Finally, it has come. The first weekend of May. A day Homura never thought she would live to see. A special weekend. And how is she spending this weekend, you may ask?

With fucking Kyouko. She had completely forgotten what week it was when she accepted her proposition for a playdate. That said, there are worse ways to spend the weekend.

Fighting Walpy, for one.

Anyways, she begrudgingly waits by the door in her pajamas (not the sexy ones) for the semi-welcome guest, not deigning to dress up even slightly for the occasion. Kyouko wouldn't do it, either. Probably. Around 1800 hours (6:00 PM for lay-people), she finally shows up with two plastic bags.

"Yo! I brought SNACKS! And some food. You like KFC?" she announces.

Homura rolls her eyes, "It's not Christmas."

"Every day is Christmas in MY house!" Kyouko proclaims.

"Well, this is my house."

"So you don't want any?"

Homura pauses for a moment, sighs in defeat when she realizes she's both not getting rid of her and actually kind of in the mood for it, and unlatches the door, "Fine, come on. Let's just get started, already."

Kyouko chuckles and pushes the door aside, then closes it with her damn foot. She sets the snacks and KFC down on the central coffee table as per Homura's request, and starts ogling the apartment. A small studio. A bed in the top left corner, a glass table with a couch and comfortable-looking chair by the right wall adjacent to her desktop, which is set up in the top right corner. The only door in the entire apartment is to the right, just before the couch, probably leading to the bathroom. Across from the table and couch is an old LCD TV set with a playstation hooked up alongside a DVD player. Just beyond those is the kitchen, which is basically just a hallway with a half-wall with shelves between it and the rest of the apartment, barely enough room for two people and no real door. The rest of it is empty, and sparsely colored with muted, sterile tones of white, grey, and other neutral colors that help reduce the claustrophobic size. The few tall, winding lamps that occupy three of the four corners — one by the computer, one on the right corner, and one just before the kitchen entrance — make it just not-dank enough to be called some semblance of "cozy", for what that's worth.

Kyouko looks a bit dazed — maybe concerned — and comments, "Wow, this is...clean."

"Keep it that way." Homura demands sternly, knowing well her capacity for trashing any environment.

She chuckles again, "Heh. Kind of uppity, aren't ya?" She sits at the table, on one half of the couch, starting to open up everything, "So come on, get some plates, sit down and talk to ol' Kyouko and tell me what's up."

She isn't going to win this battle. Not until they start the games up, at least. She gets a few — paper, not ceramic — plates from the tiny kitchen and sits on the other half of the couch.

"Wow, really?" Kyouko asks in reaction to the plates. "Figured you'd have something fancy, like fine china."

"I don't like doing dishes." Homura flatly states.

Kyouko shrugs, "Well, you got me there. I don't think anyone does, except mom! Dirty dishes means we ate well, that day. So she gets a bit proud of it, y'know? But enough about me. Come on, let's talk. I don't like playing with anyone who's already in a bad mood."

While she's slowly serving herself some fried chicken and barely touching it otherwise, she explains, "Well, I forgot what week it was when I invited you over. Honestly, I'd rather have spent tonight with someone else. But it would've been rude to just cancel a day before it happens, so...here we are."

"Oh?" Kyouko says with her mouth full "Am who da?"

Homura glares at her, "First of all, swallow. Second, I was referring to Madoka Kaname."

Kyouko swallows, then shouts haughtily, "Ohoho! So why her?"

Homura starts listing off things, "She doesn't make a mess. She's not annoying, very pleasant in fact. She doesn't make me uncomfortable to simply be around. She's very respectful, and nice to be around. Is what I'm saying."

Ignoring all of the indirect digs at her, Kyouko suddenly asks, "Does she run warm or cold?"

"Co— What?" Homura almost answers.

"Ahaaa!" Kyouko finger-guns "So you've slept together?"

"For lack of a better phrase, I guess. I don't know if she was lonely or just wanted to keep me company, but she refused to let me sleep separately."

Kyouko rips a chicken leg in half and starts talking with her mouth full, "Aw, shit, not what I meant but..." she swallows "...oh well. Well, I'm not that clingy, so don't expect nothin'."

"I'm not. And you're just visiting." Homura points, slowly nibbling at her own food with the other.

Kyouko chuckles, "Heh, you got me. Can't mooch that hard off of you again, can I?"

"Guess not."

