Not all friendships are harmonious at the start. In some cases, they begin with pain and tears.

And yet, if they hold... there will be nary a bond harder to break.

-Yvoire Simmons

Her mind in a half daze, Uni tried to recall what happened. She could hardly see the ceiling for some reason.

Slowly, the young Candidate's memory of the past hours returned. Her body failed to move on her command, though. It just ached faintly as fragments and pieces slowly came together.

Miss Neptune had come over to talk (play) with her big sister. And she brought Nepgear. Nepgear, something told the two-year-old, was important for what happened to her.

She remembered their sisters heading out for whatever, maybe to hunt Monsters. How long ago this had been, she did not know. Uni blinked, wondering why she could not feel her left arm while more of her previous actions resurfaced.

They had been playing some kind of game on Uni's console in the living room. Nepgear was her usual sweet and shy self, all of which managed to tick Uni off once again; she hated that part of the older girl, not believing it for even a moment. She figured long ago that if the purplette wanted to act like a doormat, she might as well treat her that way until she finally stopped and showed her how she really was.

Uni blinked again, her mind only slowly kicking back into gear. Her right hand moved, but it was strangely wet. So was her black shirt.

She recalled Nepgear picking out her phone-thing to look at something or other. Impulsively, Uni had taken and broken it to get a rise out of the older girl. Nepgear had burst into tears.

The words she said at that time eluded her, never to return. The next thing Uni clearly remembered was about a tiny fist flattening her nose and smashing her face into the wall.

Another blink, as she slowly turned her head. Another dull ache accompanied that movement, probably from the dozen or so times Nepgear had smashed her into the ground face first. Perhaps that was where the small crater in the reinforced steel around her came from.

She faintly remembered a myriad of sloppy punches impacting her form, from top to bottom; Nepgear was only a year older than her, but the difference in experience and growth showed at their age. Even with Uni's allegedly superior skills, the older Candidate had overpowered her with ease. Uni once again felt phantom pain, parts of her breaking that she did not even know could break. Were she human, nearly every bone in her tiny body would have been turned to powder by the end of it.

It was weird, she thought. For the beating she remembered getting, she felt surprisingly fine. Only a little more sore than after a training session with her big sister Noire.

Then the few seconds of idle time passed and her mind kicked into gear. All senses worked once again, reporting residue pain from near everywhere. Her left arm failed to move because something, no, someone was lying on her.

When Uni stirred, a small head framed in purple jerked upward from the wet spot on her chest. Eyes wide open and brimming with tears, Nepgear's relief coursed through the room like a palpable force. "U-Uni! Y-You're okay! You're okay!"

That was all she managed before the tears spilled over; the purplette began to wail loudly and clutched Uni as if she might slip away any moment. "I'm sho shorry," was all she got out in-between sobs and hiccups, repeating herself over and over, her voice muffled by the torn cloth Uni wore.

It did not make sense.

But, what Uni realised now, she did not like to see Nepgear like that. As remnants of pain continued to float through her conciousness, Uni understood that she crossed a line today. A terrible line she never should have crossed.

And yet, even then, Nepgear apologised while weakly stroking her hurting arm with a fading glimmer of green light. That explained why she felt so well; the other girl spent an enormous amount of power to heal the worst of it.

It made no sense still. Nepgear was supposed to be angry, or smug, or resigned or whatever. Not cry as if she was the one who did something wrong. Uni knew being mean was not the right thing to do, but she did it anyway. Nobody punished her for it thus far.

This, she realised, was karmic retribution. Her fault.

Yet Nepgear was the one apologising.

It was in these moments, returned from near-death and in a soggy embrace by the very girl she bullied for fun, that Uni began to believe. And to regret. She believed that this girl was as kind as she appeared. And she regretted that it took her so long to realise.

Slowly, her covered arm bucked and shifted, lifting the crying girl until she was lying fully on the younger Candidate; then Uni brought her free arm around to hug her properly, rubbing Nepgear's back in a clumsy attempt to soothe her. She had no idea what to do, but just letting her cry like this felt so, so wrong.

"It's okay. You did nothing wrong." She whispered the words in Nepgear's ear, her voice breaking still. She felt weaker than ever before, defeated not just physically, but mentally. Yet Nepgear did not have it, heavily shaking her head and making those pretty purple bangs fly. "N-No way! I-I-I almost k-k-" "And I deserved it."

Her words held an air of finality, shutting Nepgear up. Uni clutched onto her a little harder, tears of her own slowly fighting their way out. "I'm sorry. For everything." Pride had no place in this moment.

She did not say any more, but Nepgear could tell just these four words came from the depth of her heart. She snaked her own hands under Uni to hug her back. "It's okay, I f-forgive you."

"You are so kind." Uni could not help herself, she just let the tears out and thanked the heavens that she did not burn this bridge. That Nepgear was such a nice person despite what she did to her ever since she was born.

They quietly soothed each other for an amount of time neither of them could quantify. When the Candidates got up however, they realised that Nepgear's rampage had thrashed half of the living room, leaving no less than three craters in floor and walls. Many of Noire's craftings and paintings were splintered, broken beyond repair.

Uni just shushed her friend and carried her to her room, tucking her into bed. "You rest and I clean up, yes?" She shushed Nepgear again the moment she tried to talk back, until the purplette nodded shily and watched her leave.

Uni knew she looked horrible, and that she was in a whole lot of trouble once her big sister saw the mess. With that in mind, she quickly got to sorting out what to throw away and how to get the broken furniture repaired. She also knew she would tell their sisters that she started a playfight, and that they got carried away. No one would blame Nepgear for this, she would see to that.

This one was on her, all of it. It was high time she started to make amends.