and offered the handle over to Madoka. "You hold this button right here to make it run, and the lever here controls the speed. The butter is already soft, so you can use a medium speed until it's spread around, then switch to low. Do you understand?"

"I think so..." Madoka reached out to take the thing in hand, then pointed out the features. "Speed, and power. Okay." She took a deep breath, then switched the thing on... but, without adjusting the speed beforehand. The mixer roared to life on its fastest setting, whirring angrily, and Madoka gave a squeak of surprise. Both of her hands settled on the handle as she tried to control it. The bowl beneath it started jostling around under the force of the beaters, letting them spray flecks of inchoate icing around the room.

"We need to turn the speed down first, here—"

Madoka tugged the beaters out of the bowl to stop the ongoing disaster, but it didn't quite end like she had hoped. A good third of the icing was clinging to them, and now, it was free to go wherever it wanted. Propelled by the beaters, icing rained across the room, splattering every surface in sight.

… especially Mami, who had been leaning forward to grab the mixer. Her entire upper body was splattered with sugary goo. Madoka wasn't much better off, for that matter. With a pop, Madoka finally released the power button, and then looked around incredulously at the small disaster she'd caused.

"O-oh no! Mami-san, I'm really sorry! I'll help you clean it up a-and...!"

"Accidents happen, Kaname-san," Mami said, as she lifted one hand to poke at her face. The finger came away glazed with icing. "If we're going to be partners, we need to get used to that. … and it's better that you make them now, instead of when we're fighting a witch. Now, sit down and let's clean you off."


Madoka was seated, and occasionally squirming a little whenever Mami gave her face a particularly rough swipe with the wet cloth she was using to clean it. Mami had gotten most of the icing, but the pink-haired girl still kind of look like she'd been auditioning for a role as a clown. Her hands were folded in her lap, fidgeting with the hem of her skirt anxiously.

"Do... do you really think that my friends will be glad to find out that I'm a magical girl now?"

"Well..." Mami trailed off in concentration for a moment as she swabbed at a section of Madoka's forehead. "I'm sure some of them will be worried about you. I already warned you that the life of a magical girl can be a dangerous one."

"I just want to help people." Madoka practically deflated. "I don't want to make anybody worried, or scared for me..."

"It's up to you if you tell them." Mami swiped the cloth down the side of Madoka's face. "A normal girl can't possibly understand everything it means to be a magical girl... but that doesn't mean they can't still cheer you on in their hearts. But if you want to just have a private party with the two of us, we can do that too. The important thing is that now you have the power to keep your friends safe, right?"

"Right." Madoka perked up a little at that and gave a wan smile. "We can protect them together."

"If you don't want to have a party, though, it's a good thing that you didn't wish for a really big cake. You might feel a little silly about now if you had."

Madoka nodded, then glanced over to the bowl, which had two still-dripping beaters suspended over it. "... what are we going to do with the cake? I don't think there's enough icing left..."


The answer, it turned out, was impromptu shortcake. Each of them sat down at the table with a slice, rich yellow cake with sliced strawberries scattered on top.

"Mmm! Mami-san's cake is really good."

"Our cake is really good. We made it together, Kaname-san."

Madoka nodded, and while she took a few more bites of her cake, she stared down at it distractedly. "Mami-san... thank you for agreeing to look after me. I know I'm not very good in school, and I mess things up sometimes, and—..." Madoka was cut off, as Mami leaned across the table and popped a strawberry into her mouth.

"You don't need to keep apologizing. I make mistakes too. I was lonely before you showed up, too. If you make a mistake while fighting a witch, we'll fix it together, just like we did today. I'm happy just to have another magical girl to fight alongside, let alone one as cute as you are."

Madoka had been in the process of chewing that strawberry, but she froze, while a nearly incendiary blush rose to her cheeks. "M-mami san thinks that... I'm cute?"

Mami nodded and leaned further forward, nearly resting atop the table, to press a gentle kiss to Madoka's lips. "I do. … now, my first instruction as your magical girl senpai is for you to stop worrying, and eat your cake before it gets soggy."

The kiss had left Madoka staring forward in amazement, but those seemed to be the magic words to force her brain back into motion. "A-a-ah, right!" She almost frantically cut off a big bite of cake and popped it into her mouth. Chewing gave her thoughts a little time to catch up to reality, and when she finally swallowed, she was able to speak coherently again. "After this, do you think it will be late enough to hunt witches...?"

Mami smiled. "Do you feel like you're ready to make your debut as a magical girl?"

Madoka stared down at the cake for a second as she considered, but then nodded. "I want to keep everybody safe."

"Then we will. Together."

Madoka's blush returned, but she nodded. "Together."