"So anyways, what've you got here? I brought something if you don't have any multiplayer." She picks up and dangles one of the bags which still has something in it, presumably a game case.

"And that is...?" Homura raises a brow.

Kyouko bites into her food as she says that, then panics as she tries to swallow while flailing her arms about and explaining, "Oh, god, it's the funnest shit. Ever heard of Borderlands?"

"No."

"How...?" she shakes her head "Never mind. Anyways, it's a first-person shooter. You're this badass treasure hunter on an alien planet trying to track down ancient alien tech and...!"

As Kyouko starts fangirling over how awesome Borderlands is, Homura just completely tunes out and starts nodding along while thinking about all of the things she's probably missing out on right now had she been paying attention earlier that week. I pray the irony of this is not lost on you.

An indeterminate amount of time later (but definitely too long), Homura just interrupts her, "Alright, I got it. Let's just finish eating and pick something out. Actually, no, you finish first and take a look. They're all by the console."

"I noticed." Kyouko says, stuffing her face with more fries than she can clearly handle. Well, she handles them anyways.

Homura averts her eyes from the vile sight before her gag reflex surrenders. Really, the thought of eating in general at this point just viscerally disgusts her. The sole exception being anything made by Madoka or her family, since that somehow always ends up tasting like something other than mashed potatoes and disappointment. About 5 minutes pass between her telling Kyouko to finish and the rest of the food magically vanishing. God only knows where it all goes. Well, or not.

Anyways, she gets up and rummages through the grand total of three games Homura owns: Dark Souls (but we already knew that), Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Portal 2. She comments, "Wow, this...isn't a lot. And only one is multiplayer. Huh. Well, I guess I'll have to show you— AAAAH!" Kyouko yelps as she jumps up.

Startled, Homura glances upwards to catch the form of the clara doll Okubyou in the corner of her eye, who she assumes must have either Koncho'd or otherwise inappropriately touched Kyouko just now.

Of course, Kyouko yells at her first, "Oi! What's the big idea!? I didn't take you for a prankster!"

Homura flips her hair as she stands up, "That wasn't me." she then looks towards the kitchen in front of them and yells, "Okubyou! I know that was you, quit it!"

Kyouko looks even more confused, "Uh...what? There someone else here?"

Homura grumbles and comes up with a cover story, "Er...it's a cousin of mine. Yes."

"Eeeh? Another? Counted like five so far; how many do you have?"

Just to get things out of the way, she gives a correct number, "14. I have 14 cousins who regularly spend time here. Yes, it is bothersome."

As she says this, Okubyou, Ganko, and Usotsuki pop their heads out from around the corner to the kitchen and giggle ominously before retreating when glared at by their master.

"...And they're all younger?" Kyouko looks dumbfounded.

"Yes." Homura says, eliciting another chuckle from Usotsuki.

Kyouko doesn't seem to look like she's buying it, until she does, "...Right. You got a fucked up family sitch, huh?"

Well, that was unexpected. That said, it hits an actual note for once. Usually, she's pretty nonchalant and provocative about these types of things, but the sudden sincere tone she takes catches Homura off-guard; she almost breaks composure for a moment. But in the end, she shakes herself out of it and replies while flipping her hair again, "You could say that as a matter of fact. But it doesn't matter. Don't pay attention to those kids, they were raised poorly and just do as they please."

Despite her usual skepticism, Kyouko readily accepts this, "That type, huh? Gotta be in the spotlight. Yeah, I've seen that. So anyways, I guess it's a good thing I brought my own game, huh? That or we'd be stuck playing...what, board games? What else is there around here?"

"I have a computer. And a few board games. A deck of cards." Homura starts listing off.

"Yeah, I noticed the computer. Anything on—"

"No." Homura firmly refuses.

Kyouko throws her hands up in surrender. "Whoa, okay. So I guess we're going with my game, then." Without hesitation, she pops the case open, turns the system on, and puts the disk in. Homura turns the TV on remotely and sets it to the right source, and they both sit back on the couch with controllers in hand.

"So..." Homura tries to ask about it without seeming like a bitch for not listening in the first place "...I kind of zoned out, what's with this game, again?"

Kyouko gladly explains, "Oh, it's cool as hell! So the basics of it is that you're a vault hunter looking for alien tech, and there's this guy named Jack who's the big bad and is trying to kill you throughout, and then you get like MILLIONS of guns to fight him with! And you shoot monsters and bandits and robots... And there's a robot assassin, and a magical siren, and a little girl who makes tons of bombs..."

