A spray of paper shot up from the table as Sayaka quickly leaned across and took Homura into a violent hug. They were in a café, almost entirely empty but for the servers and a few regular patrons. Small, quiet, out of the way. A perfect place, Homura had decided, to be tutoring someone. Sayaka thought it was the perfect place too, but for a very different reason.

"... Get. Off of me..." Homura might as well have growled it at her.

"No."

"Miki. Get off me."

"Nope."

"Sayaka," Homura pushed the girl, "Let me go." The effort didn't end up doing much anything to deter the larger girl. Sayaka loosened a bit but still said determinedly "Alright. What's the magic word?"

"Sayaka... e, get off of me." Homura said the word like it brought poison to her lips, tried again to push her off. Sayaka smiled, satisfied despite the obvious vitriol. "Okay, I'll think about it." After squeezing her even harder for a second, Sayaka allowed herself to be pushed off.

"If you ever do that again," Homura glared through hair that had fallen over her face. "I will see to it personally that you fail every class you take this semester." Sayaka leaned back in her booth and put her hand behind her head. "Sorry, sorry. But how am I supposed to resist, when you look like that?"

"Like what?"

Sayaka paused to contemplate a moment. "Like, a sad puppy."

Homura smoothed back her hair and pushed the glasses further up her nose. "Scratch that. Every class this lifetime. And you," she pointed to the papers that had fallen to the floor. "Can pick those up yourself."

"Oh come on, don't be like that." She raised both hands in a mock surrender, and got on the ground to pick up the papers. "I'm getting it up, so you can stop glaring at me now." Once the papers had found their way back up to the table, Sayaka leaned onto her crossed arms, propping up her face.

"What do you do after you're done here, anyways? You always leave so soon..." Sayaka moped at the girl across the table, whose stare only grew more severe.

"Put my mind far, far away from you," Homura began gathering the papers and books into a bag. "Speaking of, it's already past time I take my leave."

Sayaka just stared in defeat as Homura strode out the café, not turning back once. Madoka had been wrong after all. If anything, giving her a hug only made the transfer student hate her more. With a sigh, she began gathering up her own things.

Hugging her bag close to her chest, she made her way out into the food court, waving a thoughtless goodbye to the employees as she began thinking of ways to get closer to her tutor. Where does she go? Straight home? Another store? Was she tutoring anyone else?

Sayaka's train of thought slammed to a stop when she realized where it was leading. And she was not going to follow Homura around. No way, no how. That would be completely out of line, and might even make things worse between them.

But before she had even noticed it, she was already making her way towards the only black head of hair in the crowd.