(A.N.: New chapter. The earlier chapter got less response. Maybe I tried uploading two chapters in the same day that time, and it got unnoticed? Hmmm...)
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[Chapter 7: Of Wrongful Fevers]
"Holy crap, Madoka," Sayaka said in amazement at her friend. "You got balls, girl." She chuckled. "I didn't know you'd actually walk her home!"
"Yeah, holy shit," Kyouko said with a frown. "Thats like... A legit bold move." Her eyes wandered off elsewhere, trying to remember the source of her own intel. Maybe she read it in a shoujo-manga or something.
Well, it doesn't matter. She was happy that the girl Madoka had spent time with, wasn't dangerous business.
She breathed a silent sigh of relief when she had heard of how shy and timid the Catholic girl was.
Homura Akemi, huh?
It intruiged her, if she was being honest.
Madoka, on the other hand, kept the feeling of warmth she had during that event a secret. She didn't exactly try to hide it out of malcontent. She merely thought that in case that particular sensation was caused by some random fever she had caught, she wouldn't want to worry her friends.
"I'll meet her again tomorrow." Madoka said to the blue and red duo.
"WHAT?!", came the cry in unison.
"You will meet her three days in a row, and you only met her yesterday for the first time!" Sayaka said, trying to make Madoka see the flaw in her own choices. "She's gonna think you're insane!"
Kyoko didn't have a say in the matter. She didn't know much about the decencies of society to begin with. All her knowledge of etiquette came either from a manga or from a game.
But she did feel like Sayaka was worrying for no reason.
"Oi, Saya, lay off," Kyoko said simply.
"Umm," Madoka said to the blue haired girl, with nervousness. "I know you're freaked out, but she wanted to visit the café. Tomorrow's a Sunday, so I figured there was no better day."
Madoka's voice wavered with uncertainty, and it was evident that she had revealed her thoughts to her friends to know for certain if she was making the right choice.
Kyoko didn't know much about etiquette, but she did know a thing or two about choices.
She looked at the blue haired girl and smiled warmly for a moment, before talking to Madoka.
"Bring her here," She said cheerfully with her signature toothy grin. "I'd like to meet this Akemi girl too!"
Sayaka, all of a sudden, realized that she was being strange to her friend. She looked at Kyoko and realized that instead of supporting her friend, she had been going against her. She felt a little guilty.
"Sorry, Madoka," Sayaka said with a sigh. She wasn't very good at handling guilt. So she apologized without hesitation. "I panicked. I would like to meet her too."
Madoka chuckled a bit, and said that it was okay.
"I know you said that because you didn't want me doing something I'd regret." She said with a smile, to which Sayaka replied with a smile of her own.
The movie had ended a moment ago, with the credits rolling down the flatscreen TV in the living room of the Akemi household.
Homura just finished watching an animated movie with her parents. Her mother chose the title with her, and her father joined in afterwards, when the dishes were done. Now that it was over, Homura slowly crawled towards the Blu-ray player in all fours and proceeded to set the disc in its proper casing.
"UP", the disk read. She looked at her mother, who was yawning, and her father, who was lying down on another sofa.
Out of nowhere, a chill went up Homura's skin, signalling the proximity of winter.
Her mind reminded her of Madoka. How she asked the pink haired maiden to take her to the café again. She took a big gulp and felt her heartbeat increase to the point where she could feel her heart pounding in her eardrums. Truly nervous, she had become. But she was determined to ask.
"Mama," she said, as she put the case of the disk back into the shelf. She coughed a bit, to shake ther nervous wavering of her voice away before continuing, "Is it okay if I go to Madoka's house tomorrow? I want to see the café again."
Madoka's mother looked at her husband and frowned lightly. Her husband didn't hear the question, as he was apparently busy, yawning like a lion.
She looked straight at Homura and spoke.
"Of course you can," she smiled warmly. "Madoka seems like a nice girl. But if she is coming to pick you up, you need to sleep now or you'll be too tired to wake up when she arrives, don't you think?"
Homura didn't know exactly how her mother knew that Madoka was coming again.
Must be motherly wisdom.
Regardless, she smiled and felt all her nervousness fade away. She felt herself brimming with happiness that her mother allowed her to go.
Immediately, she lunged in to hug her mother, as tight as she could. The lady in question, chuckled as her daughter burried her face into the crook of her neck. The two were now sitting on the sofa which faced the TV, so eventually they had to let go out of prolonged discomfort due to the position they were in.
Homura let go of the embrace, and her mother could see that she was mildly trembling out of joy, but she wasn't smiling. Instead, her face was slightly red.
Homura excused herself and said that she was going to bed, and hurried to her own room, eager to catch some sleep.
The mother smiled, knowing that Homura didn't smile because she was really bad at expressing what she was feeling.
Although, she had to admit.
She was not used to seeing her daughter show such affection out of the blue. It was quite surprising for her to see her daughter behave in such a way. Her daughter had changed, and she was now sure of it. And from the last few moments, she could say for certain that her daughter's change, was indeed a good one.
She looked at her husband, who had fallen asleep on another sofa. She didn't want to wake him up, so she brought a blanket from his room and covered him with it, to protect him from the cold.
"...Madoka, huh?" She murmured to herself with a simple smile. "She must be quite the girl to make Homura like this."
Kyoko and Sayaka had left the café after eating dinner with the Kaname family and talking to Madoka about random things.
Madoka often talked about Homura, and her friends didn't think of her weirdly for it. It made her a bit happy. But as soon as they left, she could feel herself getting drowsy. She said goodnight to her parents and her younger brother, and lazily walked to her own bed.
She knew she had to brush her teeth like a responsible lady, but she didn't want to. Her body seemed lethargic and she was certain that the warmth she had felt earlier, was due to a fever.
Little did she know, she was gravely mistaken to assume that.
She fell into a deep slumber, knowing that she'd get to meet the dark haired bespectacled girl the morning after.
The dark haired girl's final words to her played back in her mind as she shut her eyes.
"If you are free, please take me there tomorrow…"
-(End of Chapter 7)-
Homura's parents are hard to write, to be fairly honest. I have to extrapolate a lot of things to pinpoint how it should go. Just randomly assigning character to them would be a fatal mistake on my part. A sin.
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Take care
DSH99