Homura immediately thinks back to her younger self. Er, relatively younger, back when she first started as a magical girl.

"...Well, there's actually like THREE of the magical girls!" Homura knows better, but still twitches and cringes at the mere mention of the phrase. Kyouko cuts herself short, "Anyways, maybe I should just show you. It's done loading, anyways."

"So what do I do?"

"Oh, uh, start a new game, then pick out who you want to play as."

"Okay..." Homura does as told. After a lengthy and slightly underwhelming opening cinematic, she starts flipping between the four available characters, and begins to ask what they do, but Kyouko's already got her.

"Right, so, Axton is the guy who just shoots things. He can send out a turret. It's trash, don't play as him. Salvador can wield two guns at the same time, Zero can make a decoy and run around chopping people up with a sword, and Maya can like, suspend people in midair while you shoot them."

"Huh." Homura can only say, intrigued by one most obviously interesting choice. She ultimately chooses it: Maya. Predictably, her being the only female player character. After she puts in a name, Kyouko proceeds to pick Salvador and the game starts with its opening: the two of them being dug out of the snow by the obnoxious robot who introduces himself as CL4-TP, or Claptrap. During which Kyouko (equally obnoxiously) shouts at him to "shut up already."

And immediately afterwards, Homura is already asking, "So where are the guns?"

"Just give it a minute." Kyouko sighs "Gotta get through the stupid tutorial."

And so they do. Several minutes of wading through the snow and Claptrap's annoying voice later, they watch as his eye literally gets ripped out of his mechanical skull, rendering him blind, and finally get their first guns: Two shitty pistols.

"Wow, this is..." Homura starts.

Kyouko finishes for her, "Terrible? Yeah, you'll get better ones, don't worry. Anyways, the rest of this area's pretty effortless. Just uh..." She shows her the shooting mechanics, assuming she's never played an FPS before. She likely hasn't. And after that, she continues, "So anyways, while we're doing this, let's talk for a bit."

"Okay..." Homura says suspiciously.

"So..." Kyouko tries to find a way to say what she wants, but isn't the best wordsmith "...Have you ever like, really liked someone?"

Homura immediately guesses, "Are you asking me for relationship advice?"

"What?" Kyouko acts offended "No! No, I can do that fine by myself. Okay, let me try a different question..."

"Mhm." Homura hums, idly shooting yeti look-alikes in the face and being way too good at it.

Kyouko asks hesitantly, already sure of what the answer will likely be but still afraid of that 5% chance that she could be wrong and trigger a big red flag, "What... What do you think about the whole LGBT movement?"

Homura is some vague sense of surprised to hear her come out with that question so soon, but replies honestly, "I'm...an ally. I was raised catholic, but I guess I realized that what your father keeps preaching about is true, and I don't care about religion anymore, anyways. If people want to just live their lives and be themselves, I don't think anyone should have the right to stamp on that. Love is love, and all of that." She's trying not to get emotional about it, but every word is trying to make her voice crack in some mix of outrage and passion. But as always, she subdues it.

"Wow." Kyouko says incredulously "I didn't expect that sort of response. I mean, I expected something like that, but not so...much?"

Homura suddenly points at the screen, "Boss."

"Oh, right." Kyouko looks back at it "Just shoot it until it dies. Super weak."

And so they do. While they then wait for the next scene to play out, Kyouko continues, "Well, I guess that's good, because I'm—"

Homura groans and impatiently finishes for her, "Yes, I know. You're gay. Clearly. I don't get how the others haven't caught on." Well, she has the advantage of literally being a living god of sorts, but the statement still holds some water to the other girls' endless naivety and obliviousness. Not that that isn't endearing, but still.

Kyouko is also surprised by THIS. "Wow, okay, didn't expect that. Yeah, you got it. But that wasn't really what I wanted to actually ask. Ah, how do I say this?"

Again impatiently, Homura finishes her thought for her, "I know, you like Sayaka. Do you not know what to say or something?"

"How did you—!?" Kyouko almost yells, but reels herself back, "Okay, yes. I like her. Is it really that obvious?"

"Yes. The fact that she hasn't figured it out yet is... I don't even know a word to describe it. I'm not surprised, but I'm still baffled. How can anyone be as dense as her?"

"I know!" Kyouko shouts exasperatedly. "I know; I hate it, but I love it so much! I just don't know what to do. I know she's still got a thing for that guy who Hitomi's been dating for a while now..."

Homura interrupts her, "Hey, it's done."

"Oh," Kyouko looks back at the screen "open the chest up, take the shotgun. You can have it, I'll just get something else in a minute. And finish the quest."

"Okay..." Homura looks back down at the controller for a moment, then at the screen. While she's trying to figure things out still, Kyouko keeps going.

"So she's still into him. I don't even know if she's bi or anything, — God, I hope so. Last thing I need is another straight crush. — but it's like walking around a minefield trying to figure out! Say the wrong thing and she'll just go into denial if she is, and might stop talking to me!"

Homura stops her while the game is loading again, "So...you are asking me for relationship advice."

She's got her there. Kyouko grunts, "Er... Well, it's not relationship advice if there's not even a relationship, right!?"

"You want to start one." Homura retorts.

"Then... Okay, fine," Kyouko admits "I am asking for that."

"Well, too bad."

"What!?"

"I don't have much experience in that, either." Kyouko doesn't like it, but Homura is technically correct: The best kind of correct.

So she grumbles, "I just have to go it alone? Come on... Ugh... Why does this have to be so...?"

The next bout of gameplay after their conversation: shooting bad guys, gives her ample time to come up with an idea: Perhaps she can practice on Homura. She's sitting right here, and the topic is still up in the air. If she can get this girl to fess up (and she's like, 95 % sure that she's gay at this point), then surely it would help with her ultimate goal of earning a date with Sayaka.

And so once they've gone and shot up a whole town of bandits and are waiting for yet another cutscene to finish, she turns her attention back to Homura and stammers to ask, "Uh...H-Homura, let me ask you something else."

Homura sighs, exhausted from the conversations and just wanting to "hang" as it is commonly referred to, "Yes?"

Kyouko just goes straight for the jugular, "Are you a lesbian?"

"Uh." Homura grunts as she nearly drops her controller, having to suppress her emotions and commit to that poker face. "N-No." she clearly lies "Of course not. I mean look at me."

It's at this moment that Kyouko realizes that she's now on the offense. The hesitation and poor reasoning tips her off practically immediately and only makes her more sure of herself. So she decides to go all in, "Look at you...what? Pretty girls can be that way, too. We're not all butch. And besides, look at this!" She picks up her phone and opens up Homura's twitter profile ( SpiderLillies). "Every picture..." she nearly shoves it in Homura's face, scrolling down, "...every picture is either you and madoka, or some model or celebrity! Look at this: You and her, you and her, you and her, then you posted an entire gallery of Natsuki Fujiwara in cosplay. Then more of you two, then a ton of Ayaka Ichinose, more of the usual, more gravure and cosplay pics, Koyuki Higashi's wedding photo, a bunch of things she's said, and ASAKO MAKIMURA IN TRADITIONAL CLOTHES!"

"They're influential!" Homura argues.

"And the ones with you and Madoka?"

"She's my friend!"

"Yeah, so am I, but I'm not on here."

Homura chokes up. A moment passes of mere silence before Kyouko puts her phone away and just flatly asks her, "What the hell are you defending yourself from? It's just us here. You already know I am. Come on, if I was going to make fun of you I would have just done it anyways."

Homura is still hesitant, but realizes that it's mostly just an irrational fear of some sort.

Kyouko adds to that, "You know, my dad said that if I'm honest, other people will be honest with me. But..."

Finally, Homura admits it, "Fine. Fine, you're right."

Kyouko smiles, then pushes a bit more, "Alright, just say it."

"Say what? I already said it."

"Really say it."

Homura sighs, "Alright. I'm a lesbian. There, you happy? We both already know that."

"Just wanted to hear it. God, you're stubborn." Kyouko smirks and chuckles.

With that out of the way, they go quiet again and return to the game which has been patiently waiting for them. They decide to just forego the sidequests for now and skip straight to escorting the annoying robot across a frozen wasteland to kill yet more bandits. Around the time Boom and Bewm show up, Homura just silently mouths "What the fuck?", to which Kyouko replies, "Yep."

Homura points at the smaller one, "Is that...a child?"

"A 'midget.'" Kyouko corrects.

"A midget?"

"Yes."

"This is weird."

"It gets weirder."

Homura facepalms, "Okay, let's just kill them alread—" Her character promptly gets blown to pieces by the giant cannon one of them is aiming at her.

"Oh yeah, that'll kill you." Kyouko mentions too late, then runs to revive her and somehow avoids getting blown up. "Okay, you shoot the bigass gun, I'll shoot the midget."

Homura shakes her head, "This is so wrong."

"Just go with it." Kyouko insists.

With another exasperated sigh, Homura just shoots and shoots and shoots, progressively getting more into it as things start exploding. She promptly comments upon blowing the cannon up, "Hmm. This is actually kind of good."

"Right? Oh, just killed Bewm. Come pick up these grenade mods."

"Grenade whats?"

Kyouko explains, "Mods. Changes the way they behave. Hold the pick up button and try throwing it."

Homura picks on up at random, throws it, and hits Boom right in the face with a contact grenade. Surprisingly, she giggles at it.

"Wow, you're having fun?" Kyouko remarks sarcastically, while shooting the boss as well. "Don't see that every day."

Homura rolls her eyes and shakes her head, ignoring her. Then they inevitably kill Boom as well without much trouble. He doesn't drop anything special. "Well, that was..."

"Anticlimactic?" Kyouko finishes for her. "Yeah, he can drop something really good but it's rare. Anyways, go stand by the cannon and as soon as it lets you, interact with it and shoot that gate where Claptrap is."

"But..." Homura argues "he's standing right in front of it. Won't that kill him?"

"No, just do it."

"He's telling us not to."

"Well he's stupid and wrong, just shoot it."

"But—"

"He is going to perpetually annoy us until you do."

That's apparently all the motivation she needed to blast the gate. Waves of bandits come promptly pouring out. "Whoa." she says, firing again and blowing them up as well, giggling again.

"Yeah, just keep doing that." Kyouko tells her while she shoots a few stragglers.

The carnage goes on for a while, and they eventually stop coming, leaving a pile of garbage and money on the ground. Homura comments, "Okay, that was a bit fun."

Kyouko nudges her, "You like it?"

"I do." Homura confirms.

"Yeaaah!" Kyouko drones on. "So the little robot got kidnapped. We gotta go get him back and get off this glacier, so we have to go kill a hundred more bandits on that boat over there. You know, the one that's breathing fire."

"What?"

"Yeah, it's awesome. But it's pretty smooth for a while, here. Next boss is at the top."

As she would, Homura asks, "Anything we should do to prepare for it?"

Kyouko thinks for a moment, "Uh, get a fireproof shield? Yeah, just do that."

"I got one of those earlier." Homura says, proceeding to put it on even though it's a fair bit worse than her other one.

While they're going about shooting alien birds and insane bandits, Kyouko decides to go back a bit to their previous conversation, "So hey, you know I like Sayaka. What about you? You got—?"

"Of course not." Homura answers way too quickly.

"Seriously?" Kyouko asks rhetorically. "Come on, you gotta have at least one person you like. Even a celebrity!"

"Nope." Homura falsely insists.

Kyouko looks unimpressed. But then she comes up with a plan, "Oh, really? I guess you won't mind if I hit on you too, then."

"Please do not. Besides, I thought you liked Sayaka."

"I do!" Kyouko insists "But if things fall out with her, I'll need someone else to flirt with."

"But you don't like me that much." Homura states.

Kyouko is caught off guard but still tries to keep up her plan, "Wh— Of course I do! L-Look, I—!"

Homura just straight up calls it, "You're bluffing."

Kyouko is stopped so cold in her tracks that she stops playing the game for a minute to process what just happened. "H...How!? How is she so good at this!? She just keeps calling all of my bluffs! Well, fine, then I just have to be offensive again!" She then picks back up and confidently asks, "Well, I'll admit you're right. But what about Madoka?"

Kyouko smirks. Homura tries to hold back the blush that naturally appears whenever she thinks too hard about that girl, but it's not going well. She tries to deny at least that to save face, "N-No. She's just a friend."

"Who you post about constantly?"

"My only friend."

"Mhm." Kyouko hums sarcastically. "Awfully intimate for 'just friends'. You two already slept together. She told us about the cafe you two keep going to, her falling asleep in your lap. And hey, I see the way you look at her. You seriously gonna deny that?"

Homura can tell by now that nothing she can say will change her mind, or get her off of her back, so she just relents to this as well, "Fine. It's pointless to deny it to someone like you anyways. Just don't tell anybody."

Kyouko pats her on the back, "Hey, if there's one thing I won't do, it's out someone. Come on, I'm not that much of an idiot. Besides, I feel like Hitomi would start giving you lip if she knew. Well, both of us, really. So don't worry. But are you really gonna just keep it a secret? She's gonna run off with someone else if you don't."

Homura groans, and they both pause the game for a bit, "I know. I know, but... Really, I don't deserve someone like her."

"What?" Kyouko asks, flabbergasted at the mere idea of that being true.

"She's too good for me." Homura explains "Someone like her deserves to have someone who isn't a complete monster. I may look pretty, but I always end up hurting people. She's an angel, I'm a devil. We're just not meant to be."

Kyouko is still with that look about her, as if she can't believe what she's hearing. She eventually speaks up, "Okay, this is getting a bit heavy. I mean, I'm glad you're finally being open, but..."

"You're right." Homura suddenly admits "I shouldn't have said that, sorry. Let's just keep—"

Kyouko interrupts, "No, no, this is good. It's all good. I mean, ignoring the 'angel and devil' part, I didn't expect you to be like this. I was expecting some shy girl who acts cool because she has social anxiety, but you're like depressed."

Homura's actually a little shocked. The Kyouko she knew was never this empathetic or insightful. Perhaps a side effect of changing her background? Did giving her a stable family and friends with a place to live without worrying about food actually turn Kyouko into a good person? She sees it as a stretch, but possible. But at the same time, she's slightly uncomfortable with that assertion due to its implications for her. Or everyone, really. Come to think of it, "depressed" is a pretty poignant way to describe it.

Kyouko interrupts her thoughts, "Hey. I know you probably need a therapist or something for this, and I'm not one, but..." Slowly, she opens up her arms and gives Homura the most awkward and stifled friend hug she possibly could have, making them both mildly embarrassed and uncomfortable in the process. Coupled with the fact that they both just came out to each other, and that she holds it for just a bit too long, they can't help but fall silent.

For Kyouko, it's because she can't believe she just did that. For Homura it's because she's internally monologuing again, "You know, that actually makes sense. I suppose this version of her is just the one that was never 'tainted' by the dark path of a magical girl. Not wrecked with tragedy, void of any reason to be as cold and bitter. I wonder if she would prefer to stay this way or go back. I wonder if this is really her, or just my fucked up idealized version of her. But... If this is how she's happiest, I suppose that's fine. And then..." She speaks up, "Kyouko..."

"Yeah?"

"I hope you don't get rejected." she says with a mild smirk.

"Hmph. You too." Kyouko smiles back. "Let's help each other out, then. I'll keep an eye on your girl, tell you if anything happens."

"I'll do the same." Homura says. She then glances behind Kyouko, spotting a few of the clara dolls with mischievous grins on their faces. At first she smirks at them, but then frowns and gives them a look for a second before going back to neutral at Kyouko, "And I'm sure she'll accept you if things go right."

Kyouko nods, "Well, that settles it! I guess we're each others' wingmen now?"

"Wingmen?"

"Yeah! Like, a wingman helps his friend get a girlfriend by promoting him. And like, I guess we're doing something like that, now?"

"Hmm. I guess so."

Kyouko gets a little pumped up by the idea, "Alright, alright! Yeah, this is gonna work!" She then remembers something, "Oh, speaking of therapists and all of that, did you hear about what Madoka's mom did to the counselor?"

"What?" Homura looks genuinely surprised. It seems the familiars have a little bit of explaining to do.

Kyouko tells her, "Yeah, she came by the school the other day, went to counselor's office, and decked him right in the face! Started yelling and shit, got him fired for something or another. That's what I heard, anyways."

Homura looks absolutely floored by this. Well, she really shouldn't be, knowing Junko, but it's still pretty amazing for anyone to just openly attack someone else. She starts wondering what on earth could have provoked that, going from "He must have said something bad" to "He must have insulted her" and finally "I bet he's a total creep" among other such explanations. She'll have to ask Madoka.

But now that all of the awkward and heavy shit is over for tonight, they just go back to playing their game with a renewed vigor, and Kyouko end up staying an hour past when she said she'd be leaving. Not that Homura minds at this point. She's still pretty bummed out that Madoka isn't there, but settles with just texting her after the night is mostly over, and goes to bed relatively content for once.